Circling Around.
Posted on February 16, 2020 | 13 Comments
My UFO theme continues. I had quite a few embroideries finished but they sat in the bottom of a tub for far too long. I didn’t want to frame them as I knew that way they would take a lot of space for hanging. Several of them had been presented in simple hoops on their pattern pages, so It was the obvious choice in the end. And very economical on space.
Here is the end result.
This design is by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches.
Leanne Beasley of Leanne’sHouse.
This is one I made up when playing with dresden designs.
And this one has me stumped because I cannot remember the pattern designer.
Once they were all hooped I was ready to hang them. I had found a spot that was normally not used to display any projects – the tiny space between the door frame and the ceiling! All the hoops except one are 6 inches. The other is 7 inches.
Sitting right underneath is my recently cleaned and restored Singer Treadle sewing machine. My hubby pulled it apart and cleaned , oiled and repaired it back to good as new. This is the machine I sewed on as a child and teen, and even used it to make my wedding dress. That’s a trip down memory lane. After some very easy research it turns out to be from 1910. Wonder if any of my current machines will last that long?
While I am keeping busy during the afternoon I am listening to the Fire Fight concert on TV. Lots of great performers all raising money to help communities affected by the recent fires.
Hope you are enjoying your day, too.
Cheers, Karen
Early Stockings?
Posted on February 11, 2020 | 7 Comments
Maybe early, maybe late – depending on which Christmas you are aiming for. These stockings had no deadline, so I am saying early.
This is a set of four stockings made from a panel, from a long time ago. I can’t remember the manufacturer.
The design was lovely and only needed some outline stitching.
My machine has a setting that gives a hand stitched look to the outlining.
I am happy to now store these away with the rest of the Christmas goodies to wait their turn until December.
I am also keeping my Christmas theme going with completing felt ornaments. This is a different set to last week. Slightly larger at 3 by 3 inches. The design is by Home Spun Whimsy. Lori Moore is doing a Monthly free mug rug design on her Face Book site. I didn’t want a mug rug so turned the design into ornaments.
I wanted to keep them a little firmer that just felt, so I cut up some old x-rays and slid that between the layers before stitching them closed. How many of those old films do we all have piled up around our homes?
We are getting plenty of rain here and more to come. As yet, not as bad as NSW with their floods. It seems crazy to see areas that were covered in fire only a matter of weeks ago now being flooded. As I heard reported just the other day, we only need a plague of locusts and our Summer will be complete. We still have three fires burning in our state and hopefully the forecast rain will be of help there.
Hang in there.
Cheers, Karen
Clam Shells And Wool Flowers.
Posted on February 4, 2020 | 14 Comments
My wool flowers and clam shell piece has made it to the finish line.
It has ended up as quite a big larger that I thought – 48 X 21 inches. It is a Wendy Williams pattern designed as a table runner but I will use mine as a wall hanging. It is from her book called Wild Blooms and Colourful Creatures.
I have used wool felt and cotton fabrics.
Most of the threads are variegated from Sue Spargo.
I kept the quilting simple with meandering between the flowers and straight lines through the borders.
I found a backing in my stash that worked perfectly with the colours.
I am so pleased to have a finish from all the accumulated UFOs from last year. I loved this pattern when it was in the book, but what really inspired me to start this quilt was seeing one made at https://wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/
The different colourway started me on the path to making this one.
Okay, now that a start has been made on the UFO pile, I need to move on to the next one.
Good luck with your UFO piles, too.
Cheers, Karen
A Lovely Long Weekend.
Posted on January 26, 2020 | 13 Comments
Australia Day. It is a lovely time to have a long weekend and celebrate our nation.
January always ends up being a very busy time in the garden.
I love seeing these happy sunflowers.
We have been keeping up with berry picking.
And jam making.
Fresh corn is being picked also.
Apricots have been harvested. Lots of these have been preserved or jammed.
Some sewing bits and pieces have been done in between all of this. Some little Christmas decorations were finished. These are a pattern from many years ago from BHG.
These extra snowmen are from Trish Harriman of Attic Heirlooms. They are the first ornament for 2020 for one ornament a month.
I have also made a few of these card holders. They are great for little hands where it is difficult to hold a bunch of cards when playing card games. This way they can still join in and easily see their cards without having to put them flat on the table.
Now for a bit of silliness. We had some tin decorations in the garden for Christmas. These cockatoos were under the lemon tree when one lemon fell off and landed perfectly on the cockatoo’s crest and split down the middle.
Too much sport on a long weekend is never enough. We have enjoyed watching the cycling – Tour Down Under, and of course the tennis here at the Melbourne Open.
Hope your weekend is full up as well.
Cheers Karen
Happy 2020.
Posted on January 8, 2020 | 11 Comments
Time to get back into sewing and blogging for 2020. Decorations are packed away for another year. And I have scared the daylights out of myself by collecting together all the projects needing a finish.
I have returned to working on Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs. I looked back at my posts and realised I have not touched it since March last year. That was around the time the building started here. Lots was put aside around then. So here are blocks 3 and 4.
Glad to be back to it and seeing progress.
This is the centre of a Wendy Williams wall hanging ready for trimming and borders to be added.
This felt cardinal found its way to me and is a welcome addition to my Christmas decorations. Can’t quite put it away yet. It came from a stall raising money for a Women’s Shelter.
Everyone has been hearing about the horrific fires here in Australia. It is hard to comprehend the enormity of this disaster. And unfortunately there are still concerns that conditions will worsen again this Friday.
Our area is not under threat – we had our fire back in Feb last year. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. So everyone is being vigilant.
So many parts of the country are covered in smoke. We are even sending it to New Zealand. We are seeing some very strange skies, especially at sunset.
I can’t believe we had a full rainbow in a sky full of smoke. It looks like the smoke is only below the rainbow, too. Can’t explain that.
My thanks go out to all involved in the fire fighting and recovery efforts everywhere in our country. Amazing people.
Cheers, Karen
Follow Up Requests.
Posted on December 20, 2019 | 13 Comments
This is a quick post to answer a couple of questions and follow up on some requests.
Jenny and Susan asked for close up pics of the trees with the snow hearts. These are the felt ones.
And these are the fabric and felt hearts.
These were made with a free pattern from Bunny Hill designs. They have been remade this year as an ornament. Follow this link to the patterns which are still available. Also go to the blog for a lot of other free patterns.
Susan, you also mentioned the tray of embroideries.
These are a set of embroideries from Lyn Anderson called Sweet Christmas Ornaments. Here’s the link. They come as a set or separately. And there is a wooden button set to go with them.
The larger cushions at the back are a very simple design made using Christmas ribbons.
Next up, hanging solutions for Fiona. Along one wall I have a high window and underneath I can hang wall hangings.
This was a tricky one to start with but we came up with a solution. Little white cup hooks have been screwed into the underneath of the window sill. I have then used small foldback clips to secure the hangings and then hook them onto the cup hooks. The cup hooks are about 15cm (6 ins) apart.
Hope that helps.
I have just finished the last of my polar bears. These ones get to stay with me. So new that I noticed I haven’t even removed some of the pattern markings. Good thing they are staying here so I can clean them up.
Finally a big thank you to some bloggy friends here in Aus for their gorgeous decorations – Shez, Fiona and Michelle. They are adorable. And thanks also Michelle for your ideas about wooden trees. (For hanging decorations)
Okay, back to work. I have a trifle and a pavlova to make. Yum!
Cheers, Karen
Merry December.
Posted on December 17, 2019 | 15 Comments
December seems to be running away very quickly. I thought I had better write a post before it disappears completely.
Summer has been a long time coming. The weather has been quite mild except for the rare hot day. But of course that is about to change. We have some very hot days coming this week.
Sewing has been happening in bits and pieces. Lots of projects half finished that may have to wait until after Christmas. But there are a few little bits completed.
The one large and three small trees are a Kris Kringle gift at one of my sewing groups. They are two separate patterns from Marg Low.
Continuing the Marg Low theme, this moose is also one of her patterns.
This one had to swim across the pond to Colorado.
I have been making a batch of felt bears as ornaments for friends and family.
And a few more. The design comes from a paper stamping set.
Some are fatter than others depending on which ones were going in the post.
Then of course there was a production line for Christmas cards.
I had a bit of extra fun this year as there was another room to decorate.
I did have a lot of fun in the studio.
Lots of goodies came out of storage.
The house in now full of decorations.
Thankfully most of the Christmas sewing is complete. There are a couple of little decorations to finish, but nothing too complicated.
I hope you are ready for the big day. I now have to convince myself to do battle at the supermarket so we can enjoy a Christmas meal.
Cheers, Karen.
Little Bits.
Posted on November 4, 2019 | 15 Comments
It is always good to see progress on projects. This quilt is from Jen Kingwell of Amitie and is named Meadow.
This is the centre panel. I now have to make the border which consists of 24 applique blocks. Lots of tracing and cutting before any stitching begins.
A friend was working with some small pouches and offered to show a few of us how to make them.
They are made with plastic coated fabrics. The interesting part about making them is that only one side of the zipper is used. The bag is made in one piece then folded before stitching. The zipper pull is then re-attached.
I am finally back to the Gail Pan BOM stitcheries but of course way behind. I think these were May.
I have traced the next few months and will work on them when I get the chance.
Last of all is a little stitchery. I attended a stitching day for Fig’n’Berry and this is one of the designs from the day.
It will become a little wall hanging.
Tomorrow is a public holiday for us as it is the running of the Melbourne Cup. Not sure if the weather is going to be kind on the day.
Have a good week.
Cheers, Karen
A Blue And Orange Finish.
Posted on October 27, 2019 | 14 Comments
The catch up is continuing with tops waiting to be finished. I think this top was ready in November last year, so it has had to wait nearly a year to be completed. Lots of blue and orange in this one.
This quilt started when I saw the bird fabric. It was an end of bolt piece so I knew I was limited to what I had – no more available. So I pulled out lots of fabrics from my stash in orange and blue then set to work making squares and pinwheels to use in the top. I had to get the maths skills well into gear and used a grid to draw up a plan.
I cut the larger pieces so there was little wastage of the bird fabric, then framed each one in either blue or orange. Lots of counting came next to work out blocks to fill spaces and link the larger pieces
.
Once the main part of the top was together I added the blue border, the used what was left of the orange fabrics to make a pieced border. I can guarantee there was very little fabric left at the end. It was a tight finish.
I quilted the main body of the quilt with a wide meander, but then had a play with some (sort of) echo quilting on each panel. I kept with straight line quilting around each panel.
The back ended up being quite bright – orange.
The same blue went into the binding as was used to frame some of the blocks. The quilting showed up nicely on the back, too.
One thing that is not obvious in the smaller pictures is the detail on the bird fabric. I love the designs, mostly on their wings.
It is great to have another finish. I have one more quilt sandwiched and ready to go but of course there are other tops still waiting for a turn. The best part is I feel good about starting a few new projects.
Hope you do too.
Cheers, Karen
Donation Quilts – A Joint Effort.
Posted on October 20, 2019 | 14 Comments
One of my weekly groups is an embroidery session and through it I have met a lot of people and made many friends. Recently one of the ladies brought in a set of 16 embroideries that she had completed several years back but no longer wanted to use – no grandchildren of the right age any more. She wanted to give them away but nobody was able to use them for their own families either. So I suggested to her that I take them and turn them into a donation quilt.
I have been participating in a couple of sessions for Snuggle quilts. It is a group that makes and donates quilts to children who have long term stays at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. They also accept quilts that have been completed. With that in mind I took the blocks home and turned them into two quilts that met the size requirements that they needed.
I used eight of the embroidered blocks in each quilt, then built them out with sashing and borders to reach 40 X 48 inches in size.
Her embroideries are beautifully stitched.
I made the second one in a similar way, just with a different colouring.
You may recognise the embroidery design as All Creatures Great and Small from Natalie Bird. I had used these designs in my own quilt earlier this year.
I was able to show these to my friend when they were completed and she was delighted to see the blocks being used.
The quilts will be passed on to Snuggle Quilts this week.
I was delighted to be able to work in tandem to make these quilts. Who could resist those delightful embroideries?
Cheers, Karen
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