Gone To Earth

Charm squares..

Have you ever been tempted by pretty little charm squares?  And then wondered what to do with them.

The beauty of charm square packs is that typically they are put together to include a range of colour, a good mix of pattern and pattern scale across an entire fabric collection. This gives you a lot of scope to create a quilt top full of glorious colour and pattern design.

But what can you make with packs of 36 or 42 charm squares that goes beyond just piecing the squares together?

 This is where this book may help.

'Charmed beginnings - A beginners guide to patchwork and quilting'

 Inside this book you will find ten projects of gorgeous quilts to make  and ten lessons teaching you the skills you need to make them.  

The book is aimed at beginners and the lessons cover skills such as, rotary cutting, quilt assembly, quilting and binding, lots of information about marking, fabric and fabric care. It also explains how you might cut your own charm squares as not all your favourite designs may be available as pre-cuts. 

The projects begin simply with piecing charms together with sashing to make a quilt. Every project uses and builds on the skills acquired in the previous project.    As you work through the book each design is just a little bit more adventurous than the last.

Look at this little beauty.  The Charmed Twist Quilt.

 

Tackle a little applique...

and then ...



... use your charm squares to create these basket blocks...

So, if you're looking for inspiration or somewhere to begin an adventure into patchwork and quilting, this may help.

Amy Butler's Style Stitches

This is what I've been reading in the car over the past week whilst I've been waiting in the car for the children to get out of school.  

Amy Butler's Style Stitches - 12 easy ways to 26 wonderful bags.

 

It wouldn't be very friendly of me not to share this book with you, especially as just now it could probably still make its way onto your Christmas list.   I really think that if you like creating and making bags then this is a wonderful book.

It's spiral bound which makes it a lot easy to work from, as it will lay flat whilst you read the next set of instructions.

Inside though there's magic. Just add a little fabric, interlining thread and enthusiasm and with all these beautiful designs to inspire you, I can't help but think you're in for a treat.

There's a tote bag Reversible Everyday Shopper.

This has big pockets... handles designed to be comfortable in the hands and you can't argue with the fact that it looks pretty good.  So, much nicer than a plastic store bag.

There's a set of pouches to make.  Instructions are given for six different sizes to suit almost any purpose from organising cosmetics, pencils or sewing bits and bobs.  Make them to keep or to give away.  I like the little tab on the side... nice touch.

All the designs can be made in different sizes too and the 'Perfectly Pleated clutch' is no exception to this.

There's a more everyday style of bag with the option of making a small purse to go with it in a matching centre pleat.

 

This is the Teardrop Bag and Key Keeper coin purse.

If these are just a little too tame for you, then this one is definitely a statement bag.

 

'Fringed Hobo Bag'

 
Again, this bag comes in different sizes but this large one with it's opulent fringing says student to me.  The perfect bag for making a statement about who are.

The bag designs are are shown in Amy's beautiful fabrics.

 

Miss Maven Ruffled Handbag.  I love the Bliss Bouquet in Teal and Sun Spots in Tangerine fabric combination.  Really zingy.

 

Take Flight Handbag/shoulder bag.  A great design for overnight stays or as a flight bag.

This last one I'm going to show you, is my favourite little handbag.  The Blossom Handbag/shoulder bag.

I really like this little bag, the handle design, it's rounded shape, the interior details.  Gorgeous.

I've put a lot of pictures into this blog post but I haven't shown all the designs in the book.  All of the bag designs can be made in different sizes and all of them are lovely but what makes this book stand out for me is the attention to the detailing in the designs.

The interiors of the bags are full of nice details that take making your own bags to another level. There are  pockets, zipped pockets, slip pockets, little compartments.  There are interesting handle designs designed to be comfortable to hold and which attach in different ways.  Amy uses, pleats, ruffles, buttons, trims and of course beautiful fabric to make the bags look special.  There's nothing ordinary about any of them.  None of them rely on Amy's fabric alone to look good and let's be honest even the most ordinary of tote bag designs would stand out and be deliciously different and beautiful in her fabrics.  

I think you'd love this book, I know I do.

Something gentle....

I acquired this book a few weeks ago. It crept into my Amazon basket I'm not entirely sure how. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ) The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making 15 Projects inspired by Everyday Beauty by Jane Brocket.

I really connect with this book. There is an uncomplicated, calmness about her approach to patchwork and quilting which is really filling a need for me just now.

I love her description of how for years she just admired quilts feeling that it was far too complicated, much too difficult, a craft with too many rules for her to even begin. She shared these feelings with a friend who more or less told her to 'get on with it.! So, she did. She faced her fear of getting it wrong and went for what was possible.

I like that. Sometimes when you want to learn something new, acquire a new skill, I think you do have to be brave enough to get stuck in. There's a danger of you can denying yourself a lot of simple pleasure by being uncomfortable about getting it wrong, afraid of needing to ask for help just in case we seem foolish.

One fantastic thing about craft blogs is that they always provide somewhere to find answers and often someone you can talk to when you're stuck.

Jane talks about how she learned to enjoy the process of piecing and quilting. How she became able to focus on her fabric and colour choices once she freed up her mind by sewing 'simple, timeless and often childlike quilt patterns' , playing with simple designs and learning to fill them with colour and pattern. Rather than getting hung up on the precise 'jigsaw' type construction of some block designs, which had prevented her from ever getting started in the first place.

There's no surprise therefore that the quilts in this wonderful book are are based on strips, squares, squares set on point and triangles (in probably the most complicated quilt called the Amaryills.) The beauty in her designs are achieved by the fabrics she uses to create large, bold sweeps of pattern and colour.

She is inspired by the fabrics of Kaffe Fassett and has a similar kind of colour wash approach to her designs that you can see in his work. Kaffe's aren't the only fabrics she uses though, you can can spot fabrics from Heather Bailey and Amy Butler and fabrics from many other designers which she names just in case you wish to try and reproduce her quilts precisely.

At the beginning of reach quilt recipe she explains her choices; the colours, the fabric patterns...

...what it was which inspired her to create it in the first place...

...and how she went about constructing it.

This 'narrative' or quilt story is important to her. Jane likes that connection that the craft gives to all those quilt making women of the past. That's another part of the attraction for her. Quilt making has a very 'social' history, women often came together in groups to sew and to talk, thus memories, hopes and wishes have always been sewn into quilts. Jane makes it all seem so possible and I think that is really liberating. The whole tone of the book is 'you can do this ...' and as a result I've even started to quilt by hand. Not a death defying 'craft' leap I know but I've always believed it to be too slow, too difficult. Well, it isn't! It's wonderful! I like the texture, I like the sitting and doing, I like the way it stills the mind and soothes it after long days. If you get a chance to look at this book for yourself you won't regret it.

Some free and easy stitching

 acquired this last week, which has been a lovely diversion from all the sick people around me. Colds and flu and it's only October whatever will the winter bring !! (I have a terrible book habit.)

I've loved Poppy's work for a long time, you can see some of her bags, coffee cosies, egg cosies and cushions here. (She makes tea and coffee cosies for Claridges Hotel you know!)

I'm completely guilty of dragging protesting children into shops to admire her bags. Now they're older they more often stand outside and wait, pulling faces of desperation at me through the window! I just love that 'folky' charming style she has, that looks so simple and yet you just know that it isn't. I love the way she signs her work too. as any artist would. A stroke of genius!

The book is about the stitching techniques (by sewing machine)... feed dogs down, darning foot or no darning foot (depends on how brave you are) and off you go. She talks about suitable fabrics to use, those which help create more texture in your work, the role played by the frayed edges of the applique in the 'look' of final project.

Poppy also talks bout threads and mixing bobbin colours and top thread colours to achieve yet more effects as you stitch in this free and easy way. There's loads of information about finishing off your work, layering fabrics, stitching, drawing and shading plus some projects to try. I think it's one of those books that reveals more secrets as you begin to experiment and understand a little more of what she's saying and why it's important.

There are a few stitching projects in the book; a greetings card, book cover, wall tidy, egg cosies bag, clutch type purse, apron and headband, picnic blanket, doorstop, coffee pot cosy, cushion covers and curtains. All made completely stylish and charming with the stitching.

As the 'girls' are very busy laying eggs I thought I would start with an egg cosy....

The patterns are included at the back of the book but they're the kind you either photocopy and enlarge (sometimes) or trace in some way. Templates for the applique motifs are included too.

I followed the egg cosy pattern almost slavishly, but I think if you really want to develop a skill at something 'copying' a master isn't a bad place to begin. Artists do that don't they when they study the 'greats', copy in order to understand.

O.K. back to reality and my little egg cosy. I hooped up the fabric in my tiniest hoop.

My sewing machine paniced and demanded oil before it would allow me to go any further. But once that was done, I lowered the feed dogs, added the darning foot and sewed in black and pink... felt like a bit of a rebel...

My finished egg cosy. Simple but charming...

Pink background fabric with a little polka dot heart in a cranberry red- a sugary sweet colour combination and I used a red 'stripy' fabric for the loop and the lining.

My big complaint is that the scribbly freestyle stitching was over too quickly. So, I'm going to attempt a 'free and easy' stitched cushion cover next with a few more motifs or maybe a tea cosy.

Seams to me .....

I do have a pretty serious book habit .... and I really wasn't going to buy 'Seams to Me 24 New Reason to Love Sewing' by Anna Maria Horner. I've loved her fabric designs for a while and I've read her blog for ages, which is a nice mix of her family life and her own crafting projects. (...and yes I'm waiting for some of her patterns....)

....fabrics from the Garden Party range

I was going to resist. No, I thought, you've so many sewing, craft type books. One magazine review I'd read suggested that this was more for the beginnng sewer and although there are always new techniques to master and new approaches to learn - perhaps it wasn't for me.

But, I failed, I succumbed to temptation and I'm pleased that I did.

It's a spiral bound book with a pattern envelope at the back, housing the pattern pieces for the various projects.

In 'Seams to me' Anna Maria talks about your 'sewing space', be it a corner of a room or a huge great studio and about the things you will need in it. She suggests things to think about when planing to buy a sewing machine. There's a section on tools; cutters, measuring tools, sewing guages, needles, pins, threads, bindings, elastic, interfacing/interlinings, thimbles, fabric and of course colour and colour, print combinations.

She talks through (with diagrams) seam finishes, adding zips, gathering and binding. She outlines sewing by hand, thus adding style and handmade charm to your projects by using just a few embroidery stitches.

There are 24 sewing projects in the book, which are divided into; Organize with ideas for tidying up and organizing your life. Such as a magentic pin board, which although pin boards maybe nothing new, this one is different to any I've seen before. I love the way that the magnets used to 'fix' notes etc to the board are 'cunningly disguised', enclosed in fabric yo-yo's, and yo-yo's with a difference. Some of these yo-yo have centres which are left open enough to reveal another fabric inside. Very pretty and clever. I can think of a few uses for that technique.

In 'Stylize', there are a couple of pretty bags. Gorgeous cuffs - which would show off beautiful buttons and your favourite fabric and give you a distinctive style of your own. Dearest daughter wants one of these... There are skirts for little ones, although it could easily be adapted for 'bigger' ones. There's a bias cut skirt for grown up girls which can be playfully decorated with fabric squares and there are still more projects.

The 'Decorate' section contains amongst other things, a quilt, pillows (cushions) one of which is a pretty patchwork which includes gathering one of the sides of the squares resulting in a really lovely textured cushion. Did I mention that there are projects featuring lovely, lovely buttons; some on that pretty cuff, some in frames, some on a pillow (Doodad pillow).

In the 'Domesticate' Section there are five more lovely projects; a couple of aprons and a beautiful decorated dish towel and if I'd made that and someone actually dried the dishes with it, I think I'd cry. The dish towels are appliqued, yo-yo's as flowers this time, embroidered and look absolutely beautiful.... I think that I'd be more inclined to use them as wall-art than for washing up activities.

I love the way this book is written. I like the way the projects are explained. I always like to know why I'm being asked to do something in a certain way and that is kind of how this is written. I also like the way that Anna Maria says why she choses the fabrics she does, why she combined those particular colours and prints. For example, she says that she wanted the quilt to have an 'All American' feel so she went for a play on red, white and blue using some greens and browns as accents. To give the quilt more of a contemporary feel she suggests using more solid coloured fabrics as opposed to prints. I sometimes think that this is one of the hardest things about a new sewing project..... it's not always about what are you are going to make as what you going to make it out of ? what colour? does that print dominate too much Arrrh!

All I have to do now is decide which project to have a go at first.... I'm sorely tempted by the patchwork cushion and as the cuff probably won't take that long to make, I'll have a go at that as well, once dear daughter is home from school and I can measure her arm that is.

A quilt or is it?

Once upon a time when life was simpler and it was possible to just occasionally to attend workshops. I made this;

It's a quilt...... no honestly.... it is. How do I justify saying that? Well, it's like this......

Patchwork or piecing and the construction of a quilt has a long history. It has developed in many different places in the world resulting in a rich diversity of styles and approaches. Originally, it probably developed as a method of producing an inexpensive textile using precious fabric remnants at a time when fabric wasn't easy to obtain. Many astonishingly beautiful examples can be found in museums and stately homes around the world.

A traditional definition of a quilt is that it must consist of three layers; a top layer which can be a whole cloth or a pieced cloth. A middle layer which may be wadding, which comes in a huge variety of types, different thicknesses, made from different materials; wool, silk, polyester and cotton. Then there is a backing fabric which again can be a whole cloth or a pieced or patched cloth.

Wadding, however may be replaced by other fabrics, in India for example, this middle layer may traditionally be composed of old sari's stitched together. You may encounter quilters muslin or calico being used.

That's all very well but how does that make my 'picture' a quilt?

Well, quilting and patchwork is a very vibrant area. It is both a craft and an art form. This basic definition of a quilt is subject to a huge variety of interpretations. How the contemporary quilter chooses to interpret those three layers required to make a quilt is entirely personal. (Remind you of the little discussion about interlining?)

My quilt picture was made at a workshop run by Ineke Berlyn. You can see some of her work here on her website. Link and in her book.

Ineke's book - a book full of ideas!

To construct these art quilts she combines layers of sheer, organza, net, tulle and muslin along with sympathetic stitching to create pieces of extraordinarily rich, translucent window art.

This fabric window art, when hung where light can shine through it creates dancing light as though through a stained glass window. Different light throughtout the day and throughout the seasons makes these 'sheer art quilts' pieces that constantly change.

An example of Ineke's work - a View of the Malvern.

This little one of mine is a worked example set out for the workshop. It has a layer of polyester organza as the backing layer with pieces of sheers in different colours, layered to create even more colour effects. Painted lutrador was used for the trees and some of the more defined leaves (yes, they are leaves! ) and some pieces of dyed calico to create some areas of solid colour, which helps to give the piece depth.

A tempting heap of sheers, tulle and hand dyed calico and time to play - what more could you ask for?

The shapes you cut out for your 'picture' are then 'bondawebbed' in position onto the backing fabric. It's suprising how long that can take. It's a lot of deciding, is that tree at all like a tree? Enough flowers....... you did guess this was supposed to be bluebell wood didn't you?

I think that's part of the fascination that patchwork and quilting holds for me. There is so much variation and just when you think that there can't be any more that folk can achieve with pieces of cloth you come across someone elses work and the fascination deepens. There is always something new, something wonderful just waiting..........

This is a piece depicting Bethlehem, worked in sheers, with stitching in gold and silver threads. Christmas is coming....... give you any ideas?

So, although you can't snuggle up in it with your cocoa, do you see now why it's a quilt?