Hello I have moved, no longer childminding but still sewing things have moved on so check it out here http://patchworkdreamerchat.blogspot.co.uk/
Lots of quilty hugs Mary

Module 1 tick

Finally I hear you cry, that blessed woman has completed module 1!  Well if you didn't I did! 

And this is the bundle I sent in.  The bottom green thing is a soft book which I made to hold my patchwork samples, this caused a few oh dear me type words as the eyelets did not wont to play fair. Sorted that with a blob or two of fabric glue and my husband hitting it hard with a hammer!

Close up of cover just hand quilted a line detail of the finished piece (picture in frame)

One of my fav  pages from inside my "line" book.  Got it spiral bound at staples which was a bit nerve racking, but better than attempting it myself when someone said "oh I have a spiral binder if you wont to borrow it" yes my belly is indeed yellow.

And this is the assessment form I got back,  I was so pleased with it as I was convinced I had forgotten/not noticed something and a big list of things to do was coming my way.  Sorry cant figure out how to turn this around so you don't have to twist you neck. I have moved on to Module 2.  As a family we went to Heartlands in Redruth a couple of weekends ago and how lovely was that?  I felt quite moved by it all, must be all that Cornish blood rushing through my vains.  Heartlands is an old tin mine which has been taken care of and turned into a tourist attraction.  Take a look.

So these are my starting blocks for the industrial section, if you ever come down to Cornwall its worth a look, its free and there is a lovely play park for the children.
I have been getting on well with the quilting of the hearts all round wall hanging and have completed one more block for the farmers wife quilt but it has not been pressed yet so will show you that in a later post.  That's it from me this month please let me know what you think and how you are getting on. Mary

 

Not quite there yet!

 Yea as you can see I have not completed module 1 but these samples are complete! Log cabin the spiral one is hand the other machine.

 Irregular blocks the Maple leaf is machine the other hand.

Nine patch the heart is machine the other hand.

                                

 

 And finally the flying geese by machine.  I have plans on how to display these which may take a while to complete but hopefully will look nice.  More on that next month.....Got a bit excited last month as someone put the final patch in this collection (in last months blog) on Pinterest.com how lovely and what a surprise I got when it popped onto my screen!

 The start of my line "book" which is taking some time. Lets call it a WIP!

Away from the course I have another Farmers wife block completed.

 And whoop whoop bring on the band the hearts all around has been finished, well the piecing anyways! I changed the layout a little from the pattern in Popular Patchwork.  And now to quilt by hand cus that's what I like.

Have signed up for a couple of American magazines to be delievered as they were on offer and I thought it would be nice to see some different publications.  They are Love of Quilting and Quilters newsletter, anyone else have these?  There is talk of a buddy system being set up with SST which sounds like a good idea to me, do you sew with a friend?  Would be lovely just to have someone to bounce ideas with so fingers crossed that gets off the ground. Well wont make any sweeping statements about the next Module for next month, lesson learnt there.   

When I'm an old Lady I shall wear purple!

 This month we have extended the children's rooms, it has all gone very smoothly, the builders added an extra five feet or so and we finished.  As you can see my children like colour this is Charlotte (Charlie) helping paint her room she will be five in a couple of weeks time.

And here we are nearly complete bunting to put up and beds are to arrive next weekish.

Mid month I had some time off as my little boy got a nasty bug which ment I had to close for a few days.  James just wonted to lie about and sleep so I got on with some C and G.  Got loads done!  Here is the result of the last bit of modual 1 in progress.

 

 

And framed up ready to send.  Fabrics next to it are the ones I intend to use for the samples.

 And these are rough (Very!) drawings of the samples I intend to put together.

 

And the first one complete, hand stitched  Seemed to take hours but it was a pick up put down job as I squeezed it in between everything else.

 And these are the fabrics almost all cut out for the flying goose machine one. 

 Much thinking has been going on as to how I am going to present all of my work and have found Staples will spiral bind, after much discussion with a very nice young man with a smooth Canadian accent, sigh swoon, cough cough found I may have a plan!  Whoop whoop but my time to complete is fast approaching, don't think it is going to happen on time as we are in the middle of the Easter holidays.  The computer turned its toes two weeks ago so I am now working with a new one, didn't take that long to figure out how to get the pictures from the card to here!  When I got there though it was soo much quicker.
And just to add something new to the mix these are the starting block to my farmers wife quilt it has been a pick up put down project for some time, a friend made me the plastic templates from the disc and it's what I take if I know I am going to be waiting somewhere and don't have children to keep going.  The blocks are 6.5 inches square and great fun to put together.

Hopefully next month I will have a picture of all my work complete and be talking about number 2!  Anyone else doing this course by post or are you all doing it my computer?  Sew until next month have fun and let me know how you are doing.

Time, where does it go?

I will make my excuses early, the week before the children having a holiday and the first week of a holiday leave no time for anything but children be it my own or other peoples, so that has taken care of the first two weeks the next week has been getting back into the swing.  Having said all this I have decided to blog once a month unless something very exciting comes my way!  So back to business as you can see the hearts all around is getting bigger the top two middle blocks are only cut out. So this is very much still a WIP.

However the cut and cut again has been quilted and turned into cushions, the children love them yea one to mum. COMPLETED.
   

Went to another class today, I promise no more classes booked......This one was great though realy had to think, have to put a centre in and am going to square it up and add some stars around to make a wall hanging for my son. WIP

 

Now the thing about being a parent is you have to treat the children the same sooo.... My daughter chose this panel the last time I bribbed them (the cournerstone of parenting I've found) in to a fabric shop.  I have never done a panel before, wow it is such fun no thinking involved if you don't wont you can just stitch around the printed shapes.  Trouble is I had to draw a little onto it just to make it mine.  I have been told by my quilting facebook friends that the trick is knowing when to stop and I believe them. 

 Not a great picture but you get the idea. WIP (oh they are building up these WIP's arn't they!?)

I have done some towards the C and G (the whole point of this blog!)

The first is the second of the expansion exercise and I much prefer this one I may have gone OTT with the "doodle" element but I like it.  The second lot is still WIP on textures, still have another four to do on the bottom page.  Thats it for me this month please please leave your comments/

pointers and pass my blogg on to other like minded people as the more support I can get the better as I don't have class mates as you would doing this at a collage.  Sew have fun with your sewing and I will see you next month. 

Points to consider?

Good evening, Blogging early this week as we have visiters tomorrow morning and off to Eden (The Eden project in St Austell) in the afternoon so will be pushed for time in the morning.  Well as you can see the second page of drawings is not so good as the first, I peeked to early!!!

So I returned to the first page to do the next exercise.  Found a small section which was intresting and traced it as suggested in the course materials but found it a bit dull so I took a photo and grew it on the photo-copier, well lets be honest here hubby grew it on the photo-copier as I have no idea how to do it.

These are the designing in line drawings on tracing paper from the photo-copy in the order I did them.

And so to colour, "try to keep the colours fairly subtle" it says so this is me being subtle.  Not natural for me I like lots of bold colour and prints, sooo this is the second one in progress......

  Hummmm may try subtle again! 
Have worked out if I am going for twelve weeks for each modual (I really need to set some deadlines or I could wonder for months) then I am aiming for 8th April 2013 to complete, umm we will see.  Have a good week please leave comments on how you would have done this and maybe suggest the next colour way.  Something subtle?
 

 

Cut and Cut again

 Cut and cut again was the name of the workshop I attended yesterday with the Beacon Quilters, a fun day.  The blue one has not been quilted yet but the pink one has can you see four bunnys?  I was going to machine quilt  with a fancy stitch but after an hour of the machine tension just not playing I
hand quilted it!  Not sure what that was all about maybe the machine did not like the thread because I have done it before with no problem, or maybe the machine had had enough of sewing as it had been
going all day.  I have done a little to the hearts are all around but not a lot it has been a busy week on the childminding front.  Hopefully will have finished the panel I showed you last week during this week some time.
                                     

And here finally my first bit of drawing for the course, as you can see I will not be giving up my day job any time soon to become an artist. It is ment to be the first line drawing exercise, I may have put in too much detail as it is ment to be an outline drawing.  Trouble was it is a chrysanthemum and I needed to draw the inside to get to the outside!  Oh well will try the next exercise later or tomorrow depending on time (got a lot of things to catch up on as I was out all day yesterday)  and see if I have boxed myself into a courner by doing too much detail in the first drawing.   Have driven myself mad looking at William Morris textiles and wallpapers this week, there is soo much "inspired by" William Morris and it is not always clear if it is his work or someone elses.  But I do have some fabric commping from ebay which I know is his but the colours have been updated by freedom fabric.  I have been looking at covering books with fabric on you tube and may present my work like this as that particular fabric is my starting point and I thought it might tie it all together niceley. 
Well thats another week down need to count up twelve weeks so that I can see when I should be aiming to complete this module, am hoping things will move a bit quicker now I have completed the research side of things and am actually doing the more creative bits.  Have a good week see you next Sunday.