"Inspiration from the North"

This is a class Sarah and I went to yesterday in Lerwick. Out teacher, Rosalind Johanson, had traveled up from England. The idea was to be inspired by what's around you, sea, sky, the beautiful knitting that's produced up here ...... alsorts of things. Of course I forgot to take my pictures in with me so I was working from memory. I had set out to do an applique picture of a puffin but this is what came off the sewing machine !!. The picture on the left is what I have so far but I'm not too sure about it. I think there's too much pale fabric. I have taken another couple of pictures with the pale folded out and I may slash the picture to cut out the lighter bits. Let me know what you think I should do ?  



     

Once I have decided on how much of the lighter strips to keep, I'll applique on a small house with a chimney and embroider on some subtle smoke swirls. I have also started this chevron boarder which will go outside the pencil border. I will then quilt in swirls around the smoke to represent the wind. I also had the idea of cutting the edge of the quilt kind of wavy and making some bias binding to edge it .... but that was yesterdays idea and I may have chosen something different by tomorrow.

I'm now in the process of cutting out the border strips. (No I'm not cutting straight on to the table, I had removed the board for the sake of the photo as it was scruffy looking).

So there we go. On Friday we had a lock-in at the shop and quilted for 4 hours straight and yesterday I was at a quilting class. Can life get any better ?

Today's to do list .....

A lot of my blogging friends have been showing their to do lists. This isn't exactly a to do list more a "this is what's laying on top of my sewing machine at the moment" list.

1.Linus quilt. 

This wasn't made by me, nor did I quilt it. I'm just sewing the binding on. Not my favorite job in the world but needs doing. Almost there. Half way round.

2. Linus Quilt.

This quilt top was made by my Mam. I laid it up and have straight line quilted it. Just finished quilting it today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to cut out the binding in the blue and then yah sew the binding on. I quite like machine sewing the binding on, but it makes my hands ache hand sewing it down on the wrong side.

3. Another Linus Quilt.

This is a quilt top made for a Linus quilt, but at 19" it's just not big enough, so I am going to add borders and binding in the top colours to bring it up to a better size. The crazy pieced top is lovely and well made, it just needs to be bigger.

4. The mystery.

I cut this out and started to sew it together, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was supposed to be.

5. Linus.

These lovely fabrics are for a simple Linus quilt.

6. Linus.

Gonna do some thing fairly simple like a 9 patch.

7. Felt owls.

I'm really enjoying making this little candle mat.A blue bird will go in the gap. I still need to sew on the felt leaves and eyes then I'll embroider the details on.

8. Anne's quilt.

I have drawn on stems and I'm planning to embroider these. Still a shed load of applique to do here.

9. Check and hearts.

I had forgotten about this one. The hearts are to be bond-a-webbed down. Not really my thing. Then top stitch over the hearts. This one's for the kids.

10. Nana's shawl.

This is a pattern my Nana used over and over again. I have made it a few times now. This one is being made in lace weight variegated wool.

11. Grace's Twilight quilt.

This is a quilt our Grace is making with me. It got put on hold whilst we chose some border fabrics. It's very simple but we are kind of making it up as we go along.

So that's my list. Massive compared to some short compared to others. Am I in a hurry to finish these ? Not really. I'm just enjoying myself. I hope you are enjoying your to do list too.

Easter fun and even some sewing.

Much to the bairns amusement I had a go on our Lily's bike.

This year the Easter Bunny very kindly brought four bikes for the lasses from the Shetland bike project where they do up old bikes and resell them on. It means that people like us can get bikes at an affordable price. All the bairns have been out riding, well Emi is almost riding. Her Dad has had her out in the field today and although it's brally cold they seem to have had good fun. 

 Random act of kindness.

Look what I got yesterday. I am so lucky. This is from a very dear friend of mine in America. There are some people we are so lucky to have in our lives and this special lady is also one of my friends.

My special box of goodies. Yes there are Cheerios and oats in there, but they are special ones that I canna get over here.
There's also an owl pattern, some red work, thread and a hoop. 

These beauties were made by my friends talented Mam. They are place mats but I am going to put hanging loops on them and put them on the wall.

   

Gingie also liked the mystery box.

A bit of sewing of my own.

 Another friend of mine is making a friendship quilt and she gave me a block to make. The rule was it had to have a heart on it somewhere. I love doing Sun Bonnet Sue. The little sign says Quilt shop. I thoroughly enjoyed making this and in my dreams I'll make an album Sun Bonnet Sue quilt. Wouldn't that be fun ? Hmm now would it be general album or should it be specific to Shetland ? If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear from you. 

 And finally Mittens .....

I hope you have a lovely week.

Polly

xxx