Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

FO: Rosa's Quilt & London Marathon stuff

I simply can't believe that this has taken me so long to complete. But it's done now, hurrah! I had completed the top and basted it together with the backing and wadding back in January. I knew that quilting and binding wasn't going to be a big job, but I've had a bit of a block about getting my machine out and just doing it. I really don't know why - I love sewing, and was really looking forward to getting on with a few half-finished quilt projects. Somehow there have just been too many other things to do.

On Friday afternoon, once I had finished our packing for London, I finally sat down and quilted. It took me all of about an hour and a half to do shadow lines around each of the main blocks, and then to attach the binding. I then set to slip-stitching the other side of the binding in the car.

We are staying with lovely Belinda this weekend, and Immy has been keeping careful watch over the quilt. She came for a sniff, to investigate what it was all about, but didn't seem too impressed with it!

We headed out and about yesterday - first stop was the ExCel centre to pick up Jim's race number. He's number 45699 and if you want to track his progress, you can do so at this link: London Marathon Tracking

I also want to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated or bought a Ready, Steady Go! pattern. Jim's fundraising has been more successful than we ever dared to imagine, and he is now flying past his £3,000 goal. As it stands just now, the totaliser says: £3,108.48 which is flipping incredible. Refuge does amazing work with people experiencing domestic violence and every penny of that money will be put to good use. We will continue to add pattern sales to the total as they sell. I also can't believe that there are still a few skeins of the GORGEOUS Go! Green for Refuge Semi Precious yarn by BabyLongLegs. It's £14 for a 100g skein and all proceeds from sales of this yarn are going to Refuge. Do treat yourself (or I'm going to have all the remaining skeins, as it's just my colour!!). Once again a huge thank you to everyone who has helped with any of the fundraising. You are all BRILLIANT!

Once we had picked up Jim's race number, we took the cable car over to the O2, and then walked along the river to Cutty Sark. It was such a beautiful day yesterday. And it was the first time in ages that I've been outside and done some exercise. Thanks Belinda & Neil for a lovely day!

When we got back, I collapsed on the sofa and set to finishing the binding of the quilt. And before I knew it, I was fastening off the last thread. I'm really pleased with this little quilt - it's got lots of lovely pictures and colours and things, and I hope that Rosa will enjoy snuggling under it as she gets bigger.

I really enjoyed making it for her. (It's a Riley Blake layer cake, backed with a simple blue and white spot fabric and plain cream binding in case you're interested.)

So that pretty much brings us up to date, I think. I should now get out of bed, as Jim is about to head off to run the furthest he has ever run. I am too proud for words of his acievements already. He more than deserves every single one of these cakes that his students made for him last week:

Legendary!

I hope to be back later with a marathon report, but I might not manage it as we have to drive home tonight, and tomorrow is a very big day for us. If nothing appears here, then head over to TrueBrit Knits, as Belinda has said that she will pop something up for us. :)

Little bites

So I tried to resist. But it didn't work. So I cast on Chapeau! by True Brit Knits (Belinda Boaden and Wendy Baker).

I probably shouldn't have, but I thought that perhaps a change of gauge might be enough of a difference to avoid arm-ache. I've been taking it easy, and just squeezing in little bites of knitting here and there.

I'm doing the three-colour version and there will be MASSIVE POMPOMZ when it's done. Hopefully I'll get a little bit more knitting done this week, in between other things. My arms seem fine as long as I don't work for too long in one stretch (a lot less time than I would normally knit for...).

I've also been doing some sewing, and I'm not far from finishing Rosa's quilt.

It just needs quilting and binding and then it too will be done. Hurrah! I'm delighted with how it's looking so far. It makes me smile as Rosa's Grandad flew helicopters...

Keep the entries for the Colours of Shetland giveaway coming - I'm loving reading all the comments. They make me smile. There are two copies so the odds of winning are much better than the lottery!! The contest closes on 31st January 2013 - see the blog post for full details.

FO: Summersville Quilt for Jane and Nigel

I can now share pictures of the quilt that I made for my parents-in-law for their Christmas present. They seemed really pleased with it, and once it was in place on their bed, Sid the cat wasted no time in making it his space. That's a pretty good endorsement of a new quilt in my book!

This quilt was quite a long time in the making... I started the piecing at the quilting weekend we had in Frome back in July. Goodness that seems like an age ago!

I played around a bit with the block layouts before picking the final arrangement. Here are the options that I looked at...

This is the classic Furrows arrangement of log cabin blocks.

A few people on Twitter liked this 4 diamond arrangement.

But the winner - by quite some margin - was this Barn-Raising arrangement. So I sewed the blocks together in that arrangement over the quilting weekend, and the top then languished on the side for weeks and weeks, while I steeled myself for making pieced borders for it.

Sometime in November I got some sewing mojo back and completed the borders - even managing to get half of the corners to match up perfectly in my first mitred border.

I'm not sure if that was brilliant technique (thanks for the tips Anne!) or just beginner's luck. I certainly found it more intimidating to do than my normal arrangement, but I'm sure that I'd get more confident with practise though.

Are you ready to see the finished quilt?

This is the back! I pieced together all of the leftover bits, the spare lengths of Summersville, and added them to the plain red. This was just enough fabric to make up the back.

I sewed a label in calico - I used a split stitch over lettering that I traced from a printout I made in Word. Simple, but effective. I fixed it to the quilt with bondaweb and then blanket stitched it down.

Here's a peek at the corner...

And, TA DAAAA! The whole thing.

I finished with the smallest of margins - the last stitches were complete on Christmas Day in the evening, and we exchanged presents with my in-laws on Boxing Day. My Mum helped by holding up the quilt for photographs in the morning, before we drove down to Dorset to see Jim's family.

The quilt used 0.5m each of 8 fabrics from the Summersville range by Lu Summers from Moda. I also used about 3.5m of plan red fabric for the centre squares, framing border, binding and backing. The finished quilt is about 56in square (1.4m square).

SnB: Ornament Swap and other bits and bobs

We had our annual ornament swap at the Frome SnB group last night, and it gives me a good opportunity to share some more of the work of this talented group!

This is the total haul of gifts swapped - what Christmassy delights! I was lucky enough to receive the beautiful mini-Aran jumper in cream at the bottom. This was knitted by the ever-so-talented Mary Henderson (who by the way has a fabby Fair Isle tea cosy in the subscribers' edition of The Knitter this month). What a lucky duck I am!

Among the other handmade treats were some amazing handmade chocolates (top right, made by Jackie and received and enjoyed by Jen - I believe there were more before the photo was taken!); a couple of darling Christmas trees, one sewn and one knitted with beads; and a gorgeous knitted star that's from Rosee Woodland's design in Issue 50 of The Knitter (it has a cunning construction and is well worth checking out).

I contributed the cross-stitched mitten, which is made from the same pattern download as the Red Coat I blogged about previously. It's a great pattern, and I surprised myself by enjoying the cross stitching. I don't mind doing it, as long as I'm in love with the finished item. Too much of the cross stitch I've done in the past hasn't really had a purpose, and I'm as much of a product crafter as I am a process crafter. The process of cross stitching does little for me, so I have to be inspired by the product. And who wouldn't be inspired by this?

Apologies for the shoddy focus - I didn't realise until this morning, and it's now too late as the mitten has been gifted! :) If I had enough soluble canvas left I would be making another for our tree - these are some class A ornaments in Alicia Paulson's Snow Day Ornament Set. Highly recommended. There's nothing left but for me to make the polar bear. Clearly!

The front and back are different, with a totally knitwear-inspired design. I love it! And I'm sure that Sylvie does too. I tweeted a picture of this while it was in progress and Mimi (she also has a great article in Issue 53 of The Knitter about photographing your knits) asked me to comment on the soluble canvas... Well I can report that it was great! I used this DMC product, which I ordered from Sew and So (whose service I like a lot so far - based on two affordable and quick purchases): Soluble Canvas.

You can see that I cut out the design and blanket stitched it together with the soluble canvas still intact - this was really handy for keeping my blanket stitches neat and tidy. I'll take all the help I can get with that sort of thing... Wrapping paper with grids on the back? Yes please!

Once it was at this stage, I simply popped it in some tepid water and swooshed it around a bit. The canvas went a bit sticky, then slimey and gradually dissolved away with no trouble. I did have to rinse it a couple of times, as after the first wash it dried like cardboard, but after another soak and rinse it was fine. It certainly wasn't fiddly, which I've heard that waste canvas can be. I hope that answers your question Mimi! 

Before I sign off for the Christmas break, there are a few of other bits of news to share...

First up, Belinda Boaden and Wendy Baker of True Brit knits now have a group on Ravelry, so do come over and join us there - there will be wittering about all sorts of things, including London, knitting, cooking, cake and G&T! I'm thinking of making London Cowling fairly soon, so I'll be over there chuntering about yarn choices shortly...

Secondly, if you are thinking of making a charitable donation over the Christmas period, please consider donating to Jim's fundraising for Refuge (the UK's largest domestic violence charity, providing both practical support and shelter, and raising awareness of the issue). Jim is running the London Marathon for Refuge next year, and aiming for a frankly bonkers-sounding time (less than 3h 30min?!?). We have some fun knitting-related things planned for the new year, so keep an eye out here on my blog, or over on Jim's own blog: VeufTricot.

And thirdly, Susan is taking pre-orders for the Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover pattern. This is being sold to help to raise money for the Women's Land Army Tribute which it is hoped will be created at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. You can read more about the pattern and history behind it over on Susan's blog. I helped to edit the pattern, and it's not only a lovely piece but also a great cause.

So that's all for now folks! Have a very lovely next few weeks, whether you are celebrating Christmas or not. I shall be back around the New Year. Have fun, and happy knitting!

FO: Red Coat Tree Ornament

Last year I greatly enjoyed sharing the joys of my Traditional Advent Calendar with some friends on Twitter. We used the #traditionaladventcalendar hashtag, and tweeted what we had behind our doors each day. It was great fun, and we decided that not only would we do it again this year, but that we would also kick Advent off in style with a little swap. It was a simple swap - we just had to send a small hand-made Christmassy gift along with a few other treats to our nominated partner.

As soon as the details were finalised I knew what I wanted to make for my partner... It was an ornament that a friend had made last year as part of our knitting group's ornament swap. The Red Coat from Alicia Paulson's Snow Day Ornament Set - available as a pattern download from that link.

The pattern was really well-written and included useful things like instructions on how to work all of the required embroidery stitches. Very handy for those of use whose sewing needles are a little bit rusty! It's all the little clever details that made me fall in love with this ornament last year - there is blanket stitching round the edges of the pieces, but certain parts like the pockets and collar also have a contrast colour running stitch to emphasise the details.

The stand-out RESISTANCE-IS-FUTILE feature though, has to be the adorable little mittens on a string. When I saw these, I knew that at some point I would make this decoration. I just love them! They are even different on front and back, and the instructions remind you to make sure that the thumbs are pointing the right way... Perfection!

I naively thought that this would be a quick little project to whip up - after all it's sewing rather than knitting, and in my head at least, sewing is always faster than knitting! This wasn't the case, but I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with the results, and I think that Rachel (my swap partner) was pretty pleased with it too!

Now I just need to organise myself, and find time to finish making another one for me to put on our tree...

WIP: Quilt for the latest arrival

So I'm all excited because we have a new niece! She's been spotted resting up with her Daisy Dachshund, and looking adorable, and I'm champing at the bit to go and meet her!

In the meantime, I decided that she needs a quilt...

I'm turning a lovely Riley Blake layer cake into these battenburg-type blocks, and hopefully I'm not too far from finishing it. After all that burst of knitting on my Still Light tunic, I think my arms need a rest from knitting, so I'm at my sewing machine in the evenings instead.

I hope this heralds the return of my sewing mojo, which has been sadly lacking for the last few months...

FO: Jelly Roll Quilt

It has been a while since there were any finished quilts round here. This is not because I haven't been sewing. I have been sewing! I've just been starting more things than finishing them... A pattern emerges...

When you've been short on crafting time, there's nothing better than a quick and easy project to get your mojo going again. This quilt absolutely fits that bill.

This quilt uses 1 Jelly Roll - mine is Salt Air by Moda, from Millie Moon in Frome. And for the backing I've used a couple of metres of yardage from one of the fabrics in that range. It's finished with some plain cream binding. I love the colours of the fabrics in this range - the blues and greens are absolutely lovely, and the salmon pinks and reds go really well, with th odd pop of yellow thrown in for good measure.

The pattern is a basic jelly roll race. I followed the instructions from this You Tube video: Jelly Roll Race and mine took me an hour and a half from winding bobbins to final pressing of the quilt top. It has then taken me another 3 months to do the quilting and sew the binding on, but such is life! I quilted it with straight lines just inside the edges of alternate strips. Simple, but effective.

Here's an overview picture. I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, and it will be a wedding gift for one of Jim's relations - I'm pretty sure they don't read the blog, but apologies for spoiling the surprise if you do!!

If you'd like to try your hand at a Jelly Roll Race, then why not book a ticket for Millie Moon's The Great Create, held in Mells Barn on Sunday 7th October from 10am-5pm? Sadly, I'm missing it as I will be in Shetland, but it looks like a wonderful day. All proceeds are going to Positive Action on Cancer, which is an amazing charity. For your £40 ticket you get all of your materials (including the jelly roll for the race), a light lunch and afternoon tea. There will be a chance to try all sorts of different taster workshops as well as a Jelly Roll Race, which is kindly spsonsored by Moda. I am gutted to be missing it. Head over to the Millie Moon website to book your ticket.

We have our nephew staying again, so I'm off to play in the paddling pool! Happy crafting, whatever you are up to this weekend. :)

WIP: Summersville Log Cabin Quilt

It's been too busy for blogging!

This weekend we've had the pleasure of a quilting workshop with Anne Baxter - Mum is here with me, and a good group of our friends from the local crafting community.

I am using Lu Summers' lovely Summersville fabrics to make a log cabin quilt. Bizarrely this is the first time I've made a log cabin quilt. Not sure how I've managed to avoid making one before now. It's the perfect combination of simple and effective, and thus exactly the sort of thing I love!

I'm hoping to get the top finished today, and maybe even some quilting done. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm not sure how many blog posts there will be from me in the next fortnight, as we're off to Shetland for a summer holiday. I'll be back to a more regular posting schedule in a couple of weeks' time, when there will be heaps and heaps of exciting things to tell you about. I look forward to seeing you then!

FO: Gran's quilt

I'm back! Hopefully back to regular posting, and keeping on top of both work and life. Hurrah!

Today's post is dedicated to my maternal grandmother, Gran. I posted about her this time last year, and this year is a particularly special birthday. I'm not sure it's polite to share a lady's age, but I hope Gran won't mind if I tell you that she turned 90 today. She is definitely responsible for much of my love of crafts. I have strong memories of completing a book of sewing techniques while on holiday at her house when I was in primary school. The page for the mitred corner is still with me to this day!

I have been working on a quilt for Gran's birthday ever since my last weekend at The Sunday House, just over a month ago. But what with extended stays in London, I was working to get it finished right up to the wire. I sewed a label with a message, and didn't finish the writing until 11pm the night before the party. The mitred corners on the scrappy binding aren't too bad!

I am delighted with the finished quilt. The fabrics are a mixture of 12 fat quarters from Sara Morgan's Savannah range and a set of 5 fat quarters from Fabric Central that lovely Sarah sent to me at Christmas time. I topped them up with a metre of the pink flowers, also from Savannah and a dark pink and cream spot from Millie Moon.

Each block uses three contrasting fabrics. This is my favourite block in the whole quilt - I love how the birds are perfectly framed in the block. I didn't cut it specially to be that way, it was just luck.

On Anne's advice, I added a thin fillet of the dark turquoise-green around the edge of the central panel, and I love how it looks!

This is my utter favourite part of the quilt though... I've never made a label for a quilt before, and now I wish I had labelled all of them! I printed out what I wanted to say, and then traced it onto a piece of calico. I used one strand of embroidery thread to back stitch tiny stitches around the words. It took around 7 hours to sew all of the wording. On the morning of the party, I attached the label with Bondaweb and then sewed it on with more embroidery thread and small blanket stitches. Many thanks to Julie for her suggestion on how best to do this.

And there it is, all finished with an hour to spare before the lunch birthday party.

Gran seemed delighted with the gift, and she enjoyed opening it up and reading the label a number of times over the course of the afternoon. In the end it was very hard to part with, but I know that Gran will enjoy it every day. She deserves every minute I spent on it, and more. Happy birthday Gran!

FO: Snowball quilt

It won't be a surprise to you all, that since I'm not really able to knit at the moment, I've been filling my empty evenings with some sewing instead!

And as a result, I've finished my snowball quilt. I'm delighted with how it has turned out, and as an extra bonus I learnt a couple of new techniques on this quilt. I love to learn new techniques!

I did my first fillet. This is a narrow flap of fabric that I've used here between the binding and the main border. It just adds a touch of je ne sais quoi, I feel!

This is also the first time that I've tied a quilt rather than sewing the layers together. Tying is a really simply way of joining the front, batting and back of the quilt together. You can have the tied ends showing on the right or wrong sides of the quilt, and you can use all sorts of different materials to do the tying. I used embroidery threads, and tied at the corners of each of the blocks, with the ends on the wrong side. Once it was all tied, I trimmed the ends to about 2cm long, as you can see above.

Tying was a great solution for this quilt, as it's 160cm (64") square, so would have been a beast to man-handle through my sewing machine! I just sewed round the wide border, and of course sewed on the binding with the machine and finished it by hand.

The back features every single last scrap of Malt and Sky Trees that Hulu Crafts had in stock, with the remains of my It's a Hoot layer cake sewn together to fill the last corner. I've barely got any leftover scraps from this quilt - I used almost the entire layer cake, 2.5m of aqua houndstooth from the Sophie range by Moda, 1/2m of off-white solid and 2.25m of the backing fabric. I love it when the fabric all gets used up. I'm not a fan of scraps and never feel I want to use up the leftovers. I would rather move on to the next new thing!

All in all, a very satisfying project.