July was secret sewing month

I only finished 2 projects in July and they are secret laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts, so I can't share them in their entirety at this stage.

 Back view # 1

Back View #2

You'll see the fronts once they are delivered.  :)

I've also started 2 Aussie Hero Quilts & another secret project... so some progress going on but not much to show for it.

Catch you all soon.

Debra

January gift finish

I cannot believe that January is almost over.
This is my first finish. It has been finished for a couple of weeks but it was a gift that I gave yesterday, so I am now safe to reveal.

This yarn cross stitch is based on the pattern "Let's have fun with Yarn" by Ursula Michael Designs from here.  The original design was for a knitter so I changed out the needles and a few of the words to suit my fibre spinning, yarn loving, crochet girl.

I love how it came out and I think she does too.

 

See you again soon (I hope)

 

A pillowcase for you & you & you

I decided the children on my gift list would receive a personalised pillowcase this year as my boys love the ones they received last year.  So after a few text messages with the Mums we have 6 pillow cases for 6 special people.

L-R Blue LEGO FAN, Purple girlie girl, Blue camping girl, Orange piano player, Green bike loving boy & Green LEGO fan.

The LEGO pillows were the hardest as Lego fabric is hard to find in my part of the world, so I ended up printing colourful silhouettes on fabric & appliqueing them on. I think they look cute.

I do particularly love the photo of them all wrapped & stacked.

Handmade Christmas.

A goodbye of 'note'

December the month of 'lasts' and farewells every year. We live in South-West Qld and many people transfer through town for work.

Our teachers are often on the "transfer trail". This year it was the Instrumental music teacher, Me Bensley. She had taught both of my boys for 3 years so it was a hard goodbye. (1 plays Clarinet and the other plays Saxophone)

What's a quilter to do?? Make a quilt of course, a music themed quilt.

Quilt specs: Bali Batik Jelly Roll from Wacky Jackys

Music Silhouette patterns from Patchwork at the Bay Window

And a music definition print I stumbled across somewhere.

Quilted by me on  "O-me".

NOVEMBER OPAM

(I am posting this from my phone. I'm  not sure how it works.)

Only one finish in the Outback crafter house this month.

This cross stitch was started & finished in a week. A fairly intense week though.

It was gifted as my secret santa for my UFO Craft group. The mystery recipient loved it.

I received this cute hamper  of goodies from my secret santa too.

September OPAM 1 of 4

Wow, another month has come to a close.

I missed the end of September / 1 October due to a wedding and here it is the 3rd October already.

I have sewn this month.  Sewn a bit actually 4 finishes. 

So here goes #1 of 4

Ryan & Rachel's Wedding quilt.  Like all good quilts, a labour of love.  Unlike many quilts I make a surprising challenge.

The bride requested navy & white.  Now these guys live on a farm with lovely RED dirt, so you can understand why I was worried about white.  But I got over that after I got the design together.

The quilt started out at 9 x 10" squares across & down.

 

I laid it out on my bed & hated it, so we played with some other ideas.

Maybe adding smaller blocks between the 10" blocks?? - NO too busy.

 

The thought what about smaller blocks?   Ahhh, much more pleasing to the eye.

 

Mathematically much more sewing.  

The quilt went from being 100 nine inch squares 

to 421 four & a half inch squares. 

That is a huge psychological difference.

However I have recently learnt how to 'web' quilts together, so it was joined in a matter of hours (6 approximately)

  

Before I could quilt I realised my backing was rather scrunched up so I had to work out how to iron the 2.75m2 piece of material.   Thankfully my bed doubles as a great ironing board.  A bit low, but very helpful in this case.

 

 Next up was quilting.  After giving O-me a good talking too, I decided on an allover swirl with loop design within each 4.5" row. 

I was posting sneaky shots on my Facebook page and didn't want the bride to see too much, so I posted the 'sketch' image.  She had no idea.  (The 3rd photo is "the last stitch")

    

I like to quilt messages into my quilt.  So in the squares near the bottom right corner I quilted... 

Ryan & Rachel (shown here in 'magic pen' to make it easier to read)

and on the next row the date of the wedding  1 Oct 2016

This quilt finished 89.5" square & I really like it.  I would happily keep it, except our names are not Ryan & Rachel.  LOL

  

Bound in the navy 'quatrofoil' print used in the body of the quilt it has a striking edge, and of course a personalised label.

 

My boys & I took it to our local nursery for a photo shoot.

I love the photos.

 

  All packaged ready to gift.

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the quilt with the newlyweds but I did get go give it to them personally.  They love it (always good) and they've promised to send me photos of it on their bed. 

Till next time.

Add to Anti-Banner

February Finishes and an impending deadline

Oh February, the month when you realise the year has started and you are already lagging behind.

This was true of my February.  School had gone back, after school commitments had started and I realised I had approximately 6 weeks to make / finish / plan a Quilt Show.

 So I started some frantic binding...

binding...

 Complete.  A quilt show exhibit & Aussie Hero Quilt to boot.  :)

 An ambitious plan to make an entire new quilt before the Quilt show.  (in hindsight a bit too ambitious)

 Valentines day morning tea with my boys at the local nursery.  Isn't this cheesecake just gorgeous.

 Arrival of a new 'gift to self' for me sewing room.

 This laser cut record says "sew thankful"  It is from Broken Record in Brisbane this is the link to their Facebook page.  She does great work and takes your design & cuts it into reality.

I love it, but I also love that you can tell it was a record.

 Then onto more frantic planning and sewing for the Biennial quilt show of Roma Patchwork & Crafters Inc.  Showing of the Quilts was to be held over Easter 2016.  I was coordinating the show with another member and we had heaps of work to do.  And I mean heaps.

 Back soon with March updates on my completed sewing - gotta love a deadline....  :)

December - where oh where did my year go??

Wow, December always comes around way to quickly.

2015 was no exception.

In 'sewing land' I was able to see my son's enjoyment as he completed his Grade 8 Home Economics Boxer Shorts.  He was so proud and enjoyed the process so much, that he made a 2nd pair as a Christmas present for his brother. (Not sure where I put that photo)

 I continued work on "Mum's Quilt".  This quilt was a jelly roll quilt that Mum had made because 'anyone can make a Jelly roll quilt'.  It was a centre that needed turning into a quilt, so after, borders, procrastinating, finding a "mum approved" lily silhouette I was back to work to finish it.

 Water Lily silhouette with 'stained glass' edging

 I then remembered that I had promised the boys personalised pillow cases for Christmas, so a frantic afternoon sewing and they had "Star Wars" & "Pokemon" pillow cases ready for Christmas day.

 

We then headed to Brisbane to spend Christmas with the family.  Mum's quilt wasn't quite finished, so I was binding whilst taking in the view.

 Finally Finished.

 It looks good on Mum's bed

 and more importantly Mum is happy with it.

Then it was Christmas and in a heartbeat it was New Years Eve.

This was our view for NYE .  It was our wedding anniversary & my sister had arranged a motel in the city for us all. The view of  South Bank was AMAZING!!

 Apparently 15 years wedding anniversary gift is crystal.  Hubby did not think this Waterford Crystal Chandelier was appropriate.  At only $15000 it was a bargain.  :)

 As sun set on 2015 we prepared for the fireworks

 

They did not disappoint.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

  

Trying to be a better blogger in 2016.