Another quilt top completed

I couldn't resist taking one of my 'up close and personal' shots of this quilt - I love the colours in these fabrics!

This is the finished quilt top. I still haven't decided on the binding.



















It's 24" square so it's not that 'mini' for a mini quilt and I've changed my mind about putting it in the kitchen. It's now going in my room (I call it my atelier just to see the teenagers roll their eyes!) which means I'll probably make something else, something smaller, for the kitchen.

It's been really interesting taking this up again after a three year break. Quilting hadn't even crossed my mind in all that time so I'd forgotten quite a lot. When I put together the bed quilt a few weeks ago, I was reminded of how physical this activity is! I was re-arranging blocks, adjusting the balance of colours and I think I must be getting old - all that bending and kneeling on hard wooden floors hurts now! I made the stupid mistake with these blocks of only trimming them approximately which meant I gave myself four sides each of 64 blocks to cut all over again yesterday - the week after I got a recurrence of tendinitis in my wrist! Fortunately, one thing that did come back to me is how much time is saved by working in batches, conveyor belt style. After the first day sewing, I calculated it would take me about 4 weeks at that speed. I noticed how much thread I was wasting and that reminded me of the technique. So doing the blocks in batches saved me a considerable amount of time -and thread.

This little log cabin quilt has been paper pieced. It's one of my favourite techniques and I actually used to teach it in Kuwait but it still took a while to come back to me. It's a bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, I'd forgotten how much concentration it needs!

I haven't, though, forgotten how tedious, messy and time consuming it is to remove the papers - this is the back!
















Still, Wimbledon starts today, this will give me something useful to do while I'm watching it. And no, I'm not going to say a word about Andy Murrey after I jinxed Jenson Button in my last post!

Jenson Button (2)

Making another appearance on the blog, Jenson Button. I'm sure he'll be making another appearance on the top step of the podium this weekend at the British Grand Prix too, such is the domination of Brawn GP. While that is almost a certainty, the future of Formula One, as of today, is not so certain! I mentioned in a previous post how awful the politics has become in F1 and moaned about 'the omnipotent Max Moseley' (head of the FIA). Well, it looks like the teams have finally had enough of him too - eight of the teams want to break away and start their own series! Threats of legal action have already been announced. Fingers crossed, this time he'll lose!

Snared on the sofa...

An extremely rare sighting of the Lesser Spotted Teenager - aka Alex! He told me a couple of years ago I could draw him only when he was sleeping but as I'm the only one who falls asleep on the sofa in this house, I've had no opportunity since then. His exams start today so I guess the teachers have been piling on the pressure because he fell asleep almost as soon as he got home!




















Last time I caught him sleeping on the sofa was in London in 2007!

Walking the walk

Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed a new badge in my sidebar as I joined Sketchercise last week. It's a new group created by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark for those who enjoy sketching and walking. OK, I admit, I don't do a great deal of sketching when I'm out but I hope this will give me the impetus to do more. We don't have a car so at least I do qualify on the walking front as without it I have to go out a lot more - those weekly and twice weekly bulk buying expeditions are out! Fortunately, here in Geneva, those old granny shopping trolleys you wouldn't be seen dead with in London or anywhere else, are perfectly normal here. In fact, there are some funky designs available and I'm replacing mine soon for a spotted version!

I'm an expert now on knowing how much to buy to fit my 'chariot' (I love that French translation!) and how much is too heavy so I can't lug it onto the bus or tram! I also know which buses and trams are the better designed - usually the older ones - when trying to manoeuvre into a seat and not block the aisles.

So without a car every trip is normally used to bring the essentials back, I rarely go out and come back empty handed. It also means having to do so eats into my drawing time so I don't dilly dally and that normally means the only drawing I do is on the tram. (And, you might remember, that my normal walking route to the local shops is extremely boring!)

I don't post them often as I find the backs of heads a bit uninteresting and mostly they are, well, rubbish! This one below, is one of the better ones, drawn on the bus this week. I swear there was no suspension on this bus so I was pleased with how it turned out! I liked her prominent cheekbones, the twiddly bits on her glasses and long ear lobes.




















The trams are much smoother. This lady had a black jacket and a red bag that caught my eye.




















Quite often, because I time my expeditions to avoid lunch times and rush hour, I see this -!






















There are two tram designs here and this is the older one, which I prefer. The newer ones have seats facing both ways so it's not easy to draw without being seen!

Finally, I came across a really funny blog via The Telegraph this morning and found a way of incorporating it into this post. It's called Maybeyoushouldn'tbuythat.com and it highlights 'the most expensive and worthless items in the world'. Just check out this apple holder from Hermes - surely it's what the best dressed Sketcherciser should be carrying along with the sketch kits? Mark and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversery yesterday - dang, he's a Trekkie and had I seen this blog earlier, he could have been the proud owner of this bit of loveliness. (I laughed out loud at this one.) Perhaps it's a good thing no-one wants my drawings for huge amounts of money if this is the best you can buy with it?!

Jenson Button

This is a bit of a relief - I can draw and quilt at the same time! I was starting to doubt it as I've spent the last few days really clocking up the mileage on my sewing machine! That Yorkie drawing wasn't exciting me so I thought I'd do something more enjoyable. Jenson Button is almost certainly going to be this year's F1 champion but I'm still behind Lewis Hamilton - he's having a hard time but maybe next year will be a better one for him. I just liked the unusual angle here and although I don't like this fuzz (why doesn't he shave it off?!) it was a lot easier than the fur!

This new square format sketchbook is really unforgiving, once a mark is down it's almost impossible to erase it as the surface just breaks up. It's probably a good thing as it forces me to be a bit more assertive with the pencil knowing I can't build up so many layers. After I left this for a day and returned to it it looked very pale so I 'attacked' it with loads of Venetian Red and it improved a lot. The surface probably works better with waxier pencils but I'll experiment with what I have for now.