Ovarian Cancer Quilt: a call to action

It’s the end of April, so it must be time once again for another Ovarian Cancer quilt to fire up.

As usual, I’m sending out my call to action for all the quilters out there. Every year, we collaborate on the creation of a fundraising quilt in aid of Ovarian Cancer. In case you’re new round here, I come up with a name and a concept, and am joined in the making of blocks to fit into this design by those who’ve been with us from the start, have joined along the way or who are contributing for the first time. The Ovarian Cancer colours are teal and cream, and the blocks fit the theme but can be in your choice of construction, design and fabric.

Last year’s quilt, ‘This Teal’s on Fire’

Below is a list of those who have confirmed they’re contributing, or who have already expressed interest but not confirmed their participation yet. If you’re interested in joining, leave me a comment or email me if you already have my email address, and I will send you the brief and timeline. If you’ve previously said yes but can’t now do it, also please let me know. We need 30 blocks, and I will make up any shortfall myself. Even if you can only make one or two, your help is greatly appreciated.

Your contribution will be acknowledged on the quilt label. I develop the design, quilt everything and assemble the quilt. All you have to do is send me one or more 12½ inch (unfinished) quilt block(s) in the mail, using the colours and themes specified in the brief I will send out. I hope you will feel able to join us.

Participants – so far  (black = confirmed, red = provisional, tbc)

Kate Chiconi:   Co-ordination, design, quilting, assembly
Kjerstin Mackie (Quimper Hitty)
Cathy Foot (Nana Cathy)
Margaret Creek (The Crafty Creek)
Jean Swenson (Love Hugs)
Lynn Hutton (Tialys)
Sue Brown (From a Magpie’s Nest)
Robin Murphy
Gun Adrian (Rutigt)
Vera Daniel (Life by a Compass not a Clock)
Amo House (View from our Hill)
Debbierose Horoba (Sew Rosey)

Let’s make something beautiful and do some good together.

 

Gone, but not forgotten

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia.

A time to remember those who fought for our freedom, who made the ultimate sacrifice and who served and are still living with the consequences of their service. The medals in the image are my grandfather’s, from WWI, the ‘Great War’ that was supposed to end all wars. He won the Military Cross on the left for conspicuous gallantry, rescuing an injured fellow soldier under fire, was injured himself and spent the rest of the war as a PoW.

I am grateful, and I do not forget.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

From The Fallen by Laurence Binyon

A Little Light Looting

Sometimes, it’s only thing to do.

Such as when Hawthorne Supply Co. emails you to announce a Big Sale, and you find something really gorgeous in the perfect fabric weight and finish.

I bring you Art Gallery Fabrics’ ‘Flowershock’ in ‘Spell’, designed by Pat Bravo. It’s a fine, smooth poplin at 134gsm, and I bought 3.5 yards. Originally it was US$22/yard, and I got it for US$6.95/yard + shipping. Event with the FedEx satchel, it was still cheaper than the original price. I adore this colourway, and it’s going to be turned into a clothe of some sort rather than patchwork (except incidentally, as scraps). The sale is still on, incidentally, and I’m not getting paid anything to mention this, or drool over my fabric. There are some other really beautiful and interesting fabrics included in the sale. I urge you to go and look.

The photo makes the background look a bit greenish around the outside, but the true colour is the grey in the middle. It’s a hard colour to photograph well.

Excuse me. I have a pile of fabric to go and pet…

Henna Hands

It’s a lot of fun.

My local library held an introductory 1 hour mehndi (henna-based skin decorating) session. Our tutor, the lovely Prachi, handed out pictures of simple examples we could copy, or more complex examples we could aspire to!

We started with a practice session on paper, which was just as well, as using the henna cones was harder than it looked. Henna starts as a powder, and is mixed with oil (mainly clove and eucalyptus) to form a paste which is squeezed out of the small opening in the end of a sealed paper cone. There’s definitely a skill to ensuring the paste comes out smoothly to form clean designs. I tried a number of different shapes, patterns and borders, remembering all the examples of beautiful Indian wedding mehndi designs I’d ever seen. Yes, it takes a lot of skill and even more practice… You allow the paste to dry for a minimum of 10 minutes, and then rinse it off, at which point the stain is fixed on the skin until it wears off.

And then we were encouraged to try it out on/for ourselves. Some of us were a bit more confident than others. For those who didn’t want to end up with wobbly, blobby designs which would last up to a couple of weeks, Prachi drew the designs for them. Others of us were happy to take the plunge! I was probably over-ambitious… But I wanted to give it a real go, so I went for it.

In this photo, the top two are designs executed by Prachi. The bottom one is my chubby paw, with my own work. Another time, I’ll work a design out on paper, and then try to copy it. It seems I can buy the ready-mixed cones at my local Indian grocer. I might wait for this one to fade before I try another one…

And another time, I might do the design on the palm of my hand, so my mistakes aren’t so obvious!

ScrapHappy April

Welcome once again to ScrapHappy Day!

It’s the day my friend Gun in Sweden and I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

I had to leave the shop name in!

Anyone who remembers this coat and the bag I made to match will not be surprised that there were luscious scraps to be used up.

The fabrics were so pretty and the pieces so substantial that I simply couldn’t bear to throw them out, although I couldn’t immediately think what to do with them. They’re also backed with grey wool batting, so not suitable for lighter purposes. They’ve sat in a bag until I had a brainwave. The coat itself is very warm, too warm for our northern climate, but something less substantial would work well.

I have an olive drab fleece gilet/ bodywarmer/ hooded waistcoat. It’s a good one, a 30 year old vintage Airwalk I bought in my early 30s, which comes out year after year on the chillier days of our mild winters. I don’t like the colour much, but it’s so useful. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you? I have just enough scrap left from the coat to cover the body part in a stained-glassy sort of way, with the joins covered with black bias tape.

This is where I’m at so far. The pieces are stitched down directly onto the fleece with strong quilting thread and the larger ones are also quilted down to make them stable. I’ve pinned down the bias tape, which I’ll hemstitch carefully on either side to cover the raw edges. It’s extremely fiddly, but also extremely satisfying, and by the time winter arrives late May/June, I should have it done. I’m still debating what to do with the hood. I never use it, and I’m contemplating cutting it off and forming a sort of rolled collar. Or not. I’ll see how it goes.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at). Fellow ScrapHappy posters, please update your lists to match the one below, as things have changed recently.

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

 

Visible mending

There was no point in going for invisible.

This is one of my favourite accessories. Or perhaps that should be necessities. It’s a soft, light, block printed Indian muslin shawl/scarf. I’ve had it for at least 30 years. It travels everywhere with me; it’s perfect for cutting out nasty draughts on planes, it has done service as an extra sheet, as beachwear, as an emergency skirt, as head/shoulder coverings in places where they should be covered, as a picnic blanket, and as an impromptu shopping bag, tied up like a furoshiki.

Yesterday, it was lying on the bed, doggo was frolicking and larking about on the bed, and big old greyhound toenail met scarf. A rip occurred. It was tidy and straight. I didn’t lose my mind, but it clearly needed mending.

Options: a) matching all the colours perfectly (a lost cause); or b) creating a strong mend that was durable and not to obvious. I opted to go for a strong mend that was not too obvious. And while I was at it, I had a play with the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. It works. The mend is strong and secure, the scarf is still supple, and it doesn’t leap out and poke you in the eye.

It’s good to love something enough to fix it properly.

A Message from the Universe

When life tries to tell you something, listen.

With Obstacles one and two, I thought I just needed to press on regardless. Obstacle three smacked me upside the head and I finally paid attention.

This is where I’d got to. (Things look just a tiny bit different now, but you’ll see that in a later post).

Obstacle one was Higgins deciding that my paper pattern was a delicious treat I was withholding from him, and he was going to chew chunks out of it. ‘The dog ate my homework’. Literally. But seriously, it wasn’t that bad, and after hearing the rustling and hurtling around the corner of my work table to see him mauling my hard work, I managed to rescue it before anything terminal happened. It’s patched and a bit soggy in places but still perfectly usable.

Obstacle two was the overlocker (serger) unthreading itself again, and again, and again. I finally got it going once more, and zoomed up the second front dart (hidden under the outer pin tuck on the bodice front).

And that’s when Obstacle three made itself known. I’d been so preoccupied with getting the dratted edge finished off that I’d failed to notice I’d had the corner of the neck opening tucked under. I’d sliced a good inch off the corner. It had all been going too well…

People, I listened, finally. It was time to call it a day.

Having conceded defeat, the Universe permitted me to rescue the situation. I added a ‘feature’ patch to even up the chopped off corner. I will be adding a button to make it look more purposeful, and a loop on the other side. Neither of them needed, but we do what we must.

Tomorrow, I shall be gathering the centre part of the back, then stitching on the back yoke. If no more thunderbolts are sent from above, I might try and join front to back at the shoulders and maybe, just maybe, let in the sleeve heads.

Watch this space. I’ll try to avoid bloodshed.

The Unmaking

Sometimes, you just have to do it.

Unmake something you love, so it can live again.  I have – had – a favourite top. It was made of fine, smooth cotton lawn, in a vibrant shade of orange with white motifs on it. I bought it in an op/charity/thrift shop for $5, and wore it weekly for many years. It was perfect for our climate, it was cheerful and comfortable, and I loved it.

It was starting to show its age. It was faded. I’d mended it once, twice, and then it started to get very thin under the arms from wear and friction. And then the neck band started to fray and wear through. I had to concede. Time and physics defeated me. So I began the Unmaking.

Have you ever tried unpicking overlocking/ serging? It’s a Lot, especially as it was good quality 4-thread overlocking. I was urged to simply cut it off, but if you do that, you lose your seam allowances. So I unpicked every single thread. Then I starched the pieces firmly and pressed everything flat (or as flat as they’d go after years of curving around me).

And then, remembering how they’d all gone together, and where bits might have been trimmed off, I traced around every piece onto large sheets of butcher’s paper, and labelled and ruled straight grain lines and marked where pieces should match up.

I’ve modified the pattern slightly. I’m making a simpler front opening. There was an elaborate placket around a slit in the front neckline. I don’t need that, it contributes nothing to the design. I’m going to add a simple facing and make a rectangular slot.

The Unmaking is done. Now I’m ready for the Making of a new friend.

Marquise #7: on the downhill

This bit’s tedious…

I’m in the middle of assembling the main body of the quilt, and it’s extremely repetitive and, dare I say, boring? This has always been my least favourite part of hexie quilts; actual hand quilting is huge fun by comparison. I have the first 6 columns from the left fully assembled, and two more sets of two columns also done. You can see the white gap where the next set will start. Speaking of which, I got my quilting thread. It’s not DMC, which I can’t get in the right colour unless I buy a dozen, which I don’t need. It’s Wonderfil, and I love the fresh bright green.

Sorry about the long asbsence, I’ve been a bit unwell with the vertigo and back pain lately, and haven’t felt up to crashing on with hand stitching. It seems to make things a little worse, which is strange until you realise that if your balance organs are damaged, you have to rely on your eyes to orient you in the world. Thousands of tiny stitches is tiring on the eyes. On the other hand, the process is also somewhat addictive, so I guess it’s finding a balance. Probably a life lesson I should have learned before now…

Time to give my eyes a rest, not to mention my fingers!

 

 

Marquise #6: not far to go.

Lots of blue trellis made.

About 120 blue hexies still needed to complete the current pattern. I’m going to need more after that to ‘straighten’ the edges a bit, as I’ve decided to appliqué the outer hexie edge to a straight border.

I’ve begun joining more of it all up. The first four columns are complete, and I’ve started the fifth. It is extremely tendious, but has to be done or it’s nothing but pieces.

I’ve also decided to be easy on myself. Quilting will be straight diagonal lines, intersecting primarily through the trellis, but probably also through the centres of the diamonds. Thread will be something colourful, I think… Bright green, maybe?

What do you think? Green or orange or pink or turquoise…?