Much and more...

Who can tell me which fantasy saga I've been listening to on Audible from the title to my post?  If you know, comment below.

There's been so much going on since I last posted way back in September. I'm back in college for the City & Guilds Level 2 in Creative Textile Techniques, and it's already half way through the first term.  I've been putting together my portfolio of samples for the Line module, and I've just got to write my conclusion and evaluation.  I chose to use Zentangle patters as my design inspiration.  The possibilities for developing designs from Zentangle are endless.  The only restriction is having enought time to create everything I have the ideas for.  It doesn't help that I also signed up to do a level 1 NCFE in Patchwork and Quilting.  Although the class is only two and a half hours there's lots of samples to complete.  The way adult education is funded makes it virtually impossible to run leisure courses, as the cost to students would be prohibitive.  As a result the classes have to have a qualification, which means completing portfolios.  All I really want to do is go along and sew a quilt, but that doesn't fit the regime.  At least I'm learning lots of new skills.

My shed is really making it much easier to complete all my coursework, and I can do some of the hand sewing when I'm sitting with my feet up.

Continuous bias binding

Have you ever wondered how to cut your own bias binding?  Since taking up patchwork I knew it was something I needed to learn for binding my quilts, but I was really worried about where to start.  As usual, when faced with a problem like this, YouTube often has the answer.  I found a great 2-part video tutorial that teaches you how to create yards of bias binding by starting with a square of fabric.  Needless to say I had to give it a try, and it worked - I am the proud owner of 3 lengths of bias binding made entirely by me.  The tutorial was made by a woman called Marian Drain and her YouTube channel is called CuddleTime Quilts.  If you've ever wanted to make bias binding but were too scared to try in case you got it wrong then this technique is for you.  As you can test the instructions on a fairly small square there's no risk of wasting valuable fabric - try it out on a 12.5" square of something you don't mind risking.  I used some hand dyed cotton that hadn't come out as I'd hoped, but that would make ideal binding if my experiment worked, but that wouldn't be a big deal if I messed up.  It worked a treat, and the next step is to test it out to make piping.

Equipped to quilt

My black cotton sheeting fabric has arrived, and I've decided that it is the best option for backing the wedding quilt.  I've just spent the last 10 minutes clearing the dining room table, with hubby's help, so that I can start creating the quilt sandwiches. I will need to watch Candy Glendenning's video tutorial again, and probably several times, before I start using her quilt-as-you-go technique.  We were lucky enough to have a fantastic sale of wonderful quilting cotton on Saturday at a nearby village hall, by Doughty's fabrics, hosted by the local Quilter's Guild. I've decided to join the Quilter's Guild, as well as the Embroiderer's Guild, as everyone was so friendly.  I'm also hoping the patchwork class is going to run at the adult learning centre in Morpeth, as I would like to learn new skills, and have the opportunity to finish the Japanese squares quilt with some supervision and guidance.

Craftsy is a great way to learn new skills, and I particularly like a class called Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design with Jacquie Gering.  My head is full of design ideas after watching that set of video tutorials.  I think I probably have enough fabric to make at least 2 more quilts, using a mix of commercial designs and my own hand dyed cotton.

I also have a good set of quilter's rulers for cutting fabric, and squaring up blocks.  Accurate cutting is very important for patchwork, particularly if following a specific pattern.  Crazy patchwork allows for cutting strips at angles, but the blocks still need to be cut into appropriate sizes, and the seam allowance edges need nice straight lines for stitching along.

There will be photos to follow, when more of the quilt has been constructed.

September already!

I can't believe that it's September already.  There's been so much happening that time just flies, including a few days of feeling grotty to slow me down.  

As I wrote in my last post I now have a lovely Brinkley loom to work on, and I have quite a few ideas for things I want to weave.  

I've also been getting on with the patchwork quilt wedding gift for my cousin.  It is now taking shape nicely.  I've sewn all the blocks into columns, and I'm adding a border to make it a bit bigger.  I'm also contemplating adding some strips between the columns to make it wider.  This is how it's shaping up at the moment:

I spread it out on my bed to give me an idea of how it looks, as I don't have the luxury of a quilt wall.  I'm trying to work out how to make a DIY quilt wall for designing with completed blocks.  It would certainly make getting  the blocks into the best arrangement much easier.  I'm also working on a quilt design with Japanese print fabrics from a workshop I did at The Quilter's Cupboard in Langley Moor, County Durham, last weekend.  It's quite complex for a beginner like me, with prairie points forming a border around a frame!  In order to get some help I've put my name down for an NCFE level one patchwork class at the local adult learning centre - fingers crossed that the class has enough students to go ahead.  If not, the tutor for the workshop is available at the shop for assistance every Wednesday.  I don't have pictures of my progress on that one, but I did manage to complete two rows.

I'm now waiting for the fusible batting (wadding) to arrive.  I want to try a "quilt as you go" technique by a quilter called Candy Glendening.  The tutorial can be found via her blog - http://www.candiedfabrics.com - and I need to decide on the backing before I can start quilting it.  I'm torn between a plain black backing and an improvisational pieced crazy quilt backing.  Craftsy have a great class called "Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design" with a tutor called Jacquie Gering.  I watched the whole thing in one sitting, and got lots of ideas from it.

College will be starting in a couple of weeks, so I'm excited about what new skills I'll learn there.  September also includes my 50th birthday, so I'm looking forward to a great month.

Hand Weaving on a Brinkley Loom

This week I was able to set up my new Brinkley loom, and weave my first solo piece.  I have blogged about this loom before, when I did a weaving workshop with Eve Studd at Cornhill Crafts.  I fell in love with the loom then, and now I have my own.

The beauty of this loom lies in its simplicity.  It consists of a beech wood frame, and a special finned heddle that also acts as the beater.  It is warped by placing a broom handle through 2 holes in the frame, balancing it across two chair backs, tying on the warp thread, and rotating the frame until you have the desired number of warp threads.  The special heddle is then placed into the frame, between the top and bottom threads.  Each top thread has a place in the fins on the heddle, and you rotate the heddle towards yourself to change the shed.  The weft can be almost any material you want, including yarn, unspun wool fleece, and even twigs.

 

I used double knitting yarn in the warp, and chunky weight knitting yarn in the weft.  This piece is just over 5 foot long.  I plaited the cut ends of the warp threads to finish it off.  I'm keeping this one for myself, as a scarf.  I'm planning lots more pieces to use up my yarn stash, give as gifts, and incorporate into my C&G level 2 course work.  

Taking time to recover

Those of you with chronic illnesses like MS, Fibro, ME, etc, will understand what I mean by "taking time to recover". Every activity, no matter how small, no matter how much I enjoy it, takes energy.  That's why it's been a while since I've written anything.  Using my brain takes as much, if not more sometimes, of my energy as physical tasks.  Even having a holiday is tiring!

Since coming back from Norway I've needed time to recuperate. We had a big family party down in Hertfordshire, and I've been on two workshops: retouching and restoring old photographs, and freestyle weaving. Every day out requires 1-2 days of inactivity just to be able to function again.  So if you are a person in good health and you know someone with a disease like mine don't expect them to be able to do all the things you can do. Don't say " Yes, I get tired", or "You just need to get out more/eat more greens/go to the gym".  Instead, ask them what you can do to help.

I'm home

I arrived into the Port of Tyne on Friday morning after a fabulous trip to Norway and Murmansk.  I even have a certificate to prove I've crossed the Arctic Circle.  What an experience!  We saw beautiful scenery; enjoyed mixed weather from hot sunshine to thunder storms; met a wide range of people; and had a ball.

Our ship was the Marco Polo, and was originally a Soviet ship.  It is 50 years old next year, and is going in for a refit in November to prepare it for a series of birthday cruises.  We attended a fascinating talk on its history.  It was designed to withstand ice, so it is actually a liner rather than a cruise ship, and has a reinforced hull.  The crew were international; some were excellent, and others need customer service training.  I'm going to write to Cruise and Maritime with detailed feedback - there's no point in moaning to other passengers about the things that need to be improved when only the company can put things right.  Some passengers were critical of things that no one could control, like the weather.  My criticisms relate to the attitude of one particular receptionist, and a few bar staff.  

Our route was the same as that taken by the Arctic Convoys in WWII, and there were 3 veterans on board.  We learned a lot from a guest lecturer about the Convoys.  Many on the places we visited in Norway had been razed to the ground by the occupying Nazis as they retreated, and so the building were comparatively new.  For anyone interested in history, Norway has centuries of it.

One of the highlights for me was meeting a fellow textile enthusiast at the Viking longhouse museum.  She was spinning wool with a drop spindle.  We got chatting, and I discovered that she and I had something else in common - MS.  Unfortunately the photograph I took is blurred. She is a professional dyer, and told me how the Vikings dyed with woad.  They used fermented urine - and you know it's fermented when it no longer smells - and placed the container with the wool, woad and urine in the centre of a horse dung heap because the temperature there is exactly right!

There was just the right balance of excursions and rest days to make this holiday ideal for someone with a condition like MS.