Bags 1, 2, 3...

Two Three forgotten kits forgotten no longer...

 

Bag 1 - Rosalie Quinlan "The Two of Us", a little carry bag.  One of the patterns & kits at a stitching day somewhere with Rosalie, Mellie and Leanne as the tutor designers way back in 2010...

Another rediscovered kit that was added to the Scrub Stitchin' 2025 packing,..started at Baradine once I finished the needlecase stitchery/applique...I finally finished all the red evil satin stitch while I was in the ACT the first week of October so it was ready to put together. The kit included all the fabric (I've a good sized piece of the red check left over) and embroidery floss - all the designers used the same thread colours for their kits that day and we were given full sized floss skeins not little bits...all I had to add was the batting. The pattern's construction method of the bag was a bit...mmmm....let's say interesting!...but it is rather cute and has been used taking ziplock bags of prepared blocks for hand piecing between houses over Christmas.

 

Bag 2 - Matilda's Own "Wristie Bag" kit that was a swap gift at local group camp... 

I wasn't all that keen while it was in the kit but once I pulled the fabric out and could see it properly, and realised that without the wrist strap it is a zipped pouch that doesn't need the strap, it was a goer...all ingredients included...

A good size, it will be handy.

 

Bag 3 - Another kit resurfaced when rummaging around probably for something else...Joyful by Marg Low...again all ingredients included. I bought it for $5.00 from the trade table at local group camp for the fabric not the pattern...members bring bits and bobs they want to destash to tempt their fellow members...it works! ha ha ha.  A closer look at the actual pattern and again easily modified as the fabric doesn't scream Christmas so leave off the themed applique patch...

Quick and easy to make up and again a handy size...and the piece of linen and whisperweft that was included for the applique patch is the perfect size to fit in a frame I decided would work for a stitchery...and again pieces of the various fabrics left over to go into the stash boxes.

 

That's three more kits out of the box and into the light...pretty much my whole 2025 right there...

 

Happy Stitching...

Scrub Stitchin' 2025 - A Finished Project...

(Probably about time I got this out of being a draft post!)

I did sew at Scrub Stitchin', more than usual as instead of rush rush rush rush and still being in work mode when I got there I started leave the week before so I had time to decompress beforehand and actually be able to concentrate, relax and get into it before Sunday lunch time (you know, pack up time!).  I considered schlepping a machine with me this year but got over that idea and spent a day prepping up the embroidery/stitchery/applique type parts of a few kits I rediscovered (aka forgotten I even had!) when looking for one specific kit.  The plan being to get done whatever got done and worry about the machine sewing later - and what wasn't done sets up a nice supply of pick and go hand sewing for Thursday nights at quilt group so win/win for me!

 

I didn't do anything on the kit that set me on this path - but it is prepped for another day so no loss...I started with a Lynette Anderson Design Christmas Needlecase...No idea where this came from as it is not something I would have bought, so maybe a group swap of some kind?  The pattern packet had most of the fabrics (except the scissor keep heart as the piece in the pattern was too small) and the wee bell for the reindeer's collar...

I would have finished the handwork at Scrub Stichin' but wanted to use green for the words (not the black the pattern called for) which I knew I had heaps of but not with me (that will learn me to pack light!).

Finished when I got home to the green embroidery floss and quickly sewn up.  It was finished before I went back to work.

 

Now in the needlecase pile, it will come in useful in a project box at some point. 

 

Happy Stitching... 

Camp/Retreat Swaps...Received...

Of course there are two sides to any swap and I received lovely pressies in return for the project pouches I made...first up Stawell Quilters September camp present (the swap that didn't happen at camp but in bits between us)...a fat quarter pack of lovely batik fabrics...they are happily residing on a shelf in the emporium waiting their turn to jump up and down and yell pick me pick me...

Stawell Quilters March camp....the present that matched my ticket number was a kit for a bag...

with all the ingredients included...

Scrub Stitchin'...the ticket number I held matched the present from Sharmayne...a roll of pretty fun fabrics, a wee pouch that will come in very handy, a crochet cloth that I have popped into the travel cutlery roll (along with the jar opener cloth Jo made in our Scrub Stitchin' goodie bags) and a sweet smelling drawer sachet...thank you Sharm 😊

Lovely swaps...thank you very much to all...

 

Happy Stitching...

Plenty of Project Pouches...

Some time in the second half of last year (don't remember when and it appears I forgot to start a blog post at the time)...I made a project pouch based on a couple of Hugs 'n' Kisses patterns, really just to give a different kind of project pouch pattern a whirl...I skipped the fancy bits of each pattern and just worked out the size of using a whole piece of fabric instead of clam shells and/or applique...(The patterns are Simply Sonja for one but the other one I can't find on the website...basically the same just a different size/embellishment - not where the sewing room is at the moment so I can't grab the patterns to check.)

 

The vinyl isn't deformed or marked, it's just gone a bit wonky lighting wise in the photo...

I really liked the concept of bagging it out and not having binding and having a wee handle to grab it with...

 

I needed swap presents for Stawell Quilters camps and Scrub Stitchin', and as I like to make something I hope the recipient will find useful, was leaning towards this pouch pattern when I saw a post somewhere of a pouch made with mesh instead of clear vinyl for the pocket...so had to give that a try...

 

The first one I made from a black/white house fabric (NZ cottages) with white mesh...this one was for Stawell Quilters September camp at Halls Gap (and was finally gifted the week before our March camp this year! The second half of last year was a continual challenge of being being sick, start to get well, get another virus, oh let's have COVID again, let's just fall in a huge hole of on and off sickness from August to December so making it to camp was an achievement in itself let alone remembering to sort the swap present and take it with me)...and for our March long weekend camp at Cave Hill Creek a second one using same print fabric but in sepia/brown tones with tan mesh (forgot to take a picture so use your imagination).

Added some needles and cute little wooden magnetic needle minders from The Quilters Angel in Queensland...

While I was flinging fabric about at the start of the exercise I put together a combination that I liked but then decided against for the Stawell Quilter versions...but, I left the fabrics on the table and, after getting over wondering if it was a bit too bright, used with black mesh and a grey fancy zip for my Scrub Stitchin' "Make It, Bake It or Fake It" swap present...

Added needles and a set of needle minders...

Jules got this one...I hope she gets good use from it.

 

I might need to make me another one using mesh instead of vinyl at some point.

 

Happy Stitching...

 

A Quilt Show to Start 2025...

A good start to 2025...visiting a quilt show!  It's been a long time...I didn't even make it so see our own group's Oct 2024 show...a trip to Warrnambool to the biennial Southern Right Creative Festival show...lots of lovely quilty eye candy and inspiration, shop stalls lining the walls and unexpected social catch-ups one of which was Kiwikid!...I took lots of pics...these are some of my favs...

There was also a display of some fun crochet items...

 

My shopping list consisted of a trip to Spotlight for a skein of embroidery floss (essential) and if I saw some of those fancy zips on a stall get some coloured ones...I just may have gone off list!...

 

I couldn't resist the Red Tractor bird fabric...the other fabrics were in a $6/metre bargain bin at Spotty, I was looking at them both trying to decide if I needed one or the other when my friend pointed out they went together and who was I to argue! ha ha ha...

 

Hopefully the start of getting back to making it to more shows this year...

Happy Stitching...

The Never Ending Wagga...Progresses...

Way back in 2010 I wrote a post on having actually worked on The Never Ending Wagga...and then it went back in its box and waited some more...the next step was some wool embroidery on the applique...every now and then I'd stumble across it...take it out...look at it...have absolutely no inspiration or motivation and put it back again...I did manage a few bits of embroidery a couple of years ago but it went back into the too hard pile...anyway, a couple of weeks ago it was stumbled upon yet again but this time it came out into the light...the wool threads were taken out of their plastic bag and the embroidery stitch books were pulled from the shelf...I started with the leaves and kept on going...and now we have...a wagga top (well wagga-esque)...

 

I really enjoyed working on it this time, and now...ta dah!...the finished top...

At 58" x 64 3/4" it's a useful size...and while shopping online a couple of days ago I added a variegated perle thread to the shopping cart in anticipation of it wanting to be big stitch hand quilted eventually...you never know, it could happen!

 

Happy Stitching...

Lullaby...

Way back in January 2011, at the last Summer School hosted by Susan Smith in Wodonga, one of the quilts started with Karen Cunningham was "Lullaby".  It had been ages since I'd opened that box, thinking I had an issue with one of the triangle borders to figure out and a heap to do to finish the centre.  Getting ready for Scrub Stitching I opened its box to find it not so far off to finish that centre - the two cactus (which were ready to be appliqued) and the circles.  Right, get it ready to take on holiday and maybe get it a little closer to being finished.

 

After laying the cactus pieces out, I was pinning away and huh! one of pieces had gone missing - I have no idea where it went and it hasn't been seen since (I actually lost two pieces, from separate projects, that day and the other one turned up in a really weird place but this piece never has)...a frantic rummage through every box and project and miraculously I found a piece of the fabric and could re-cut the applique piece..whew!...

 

It didn't get finished at Barradine, it went to quilting group a few times but it didn't go back on the shelf...plugged away and eventually a couple of months ago...ta dah!...a finished top...

Karen used a plain white for the background and heavily quilted border...I didn't want white or the heavily quilted plain border.  The border is the fabric the centre square was fussy cut out of, the width determined by the piece of fabric (which was missing a corner square).  To bring it up to size needed a spacer...I was going to use the blue background fabric - it didn't look right...OK, make it smaller and ditch the spacer...nope too busy...needs a spacer but what colour...rummage through the scraps and find the perfect pink, of course nowhere near big enough to do anything with...that scrap took a trip to the shops for the closest to it pink homespun I could find...

 

Entirely hand sewn, borders as well...it is only a wee quilt a metre square-ish (very roughly measured - it is supposed to be 39" x 39").

 

No idea how to quilt it...that's a ponder for another time...for now, wahoo it's a finished top and a project box emptied...

 

Happy Stitching...