I am currently making a small piece to try out some ideas that I have had kicking around in my head. It started out with a sketch, which was originally in portrait format, but when I turned it to landscape suddenly clicked.

I decided to contrast dark on the left with light on the right. At the same time I wanted to explore texture in the piece. I used some velvet that I dyed last year, as that has built-in texture. This is the fabric selection I chose initially, with the velvet at the bottom.

One idea I had been wanting to try out was using smocking to create texture. While looking up how much fabric you need for smocking I found a description of machine smocking, so I went with that as it is much faster for an experiment. My other idea was to make structured fabric with a twill weave. You can see both in this detail photo - the smocking in blue on the bottom and the twill weave in blue and grey at the top. I liked very much the diagonal effect of the twill weave. The jury is still out on the smocking. I think I need to do some more experimenting, but it definitely has potential.

This is the state of play so far. I don’t feel satisfied with it yet so I will work on it a bit more. But here’s a photo of the WIP.

This is what I’ve been making this weekend - a carrying pouch each, for our iPod shuffles. I didn’t get round to it as soon as I thought, which turned out to be a good thing. I came up with a much better idea for them. Instead of making some kind of bag I hit on the idea of making something more like a wallet.

It is divided into two inside pockets - one for the shuffle and one for the earphones.

The whole thing is closed with a velcro tab. Both the outer and the inner part is padded with cotton batting - what else?

It’s been finished for the best part of a week, but the photographer has only just got round to taking a piccie. So here it is:

It’s just slightly larger than 6 inches square.

I’ve been making bedding this weekend so there’s nothing quilty to report.

I was having problems with one of my quilts bulging out at the bottom when it was hanging up. I asked Dena if she had any ideas on how to fix it. This is what she suggested:

Try this trick, Ruth:

Lay the quilt down flat, but don’t try to smooth it down. Don’t force it to do anything it normally would not do.

Get the bottom edge to lay as flat as possible, even if it means the upper parts are all scrunched up. Draw a chalk line from one side of the quilt to the other about 2-3 inches above the bottom edge. Draw a straight line, regardless of how crooked the bottom edge may be.

Then, from that chalk line, measure straight up the quilt at about 3″ intervals, to an equal distance above the chalk line. Say, for example, you measure up 58″. Make a chalk mark for each vertical measurement up from the chalk line that you make towards the top of the quilt. Make these chalk marks all across the top of the quilt.

Here’s the important part: When measuring, smoothe the quilt down all the way up, each time you measure - along the line of measurement.

What you are doing is to force the extra material from the middle of the quilt up to the top of the quilt.

Then, draw a straight line through the chalk marks at the top. THAT is where your sleeve should be sewn. Even if that line appears to be crooked, because it is running parallel to and equidistant from the bottom chalk line, there’s no place else where the excess fabric in the quilt can go but UP!

Reposition and resew the sleeve in place; then try hanging the quilt again. Of course, you may have to move the sleeve higher on the quilt in order not to have the top flopping over, but always do that so that the sleeve placement line is parallel to and equidistant from the bottom chalk line.

Let us know how this technique works for you. It’s the best way I can think of for solving such a problem AFTER the quilt is made.

This afternoon I took the bull by the horns and had a go. The quilt had been “resting” on the floor in the cellar for a good 36 hours to get used to being flat again. I found I had to move the hanging sleeve down on both sides by about 1/8 - 1/4 inch. It is now hanging again and although not perfect it is certainly a big improvement.

Thanks Dena! When you think about it, it’s obvious, but I admit I hadn’t thought to measure up from the bottom to make sure that you get the hanging sleeve in the correct place.

One of my QU teachers has just got herself a blog. Do go over and take a look. She lives in Kenya on Lake Baringo and writes about quilting and her life in Kenya.

Did I mention that I was going to make a fabric book from my filament samples? I made a start on it this weekend. The idea is based on the photograph albums that my Dad used to make.
First I made my last block. The thread square is made by sewing on Solvy, making a network and then washing away the Solvy.

Then the thread square is attached to the background material and the block is quilted.

I made the cover from some of my purple hand dyed fabric with a strip of the left over machine embroidery on the front. The cover is made in one piece and will wrap around the stack of blocks.

The inside of the cover is made from the same material I have been using as the backing for all the blocks.

After neating the edges with various fancy threads and stiches, I made eyelets on each of the squares with my sewing machine and then punched holes out of the centre with the hole puncher.

On the cover I will use proper metal rivets, but the pages would have been too thick with metal on every one. The cover gets wrapped around and a piece of cord through the holes keeps everything tied together.

About 2 weeks I took delivery of three books by Ann Johnston, two about dyeing and one about quilt design. I have already browsed extensively through the two dyeing books and am sure that I shall have lots of fun trying out the things suggested in them. I like the fact that the books are spirally bound. It will make them very practical to use as a reference when dyeing. Ann’s method for dyeing is slightly different to the one I’ve been using so far, that I learnt at QU from Marjie McWilliams. Having done those courses with someone to hold my hand via the ether I have the confidence now to branch out on my own. Ann Johnston’s books are very easy to follow, well laid out and with a large number of experiments and variations to try out.
The first book is about low immersion dyeing and gives recipes for mixing colours, for dyeing gradations, for dyeing gradations with more than one colour.

The second book covers lots of other techniques for getting dye onto fabric, including painting, stamping, tying and much more. The nice thing is that it is all done with stuff, which it is easy to collect together and isn’t going to put too much of a strain on the budget.

The third book covers general design principles like line, colour, value, texture. All the examples are quilts that Ann has made herself or with some help. The fabrics have all been dyed and printed by Ann. So taken together you can see how the cloth you might make using the techniques in the first two books can be turned into fabulous art quilts - if you are Ann Johnston

The final plus point for me, about this third book, is that the quilts shown are all of the type of design that appeals to me and that I would like to make. So the book is a great source of inspiration too.
Definitely money well spent.