Sarah came round for lunch yesterday. I made a pie. We ate the pie. We went for a breezy walk. . . . and Sarah had a suprise . . . . . no, Bruce, it’s not for you . . . . . . a quilt! For me! Sarah began making this lovely thing…
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belle’s summer quilt
The quilt is finished! To recap: The quilt-top is made out of twelve of Belle’s stripey t-shirts, cut up and pieced together; I used an old blue sheet for the quilt back and one layer of light cotton batting. I tried various methods of hand-quilting the top, but didn’t like the way the stitches interfered…
Read Morehelp
I fear I may be developing Brocketty tendencies. I spent the morning binding the quilt: The binding is not made from T-shirt material like the rest of the quilt (couldn’t face the horror of binding it with jersey) so I cut strips from a pair of trousers instead. The fabric is a nice, stable cotton-linen…
Read Moresounding out
Me and the quilt have been sounding each other out for some weeks now. I have been trying various things on the quilt top. Various threads. Various directions. None of them felt or looked quite right. Whatever feeling I followed, the stitch lines just seemed wrong. Stitching the quilt top seemed to work against the…
Read Moregood morning
Hurrah! Apple have agreed to replace the logic board on the computer. We do not have to shell out. There is An Adventure planned for later. But I have a few hours this morning for reading, knitting. . . . . . and taking a new direction with Belle’s quilt
Read Moreslip-stitching
Jeanette’s question about technique has been on my mind. How do I want to finish the top of the T-shirt quilt? Really? How does it want to be done? I don’t want to lose the fluidity, or the pouffiness, or the wonkiness, for that matter. How much hand quilting should I do? Just in the…
Read Morefrom twelve t-shirts
You may be wondering what has happened to Belle’s quilts. Well, it is taking time. I have to choose the right moments to work on them. They feel and smell of Belle. Making them is not an easy thing. But there has been some progress recently. For the first quilt I chose twelve of Belle’s…
Read Morejaunt
We went on a jaunt to the National Museum of Costume outside Dumfries, to see the “Hip Knits” exhibition. In the Museum’s permanent collections, there were some fabulous nineteenth-century dresses and shoes on display, but my favourite thing of the day was this: incredibly fine linen whitework, backed with pink silk, and made by one…
Read Morefunctional poetry
I have been making a start thinking about Belle’s quilts. She lived near Blackpool, and the first quilt will be a jolly sea-side-y affair, made up entirely of her stripey tops and T-shirts — of which she had over thirty. In the summer she was always in stripes. I’ve been looking at different methods of…
Read Moresame as it never was
I nipped out this lunchtime to visit the Edinburgh Quilt Show. I spent quite a bit of time with the themed exhibitions, among which I saw several quilts, all of them nice variations on the same sampler design, made by students of Mandy Shaw. This is how these quilts were described: I confess I was…
Read Morebelle’s things
I am wary of posting about something so painful and personal, but feel it is important, so here goes. A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law died. Her death was unexpected, very sudden, and very sad indeed. Belle was only 64, was looking forward to retiring, and, in fact, would have done so this week. She…
Read Moreblanket
Here’s a quick pic of the finished blanket: In the end I tied it — theres no batting to move around inside it and the test quilting I did looked completely pants on top of the pattern of the fabric, which is already quite busy. It looks better lying flat though, it has to be…
Read More£1.50
Don’t get me wrong, I love our flat, but did I mention that it is berloody freezing? There is one source of heat in the living room, and we have the cooker in the kitchen, but everywhere else is baltic. In winter we wander around the place wrapped up like woolly mammoths. I have been…
Read Moregot
Among the lovely things I received: A ‘ballerina‘ kit from Hanne Falkenberg . . . . . . some fabulous vintage fabrics, of which these bellhops were my favourite . . . . . . coasters made of Japanese washi and shaped like wee kimonos . . . . . . and this wonderful quilted…
Read Morewords and stitches
Last night I dreamt I was reading a sweater. I stood at the front of a full room. The sweater was my script and I read aloud from its stitches as if they were braille. Perhaps this dream suggests my mind’s happy ability to mingle together what I do for a living with what I…
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KDD & Co 