pink pretty

bowls from yarn

Lately I've been crocheting bowls.  Making small dishes and vessels from yarn.

I've been trying different designs.

Different sizes and colours.  But mostly grey.

And green, occasionally.

wearing autumn

autumn leafing

august patterns and colours

I have stepped away from this space for the duration of August - it wasn't a planned break but it did coincide with The August Break.  And so in place of anything more current; some snippets from that month long photo challenge.

  

slowly cutting up fabric and stitching it back together again

wise quilting

I have a bad habit of changing my mind repeatedly when it comes to making fabric or design decisions.  This week, browsing the wonderful Brave New Quilts, I sketched out a whole new idea for a quilt - completely different from my original design.

And then I started to despair a little bit.  How do I ever decide on a design when there are so many ideas buzzing around in my mind? So, I took myself to Instagram.  There, a very helpful quilter simply told me to make this quilt... and then make another one and another one and another one.  Of course!  It's simple: there's no such thing as too many ideas.  Best advice ever.

quilt planning :: colour

Colour is important to me.   I often have colours in mind before anything else falls into place. 

I knew what colours I wanted the quilt to be months ago – I saw some illustrations of birds that had a similar palette of three main colours.  A bit of yellow, some grey, a patch of brown here and there.  I decided then that this quilt would be those colours.

The yellow I want is contradictory: bright but muted.   Lemon but a bit gold.  Sunny but cloudy.  The grey I'm looking for is a cool grey but not too cold.  Feathery.  Pebbly.  And I want a brown that draws the other colours together.  But doesn't overshadow them.  

I've been playing with my Pantone postcards to assist my colour research - I'm not sure how I ever coped before I had them.  So much fun.

ideas that don't have use-by dates

I found a page in my sketchbook from last year where I had written down a list of ideas I had for things I wanted to make, to do, to create.  I haven't done any of them - I had forgotten about some of the things I listed and moved on to other ideas and other lists.  For a reason I can't recall I'd stuck a picture of a bird at the bottom of the list.  Inspiration?  Perhaps.  It doesn't really matter now.

But the ideas are still valid!  The list still makes sense to me - in fact, I can improve on the original ideas.  I can still do those things.  But of course, I might forget again.  It might be another year until I re-find the list.  But I know I will see the list again.  And the bird.

vessels made of string

revelations in quilts

This week I have been machine quilting.  

There were some issues along the way – needles, sewing machine feet, tension.  Things I thought I understood but didn't.   But ultimately I have managed to use a sewing machine to quilt fabric.

I have mostly been finishing old projects that had a little bit of quilting involved; items that had remained unfinished until I fully grasped how to use a machine to quilt.  

So now I can move on to the much rumoured actual quilt.

finding pine cones

There just isn't that much to show at the moment.  Other things have taken priority and I haven't put thread to fabric all week. 

 But, it's all going to change very soon and the studio awaits.  Tidied up and ready for action. 

 In the meantime, 3 small finds: a pine cone found in a field, a vintage crochet pattern found in a dusty shop and string inspiration found in a book.