house of quilting

We just got back from a week at my mum's. She is a quilter. There's a lot of quilts in her house. I thought I would share a glimpse of just a few. We sleep under them, and they hang on the walls.

Now I see them together as a group I feel impressed! We all take the quilts for granted in our family and don't really consider them or the skills taken to make them. Time for rethink?

If you go down to the woods today...

...you had better take your ear plugs.

Completed ATC Cards

Little I's completed cards. T's are more comples, involving a series of puzzles and mazes, they are going to take a while to complete.

Dee groovey

I had a huge list last week, one item on it was my brother's birthday cushions. Fabric is genuine 1970s (?) from the bags of fabric I was given in Devon. These were fabrics from a quilting friend of my mum's who sadly passed away last year. Her son had brought about 5 bin bags of fabric to my mum's house.

There is a great collection of fabrics spanning 1960s to the noughties. And moving from dressmaking to patchworking. There are a couple of tiny cocktail dresses (she was very petite) and some cut up paisley 1970s blouses, either they are half finished or she was cutting up her old clothes for patchwork scraps.

In a way I can see her life through her sewing which is both moving and sad. As I have been making things from her fabric I have been thinking about her and her sewing.

But my mum reassures me she would have been pleased to see her fabrics being used.

Plans

I found this duvet cover in the charity shop on saturday. I was thinking of making the skirt for the Traveller dress view C (top left corner of pattern envelope) I think to make another shift style dress in this fabric could be too much holiday kaftan-like for me. What do you think?

The duvet cover is currently doing duty as a play tent in the garden prior to being cut up for a dress.

2245 in action

I wore it, I was happy all day. I had a postcard, car keys, phone, and lego in the pockets though not all at the same time. It survived Little I's painting session, making cakes, nursery, running around to do errands.

Wearing smock type dresses is something to get used to, no waist bands is different. Could I fit a cushion up this dress? Probably.

I made it just about hitting the knee as I like my skirts that length if I am going to wear them with my little bare white legs out in the summer. On this occasion I wore it with leggings as it was not quite warm enough for me to brave bare legs.

thrifty 365 days part 1

Look what Little I's nursery teacher gave me ...vintage barkcloth Noddy fabric, sorry for the creases. What do you think I should make from it? I have a couple of ideas...

In the spirit of Sarah's Thrifty 365 , recently we have been finding things to do that do not involve spending much money....we have been planiting seeds to grow vegetables. These are hopefully going to be pak choi.

I found a load of old mount boards in my mum's attic left over from when I last exhibited my art work (eek, too long ago, seems like another life). I bought it home and it looks great with childrens' watercolours on so we are using the last pieces to make our ATC Kids' Swap art cards. Little I did one big piece that I had drawn a grid of 3.5x 2.5 " rectangles on. Then I cut them at her nursery borrowing their big guillotine. They look lovely once cut up, the thickness of the mount board gives them a real Special-Object-like quality when you hold them.

I will photo them but right now the sun is shining and my kids are shouting at me to come and play.