The End Of The Month.
Posted on January 31, 2015 | 11 Comments
If it’s White Rabbit for the start of a month, what is it for the last day? I have no idea!
This has to have been one of the mildest Januarys in this area for a long time. It has certainly made daily living in the middle of Summer very easy.
On the sewing front I was recently the lucky recipient of a pattern from Elizabeth at Sunflower Fields Pattern Company.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I couldn’t resist it for long and ended up making both little pillow ornaments.
They are made with wool and have lovely embroidery embellishments on them.
I have been wanting to work with wool for a long time and have slowly been collecting little pieces. This is my first play with it and I must admit it was lovely to work with.
I will have to keep my eyes open and collect more as I can see more of this in my future!
I have also noticed the FHFS group has a wool challenge so I will watch for that one with interest, too!
Earlier this week a group of friends came over for a card workshop. With the careful guidance of Christine we all made these cards.
Lots of fun was had and of course more talking was done than work.
There is a lovely weekend waiting for all of us.
Have a good one.
Cheers, Karen
Red Again.
Posted on January 27, 2015 | 14 Comments
Can’t help it. Red just keeps featuring!
This is a little wall hanging using the left over pieces of Holiday Frost from a quilt I made a couple of years ago.
I did some straight lines through the centre panel simply to secure the layers.
Then I did some echo quilting on the red triangles as well as meandering and pebble quilting on the white triangles.
I tried some petals in the big corners and added more pebbles. I need to work on the petals.
Then some swirls, loops and raindrops in the different borders.
Even a little meandering in the strips across the top and bottom of the panel.
I used a grey and white spot for the backing and another red in the binding.
Of course I had to have a photo with shadows!
All I now have left of this fabric is a panel with a variety of blocks. I hope to play with that sometime soon.
This is the original quilt I made with the fabric.
As always, it is lovely to have another UFO off the list.
Just how long can I stay on this path?
Cheers, Karen
January 26th.
Posted on January 26, 2015 | 7 Comments
Happy Australia Day.
Here in Gippsland we are being treated to a lovely sunny day with a gentle breeze. Perfect for a BBQ.
The flowering gums are looking a treat.
The flowers are beautiful. No wonder Leesa Chandler chose to use them on her fabric – Under The Australian Sun.
Congratulations to Rosie Batty who was last night named as Australian of the Year. Such an amazing lady. And congratulations to all the women who took out the major Australia Day awards. It is stunning to see the work they all do.
And what about the tennis! That was an incredible match last night. Congratulations to Nick Kyrgios.
He will play Andy Murray in the next round of the Australian Open. Can’t wait for that one.
I do hope everyone has a wonderful Australia Day.
A Winter Finish.
Posted on January 14, 2015 | 15 Comments
It’s the middle of Summer and I am finishing a Winter quilt.
This is a little lap size quilt using a free design from Erin Russek of One Piece At A Time.
I started it several years ago and then it was set aside as I found other distractions.
I appliqued each mitten with satin stitch using a variegated red and blue thread.
The quilting is a simple meandering pattern.
It is backed with a lovely snowflake fabric.
Good to have the first quilt finished off my list for 2015. Not a big one, but a finish all the same.
Now what’s next?
Cheers, Karen
Starting 2015.
Posted on January 8, 2015 | 16 Comments
2015 has definitely started here in true Australian fashion … heat, fires, beach and thunderstorms.
I suppose I should be used to this by now. We did have a mild start to Summer with few really hot days, but as soon as the calendar kicked over to the New Year that changed with days up to 40 degrees. Sadly some areas have experienced bad fires with a lot of homes lost. What a hard way to start the year.
We have had crazy thunderstorms going through yesterday bringing good rain in some areas. It was quite an impressive lightning display outside.
We have spent a few days travelling around catching up with family members. One day at Wye River we had the true Aussie experience with wildlife.
This sleepy fellow was in the tree out the front.
We then had a visit from a family of 9 kookaburras, all expecting to be fed. I could only catch 3 at once in the photo.
Next to arrive were the cockatoos checking out the bird feeder.
Apparently we missed the wallabies. They had visited the night before.
Only a little sewing happening here. I did finish a couple more of these. I finally have some to keep for myself.
I have packed away the Christmas decorations and quilts, but found there were a few bits I wanted to keep out a little longer. So I set up a corner in a spare bedroom.
I see lots of people making plans for new projects for this year and I am sure I will have a few to do as well, but at the moment I think I will try to focus on reducing the UFO pile.
I wonder how long that will last!
I do hope your year has started well.
Cheers, Karen
Post Santa Day.
Posted on December 29, 2014 | 15 Comments
Christmas is all over for another year. So what’s next?
I didn’t do a lot of decorating so that has been easy to pack away.
Lots of gardening seems to be on the cards with netting needed to protect the fruit on the trees being first priority.
And maybe a Spring clean in Summer.
I have a couple of photos I couldn’t show before Christmas.
These are scarves made for grandies in the Northern Hemisphere.
The cards I made this year.
A gorgeous gift box.
And a lovely biscuit tin. Loved the design and couldn’t resist.
That’s it for me for Christmas. Done and Dusted.
I do hope you had a lovely time with friends and family.
Cheers, Karen.
Playing Catch Up With Christmas.
Posted on December 8, 2014 | 15 Comments
As always at this time of year, Christmas is coming far too quickly. It is hard to stay in front.
But a lovely parcel arrived last week to improve the situation. It turns out Cheryll of Gone Stitchin is my final FHFS partner for 2014 and look at this lovely sight.
How lucky am I?
Thank you, Cheryll, for this delightful parcel of goodies. I look forward to discovering the contents when the allotted date arrives. It’s very exciting.
I have a large selection of ornaments that are too heavy for a normal tree and for several years I have been looking for an idea that would work for the heavies.
I found this perfect tree in a local store on the weekend and realised it would be perfect for the job.
It is as tall as me so should hold quite a few ornies.
I have been stitching away and getting in a few finishes.
These are Marg Low‘s felt Santas. Love the scarf on the back of them.
These little birds are also a Marg Low design.
And also a few more notebooks, also from Marg Low. (Definitely a pattern here.)
That’s a short and sharp post for today. Too many end of year functions to get to.
Hope you are enjoying a few as well.
Cheers, Karen
Summer Is Coming.
Posted on November 28, 2014 | 12 Comments
Here in our part of the world, Summer starts on Monday. In our southern part of the country we have not been hit with the early hot temperatures those further north are experiencing.
As a result the garden is growing well and the grass is still green. It is even cool enough at night to still have a blanket.
This is what is happening in my garden.
As a result I am making my third batch of jam. I am finding that we are able to pick a kilogram every second or third day. So why not turn some of it into jam.
I breathed a big sigh of relief when I posted this parcel today for our FHFS group.
I had bee quite concerned about making the deadline, but thankfully it all worked out.
This is a sneak peek at what I played with that eventually went inside one of the packages.
Now that one deadline is out of the way, I need to catch up on a lot more Christmas sewing.
In the meantime, I have found other distractions. I have a friend who is very talented when it comes to anything to do with paper. I enjoy going to some of her classes.
Last week we made this lovely fold out book.
All the papers used in the pages and on the cover are handmade.
A little bit of decoration was added.
It is made with concertina fold pages.
There are too many lovely distractions waiting to be made. The only solution is to live to 110 – at least!
Have a lovely weekend. I am planning to enjoy the sunshine in the garden.
Hope you have a great one planned, too.
Cheers, Karen
Lovely Colours.
Posted on November 19, 2014 | 17 Comments
Over the past few weeks I have been playing with these lovely fabrics.
This is a baby quilt I have made for our niece. She is due in the first week of December.
It is made using HSTs. I started with 12 fat quarters and still have fabric over. The fabric is all from one of Nancy Halverston’s ranges.
All the quilting is straight line.
I like the way it shows up well on the back of the quilt.
The backing fabric has cute little animals on it – elephant, rhino and giraffe.
The binding is a simple linen look grey.
I am very pleased to have this ready before the arrival of the baby.
I do hope she likes it.
Cheers, Karen
Little Steps.
Posted on November 12, 2014 | 20 Comments
It still seems to be very busy here, but progress on some projects is being made in little steps
I have finished the little stitcheries from a FigNBerry pattern. They will have to wait for a little while to be made into a quilt, but I have enjoyed having a portable project to work on.
The Country Garden thread in this one is named Cobblestone.
I am delighted to be back working on my Jacobean embroidery and making good progress there, too.
Only two sections to go!
And I have also completed the main blocks for the Christmas Quilt from a pattern by Viv Robinson.
Here are the blocks together.
In the completed quilt there will be sashing and borders. It may be ready for Christmas ………. maybe.
I am thoroughly enjoying our warmer days and have spent this morning picking a tub of strawberries. Great way to start the day.
Cheers, Karen
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