A little less blogging.

I see on my dashboard that there are still about 60 people following this blog - I don't know why they bother!  I have cut down my blogging time for a number of reasons, the main reason being lack of time due to other things happening in my life (all good!).   So I have 'retired' some of my blogs for now - they are still out there in cyberspace, but I won't be updating them unless there is something in particular I want to put out there.  

I will keep this blog going because it serves the purpose of keeping a record of my stitching and patchwork projects, which is useful at time to refer to.  However, I have deleted a number of blogs from the sidebar because again, I don't have time to look at them all, and have only kept the blogs that have special meaning because they are personal friends, or I have been reading them for many years.

With all the work going on at our house, my sewing time is much less than I would like, so I've only been keeping up with the One Xmas Project a Month challenge, and a few PNG baby quilts, which doesn't provide much eye candy for my blog!  Anyway, just thought I would let those of you who read this blog know what is happening.  Most people seem to use Facebook and Twitter these days, but I don't.

Two small quilt projects finished.

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of two baby quilt tops I'd made using pretty sheets.  I've now made one of them into a quilt for the PNG Quilt Collective, and used some very thick wadding, so it will keep one tiny bubs very warm in the near future!  For the binding, I used a technique described by Jane on her blog recently when she wrote about a quilt she'd made, bringing the backing around to the front and stitching it down.  I did this one in reverse, taking the edge of the front border around to the back and sewing it.

I have also done the binding and back of the small Xmas quilt I'd been working on, and am very pleased with the way it has turned out.  It is great to use up the bits and pieces in the stash.  The white fabric sashing is actually curtain or upholstery fabric, quite thick cotton or polyester with a design woven into the fabric.  I was given a huge piece of it and discovered it was perfect to use on all kinds of Xmas projects.
The backing doesn't show up very well in the photo below; it is a lovely vibrant pattern with cherries, berries and bright green leaves.  Not a Xmas theme, but the colours are perfect.

An orange block and a Christmas quilt.

Do you look through magazines and books, dreaming about all the quilts you will make some day?  I have a bad habit of borrowing quilting books from the library, poring over them for two weeks, then realising I only have a week left before having to return  them, and I haven't even started to make anything, let alone try to copy a pattern for future reference.  So I have to make a quick decision - look for the book on eBay or Amazon to buy a copy for myself, or work really fast to make up a block that I like!

The library book was due back on Saturday and I had decided there wasn't enough in it to warrant buying a copy, so on Friday night I made up a block which is a mini version of one of the quilt designs I liked.  It is simply cutting strips and sewing them together until you have the length you want.  But this is done twice so you have two rows of strips.  They are sewn together without sashing, and a border added.  I ended up with three rows instead of two for my block, as I used as much as possible of the stash in my box of orange/brown scraps and decided to do it this way.  I'm quite pleased with the way it has turned out, for something done on the run.  And now I have a reference point for a future quilt in that pattern.

Also on Friday night, I added a border to the Xmas quilt/throw I've been doing for my monthly Xmas Item project.  This also used old Xmas fabrics I'd had for years, and that I simply wanted to get rid of from my Xmas fabric stash before I buy new materials.  The border in particular is a very old patchwork fabric that I found at an opshop about 5 years ago, and could never make up my mind what to use it for.  All I have to do now is make it up with batting, backing and binding, and it will be added to my box of Xmas goodies.

More small quilts.

I've just finished two more baby quilts, and made two quilt fronts, mostly from old sheets bought at opshops.  I used brushed cotton for the backing, and have never had to buy it from a retail store, as for some reason a lot of brushed cotton ends up in opshops, so I snap it up.
The cover of this green quilt is part of a sheet.  I've quilted in circles around the flowers and bound it in a plain green cotton from my stash.

Here are the three I've just finished.  The two on top are made from two different sheets. One quilt is much thicker than the the other because I've used different batting in each.  Like brushed cotton, batting (wadding) also turns up in opshops frequently, so I grab that too.  But I've just about run out of my opshop stash, and had to buy some last week!

These two flimsies are made from a floral sheet and some purple and white patchwork fabric from my stash.

Invitation to a craft show.

My brother has just emailed me to ask if I would like to submit some of my work for his church art and craft show at the end of this month.  I said I would love to, and suggested that as it is a church activity, I should submit the items I've been making for the One Xmas Item A Month blog.  I've already given one away as an early Xmas gift, but it was such a simple design I can always run up another one by 28th August.

Last week I went to the CWA Craft show over at South Morang.  It was absolutely stunning - just as good as any regional show I've seen, as it included just about every craft you can name, including cake decorating, patchwork and quilting, all kinds of embroidery, crochet, knitting, tatting, and painting.  I took about 60 photos and keep meaning to load them on to my Needlecraft shows blog, but haven't got around to it yet.

I've been making some baby quilts for the Box Hill Hospital premmie babies after a friend told me she was knitting beanies for them, but her group didn't know anyone who could make quilts, so I put my hand up... I'll just add them to my PNG quota!   All good experience.

The Embroiderers Guild have their annual exhibition on at the moment - running from August 9 to 24.  I'll be working there this Sunday, doing stitching demonstrations in the morning, and manning the Gift Shop in the afternoon.  If you are planning to visit the exhibition, please come and say hi!

Baby quilt for PNG quilt collective

I just posted this to the PNG quilt collective blog, but as I'll be working on these for a while now to try and build up my contribution to the Collective, I'll update this blog too.  Sue N. gave me a huge stash of fabric for this purpose quite a while ago, when she could have easily kept it herself to make her quilts for Aussie Heroes, so I think it is about time I got serious and started using it up!

I posted a photo here a while ago showing what I'd done with these fabrics, but I hadn't got around to making up the actual quilts until now.

Another Xmas project finished.

I was running late again with my "One Xmas Item A Month" project for July, but finally got it all finished tonight.
You can see it here One Xmas Project

Some new embroidered items.

I found this lovely set in our opshop last week: traycloth with matching napkin and sandwich tray doiley.

 Today the postman brought me a parcel I'd been expecting from Kathleen in the USA who does the most exquisite embroidery, and sells some of it both online and in her 'bricks and mortar' shop at her home.  I would love to visit her shop but as I can't I'm just glad she sells her linens online as well!  When I saw these matching teatowels on her blog I emailed her immediately, begging her to put them aside for me!  And now they will be gracing my kitchen : - )  Thank you again, dear friend.

Finally, I've been doing a bit of stitching myself, just quick and easy back stitch for a table runner that I'm doing for the One Xmas Project A Month blog.  I've got a large stash of Xmas fabrics, but wouldn't you know it, I need to buy a bit more to match the fabric I've chosen to surround these stitcheries.  Hope to get to Darn Cheap Fabric in Heidelberg tomorrow, and find what I want.

Hand stitched tea towel.

On the Down To Earth Forum we are having another fun swap. This one was for tea towels or hand towels, which could be hand made or purchased if the participant didn't have the time or skill to make one. I chose to embroider a vintage linen tea towel, using a vintage transfer that I had.  It is all worked in back stitch.  The lettering is a bit wonky; do you think it looks more like Classes than Glasses? 

Tatting Torture continued.

This is a sample of Tatting:

This is as far as I got:

Sigh......

Tatting.

I thought I should let you know how I'm going with learning to do tatting.  I'm not.  Tatting, that is.  Our tutor provided us with an instruction book containing a tutorial DVD.  It was a tutorial all right, but on painting, not tatting!  The publishers in England had put the wrong DVD in their book, and of course nobody realised until I (and probably anyone who got that book) put the DVD in their computer and tried to play it.  Our tutor had the original DVD and very quickly made copies of it and posted them to us.  But before mine arrived, I had an unfortunate accident.  We've been having our kitchen painted, and last Tuesday I came into the kitchen without looking at the floor, and tripped over a toolbox that the painter had his gear in.  The poor man nearly had a fit - he was from Iran and couldn't speak English very well, and he kept on saying Sorry!  so sorry!  I kept trying to tell him it was my own fault, but I think he had visions of being shipped back to Iran in the near future!

I went down like the proverbial ton of bricks, hitting cabinets and tables all the way, ending up with badly bruised shoulder, elbow and knee.  Lucky I didn't break any bones, but I've been very sore since then, and today I just didn't feel up to the long drive to the Guild and back for a two hour tatting torture session.
So I put the DVD on the t.v. instead and curled up on the couch with a cuppa to watch it.  Well, the more I watched, the more I realised that I will never be able to do tatting.  As I wrote earlier, I can't knit or crochet, as my fingers just seem to turn into thumbs, even before the arthritis set in, and that hasn't helped either, as your fingers get stiff after a while and refuse to co-operate with your brain.  So I rang our tutor, and explained, and she expressed sympathy for my injuries, but pleaded with me to come back for the last lesson next week. She said if she can at least get me doing the first stitches, I should be able to continue from there with practice.  Hmmmmm....

Weekend stitching.

It's been a busy weekend sewing-wise.  I've had some half finished bits that I was determined to finish, as well as starting some others.  The two that I finished are mug rugs for special friends, both of whom read this blog, and I won't be surprised if they guess who is going to receive these mug rugs!  This is for someone who said she would like something with kangaroos.  Well, there is a few on both sides of this!

This is for someone who loves cats and London.

I am working on two stitcheries now - one is the Xmas Project for July, and the other is a tea towel for a swap on a forum that I belong to.  I won't post photos here until I've finished them, which won't be long as they both have deadlines this month.
Finally, I cut up some sheets from an opshop into strips and strip-pieced them to create the beginnings of a couple of baby quilt tops for the PNG Quilt Collective.  This is what they look like now before I cut the piece into two sections and add borders to them.

Learning to tatt.

I foolishly enrolled myself into a three day (one day a week) class at the Embroiderers Guild, to learn tatting.  It needs to be said that I cannot knit, and have very limited experience in crochet, so why would I want to learn tatting?  Apart from how much I love the way it looks on the edges of linens and other decorative ideas, my late mother-in-law was the unknowing catalyst.  She was an excellent knitter and embroiderer, but didn't like to crochet, and couldn't do tatting.  She used to tell me how her grandmother tried to teach her tatting, but she (MIL) simply couldn't get the hang of it.

So with her in mind, I decided to have a go at learning, and if I succeed, I will send a little thought up to MIL on her heavenly cloud, and hope she will be proud of me.  Well, if she was up there watching me today, she would have been chuckling, I'm sure.  I was all thumbs - my fingers got hopelessly tangled with the cotton over and over again, and I am sure that our lovely tutor Sylvia had just about had enough of me by the end of the class!  The other five ladies seemed to have conquered it and had lovely long rows of neat knots while I was still struggling to hold the thread in place..

To make matters worse, Ken phoned me in the middle of the class.  Not on my mobile - I had it switched off.  So he phoned the Guild office and the hostess on duty came looking for me.  I was so embarrassed, and furious at Ken for calling about something that he could have dealt with himself!  The girls were laughing at me when I came back in cursing him, and I was so mad I completely lost concentration, which didn't help the tatting.

My usual reaction to this kind of situation is to not go back to the remaining classes, but Sylvia could see I was not in a good frame of mind, and she said "Don't go home and cry - just keep having a go.  It will come, trust me.  It took me months!"  So I got my shuttle and thread out after tea and showed Ken what he had interrrupted  (he was exceedingly apologetic, I might add), and lo and behold, I did one perfect little knot!
So I'll keep practising and see how we go next Friday.  No photos to show now, and don't hold your breath for next week - ha  ha!

Large donation of quilts for the PNG quilt collective.

A very generous lady and her friend recently donated 25 quilts for our PNG babies.  You can see them all here on the PNG Quilts blog.

Craft and Quilt Fair

Did anyone go to the Craft & Quilt Fair at Jeff's shed last week? I was there on Sunday, working on the EGV stand from 10 am until about 3pm. As there were five of us rostered on, we took turns in wandering around the show, so as we got in free of charge because we were 'working', it was a good opportunity.
I took advantage of an offer from the Scissorman stall, and got 7 replacement rotary cutter blades for $19.95 which was a good offer, although the blades are not a well known brand, so it will be interesting to see how long they last.
I also bought some Xmas fabric to use for the Xmas project I'm working on for July. I am doing four redwork stitcheries and will use five Xmas fabric blocks with them to make up a table runner. I wanted fabric with a Nativity theme, but not one stall had any. Some of the stall holders didn't even know what I meant, and waved fabric with Santa Claus, reindeers, toys, etc at me...The reason for the season is fast disappearing. So I ended up with these three fat quarters:


The colour in this photo is not good at all - the top fabric is white with gold stars, and the second one is the same design, but red with gold stars.
Then I found something that I should NOT have bought, but with my new kitchen in mind, it seemed just the right fabric to make a lovely wall hanging!

I took a lot of photos of the quilts which were sensational as always, but there were notices up warning people not to take photos for use on the internet on blogs, without asking the quilt maker first. For goodness sake, where would you start looking for twenty of those women - they don't exactly sit in front of their quilts for the entire five days...I might publish my photos on my other Needlecraft Shows blog, and just leave them on for a week. I'll think about it.

Monthly Xmas project for June.

I finished stitching my June Xmas item a few days ago, and tonight I added borders to make it into a picture which I can use in one of several ways.   You can see it here.

PNG Quilt Collective.

Four baby quilts arrived from Kelli in California today, which brings the total to 53 quilts here now, ready to be shipped over to PNG the next time Ken's cousin is going there.  You can see some of them on the PNG quilts blog on the side bar. 

Second memory quilt finished.

We are having lunch with our friends M and L tomorrow, and I simply had to get this little quilt finished tonight to give them.  As I explained earlier on this blog, I was going to make one memory quilt for their 25th wedding anniversary, but I made a mistake when I bought too many fabrics with the travel theme that they wanted, and the colours didn't match.  So I ended up making two small quilts which can be used as a throw over the back of a couch, or wall hanging, or just on a table.  I posted photos of the first one here a month or so ago, and here is the second one.
The front is basic four patch in two colours with photos in the centre, alternating with travel theme fabric.

The back is one length of fabric with vintage architectural drawings of French buildings.  Very hard to photograph,  and it is a lot more interesting than it looks here.

Another tablecloth for my collection.

A surprise find in the opshop where I work - this table cloth which looks quite new, so it would seem there are still some ladies out there who like to embroider traditional cloths. 

May Xmas project now finished.

I finally got this project done, after weeks of procrastination.  It is only a felt pincushion, but it took a lot longer to make than what I had anticipated.  You can see it on the One Xmas Item blog here.
I had a project in mind for June, but as I only have 12 days to do it (we are supposed to 'hand in' our project at the blog on or soon after the 25th of the month), I've found a small stitching project that won't take long (famous last words), so hope to have that up and running in a few days.  I have another small memory quilt to finish first though, and again, it shouldn't take long because the blocks are made up and all I need to do is attach the photos onto the quilt front, then add the backing and binding.