On with the show.

I can't believe it is just over 2 weeks until Christmas.  I am so  unprepared.  Yet again, all my plans to make beautiful things for Christmas have fallen by the wayside.  Instead I have a lot of City and Guild homework, some of it already overdue, that has to be done in the next 5 weeks if I am to stand any chance of finishing the course and getting the qualification. Still there is nothing like a bit of pressure to get the creative juices flowing!!

Talking of creative juices, a couple of weeks ago I went to the bi-annual show of the North Hampshire Quilters.  As usual they put on a lovely display of all their recent creations.  they are quite a traditional group but they do some gorgeous work.

This one and the next are both by my mother, Thelma Winn.  The picture above isn't great but it is a quilt with dogs on which she made for my younger son who is dog mad. Rather a quilt than a real dog imo but unfortunately he isn't fobbed off that easily and 'a real dog' is top of every birthday and christmas present list he is asked to make.

 The next one is a beautiful bit of piecing which she had long armed quilt by another NHQ, Mandy Parks.  I think my mother is particularly proud of this one.  If I remember correctly it is a jelly roll quilt.

This one caught my eye for the accuracy of the piecing.  I am not sure that I have the patience or the probably the skill for this sort of thing!

Normally the colours of the next quilt wouldn't appeal at all but I really like this one.  It is a double quilt by Francis Tozer and I think the darker creams which are almost lemon really lift this.

These next two are both included because they are just so colourful and I do love a bit of colour.

The one above is called Over the Rainbow by Doris Dove and the one below is also by Doris and is called A Mystery No Longer although quite why is still a mystery to me! LOL.

Oh no, I have just read the card which is hung with the quilt (zooming in on digital photos is a marvellous thing).  Doris lead a quilt making session where everybody what told what colours and sizes of fabrics to bring and then they were told what sizes to cut.  Apparently they didn't see the finished design they were making until lunchtime of the day they did the workshop.  Sounds like an interesting day.

Anyway, these are a few of my favourites but if you are interested in seeing some more photos of their show and finding out more about their group, their website can be found at http://www.north-hampshire-quilters.org.uk/.

I shall be back in a few days with some more of my own samples for my course and probably with a list of my WIPS!!.  Does anybody else want to share a particularly big or significant list of WIPS?  I would love to know I am not alone with so much outstanding work!

Thanks for reading.

Bits and pieces.

It is half term week this week so I have my boys home and a break from my City and Guilds course to catch up with some of the homework!  The tutors weren't joking when they said that the day on the course would be matched with a days work at home.  It is certainly that and more if you include the assignments.

For the last 5 weeks we have been shape and pattern as part of the design component and blocked pieces for the stitched bit.  I have a new camera which is fantastic, a proper SLR as I have been disappointed in the photos I have taken on my bridge camera - they haven't been as sharp as I would have hoped and it has been bugging me.  I have given the new one a bit of an airing by taking some photos of what I have been doing.  I have tried the manual settings and although the photos are OK I need to work on the technique and learn some theory.  The photos taken on auto are fab though!  I really like them.

We started off with some hand piecing which, if I am honest, I think I prefer to machine piecing.  It is so much easier to tease and shape the pieces into place and certainly a lot less hassle and kinder to the fabric when you have to unpick as I seem to have to do all too often.  This is a simple four patch.

Not the best composed picture in the world but you can just about see how all the seams line up and the edges are square which is always a bit of 'yes!' moment when you open it out and realise it is spot on!

After that we had to machine some simple blocks which is much more tricky in my opinion.  Probably I haven't had as much practice.  If it works it is very quick but if it doesn't, well, lets just say you might well have been quicker doing it by hand the time it takes to unpick!

This is a simple nine patch.

Again not the best photography (I did say I had a lot to learn) but the seams are lining up so I was quite pleased.  The next one, whose name escapes me for the minute, was better both in terms of the machining and the photo!

Having said it was better, now it is uploaded I can see all the creases in the fabric and the fact it isn't straight. <<sign>>  I can't win - either the sewing is great and not the photo or the photo is great and not the block!

I have a few more complicated blocks that aren't finished.  A union star handpieced block which is looking a bit wonky on the bias seams and machine block square with inset triangles and squares where the two halves don't meet in the middle properly.  I will hopefully do those this week and more if I can.

Did anybody go to the Knitting and Stitching show  at Ally Pally?  Great wasn't it.  So much to see and so many fabulous knitty stitchy things to try.  I could have spent a fortune but since I had just bought my camera I resisted.  I am making this scarf from one of the lovely balls of yarn I  bought there. It is great because it ruffles all by itself!

It is simply 7 knit stitches across and it grows quite quickly.  I feel a bit guilty doing anything else when I have so much sewing to do but at least with this you make a lot of progress with very little time and effort so I have a little go every now and then, when it isn't worth getting my sewing needles out.  I am not sure how long it is going to be but I shall keep going until there is no more yarn left!  I reckon it will be long enough.

That's it for now.  Got to do some proper work.  Please feel free to comment - I would really appreciate knowing that somebody is reading some of this.  It gets a bit lonely when you don't know who, if anybody you are writing for. 

Thanks for reading. xx

Finished at last!

After all this time and not a few choice words a long the way, I have finally completed my table runner.  About 3 months late but whose counting!

This is the finished article.

Forgive the poor photo- I took it with my phone, at night and not in natural light and the colours seems a bit off.  I tried fiddling with it and editing it but to no avail.  Anyway, you get the idea - deep sea on the right and then the sea gets shallower until you get to the beach.  You can't really see the detail but the idea is that the blocks all face the same way with the top quarter evoking the sea rolling in. You can't tell from the photo but it measures about 34" by 19" It is 8 4" blocks by 4 4" blocks plus the border.

This one is a zoomed in version.

I couldn't really quilt this - it isn't really the done thing although I suppose I could have quilted in the ditch - so the quilt layers are held together by ties and as you can just about see in ever corner, the ties have a pearl bead for effect.  There is a tiny bit of decorative stitching on the top quarter of each block to hold the folds down but that is it.  .

I was quite pleased with it until I saw these photos!!  I hope, when I finally get it back from marking that it is better than pictures make it look.  I have been toying with the idea of getting a proper DSLR camera for blogging pictures amongst other things.  I am getting keener on the idea by the minute!

So what is next?  Well, my course has started back for the second and final year and I have design work on texture and shape to do and also a container to finish.  I am supposed to be doing a box with the sky line of London on it.  That isn't going well but life has not made things easy this last few weeks, especially with having to go back to working in an office!!  Oh the horror!  That is a post for another day.

Anyway, joking aside I am a bit behind but I do hope to have something to show you soon.  I have been doing blocks too - you know the proper ones that everybody thinks of when you say patchwork and quilting - four and nine patches and all that.  That involves hand sewing which I like best so I am happy for the time being.  I am sure there will be machine related challenges along the way!

I shall try and post more updates soon.  Thanks for reading.

Where did the days go?

I can't believe we are in the last few days of the school holidays.  Where did the days go?  It was going so slowly to begin with.  In a good way too - we just had so much going on.  We had holiday club for a week, the Olympics, holidays in North Wales, footie matches for the boys, visiting friends and Car Fest last weekend. Now half way through our final week and nothing else to look forward to, the time is rushing away.

It makes me quite sad really.  My elder son is just about to start year 8.  6 more years and he will have done both his GCSEs and A levels and will hopefully, be heading off to university and won't want to be spending the holidays with us.  Maybe.  When he started school, the years of summer holidays stretched out before us and now they are more than half gone as far as he is concerned. I say maybe because he as mild Aspergers and so maybe he will spend more time with us than the average child but who knows.  I am sure he will change a lot in 6 years.  6 more years will also see the younger one at the end of Yr 9 and just about to start his GCSE years.  He won't want to hang around with his ageing parents much by then either.  It all goes in a blink of an eye doesn't it?

So, I am not much looking forward to the start of term and I will miss them, but on the other hand, I have done next to no crafting this holiday.  There isn't the time or the space.  I need to sew on the dining room table and with the Playstation in the same room and in use for a fair few hours a day there isn't the opportunity.  Plus I need to feed the boys and we need the table for that too.  It hasn't really been picnic weather a lot of the time.  It is such a faff to unpack and then repack every time the table is needed or the sound of racing cars/football games gets too much to bear.

It will be good, not to say vital to get on with my course work when the boys do go back to school.  I will be in serious trouble if I don't have a few more things finished. I have been buying gorgeous silks for my quilted bowl which is going to be a challenge.  I don't want to mess it up having spent so much on the fabric.  Thankfully I have lots of old sheets to practice the design on first!

The only thing I have done in recent weeks apart from plan what I am going to do is a knitted square for another Mumsnet Woolly Hugs blanket, this time for a family who lost a little girl to cancer.  I can't imagine the pain they must feel so knitting a square is the least I can do.  I might have posted it before but if you are interested in having a look at what we have created, with an especially big shout out to the wonderful ladies who put the blankets together, this is the website - http://www.woollyhugs.com/about/ .

And this is my square.  Can't have a blog post without a photo even if it was very quickly taken on my phone.

It was knitted with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK so it is lovely to work with and very soft.  I bet a whole blanket would give a very lovely woolly hug.

Thanks for reading.  Please come back soon.

Planning time

I've  not done much crafting recently.  Mostly that is because it has been the school holidays and I just haven't had the opportunity.  I knitted a couple of square for the Mumsnet Woolly Hugs project but rather foolishly forgoet to take any photos so I can't even show those.  This week though, we have been away in N Wales.  My parents in law live here but don't have room to put us up so we rent a house.  This time it is a real get away being up the top of a hill, more or less alone except for a farm which is further down the drive and a whole lot of sheep plus a cow or 2.  The road up to this place, a public road too, is single track and is so little used that grass is growing up through the tarmac down the middle of the road.

This is the view from the front of the cottage.  Stunning isn't it? 

I haven't managed to go to any craft shops this time - it has been a very boy orientated holiday with a trip to Liverpool to watch some footie - Liverpool FC, the team of choice in our house, played Bayer Leverkusen in a friendly so  we took the opportunity to go and watch.  Not only that but my husband got to fulfil a childhood dream of standing in the famous Kop to watch  (The Kop being the stand for dyed in the wool, serious fan) and my boys were over joyed too because this sort of devotion to a team appears to be genetic (who knew)  and they are as devoted as their father! In between footie and dog walking and ice cream it has been a real boy week.  Thankfully the weather has been OK and I have been able to play with the settings on my camera properly for the first time since I got it a year ago. 

Anyway, I might have found a way of redressing the balance and I am hoping to go to the Festival Quilts this weekend.  The NEC is on our way home so I might bail out and take my opportunity to have a look at some lovely quilts, oogle beautiful fabrics and stroke gorgeous threads.  I have never been before but apparently you need a weekend to see everything.  I won't be able to manage that but a few hours of stitchy magic and a bit of retail therapy should be a good reward for my selfless commitment to all things boy.  Perhaps I should make them all come with me? ..........On second thoughts a few hours peace might be worth having to get the train ride home instead of riding home in the car. Hopefully I will be able to share some of my photos with you in a few days.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.

Olympic Fever

This isn't really a crafty post but since my blog name is Passing the Time, I didn't think that it would be too out of place to post a few pictures of what we did with our time yesterday.

Now goodness knows I am not a sporty person.  My idea of exercise is walking to the local craft shop and wandering round a shopping centre.  However, once every 4 years even I get interested in sport for those 2 weeks in the summer when the Olympics is on.  That is doubly true this time around because it is in my home town, not far from where I was born.

5 years ago when London won the games Mr S and I decided that we would definitely try and go to something just to say we had been.  As I am sure you know, the ticketing was a bit a lottery but we applied for a few things, some of them for the less popular sports in the hope that we would get to go to something.  Sure enough, we have tickets.  Yay!!  And not just one set but tickets for fencing and rowing for all four of us.  Mr S also has a ticket for the centre court at Wimbledon and the male contingent of the family have tickets to the Olympic footie next week at Wembley.  All very exciting.

Anyway, our first outing was yesterday to the ExCeL Centre in London.  We had to get up early for a Sunday (an Olympic sized effort was required for that, let me tell you) and caught the train and then the Tube and the DLR to the Excel centre.

I'd never been to the Excel Centre before and it is massive.  Fencing wasn't the only sport going on there.

I have always liked the look of fencing but I didn't know much about it other that what I gleaned from films like The Three Muskateers. Basically, it is the first one to score 15 points and in the sabre the fencers can use the point or the side of the blade to make contact with any part of the body above the waist.  It is fast and furious and each point can be over in a flash.  It is all electronically scored with a referee to control the match which is just as well as I can't see how anybody could accurately award points without the aid of electronics.

There were 4 matches on at a time and we saw the last 64 (altough there were some byes in that so not as many matches as you would imagine), the last 32, the last 16 and the quarter finals.  We had tickets for the morning and the semis and the final were in the evening but we were home in time to watch them on the telly.

There was quite a bit of showmanship and it made me laugh that there would be this furious burst of activity for a few seconds and then the lights would come on and invariably both fencers would raise a hand and claim the point.  Sometimes, there was no point to claim but other times it was awarded to one or the other.  See what I mean about the electronics being necessary.  If the fencers don't even know who won the point it isn't easy to score the aid of wires and computers!

The eventual gold medalist, Aron Szilagyi from Hungary, is on the right of this picture, in the quarter finals I think.  

You know if I was 20 or even 10 years younger and a bit bit lighter on my feet (well lighter in every way really) I would love to have a go at this.  It looks a lot of fun and if you get the chance to watch or even have a go at fencing I recommend it.

After it was all over we went to see a few of the sights of London although it rained and spoilt it a bit but it did clear up enough for a quick walk across the river and an ice cream whilst admiring a few of the more famous sights.

Look at the colour of the sky!  We were dodging rain all afternoon.

We were walking back to Waterloo station and saw this on the side of the Hayward Gallery which wasn't what we expected to see on the side of the building.  Very clever although it makes you wander what they were running away from!

Tomorrow we are off to see the rowing at Eton Dorney which is an even earlier start than yesterday and we are sitting in a stand which is open to the elements when the forecast is for rain.  This could be pretty grim and I think an extra set of clothing might not go amiss.  If the rain holds off and we can see the rowing, it should be a good morning!

Thanks for reading.  I have some knitting on the go at the moment (although the WIP from Hell - see previous post - is still a WIP and I still haven't done anything with it).  Hopefully, I shall have a few photos of soft woolly things to show you.

I've not posted for a while but that is because all my crafting has been focussed on my City and Guilds course work and specifically my  household accessory homework.  It has proven to be a bit of a challenge <<understatement alert>>.  Right from the design phase, through to the sewing and construction bit it has been slow going.  I have finally got it sewn together but it was not quite what I expected when I started.  This is the top before I put the border on.

The theme was holidays so I wanted to do something that reflected the sea.  I decided that I wanted to do something that had graduated colour, from the pale colours of the beach, through the shallow sea by the shore to the dark greens and blues of the deep sea.  It took me ages to chose a technique to do this. I like the folded patchwork technique so I'd have a go but it was probably a mistake.  I ended up having to stick through layers and layers of fabric which my machine couldn't cope with initially until I found the heavy duty combo of needle and walking foot.  It was only after I had spent hours sewing and unpicking and had finally got it together that I realised that in the book I had been looking at for ideas, the folded squares weren't sewn together with a seam, the raw edges were butted up together and zig zagged together.  <<sob, sob>>  That would have made it so much easier.  However, I had the worlds most fray-able fabric so maybe it wouldn't have helped.

Anyway, the border is now on and I am about to do some quilting to keep the roll over folds stay down.  I have a lovely hand dyed quilting thread for that.  I will also quilt the border and put some beads at the corners of the squares to hide where they don't line up properly to add interest and keep the quilt, wadding and backing tied together. :-)

And when I have finished that I have to do some more knitted squares for MN Woolly Hugs.  I have desperate to have a go at some knitting but didn't think I ought to whilst this project was on the go but now I have a very good excuse.  Lots of ladies from Mumsnet, the parenting website, contribute towards making blankets for those who have lost children or partners before their time.  We hope that as we can't be there with them in RL we can at least contribute to sending a great big woolly hug.  These are some of the blankets that have been done in the past. http://www.woollyhugs.com/  Please feel free to have a look.  I haven't contributed to them all but I am really proud that I have been able to help out on some of these blankets over the past year or two.

So lots to do.  Better get on with it!

Thanks for reading.

WIPS and WIPS to be

I've not been around for a bit because one of my boys and I have been unwell.  Nothing major, just a virus but we have been living in a little bit of a bubble for the past week, cut off from the outside world and watching too much telly.  Consequently, not much has been going on, craftwise.

What this brief hiatus of viral annoyances has done is give me time to think about what I need to be doing with my various WIPS.  At the moment I have my first sewing assingnment to complete for my City and Guilds patchwork course and I also have loads of outstanding samples to do as well.  Not only that but we have a design assigment to do, due in 2 weeks time. The design bit is not my favourite so I am not looking forward to that one - I have never considered myself to be at all arty and the design modules tend take me out of my comfort zone.  I suppose broken down into parts it isn't too bad but until you get started the whole things seems really daunting.  I need to crack on though.

And then added to that I have volunteered to help make some thing for a craft stall at our church fete in 2 months time.  I am not sure what I am going to make or how I am going to fit it in around the course work at the moment.  I have loads of ideas but it seems to me that there is a fine line between not spending too much time and money on projects and not producing something of a decent enough quality that somebody other than your family would be interested in buying it!  People don't go to a  church fete as a big spending day out - they go to play games, win the raffle and pick up a few books at the second hand book stall, not part with £20 for a tea cosy.  On the other hand, you have produce things of a reasonable quality or nobody will want to buy them, whatever they cost.

Anyway, some of the things I have thought about doing are

- cushions
- tea cosies
- coasters
- purses for children
- bags
- mug cosies
- make-up bags
- mobile phone/MP3 pouches
- pencil cases
- bookmarks.

So, mainly small things that don't cost the earth . Mostly I will sew them but I might knit the mug cosies and maybe a cushion. If anybody else has any ideas on what goes down well at fetes could you let me know?! 

And just so that I can add the all important photo to brighten things up, have a look at what I bought a couple of weeks ago.  Isn't it gorgeous - all the colours of the rainbow.

It is solid colours and funnily enough, I found I also have some charm squares in exactly the same fabric selection - Kona Cotton Solids.  At least I am consistent in my tastes even if I have no idea what I have in my stash!.  I am really struggling to know what to do with it though as the colours are so lovely.  Not that I have time to tackle this yet but I'm working on it. 

Thanks for reading. x

Tempting Fate!

Well, another rainy bank holiday Monday (aren't they always) and what do you do on a rainy bank holiday round here?  That's right, you go shopping.  In an attempt to get out of the house the only place we could think of to go was Homebase - how sad is that?!  To be fair, my husband has to go out this evening to rehearse for his choral society's Titanic remembrance performance in Southampton (100 years since she set sail on her maiden and only voyage) so as a result we haven't really got a lot of time today to do anything else.  Anyway, Homebase was predictably busy but we still managed to order ourselves some garden furniture.  We have been looking at it for 3 years but we figured that we can't have yet another bad summer and this year was the year to splash out.  That was the optimistic me.  The pessimistic me says  I can now guarantee it will rain from now to September. <sigh>    Still, we need the rain.  I shouldn't complain really and even if we don't use it this year, the sun has to come out in the summer one day doesn't it?  Well doesn't it?!!!

It would be the ideal afternoon to do some crafting I suppose but I have a lot of cutting out to do and that isn't my favourite bit.  I am a bit of a wimp.  I know the rule is measure twice, cut once but I need to measure 4 or 5 times to be on the safe side.  It seems the harder I try to get it right the more likely it is that I make a mistake.  My course work is mounting up so I have to get on with it soon.

We have been doing a lot of hand sewing on my patchwork and quilting course recently.  The last thing we did, before we started the Easter school holidays was non-traditional hand quilting, a sort of mix between hand quilting and embroidery since a lot of the stitches are embroidery stitches.   It is quite relaxing.  This is my almost finished piece.

Actually I hadn't realised until now that this is not the finished article.  This does not include some additional couching and the extra tassells I put on a few days ago.  Maybe I will add some more photos later.  I had to use as many techniques as possible including filler stitches like these seeding stitches.

And some couching like this ribbon and the edge of the flower shape.  We also had to add some tassells. 





Apart from the fact the fabric is horrible I quite like it.  There was no pattern to follow - it just took on a life of its own.  The fabric was one I dyed for the course by the way.  I would never have bought it.  And in case you were wondering it isn't an accident.  This is the colour it was meant to be.  Yuck.

Apart of this, I have had a little burst of crochet too.  For quite a while I have a granny stripes blanket slowly, slowly growing.  I hadn't touched it for months but I did a few rows the other night.  This is it.

No fancy yarn.  Just Stylecraft Special DK which is very nice to work with I have to say and despite it being left over the back of the sofa for ages, shows no sign of bobbling that some people seem to think is automatic with an acrylic. I like it so much here is another photo!

It is quite big but not big enough yet.  I wonder how long it will take in the end..........?

Right, this post has taken me a few hours to do as I keep being interrupted by life and boys.  It is still raining. We have another week of school holidays left here.  I wonder if it will stop before the boys go back to school?!

Now where is all this cold weather?

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and not finding everything just a little bit flat after the holidays.

The New Year hasn't brought much of a change in the weather it seems. After 4 years of bitterly cold winters, at least for some of the time, it comes as a bit of a shock to the system that this one has been so mild in the run up to Christmas and remains mild now, as we head towards the middle of January.  I'm all geared up for proper cold weather and it hasn't come.

So bearing mind this mild weather, what have I done this week?  Made a new chunky hat of course!   I think I mentioned it in an earlier post that I bought this lovely Malabrigo yarn at the Knit and Stitch show at Alexandra Palace, back in October. 

This is me wearing it. I just love the colour - one of my favourites

It took me a while to track down a pattern. It would have been easy to go to the Local Yarn Store(LYS) and buy a pattern but I have so many books and magazines, and access to Ravelry that I didn't want to do that. Surely it couldn't be that easy to find?! Wrong,  I couldn't find a pattern for that yarn, then I couldn't find one for the substitute that didn't need more than I had, or I just didn't like the pattern - too simple/ too fussy.  I am obviously hard to please. 

In the end I adapted a baby pattern from a book I have.  The hat was to fit a 16" head which required a cast on of 48 stitches.  I ended up scaling it up to 72 stitches to fit my rather large 24" head!  I had to add a set of patterns and then I also did 6 knit rounds that weren't in the pattern and because there were more stitches there were more decrease rows (I rather like the effect on the top).

I must admit I had to do quite a bit of frogging.  Having no pattern to work to I had to guess how many rows I needed and then I had to guess whether I had enough yarn to finish the job.  I think I got almost to the end of the decrease 3 times before I finally finished it, just because I had so much yarn left it seemed a shame to waste it and the hat, although a beany and meant to be snug fitting, was just a bit too short for me, so I  ripped it back and added some more rows.  I probably should have tried to work it  out properly and not guess but it seemed like harder work than knitting it so I didn't bother.  I am not even sure that I could have!

Anyway, I am very pleased with the finished article.  It is very warm and cosy, not to mention very soft and luxurious.

Now where is that cold weather so that I can actually get some use out of it?!