Happy New Year!

 

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to write more often in the blog in 2015! 

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!  

Oranges and Lemons and a lot more!

I am doing a six week course at the Sewing Studio, Redruth in September. The above are two of the blocks we will be doing. Also are plums, apples, pears, cherries and strawberries. The whole thing is a fruit quilt with the fruits appliqued onto each block and embellished with fabric pens and machine stitching. I had great fun making the blocks and thinking of the designs. Now I have to find some time to put it all together so that I can put it up in the shop as a sample for the class! 

Still got a bit of a cold. It has really hung on but at least the weather is a bit cooler. Hopefully I will be completely well by the time of the NEC. After all our hard work I want it to be perfect! I'm really looking forward to it but am finding that the show management makes one jump through several hoops! Less than three weeks to go! 

Getting up steam for the NEC Festival of Quilts!

I've been busy making up kits for the Crazy Patchwork Pouch bag. The small bag is a lot more roomy than it looks and holds a surprising amount of stuff! There is an inside pocket - I like pockets in bags - and the whole thing fastens with a button at the front! 

Graeme had a good day dyeing. Lots of navy and jade green plus a piece of cotton sateen for me in multi colours. This is a new venture and I wanted to see how this fabric dyes. Well I think it has dyed very well and I look forward to using it!

Lovely weather equals no work being done!

 My abandonned workroom! Half finished bags waiting to be sewn and fabric waiting to be cut out to make more bags! At least Graeme has been busy dyeing! In the picture above a selection of multi dyed half metres of cotton in lovely flowery patterns and below a selection of greens. I will be back to work tomorrow regardless of the weather as I have to have these bags finished for the show on Monday!

On Monday we are going to be at Stithians Show. I am judging in the craft tent and Graeme will be manning our stand in the craft marquee. If the weather is as hot as it is at the moment then it will be sweltering in the tents! Water and fans will be the order of the day!  This is a lovely show and I am looking forward to it. We did really well last year and I have great hopes for this year. We go up on the Sunday to set up and stay over night on the field in our mobile home. It's just a one day show but loads to see as it is only second to the Royal Cornwall show as agricultural shows go! Well in my opinion anyway. Come and say hallo if you are there!

Crazy Patchwork!

Had a fantastic class today at the Sewing Studio in Redruth with some really good students. They produced some amazing work and no two pieces were at all similar! We all had a really fun time! I managed to get a block pieced and a couple already started got a few embellishments added as I was demonstrating. I am going to take all these unfinished blocks away with me when I go to Scotland and try and get some of them, if not all, finished! I do find crazy patchwork very therapeutic! Makes a change from making little bags! :-) 

I had some pieces of silk ribbon embroidery so I used one in this block. It will encourage me to do more as the block looks started! :-) 

New projects

My next project is going to be making wardrobe tidies. The picture above is one I made a few years ago. I made them as presents one year and they went down really well so I think I may make a few more, this time to sell. I really enjoyed doing the silk ribbon embroidery on the top of the tidy. I used silk fabric for the main body. 

 

off to Malvern!

We are off to Malvern in the morning. At the moment it is pouring with rain, blowing a hoolie and bitterly cold. We are trying to pack the van which is not fun! And now the computer won't work! Is it an omen! I hope not!

So far my Farne Designs facebook page is proving fairly successful! I am having to make a conscious effort to update it regularly. Something I'm not good at!

I have been putting together more crazy patchwork blocks so that I have pieces to work on while we are at shows. It gives me something to do and people always stop and ask what I'm doing and it starts some interesting 
conversations too. 

 













I have several done now and when they are all embellished I shall make them into a quilt. The overall size will determine whether they have sashing between them or not.








  

Facebook!

I have finally bitten the bullet and set up a page on Facebook for the business. The address is www.facebook.com/FarneDesigns Do go and have a look. I need to get 30 likes so that I can get something called insights. I don't know what this is but it sounds useful so if you like what you see tick the like box! Thank you! 

Tomorrow I have a silk ribbon class. I am going to be doing basic silk ribbon stitches such as this twisted ribbon flower. 

  












The stem is done in wrapped stem stitch which gives quite a thick, positive line. The leaves are single chain stitches.

Getting ready for Malvern!

We had a great time at Exeter quilt show and sold out of so much stuff that we have been busy every since. I did classes in making wired ribbon flowers there and they were really popular! So I decided to do a kit of the stripey bag I'd used as a background for the flowers and also include ribbon for making an attached flower. I'm hoping they will go well! I have done several colours and it was great fun choosing the various fabrics. They are very individual with only two or three in the same colours. 

I am going to bite the bullet and make a Facebook page for the business. I've been thinking about it for ages but been put off by the work involved. I will have to be much better at keeping it updated regularly! But we are doing the NEC this year and I think it will be good advertising! 

It was our second wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and we took the van and went to Looe for the weekend. The weather was lovely and we had a longish walk to Seaton. It was distressing to see the dead sea birds but obviously not as many as there had been. Also due to the cliff falls much of the cliff pathway was closed. We even saw a fish in a small stream running into the sea! 

I'm looking forward to going to Malvern as I think it is my favourite show of the year. We are able to camp on site and usually the weather is good so fingers crossed! And it's good to meet up with old friends. So see you there!  

Having a Tidy Up!

 Whenever I change my workroom around I can never find anything! The top picture is how my work room used to look and the bottom two are how it is now! It is a lot more organised but I can't find anything! I need some scrim and I know I have some in several colours including white but it is anyone's guess as to which drawer it has gone into. I love my Ikea cupboards under the worktops with see through drawers but so much stuff is piled into them that it still isn't obvious as to what is in them. Some I labelled! How did I get to be so organised but others I didn't! 

 












The things that are on the shelves are all very clearly labelled and easy to access as are the books which I have in subject order! This is so useful! Graeme made a large padded board for ironing on which is on one of the worktops and the other worktop has cutting boards on so while he is ironing freshly dyed fabric I can be cutting out and sewing.



























If I hadn't got sidetracked looking for scrim I was going to get on and finish this small wall hanging or throw! I wanted to do a piece to showcase the 9 patch block and this seemed an ideal scene. Everything is sewn or attached and I just need to do some free machining to add detail. I do have several UFO's and I am determined to finish them this side of the summer! Hope springs eternal! 

Where does the time go to?

We have just come back from doing a show in Exeter and it was jolly cold. The show was good though and I added to my fabric stash. You would think with all the fabric I have that I wouldn't need any more but I am a sucker for Kona Bay fabric!

We did very well and now have to dye lots more fabric and make more packs ready for Malvern next month. I have several UFO's that I want to finish as well so a busy time is ahead of me.

Finally made a pattern with instructions for the crazy patchwork waistcoat and it proved very popular. I have now made several of these waistcoats and they are so easy to make and put together. 

Had classes at the Exeter show in wired ribbon flowers and they went very well. I made some decorative pieces which could be pinned to a bag or with the addition of a brooch pin they would look good on a lapel. 


This is a little bag I've been making to use up scraps of fabric. It looked really good with the addition of a flower!

 

Another couple of flowers to match the bag! 

 Different flowers; the one with the silver beads is a brooch.

  I'm doing classes on these again at Malvern  which will be good!  They are fun to do and very quick! 

I'm going to make some more of the little bags as they are done in just over an hour from start to finish!

 

Making Runners!

      












I've been making table or end of bed runners using a bundle (6 x FQ) of light to dark fabrics plus a half metre (60" long) for the backing. They are so quick to do and so effective. 

Because I wanted to do a pattern for them I asked a friend to try it out to make sure it made sense and the two below are the ones she did. She even used a Rainbow bundle to get the same effect but in a variety of colours. 


























It is a lovely sunny day today though icy cold! We are off to Exeter for the Spring Quilt show on Thursday so I am hoping the weather will remain dry and perhaps a tad warmer. We will be staying in the motor home so need it to be warm! The gas is good but we haven't tried it yet in icy conditions!

I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones. See you there! 

Time passes!

Suddenly it's nearly the end of January! Where does the time go? We weren't able to go to the show at Ardingly due to the turbo on the van breaking down. I'm not sure what this actually is but I do know it's going to cost a lot of money to make better! Ah well with all the snow across the country we were probably meant to stay here!  We even had some snow ourselves on Monday! It lasted all of four hours! At least I was able to get to work which I am enjoying immensely. This is my new part time job at the Sewing Studio in Redruth. I work on Mondays and Tuesdays and it's great!

We have been dyeing more rainbow bundles and they have been going like hot cakes. The bundle consists of 6 x FQ's of a set of colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. We have done lights, brights and muted using different primary colours. I shall be adding them to the website and they will retail at £15.00.

 


The above shows the muted and light bundles.



I have a lovely fire, some crumpets and a good book so I am going to toast crumpets and read! What could be better on a chilly January late afternoon!

Happy New Year!

Somehow Christmas and the New Year have passed me by almost unnoticed! It was a quiet Christmas but good and then suddenly it is now nearly a week into 2013. Where has all that time gone? 

Before Christmas we, that is Farne Designs, had a great article on the business in Patchwork and Quilting with lots of lovely pictures. Graeme and I were really pleased and we loved having Judi Mendelssohn visit us! We are hoping for great things! And a good plug for the Sewing Studio in Redruth too. I am going to be working there from next week for two and a half days a week. I'm really looking forward to it!

I have been doing some dyeing which is a real treat as most of the dyeing lately has been done by Graeme who has taken to it like a duck to water, leaving me to do the sewing! I have been dyeing rainbow colour runs. One set have been brights and the second set has been lights. I'm really pleased with them!

Classes start again this coming Wednesday and I have been sorting out new block patterns for the irregular sampler quilt we are making. It is a quilt as you go piece and I have a lot of catching up to do! So tomorrow I think I will be chained to the sewing machine! 

 

As well as using our own hand-dyed fabrics I have also used some of my precious Kona Bay fabrics. I really love these Japanese patterns. The blocks look really simple the secret is in getting perfect points! 

My son got married last November and for Christmas I made him and his new wife Mel a memory quilt using photos I'd taken at the wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed making it and they were delighted with it! 

Not the best photos I'm afraid! I used some of the Kona Bay fabric in this as well because the wedding favours on the table at the reception contained coin charms and similar things and my son is enthralled by all things Japanese! It was a lovely wedding!