Progress....

I've been working on a few things over the last couple of weeks and didn't realise how long it is since I updated my blog... oops!!

I have finished all the sewing for Heidi's 'Quilters Day' swap, I just need to get it all packaged up and posted.  The deadline for posting is the 1st May, but as my parcel is going overseas I'll be posting it next week. We also have a family wedding at the end of the month... there will probably be some last minute running around and I don't want to ruin my first swap by forgetting to post the parcel!

I've pieced a couple more blocks on the Garden Journal quilt... the border fabric has been ordered and I am working on the last of the stitcheries.... yay!!

I have cut all the fabrics for the 'Cinnamon Toast' quilt and they are all in labelled baggies, ready for me to start stitching.

And... I have finished the 'Flowers For The Bees' wall quilt!!! I have struggled to get a decent photo of it but I hope to get a better one once my hubby gets the wall fixings in place and I can hang it on the lounge wall :)

Not a very good pic at all, it really doesn't show up the details well... but it's the best I can do for now. My camera has distorted the delphinium colours, they are not that bright really!

These next three photos show the colours much better... the delphiniums flowers are paler towards the top.

with more intense colours at the base of the flower stems. I lost count of all the yo-yos I made... I just know there were lots! I found this lovely handmade ladybird button... just perfect :)

The vines scrambling up the wooden post are worked in chain stitch and the daisies have button centres. The quilting is swirly loops... a bit like the bees as they bumble around my garden :)

So that's what I've been doing over the last week or so...

Happy stitching.... Chris :)

Fernhill is here!!!

The pattern for the first block of Lynette Anderson's mystery Fernhill BOM/button club has arrived!

I ordered the materials pack too and oh my word, those fabrics are so lovely! As well as all the fabrics, the pack contains vilene, teensy-tiny buttons, all the DMC threads I'll need and a yo-yo maker. I have stroked and sorted the fabrics several times, read and re-read the instructions... but I have been good and put it away until I finish the Flowers For The Bees wallhanging. All the yo-yo's are finished for that  (phew) and all the appliqué work is complete. The inner border is a double row of 1.5" squares and then a wider border comes next. More on that when I have enough done to take a progress pic...

AND.... the postman also brought me this lovely fabric pack for the Cinnamon Toast Quilt that I bought at the NEC last weekend. The stall had run out of the fabric packs so I just brought the pattern home with me at the time.  It was so exciting to open the parcel when it arrived in the post!

The fabrics are from the Maison de Garance range by French General for Moda.

Yummy... yummy... yummy....

Happy stitching,

Chris :)

WIP - Flowers For The Bees

I've hardly had my nose out of this book since it plopped onto my doormat a couple of weeks ago. I'm a big fan of Lynette Anderson's designs anyway, but this book is just stunning, everything I hoped it would be... and then some. My only problem is that I want to make everything ... the designs are just 'so me'.

How to choose where to begin? The one design that had me oohing and aahing the most is called Flowers For The Bees, an appliqué wall quilt with a sweet beehive, daisies, vines and delphiniums (made from yo-yo's), a lovely cat and of course... buzzing bees. Perfect....I love to watch the bees in my garden, last year I put up a breeding box for solitary bees. The tubes were fully occupied within weeks and it has been in a sheltered spot in the garden all winter. Now the warm Spring weather is here I'm hoping the new bees will emerge soon and buzz round my garden!

Here's what I've done so far.. this central panel measures 17" x 21".  Most of the right side is complete, I am working on the yo-yo's for the delphiniums next and then I'll add the bees. Then it's borders and quilting time.. lastly I'll add the buttons in the daisy centres.

I really want to complete this before I start on any of my new goodies from the NEC... and a little while ago I signed up for Lynette's new button club and mystery BOM - Fernhill. 

The first block should be here soon and I just know I'll be itching to start that as soon as it arrives! It will be my first BOM and I am so excited about it :)

Right... back to the yo-yo's :)

Chris :)

Welcome Home is finished...

I am so pleased with how this turned out :)

The pattern called for the pillow cover to just be patched but I made a bit more work for myself by adding some wadding and a liner and quilting in the ditch. I figured that it was worth taking extra time over this since I had put all those hours in on the stitchery. I used a piece of wool felt underneath the stitched panel, then attached it to the pillow with blanket stitch. I bought a lovely plump, feather-filled cushion to go inside it and with the quilted cover it feels wonderfully squishy!

and here's the back.... odd buttons and all :)

This has been so lovely to work on, I've enjoyed every minute of it!

Welcome Home Pillow

This gorgeous fabric and pattern was a Christmas gift from my younger daughter. I swear she is psychic, I had wanted this pattern for ages but I am sure I never mentioned it to her. The fat quarter fabrics are just perfect... tiny prints in the most gorgeous colours... yum!

This design reminds me so much of my dream home... on a Welsh hillside, looking out over fields of sheep :) How lovely to live there, in a little appliqué house... as long as it had a fast internet connection of course! 

The stitchery is finished and the fabric is cut into strips...

Now all I have to do is make them into a pillow!

Starting to stitch....

When I was a young girl (many years ago) we girls were taught embroidery at school. We used iron-on transfers, all stitches had to be perfect and precise so I spent more time unpicking than anything else! We made things like tea tray cloths and pretty embroidered hankies to give Granny for Christmas. Nothing very exciting and I didn't continue to embroider once I'd left school.

Now, through my wanderings on the internet, I've found that it doesn't seem to be called embroidery these days... it's stitchery. Wow, are there some clever designers out there! A whole new world of lovely things I want to make for my home. I mean, who uses hand embroidered hankies these days anyway?

So I dusted off my rusty skills, practiced a few stitches on a scrap of fabric, bought a pattern or two and had a go. This was my first stitchery project - Quilt Shoppe Pillow by Lynette Anderson... although mine didn't end up as a pillow, I made it into a wall hanging for my craft room.  The pattern came with an iron-on transfer so I was familiar with that part, then came the stitching and the appliqué... I loved it and a new addiction was born! I learned a few new things along the way too, like the benefits of using a stabiliser under the fabric... I wouldn't stitch without it now! I also learned that it does NOT have to be perfect. The things I stitch are for me and my family, I love making them and a little bit of love goes into every stitch. Far more important to me than perfection :)

Once I'd finished the wall hanging I couldn't wait to start stitching something else. I chose the Sewing Angel Tool Store by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. Apart from the fact that it would be very useful for keeping all my sewing bits together whether I was upstairs or downstairs, I love the combination of stitchery, appliqué and sewing. Enough there to keep me interested for sure. I  made it a little bigger than the pattern and adjusted the inside to suit my needs.

The tool store closed. All neat and tidy, so easy to carry round the house.

With the front cover open. Even though my scalloped edge went a bit wonky, I loved working the panel for the flap.

And here it is fully opened, everything I need for a stitching session is in there. Pattern and threads, needles and pins, scissors, stitch unpicker, fabric glue and marker. I use it every day!


I really love this stitchery lark :)