Redwork Guild Block...

(Found this languishing from end October 2020)

To keep our members engaged last year, as the Committee of our Branch of The Embroiders Guild, Victoria, we organised some background fabric, thread and a theme and mailed out the doings to those members who wanted to participate. The rules were simple...must use the fabric and thread provided and a design that fits in the theme of "garden" but otherwise...choose the design and stitches you fancy.  I used an old pattern that had been waiting a long time for its turn...the pattern has four designs and the trick then was choosing which one?...

The Busy Gardner by Designs by Dot Craft, a pattern from 2003.

The plan is to put all the blocks together into a red/white raffle quilt for "later on".

I like the four stitchery designs a lot and think it would make a nice small quilt in green or blue...one day...

Happy Stitching...

Zooooommmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Chooky hosted another bloggy gathering via Zoom...while she started at 6:00 am with Northern Hemisphere girls and others, I was a late comer to the party only realising mid-morning that hey, I wasn't at work I could play!!...so I joined in just before 12:00 midday our time...hopped in and out at times but I did manage to get a couple of things done...nothing great and wonderous...while others were working on actual projects I did a little "clearing up"...machining binding to two table mats (they'd been waiting a while)...randomly finding some wee Christmas stitcheries with binding strips so stitched on those bindings as well...while I was standing at the cutting table I marked some more masking tape lines on the big-hexie quilt big stitch hand quilting project.  After all that preparation I thought I'd work on an actual quilt top and in a move that was scary, appliqued a pointy star down on my Anna quilt (it's dodgy but it is staying as is!).  I decided I really need to be totally concentrating when doing those with the little applique iron to hand and just generally a bit more complex that I can handle while zoom meeting...so I retreated to the couch and hand sewing and by the time we signed off at about 9:00 pm had all those bindings completed stitched...

Like I said, nothing great and wonderous but done...the orange peels are dodgy with some points missing because I'd mucked up the measurements of the cabinet tops the are to go one so were too small and had to add borders after I'd backed and quilted but they'll do the intended job well enough and better than the bin...I'm going to put ribbon hangers on the little Christmas stitcheries as tree decorations...have even found the ribbon and beads...

Thanks Chooky for a fun day with friends from far and not so far geographically...the best idea to keep us connected...

Happy Stitching...

Stawell Quilters Christmas Fat Quarter Swap 2019 (Part 1)...

Stawell Quilters held the Christmas Fat Quarter Swap*(explanation at end of post) again this year.  The fabric in the paper bag I was given was this...

Mmmm, that is interesting and not at all what I'd have expected from the person I was making for. Coincidentally, just that week, I was in the local habby and she had a bundle of fat quarters that I really liked but couldn't justify and that bundle immediately sprung to mind as appropriate colours for this piece of fabric...what a shame I was forced to go and buy that bundle - he he he.  And then when I was in the ACT I found the perfect perle cotton at Crafty Frog in Kambah - the shopping gods were smiling on me with this fabric which I had initially thought would be impossible to match.

Instead of a fat quarter the recipient had put in a half metre of her fabric so that was plenty to play with. I had the idea to make a bag that could be used for transporting knitting but couldn't find a pattern to fit the picture in my head so used a pattern for an all-purpose bag I have made before and found useful myself. I used a mix of the "True Friends Tote Bag" from Natalie Bird's book Red Home with a stitchery pattern from Anni Downs' book The Simple Life, then when being totally flummoxed about what fabric to use for handles I found resin handles that I felt matched perfectly. I had just enough of her fabric left to make the handle hinges.  I hand quilted with big stitches in the variegated perle thread I'd bought home from the ACT.

 Front

 Back

 Handles

 Front up close

 Stitchery detail

 Interior

Quilting detail on back

I think I may have missed the mark with the person particularly liking it but hopefully she'll get some use out of it.

Happy Stitching...

*A fat quarter is put in a paper bag with your name on it and handed in to the Group.  The paper bags are put into a basket and randomly distributed to the participants.  You make something using the fat quarter in the paper bag you are given for the person whose fabric it is.  The fabric the person puts in is the only guide the rest is up to the maker.

Gardening Quilt...

Once upon a time long long ago a trip was made to The Patchwork Angel in Queensland (back when Lynette Anderson owned the shop)...stitcheries were purchased...said stitcheries were worked...fabrics were purchased to go with...and they all lived happily in a paper bag for many many many years...until one day in 2018 a clammer arose and the stitcheries and the fabrics got together and made lots of noise until the sew-er took notice and let them out for some air...the stitcheries put their case forward that they wanted to be surrounded by the fabrics and made all the same size...and so they were...

 Garden Shop - Bronwyn Hayes for The Patchwork Angel

 Garden Angel - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

 Gardeners Bounty - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

The Allotment - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

and they hung on the "design sheet" and decorated the sewing room happily for a few months until the sew-er ripped them down and painted the door they were hanging over! The blocks were unhappy lying on the cutting table so they rose up and demanded to be made as one...and so they were...

...floral fabrics purchased from goodness knows where and goodness knows when but it was a long time ago...the silvery contrast was added from the cupboard stash at the time of construction...

Not unhappy with it at all...a couple of the stitcheries have ceramic buttons but I've taken them off so they don't get broken and will re-attach after it is quilted (no rush!)...

Happy Stitching...

Tea Cup quilt...

A project that has been on the go so long I think pre-dates blogging (as I can't find it on this blog and I'm too lazy to search the old Wordpress one)...my Tea Cups Quilt...a Crabapple Hill Studio design I did as a block of the month years ago through a shop in Sunbury.  I loved the stitcheries (and still do).  It has hung about for years as after I quilted and bound it I then decided to do more quilting on the border (leaves)...which never really eventuated, it just became a "one day" job with the quilt hanging over the hand quilting floor frame for years...well "one day" came on Friday when I decided that if I really wanted that extra quilting it would be done by now (and the few leaves I'd stitched were pretty craptastic) so the quick unpick came out to play and 10 minutes later (told you there wasn't much done) the few leaves were pruned and I called it done!

All it needs now is a wash on the weekend, happy to have it finished...

Happy Stitching...

Stawell Quilters Exhibition Challenge...Circling Parrots

The Stawell Quilters Bienniel Exhibition was held in October and the member's challenge was ܏set - a green batik or, when the Craft Shop ran out of the green and there wasn't more to be sourced, a purple alternative, the theme: circles and a couple of technical parameters. Mmmm...from the fabric my mind went to Gariwerd/The Grampians and that led to birds and circles to looking out windows and the end result doesn't convey any of that - ha ha, an art quilter I am not!... At the last minute (like when my friend was collecting it from me at work to kindly take to the venue the morning of set-up) it needed a name so quickly we came up with "Circling Parrots". 

I played about with different things on this small quilt...crayon colouring of the birds then back stitching the outlines which I really enjoyed...hand and machine applique (consistently not flash at the machine applique so that became a design element in itself I decided - yep, artistic licence of the broadest variety, he he he) and a bit of machine quilting because the hand quilting wasn't working so it got frogged...

When I rocked up to the Exhibition on the Saturday I was told to "go look at the Challenges" ... huh? what? ... surely that is a mistake! a blue card pinned on my quilt - third place ... I'm still a bit flummoxed as to why but I'll take it and say thank you ...there it is hanging on the top right hand side...how fabulous are all the little quilts...

It was a fun Challenge...

Happy Stitching...

More Secret Sewing - SQT Small Quilt Swap 2018

Found in drafts...from July!...time it was updated and posted...the first time ever it wasn't a positive swap experience from my side as disappointingly I didn't receive anything in return and so the post was left to languish in drafts...
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I joined in again with the (was Yahoo Group now Groups.io) Small Quilt Talk annual Small Quilt Swap.  This is the wee quilt I sent...

(The day I finished it the sun was actually shinning and it wasn't raining

so I took it outside and pegged it on the yard fence)

Her interests included beach/water, outdoors/camping, travelling and music festivals so I tried to incorporate those with the little embroideries...she also liked scrappy and I love to play scrappy so that was fun...I didn't take a photo of the backing fabric but quite randomly in Spotlight I found a fabric that was printed with words relating to camping/the outdoors and woodland animals and that so fitted the bill...hand pieced and hand quilted with a variegated Auriful 28wt thread, I had planned big stitch quilting in 12wt thread but the big stitch look didn't do it for me so ditched that idea.

The whole package...

The quilt is about 18" square (I think maybe 18 1/2" - anyway somewhere in that vicinity)...

Happy Stitching...

Pansies for Y...

A few weeks ago at patchwork/quilting group friendship quilt blocks were handed out to create for Y...we were given a square of fabric she had provided for the background and asked to create a block incorporating pansies (and some purple) using any technique/method we liked.  I immediately thought of a pansy fabric in the stash to create a broderie perse bouquet...great idea except clearly I used that fabric in the distant past as it isn't living in the stash anymore....mmmm....now what?  A stitchery? Does my Tea Party quilt have a pansy block - yes it does! Winner winner chicken dinner.  I enlarged the original pattern (Tea Party "Paula" - Crab.apple Hill) to fit the size of the block requested by Y...

I was glad of needing to finish this stitchery as last week I had emergency eye surgery (sleep over at The Eye & Ear Hospital in East Melbourne) and when I came home had to hold a particular position until I saw the surgeon again at the beginning of this week, which meant I couldn't do much but it was just right for hand stitching...there had to be a positive out of the eye drama...

I hope Y likes her block and it fits in with the blocks she has received from other blocks...

Happy stitching...

SSCS 2016 - Outgoing - The Main Present Edition...

December 25 is a long time away when waiting for SSCS (for everything else it zooms up way too quickly!)...but finally it arrived and Florence has opened her main present...a set to take cup/mug and cutlery to stitching (or other) happenings...and she has told me she likes it (whew!)...

 The present - main and some extra bits just because...

The set...

Mug/cup bag  

Mug mat to set her cup and biscuit on...

Fold in half and tie behind the cup...

Cutlery roll - pockets for cutlery and serviette... 

Roll up...

 

Sit in front of the cup... 

Don't forget tea in the pocket...

Ready to go...

Florence has cats and when I saw the cat fabric it meowed (very loudly and insistently) pick me!  I used iron on vinyl for the cup pocket for a bit of protection in case of a damp cup...and the fun floral fabric I picked up in Bendigo when I went on an Embroidery Guild bus trip a few weeks ago just because I liked it...it just happened to have the right shade of turquoise in the design so the cats wanted to play in the garden...gotta love serendipity :)

The bag pattern was from Red Brolly (mostly...I almost followed a pattern...almost), the mug rug I made up using an Anni Downes stitchery design from her "The Story of My Day" book and the cutlery roll I made up after seeing a friend's.

I'm always packing a cup/mug and cutlery to stitchy happenings and I thought maybe Florence was too so I hope she gets use out of the set.

Happy Stitching...

SSCS 2016 - Outgoing - The Ornament Edition...

The sleigh (finally at almost Christmas Eve) arrived in Europe...France in particular...and the house of Florence specifically...of course the little parcel could be opened immediately...hanging ornaments were inside...

 Kangaroo...

 

Kookaburra

Hanging Out Together...

The drawings by our very own lovely Michelle Ridgeway...a little bit of Aussie across the seas to France.

I hope Florence enjoys them...

Happy Stitching...

Framed...

It sure is hard to restart once out of the blogging habit...here goes...

Back in June Melissa Grant of One Day in May travelled west to spend a day giving a workshop put on by the Stawell Craft Shop and to start off on the Friday night held a trunk show at the shop.  Not sure what to expect, but thinking it might be interesting, my friend M and I went along...and we weren't sorry...Melissa was lovely, we got to see all her lovely projects, hear her story and she freely offered tips and tricks...definitely made the prospect of the workshop the next day even more enticing.

At the workshop we were to be given the choice of two projects. One a pattern Melissa had already released and one a surprise. I looked at the known pattern, Sew Tidy, on Melissa's website, liked it, so on the Friday morning before work thought I'd put some background fabrics and threads in the bag for the next day and before I knew it...whoosh! fabrics and threads came together and all I needed was the pattern to go with them!  The feature stitchery was started on the day...

Finished the words in class...yes, in class!...happiness indeed...

It became my fortnightly Saturday sit and sew project... the stitchery was finished...

 The whole constructed and put in a frame...

And filled with some bits and bobs as a try out...

An actual finish (maybe a month ago which means only a couple of months since the workshop - almost a miracle!)... 

Happy Stitching...

SSCS 2015 - The Ornament Edition...

I've found out where the SSCS parcel was headed...the Sleigh landed and dropped off the parcel to....

Sylvia in Germany

Sylvia has opened the ornament parcel so now I can show what was inside...

Two of the FignBerrycreations designs we received at the stitching day at Stawell back in August. Of course I didn't exactly follow the instructions (ha ha as if that ever happens!) and used a thread from the floss box stash (from memory a Threadworks one) and added seed beads which weren't in the original designs. The bauble has the original satin stitch balls and the present one has seed beads instead and I added seed beads around the circle edges - just because I could, for a bit of bling to finish them off.

So glad Sylvia likes them...they were fun little designs to stitch...now to wait until we can open those main presents - oh the temptation of waiting!!!
 

Happy Stitching...

SKOW...Believe It or Not - Progress!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I have been quietly working away on Some Kind of Wonderful over the last few months finalising the applique/stitchery blocks in small increments as time permitted without bothering to blog as I went...I had even put one strip together - but it was a whoops so let's not go there - anyway, yesterday afternoon, to celebrate the 1st day of the New Year, I wrapped my head around two little inescapable facts - 1. I had to wield the rotary cutter and cut 2 1/2" squares I had somehow missed preparing at the outset, and 2. I had to employ the quick unpick *sigh*...

By the end of the day...

2 full and 9/10ths of the 3rd, strips pieced...it would have been three if I wasn't one 2 1/2" square short and it was too late to be wielding sharp objects of the rotary cutter variety and I did have to get up for work this morning, so I went to bed.

Still a bit to go, including finishing off the applique on one block, but you never know, it could happen...

Happy Stitching...

The Sleigh Landed - The Main Present...

During the stalk of Tonje's blog I found a kindred spirit...Dr Who! Combined with her love of mug rugs that sent me scurrying into the sewing room to create her very own...

 TARDIS!

The background/backing fabric reminded me of flying about in space/time

It was SO. Much. Fun. building a TARDIS...I just may need one for myself...guess I've just outed myself there (says the person streaming Dr Who on iView while writing the blog post!) *LOL*

Having started with an "extra" and with the ornament made that left the main present...what to make what to make...

Then I remembered a bag pattern from Jodie Carleton at a Daylesford Craft Experience event. The pattern stitchery detail wasn't matching the picture in my head...To The World Wide InterWebs and a Google image search!!!!...turning up the perfect embroidery design here. A rummage through the surprise filled "uncategorised could be anything" embroidery floss box unearthed a purple variegated, no label, could be cottage garden, threadworx or anything of that ilk, floss that yelled out rather loudly that it wanted to play along...

I kept the Work In Progress words and just replaced the pattern stitchery with the work basket design...

Work in Progress bag...I used stiff bag batting as Tonje does a bit of knitting and I wanted it to stand up so she could leave her yarn ball in the bag and knit away...and a black background with little squares of colours fabric for the lining for more interest than a flat black or solid colour fabric...

The whole parcel...I added a 2015 Calendar of Australian wildflowers...

I really enjoyed making these projects, I hope Tonje enjoys using them.

Now to wait for SSCS 2015! No pressure there Chooky! *LOL*

Happy Stitching

The Sleigh Landed...The Ornament Edition...

As Santa's SSCS sleigh flew north homewards to Lappland it was a slight detour to Norway to drop off the package at Tonje's house...After a good stalk of Tonje's blog to make a list of favourite colours, likes, interests, etc there an immediate flurry of activity on one idea that was neither the main present or the hanging ornament - but it was fun and it did get the ball rolling...then while catching up on blogs I spied in the "you might also like" bit on Hanne's blog this stuffed heart that ticked boxes for the hanging ornament so without delay printed off the stitchery sketch so kindly shared.  Thank you Hanne for sharing your creativity.

Using a snowflakey/starry type print cream on cream background fabric, the thread palette decided by Tonje's favourite colours listed as black, blue, purple and brown...and her love of rats and mice...

Cute little mouse...

blue backing fabric continuing the snowflakey/starry theme...

And it can double as a pincushion!

Happy Stitching...

SSCS 2013 - Main Present Sent...

Finally opening of the SSCS presents was allowed and so the big reveals can be…well..revealed…first up what I sent...

Stalking of May Kristin's blog was fun and provided heaps of inspiration.  For the main present I wanted something that was "year round" rather than just for Christmas so I chose to make a bag.  After considering a few options I ended up going with a Rosalie Quinlan stitchery incorporated into the True Friends Tote Bag from Natalie Bird's book Red Home...

 

 

In the spirit of me being pathologically unable to completely stick to a pattern, of course there was a further modification aside from using a totally unrelated stitchery...

Plastic "window" pockets - one for her mobile phone (I hope, I used my phone as a gauge) and one that I thought would be good for a diary or the like and that proved the case when it fitted a mini calendar perfectly.  I love the bag I made myself from this pattern, it's such a great size and I hope May Kristin finds it useful.

Happy stitching...