Anne’s Creative Threads

I have recently completed several large projects and so felt like taking a break and working on something much smaller and quick to finish. I’d had the idea in my head for these bougainvillea flower inspired fabric postcards and had even made a quick sketch while I was working on something else so this was the perfect project to work on.

I started off with some hand painted ’sky’ fabrics left over from other projects, then couched down several strands of  hand dyed embellishment yarn. I used a free motion zigzag and invisible thread for the couching. I took some scraps of hand dyed and batik fabrics backed with ‘Misty Fuse’  to make the flowers and leaves.

I cut the fabric into tiny random snippets with sharp scissors. I’ve only recently started using Misty Fuse but so far I have found it very good to use as it is light weight, bonds well and doesn’t gum up the needle.

These were applied to the background stems using tweezers as the pieces were so tiny.

The leaves and flowers fused in place ready to be embellished with free motion stitching. I used several different shades of green rayon thread for the leaves and then several different pinks for the flowers.  Bougainvilleas come in a wide range of colours here in Brunei apart from the standard bright pink that you mostly see across Europe, so it was a good opportunity to play with some of the fabrics I don’t tend to use so much and make a series of cards. Once all the stitching was complete I backed the cards with Fast 2 Fuse, trimmed to size and then zigzagged the edges using variegated thread.

A little while ago I got this piece of applique out to show some friends and I was suddenly inspired to get it finished. I actually started work on this design five years ago and have taken it out form time to time to do a little bit more.

The original design was inspired by a piece of Indonesian commercial printed batik sarong fabric  that I bought locally here in Brunei. I’d originally planned to use it for patchwork but I felt that the design was too nice to cut up but it took me a long time before I finally made it into an applique pattern.

The original piece of batik from which I made the pattern

Once I’d made the pattern the challenge was to choose the colours that I would use for the applique as I didn’t want to use the rather dull brown, black and white of the original. I chose a dark blue, almost black mottled hand dyed batik fabric for the background and pale pastel colours for the flowers, stems and leaves.

The tail feathers and wings were quite a challenge.

The two birds amongst the flowers

My blog has been rather neglected over the past few weeks as I have been so busy, but I haven’t been neglecting my sewing and this is a project I made several weeks ago for a friend. This is a departure from my usual hornbill designs, but a friend from my sewing group asked if I would make a wall hanging with a toucan on it for her as she has a property in Costa Rica and she often sees toucans there.My friend had brought me a picture to work from so I scanned it into EQ6 so that I could draft a pattern for the appliqué design.

The image above shows the design that I drew out in EQ6, ready to be made into an applique pattern. I decided to use invisible machine applique for this project as the pieces were large enough for the edges to be turned under, so I printed freezer paper templates and contstructed the bird before adding it to the background.

 It was quite similar to make to a hornbill but the biggest challenge was getting the colouring and markings on the beak. I searched through my piles of fabric and found two different batiks which blended blues and yellows. I then added the details using fabric pens. I also added a little touch of colour where the yellow feathers join the black.

For the background I chose a lovely hand dyed fabric by Frieda Anderson that I bought at the Festival of Quilts last year. Sometimes I find it hard it’s hard to cut into these special fabrics, but in the end I have to tell myself that I bought them to be used and they really do help to give  a special touch to the finished design.

The finished wall hanging, quilted with a variegated cotton thread in the background and a solid coloured thread for the borders.

A more detailed photo of the finished wall hanging.

I belong to a yahoo challenge group linked to my Janome sewing machine and in March it was my turn to lead the challenge for that month. The theme I chose was ‘Going Green’ and it opened itself up to many different interpretations and it was interesting to see such a wide variety of different projects from within the group. Some people took an environmental slant and chose to use recycled goods and scraps. I was amazed to see how old pairs of jeans could be transformed into bags, book covers, dolls clothes and even cat and dog toys.

Other people chose to feature green fabrics in their work and I was one of those, as it’s my favourite colour and I enjoy working with greens. For my project I created a foundation pieced background of ‘crazy’ blocks which I printed out from EQ6. I then used invisible machine appliqué to add a jungle plant, spilling out into the borders. In the latter stages I was racing against the clock to get the challenge finished by the end of the month but I just managed.

Quilting with variegated and solid coloured cotton threads completes the design. Initially I started to quilt a trailing leaf design in the borders but then had to unpick what I’d done as I felt that it didn’t look right and drew too much attention away from the main design.

After the sad loss of Millie and Hector within such a short space of one another we were not in any hurry to get another cat, but it left poor Molly very unsettled. Just over a week after we had lost Hector our amah came to me and said that her neighbour had some kittens. I was very reluctant to commit to anything because I still felt it was too soon, but I said I would go and look, but when I went with her we couldn’t find the kittens. I went back several days later with my husband and this time all four kittens were there, and we were immediately smitten. Two of the kittens stood out, one a little grey and white boy and a very pretty little multi coloured female. The female was the first one who came to greet us and seemed the least timid of them all, she was also the prettiest, so it wasn’t really difficult to come to a decision.

Suzie's first day at home

 Molly is only five months old and not fully grown but she seemed large in comparison to the little kitten, who spent most of the first day trying to hide in various dark corners. It didn’t take her long to settle though and within a couple of days they were playing together and racing all over the house.

Looking pretty on one of my old patchwork quilts

 We named her Suzie after our friend Sue who’s birthday it was on the day we got her. She is quite a different character to Molly, very sweet and gentle and she likes to curl up on my lap when I am sewing or doing stuff on the computer. She can stand up for herself though and she and Molly have great mock battles.

Battles over the cat bed (the other cats used to go inside this little house, but these two prefer to lie on top of it)

It didn’t take long for the pair of them to start invading my sewing studio and turning everything upside down.

My waste paper basket seems to hold a strong attraction.

"I wish I was a little bit taller"

"This looks interesting"

Best of friends now

I recently started work on a new waterfall quilt and this time I decided I would make it a little bigger than the ones I have done before, although still using the same basic design. The first step was choosing all the different fabrics I would use, because although I have made this design before each time I do it, it’s like starting right from the beginning again. I have certain fabrics that I like, but then they run out and I’m always buying new ones, so the quilt always turns out differently.

inspiration photographs and some of the fabrics I've chosen.

Most of the fabrics I use are batiks or hand dyes, because of the subtle colour variations which I can use to replicate the patterns of the rocks in the background and foreground.

starting to build up the designMolly watching the progress of the waterfall

Building up the background for the waterfall using a variety of different batik and hand dyed fabriccs.  For the area at the back of the waterfall I used a preprinted fabric and used fabric pens to emphasise the trunks and branches of the trees.

I’ve used invisible machine applique to construct this top, first making templates from freezer paper which I iron on to the right side of the fabric.  I clip the seams, brush the edges with liquid starch, then turn under the edges using the tip of an iron. It is time consuming but I prefer this method to ironing the freezer paper on the wrong side and glueing the edges because this way I don’t have freezer paper to remove after. I also prefer the look of turned under edges.

For the waterfall I used a batik fabric as the base, then added details using Shiva paintstiks and Angelina fibre. The rocks are all added individually and I have turned under the edges of each one. It’s a slow process but little by little I’m getting there.

adding the rocks to the foreground.

Little by little I am adding all the rocks, then the next step will be to add some foliage to the foreground and background.

Millie was rescued by my husband eighteen months ago, a tiny scrap of orange on the side of the busy main road. He at first thought she had been hit by a car because she was so motionless, but she was just petrified, and when he stopped the car and scooped her up she quickly responded with loud purring. He brought her home and to the disgust of the two elder cats she soon settled in and made herself at home.

She turned into a beautiful cat with unusual amber coloured eyes.

As a kitten she loved to play in boxes

 and as she grew older she liked to sit with me in my studio propped up against my sewing machine.

She never got the chance to grow old; last week she went down with a virus and by the time we realized she was seriously ill it was already too late. The vet did what he could and I did everything I could to save her but to no avail and she died last Thursday.

Just over a week later on Friday morning our beautiful, gentle cat Hector died. He was almost seventeen years old and we noticed a sudden deterioration in his condition when we got back from the Philippines at the end of December. We found several small lumps on his body and then these rapidly grew and several of them burst. We got the vet to look at him and he gave him some attention but he was unable to do anything more and didn’t really tell us what the problem was. I’m guessing that he must have had cancer.

Hector was also a cat we rescued from the street and brought with us to Brunei from Spain where we were living at the time. He was the gentlest, sweetest natured cat that I’ve ever come across. He really hated to do anything to offend and I don’t think he ever killed anything apart from the occasional lizard; even then he was very gentle and didn’t really seem to want to harm them.

He was a very elegant cat, and also everyone described him as long, and he was almost a metre nose to tail when stretched out on the sofa or bed. He was also a constant companion in my studio and I will miss him very much too.

Luckily we still have little Molly the black kitten and she is a great consolation.

Back in Brunei again, back to the sewing room and making another version of a hornbill wall hanging that I sold just before Christmas.

A few days ago, Traci, one of my Facebook friends asked if anyone did English paper piecing and it reminded me of the unfinished ‘Grandmother’s Flower Garden’ quilt that I probably started over thirty years ago. She was keen to see a picture of it so I dug it out of the cupboard so that I could photograph it.

In my opinion the top looks better in the photo than it does in real life but I was surprised at how enthusiastic people were about it and everyone who commented said I should finish it. When I look at it, I see the fabrics and they are so different from the batiks and hand dyes which I love to work with now. I don’t like a lot of the colours and patterns and some of the fabrics aren’t even 100% cotton. Back then, however long ago it was that I started it, there were no shops selling the wonderful quilting fabrics that you get now, at least there weren’t where I lived in England. Quite a lot of the fabrics in the top are ones that I bought for dress making and then others were bought whilst traveling and living in various places overseas.

Floral fabric bought in Morocco many years ago

Many of the blocks bring back memories of living in Morocco and first time round in Brunei, travels to California, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This was dress making fabric bought in California and I remember making a lovely Vogue patterns full circle skirt and top out of this.

 As time went by I started buying fabrics specifically for quilting and so these fabrics have also found their way into the quilt, so it really is a patchwork quilt in the true sense of the word.

This fabric came from the Philippines

The problem with trying to finish it off now is adding more blocks that are in keeping with the original ones, but then maybe that doesn’t really matter as it is already such a mixture. Another New Year’s resolution:  to finish this top, my other is to try making some of my quilts on a larger scale.

My original template set from all those years ago

Of course the cats are attracted by the bright colours and it didn’t take Millie long to spot it and make herself comfortable.

Millie quick to choose her spot.

It feels good to be back in Boracay. We’ve been coming here for twelve years and every year we come back there are always changes and rarely for the better, but there is always a feeling of coming back to a familiar place and the welcome we get from the many friends that we have made over the time that we’ve been coming here.

The view from our cottage

The last two years we have been coming via a roundabout route, supposedly cheaper but involving so many stopovers, flights and taxi rides that I’m sure it must end up costing more, as well as wasting time. This year we went back to the old route and flew directly from Brunei to Manila. For the first time since I can remember the plane left and arrived on time, a smooth transfer to the hotel, which was fairly ordinary but clean, comfortable enough (apart from the pillows which were like blocks of rubber)and relatively quiet for the centre of Manila. Up early in the morning, breakfast and then a taxi dash to the domestic airport, arriving in good time for our eight thirty flight. I couldn’t believe it, everything was going so smoothly.

No queue at the check in, I knew the cases were overweight but was prepared for that, and then the girl at the check in looked at us and said “do you realize that you are booked on the 8.30am flight for Thursday 10^th December?” Today is Tuesday 1^st December!!!

Whose fault? Mine. I booked the flight online a couple of months ago, printed out the ticket and never thought that much about it. I did check the booking several times but obviously didn’t look at it closely enough, and didn’t get my husband to double check it. Luckily the airline office was just round the corner so we were able to go round and change our booking. Unfortunately the early flight was already full and we had to pay quite an extra chunk of money, but were able to get on a flight a couple of hours later. I couldn’t get cross and blame anyone else as it was totally my fault, so nothing for it but to find a spot in the airport that wasn’t too freezing get a cup of coffee and sit down and write my blog which I’ve neglected a bit recently as I’ve been so busy in the last couple of weeks.

I should have checked the dates more carefully!

Now I’m looking forward to a month of relaxation: windsurfing, swimming, catching up on a bit of reading, enjoying some good food and spending time in the company of good friends. I didn’t bring any sewing with me as I feel it is good to have a complete break. Actually I was tempted to bring some hand sewing and very soon start to miss it, so by the time I get back to Brunei I’m always itching to get back to my sewing machine. I do intend to work on creating some new designs while I’m here so I won’t be completely out of touch.

Boracay from the air

crazy pieced fabric postcard with autumn leaves

My latest batch of fabric postcards were constructed on a crazy pieced background using lots of small pieces of batik fabrics that I had left over from other projects. I got the idea from a short instructional video that was on The Quilt Show recently. I’ve done a lot of crazy patchwork  type blocks using foundation piecing printed out from EQ6 and used them as backgrounds for some of my rain forest quilts.

I liked the method shown on the video because it is done in the more traditional way using a piece of fabric for the background. The background will be completely covered by the crazy piecing so it doesn’t matter what it looks like. I used some scraps of muslin for these cards. It’s a great way of using up fabric scraps and because you’re not using a preprinted foundation every block is different.

Embellished fabric postcard

These fabric postcards are also a great way of experimenting with various embellishments. I’ve collected quite  a few yarns over the years and am not always sure how best to use them, so I just played around with a few here.

gold threads and decorative machine stitches

On this card I even tried out a few of my machine’s decorative stitches using gold thread and then couched some thicker gold thread in random squiggles. All the leaves were made using sheer organza and variegated rayon threads. These will the last lot of fabric postcards I’ll be making for a while as I’ve now run out of the Fast2fuse iron on interfacing that I’ve been using  to make them nice and firm. I’ll order more for the new year and I’m sure I’ll have loads of ideas for more cards by then.