Not paying attention lol and the 2015 Milliefiori EPP QAL

So there was I happily stitching away with green hexis, along the former red hexi edge and half listening to my grandson, who was building me lego vehicles.
So this is where I was -
take note of the neat right hand edge where I first started

A couple of sessions of only half paying attention and - duhhh

That neat starting edge is now on the left and dam It ........... I've sat and pieced all the greens on there, instead of the 'working' end lol
Sitting curled up on a chair with the cover taffled up on my lap and slowly stitching away, obviously doesn't give you the right perspective on which bit your working on lol
All is not lost of course, I will straighten off the irregular green edge and then go in with greens and blues on the real 'working' end!

Now as if I haven't enough stitchy projects juggling above my head, I am going to try and do the (free) Milliefiori EPP QAL that's been organised by Katja Marek.
To take part, ideally you should have her book which is rather nice for us hexicolics anyway, even if you don't follow along with her 2015 QAL.
It has 52 different block patterns, made with an assortment of triangles, diamonds etc.
It is available in kindle and paperback format.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-New-Hexagon-Blocks-English/dp/1604683848

Katja has arranged for www.PaperPiecess.com to supply pre cut papers for each of the monthly 'rosettes' that will form the kaleidoscopic patterning for this piece of stitching.
However, it could be likely that we will be able to work out what needs to be cut and done when she sends out the info emails each month.
Some of the blocks from her book will be used in the making of some of the Rosettes.

Below is Rosette 1, for January, which is made up of 36 mini hexi blocks and seems to be the most onerous Rosette to make.
I have bought the pack of pre cuts for this but this picture is from the PaperPieces website itself, advertising their pre cut pack.
Although whether I can afford to send for further packs, or try and cut my own shapes for the other Rosettes, remains to be seen.
Remarkably, PaperPieces posted the pack to me on Dec 19th and it arrived on the 26th Dec!!
All credit to them for their speed in dispatching and thanks too, to whichever airline carried it airmail!



I was looking in my 'Liesels Funfecke' book by Hilde Klatt and Liesel Niesner and was struck by how similar their patchwork Mandalas are to these kaleidoscopic rosettes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liesels-F%C3%BCnfecke-Inspiration-F%C3%BCnfeckprojekte-Sechsecken-Technik/dp/3000189033/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407704589&sr=1-1&keywords=liesels+funfecke

These fractal like piecing techniques have been popular for some time but its always nice to see the different permutations that people come up with.

See  for instance http://www.quilterblogs.com/tag/liesels%20funfecke/ 
Paper Pieces themselves have several books other than Katja's that offer instructions and patterns in this richly, fussy cut style.

Okay, back to my green hexi infills : )

Merry Christmas to you all ~

My great plan to grow my own sprouts to eat at Christmas hasn't quite gone to plan ........ this is a VERY close up picture .... and believe me when I say, all of them together, would barely make one decent large sprout!

Bought myself a natty bird feeder off a stall in town the other day, hope it survives the winter weather!
It is lovely to see someone use those delightful odd teacups and saucers that I so often see on car boot stalls.

Bought this for my almost daughter in law, whose a petite soul anyway but thought she'd see the joke ~ a bar of chocolate

read it carefully lol

I wish you all a relaxing and happy Christmas : )

Clever Christmas Decoration idea and more stuff ~

Picked this up at a local charity shop, made by one of their volunteers.
Thought it was such a clever idea that you might like to see it.
The bow is wired centrally and the spike of wire is pushed down into the books spine.
The pages have been cut in a bell shape ~

Hilly cat has a new perch lol I moved my horses head up by the back door and it seems she likes it there. She was in full watery, winter sun but it had lowered in the sky by the time I got my camera.

Was in a charity shop yesterday and this has to take the biscuit surely!
Tattoos on a doll? - what are we doing to our daughters!!

I had been a bit down recently, probably just turning 65, the broken ribs and then Christmas looming, which has always been a lonely time for me. Silly I know.
Anyway my stitching mojo - had mooched off somewhere,
so I've been trying to get it back.
Made a new pin cushion and my first ever needle case.
How have I managed without a needle case!
The edges are straight its my photography angle that is skew whiff!

Did a bit more on the scrappy floral hexi top, but its not looking much bigger to me yet lol
At this rate I may make a lap quilt rather than a double bed cover!

It was our stitchy club meeting yesterday and this fantastic draught excluder was displayed, made by one of our members Brenda Sims.
Its clever in that its a triangular shape so will sit neatly against the door, I've never thought of making them like that.
Love the colourful felt she used and its 3" x 1" ish strips, simply rug prodded/hooked into hessian.

Another member Joan Drake gave the show n' talk at the meeting and she'd made some wonderful quilts.

There were some really fabulous nine patch quilts made after inspiration and techniques she'd found in the book '9 Patch Pizzaz'.

I had been looking at that book oddly enough at Harrogate

and even bought a sizzix dye so my patches

stood a chance at being cut correctly!

I've sent for the book now, since I really liked the method using

the nine patches, 12" and 6" blocks together,

so the blocks all sort of blur together.

Having seen Joan's versions, I feel brave enough to give it a go.

 

I enjoyed this talk the more because Joan wasn't just show casing quilts that she'd entered into this, that or the other quilt competition. We have had several well known speakers who have shown us stunning quilts, but its been like a CV list of their wins,

and whilst they certainly deserved to win, 

their talks were less interesting to me.

Joan Drake's quilts were just as good, but made to use or for wall hanging, rather than made as competitive art quilts.

These smaller ones really took my eye too ~

 

These cute little chicks were about 2" across and were EPP!

Joan likes the style of Angie Lewin's artwork and below is her interpretation of Angie's style. It was superb, I loved it.

 

for Angie Lewin see ~

  http://www.angielewin.co.uk/

One of our club members had sadly passed away during the summer and her stash must have been given to club, for us to sell off in aid of our club funds, which was very kind of her family, given their loss.

 

We always have a sales table which is very well stocked by our own donations of what we no longer want, but the addition of this lady's stash meant that last month, they took well over £300

on the sales table in the 3 hours of meeting! 

I had broken my ribs so hadn't gone but this month 

I picked up one or two bits to work on ( somewen!)

A quilt in the making

 

 

                                and couldn't resist this one either

 

  I mustn't start on these yet though, must crack on with my hexis!

A finish! No two!

Poor lighting in this picky but here's my finished Tania Sneesby workshop piece -

Now, what do I do with it lol

 

I also made this dolls cot cover up for Evie to play with.

 

 

 

I am exchanging some Christmas fabric scraps with Susan

(http://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com)

 

 who told me that she's been making up 2.5" nine patches in Christmas fabrics. Having bundled a bag of scraps together for her, I thought I'd have a go at some nine patches myself and see what they looked like.

 

Cute enough for me to feel the need to do something with them,

so the cot quilt sprang to mind, though I had to buy the green background fabric and the red fleece for the back dam it lol

( Any excuse ~) 

Do go see her wonderful sock monkeys here.

 

http://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/army-navy-sock-puppet-ornaments/comment-page-1/#comment-5570

Lynda Monk tutorial, how she made those lovely hexis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFNYPRIjI50

Did I mention I have a stash problem?
Like way too much and in need of systematic reorganisation?
This is just the one small area lol which has cat climbing appeal as you can see - little pest!
That's a travel cot mattress he's sat on lol

It's a hard life for cats, Tania Sneesby and an assortment of other things : )

 

You can see how hard the cats have it here ~

 

I foolishly went on our stitchy clubs coach trip last Saturday to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching show. The ribs were still tender so sitting in the coach wasn't comfy and then walking round, body tense, trying to avoid being jostled, meant I didn't enjoy it as much as I would normally.

The only hexis really worth photographing were these super paper ones, made by Lynda Monk on the Art Van Go stand.

See how Lynda makes these fabulous shapes here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFNYPRIjI50

The Quilters Guild had set up tables for anyone who felt inclined, to make up hexis - I didn't lol since I have enough of my own on the go at home!

I thought these fabric, tactile dominoes were great - made by
Sunken Treasures of Sunk Island, here near Hull.
www.sunkentreasures.co.uk

I bought a pattern and some taupe fine needlecord to make one up for Evie - somewhen before she outgrows the pattern sizing!

and some wool for crocheting

and a big ball of end of line, mill fabric, to use in rag rugging.

I insisted on going on the coach trip because I'd booked on to a hour long, mini workshop with Tania Sneesby and that I did enjoy.
This is the pack we all got, although every pack had different fabric selections in, which was rather nice, so every ones was that little bit different.

This is what Tania made up as the sample guide - and her little Red Riding Hood is strung from tree to tree, so you can move her along from right to left.

This is as far as I have got for now. As usual, I opted for making it a little different and I will stitch my little Red in place, rather than have her as a moveable feature I think.

There were 2 little girls on the workshop, with their Nan and here's what they did - I thought they did really well!

Oh BLOGGER!! It wont allow the correct picture to load in - argghh.

I guess that means its time for a G&T !

Christmas fabric log cabin banner with Harveys help - again!

Had more help this afternoon - sigh -

 

Just run through that again Mum ~

                           Oh yes, that's the whizzy bit, just there ~

                              and the thread goes that way - got it!
                       
                           I  managed to very simply, quilt these scrappy
                                             banners, despite Harvey's help

                      I'd hand stitched the scraps together log cabin style
                        then machined the backing on each of them.

 

 

 

Is it finished then?

 

'Cos I'm getting tired now ~

 

Today I had a little - er - help .............

 

okay let me see how this reckons to work first..

           hey, there's a cobweb up there Mum ..

 

so this round gadget whizzes round here, right ..

                         Oh okay, okay, I got it now, will sit this side then ..

                           ( So I hand stitched instead lol )