“Moderne Roses” growing on me

On Thursday I showed you a patchwork WIP using half a jelly roll of “Modern Roses” by Moda.

I wasn’t much in love with it, but I’ve gone ahead with the next stage which was to add sashing of my background colour (white) and make bands to go around this central panel.

It now looks like this, and I’m starting to like it a bit more.  According to the pattern I’m following, this is as big as it gets, and I could go ahead with quilting & binding.  That will give me a finished size of 50″ x 38″.  However, I’m toying with the idea of adding a second white border so that binding (which will be the same aqua colour as my snowball triangles) pops a little more.

 

“Modern Roses”

Probably more than a decade ago, I treated myself to a “jelly roll”.  I remember, at the time, it was because I wanted to make a simple JR quilt, sewing all the strips together etc . . . but, for the life of me, I can’t remember why I chose the particular fabric I did.  It’s called “Modern Roses”, by Moda.  I tend to work with bright, sun-glasses worthy fabric, and quite a few of the prints in the “Modern Roses” collection are light beige, light grey. Any brighter prints (in yellow, aqua and salmon pink, are very large prints on grey, beige or white backgrounds

Anyway . . . I’m having something of a stash bust at the moment and decided a decade was too long to be keeping a jelly roll in the stash.  I have several quilting books, and decided on a design, to make a quilt using only half a jelly roll. Pattern is called “Snapdragon” and is published in the book: “Two from one jelly roll quilts” by Pam & Nicky Lintott.

Colours on this example are totally different to my fabrics, but I set to work regardless.

Not terribly convinced with how the large prints work together, once sewn into my 9-blocks, made with 2.5″ squares.  I should probably have used the neutral beige & greys to give proper contrast.  And already delving into other stash for a solid aqua in an attempt to bring some unity to this project on the snowball blocks.

This is my inner panel so far.  I’m not convinced I’m going to like it.  Not liking my colour placement either, but at this stage I’m just sewing together and hoping it’ll grow on me.

I’ve got my pieces for the outer border prepped too . . . but will be unpicking all those end white (my background colour) squares and replacing with something else because I really don’t like the way the white squares end up not being symmetrical.

Anyway . . . it’s keeping me out of other mischief, and I’m sure I will feel a sense of achievement once it’s finished.

and now for something completely different

I’m not a very “artistic” person.  I was the kind of child who always got good grades in academic subjects at school, but struggled in subjects like Art.  Give me some paint, and it usually ends in disaster.  Still . . . I’ve learned over the years that there’s no harm in trying and having some fun along the way so recently, I bought in a job lots of little wooden “peg dolls”.

It’s no secret that I collect dolls and that I have a lovely variety of kokeshi dolls, many bought at flea markets while living in Tokyo for a year.

Above, some of those vintage dolls which go from the very tall to the very small.

Anyway . . . I’m sensible enough to know that there was no way on earth I’d be painting my own kokeshi dolls for a long while, since it takes years for apprentices to be able to master the art.  That didn’t stop me having fun with my acrylic paint pens that I got for xmas, , to see what I could do.  For my first, I attempted bugs.  Or more precisely

bees.  My very first little bee was finished off with a pair of wings, made from netting, and a tiny crocheted hat with antennae.

He measures 3.5cm tall.  You can see, in the background, that I didn’t stop there.  I produced more bees, using a different technique for their wings.

One little bee is still missing his wings, and they all need little hats which I will get around to.

I also painted some ladybirds. The husband pointed out that they don’t really look like ladybirds, but I told him even a 3-year old would know what they’re supposed to be.

And I painted a batch of caterpillars . . . some of them look like they’re wearing headphones, the way I painted on their antennae, but I’ve been having fun and that’s all that counts.

That’s all the 3.5cm figures from the box used up. Now time to try the 4.5cm ones.

 

SAL “my day off” #10

Hello everyone . . . another 3 weeks have whooshed by! and it’s time to link up with SAL members to show progress on our current stitching projects.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy,

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Last time I was here

For this time, I continued working on the lower left corner, with a few other stitches here and there.

scraphappy # April

It’s the 15th, therefore the monthly meet-up with scrapsters world-wide, for ScrapHappy, organised by Kate & Gun.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn and Tierney

For this month, I was back in baby mode.

Three more bibs and a burp cloth.

If I tell you that the graffiti one is made using fabric from a quilt cover I made for Mr Tattoo sometime around 1992, the spotty dotty one is made with scraps from a tunic I made for myself a few years ago . . . the binding of burp cloth is scraps from quilt backing fabric, and the little birds was a piece left over from the bib fest I had not long ago . . . all scraps were welcome here!  The graffiti print quilt cover was washed so many times over the decades, that fabric is lovely & soft & absorbant.

Anyway, the above made for a baby due in Mona’s family very soon.  I’ve mentioned Mona before. She’s the 5-year-old who lives opposite and who enjoys coming here to play with me (and my dolls) or learn to sew.  She has a much older half brother & half sister.  The half-sister is expecting a baby very soon, which will make Mona an Aunt !!!  So, the above for Mona’s future nephew!

updating my blog photo

I was out in the garden earlier today taking a few snaps of Tali, who is growing up, and will be 6 months old on 17th April.  After transferring photos to my computer, I couldn’t help looking at photos of Gibbs (Sept 2016 – Oct 2022) at the same age.  Obviously one Flat-coated retriever looks very much like another Flat-coated retriever, although Tali seems to have more wavey fur on her ears.   Gibbs was a male, and rather a large specimen at that, so he definitely already looked quite large at 6 months . . . Tali is on the petite size but has most definitely lost her puppy looks.  Anyway, I’ve also changed the photo on the top of my home page, removing this lovely photo of Gibbs

and replacing it with one of Tali.

Another one of Gibbs, looking incredibly adult for a 6 month old pup

and one of Tali’s profile.

A last one of Gibbs (oh my, he was a beautiful boy and I really miss him!)

and last one (for today) of Tali.

sunflowers

Title says “sunflowers” whereas in fact, for the moment, all I’ve got is sunflower seeds lol.  My sister and husband, Mrs & Mr D, decided to have a little family sunflower growing challenge this year.  Mr D bought in a packet (or two) of sunflowers seeds

and Mrs D sent to family members and a couple of friends.  The idea being, we all sow, then share photos of what grows.  I’m not the world’s most enthusiastic gardener. I blame that on my parents who were serious garden enthusiasts, dragging me and my sister around National Trust houses & gardens as children, plus lots of pushing around of trollies in garden centres of a weekend.  I enjoyed visiting the houses, but the gardens? Once you’ve seen one rhododendron you’ve seen them all, in my opinion.

Anyhoot . . . despite my absence of green thumbs, I said I was in, when Mr D mentioned the sunflower project.  And today, I have sown my seeds.  Directly into the soil, because we live in France, and soil temps are warming up nicely.  According to the back of the packet, seedlings will appear in 14-21 days, so I’ll be keeping my eyes open and camera to the ready.  In the meantime, varieties sown are: 1 –  Colourparade; 2 – Red sun;  3 – Italian white;  4 – Russian giant; 5 – Pacino gold, and 6 – Teddy bear.

April is galloping away!

Goodness me! April seems to be galloping away already!  February & March were a bit of a commotion here because we had a worksite going on: renovation of the veranda & loggia.  Workmen were very efficient and all, and things actually went quite quickly (on hindsight) but it did seem to take forever while we were living with noise and big boots clumping about.  The veranda needed to be renovated because the original one was nigh on 50 years old and had really done its time. In summer months it was boiling hot in there. In wet months, the roof leaked and we had puddles everywhere. And in the cold winter months it was icey cold.  We do have a fireplace in there, but with the old glass roof, heat just whooshed right out.

In order to keep the price down a smidgen, we opted for a tiled roof on the renovation, with two “Vélux” windows to let some light in.  Roof is insulated, and ceiling has been finished off with wood pannelling.

And that’s what the new little loggia looks like – with sliding windows and mosquito nets.

We haven’t yet got the veranda sorted out properly inside. We need to buy a few chairs, and the husband is thinking about putting up some shelving for his plants.  The only thing that’s been put up so far is curtains.

I bought 6 voile curtains: 4 plain white, and 2 with a nice soft leaf print.  Problem being that curtains were 240cm long and needed chopping off at the bottom for a 205cm length.  I knew it was mission impossible before I started.  Hemming two voile curtains (roughly) the same length, I can manage, but hemming six . . .

I won’t show the eye sore of bad hemming . . . let’s just say curtains are up, and I’ll probably have to buy at least one more curtain & hem, to replace the one that lets the side down.  In the meantime, I’m trying to ignore it, and to imagine what this space will look like when finished.