Keep On Finishing.
Posted on April 7, 2020 | 10 Comments
Trying to keep working on UFOs can be challenging when new projects want a turn, too. So now I am going one for one. I completed a Cherie Payne project I had lingering on a shelf for quite a while – maybe from the Christmas before last. Just a small mini wall quilt.
Each block is hand stitched down. Always lovely to work with wool.
I then machine quilted each beard to add texture, before quilting the whole top.
And also added some outline stitching by hand.
I decided to use my old doll making skills and drew simple faces on each Santa rather than use button eyes.
That then gave me the chance to work on something new. This is the finished bag/house for Miss Kitty and her wardrobe from the last post.
This is now in the post ready for a birthday later this month.
Not sure what is next – maybe something for Easter.
Cheers, Karen
Little Things.
Posted on March 31, 2020 | 15 Comments
The last day of March. Hard to believe it has come around so quickly. Like many of you I have been digging into my list of projects to be done as well as working on UFOs My finishes for this week are all little things.
I have started working on The Twelve Days of Christmas by Larissa Holland of mmmcrafts. I have completed the first day of Christmas – a partridge and a pear.
These are made using wool felt and a variety of perle threads and DMC.
I am also preparing for an upcoming birthday. So this is Miss Kitty.
And this is her wardrobe.
This is a pattern called Miss Whiskers and is by Two Brown Birds. There is also a carry case to go with this that is shaped like a house. That is my next task.
And another small finish is this little 24 inch donation quilt.
I had been given a large number of bags of fabric to pass on to a charity group. I offered to sew up some quilts to help out. Now, of course, it is all here with me until we can go out and about again. So it looks like I will be putting a few more donation quilts together. Happy to help out.
We are getting used to being at home and settling into a routine. We are probably lucky in that being retirees we have developed quite a few interests and will have no trouble keeping occupied. The weather has been pleasant so spending time in the garden is easy. I am extremely grateful that my sewing studio was built last year and I have plenty of space to spread out all my projects.
I have noticed a huge increase in the number of blogs coming up in my feed each day. With the extra time it seems people have rediscovered their blogs and are getting back to posting. So grateful we live in an era where technology can keep us in touch so easily. Make the most of it.
Cheers, Karen
Seeing Spots.
Posted on March 18, 2020 | 13 Comments
When I had completed my clam shell wall hanging, I had quite a few left over circles. I decided to applique them to a variety of black and white background fabrics and turn them into a mini quilt.
A little bit of quilting was done and then a spotted binding was added. It measures about 22 inches square. I am not sure yet if I should hang it or leave it as a table centre. Maybe both.
I have also managed to get back to my Dancing Chickens, Flying Pigs blocks and have finished number 5.
Number 6 is now being prepared.
That’s a short and sweet post for today. Hope everyone is finding plenty to do in isolation.
Cheers, Karen
A March Mixture.
Posted on March 11, 2020 | 10 Comments
There are a lot of bits and pieces that still need finishing, so I will try to keep on top of those UFOs in March.
Knowing that Easter is around the corner, I managed to find a frame for this little rabbit. I think it is a Bonnie Sullivan design (All Through The Night)
I had a pin cushion that had the stitching done from a long time ago. I finally stitched a backing on and stuffed it. It’s a Hatched and Patched design. (Annie Downs)
I managed to finish one hedgehog in time to give as a Christmas gift. I have now completed the second and this one will stay here with me. Here it is all rolled up in a ball.
There are quite a few babies on the way this year so I need to stock up on my monkey supply. Hope I can keep up.
There were two small snowmen pillows that also needed backings and stuffing, just like the pin cushion. Thankfully these are also finished. These are from Sunflower Fields Pattern Co.
And to round it out, I have been using up all the circles left over from my clam shells wall hanging. I have stitched them on to black and white backgrounds and will turn this into another small wall hanging.
I have managed to finish my Meadow flimsy and need to get it sandwiched for quilting.
So that is where I am at for the moment.
Enjoy your day. Cheers, Karen
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
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