A Slow Cloth - snail's pace

I have really enjoyed hand sewing this piece on my travels (e.g. children's swimming lessons, waiting in car at school etc.). It's crazy quilting but instead of using the bright colours of most crazy patches I have used some recycled plains in linen, cotton and silk. They have a nice mixture of texture but are calming in colour. It's like a little snail on the crazy paving. The central design I doodled on my sewing machine and coloured using Pitt pens (dye based). The backing is some soft green silk. The finshed piece is 8"x 8".

Whilst in the garden this morning I was followed by a lovely Comma butterfly who basked in the warm Autumn sunshine. I hope he survives the winter...

Cat Two

OK these Crazy Cats could become a bit of an obsession. This is number two now and number three has a body under the sewing machine so wait up!
This one will end up looking down at a mouse or spider. Isabel (7) says it should be a story and end up with a very fat exploding cat with all it's threads frayed on the last block having eaten various other animals. Don't kids just love a nice bit of gore?

I'm looking forward to the Malvern Quilt Show in two weeks because I need some silk (need being a word which stitchers will understand to mean lusting after in a hugely worrying way) from The Silk Route or Mulberry Silks. This fabric is so lovely to work with and I like the contrast between its sheen and the matte nubbiness of linen. By the way I now go into charity shops with eyes peeled for linen trousers. Very nice to cut up and make into something far more useful like this (ha ha).

I received these two lovely prints from Kit Eastman this week on her "give away". I am fascinated by her dyeing processes - I've never seen anything like it before - she uses natural pigments with soy milk as the binder and stencils and also soy paste. I like to keep going to her site to see what she is up to.

Here is a little selection of some purpleness in my garden this afternoon - hopefully most of it is still there after Tom (10) played football with a neighbour.

Crazy Cat

I am sooooooo pleased......

I have made this Crazy Cat patch today with huge thanks to Jude at Spirit Cloth for the inspiration and whose blog is my favourite of all. I find it hard to work out exactly how she does things but this idea was too much fun to not try.

I have liked the idea of crazy quilting for a while but when I look at those quilts they can overwhelm me with pattern and colour. In this there is a 3" crazy block which is mellowed by peaceful plain linen to make up a 9" one. The crazy colours are from my stash of hand dyed cotton and silks (hmmm silk...must get more because it's the loveliest fabric of all). The linen is from a linen suit from TK Maxx which I never wore and nearly threw out many times over the years. Finally it has had the chop! The legs and head are from some Japanese lineny fabric bought some time ago. So it's all nice and thrifty! The head is turned applique and the embroidery is DMC in two and three strands. I want to do more and make a quilt - it was very satisfying!

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I have rhubarb the size of triffids in the allotment and I made some scrummy chutney from it yesterday c/o a recipe by Monty Don.




The colours in the pan with the ginger, sugar and red wine vinegar were mouthwatering.



The finished product is excellent with crusty bread and cheddar for lunch. Good old Monty Don - I love a man who says he is "born to dig".

Meanwhile the chicken patches were satin stitched late last night as I'm going through a not sleeping phase again. Might as well sew as be bored in bed!