Making, for the joy of it

It's not all talk and coffee here ... there have been times spent in the studio ...

Those are attempts at making journal quilts - each almost finished at the time, then put aside while the next excitement takes hold.

The steps in making the 6"x12" JQs are -
- use synthetic fabric (because you can steam it and set the pleats)
- use running stitch in strips of it (these might be smaller pieces, to be combined later, or one piece with applique)
- gather, wrap, and steam
- stretch out and attach to the background

That last step is the trickiest, fiddliest, and most annoying. Hence the move to single pieces with applique, to be incorporated via the running stitch (though I do stitch them down rather than have the long threads caught up by the pins).

perfect travelling companions

These are quite addictive - for one thing, they are eminently portable, eg on a train journey. In a long evening of tv watching you can stitch an entire piece. There are things to decide along the way (or before starting) - length of stitch, spacing, colours of thread among them.

As for colours of thread, have a look at the detail of some I prepared earlier -

Sheer joy!


.....update ....

Stitched on the train (bottom) - it was the slow train to Birmingham, two and half hours of continuous stitching. I'd cut the lengths of thread ahead of time, just had to pull them out of the bundle, which got a bit tangly and tedious, plus it broke up the rhythm of stitching to have to stop at the end of each row.

So I invented a "gizmo" -

Cutting small slits at the edge of the coffee sleeve, to hold the ends of the thread - four needle-fulls fit on at a time.

The unorthodox activity of sewing was making the person in the adjacent seat rather nervous ... there seemed to be a lot of throat-clearing going on!