Another donation of linens for my collection!

Last week I received an email from a lady in a Vic. country town, who said she was cleaning out her mother's cupboards and found her old linens.  She didn't want them, but didn't want to thrown them out either, so she searched around on the internet until she found my blog and decided I would be the recipient of her linens if I wanted them.  Of course I accepted her kind offer! 
Here is what fell from the post office bag:

A mix of finished, half finished and unworked linens, crocheted mats and doilies, all sorts of goodies.  Most were clean, so I washed the rest and now have a large pile of ironing to do!  I'll post more photos when everything is ironed and I can sort them all out.

Photos of the sari.

This is the sari that I have been given to do something with.  The above photo doesn't do the needlework justice; it is all hand worked with tiny beads and sequins.  I am not competent enough to cut this up and remake it into anything else other than what it is.  So unless someone can advise me, or take it and do something with it, I will have to return it to Yaso.

Making a quilt from a silk sari.

I've been given a raw silk sari by Ken's cousin's wife, who has asked me if I could make a quilt from it.  It is mostly plain green with a border of cream colour on each side of the length, and one end is cream with embroidery on it.   I really have no idea where to start - can anyone offer advice?

Vic. centenary doiley.

The ladies in our Brotherhood Opshop are so thoughtful.  Even though I no longer work there regularly, but am on call as a back up, the ladies who know I collect vintage linens will put any interesting pieces aside for me if they turn up in a donation.  This morning I filled in for one of the regulars, and when I arrived, I was handed a little plastic bag with my name on.  Inside was this doiley.  I was so pleased!  I have a few different centenary doilies, but had never seen this one with St Kilda Road embroidered on it!
It is in excellent condition, but needs a few more stitches to finish it off which I will do next month when I am on duty at the Embroiderers Guild.

Crinoline Lady cross stitched doiley.

A friend found this in an op shop recently and snapped it up for me.


Another friend (at the Embroiderers' Guild) gave this to me yesterday. Like me, she has a large collection of aprons, and culls them now and then. I am the lucky recipient of the culled aprons! I was happy to add this gorgeous gingham apron to my collection of cross stitched and chicken scratch stitch gingham items.

Two more owls for my Owl family

I finished two more owls for my twig today, slightly larger than the first one.

January completed projects.

This cushion is for a cat lover friend (one of many!). It was supposed to be a Xmas gift but I didn't finish it in time, so I gave A. a small token gift at Xmas with the promise of something better to come.



The wife of a friend of Ken's was telling me about her autistic grandson, who tears the pages of ordinary books as he looks at them. I suggested she buy him one of those children's cloth books (does anyone else remember those as a kid?) and she said she'd never seen them. So I made one, using scraps of colourful fabric that hopefully will appeal to a small boy. I had no pattern to go from, so I just cut the pieces all the same size, joined them with a strip of calico, and sewed them back to back to make pages. Sewed down the middle strips of calico, and that was it!

My replies to your comments

Thank you to those who left comments on my last post about the mug rugs and owl on a twig.  I thought it best for me to write a new post instead of replying to those comments with another comment.

Selina:   I’ve rarely found animal prints patchwork in Lincraft or Spotlight.  I find it at the Quilt and Craft shows, or on the internet – eBay has many sellers who have specialty fabrics.

Sharon – that’s great news!   Look forward to hearing from you with the details :-)

Linda and Jane – I’m going to cut out some more owls tomorrow,  in different sizes.  Watch this space!

Mug rug start to 2015!

After all those Christmas projects last year, I was ready for a break in January!  But I had promised to make some mug rugs from my vast stash of chicken patchwork fabric for a group of cyberspace friends who had suggested names for our Chook House.  So I got going on those, and finished them this week.  Next project will be the cloth book for the autistic grandson of a friend.  I've got all the fabrics out and have a bit of an idea how to proceed, as I don't have a pattern, but it's a pretty basic job really, just sewing the picture fabrics together to make a book!

These are the mug rugs, with numbers so the recipients can choose which one they like best.

My friend Val presented me with some pages taken from a BHG magazine, with instructions on how to make little owls. She wanted me to make one first, then show her how to make it.   The instructions were hard to follow, but there was a link provided to a YouTube tutorial, and once I found that, I was in business.  I put this little guy on a long twig as I plan to make up a tribe of owls to keep him company!

Project list for the coming year.

 My friend Sharon gave me a little chicken shaped blackboard a few years ago, and I use it to keep track of my stitching and patchwork projects, writing them on it, and erasing each one as it is finished.  I did rather well in 2014, completing most of what I aimed to do.  I don't know yet if I will commit to another year of "One Xmas Project a Month", but it was fun, and I was pleased with myself for keeping up!  My last project for 2014 (apart from the Xmas ones)  was a table runner for a cyberspace friend, which will be a surprise for her, so I am hoping she doesn't read this blog, or the surprise factor will be shot, lol!

I found this gorgeous colourful fabric in an opshop and couldn't wait to use it.  There was about 3 metres, more than enough to make a runner for my friend and another for me :-)  One is slightly larger, and I've changed the border colours around a bit for each. Isn't it amazing what a difference the border colour makes to the main fabric!   I think the green border looks better, and that is the one I'll be sending to my friend.   I used the same backing for each one.  I finished these two today.

So what is on my new To Do list?  A cloth book for an autistic child, some more rooster coasters, 15 chook mug rugs for the girls on a forum I participate in, a bed runner for a friend interstate, and a hundred other things that I've seen in magazines and just have to do!  What is on your To Do list in 2015?

Happy Christmas to all who read this blog.

Memory miniquilt finished.

We invited two old friends to dinner on Saturday while we were all available this close to Christmas.  I had been procrastinating on the binding of the quilt I was making for H, so it was a scramble to get it finished in time to give it to her, but I made it without messing it up!  They loved it, and started reminiscing over the photos immediately!  It can be used as a table topper or a throw over the back of a couch or chair, so it will be interesting for me to see where they decide to use it.

Projects in progress, other stuff.

Today my friend D came for afternoon tea, and I gave her the cushion that she had admired in my patchwork magazine. (the red robin cushion in an earlier post here).  She loved it!  I was so pleased because sometimes people will say something is nice, to be polite, then wonder why they are given the same thing down the track!  But although she didn't remember the magazine, she said it was the best Christmas present she would have this year :-)
She gave me a gift too, which she had seen in a craft shop and thought of me straight away (wonder why?)
I was equally delighted with this, and am looking for the right spot to hang it.

The 12 Christmas projects I've made during the year (thanks to Narelle's blog here) have been a bonus when it comes to impromptu gift giving.  Half of them have already gone to new homes, while I've kept some that I made for myself, and they are now decorating our house for the Christmas season.  I've been making some more items as well, with a non Christmas theme, but as gifts by request.  Remember those owl placemats I made for the Avicultural society hamper, that were snapped up by someone at the last meeting?  Well, I've made some chook coasters to replace the owls, and these are definitely going in the hamper.  If anyone wants them, they will have to buy tickets to win the hamper!

These were done in a hurry, as you can tell if you have a closer look!  I used up scraps of fabric left over from the chook bunting, and I didn't do a great job of binding, but the guys in the Avic. society won't be looking for stitching perfection, lol!

Then there is the memory quilt/wall hanging my friend Helen asked me to make after seeing what I'd done for other friends.  Inevitably it got left until the last minute, while I hummed and ha'd over which fabrics to use, but I finally decided on the theme fabric, which needed some matching colour homespun, so I got that last Saturday, and have been working flat out on it ever since.  Here is the top ready to be made up into a finished piece.  Once I've completed it, I will wait until Helen sees it and decides if she wants to hang it, or use it as a throw over a couch, or table centre.  If she wants to hang it, I will add a rod sleeve.

Finally I have also been making a table runner/centrepiece as a surprise gift for a cyberspace friend who sent me an unexpected gift some time ago.  I have since learned that she doesn't sew at all, but loves to see what others make.  I asked around among other ladies on the forum, and got an impression of her tastes, so hopefully she will like this when its finished.  I just need to add the remaining green borders, then pink binding to match the pink of the fabric.

I could have waited until I'd finished these last two items before photographing them and posting here, but it will all be done in a rush this week, and I might not have time to be back on here this side of Christmas!

More chook bunting, and a mug rug.

I had some flags left over from the bunting I made for our Chook house, so I made some more bunting for a friend.

When you cut fabric for bunting, you end up with a heap of odd triangles. What can one do with them? Made a mug rug of course!

For the back of the mug rug I used a piece of curtain material that I found in a remnants bin somewhere.

Bunting for the new chook house.

The Down to Earth blog's author (Rhonda Hetzel) has a flock of chickens, and her husband built her a new chicken run some time ago.  I was amused by Rhonda's photos of the new coop decorated with bunting and other items!  So when we had our chook house built recently I decided to use up the scraps of chook fabric from my stash and make some bunting too.

Two projects finished.

I've been doing more paper craft lately, as a bit of a change from textiles, but I had to get working on my November Xmas project, which I finished today.  This cushion is for a friend who has terminal cancer.  She saw this magazine in my sewing room and said how cute the cushion was. 

She asked if it would be hard to make and I said no, not difficult at all.  It is felt applique on the background fabric with a few trims - easy! She doesn't know it yet, but this is to be her Christmas present, providing she lives that long...I had the spotted fabric in my stash, and even though it has little blue flowers on it, I decided to use it and not worry about buying more fabric for this project.

I borrowed this library book and have renewed it twice, so it had to go back today.   As usual I left it until the last minute to make what I wanted to before I returned it!  The owl coasters I made two weeks ago were from this book, and there were so many cute patterns in it, that I was tempted to buy myself a copy but decided not to add to my already bulging bookshelves..

I still wanted to make one more item though, and this was it:  A wire coat hanger dressed up with a felt cover, appliqued with felt flowers and a bit of stitching.  It is really cute.  I used felt as the pattern instructions suggested, but if I make any more, and I hope to - I'm going to use fabric, as I've got so much that isn't ideally suited to patchwork, but would be perfect for this!

Decorated supermarket bags, Owl coasters.

Once I've been doing some sewing, I get on a roll and do a few more things while the sewing machine is on the table.  Like most of us, I accumulate all kinds of 'green bags' in various colours, but I like to tart them up a bit and block out any brand names.  Today I had red bags from Bunnings and the Heart Foundation, so to give them a feel of Christmas, I added some motifs that were left over from a fabric panel that I had used for something else.  It was just a matter of cutting them out with pinking shears and machining them on to the bags.   When I give somebody a bag of goodies in the coming months, I'll use one of these bags which they can continue to use if they wish!

Ken is a member of the Avicultural (birds) Society and we usually attend their monthly meeting.  At the last meeting the president put out a call for donations for their annual Christmas hampers, asking for wine, biscuits, and the usual food items.  I asked his wife later if they would like some patchwork items such as coasters or placemats featuring birds, and she was very enthusiastic about that idea!  I have plenty of Aussie themed fabric, but none with Australian birds as I used it all a while ago.  But to make a start, I decided to make some coasters with the owl fabric I had, as most people like owls :-)   Cute?

Another Christmas project finished.

I started to stitch three kitten stitcheries back in August, intending to make a wall hanging for that month's Xmas OPAM, but I only got one kitten finished before I ran out of time.  September came and went, so I put my head down and bum up to get the Santa Paws project finished.

This is an awful reproduction.  I think my camera is stuffed.

Thanks!

...to the people who responded to my query about the number of readers here.  At least I know now that it is still visible to those who want to read it.  Back soon with some more stitching updates.

Is anyone reading this blog?

I usually have a couple of comments on here after most posts, but haven't had any for a few days.  I've tweaked the settings of this blog and Patra's Other Place, so that they are now open to anybody to read, as they were previously so I'd like to know if readers are able to comment, even if they haven't lately.  Please just leave a comment on this post to let me know!