Baby Blocks

Some of the huge stash of material has been usefully employed to make baby blocks for Jasper. I used squares of iron-on interfacing to stiffen the fabric, and also to give a template to fold the seams over. There was a bit of experimentation on the sewing of the edges - it turned out that sewing from the outside of the cube gave a cleaner edge and a sturdier block. I filled them with enough stuffing to give them shape but not distort the sides too much. Some of the blocks include bells and beads to rattle, sewn into their own mini-cubes inside the blocks to prevent any leakage. 

Staying on the mission to use up scraps, this is a little tray for dice rolling during games. The patches are about an inch wide, and were sewn with embroidery thread in simple running stitch through all the layers to give the sides some stiffness. 

In bird news, I have a pair of young doves hanging around the patio, waiting for their mum to come and feed them. They teetered on the edge precariously during the strong winds, but seem none the worse for it. They are a lovely soft grey, and still quite fluffy. 

 

A Little Name Book

I couldn't wait to get sewing some baby things for Jasper! This is a little cloth book with the letters of his name and a picture for each one. I used some fancy fabrics, including velvet, fleece, fine corduroy and gold mesh, to be eye catching and have an interesting feel. Most of the sewing is on the machine to make sure the applique is firmly attached. To be extra careful, the gold material was sewn down with a tiny back stitch over each intersection of the mesh. I added some buttons and a pom pom for the animals' features, and used embroidery for the other details The pages were sewn in back-to-back pairs, with careful planning to make sure the letters ended up with the right picture. There's a little portrait of Jasper for the back page. Hopefully he will have lots of fun looking at it.

 

The Very Orange Quilt

Enough to brighten anyone's day! The orange quilt is finished. It is made of 30 pinwheel patchwork blocks, and the gear wheels were very carefully cut from felt.  As you can see, it is heavily quilted, so the gear wheels stand out. The final size is about 20 x 24 inches. 

Moorhen Chick

The moorhens have just one fluffy little chick and luckily they are frequently on our bank.  

At the opposite end of the size scale is this heron which was strutting its stuff on a diving platform on a boat opposite us.  Then it had a scratch and didn't look quite so composed!

Pigeon Pics

I enjoyed watching the pigeons tend their nest and the little chick hatch out and grow. After leaving the nest, it hung around the garden for a few days, and the parents came back to visit it.

Here it is quite fluffy, looking worriedly out of the nest, the first time the parents left it alone. 

Looking a bit tatty round the edges here. It grew quickly and was soon stretching its wings.

A few days after leaving the nest, it was back with one of the adults. They spent a while sitting together and hopping round the patio.

Grey Wagtail

The little grey wagtail is finished!  I am pleased with the result of using the tambour needle for the background and will certainly be using it again.   

Catching Up

I've been busy stitching my grey wagtail and realised I haven't posted any progress reports. 

So here is the little grey wagtail from a design based on my painting in the previous post.  The background is chain-stitch created with the tambour needle and now I've had some practise I can work at a reasonable pace with it.  The bird is being stitched in a mixture of stem stitch and long & short stitch for the areas which need a colour change.  

I've also been doing a bit of drawing and here is a pencil drawing of St Marks from a photo I took sometime ago.  

The photos below were taken during May.

An early morning photo of canada geese on the reservoir.

A swallow watches as another lands on the rail next to it.  

The last 3 pictures show a moorhen looking for a place to nest.  It decided against this tyre in favour of somewhere more spacious!

Birds

After enjoying painting the hare I decided to paint a grey wagtail from a photo I took in Norfolk when we were cruising.  My first painting was a straighforward depiction of the little bird which was standing on an underwater rock.  

My second painting was very different and was a bit of an experiment with the shades of grey which I don't use very often.  The greys were all a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine.  

My other birds are photos starting with a heron standing on the reservoir bank when we were out last week.  

A little reed bunting that I took yesterday while we were out on the canal.  

A chaffinch on the path during our morning walk, the girls were very restrained in keeping their distance while I took the photo!

Pigeon Post

Here's one of the resident pigeons, well hidden among the leaves. The pair have been swapping over nest duty for about a week now, so probably another week or so to wait.

I've been working on a woodland theme, without too much of a plan. This little patch was woven to start with, but then I just kept adding bits I liked. At the moment all the edges are raw - the pieces are kept in place with very tiny backstitches. I'll probably oversew the edges by hand with embroidery silk.

Some more work on the woodlands theme. Once again, none of these patches have been finished off because I haven't figured out how I want to join them yet. The pale woven bits make a nice contrast to the bright blues, greens and oranges. At the moment, all the patches are spread out on my sitting room table, so I can fiddle them about into new combinations whenever the mood takes me.

Nasturtiums and a hare

Since seeing Alison Ingram's wildlife paintings I have wanted to create a painting inspired by her style and this hare is the result.

To see Alison's art click on this link.  Alison Ingram gallery

The nasturtiums have been coming along, I decided I needed some variety with the flowers so have tried embroidering the outline on one of the green hexagons.  I will add some more outline flowers as the piece progresses.  

Early morning walk

The sun was shining this morning so I took my camera on our early morning walk.  Here are the results.

A heron takes off across the misty canal.

Looking up the canal

A dandelion puff.

Frosty brambles.

Sunlight on a ploughed field.  The lorry and van in the background are on the very quiet M62.

This hare came running towards me and stopped to wash it's face when it got close to the hedge.  

Hawthorn flowers.

It's no wonder the walk took longer than usual!

Tawny Dragon

Another crochet creature has arrived. This time it's a dragon, which required a bit of fiddling about with the patterns, especially for the nose and wings. He's the sort of dragon you might find poking about in the garden, I think, mild-mannered and harmless, with a tummy of very undragonly squishiness.

Here he's sharing the rocking chair with Dog, just so he can show off his tiny wings.

I've also been working on using up scraps to make small appliques. This squirrel is hand-appliqued with several different embroidery threads, an effect I really like. I'm making up a batch of woodland motifs like this, with the idea of combining them into something bigger ... eventually.

Fabric Weaving

This week I've been experimenting with different bases for applique. There's a great series of videos about weaving with fabric on Jude Hill's blog https://spiritcloth.typepad.com/, so I've been messing about with remnants from the scrap box. 

Here I've cut the fabric into 1 inch strips and tacked them onto a backing before adding the applique. I wanted to hand sew the raw edges, but in a way that doesn't need to be too neat and would be fun to do - there's nothing worse than spending ages trying to make all the stitches identical. The solution here was to use several different colours round the edges in a simple over-sew stitch. I've used running stitch to hold down the top sides of the woven strips, although this would work better as an  quilting stitch over a thicker backing, which is what I might try next. 

Here the strips for weaving were cut roughly and are a mix of different fabrics. I also cut the shapes for the trees and the little house without too much deliberation, and have stitched them on with running stitch around the raw edges. I tried a variety of ways of securing the weaving - I think the running stitch from the last sample works the best. 

I'm going to try weaving with some bigger strips next - as usual, I've gone for the tiny and fiddly first. It certainly makes an interesting base, without the effort of creating patchwork, and with the added advantage of no bulky seams to sew over.

Meanwhile, I'm about a third of the way through quilting the orange quilt - so plenty to keep me busy!

Hares

I slipped my small camera into my pocket when I went on this morning's walk.  As it was bright and sunny I was hoping to take some photos of the hares that I see most mornings and I wasn't disappointed.  I took the photos from behind the trees on the edge of the field.