What I did next!

Remember this post?  About these fabrics?

Well, I sold the squarish piece on the left. I cut it up and put it in bags with other fabrics.

Then I took the piece across the top and the wide piece in the middle and cut them up into 4.5 inch squares.

I tried laying them out

Then I stitched the squares together in strips.

I joined 3 of the strips together and 2 of the strips together.  And you know me, I cut them up and inserted narrow strips.

I joined the 3 strip piece to the 2 strip piece.  I put the squares onto a piece of calico and a backing cotton.  Then machine quilted - after a fashion.  I trimmed the whole piece and added the binding.

Yesterday I spent the day handstitching the binding whilst listening to podcasts.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Two down. One to go!

Last October (2021) when I was at Committed to Cloth I cut up lots of fabric and reassembled it. I ended up with these three:

Aprox 48x30cms

Approx 55x50cms

Approx 97x57cms

Each piece lay on the spare bed from then on.

At the beginning of January 2022 I set myself the goal of finishing them all by March 31st.  A reasonable goal you might think.

Unless you don't touch them again until March 30th.  !!!!

I managed to complete the smallest one by the end of March 31st.  Go me!

Finished size 49x30cms

And finish this on by lunchtime yesterday, April 1st.

Finished size 56x52cms

But sadly the third piece hasn't been touched as I ran out of the colour thread I was using and I'm waiting for the new thread to arrive.

Still two out of three isn't bad!

Did you set yourself any goals at the beginning of the year?  If so, how are you getting on?

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

A new challenge coming

Thursday was my first meeting with the ladies of Eclectica as a member.  The group has been invited to exhibit at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec.  These are the pieces I have submitted for the exhibition

Walk 1
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Design inspired by Paul Klee’s oil painting ‘Highway and Byways’.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 19.5” (w) x 35.75” (l) 

Walk 2
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabric. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 14.5” (w) x 15.5” (l)

Beyond Square
Purchased text-based hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Bought plain fabric for line inserts and binding Max size: 26” (w) x 25” (l)

The exhibition is from Wednesday April 6th to Wednesday April 20th.

In the meantime, next Tuesday I'm going to launch a creative writing challenge.  I do hope some of you will join in.   It's called: 21 words

The idea is to take one word each day and write one sentence to use the word creatively.  More information next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Next stage

Do  you remember my post 'Lots of Work'?    Well, I've started work!

I machined the strips together.  Of course there are lots of assumptions to be made about this!  As in:

1. Have I accurately cut the strips?
2. Can I sew straight lines with my machine?
3. My ironing and pressing skills are up to par!

I'm fairly sure I'm nowhere near scoring 100% in any of those 3 areas.

These three pieces are all different sizes although the photos show them the same!

Now I have to decide what to do next!  Cut them up some more or leave them as they are.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Another piece finished

I previously showed you the large piece I was making for Text,Texture, Textiles as I was putting it together.

I'm really pleased to show you the finished hanging.

And a close up of the machine stitching

I'm going to have a rest from making textile hangings!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Starting a new textile piece

I still have lots of fabric left from the time I was at Leah Higgin's studio for Breakdown Your Palette.  I used some of it for a wall hanging about a walk along the Stratford Canal.  I have wondered what to do with the rest of it and then I spotted this painting by Paul Klee.  It's called Highways and Byways.

I'm obviously going to be drawn to the colours - you know how fond I am of turquoise and orange.

However it gave me an idea for using the fabrics I have.  I didn't have any rust coloured plain fabric that matched my fabrics but Liske at Littleheath Barn Studio kindly sold me some that she had dyed especially for me.  I tore 3 pieces of it to piece with some of the brakdown printed fabric.

 

 

I had some pieces already stitched together from the previous hanging to give you an idea of what I am planning.

I've sewn those leftover pieces together and added some more.  This will be the central strip.

I'll keep you up to date with how this grows.

In addition I am taking part in a fundraising event that Liske is running called Pieces of Positivity.  After a donation to Cancer Research she sends out a piece of drop cloth - that's the fabric that covers the table in the studio and picks up any paint and stencilling etc as we all work there.  My piece looked like this:

 

 

I have cut it down to size and bonded it to a backing fabric.   Liske is going to make the pieces we all make into bunting to put around the studio.

It looks enormous in the photo but it's actually only 15x20 cms.  I'm going to handstitch it and then see what else it needs.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Venice-inspired Wall Hanging

 So you may remember I asked which way I would cut up my hanging.

I cut it half.

And then cut one half into two pieces 6 inches wide.

On to the binding.  I didn't have enough plain colour but fortunately I was able to buy some from Littleheath Barn Studio, that Liske dyed especially for me.

I machined the binding to all the pieces and then folded it over and handstitched it on the back.

Here is the finished hanging

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice