The Patchwork Background

In the design stage of my holiday quilt I carefully measured the squares which would contain the pictures so they would fit nicely into a patchwork background.  Unfortunately, after the first couple of pictures had been created, I completely forgot about these sizes and so a bit of re-designing was required. 

I started by drawing up squares on paper to tack the pictures in place so they could be worked into a patchwork background.

Tacking the pictures onto their paper squares which were drawn out with the very useful patchwork template Sar gave me during our session at Chesterfield

I then started to make the small blue squares which would represent the narrow canals.

Those blue squares do look very small!

With the help of graph paper I drew up the design around each picture and now I had strayed from my original design I was able to create different spaces around the square which I thought were more interesting.  I marked out the patchwork pieces ready to be cut into templates.

The design on graph paper with each piece numbered and this photo was a useful reference once the template had been cut up.

The process seemed easy in theory and I gaily cut out the templates, tacked my fabric to them and started sewing them in place.  But it soon became apparent I had missed an important point, the squares didn’t fit accurately together due to the thickness of the fabric which I hadn’t taken into account.

The bottom of the dark green square should have fitted flush with the bottom of the cygnet square

It took a bit of fiddling to reduce some of the templates so all the pieces fitted snugly together.

The cygnet surrounded by green countryside

The next pictures were given a surrounding in a similar way but I used a bit of guesswork to trim down the templates so they fitted together.  The lines of small blue squares represent the narrow canals and the wider blue squares are for broad canals. 

Progress so far and the quilt is coming together

As always I'm thinking ahead to the next stage and hopefully it won't be long before I can start adding the finer details to the quilt.  

The Last Three

My three remaining pieces for the holiday quilt were all executed in embroidery but in very different styles.  For the first piece I used the Birmingham Museum's mock up of Staffordshire Hoard ornamentation as the basis for my first design. 

Birmingham Museum's reproductions from the Staffordshire Hoard

I love the intricacy and fine ornamental shapes in the top item but also wanted to incorporate the bright red garnets which featured in so many of the treasures found in the hoard.  My design quickly took shape but the stitching was not so straight forward.  The red bead 'garnets' didn't stand out against my bronze thread and the ornamental shapes in the design would also be lost.  The gold version of this thread wasn't a very attractive colour so after some experimentation on a try-out piece I settled on a bronze outline filled in with variegated yellow to represent the reflections of shiny gold.  The red beads and red sequin eye stand out on the paler background and I was pleased with this interpretation of my design.

My Staffordshire Hoard bird

 On one of our walks we came across a large family of swans, 7 cygnets came across the canal in the hope of being fed but they were out of luck.  I pondered a design of 7 cygnets but even in very basic outline the resulting square would have been out of proportion to the rest of the quilt.  I settled for just one cygnet sewn in long and short stitch in various greys and I have to admit it gave me some trouble.  Luckily the fabric stood some unpicking when I inadvertently used a green-grey on the body and then again in my attempts to complete the bill within the outline.  And after all that I am not really happy with the result so there might well be a rethink and another version of the cygnet at a later date!

The cygnet which may be replaced

I may not have saved the best to last but it certainly was the easiest, a little mouse from the vesta box. 

The mice on the vesta box in the Jewellery Museum

The mice on the box were carved with little detail beyond the outline so I've represented this with a simple outline sewn in stem stitch, my favourite stitch.  The black bead eye was attached with the not so popular invisible thread.  

The little mouse sewn on calico

So now my animal squares are complete my creation moves into it's next stage, the patchwork canal and it will be interesting to see how that works out. 

Tessellations and Tribulations

Deb came for a visit over half term. As we all know, Deb is renowned for her challenges, but this time it was me in the driving seat. At school, we were planning a STEM week (science, technology, engineering and maths), and I had to come up with a tessellation and transformation activity, that would be suitable for all ages and abilities, from suck-it-and-sneeze-on-it 4 year olds to the hard-to-please 11 year olds. My inspiration came from the yellow patchwork quilt hanging in the living room, and the Perfect Pattern game was devised.

Many patchwork patterns derive from right angle triangles, particularly in blocks of 16 squares. I decided to keep it simple for the kids, and made the squares for them, divided into two triangles. Deb was roped in to aid production, and we soon had an efficient system of slicing, gluing and laminating, incidentally introducing Deb to the joy of the rotary cutter.

In full triangle production. Note the healthy snacks!

With a good selection of triangles, we settled down to trying out game rules, and found many ways of making patterns, the aim being to get a pattern with horizontal and vertical symmetry. Of course, just messing about with the pieces was fun too.

Making perfect patterns with the patchwork cards.

The patterned sides of the playing pieces were made from card. Deb and I had a walk down to the great little craft shop in Staveley (Time2Craft) to buy it, and were unaccountably sucked in to the wool section next door, which was full of delights, including colourful tinsel wool. I announced to Deb that a ball would be purchased and transformed into small glittery owls, to sell at the school Christmas Fair. (The school fair is a great excuse to make bits of nonsense without them hanging round to annoy you afterwards.) Back home, we experimented with less demanding wools before trying out the tinsel. Deb producing a sparkly snowman in white, sewing the tiny pompoms onto his face with invisible thread and heroic determination. It turned out to be impossible to crochet the tinsel thread, but it knitted up quite easily and several owls have so far been produced. Unfortunately, the long strands refused to accept pieces glued on, even after holding bits in place till the fingers lost all feeling. Invisible thread to the rescue – whatever did we do without it?

Tinselly owls and Deb's jolly snowman

While Deb was here, we also had a trip to Hobbycraft, and, for the first time, saw a tambour needle for sale. I fancied trying one; after all, how difficult could it be? I spent the afternoon making holes in fabric while the thread languished on the back, refusing to be caught by the tiny hook. Deb retreated to the loft to sort her stuff, suggesting that YouTube was my only hope. I found an instructional video and put it on repeat.  Eventually a wobbly line of chain stitch emerged. The good thing about the tambour needle is that, if you make a mistake, it is very easy to undo. The bad thing is, even if you haven’t made a mistake, it is very easy to undo. In fact, when you have just done a perfect line of evenly spaced chain stitch and you are standing up proudly to show it off,  it is distressingly easy to undo

Never one to give up (especially having spent money on the thing), I have persevered on a test piece, which has turned out rather jazzy, because I tried out every type and thickness of thread I have. It’s good for very fine threads, and also metallic threads that take a lot of punishment when they are constantly pulled through the fabric by needle. My skill level is still firmly at beginner though – there won’t be any chain stitched fripperies at the Christmas Fair this year.

The tambour needle and my wobbly, lumpy, but colourful chain stitch, with a hopeful smiley face drawn in the corner for reasons unknown.