News - Brie's Shop:

It is a little while since I finished my City and Guilds textiles course (you may remember the pain!! )

At the time I did a lot of research into textile designers but I did not find this designer until literally a moment ago - as I was wandering the web over my bowl of warming winter soup (courtesy Aldi, in case you are wondering) - and the designs and the applications caught my eye.  So I thought I would share this with you.

The style has an obvious vintage feel to it, but seems to have a very contemporary twist, which I simply cannot quite put my finger on.

There are some lovely things here.

And I found Brie via this fabulous vintage shop Winter's Moon (based in Chichester, but they clearly ship).

I think I could fall in love with Ercol - perhaps always slightly unfairly associated with the older generation.


'via Blog this'

Button maker, the Midlands — S.E.H Kelly — Clothes made in England and the British Isles:

I like this site, though I confess I don't have any of their clothes.

But worth having a look at the information about their makers.  This piece on a button maker somewhere in the midlands makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.  There is something very reassuring about them.

Enjoy.

'via Blog this'

Wandering around the web (getting very distracted!) and I found this - which I just had to share.

You can change all the colour combinations - such fun!

I am not in the market for wall paper just now, but if I was........

50s Inspired Designer Wallpaper Collection | Kerdova Print:

'via Blog this'

If you have been tuning in this week you will know that I have been taming the new beast!  The freestyle quilt frame.

Well, I am glad to report that this afternoon I made progress.  I might be getting there.

First of all I probably wasn't quite so tired as I was in the week - that might have helped.  And I wound the quilt on a bit so that I was quilting on the patchwork rather than on the edging fabric.

So, what do you think?



Ok - I am not going to win a quilt show with this, but it will do.


Getting a bit adventurous (some might say cocky!)


I am not going to tempt fate and say that I have cracked it because I haven't.  But at least I have managed some stitching.

Problems encountered today:-

• The bobbin ran out but because I am not looking at the control panel this was a bit of a shock!
• Reloading a bobbin with the machine on the quilt frame
• The upper thread kept breaking (need to do a bit of trouble shooting.  This is not usually a problem I have when doing free machine quilting)
• The material bounces a bit - I have not quite got the 'level' of the machine on the frame right

And it was all going so well!

This evening I embarked on Phase 3 of Wrestling with the Beast, and it would be fair to admit that this evening the Beast won!

Now it could be that for the past 2 days I have been holed up with Business Change guys at work (business analysts and solutions architects - I live such a wonderful life!) and frankly my head is in a fug.

Or it could be that I was just getting a bit cocky!

But either way, this evening the Beast defeated me and I had to give up and watch a bit of telly.


My first challenge was to get the sewing machine on - that was not clear from the otherwise brilliant instructions.  I ended up taking one of the rollers off but am not sure if that is what I should have done.



Then I realised that I could not actually get at the handles of the trolley bed because of the wadding - I guess I should have rolled that up with the background fabric onto the front roller - oh well!


But the biggest hassle of all was working on the machine sideways.  I am sure I will eventually get used to it but when you are used to sitting in front of the machine to do everything this proved to be a bit of a challenge.


And finally, my biggest problem was that I could not see what I was doing!  My chair is too low (so that's another trip to IKEA then - or a peruse around Ebay) and the distance from me is just at that awful point where I don't know whether to have my glasses on or off!

I gave up, had a glass of wine and watched the telly.

Tomorrow - unpicking the disastrous stitching and trying another tactic!

Buoyed up by my success with phase 1 of 'the beast', the next night I embarked on the second bit, hereafter referred to as Phase 2 - adding the fabric.

Now while I bought 'the beast' with paper quilts in mind, I thought I should follow the instructions to the letter - to start with at least(for only by understanding how something is designed to work can you properly start  to push the boundaries) and, trust me, there was no mention of quilting with paper in the instructions.  So, I rummaged around in the back of the cupboard and found a patchwork quilt top (nine patch if you want to know) crying out for a bit of TLC and definitely  ripe for Phase 2.

This is not a 'how to guide'  - the people who make the quilt frame have wonderful guides for putting the frame up - both printed and on You Tube etc.  More this is to report ' how I found the whole experience.

  You put on the backing first - pinning it to one of the rollers.

This bit was a doddle.  You then roll it onto the back roller and pin it to the front - still a doddle (though I had the manual to hand - there it is on the chair behind!)


This bit was a bit more fiddly - and in fact I also called it a night at this point (since I had to be up at stupid O'Clock the next morning for the day job!!)

The next bit is to roll the top onto the middle roller while rolling the backing onto the front roller so that I can start quilting from the top!

Frankly that all felt like too much - so I will have to come back to that last little bit of set up.  And then I am ready to quilt.

Now while this might sound like a bit of a moan - it isn't.  Once you get the hang of this I am sure it is quick and the whole process is much easier than basting a quilt sandwich together!

So, so far so good.

Pop back for Phase 3.

I have been wrestling with 'the beast'!  And I won!

Actually, that's a bit unfair since it was not too difficult to get 'the beast' to submit.  The instructions were crystal clear and the photos helped a lot.  The screws fitted into their allotted holes easily and were very easy to tighten up with the allen key supplied.

Much more hard work was tidying the studio to make way for it (the studio just tends to be used as a dumping area, partly because the radiator did not work so the room was too cold to actually do any art in and partly because the light in there was so awful.  Both problems are now fixed thanks to a plumber and an IKEA lamp.)

So here is The Beast set up and ready for quilting - that is for tomorrow!




From these pics the studio looks a bit bleak.  I think I need to create a design wall on that left hand wall on the top picture.

And it doesn't help that we don't have a garden shed here so the room also has to accommodate all the gardening tools!  That is the handles of the lawn mower you may be able to make out in the left hand side of the top photo and the strimmer is kept behind the door!

Today the day job took me to Birmingham - to the NEC to be precise (the home of Festival of Quilts - but that is another story).

Today I went to the Skills Show.  In fact the real reason that I went along was to attend a conference about UKCES .  I attended the conference and then had a quick (very quick) gallop around the actual skills show.

The Skills Show is aimed at school leavers and lots of employers and colleges were giving them a chance to try their hand at certain skills.  The car and traditional construction industries (Plastering, carpentry etc.) were well represented, as were the hair and beauty industry.

And then I found this, and I felt I just had to share it with you.


Yep, tucked in a corner and with a few bemused youths looking on there was a Yurt and some one from a welsh college demonstrating traditional skills to build a Yurt!

Actually it looked rather cosy!

But I did not find anyone promoting skills in the textile industries (other than a college promoting fashion design!).

Life is hectic!

There's the Day Job (with a 'to do' list as long as my arm), then there's Son No 1 (moving studio and doing the books), then there's the dog duties (Whippet X and his pal Malinois X - who is an overenthusiastic youth) and then there is the building work.  All of this going on pretty simultaneously!

But on the weekend I managed to grab a bit more time to do some more work on the memory pieces.  These are A4 journal quilts (thank goodness).

First of all some painted fabric was needed for the ivy leaves. (The theme is Memories in Black and White but the ivy leaves will be the only colour on the pieces).  These were the colours I used (nothing special - good old acrylic paint)

 Applied with a roller.

Over this - a cup holder from Costa which I had kept because the texture was so interesting.