Jelly Rolls

I know it sounds absolutely pathetic. I have been making patchwork on and off for nearly thirty five years now, and up to two days ago, I had never actually seen a Moda jelly roll in real life. I had drooled over them on the Internet, and finally I decided I was going to get one. There were some really nice ones here, and I was fortunate enough to get one on sale, and, of course, I had to get something to go with it! The service was fantastic, and the postage was really reasonable, so I would definitely recommend a visit. Now the only question is - what am i going to make with them?

tich

Fibre Tree

I recently came across the International Fiber Collaborative website. I had already seen pictures of a garage(gas station), which had been covered in 3 foot fibre panels, but when I came across this I was amazed! The website shows how the tree was constructed, and then fibre-related leaves from all over the world were attached.

There are ten pages showing photos of all the different leaves. 

It is truly out of (and part of) this world. Really interesting!

tich

Sewing at Last!

I love surfing the web, looking for ideas for things I can try, as I like learning. I have a lot of favourite blogs, which I visit every day. I was really tickled with the above picture and tutorial at http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/ Rachel has some really nice ideas, and she very kindly allowed me to show you the picture above, from her tutorial, here   

 I have already cut out squares of paper in varying sizes, to use up some of my strings, but the ones I am working on are 1.5 inches. I am using up a bunch of scraps I won in a giveaway a while ago from Artgirl (see http://www.colorfulartgirl.blogspot.com/ The scraps are wonderful! Beautiful colours, and I am having fun!! The second and third pictures show some of the blocks I have got done. Only the black cotton is consistantly the same size, the rest are random cut.

Thanks Rachel and Leah for the inspiration!

tich

The Bay

I realise there have not been many 'crafty' items of late, but I am still learning how to use my machine. I thought, therefor, I would give you a little eye-candy - not of the craft type, but of nature at its best. This is the bay in front of my home. It fills and empties twice a day, and each day is different. Often I just sit in the conservatory and gaze at it, or if I am feeling energetic, I walk across it, when it is empty.

Please enjoy the pictures below!

tich

Rhubarb!!

I have been very busy the last few days. No sewing, but I was offered some rhubarb, and of course I jumped at the chance. Coarse rhubarb can be chopped up and put in the freezer. If the rhubarb is left in for a while, it breaks down, so that lots of juice comes out, when it is defrosted. This makes great rhubarb wine. Finer rhubarb makes tarts or great jam. My husband is not a great lover of rhubarb and ginger jam, so I make rhubarb and orange jam. Recipe is below. 

The weather here is glorious. Beautiful blue skies, occasional white clouds and lots of warm, sunny hours. Long may it continue.

Enjoy the recipe!

tich

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

4lb rhubarb

3 sweet oranges

5lb sugar

1 pint water

1 lemon

Cut rhubarb into small pieces. Add grated rind and juice of oranges/lemon with sugar and water. Bring to boil until jellied.

Penny Rug Completed.

At last! I have finished my penny rug. As discussed before, I bought this kit from a newsgroup, which sells unwanted sewing items. It was supposed to be hand  sewn with cotton perle, but I decided to use my Bernina 440QE. I had never used the buttonhole stitch before on a sewing machine. My machine behaved well until I went to sew the outside edges of the small pennies. It was not too happy, but I managed. Not perfect, but I got there. For anybody who is interested, I used the following info to sew the rug. (remember I always take a note of this info, in case I want to go back and do something similar). The needle was, in most cases, moved to the extreme right.

St No. Tension St Length St Width Foot No. Extra

Inner Pennies

161 4 3.10 4.00 20 Mirror Image

Outer Pennies (2 together)

161 4 3.00 3.8 20 Mirror Image

Appliques

161 4 3.10 2.9 20 Mirror Image

Border for large Circle

161 4 3.00 3.8 20 Mirror Image

Pony and Cart

My husband has been training one of the ponies to pull a cart. He started off with Periwinkle dragging a light tyre behind him. Then he moved onto a larger, heavier tyre. This picture shows the first time the pony was attached to the cart. Notice the polytunnel in the background. The cover was destroyed in the gales last October. The seeds are all planted for this year, but we are waiting for calmer weather, to get the new cover attached.

This picture shows Periwinkle walking along the road, with our other pony, Willow, wanting to join in the fun. You can see our house in the background. It was quite a misty day, when the photos were taken.

Till next time.

tich