Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

As previously mentioned, I was extremely lucky enough to attend a 2 day workshop recently to learn 'ART QUILTING'. We had a fabulous weekend, and I learnt a great deal. Here are a few photographs of the samples that I made during that time.


Our workshop got off to a flying start on Saturday morning with the unveiling of a quilt that I've been in awe of ever since I saw it on Ferret's website. (photograph courtesy of http://www.ferfab.co.uk/). It is a truely stunning design, and upclose it certainly didn't disappoint. It's one that I truely hope to aspire to (with lots of time, and even more practise!).

Whilst she was there, Ferret was working on another 'Portrait Art Quilt'. It was great to see how she takes a photograph and looks at the shades and hues in the colours to turn it into a quilt. I hope that she has had the time to complete this one, as it would be lovely to see the design from the conception to completion.

We started sewing in my 'comfort zone' and made a quilt sandwich using approx 1m square of black fabric. We divided this into 4 squares which was then to be used as our sample / practise piece throughout the weekend. Firstly, we played with decorative stitches on our respective machines. This is quite easy, I thought! I can do this. Hmmmmm .... cocky? Stupid? Idiotic? All 3?

For the second square, we were asked to 'write' our names using the machine. Ok, getting a little trickier now. There are a few letters in my name that don't flow naturally when you don't have a choice but to do 'joined up' writing. You can't take your needle off the canvas as you would a pencil. It's not precisely hand-written quality, but I don't think that I did too bad a job of it.

Next, we were all shown various drawings on Ferret's white board. (I'm sure that girl has shares in the whiteboard marker company, as she seemed to have a never ending supply!). Now the designs she produced on the whiteboard were beautiful, many were totally stunning. As she drew them, they flowed so naturally, and looked fairly simple when you knew where you were going. However, when you were then told to go away and stitch them .... hmmmmmm not as easy as it seems.

I had big problems with my machine as I started to the 'free motion' quilting designs. I broke 4 needles within a very short period of time. I was becoming more and more stressed as I carried on. I was very wary of moving the fabric by this stage for fear of breaking yet another needle. Fortunately for me, Jo brought out her old faithful Husqvarna D1. This worked a dream - it didn't make my stitching any better, but it sure made it an awful lot easier now I didn't have to worry so much.

Unfortunately though, the psychological damage had already been achieved. My confidence had taken a great knock in the morning with all those needles, I was so convinced that I was doing something wrong that I just could concentrate completely. Even with Jo's machine, I was still waiting for a needle to break.

However, on Sunday, after a good nights sleep, I came back to the workshop with a whole new attitude to it. I sat down, and completely ignored my machine that was sitting at the back of my table. I set to work quilting my 'mini wholecloth' that I had prepared on Jo's machine. I divided the square up into different shapes which I then filled in with various designs. There's a lot of flaws on there, but for a first attempt, it isn't too bad. Some of the designs maybe difficult to see as I played rather 'safe' with the colours that I chose to use in both the material and the threads.


The photograph on the left here is of the back. the designs can be seen a lot clearer, however so can the mistakes including a few 'bird nests'!

All in all, I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, however next time, I would ensure that I had a different machine from the start so that I wouldn't have to cope with the stresses of machine errors. I know a lot of bad workmen/women blame their tools, but in this case it truely was my machine that has taken a dislike to free-motion quilting.

Bags

Wow, how busy was I last week. As I mentioned in my previous posting, I needed to make 17 bags in rather a short period of time. However, I managed it, and here are the results of my hard work. Fifteen of them were for a nursery. The manager chose a beautiful spring bug and very cute butterfly. Both of which stitched out lovely.

They were all personalised with the children's names and then the nursery on the back. Please note, that to safeguard the children, I have not taken photographs of the back of any of these bags.

Jorja's mum chose a catterpillar for her design which fits in nicely with her class theme. These were stitched and made into both a PE and matching shoe bag ready for Jorja to start 'big' school in September.

What's been happening?

Anyone wondering why I haven't posted the photographs that i promised? There is a reason - and a good one too.

On Monday evening, I received an email from a lady asking me to make her 15 PE bags. She runs a nursery and had a great idea of giving each of the children one to take with them as they leave to go to attend 'big school'. The only problem was that she needed them before Monday of next week!

Impossible task? ? ? You may think that, indeed I certainly did when I received the message. Surely I would need all weekend to enable me to make this quantity and the PE & Shoe bag that I had already received an order for. Especially with the amount of time that I've been in school this week.

Well I certainly love a challenge and rose to the task in hand. Each bag needed to be embroidered with a cute design (a spring bug for the boys and a butterfly for the girls). I also embroidered each one with the childs name on the front, and the nursery on the back. I knew that they would take around an hour each to complete just the embroidery. So time was very precious indeed this week.

I spent all day Tuesday embroidering the designs on the front on the bags.

When I came back from school on Wednesday I got straight to work embroidering the backs of the bags. I programmed the name into my machine and made it into an arch and added the year. I loved how well they stitched out.

Finally on Thursday, I spent the afternoon sewing up the bags and added the cords.

I completed all 17 bags just before Jon walked through the door at 8pm. I was so impressed with my time management. They're all now sitting in a box in my lounge awaiting a trip to the Post Office tomorrow. I hope that they will all be received in time after all the hard work that I've put into making them.

It was too dark to take photographs this evening after I'd finished, so that's a task for the morning before I visit the Post Office.

UPDATES

Oh my, how time does fly when you're having fun. Things have been rather hectic here recently with one thing or another - although there's nothing at all unusual in that now is there.

I finished my swap pincushion, and after a slow start due to missing emails eventually sent it to my partner. I decided to hand sew a felt cushion which took me most of a day to make, however I was really pleased with the results.

The pincushion I received is absolutely beautiful, unfortunately, my camera isn't working at the moment so I haven't been able to take pictures. However, my brother is visiting at the weekend and i've already asked him to bring his over so hopefully I'll manage to take some then.

Gen was extremely happy with the 4 letters that she received. She does keep asking why she hasn't received the 5th letter, which I haven't been able to give her an answer. She's hoping to write back to the children that have written to her, hopefully she'll manage to do this soon.

Last weekend, I atttended a workshop at Jo's http://hobbyholidays.blogspot.com/ . The tutor that she had invited to run the workshop was the fabulous Ferret http://ferfab.blogspot.com/. She was an inspiration to all who attended. I will post a seperate update regarding this, hopefully with photos.

I was back at Oasis Academy this week to complete a tile project with the Year 6 transition students. I had a great time meeting everyone, and am really looking forward to seeing all of their glazed masterpieces displayed when the school re-opens in September after the Summer break. Again, I will post photographs when I can take them.

I've received 2 orders for PE bags from customers who have found my website following a Google search which is fantastic news.

ooooooh .... last but certainly not least ... I've finished the top of Gen's quilt this week!!! I just need to buy the wadding and backing and then quilt it up. Again, pics to follow soon.

letter swap.

Here is a very proud Genevieve with the first letter that she received as part of http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/ 's kids letter swap. She was so excited to receive the letter from Eamonn a couple of days ago. He included a picture that he had drawn of a platypus which Gen had never seen before. She also received a lovely pencil with pictures of Australian animals down it, this has now gone into her desk drawer and she has assured me that she won't sharpen it as she wants to keep it to remind her of her penpal (sweet!)

She has also received a letter yesterday from Jade who is another Australian. Jade sent a map of Australia to show where she lived and a lovely letter. Gen particularly liked the picture that Jade drew for her too.

I had to laugh as when I picked Gen up from school yesterday, I told her that a letter was waiting for her from Jade in Australia. She said that it would be nice to communicate through MSN and wondered if they have computers in Australia! I didn't go into how she thought that they had signed up for the swap if they didn't have a computer! LOL.

Swap Update

Well, I now have one even more excited little girl. What great news to give her when she came out of her exam.

Christie has sent details of her swap partners. Her face when I told her she would be communicating with children from different countries was so wonderful to see.

She will be exchanging letters with :-

2 boys - One from America and one from Australia

2 girls - again one from America and one from Australia

and last (but certainly not least) sisters from America who have joined the swap together.

She has already drafted her letters, she just needs to print them out and get them posted which will hopefully be on Saturday.

I really do hope that this is the start of long lasting pen-pal friendships.

Good luck to all those participating, I'm sure your children are just as excited as Gen is.

Another Swap!!!!

This time I've signed Gen up - Every time the post lady arrives, she asks the same question 'why is there never any letters for me Mum?' .... well now there will be 5 of them for her! woohoo she'll enjoy this one for sure. Although it does mean that she has to write 5 letters too LOL.

If you would like to sign your kids up too, then the link is http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/2009/05/kids-mail-swap-2-sign-ups.html

Happy Crafting xxx

Pincushion Summer Swap

I've just signed up for Sandra's (http://www.quiltathome.blogspot.com/) Pincushion Summer Swap .... why not join me in this creative crafting swap .... just click on her link for more information.

Beads, Beads and even more Beads!

First of all are you impressed .... two postings in one day! Maybe a hangover isn't such a bad thing afterall LOL.

I've been saying for a while now that I really must put some photographs of my beaded jewellery both on my website and here on my blog. Well today I've finally managed to get the time to do them! wooohoooo. I've taken pics of all the necklaces I currently have in stock. I have made more but didn't take pics before I sold them. I will be putting more details onto my website with regards to lengths and pricing etc. so if anyone would like to make a purchase, then please let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

Here goes : -


























































I also make charm, they make fantastic accessories for your mobile phone / PDA / MP3 players etc. I also use them on my scissors to avoid any confusion when I go to sewing class - it's so easy to pick up someone else's scissors if they are the same as yours, these beautiful charms avoid all that confusion. The one on my brown scissors has a little bell so it jingles as I cut :-)

Embroidered Blocks Galore!

I know there will be some reading my postings who aren't sure of what a Tripple Irish Chain looks like. The pic above shows a plan that I worked out on my computer using Excel and colouring in the squares - easy peasy. The middle 'chain' should actually be a darker shade of blue, but it printed out the same colour as the 2 chains either side. This centre chain is the one that I'm making with the lighter fabric instead of a darker one.

Here is the first block finished (I've made 4 so far but need to purchase more material before I can make more). I think that the centre pale chain stands out really well against the other fabrics. Although, you won't get to see the 'chains' until I have put quite a few blocks together.

These are a selection of the embroidered squares that I have done to place in the middle of the second blocks. I've used about 4 different designs and stitched them in various colour combinations. I didn't want these to detract from the chains, therefore I have only used 4 colours (lilac, purple, fuschia and green). Unfortunately I did make an error when cutting the blocks. I knew that I needed them to be 10" finished square. So dutifully I cut them all to 10 1/2" to allow 1/4" seam allowance. As I put the first one in the embroidery machine, realisation hit me - I should have cut them slightly larger as the embroidery will pull the material in slightly. Unfortunately, I was right (for a change LOL). The squares are now measuring approx 10 1/4". I think what I'm going to do to rectify the problem is cut them down a little more and add a border around them in one of the other material. Hopefully, when I've finished, it will look as though this was my intention from the beginning!

This last photograph gives a bit of insight as to how the second block will look when it's put together. The squares aren't in the correct order around the sides as I just laid the embroidered square on top of one of the block #1's. But at least it gives an idea of where I'm going with this one.

Baby Gift

As promised, photographs of the baby gift I made for my friend. I embroidered a bib, face cloth and muslin cloth with this Winnie the Pooh design and added the baby's name. I thought that they looked beautiful altogether. The green in the background of the design is cotton material that is stitched on first as an applique. I've used this design quite a few times and never tire of it. When I've done this for girls, I tend to use a pink butterfly material which looks stunning too.

In doing my bit to save the planet, I try not to use unecessary packaging, so thought it would be a nice idea to wrap the gifts in the muslin rather than using wrapping paper. I added a little blue wool to keep it altogether. I then placed them in a small paper carrier bag made from recycled paper. I loved the end result.

All stripped and ready for action!!!!!

woohooooo ... how many men have peaked because of the title??? LMAO

I've made a start on Gen's quilt (shush don't tell her as it's a surprise for her birthday). I've cut up plenty of strips and am ready for action. This quilt is going to be a Tripple Irish Quilt. She saw the design I had made on the computer and said she liked it. I innocently asked her what colours she would use if she was making it and 'PURPLE' was her answer. I was hoping she would choose blue as that seems to be her favourite at the minute and I didn't relish the thought of another purple quilt this quickly, but if that's what she wants, then who am I to argue.

I'm not going to write too much detail in this posting, as I'll do a full one when I've actually finished the quilt. However, as promised to Kerry, I'll post a quilt teaser of photographs below to make sure you come back to see the finished item (hopefully not too long away).

I needed 4 fabrics for the design, I found a wonderful batik fabric (http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=FQ4355) and decided that this was going to be the material I would base the other colours around. It was a struggle, we had almost every purple fabric off of the shelves to compare them together and spent a lot of time, but we got there in the end. I chose http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=ST3329509 and http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CC575111t. After a suggestion from Jo, I decided that instead of a darker colour in the middle of the chains, I would use the light colour again, therefore only needed 3 fabrics.

To ensure that I was on the right track, I showed Gen the colours last night and she loved them - Although I did fib and tell her that it was another quilt for Jo! lol

FABRICS

EMBROIDERY

Going Potty over Pottery!!!!

I have has many customers during the 3 1/2 years we have been running Potter Doodle Doo, some come back time after time whilst others just come along for something different. Either way it's always a pleasure to see their creations. Each and every time I open up the kiln after a firing, I'm like a kid in a sweetie shop. The colours and designs really do come alive during the firing process. Many have asked what happens to their items when I take them home so I thought that I would write a posting which will hopefully explain the process.

Those who have attended will know that we start off with a blank plate. This is called bisque or bisqueware which is a clay product that has been fired without any glazes. All of the tableware items that we sell are imported from either Italy or America by our supplier.

The bisque is painted using a non-toxic, lead free coloured glaze. The brand that we use is called 'Stroke & Coat' and is made by a company called 'Mayco' http://maycocolors.com/ in America. As this glaze is water based, it is suitable for using to make wonderful baby footprints. The colours aren't very interesting when painting, however the effect after firing is fabulous.

I use a super high gloss unleaded glaze which is made in Italy. It gives a wonderful sheen and shine to the surface of the item. The item is held with a pair of tongs and then dipped into the bucket of glaze. This covers the item with a light blue / green colour which if you haven't seen before can be quite concerning.

Here on the left is a selection of pottery waiting to be glazed.

As my website states, we are a family business, and many of your will have seen Gen at the events and workshops that I have run. She is always asking to help during the glazing process, but I don't allow her to dip items unless she hasn't painted them herself. Tiles however are unsuitable for dipping as you do not want to have glaze on the underside of them, therefore we brush glaze these. As you can see, Gen was in her element glazing these for me, she was so proud when they came out of the kiln - you would think that she had actually painted them all herself not just glazed them.

Items that have been dipped and are now drying out waiting to be fettled.

Once the items have been dipped, they are left on the table to dry, the time this takes depends upon how warm the room is. In the Summer, items dry in just a few minutes, however in the cold of Winter, it can take upto half an hour or so.

When they are dry, they are 'fettled' this involves removing any glaze from the 'foot' of the item. The foot is the area underneath your pot that sits on the table, if glaze is not removed from this area it will fuse to the shelf in the kiln. It is done by firstly scraping the area with a fettling knife and then sponging with a damp cloth to ensure that all is removed.

The kiln I have is a Paragon Kiln (again made in America), this will hold approximately 20 plates with special plate racks. I can get approximately 45-50 mugs in there at once. They are then loaded into the kiln for firing (unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the kiln loaded up - SORRY!)

The kiln takes approximately 8 hours to reach the high temperature of just over 1000 degrees celcius and then about another 8 hours to cool down again. The cooling period can be longer during hot weather. I don't open the kiln until it is showing about 30-40 degrees at which point I leave for at least another hour with the lid open as the items are usually a lot hotter than the ones at the top. being a bit stupid last week, I opened up the kiln and thought.... 'oooooh that's a lovely mug' at which point I decided to pick it up to take a better look! How dumb was that idea, I burnt my hand on it. If it had been anything else, i would have dropped it instantly but knowing that it was something a customer had lovingly painted, I grinned and gently put it down on the top of the kiln controller ... now how's that for dedication! LOL.

Below are some photographs of fired items, these were all painted at events that took place over the Easter Holiday 2009. I apologise in advance, I didn't have time to take photographs of everything, so just chose a few at random. If you would like to see your item on my blog or website, then please email me a photograph of your item, including your age, name and where you painted it and I will display it for you.

How does this strange looking substance go clear?? WELL! It's all part of the firing process which sees the kiln heat to temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees celcius! How I explain this to the children is the fact that the kiln gets over 4 times hotter than the oven in your kitchen. The coloured glaze that was used to paint your design also undergoes a chemical reaction to the heat and becomes a lot more vibrant giving some stunning colours and effects.

These tiles were painted at an event I did on Easter Monday for Oasis Church Wintringham. Guests were invited to paint a tile with what Easter means to them. We had a varied selection of tiles painted from beautiful Spring flowers and Easter Eggs through to the Cross. These are going back to the individuals who painted them which in a way is a shame as they look wonderful all together there on the table.