Eat, Sleep, Sew!

Unfortunately, I finished this seconds too late to link up with Le Challenge!

It began simply enough enough with some sketches...

And an exciting new applique technique I read about on Karen's blog. I found it was much less clunky than my usual freezer paper efforts and you can get an idea from the wings...

...but you'll have to visit Karen to see it better because I then stuffed her and re-stitched the outline to hold the layers of the quilt together. Also to hold the layers together, I hand quilted an outline around the green leaves, which were already embroidered onto the linen...

...and did a random large seed-stitch type stitching in the green at the bottom,

The main thing that didn't go quite as intended was the head. I cut and sewed the head/body/legs in one piece and, somehow, I lost the angle of the chin. If I do this again, I'll applique the head as a separate piece. This left me in a dilema about what to do with the face and hair.

In the end I think I was unduly influenced by the hairstyle of my sewing assistant!

And I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out although I'm really not keen on the head and I think, in future, the whole head/face/hair things needs to be worked out on paper before I start!

On the other hand, I've been wanting to make something more three dimensional for ages and to make pictures in fabric that do something. I love automata and pop-up books and I know a moving arm is only a small step in that direction - but it's a start!

So - too late for Le Challenge but in time for a Friday Finish.

What have you been sewing this week?

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

I'm linking up TGIFF and crazy mom quilts:

and: 

The Old Man Goes to the Festival!

I was wondering about what to enter into the Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side and I suddenly remembered my 'old man and the sea' wall hanging. Unfortunately, I only have dull Winter photos because I made it in December and gave it to my son, who lives by the sea in Portsmouth. I've decided to enter it anyway, though, because it's my favourite small quilt I've made.

This quilt began when I visited the lovely Karen from Laughter in Quilts and she had made this stunning drunkards path mini quilt - do have a look! I was admiring her amazing fmq and suddenly I saw a fish! 

Who knew you could arrange trimmed dps into a perfect fish shape! Probably everyone but it was a revelation to me. So I found a scrap of paper and scribbled away until I had a seemingly small ocean of fish. Then I did some calculations and discovered that would make a bigger-than-kingsize quilt unless I made 1" dps, which I wasn't really up for. So I scaled back and decided to make one fish to start with.

Then I added added some triangles to square up the 'sea' and added and an improv curve and a boat...and it was looking very blue, which was good because blue was the colour of the month in the Colour My World Challenge that M-R hosted over at Quilt Matters. 

I also thought the fish was looking a bit obvious so I added some blue stitching to blend it in a bit...and some more blue stitching for the sky...and having become just a touch fixated with adding thread, I decided, for my fisherman to try some improv knitting (using six strands of anchor embroidery thread and 2mm needles) and I was really happy with how he turned out - a fisherman needs a jumper (+ hat, scarf and mitts!) and it was so much easier than appliquéing fabric!

Here are some more details of the finished piece.

1. before the quilting, 2. blue fish, 3. blue sky, 4. blue fishing detail, 5.an old man and the sea, 6. old man, knitting detail, 7. old man in a boat, 8. blue fish detail, 9. blue sea and binding

I hope you like my little wall hanging and I hope you enjoy the Festival!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

Blue Monday!

Yesterday, I finished Cindy's block and that means I'm technically no longer behind in the bees - yay! But not for long unless I get this month's three done soon.

I was too tired to concentrate on another bee block, though, and I noticed my box of solid scraps was looking very blue so I cut some 8" strips, sewed them together, cut dresden blades and sewed them together and ended up with this...

I'm not sure what to do with it but I quite like it and it was fun to something quick and impulsive and low concentration :)

Do you end up with scraps mainly in a single colour range or do you have a happy mix?

And, I thought I'd ask this question just because I wonder about it every time I read someone is going to make a quilt only from their scraps  - that is several times a week!

How many quilts do you have to have to make before you get enough scraps to make a whole new quilt? I can't see that happening to me this lifetime :)

Happy sewing and Scrap Collecting!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

I'm linking this post to:

Design Wall Weekend!

If you've been following my blog lately, you might not be surprised to see my design-wall-piano is still going with the Bee theme.

Today I finished the mug block, above for Sana in the Star of Africa Bee. She is making a wall hanging with the theme 'Home is where the heart is'. I made a cup because a cup of tea always makes me feel at home. If you're English, you'll understand - if not you probably think our tea is undrinkable and we shall have to agree to disagree! The mug is on the grass because we sell the eggs from our ducks and chicken on the verge outside our house and we actually leave a mug there for people to pay whatever they choose (the mug and eggs are in an old rabbit hutch so they don't get rained on but the hutch isn't on the block). We always receive a very fair price and one of the reasons I love my home here is that I know in many places the eggs would just be stolen :)

Just off the design wall is this oak tree block for Brinda, who wanted a tree from our country - now parcelled up and waiting to go to India...

And newly started is this block for Cindy, who wants a white background with something that represents where we live in bright crayon colours. This is a pond as our house is called Pond House - fish to follow.

Then there is amazing top of Jan's, which arrived today, The strips of fabric on the right are the most coordinating I've found so far and I've hung it up in the hope of suddenly having an idea about to add. Suggestions welcome.

And finally, I thought I'd lay out the bee blocks I've received so far to get an idea of what my quilt will like but that will need a post of it's own when the others arrive!

What is on your design wall this weekend?

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

I'm linking up with:

Friday Finishes

An oak tree for Brinda...

A scrappy squares star and strippy heart for Dena...and some hst blocks for Nicky.

I resolved to sew nothing but bee blocks until I got up to date so I have nothing to show except bee blocks! But they're finished and it's Friday so these are my Friday Finishes for this week.

What have you been sewing?

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

I'm linking up TGIFF and crazy mom quilts.

Design Wall Weekend

Unfortunately my design wall piano hasn't been getting much use lately. But, this weekend, I've had my addition blocks for Dena's quilt top in the Free Two Bee  up. This was a real challenge - trying to add something that went with everything that's been done so far! I think these tops get harder every month. One more month to go and we'll all have our tops :)

I'm linking up with:

Really Random Thursday!

I've just realised it's Thursday and I'd nearly forgotten about randomness!

So two random things this week...

1. I've been meaning to ask someone/everyone about this email from blogger...

Is this a good idea or is this how people inadvertently become noreplybloggers?

2. I had a quick look through my photos to see if I could find anything interesting and I came across these pictures that I took at our local agricultural show last year...

There was basically a chap who came along with a truckfull of sheep. Each sheep different. The chap was actually very entertaining and spoke about each sheep and the origin of its breed and the role it had played in farming etc.

And the sheep came on, one by one, and stood on the step with their name on it. And each sheep had its own music and did a dance when its music was played.

And then he sheared one in about ten seconds flat! I just googled it because I'd forgotten his name. And  I found a website here where you can see a short video and find out more about The Sheep Show.

I never did get round to blogging about it at the time because it seemed so random...

Do you have randomness to share?

See you at:

Janine @ Rainbow Hare