Merry Christmas!

A cheerful snowman from Deb to Sar...

And a wistful squirrel in return!

Little Things

Now the Big Quilt is finished, there is time to mess about with smaller projects. In the aftermath of the patchwork, there are loads of colourful scraps, which are just right for fiddling with to see what happens.
It was high time Squirrel and Stitch had a squirrel on its pages, so here is a scruffy little autumn fellow, about 4 cm tall, surrounded by raw edge oak leaves. The applique is attached using tiny tacking stitches, following the ideas on this lady's inspirational blog.   https://spiritcloth.typepad.com/

little piece is backed with several layers of the blue flannel fabric used for the Big Quilt backing, making it very firm but soft to the touch. I made the front by chopping up two applique experiments and rearranging them into something completely different. There's a mixture of hand and machine stitching, leaving some edges raw. It measures about 6 x 9 cm.

There is a wide band of the blue flannel left over, so it will probably be making regular appearances on the blog. This is a sleeping bag for the Reception class Christmas Elf, who gets up to mischief in the classroom when the children aren't there.

Finally...

The Big Quilt is finally finished!

 After 18 months of daily stitching, combining 2584 triangles and a rough estimate of 38,000 quilting stitches, very battered fingers and a lot of pride, the finished article is on the bed. Looking forward to snuggling under it tonight.

The quilting is simple on this one, a curve across each triangle which gives a pattern of interlocking circles.

Patchwork Tray Cover

The colourful patchwork traycover is now complete so here are some photos to show you how it turned out.

The next step is to make some matching patchwork bowls to hold the bits and pieces for the projects.  Currently on the tray is the cathedral felting and various try outs for the foliage!

Pipes and Gears

The Big Quilt is nearing completion, and, while the last couple of hundred triangles are being quilted, I've been experimenting with pipes and gear motifs. 

For a change, I have pieced this patchwork using the machine, which is quick, but requires a lot of messing about to ensure accuracy. The pipes are also machine appliqued, and because of their long and floppy nature,  they were backed with interfacing. The result is quite stiff, so I probably won't be taking this any further. However, I will probably quilt it at some stage and add a few details - maybe some fish for those peeping cats!

I'm making cogwheels in varying quarters to eventually join up in a quilt. The left hand sample is appliqued through flannelette sheet under the background, giving it a much softer look and cutting out the need to quilt the whole thing when the blocks are joined.

Very heavy quilting on thick wadding means the applique really stands out on this sample. The cat and little owls are cut from printed fabric and sewn on with a narrow zigzag stitch, making them very puffy to the touch.

Mice on the Move

Some members of the mouse family who had taken up residence in the ivy and were greatly enjoying the bird seed. Since the removal of their food source, they seem to have moved on, though I keep looking out for them because, as you can see, they were very charming. 

This one is undaunted by the disapproving face behind it.

Running round the tops of flower pots was a favourite occupation.

This one appeared to be quite young, and has the most beautiful gummy little feet! It spent a lot of time darting in and out of the plants before it was brave enough to nab a few seeds.

 

Felt Dragon Picture

Following on from my shell felt picture I thought I’d try something else.  For this one I intended to make the picture in felt and then add some detail with embroidery, it didn’t actually turn out like that!

I had an outline of a dragon’s head from a previous project and thought it would be ideal for this piece.  My first step was to draw the outline on thin paper and then tack it to my support square of felt.  The felt is 5 inches square.

From there I stitched the outline in blue thread and then, very carefully, tore off the paper.

As this is a bit of an experiment, I wasn’t sure where to start but decided to block round the whole outline with the darker felt.  Then I started adding in the colours in the more clearly defined places, the spines, the neck and chin area.  Gradually the colour built up and I realised I could keep felting on top of an area, changing the colours, until I was satisfied with the result. 

At this stage I still intended to embroider in the details, in particular the eye.  Then I decided it would look odd if only the eye was embroidered so I carried on with the felting.  The eye was a bit fiddly but I kept going over the area until I was happy with it. 

I was surprised how precise I could be with the felting and was pleased with the result.