Christmas Mini Swap

I have participated in a 12 Inch Mini swap for the first time in Cheryll's Christmas Mini. I was thrilled to receive mine that Lyn made for me. It looks lovely on my frame bought especially to display it. I enjoyed making the one that I sent to her. I think I would like to enter this swap again.

I am enjoying seeing it displayed and love the intricate stitching  that it has and the sentiment behind the words.

 

This is the one I made for her:

A close up of the centre with bead detail.

Well I have signed up for the Friday night with friends so I had better 

get on with my plans for that.

 

I may get to post again with what I managed to do. Lets hope so.

Bye,

Sue

Spring

My dh has just got a new macro lens for his camera and on a recent trip to the gardens we found these bleeding hearts nestled in the undergrowth. I do love them.

Our Apple blossom in the backyard on the apple tree. The new lens certainly makes a clearer image.

 I know this looks familiar but it is a new one that is bigger then the first one.

 This is made from all the old floral fabrics from my mother's stash. The colours don't look quite right but I love it because it makes me quite nostalgic as it reminds me of her.

This is the top of a strata star quilt. It was fun to do and quite effective.

I am planning to bag it out and then quilt on top.

 In the recent school holidays I got out my new Ricky Tims convergence quilt. I tried it with a single piece of fabric but have lots of other ideas spinning around in my head.

I have got a few hexagons done last weekend while having a nostalgic watch of Mary Poppins which was on TV.

It has been ages since I posted anything so thought I would show some of what I have been doing over the last few weeks.

I am looking forward to the next FNSI to sit down and finish a  couple of these projects.

Bye for now,

Sue

A weekend away

Last weekend I went away with a group of fellow quilters on a retreat. It was a fabulous weekend where all meals and dishes were done for us and we could sew from daylight until very late. The facilities allowed us to  carry on with our projects and real progress was made by all.
In my last post I was going to finish  a wall hanging and this was one of the things I was able to complete. This meant sewing on two blue circles  to the centres of each circle, attaching batting, backing and quilting it. I spiralled the quilting lines to echo the colour spiralling.I also made bias binding and attaching this to the outside. I am really pleased with how it has turned out.I now have it pinned on the wall in the hall ready for visitors arriving from Australia on Friday. I think the permanent mounting will have to wait until after they leave.

I also managed to sew  binding onto a large quilt I have just finished quilting. For the first time I attached it and have done mitred corners so it feels good to learn a new and improved technique. 

Now I just need to hand sew the binding down. I will post a photo once the quilt is finished.

All in all I highly recommend getting away with like minded people to inspire and learn from each other.

Until next time.

Sue

  

Preparing for Friday night sew in

I have  a few UFO's that I should tackle.(well actually more than a few. Haha)
The one that I think I will settle on for this Friday is this wall hanging:

It needs to have circles in the two centres and then to be quilted and bound.
I have tried this once before but had trouble getting  perfectly round circles. The fabrics are all  batiks and are quite vibrant.  Wish me luck!

Working with fabric strata

Last weekend I went to a 2 day class to construct a quilt using a jelly roll of Batik fabrics. The strips were sewn into a piece of fabric and then cut into shapes with templates and sewn back together.

It was an enjoyable class and everyone's quilt ended up looking quite different.   

My photo is 90 degrees to the left. For some reason when I up loaded it, it turned around and I couldn't change it.

Friday Night Sew in

I enjoyed my evening with FNSI (Friday night sew in) with Heidi and last night I made a sewing companion using this pattern I  found on the Internet.

This is my one:

I think they must have made their needle case a little smaller as it goes down lower into the companion in the picture.
I used a snap instead of the button and tassel (as I didn't have one) . 
This is the website I got it from.
http://www.popularpatchwork.com/news/article/simple-sewing-companion/210/

I also did some more basting of Hexigons and started making a flower. Not enough to show it yet.
I'm looking forward to seeing what others did.
Sue

NZ quilt

This is a wall hanging I made for my daughter when she lived in America for a year and the red heart buttons are placed where we live where her grandparents lived and a special friend. It was the first time I did a stipple in the border 

From Mum and Nana with love.

Daughters 21st quilt.

When my mother died I found a pile of hand embroidered squares with some fabric that was intended to make a quilt for my daughter. When Julie's 21st came around I decided to complete it and give it to her as a combined effort from Mum and Nana. I substituted one of the fabrics (the green tone on tone ) to make it less little girly and changed the pattern to a double Irish chain. It was a big job and a fairly emotional one by the end. I know my Mum would have been thrilled to see it and Julie was delighted to have it.  

A winter shot.

A random photo of a Kea to get myself started again.

I had left it so long that my work Administrator had blocked me from accessing  my Blog to edit. I really thought I was stuck. However this morning he has allowed the Domain and I am away again.

Sorry to those who have looked in vain for so ling. The mind is willing but I just need to keep myself going. I got some binding sewn on a quilt yesterday with the holiday Monday here in NZ and now I have some hand stitching to do. I still have been reading others blogs and wishing I could be as productive as you all.

 Happy St Patrick's Day

In honour of St Patrick's day yesterday I did this embroidery. I hope you all had a good one, if you celebrate these days. 

I also found this Celtic Cross  free-standing lace bookmark which I thought was relevant to the day. It is a new file which I thought turned out quite well.

Now I need to sew the first block of my block of the month mentioned in last post. I have cut it out, but as I thought would happen the 2nd month has arrived in the email so it needs to be full steam ahead.

The beginning of the block:

It doesn't look quite right just laid out but once sewn should look ok. At least I feel that I am on the way now.

Bye for now.

To brighten some dull days.

It has been rather dull of late and  we were at the supermarket and I saw these and decided to treat myself. I only wish you could smell them as well as they truly are lovely. Very reasonably priced as well and will last quite a while. So long as I don't have to have the heater up too high!

Holidays seem a thing of the past now but the memories of  a lovely trip remain. My husband and I went to the West Coast of New Zealand to the White Heron breeding colony. (only nesting place in NZ.) and had a very enjoyable time. The trip really is spectacular and the birds are beautiful to watch and many opportunities to take photos. 

As I haven't been able to stitch lately due to some problems with my arm/neck I really have missed it. I did sign up for a block of the month pattern and collected together the fabrics(mostly from my stash- yay!)

Unfortunately I haven't started last months and any time now I will go to my Inbox and find the new month. As I am feeling better I am going to try and get onto the first month this week so will report back next week.

Enjoy your week.