Sharing Buttons

A few weeks ago, some of my Wednesday night girls made the little evening bag in class and a few had them to show. They looked really good and I hope they bring them to show us another time. They needed a decorative button to complete the bag. It was lovely to see that last week, Sue and Margaret brought their pretty buttons to share with some of the ladies that needed one. Here they are.

 

It is so nice to share and help each other. The ladies were also swapping squares to help make their starry quilts as scrappy as possible.

Another picture of my class

Here are Barbara, Carol and Margaret showing off their star blocks.

Lovely ladies on Wednesday night

Thought I'd share a few photos of my lovely ladies of the night. These girls have been coming to my classes for a long time and we have a really good time on Wednesday nights at Hobbysew. Most of them were working on their Starry quilts last night but several were doing other things as well.  We do a lot of chatting, share ideas and enjoy each others company and occasionally we stitch!

Here are Danielle,Sue and Margaret hard at work. Danielle is working on her canvaswork, Sue on a stitchery and Margaret is decorating a lovely hand towel for her daughter, who is getting married soon.

Margaret and Carol worked on their star blocks and Carol was very excited to complete one. I am not sure she was too pleased to realise that she needed to make about 40 more! 

Margot and Linda chained lots of squares together for their borders and Judy completed a star block too.

My flying girl!

My daughter, Amy, has wanted to skydive for ages. Her fiance bought her the jump for Christmas! So hard to believe that this is my little girl up in the air!!!! She certainly didn't get the brave genes from me!

The quilt on my bed

Lynette Anderson has asked us to show the quilt that we have on our bed at the moment. I have already shown this one as it is a favourite quilt made in a class. It is a wonderful design by Cathy Stevenson. It is a large quilt with piecing and needle turn applique. I have it folded at the end of the bed and it is really too warm for the time of year but I love the way it looks.

Miniature Embroidery

Just thought I would share with you a miniature embroidery designed by Kaylene Evans. It is found in a lovely book called "Creative Heirloom Treasures". Sadly the book  isn't available nowadays but Canberra Needlework  were able to get some copies a few years ago and we did a term on the lovely projects in the book. This tiny garden is only about 3" square so it is stitched in single strand DMC thread. 

We are all excited here as our daughter, Lyndal and her husband, Nick, are back after living in London for 13 months. It is so lovely to have them home again and they are enjoying the warmth and the sunshine! There wasn't much sun in London over the last year. They are staying here with us while they do some renovations on their townhouse.

Another peek at the little village

Just thought I would show you another of the houses in the little village I am creating for the stitching day in May. I have finished stitching and have a school, a quilt shop, a church and some houses around a patchwork square. I have decided to make a little hanging with it and need to do a little quilting to finish it off.

Larry the Lamb

I have just finished putting my Larry the Lamb Pin cushion together. It is so cute! It is a pattern and kit from Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched and one of the girls from my class, Danielle, was lucky enough to visit Anni's shop in Bathurst and bought the kit for me. It is made in wool fabric which gives it a lot of texture. I am very pleased with the result. Seems a bit sad to poke poor Larry with pins!

Punch Needle Bag progress

This is the front of the punch needle bag that I am trying to complete. It is another pattern by Lynette Anderson and it was in the Homespun magazine along with a wonderful DVD teaching punch needle. I love the way the centre is punched and then the border is stitched which makes it more interesting. I have stalled a bit on this project as the handles are stitched like the border and I do have a few other things I am working on at the moment! 

Punch Needle continued

Here is another punch needle project made from Anni Downs

lovely book called Simple Pleasures. Some of my class did this one last term as well. The frame came from Anni as well.

Below is the new hoop I bought recently to use with punch needle. It works really well and there is less chance of stabbing your leg! I am making up a little punch needle project with a bit of stitching for the Stitching day in May. Still a bit experimental at the moment.

Punch needle Fun

Over the last year or so I have been enjoying using my punch needle. I made this little house punch needle from a book by Anni Downs from Hatched and Patched and it is a little rough! I did enjoy the process and like the slightly rough result. It is hard to get a really fine outline with the punch needle.

I then went to a class at Canberra Needlework, which has sadly closed. It was with Lynette Anderson and it was great to get some expert tuition. It was a fun class and we made this very cute little purse. 

Folk Art Seasons Book

Had an email from Lois in the UK who is looking for a copy of the book "Folk Art Seasons" by Carol Endres. She has been given some kits and a few completed blocks, but no notes, and her stitching group are hoping to make the quilt to raffle for charity. If anyone has a copy they are not using or have no need for, let me know as we can organise to get it to her. I am making some enquiries to see if it is possible to still get one in the US. I think it is amazing how they found my post on this quilt. I discovered that Google has my blog listed if you search for this book. Amazing stuff!

Little Village

Here is a little picture of part of the little village I am designing for the stitching day in May. Fiona and I have a few stitching days each year in Canberra and on the coast and I am trying to get organised. The houses are only little and are appliqued with a some embroidered trees around them. I am planning to make a cushion. Can't show you all of it as it isn't finished and we usually don't show the projects before the day so the ladies get a surprise. But a little hint doesn't hurt. 

Old work in Progress!

I am feeling very guilty about this work in very slow progress (some call these wisps). I started this beautiful BOM years ago and it is "Fairy Kisses" by Hugs and Kisses.

I was reading Helen's blog the other day and she asked people to email her about how far along they are on this project. I did and admitted that I had stitched every piece but hadn't put it together which is very slack! So I got it out and took some photos. This is the centre block. 

The ones below are some of the others. Even the larger borders are stitched. I am trying to make myself guilty so I will finish this project. I chose not to colour in the pictures as Helen did on her original. I really do like to stitch more than piecing on the machine. I am hoping to get started on the piecing very soon.

 

Simple Pleasures Projects

Last year, in 4th term, we made some lovely projects in the classes from Anni Downs'  book "Simple Pleasures". They are such cute stitcheries and there are so many nice things to make them into.  I stitched them while on holidays as they were very small and portable. Haven't yet used any of them as they have been living at Hobbysew for a while.  My class girls also made a few of them, especially the handtowels. I think some lucky people got a gorgeous hand towel  for Christmas. We had fun doing the punch needle project too.

Safe Pastures quilt

I was just looking through my photos and came across this picture of one of my favourite quilts. I made this quilt in  a class with Cathy Stevenson at Hobbysew. It is needleturned and pieced and it is huge! It lives on the end of my bed but it is far to hot to sleep under as we are the hottest capital today in Australia.

Sadly there are many people in Australia living near some terrible bushfires and some have lost their homes and their lives. We had some horrific fires here in Canberra a few years ago and it was a very scary time. Keep those in Victoria and NSW in your thoughts and prayers today. We could do with a change and rain!!!! 

Handmade day at Albert Hall

A few friends and I headed to the Albert Hall today for a Handmade Show. There were some lovely things to see. The picture below has some quilts made with lovely cotton fabrics. They were very effective and you could buy kits. 

There were stalls outside too like these. It was far too hot so we headed over to the Hyatt for these! They were delicious!

Two New patterns

Received a lovely package in the post yesterday from Lyn at Moore Patchwork. They are a lovely quilt with little stitchery houses by Rosalie Quinlan and a delightful stitching set from Marg Low. I really didn't need 2 more patterns but they were too tempting! Would love to start them but.....

Lyn has a really nice blog, see above, and often has great new patterns in her range. She has a website as well at www.moorepatchwork.com. She came to the last stitching day here in Canberra and has since move to Queensland.

Free Block of the Month

    

This block is the first one in a free BOM by Gail Pan. It is a Christmas BOM and she is posting a pattern each month on the 7th of the month. She does lovely stitchery quilts and it will be a quick block to complete each month. I am printing them in readiness but haven't started yet. 

I have managed to bind the wedding quilt I am making for my daughter, though it was very hot binding in this heat even with cooling! I have to make the label and I am finished one of my projects!

Experimenting with emailing the pictures to the blog

I have just experimented with emailing the pictures to my blog as outlined on the Chooky Blue blog. It works so much more quickly and you can get the photos from Picasa if you want. It is much easier finding them in Picasa. Thank you, Chooky blue.

This bag happened to be an easy  picture to use to experiment with. I made it last year as I gift for a friend. It is a pattern called Warm Hearts Bag by Jennifer Knol. I bought the pattern at Candleberry Country a few years ago.

The back of the bag is below the front is above. I ended up uploading the front normally as it vanished!!! Oh dear, computers are tricky.

Some new fabrics

Had a lovely surprise in the post this week. These fabrics, from the In the Pink 2 range, came from the US. I am collecting them to make the parts of the Block of the Month called "Breast of Friends" in the "Homespun" magazine No.68. The first block is by Leanne's House and is a lovely block. I am NOT starting it yet though am tempted! I might get to it once all the blocks in My Home or Yours are finished and a few other UFOs are put together. 

This is Leanne's block. 

Class projects for Term 1

Thought I would post some pictures of the projects that we are doing in my classes at Hobbysew this term. Thanks to Fiona, my fellow stitcher and blogger at Peaceful Threads, we are making this cute little house pincushion first.


Then we are making this little evening bag. It is crazy patchwork decorated with beads and embroidery.
This colourful quilt is based on the wonderful techniques taught by Mary Ellen Hopkins. I did a course with her a few years ago and bought a few of her quilting books. The books focus on really easy techniques and quick quilts. This one is easy though the squares are small and it takes a while to cut the 600 or so you need. It is a wonderful way to use your stash of dark and medium scraps.
Then we are making this appliqued and stitched patchwork bag. 

Lastly we are stitching this little canvas work scene. It is only 2 1/2" square.

Noah's Ark BOM by Lynette Anderson

I have just been to Lynette Anderson's blog and am about to download the last block for her lovely miniature BOM "Noah's Ark". I have so enjoyed stitching this over the last year and am looking forward to piecing it together soon. It has been a free BOM and has been so generous of Lynette to give it to us. I have very roughly placed the blocks so far. As you can see I haven't trimmed the borders yet. It is really very tiny but just my kind of thing as I do like to do little projects. Can't wait to add the ark soon.

Favourite quilts

Thought I would share my favourite quilts with you today. These 2 projects took a very long time to make especially the first one. It is from a book called Folk Art Seasons by Carol Endres and the mad quilt was pieced, appliqued and embroidered and took me about 5 years to slowly complete it. Each block was so time consuming that I had to do just a little each month in order to finish it. It became a Block of the year instead of Month! I even quilted this one myself!

The second quilt was a Block of the Month from a shop in Melbourne. It is called Quilted Village and is by Janet Miller. The pattern lets you stitch the houses in a variety of ways but I foundation pieced mine. It was a delightful quilt to make as the houses went together well and then the trees and plants were appliqued and embroidered and the centre is pieced. The choice of fabrics by the shop was excellent. It lives on my lounge room wall all the time except at Christmas.

Two finished quilts!

Thought I would share two of my latest finished projects. I have been working on these over the last few years so finishing them completely is a lovely feeling. The first one is Leanne Beaseley's Block of the Month "Journey of the Quilter". I started this in 2007 and taught it at a lovely shop called Canberra Needlework. Sadly the shop has now closed which is such a shame as we had lots of great stitching times there. The top has been finished for quite a while and has just been professionally quilted at the end of 2008 and I have finally completed the binding and label in January this year! Here it is.


The second quilt that I have completed is "Polka Dot Girls" by Bronwyn Hayes. It is a very pretty quilt with stitcheries and patchwork. Hobbysew does it as a Block of the Month. My husband thought he could recognise some of the girls on the quilt...Anyone we know? I had it quilted by Robyn too and it looks great. I have stitched a label as well. I sometimes think I like making the label better than the quilt.

Stitching projects to finish

One of the things I am planning to do this year is to complete some UFOs. I really enjoy the stitching, so often leave the putting together part of the quilt, bag or hanging till a long time after the stitching is complete. I have 2 in particular that need piecing together so am planning not to start any other large quilts till these are done. I am also working on 2 BOMs (Blocks of the Month), the lovely Noah miniature one from Lynette Anderson's blog and her Your Home or Mine BOM. No more BOMs for me till these are done! This is one of the blocks from Lynette's BOM with applique, stitching and patchwork.