Category: patchwork

Quilting time

You might remember this that began in June. It’s taken five months to put it together, in between other things, but it’s now one complete square, about 37″ or so.

removing the basting stitches – always the best job

I hadn’t originally envisaged ‘proper quilting’ it – as in backing, batting, and top, but somehow that just happened. Normally I would just have used a top and a backing. My batting of choice is Hobbs Heirloom wool, which is lightweight and very easy to quilt; I’ve never got on well with the cotton or polyester battings. The backing is cream cotton calico.

making a start

It’s very pale, and very neutral, and I’m currently undecided about whether that’s a good thing or a dull thing. It’s definitely quiet, and I like quiet. And it’s winter, which is a good time for quilts and quiet.

The circular outline (couched, black and cream silk bourette yarn) is a little thin, and the quilting so far is probably a little small.

silk bourette circular outline

But it’s a start. For now, it will rest on the chair while I look at it a bit more.

Gutermann cotton 12 thread

My problem generally, and this applies to painting as well as textile art, is that I usually like backgrounds as they are. I often have trouble adding the requisite focal point because I don’t want to obscure the background.

This little quilt has some really interesting patches, some of them made from layering sheer fabric over another, like this tea-dyed silk with a layer of dress net over the top:

layered patch, silk and net

And this vintage cotton with textured nylon chiffon over the top:

layered patch, cotton and spotted chiffon

I don’t want the quilting to trample all over the piecing and the more interesting patches, but I do need to quilt all the layers together securely. I may try tying the layers here and there. I think it just needs to sit on the chair for a bit while it thinks about what it needs (don’t we all!)

The sketchbook I’m plotting this (and others) in is an A4 landscape-format book, one of my favourite layouts.

Remember sketchbook

Everything in this sketchbook is about remembering, recollecting, and forgetting. There are spots of time, there are ghosts (from time past), there are attempts to turn something intangible and unfathomable into something visual and tactile. There are shadows from time past, and there is the light of time present.

sketchbook page

The thinking and the testing is all part of the finished thing.

sketchbook page

Today I will be mostly looking at a small quilt as it rests on a chair. And yes, I call that work now. It’s ridiculous really.

Creative English Paper-Piecing

After weeks and weeks of work, play, and production, I think my new course on English paper-pieced patchwork is about ready to be let loose.

new Teachable course

There’s a free preview, so make sure you watch that before committing – just so you know what you’re letting yourself in for.

Mostly what you’re letting yourself in for is me trying (and occasionally failing) to keep my hands in shot where you can see them. I think it’s probably – mostly – good enough though.

Many people think English paper-piecing is hexagons. Not the way I do it. In fact there are no hexagons here, apart from a few accidental or antique ones.

So, what do we cover in this course?

We start with English paper piecing (EPP) for absolute beginners, where you get to make a little box like this out of simple squares:

patchwork box, 3″ x 1.5″

Then we make a paper-piecing sampler where you can practise piecing triangles, curves, and irregular shapes:

EPP sampler

We get creative with fabrics and paper:

getting creative

And we do some colourful sketchbook work:

sketchbook page

Before you know it, you’ll be branching out unaided and doing your own thing.

patchwork circles

And as if all that wasn’t enough, we do a (pretty brisk) overview of making a patchwork cover for your sketchbook, we have a whistle-stop look at how quilt-as-you-go works, and we see how to turn a pretty square of patchwork into this:

little hanging bag

Do I sound as if I’ve recently taken a course on Basic Marketing for the Self-Employed? I promise you I haven’t. But here’s the thing about being self-employed. You have to do All The Jobs, including all the marketing and self-promotion, which is my least favourite thing. My second least favourite thing, by the way, is video-editing – as you’ll see if you embark on the course. It’s all very informal, as usual.

OK, enough self-promotion and advertising.

In other news, I’m now setting about trying to restock the shop somewhat as all the fabrics are sold out. More on that later.

hand-dyed fabric packs coming soon

In the meantime did I mention that I have a new course out…?

😎

Piecing it together

Everything patchwork here this week. A little sketchbook cover, with one of Jude’s moons finding a home:

sketchbook cover, 6″ x 5″

You can see that I’ve couched a thicker thread (silk perle 3) over some of the seams, just to define some of the lines.

couching in the ditch

The little book of patchwork, I’m calling it. Somewhere to collect and join fragments of thought.

patchwork objects
sketchbook page

Inspiration comes from unlikely places. This outdoor paving kit from The Range translates perfectly:

pavement patchwork

I’ve dug out these fragments of late Victorian patchwork, just to look and to touch the antique papers.

Victorian patchwork, impossibly tiny stitches

This week I’m putting a patchwork sampler together, just to see how that might work. At some point there will be a (hexagon-free) paper-piecing patchwork course. Nothing wrong with hexagons, but paper piecing is much more than granny’s flower garden.

paper-piecing sampler in progress

Looking at, and thinking through.

hand-dyed silk organza patchwork 6″ square

Playing Tetris with Time

There’s a lot going on here. Lots of beginnings but, as always, nowhere near enough time for the middles and the ends.

I’ve rounded up (squared up) some neutral and tea-dyed scraps for patchwork pieces, which will be a quilt eventually. (Cream pieces on a cream rug – someone tell the photographer the artist could have made this easier. Oh hang on, that’s me. And me.)

patchwork jigsaw puzzle

Patchwork, for me, is always about finding or defining connections. Puzzling things out, making sense of things, piecing things together from a few clues. The joining of fragments, little flashes from the past, collecting memories into one place. Because we are our memories, to a certain extent. When we lose the ability to remember, our sense of self feels less secure because the thread that holds us between past and present is broken. We end up losing ourselves along with the unremembered experiences. I think of patchwork as a kind of holding together.

patchwork in progress

I like to piece patchwork in the evenings while watching TV or listening to music. Nice relaxing thing to do.

And that would be fine, except there’s already a nice relaxing evening job in progress. I either have to finish that before I can get to the patchwork, or I have to put that down (again) to work on the piecing.

If you’ve been with me a while, you might recall the beginnings of A Long Life, which has become the current evening project. I started it a couple of years ago and have been picking it up and putting it down ever since.

A Long Life

It’s about six inches wide, and when it’s finished will contain 30,000 stitches. I have no idea how long it is – I won’t measure it until it’s done – but I do know that currently it carries 18,788 stitches. Yes, I count them as I go along.

A Long Life

I change colour for every decade (every 3,500 stitches or so) and change thread for the start of each new year. Factoring in leap years, when it’s had its thirty-thousandth stitch, it will represent the number of days in the life of someone who is just over 82. I have no idea why I’m doing this.

details from A Long Life
A Long Life rolled up

On top of that I have a couple of other possible big projects whirring away in the background, one of which might be a new online course on zero-waste stitching (aka Using All the Scraps).

Definitely playing a game of Tetris with time here. Move one thing up to make room for another thing, and so on more or less indefinitely. Good job I like to be busy.

busy

Aprons one and two

My plain white linen/cotton apron is now structurally complete, sewn entirely by hand, and I’m very happy with it:

Janet Clare artisan apron

The top stitching took a while but it looks OK I think:

top stitching by hand

Difficult to get a sense of scale from the photo but the stitches are just under 1/8th of an inch. I’ll be working some kind of embroidery on it when it knows what it wants to be, so the top stitching will be less obvious when there’s some decoration in place. It’s definitely a blank canvas at the moment.

I’m very impressed by the pattern and the way the pieces fit together so perfectly. The fit is pretty true to size too. I’m a UK size 8-10 and I made the Small, which fits really well. I trimmed about half an inch from the centre front as my shoulders are quite narrow, and I made it a tiny bit longer.

The second apron (same pattern) is now under construction, pieced fairly randomly from hand-dyed cotton and linen fabrics.

Apron 2

I’ve used a couple of hand-printed fabrics on the front; this one was from Hippos in Hats on Etsy and I’ve been saving it for just such an occasion as this:

printed fabric from Hippos in Hats

…and with the hand stitched outline completed (it’s just straight stitch with cotton thread over the printed outline):

stitching over hand print

I’ve also used a couple of eco-prints from Jane Hunter, to which I’ve added a bit of very simple embroidery with colonial knots and straight stitch:

simple stitching over eco-print

As before, I’m stitching all the seams by hand:

side seam showing notches for pocket placement

The lining for this one is very lightweight calico which I dyed a while ago. I wasn’t keen on the way the grey/red turned out, but it will do just fine as a lining. There wasn’t quite enough so I’ve added pieces of the same fabric in turquoise/brown:

lightweight calico lining, hand dyed with Procion

I accidentally dropped this earthy orange scrap onto the apron after stitching the front and sides together. I really like the splash of colour against that green and magenta/purple, so I’ll find a way to add it somewhere.

that orange though!

Looking forward to seeing this one done.

Plain sewing

From the opening page of the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese de Dillmont (my copy is undated but it’s the revised and enlarged edition, probably early 20th century):

“Many people, upon opening the Encyclopedia of Needlework, will be disposed to exclaim* as they read the title of this chapter: What is the use of all this information about hand-sewing now that machine-stitching has so nearly superseded work done by hand? We hasten to reply that, among the many accomplishments of women, there is none in which it is of such importance to be thoroughly grounded as in plain sewing properly so called which is, indeed, the foundation of all other needlecraft.”

* what a delightful phrase ‘disposed to exclaim’ is. I shall use it at my next available opportunity.

Plain sewing is what in the nineteenth century was ‘functional’ sewing – the making of clothes and household linens, and mending – before sewing machines were routinely available. The reason for the lengthy quotation from the venerable Mme de Dillmont is that work has begun on my Janet Clare Artisan Apron.

Since having the pattern in my eager little hands I knew I was going to sew the whole thing by hand, just for the challenge and enjoyment of it. I also knew I was going to make two: one clean white one for stitching on, and one colourful messy one to wear while painting and dyeing.

And I’ve been enjoying some plain sewing for a change.

hand-stitched dart

For the plain white version I’m using a cotton/linen blend, cut from an old bed sheet. The lining is a modern lightweight cotton, like lawn but a slightly closer weave.

top stitching the pockets

For the construction I’m using standard white cotton sewing thread (mine happens to be Coats) and for the top stitching I’m working running stitch with a slightly heavier fine cotton. If you’re familiar with the threads that I dye and sell in my shop, it’s the undyed version of the fine cotton thread.

I’m following the instructions carefully and pressing those seams:

carefully pressed top stitching

I’m at the stage with the white version where I’m currently sewing the apron and lining together:

apron and lining

The second apron, I confess, is more fun. I’m modelling the design on something like this dressing gown, made many years ago. I like the randomness of the colours and patches.

foundation-pieced robe

The apron front will be something like this:

fabrics for apron front

And the backs are yet to be assembled from this pile of deliciousness:

heap of hand-dyed fabrics

After the prolonged complexities of our very stressful house move, plus the non-stop activities of unpacking and decorating, some gentle quiet repetitive sewing is proving to be just the restorative activity I need right now.

Green

Probably my favourite colour, which is just as well because this is all very green indeed. Curiously, my camera doesn’t seem to like it and refuses to accurately render the colours. I can only say it’s much nicer in real life. Textiles are notoriously difficult to photograph in any case because of the way they hold and reflect light.

I’m starting to add some hedgerows between the fields, with silk boucle and various textured yarns. Just couching along the seams. I tried a few colonial and French knots but had to unpick most of them. You wouldn’t see that much detail from that high up, I don’t think.

As usual, simpler is better, and the textured yarns seem to be holding the lines ok on their own.

box of luscious textures with Valdani perle 12 threads

I’ve layered the patchwork over a piece of brushed cotton (cotton flannel) and backed it with an old hand-dyed cotton tablecloth, with the outer edges turned in over the mid layer so that the irregular edges of the patchwork will sit on the surface. Technically it’s a quilt, having three layers, but the brushed cotton is less dimensional than wadding (batting).

on the edge

I’m finding it difficult to get myself motivated at present, with the house move looming (though we still have no dates yet), so stitching hedgerows is quite a nice soothing activity for these uncertain days.

patchwork fields

Piecing

Not quite a square yard – it’s about 32″ x 34″, and all pieced together now. Some people think English paper piecing is too fiddly and takes too long, but I find it fairly quick and very enjoyable. I’m already thinking about a bigger, bed-sized version.

slightly blurry picture, but you get the idea

All the curves went together just fine, after I added the balance lines.

look at that lovely curve

The best part of English paper pieced patchwork is removing the tacking thread and papers, when all the piecing is complete. The cloth starts to relax, and you can see what you’re working with.

some of the tacking and papers removed

Much nicer to handle, and the colours seem to come alive more.

A few more to go, then I need to think about how to back it, line it, or quilt it. Haven’t decided where it’s going yet. There will probably be textured yarns couched along some of the boundaries and of course some stitch here and there. Maybe even some tiny sheep.

some tacking still in, some already out

Initially this was going to be a PDF pattern but I think it might be a bit too complicated for that. There is quite a lot of tweaking and easing, to get the curves to lie correctly and line up the balance marks, which is easier to do than to explain. Maybe a PDF for the intrepid.

And, incidentally, there is thread in the shop.

delicious

I anticipate that this may well be the last thread update before Christmas, as our house move may or may not happen before then. Everything is still very up-in-the-air at this point. Good job I have the patchwork to keep me grounded.

Balancing curves

You might recall the patchwork I started last month, using my proposed 2024 stitch journal template to piece together an aerial map of fields:

false start

I got so far with it and then hit a slight problem: having pieced two A4 sized blocks together, it became clear that none of the next A4 blocks were going to fit properly. My mistake entirely – a couple of mistakes, actually, and schoolboy errors at that. I had failed to read the plan before stitching, so mis-aligned the outer edges, and I hadn’t marked balance lines on the template for accurately joining the curves.

It was less work to start again than to unpick, so I’ll use my false start as a practice piece and then will probably turn it into a sketchbook cover, so nothing is wasted.

So for attempt no. 2, I added balance lines to the template.

balance lines (in red) for piecing curves

Piecing curves is tricksy and has to be accurate, particularly when a lot of separate pieces are involved. You can see how this works:

balance lines in action (in blue/red)

It’s just an extra insurance for making sure everything is going to fit correctly later on. If the balance marks don’t join up on either side of the seam, then you know you’ve gone a bit wrong.

curves fitting nicely

The second thing I’ve done differently this time is piece the thing in irregular sections rather than A4-sized blocks, and it seems to be working better.

sections completed

I’ll wait until each section is finished before joining them all together.

fitted but not joined

It’s probably about half done, and is continuing to come together quite nicely. At this stage it’s still very portable so is an easy and relaxing thing to work on in the evenings.

box of tricks

I only roughly planned the colours (as in all of the M section will be greens and golds, the A section was greys and browns etc) so it’s a nice surprise to find out what ends up sitting next to each other. Keeps it interesting. And I always think patchwork is a kind of piecing together of life’s problems too, and finding a solution in the whole. Art, stitch and therapy all at the same time. What’s not to like?

Making connections

I’ve been having a go at designing next year’s stitch journal template. A bit early to be thinking about that, I know, but the way this year is speeding by I thought it best to make a start.

It will be slightly different from the last two years, in that next year’s daily stitching will be a big square (ish) rather than a long strip. I’ve designed it across twelve pieces of A4 paper that all have to fit together to make the whole thing, so it’s a reasonably complex task that is still very much in progress. I’m imagining that it’s a map of the coming year, in the form of an aerial view of fields.

I *think* it will work. I have yet to print it, to try cutting and re-assembling the separate pieces for myself, but once I’ve done that I’ll aim to make the template available before the end of the year.

As I was looking at all twelve pages glued together to make the 36″ square, I found myself imagining how it would look in fabric as patchwork.

These things often start out as idle wonderings but sometimes they gather momentum while you’re looking the other way and before you know it, you’re cutting out tiny bits of green fabric and the thing has begun.

patchwork shapes

The thing about English paper piecing (piecing fabric over paper) is that you can do it with any tessellating shapes, however irregular they might be, and I had a whole tableful of tessellating shapes waiting to be something.

I took a photo of the master template and added colour on Procreate, a digital drawing app. I envisage this as fields through the seasons, so the outer edges will be greys and browns, while the central area will be more vibrant greens and golds. That’s the plan so far, but the best thing to know about plans is that they can change completely at any moment.

patchwork in progress

I used to do a lot of patchwork, and it’s still one of my favourite things. I love the way it holds the connections between fabrics, time, and memory. I can identify every fabric here as the old friend each of them is – some from clothes that wore out; some from an old bed sheet that became a dust sheet and was later torn up and dyed; some vintage fabrics, found and dyed.

birdie is slightly startled by the sudden change of plan
progress so far, about one-sixth of the whole

What started out as a map for next year has gone sideways into a whole new adventure.

It will still be a stitch journal template as well, but what fun to make two different things out of the same design.