Hazel

Lol! Fear not, no Pompeiian Soothsayer I. I rang to check up on the status of my Husqi 1 as I had heard nothing, and lo, she needs a part that is expected to arrive Mon/Tues. Is that all right?, he says to me. I laughed and replied that it'll have to be.

Another week of Husqilessness. *whimper*

I braved the glacial wind anyway --t'was sunny-- and returned seiz-mé with, amongst other things, a pack of 12 silicone star-shaped muffin moulds. Funky, or what? Star shaped muffins, here we come!

I made these tasty little treats from a foodie blog I follow. They're filo pastry with a layer of chocolate painted inside and a piped mousse filling comprising 'Nutella' and double cream whipped together topped with a toasted hazelnut. Mmm, nom, nom, nom.

The recipe can be found here

Sod's Law in action.
I have no sewing machine for the next week, thus I am commissioned to make a wallhanging. Ah ça!!

Also, we haz sno! A mere dusting but it has 'dusted' us off and on during the morning.

'Instant Sunshine'.
Machine pieced and hand quilted. 16" by 40"
Fabric: Moda's Party Paisley charm pack with a little extra yardage for feature fabric/backing, and binding.
Quilting thread: 16/2 Oliver Twists 'over the top'. Colour: sunset.

Full view


( 3 more images and a bit of waffle )

'Instant Sunshine' is bound off and finished. Go me! Picspam would have occurred but for the lack of natural daylight--today was so misty/drizzly that indoor photography of quiltiness would have been pointless.

Now I'm hand quilting the square tablemat that goes with this wallhanging/runner. Or maybe not much more tonight. Sore fngrs; I haz dem! A bi!

*grins*

to wind up the moon, or, bits and pieces I'd forgotten about until I got the camera out.

This is a small hex mat that goes with the 'Winter' wallhanging. 4.25" on a side.


The current hand quilting WIP: 'Instant Sunshine'. In the same layout as 'Winter', the quilting on this one is my own hand drawn design based on the solar designs of the North American native peoples, to reflect the title.


I'm still going with the second Blue Frog sock. The last couple of days, Mike has been in my head a lot and so I spent a good deal of time profiling his character, deciding who he was, who he's becoming and what influences have made him so. Beside the profiling, I managed nearly 1K words on a couple of scenes (one of which was promisingly naughty!) and unearthed a bit more plot to go with the previous 700+ words I'd outlined previously. *iz happi*

I admit to a fascination with the bias interlace technique ever since a visit to a quilt shop where I saw a beautiful little wallhanging that featured rainbow bias, and another of my favourite things; a seahorse. Sadly, for me anyway, this little piece had been made during a workshop and the shop owner had no pattern for it. I didn't have my camera to capture it, the quilt shop has gone and so the detail fades in my memory, although I think of it regularly.

There is a fabulous example of bias interlace in the Dec/Jan 09 Quilters Newsletter. Rosa Gallica by Janine Merrill. Beautiful and intricate, the centre of the design reminds me of the quatrefoil hearts of old-fashioned roses. You know, the ones that actually smell like roses. :) That set me off thinking about having a go at this technique again.

I've been toying with ideas for my first piece of bias interlace for a while now, off and on. Among these ideas were the triple hare in the moon, an old symbol I spotted most recently on the cover artwork of the AFI cd decemberunderground.

Never having tried the technique, I thought I should start with something easier than a complex twisty turny thing that's twistier than a twisty turny thing surfing a corkscrew. ;) So, following the design principles in my interlace/celtic knot books, I'm going to draw my own and have a go with the roll of narrow bias I bought the other day.

Right after I decide how to mark up Spring Madness, and how I should quilt Instant Sunshine and the little mat that goes with it, and cut some more middle squares for the batik Economy blocks, and finish the hanging sleeve on Bliu Brîn D’Né, and, and...

Away and get buzzing, then! À bi!

Today I pieced a simple wallhanging for over the sitting room mantle; squares from my collection of snowflake fabrics and some co-ordinating tonals embellished with snowflakes cut and fused from a white-on-white fabric. For the snowflakes, I cut fine tissue snowflakes first and used these as a template for the fuseable.

I know that pictures would be worth a thousand words at this point, but I don't have any. What can I say? It's late and I'm tired. If the light is better tomorrow, picspam will be forthcoming.

I even got it layered and started the ditch quilting but got, meh... tired.

And that's me for now. Nighty-night!

The first in a series of 4 of my own original designs.

'Drifting: winter'


Of course, now that it's finished, I realise that the colours are wrong. The background should be pinky-greys; the colour of the sky when it snows. However, it was random chance that prompted the colours; I had these tonals laid out for something else and the icy blue that makes the snowflakes dropped onto them. I liked the way it looked and my brain instantly said 'snowflakes!' and thus the idea started.

I have planned 'Drifting: spring, Drifting: summer, and Drifting: autumn' and am drawing fabrics together for them.

A quick make. A small kaleidoscope hex mat. Why, yes, those are my fingers. : ) (Purely for scale purposes, bein suex...)