RSC 15: Green everywhere!

Every month Angela at Soscrappy chooses a colour and we concentrate on using that colour from our scraps in patchwork. This month the colour has been green.



I've seen plenty of green this week:

even the letter boxes are green!

I just haven't been sewing any!

I'm in Ireland, otherwise known as the Emerald Isle, which is an apt description.

I hope you don't mind my sharing a few photos, which are a little off-topic.

Muckross gardens, Killarny National Park, Ireland

Near Torc Waterfall, Killarny National Park, Ireland. Just look at that moss!

Next month's colour is pale blue, and I hope to have something to show next week.

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so click on the button on the right on Saturday, to see what other luscious greens are to be seen.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Camera Challenge 4: Triangle of Light - ISO

Katy at the Littlest Thistle is holding a Camera Challenge, a sort of photography workshop to help us understand our cameras better. After looking at aperture value and shutter speed, this month it's the turn of ISO speed. Once again I fished my trusty model, Bashful, out of the toy box to assist.

Assignment 1:

Fix the aperture value, change the ISO speed:

 I don't see much difference between the photos; the colours of the second appear brighter then the others, but numbers 1, 3, 4 and 5 all look the same to me. From the point of view of the technical specifications: as the ISO value increased so did the shutter speed; as the ISO value doubled the shutter speed also doubled, and produced the same effect ?!

Assignment 2

Fix the shutter speed, change the ISO speed:

Here there is a progression from dark to light, with the greatest contrast being beween the first two photos. Not only is the subjet, Bashful, lighter, but also the buildings outside in the distance become less clearly defined. This surprised me because I expected the background to be more defined the higher the aperture value.

I missed completeing last month's assignment on shutter speed, but tried to complete it last weekend. The cycle racing season has stared in earnest and there was an important race in my town last Sunday. Unfortunately I stopped reading the instructions too early so started at far too slow a shutter speed setting.

The start and finish were much too busy but I founld a good spot at a street corner, under some trees. The race was 9 laps of a 19 kilometre route. I arrived during the third lap, just in time to see, but not photograph the tete du cours. I did get the peleton but in the excitement forgot to change my camera setting!

arrival of the peleton

 For the next photos I reduced the shutter speed for each photo:

20 minutes later the leading group on the next lap

4 minutes later the peleton, this one taking the bend quite slowly,

this one taking it wider, and more quickly

 Then I moved onto a bridge over the railway, increased the ISO and shortened the shutter speed. I couldn't get any closer, and at this distance with an EF-S18-55mm lens there is little impression of speed; you can even see the spokes!

the head of the course

the head of the peleton, now two and a half minutes behind

the tail of the peleton: look at the cameraman!

 Next month I shall read everything before I start.

Thanks to Katy for setting the assignments, giving useful information and hosting the link up, to which I am now connecting.

 

Go over there to check on what other participants have snapped this month.

Happy snapping!

Marly.

One Lovely Blog Award

I was reading a blog post by Christine Barnsley of  Patchwork Allsorts last week, and was surprised to see myself on her list of nominations for the

Thank you Christine I am greatly honoured.

The aim of the award is to tell more about ourselves and, more importantly draw the attention of others to blogs we enjoy reading, and encourage you to check them out. 

In order to accept the award the nominated blogger must:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.

So first come seven facts about me, that you maybe didn't know already.

1. I was born and brought up in the UK but I've lived in the Netherlands for the last 40 years. I speak Dutch, but write a funny version of it, so my blog is only in English.

Holland: flat land with a lot of sky.

2. I am married to a Dutchman (hence my profile photo) and am mother of two and grandmother of three.

Dutchman's Puzzle - that's me!

3. I taught for seven years in the English state school system, but have been teaching English as a foreign language since I arrived here. Although I am officially retired, I am still teaching Business English part-time.

4. My mother taught me to knit at the age of five, and I have subsequently tried most crafts with needle (or hook or bobbin) and thread. My largest project to date, in size, time and cost, is a hand knotted rug of 1.8 m x 2.5 m, which has been on the living room floor since 1988. It's a bit worn in places, but it took more than a year to make, so I can't bear to part with it.

5. I took up patchwork and quilting seriously three years ago, having vowed many years ago that I would never, ever do patchwork again. I had to make EPP flowers at school at the age of ten.  It was a disaster; of course, none of my hexagons fitted together! About ten years ago I first came across Crazy Quilting, and did very little about it, but Christine has rekindled my interest recently as I watched her progress through a CQ project.

6. I started blogging 18 months ago during Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery, so I could join the linky party. Many of the bloggers I follow, I met there. Not difficult as there were hundreds each week.

7. Now, however, I spend too much time reading blogs and and not enough time sewing. The trouble is that everyone writes such interesting things, posts such wonderful photos, gives such expert sewing, knitting or crochet tips, that I can't stop!


Here, in alphabetical order, is my short list of ten blogs. The long list is more than twice as long and the selection was really difficult.

Chantal at  http://atthecornerofscrapandquilts.blogspot.nl

Hilary Florence at http://quiltingworkshop.blogspot.nl/

Judy at http://quiltparadigm.blogspot.nl/

Julie at  http://pinkdoxies.blogspot.com/ 

Lee Anna at http://lapaylor.blogspot.nl/

Maartje Quilt at http://quiltinginamsterdam.blogspot.nl/

Ruth at http://benandcharlyscorner.blogspot.nl/

Val at http://myplvl.blogspot.nl/

Vera at http://negligentstylee.blogspot.nl/

Vireya at http://weednstitch.blogspot.nl/

So head over to these blogs and see if you agree, that each, in her own way, makes an interesting read.

Happy reading

Marly.

RSC 15 week 21: More Green and a finish!

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Angela, at Soscrappy, gives a different colour each month and we concentrate on using up scraps in that colour for the whole month.

I took advantage of the absence of a sampler block this week to start making a trial block for the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along run by Anne at SpringLeaf Studios. The QAL started in January, but it took me until April to get suitable fabric. Here I'm using some scraps (one of which happens to be green!) and I didn't have quite enough teal to make the last leaf.

WIP: 16" Drunkard's Path block

 I have only made one Drunkard's Path block ever, and that by hand, with about twenty pins in each unit, most of which were also in my hands before I finished! I don't remember who told me you could make them on the machine without pins, however an Internet search led to the most perfect video tutorial by Leanne at She Can Quilt. Drunkard's path ... on the machine ... NO PINS!

Absolutely brilliant - look, all four:  RIGHT FIRST TIME!! And now to cut the background "legs" and one more "leaf" section and piece the other twelve. I shan't be making  full-sized quilt, maybe just two blocks; I have yet to decide.

At the beginning of this week I finished last year's Rainbow sampler.

Too big for my assistant to comfortably hold!

I posted about it on Thursday so click here for more pictures and the story.

I'm linking up to 

 

so go over there and see what else has been created this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finished: Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler Quilt 2014

This is my fourth finish for 2015 Q2.

Finally it's finished!

The patterns for the 6" sampler blocks were posted by Angela at Soscrappy: several each month. I didn't make all of them; my stash wasn't very big at the beginning of the year, but caught up later wherever I could. A couple of the blocks in the bottom row are from Tula Pink's "100 Modern Quilt Blocks."

I pieced the quilt with 1" sashings and a 5" border.
[Click on the next two photos below for more information]

I joined the blocks into four square sections and added the borders before quilting. After quilting the patchwork blocks, but not the borders, the four parts came together using a QAYG method. Each part of the quilt has a different backing fabric:

I only had standard width fabric, so piecing the back would have inevitable, even without this QAYG method.

Quilting over the blocks is generally all-over stippling. I started with ambitions to quilt each block according to the patchwork design, but gave up on that idea quickly. It proved too difficult to keep a continuous line going, and with so much going on in the patchwork I decided there was little point in making the quilting complex. I didn't unpick the part I'd already done, so the discerning may find some non-stippled blocks.

Lastly I quilted the border, and added the label and binding. After about a week of deliberation: how did I want to quilt the border? Which quilting design would I do? I decided on a scrappy quilted border! There's something of everything, in my own non-too-perfect chaotic style!

swirling wind: design from Leah Day

McTavishing: design from Karen McTavish
(sort of, more like MacWilliams-ing!)

hearts

Sun

my first ever feathers!

large flower in each corner; this one with leaves and flowers
(photo last week, before the finish)

crayon/pencil: "Je suis Charlie"

Quilt Statistics:

Size: 82 x 82"
Fabric: assorted from stash
Sashings and border: Bella solids - off-white
Backing: pieced from stash
Binding: from "Brights and Pastels Basic Styles" by Windham Fabrics
Wadding: Cotton
Thread: piecing Aurifil 40/2 assorted colours, Quilting: Aurifil 40/2 off-white (2309)

I'm linking to

    

as they become available.

So pop over there to see what other quilters have been doing recently.

I shall be linking up to

 

at the end of June.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 19: One green star

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) is hosted by Angela at Soscrappy who gives some block patterns for a sampler quilt each month and also designates a different colour for the blocks each month. This month the colour is green.

There has just been one block so far this month:

Sawtooth Star inside a Sawtooth Star

Further this week I have been quilting the border of last year's Rainbow sampler.

Having quilted the centre of the quilt simply with large stippling, I went overboard on the border. now I'm sewing down the binding, all 8 x WOF! I hope to be able to show a finish next week.

I'm linking up to 

where you can see how others have used green this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 18: the last purple hex and pulling green

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and some sampler patterns and lots of people round the world use that colour: some to make the sampler blocks, others to work on other projects. In April the colour was purple. This month's colour is dark to medium green. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week. 

One more purple hexagon squeezed in at the eleventh hour last month and is looking forward to green. Maybe it's jealous? Anyway it's heart is with green.

That's the only green I sewed yesterday, although I did manage to pull out some small green pieces and a few (almost) fat quarters.

Because I'm using dark blue as my background fabric I can't use really dark green. This is as dark as I expect to go. I'm looking forward to piecing the sawtooth within a sawtooth star as soon as I've finished quilting RSC14 - border now under the FMQ foot.

I'm linking up to:

   

Click on the buttons to see what creative scrappiness has been happening this week.

Happy Sewing

Marly.