Breaking the Rules

 It is time to reveal the latest Endeavourers Challenge quilt, this quarter the theme was Colour Theory. I thought that I had this theme sussed when I bought a postcard of Munsell's Colour System in a Dundee museum nearly two years ago! Hah!, no such luck, when I started researching the Colour System I realised that it would take a lot more research and a lot of fabric, or fabric painting to do the theme justice, so I ditched that idea :)

Not being of a particularly scientific bent, I wanted to avoid tieing myself up in knots with systems and schemes for this Challenge, so instead based my Challenge quilt on a much older (and simpler!) theory of colour - folklore. 

So, here is my Rulebreaker quilt and the rule that it breaks - the old saying "Red and Green should never be seen". In Scotland that is commonly followed by "except upon an Irish Queen" but it seems that is not the case everywhere. Some suggest that the red and green refers to ships lights at sea when the sight of a red and green light together means that you are on a collision course with another vessel! That sounds like a sound basis for a saying, don't you think?

 

Indeed, when I started looking in to the saying I found that there is some confusion as to what two colours it is that "should never be seen", in some versions it is blue and green, so I placed my red and green dresden plate on a blue background to cover all of the bases :) Other versions advise that blue and green should never be seen without another colour in between too, so it is all as clear as mud :)

Just in case there wasn't enough rule breaking going on with the Dresden fans, I quilted the petals with concentric circles of red and green thread too.

I found the perfect fabric for the centre that had a large multi-coloured check where the adjacent colours were mixed in alternate squares and, fortuitously, that included a red and green mix with plain red and green beside it. I used the same check fabric for the back of the quilt and brought the fabric forward to the front for binding. 

 

Compared to some recent quilts I have made for the Endeavourers Challenges, this was a nice, quick project, although there was some drama when my iron did that to one of the petals after they had been joined together. Swift delivery of a new iron and everything was back on track :)

I am sure, as always, that I will be amazed and inspired by my fellow Endeavourers responses to the theme, head on over to the Endeavourers blog to be amazed and inspired too!

Challenging Corduroy

 My stitching up of clothes for gorgeous grandsons continues!

I am a sucker for a good fabric for boys so when I saw the Dinosaurs in Diggers and on Scooters fabrics at Flamingo Fabrics I couldn't resist :) Two more tops from that, by now, well-used Jalie pattern. I think these are the 15th and 16th that I have made from this pattern.

 

 Tops are only half the story though, a boy needs trousers too! These were my first ever attempt at sewing with corduroy and it was a messy business, there was fluff everywhere. I was really worried cutting out that I would get the nap going the wrong way somewhere, but fortunately it all worked out fine. The pocket fronts are supposed to be running parallel to the legs in case you are thinking that I hadn't noticed :) 

The elasticated ribbed waistband was a real struggle to get on, so I think next time I will attach the ribbing back and front with a gap at the back to thread the elastic through rather than trying to attach the waistband with the elastic already stitched to it. 

Both these and the smaller pair are patterns from the December issue of Ottobre I do like flipping through each issue deciding what I would like to make. I thought the fluff from the gold corduroy was bad but there was bits of wine coloured fluff everywhere by the time that I had finished these :) 

Now that looks like a full outfit for a boy doesn't it? Well wait there is a bit missing!

Granny-made underpants to complete the ensemble! These are made with the free Speedy Pants pattern from Waves & Wild and were another first for me. The fabrics were remnants from last year's t-shirt making so they were a very cheap make indeed. Our grandson was so happy with his surfing koala pants that he sent me a photo of him wearing them with the matching t-shirt :) I think there might need to be Speedy Pants tucked in with all clothes parcels from now on (as well as a little something chocolatey!).

Small stitching

 Recently I have been enjoying myself with some new embroidery projects. I have long wanted to improve my free machine embroidery but never really known where to start :( However, a few months ago I had an opportunity to watch classes with  Wendy Dolan and Pat Archibald which were the perfect opportunity to kickstart that wanted improvement. 

As it happened I already had Wendy Dolan's book Layer, Paint and Stitch and just before lockdown last year had purchased a Pat Archibald kit, so having the chance to take a class with both of them (albeit remotely) was too good to miss. 

The Pat Archibald kit was called "Twilight on the Moor" and was really straightforward to do. As you can see it involved piecing the strips of fabric together and then some wavy line quilting to attach the pieced fabric to the backing. You can just see at the bottom of the piece the beaded embroidery embellishment. The kit also contained metallic foil and glue granules to add a bit of shimmer. I wasn't overly happy with how that turned out as it took a couple of attempts and the glue granules seemed to be concentrated in the same spot so the shimmer is not quite as light and random as I would have liked! Overall though I am pleased with it and would definitely give the metallic foils and glue granules another go. After I had completed this I came across a video tutorial in which Pat Archibald recommends using an old salt shaker for scattering the glue granules and I think that would probably have solved the problems I had with the granules clumping together.

It was possible to buy a kit for Wendy Dolan's class too but I decided to go with what I had on hand. The background is painted calico and the sea is free machine embroidery with various threads and scraps of organza. I really enjoyed having a go at this. I used a mix of metallic and polyester threads for the machine embroidery and scraps of whatever organza I could find. It was difficult at times to get the tension right with all of the different threads being used but I got there in the end. 

 

 

Here on the West Coast we are lucky enough to experience some amazing sunsets so I would like to have another go at these techniques with a palette similar to the above sometime.

Emboldened by the classes I have been using free machine embroidery in the Embroiderers Guild Artist Trading Card swap I am taking part in. The theme for the first one was January brings the Snow, and I used FME for the bare trees in the foreground.

February thaws the frozen ponds again was the theme for the second one. The ripples in the puddle are hand-embroidered with beads for the splashes and the boots and legs are Free Machine Appliqued. I really enjoyed this one :)

March brings breezes was the theme for the latest one. I could not get my head around this one for ages so it ended up being very last minute :) I had lots of ideas about dancing daffodil fairies but in the end went for a pieced background with a hand embroidered wind when I ran out of time! 

Whilst this swap was in progress the Embroiderers Guild pulled the rug out from under the membership by freezing all the Branch Bank Accounts and advising members that Branches would cease to exist! As you can imagine tensions ran high with legal challenges being proposed and petitions being set up. It has been an interesting few weeks :)