Taupes and Me...

I'm not quite sure why but I seem to have a fixation with making long term quilts or quiltalongs in taupes.

I don't have many taupe fabrics in my stash nor do I sell them in my quilt shop. And yet something draws me to them when a big project is on the horizon. Maybe it's because I love Japanese taupe quilts when I see them at quilt shows and kid myself into thinking my quilt will look just as wonderful?

I've signed up for two quiltalongs this year. Not quite sure why as I don't have much free sewing time. And of course I'm contemplating making them in taupes!

The first project is the block a day quilt by Gourmet Quilter. I treated myself to this pattern. I also looked upon it as future class potential. The original is made in batiks 

And yes it's made up of 365 different blocks which are released weekly during 2016. 

For my quilt I imagined a cute Japanese taupe version reminiscent of all those perfectly made in minute detail quilts I've seen. These are my backgrounds.

I knew I would struggle to keep up but thought I would do a bit better then this....

I've got frustrated with it as my fusible web is playing up. But hey it's not a race is it?!

I've also signed up for the free Splendid Sampler which starts in a couple of weeks and is 2 blocks a week, 100 in total.

I know, I thought, I'll do it in taupes! This is my fabric pull. We need approx. 30 to 35 fat quarters

While searching for these fabrics, I found my Tula Pink City Sampler blocks which seem to be made using the same fabric pull

To be honest I had no idea I'd done that many blocks! I've since abandoned these colours for my City Sampler for a bright solids and stripe version. And also looking at these blocks, I think I'll want to do something brighter for my Splendid Sampler too.

The taupe quilt I've made the most progress with is the Chinese Heirloom quilt designed by Lynne Edwards which I featured in P&Q a couple of years ago. I really need to get on with this one 

I've even started a Dear Jane quilt in taupes, kind of

And then I found this appliqué block which is an Esther Aliu BOM

Do I need help with this addiction?!

Joanna 

2015 - My Year in Quilts

I really must do blog posts whenever I finish a quilt. I just had to look back through my photos to see how many (if any) quilts I finished last year. 

I'm actually quite surprised to count four! Well almost four! 

A lot of my quilting life is blurred between quilting for myself and quilts I've made for my business and I'm slightly ashamed to say all of the quilts I finished were display quilts. 

First finish was this small wall hanging which I've called 'Glow'. 

It's made from a couple of batik charm packs and was made to sell the rest of these that I had in stock. Needless to say I had a feline helper as soon as I laid the quilt out!

Next up was my big finish of the year and it's a quilt I'm really proud of as I designed it to use a couple of precut packs and it's not always easy designing something with a finite amount of fabric. And here it is the Precut Medallion. 

My last two finishes are linked and will be new pattern I'll be selling using ombré fabrics. I finished the Ombré Chevron quilt first 

And then Ombré Geese. 

Ombré Geese was pieced first as Ombré Chevron is made from the leftovers!

I just wish I could be more productive with my quilting. Have a feeling I say this every year! 

My Allotment

I did something for the first time this week, I went to a meeting of my allotment association. It wasn't just any old meeting though. It was an EGM to discuss accepting the terms of new leases for both allotment sites in the town where I live and to also vote on the association changing its constitution so we could self manage the sites.

 

Important stuff.

 

It's been a long process to get this far; over four years in fact. The other site in the town is relatively straightforward, although it still took numerous draft leases before the association committee received one that they felt was good enough to accept the terms of.

 

My site however is a different kettle of fish.

 

Apparently my site has been an allotment site for over 100 years yet despite this it hasn't been designated what is known as 'statutory allotment land'. When a site is designated as such, it has additional protection under the Allotments Act of 1925. Section 8 of the act states that local authorities cannot dispose of allotment land without the Secretary of State's consent.

 

And why hasn't my site been designated as statutory allotment land? Because the actual land is owned by the county council. County councils cannot be allotment authorities so they can't lease it directly to us. Only district or local authorities can be allotment authorities. And so the county council lease the land to the district council who then rent the plots to the tenants of each plot.

 

A simple solution would be for the county council to sell the land to the district council so we could then become a statutory site. But they refuse to do this.

 

Currently, when our tenancy agreements are up for renewal on 1 April each year, the district council could just say they won't be renewing them i.e. we have no protection at all. The new 25 year lease will give us 12 months notice that they wish to evict us and while this is far from ideal, it is more protection from what we have now. So that is why I voted to accept the new leases.

 

The extra complication and perhaps why it was better to accept a slightly more protected position, is the councils are currently still in discussion about the local plan for the town. Supposedly they need to build nearly 3,500 homes in my little market town which has a current population of around 10,000 people. And guess what? My site, which is bordered by farmland on two sides and roads on the others (one an A road) is one of the areas that will possibly be allocated for development.....so everything may all change in 18 months time.

 

Self management will hopefully put us in a stronger position should we have a fight on our hands, as well as bring our extortionate rents down in a few years time.

 

I guess only time will tell.

 

Joanna

 

Job Perks

When you're self employed and also work freelance, there aren't too many perks that get offered to you, apart from the perk of working when you want to of course. 

Although saying that, quite a few invitations and offers do arrive in my inbox at the magazine.  But I think, being the type of person that I am, I don't usually take them up. 

I have, however, taken up two invitations/offers this year and I'm glad that I did. The first was an invitation to attend a little get together for a designer called Kaffe Fassett as he celebrated 50 years of working in the textile industry; first as a knitwear and tapestry designer and latterly as a fabric designer. The event was being held at the Gardens of the Rose not far from me so this was my main reason for finally saying yes to an invitation. 

The gardens are wonderful. Sadly the event was being held just before the roses were out in all their glory, but there was plenty of colour and inspiration to behold still. 

And the colours of Kaffe's quilts...

And then there are the offers. An press release email popped into my inbox a couple of weeks ago. I read it briefly as I usually do and then moved on to the next one. I returned to the email a couple of days later and reread it. It was from a PR company asking if they could send me a new iron from Phillips. The iron was so great, they said, I'd love ironing!

I ummed and ahhed and finally decided to accept their offer. It was only then I looked at the spec of it....it's RRP is more than £300! I'm currently using a basic iron I bought from Tesco for a fiver...!

The iron arrived this week. It's huge. I've had a little play and I have to say I think I might learn to like ironing after all....

Cat for scale 

Joanna 

Sweet Potato Harvest 2015

Earlier in the year I wrote a post about growing sweet potato slips yourself from tubers. It was a successful experiment and I managed to grow over a dozen slips for myself from tubers I grew last year as well as send some to a friend on twitter. She sent me four slips of different sweet potato varieties in exchange.

I planted out my first Beauregard slips in the first week of May, having assumed the risk of frost had passed. They were planted in open ground on my allotment. 

I was wrong. 

We had a patchy air frost the first week of June which obviously set the plants back a bit. I did think I was going to lose the plants for a time, but thankfully they survived.

At the end of June I planted out my remaining Beauregard slips together with an evangeline plant. The Murasaki, Bonita and burgundy slips were planted out in the first week of July. All were planted in open ground on my allotment. 

It's been a difficult growing year this year, with that late frost setting things back plus it was never particularly warm apart from one short period. So I had a feeling this year's sweet potato harvest wasn't going to be the best. As late summer turned to early autumn, it was clear the plants were still behind schedule so I covered them with plastic to make a polytunnel of sorts to give them a bit of warmth for longer

Today, I dug the plants up. It wasn't good, but also not a complete disaster as I think I have tubers of each variety that I can use to grow next year's slips, hopefully! 

So here goes....

Beauregard. The first plants yielded a few decent sized tubers but only about a kilo in total. 

The ones I planted a bit later were all skinny

The remaining plants from my twitter friend had come from Suttons Seeds but as they were delivered late, I think they had little chance of success

Evangeline

Bonita

Murasaki 

And finally Burgundy which was a failure 

But look what I also dug up, a tuber that was already regrowing!

So what did I learn this year?

For starters they need their long growing season and they need warmth if the summer isn't a scorcher like last year. So I think next year I'll cover them early on. Covering them will also protect them from a rogue late frost!

But as I said earlier, all is not lost as I'll try and grow slips from each variety. Even that tiny Burgurndy one, assuming it survives the winter!

Here's to the 2016 growing season!

Joanna

Accidental Blog Silence

Oh dear! Somehow it's been a few months since I've written a blog post again! I'm not sure how it keeps happening. I keep meaning to write about the allotment or my quilting but just don't seem to get around to it. Sometimes, when I think I'll write something, but then what I want to write seems too long and so the post gets put on the back burner again, supposedly because I don't have the time. 

So a New Years resolution of sorts (after all it's only mid October) but I'll try (again) to post more often....little and often; just a little update of what I've created both on the plot and in my sewing room possibly each week, although deciding to do this just before a busy couple of weeks might not be the best timing.....

The weather is definitely autumnal now so work on the allotment is mainly digging and clearing ground for the winter. Last weekend I went to an Apple Day at Tewin Orchard near Welwyn Garden City. Here's my purchases from the day

 

Conference pears for poaching, Monarch and Catshead cooking apples for some crumbles and Adam's Pearmain dessert apples. 

My sewing this week has been some square in a square blocks using some Nature Trail fabrics from Dashwood Studio. It's supposed to be a quick little quilt to help sell the fabrics. 

I'm foundation piecing the blocks but they are being really frustrating to piece as the fabrics keep moving as I'm stitching. I like to use freezer paper for my foundation piecing these days so I can iron the pieces once I've stitched them. Hey ho. I'll keep on with it

My baking week included this creamy apple tart made using apples from Tom's new apple tree. It was quite tasty and a bit like a patisserie 

Until next week....hopefully!

Joanna 

A Baby Quilt for a Baby Bee

About halfway through our Little Blogs Quilt Bee (LBQB) our queen bee, Lou, who brought us all together announced that she was having a baby. This was all very exciting as it meant we could launch a bit of secret sewing!

A look through Lou's Instagram feed found that her favourite colours were pink, teal and grey which worked for not knowing whether she was having a boy or girl. A few secret discussions later and we agreed on a star type block 54-40 or Flight

We each made a block before I joined them together and sent it off to Gina to work her quilting magic. 

We were so pleased with the result, but nearly got caught out as her little bundle of joy arrived five weeks early!

Congratulations Lou! It was a fun project to make and a fitting end to the bee

Joanna