Really Random Thursday

This week there has been some glorious sunshine, and some equally wonderful sunsets:

 

I have been working on an etching, which is still a wip:

I think mackerel are really rather beautiful!

If you are curious how an etching is made, this shows the basics on a small scale, though there are additional ways of adding detail to your plate:



and if you want to know why prints are expensive, and how an original hand-pulled print differs from a high-class photocopy, you'll understand if you watch this series of ten(!) films:



And I have fallen behind in my fabric-related projects while I panic prepare for my space on the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop, on Saturday:

It's easy to get distracted by great posts on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop - today's hosts are Chrissie of madebyChrissieD and Marit of Sew, love, live

Looking forward to reading about some other random happenings at:

Sunday Stash

I've mentioned before that I really have a pitiful stash - in fact, I will show it to you just in case you fancy a laugh.  I'm not proud.

First, this here is the stash of my dreams. 

Now this is mine:

I have another odd shelf of bizarre bits of recycled clothing and old curtain material, but this is my patchwork/crafty stash and you can see that a) I am not a domestic goddess, and b) it is small, and not perfectly formed.

However, it has increased in size substantially with the arrival of my winnings from a giveaway by Southern Fabric, hosted at Red Pepper Quilts - a very generous bundle of Joel Dewberry fabrics.

I'm very grateful to have won these fabrics and quite excited by the prospect of using them because they are totally outside my usual comfort zone, which makes it an enjoyable challenge - hugely enhanced because I didn't pay for them.

I'd like to do something very bold and experimental, but I suspect that more round bottom bags will be the order of the day.  What would you make?

Linking up to:

Really Random Thursday

Random thought for the day: when I first started blogging I had a newly reawakened interest in patchwork and quilting.  The blogs I read were, on the whole, patchwork and quilting blogs.  My blog became a patchwork and quilting blog too.  But I'm interested in other stuff and never quite sure how much to share it.    Do you prefer single-topic blogs?  Or do you like it when bloggers go "off-topic"?

Personally I like reading the other stuff, and that is why I like Really Random Thursday!

Anyhoo....

I've been trying to carry my camera with me more of the time because I love the way that using it can change the way you look at things. This Really Random Thursday I'm linking up with some things I found this week:

I thought they were completely random until I uploaded them and noticed that there's a bit of a circles thing going on.  Also, don't they go rather well with the Really Random Thursday button?:-)

Now I'm off to enjoy some other Random posts.

WIP Wednesday

So it turns out that my fairy godmother (aka my husband) read my blog, and I am now the happy owner of this bundle of ruby reds:

Isn't it (and he) lovely?   And it wasn't even supposed to be a hint!   I already have a plan and am doing some prototyping before I go anywhere near these beautiful fabrics with my rotary cutter.

On the cutting mat this week are the fabrics from a Tradewinds layer cake which are waiting to be made into a quilt/wrap for Sprog 2.

 I've been making HSTs and trying out this method for the first time:

I found the fabric moved together while I was sewing it, and I think this will necessitate a bit of squaring up, but it's certainly a very rapid way to make HSTs.

Pinwheels had been my plan, but I'm veering towards a random placing now. I'm also not sure how well the bamboo lattice works with the rest in this project - do you think they'll stand out too much from a tonal point of view? - and wondering if I should unpick these triangles.  Such a horrible job! 

I'm linking up with

Slow Bloggers Linky Party

Are you a Slow Blogger?  Do you have bursts of crafting activity interspersed with periods where real life gets in the way?  Me too.

Maybe you've been unusually productive.   Or maybe other stuff has come between you and your sewing machine.  Whatever the story you can share it with other Slow Bloggers on the last day of each month.   Celebrate by linking your mosaic of makes here (and everywhere else:-), or fill us in on what you've been up to.  Welcome to the second Slow Bloggers Linky Party!

With the summer holidays over and the children back at school, this has been a comparatively productive month for me.  I've had to catch up with client work (I'm a gardener), but in between I've been sewing like a mad thing.

Round bottom bags; Liberty and jeans cushion; First quilt for me!; Oakshott curve-pieced cushion

Other reasons to be cheerful this month :

Grown-ups only hillwalking; discovering spray baste, Lovely quilts at the Scottish Quilt Show - Gekko Fabulous by Rhiannon Taylor and Going Crazy: Got the Blues by Katharine Guerrier (posted with permission); cake; raaaargh!;

What about you?   I'd love to hear.  Just include the Slow Blog button (you can find it in my sidebar) in your post, link up, and support other Slow Bloggers by leaving them a comment.  The linky stays open for a week.

If you would like to host an upcoming Slow Bloggers Linky Party, just let me know.

Catherine

Hop, Hop, Link

One of the reasons I blog is that I wanted a bit of an incentive to get off my bottom and do stuff and learn things so I've recklessly signed up for a pitstop on the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  It runs from 1st October to 30th November and includes stops all over the world (see the full list here ) with bloggers taking a pic of a lovely place and using it as colour inspiration for an English paper pieced block.


My spot is up on 13th October (hope that's not inauspicious), but even if you don't have an official spot on the hop you can take part and link up on 30th November.    The hop is sponsored by Paperpieces.com, Fabricworm, Pink Castle Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil who are offering some fantastic prizes.

Full details can be found here.  

On Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted blog hop you can visit the latest stops here:

Sep 25
        Amanda from Material Girl Quilts
        Amanda from Fabric Engineer
    
Sep 27
        Vicky from Vicky K Creating
         Francine from Mocha Wild Child

Oct 2
         Martha from Weekend Doings
         Melissa from Sew Bittersweet Designs

Finally, temporary and permanent Slow Bloggers, don't forget that you can link up here tomorrow for the Second Slow Bloggers Linky Party and share your crafting achievements (or otherwise) for the month.  If you would like to be a future host, let me know.

TGIFF

I have finished my Oakshott cushion, and it's Friday, so I'm linking up to TGIFF hosted today by Kristy at Quiet Play.   If you're visiting from there, hello, and thank you very much for looking in!

This cushion cover is my first attempt at piecing curves and I love the way it turned out.  

It's a present for my lovely mum (and dad!), to go in their newly decorated sitting room.  They live near the sea and the cushion was inspired by that, and also by the curves of the hills in mum's favourite picture of the downs where she lived when she was young.  It is backed in a piece of Lotta Jansdotter Little Florine, and I managed to work out how to put in a concealed zip not too shabbily.

I can't wait to try curved piecing again - it was fun to do and not nearly as difficult as you might think. I'm quite (pathetically) proud of these flat seams. 

It's been very stormy and wet, and I dashed out between rain showers to take some pictures.  It doesn't look too happy in this one but you can see the colours well!  Aren't these Oakshott cottons beautiful?   I just want my fairy godmother to know that I'm not at all interested in going to the ball - I'd be quite happy to stay at home and play with a bundle of Ruby Reds. [Updated to say: it turns out she was listening!]

Things I learned about curved piecing:

• To make matching edges, lay two pieces of fabric down both right side up with their edges overlapping, and cut through both with your rotary cutter.
• I didn't pin (I can never be bothered, which probably explains a lot), but held the two pieces loosely, right side together, one in each hand, lining up the edges only at the point just ahead of the foot.  
•  If you use each hand to guide the edges gently towards each other as you bring them in line with the side of the foot, they come together surprisingly easily.  
• Go steadily and relax.
• The most important thing is not to tug because it stretches the fabric and causes puckers. 

Don't forget to look at the lovely things on show at Quiet Play today.