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.

Girlfriends Stitchery Club quiltlet complete

After many little delays, here it is in all its glory.  I didn't get around to posting a separate photo of the last stitchery in the set, but if you have a close look at the whole thing, I'm sure you will be able to find the one that you haven't yet seen.  The backing is a piece of patchwork fabric that I found at the opshop or the Guild, I can't remember now!

Stalled!

I have not done any sewing since the previous post.   My  throat feels like it is on fire, I am sneezing and sniffing, and will be staying in bed with my library books, this Samsung tablet, and hopefully a nice hot cup of tea if my hubby thinks I am too sick to get out of bed and get it myself...back in a few days hopefully.

Girlfriends Stitchery club and other projects.

Just a quick post to say that not only did I finish the last stitchery for the mini quilt the week before last, but I've also finished the quilt.  Just haven't had time to post anything here with our kitchen renovation taking place over the past two weeks. 
I also have the May Xmas project to do - it's cut out and ready to put together, but I didn't get any further for the same reason.  The kitchen is now fully functional, so I'm hoping for some me-time to work on my sewing projects in the coming weeks.

Another stitched block, and anniversary quilt finished.

This is the sixth block in Lyn Briggs' Girlfriends Stitchery Club - isn't it sweet? I've just printed off the last one in this series, and will stitch it in the next day or two. I am dying to make up the mini quilt with all the stitched blocks and four patch squares made up from my scrap box!

Below is the anniversary quilt for our friends Mark and Louise.  It isn't a full size quilt, but will make a nice throw or wall hanging.  The front has three photos of them with printed pics of London icons.  I have tried all the settings on my camera to make this clearer, and taken photos inside and outside, but for some reason, it always comes out blurry.  The quilt really looks much better than these photos.

The back is a completely different colour scheme and has no photos, so if they get tired of the red and blue, they can flip it over to show this fabric featuring Italian tourist spots.

Girlfriends Stitchery Club 5th block

Last week's stitched block.  I have just downloaded the sixth one and hope to stitch that over the next few days.  It's been a busy week and I have a few things that should have been finished by now, but with everything else going on around here (new kitchen, apron festival in Ballarat, sick husband), whenever I sit down to sew, there is an interruption.  Oh well, that's life.

The two aprons I made for the Apron festival both sold, which was nice to see when we went to Ballarat last Sunday.  I took heaps of photos, and have posted them on my aprons blog.

Today's stitching at the Guild.

If you assumed from my previous post that I was going to work on the GirlFriends Stitchery Club project today, you got it wrong - sorry!  I decided to continue working on the embroidery projects that are already in the tin that I take to the Embroiderers Guild when I'm on duty.   In this tin, I keep three or four UFOs along with the necessary threads, scissors, needles, unpicker, etc.  Travelling embroiderers box.  From time to time I remove an item from the tin, and replace it with something more interesting/urgent.  URGENT?  Who am I kidding - there is nothing urgent in my life these days!

So what was in there today?  A  Possum stitchery from an old issue of Australian Country Threads, a vintage doiley which I'd bought at the Guild's Paddy's market a few years ago, and my poor neglected cross stitch Peacock sampler.   A Certain Person who started the Peacock sampler some time after me, has gone from strength to strength and I understand hers is more than half way through.  I am ashamed of myself.  Ah what the heck.  Here's what I did today:
Finished the Possum Stitchery

And did some more work on the vintage doiley:

I think I should concentrate on that Peacock sampler in future.  After I've finished the memory quilt for our friends, after I've worked on my May Xmas project, and after I've done the fifth block for Girlfriends Stitchery Club. 

Next block in Girlfriends Stitchery project.

This is  the fourth stitchery in Lyn's Girlfriends project.  The fifth pattern arrived in my email tonight, so guess what I'll be taking to the Guild tomorrow to stitch?