Firstly, sorry it’s been so long, life has sort taken over a little with new houses and just general manic-ness!
But here I am and there is lots to catch you up on my first and second attempt at lampshade making and a challenge quilt competed for my quilting group challenge.
In October, I had the opportunity to attend another Hometown course, this time ‘luscious lampshades’. The class arrived and set about choosing their fabric, without a doubt the hardest bit! (Well maybe 2nd, I’ll come to that in a minute!)
I choose some fabric that had bright tea cups and pots all over for my sewing room, I love this fabric! Then we settled down to the task at hand. The course was just over 2 hours with tea in between 🙂 but it was plenty of time for everyone to make and finish their shades.
As you can see they are all completely different and unique. So what was the hardest bit for me, well this task involves sticky tape! You can imagine what happened!
I loved it so much, I made a second smaller lamp for my mother-in-law’s birthday, again it just shows you the endless possibilities.
So now, on to the second project I have completed since we last spoke. As you know I joined a quilting group this year and every year they set a challenge for its members. The previous winner selects the challenge criteria, which this year was ‘stitches in time’ the quilt could be no more than 25inches wide and long and needed to contain 25% recycled fabric.
Getting my creative hat on I decided that I would focus on children stories with a theme of time. Stitches in Storytime. Originally I came up with 4 panels , Alice in Wonderland, Secret Garden, Cinderella and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. (I had a little help from my friends on Facebook to come up with the list)
Then I found out we were moving house so thought I ought to stick to two panels which I might actually complete in time! So my final piece centred on The Secret Garden and The lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. I used all fabric from previous projects and added a button embellishment to each one. I loved making it and it was my first step into something vaguely artistic!
The group came up with lots of different ideas with some interpreting memories, others representations of time such as clocks and my friend did Operation the game with various medical stitches through time. The winner did a memory piece using her daughter’s christening gown that she wanted to preserve as it was falling apart.
It was really enjoyable and I would love to take part again next year.
Well that’s all for now, but hopefully next time I won’t leave it so long! In fact I promise I won’t.
the quilted bird 