Monday 31 December 2012

Happy New Year

Just wishing everyone a very happy, healthy New Year!  One which will be full of stitching and sewing to share lol.

Birthday Love Stash 2013

I've noticed a few lovely ladies are joining in on the Birthday Love Stash project over on Wendy's lovely blog called sugar lane quilts.  It sounds like a fantastic idea and one that I will be able to join in on easily.  If you are interested in reading more about it please click on the button on my side bar and pop over for a visit.    (Well that's if I have managed to do it right lol).  There is no link on the one below.

Sunday 30 December 2012

Snowman

Now this is another Xmas item that was made by my mum.  Snowy the snowman.  Have no idea where the pattern came from or the original designer though as I had no idea she was making them.



Saturday 29 December 2012

Threads

Well I have all my threads organised now.  Fristly after lots of labelling and winding onto cards I now have new boxes to hold all my threads.  Now have every colour of DMC yay!

These are the boxes that I bought from Bunnings of all places.  I got them for $6.85 each in the storage section.  I also had a $50 gift card to spend there so it all worked out very well.



So they are a little larger than the Birch branded ones we can get here.  I also have a slightly different format one that will be used to house the precut threads ie cottage garden etc.  The beauty is they all stack together well and are of uniform size.

Magnolia

Well magnolia is finished and at the stage that I need to work out how to make it into a book cover.  Might have to look up a tute.  Might also do a quick little stitchery and have a practise first lol.  It could be the start of Xmas 2013 gifts lol.

Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Christmas!



Merry Christmas to all my bloggy friends.  Have a wonderful day with family and friends.


Wednesday 19 December 2012

DMC and a new table centre

The last of the DMC I needed has arrived.  So many lovely colours all jumbled together.



This is a table centre for Xmas.  Just bought a lovely scented candle and some sprigs of xmas follage and artfully placed them round the candle lol.  Not the best photo but it will look brilliant on the day and the scent from the candle is lovely without it being burnt too.


Monday 17 December 2012

Magnolia

As of last night, this is where I am up to with magnolia.  I am hoping to get it finished just before xmas so I can make it up into a notebook cover for a very dear dr as a little thank you.   This lady has looked after  Lance for 10 years and we value her immensely for the kindness and care she has provided.  I thought it a suitably small gift so as not to embarrass her too much that was personal but not chocolate lol.  We don't see her till February so still have plenty of time to get it all done.

Tea towels

Thanks to Shez for the inspiration and idea of jazzing up some tea towels.  I purchased a couple of packs of Aldi's extra large tea towels and have found that out of the two pack I can make four!  So there are two ready under the xmas tree and two to finish the embroidery on for me.

Also I have been a naughty girl and visited the ozstitch site again and purchased the rest of the DMC I needed to complete the set!  Well it is nearly xmas and I had a $10 discount voucher plus they are currently doing free standard postage.  Due to the order being a smidge over $100 I did opt to pay for registered post.  Fee's shack also had a daily deal on applique paper and as I had run out completely I decided that two mtrs for $10 with free postage was a great deal.  I think it was the sewline brand but cant remember exactly.  No more shopping for me for the next 4 months lol.  That's my crafting budget spent!

Xmas baking

This last week has seen me make a start on the xmas baking that I do as gifts for people.  I've done a lot of biscuits and cut them etc but instead of baking them I have popped most in the freezer to bake the night before I need them.  Nice and fresh that way.  I have used a couple of Donna Hay recipes this year and will do traditional shortbread tomorrow morning while it is still cool.

Cranberry/white choc, ginger bread, vanilla/choc biscuits

Also made two bottles of passion fruit cordial which is very nice.

Saturday 8 December 2012

FNWF

Firstly I decided to start my night at about 11am lol and spent yesterday afternoon tracing, pressing, ironing, cutting out and more ironing for my version of snow central from Homespun magazine.  As you can see I have changed it heaps from the picture and it is from No. 50 Vol. 8 No. 7.  I will not be putting those prairie points around mine but will finish it off with large ric rak instead.  

This is what I began with....

and how it ended up.  I do have a couple of scarves left to iron on but have to find suitable fabric first.


This is the original designed by Stephanie Cameron.


I did a couple of hours work on Magnolia after tea while watching dribble on tv until New Tricks started.  It doesn't look like much, and trying to take a photo was a bit difficult, but those bottom petals have about 6 different shades in each which are blended.  I also finished outlining the big petals too.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful time stitching.  Now to go and see what you all got up to ...........


Friday 7 December 2012

FNWF is here

Well tea is eaten, dishes done and stitching is just about to get started.  Enjoy your FNWF where ever you are and I will be back tomorrow to show you what I have achieved.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Magnolia

Finally some progress with Magnolia.  Well that's after finishing the second big leaf as per the colour instructions and then pulling the whole thing out and starting again lol.  The colours were way too dark for a magnolia leaf and looked pretty stupid so I went and got a leaf from the tree and matched the colours to it and finally finished all the leaves last night.  It has progressed rather quickly and now I am up to the petals.  I thought it would take me much longer working with just one strand! 


I am now up to outlining each petal with split stitch.  Doing split stitch with one strand is not much fun on the eyes so I have changed the method of stitching to make it a little easier and it also looks like it should. 

Christmas time!

We put up the tinsel and decorated the tree last Friday.  One day early but I needed some help with the tinsel while Lance had a day off.  Easier with two people lol.  I should have had the camera out though because Tess was more into playing with the pile of tinsel on the floor than the cat was.  In fact Merlin didn't even make an appearance during proceedings.  Choosing to, thankfully, sleep through the whole production. 





 
The tree all decorated.

 
Christmas elves that are just so cute!  These were made by my mum years ago from either handmade or homespun magazine.

 
The beautiful old porcelain nativity set.  The table topper was also made by mum.

 
Ruby Reindeer.  Again made by mum.

 
Vintage glass baubles.  These are way too delicate to risk putting on the tree so they sit in my crystal bowl on the coffee table.

Saturday 1 December 2012

FNWF

It's FNWF on the 7th and signups start on the 5th!  Looking forward to it.

As you can see there has not been a lot of sewing happening here but later today I will get back to Magnolia.   Life has been too busy with other things this week lol so there are no photos yet.  Still got a few little decorating things to do and we are organised for Christmas.  The cards are done and will be posted Monday, the decorations and tinsel is strung from the ceiling and the tree is almost complete.  We will all look at it with fresh eyes today and see if it needs a little more lol. 

After seeing what you have been doing on your blogs I need to sit down and look at about 40 magazines, all Christmas themed, that mum lent me yesterday as I have decided I need a better tree skirt lol.  That will be enjoyable but still have to do the ironing YUCK!  as it has been put off the last few days with the heat.  Whats another day lol, it can last until tomorrow.

So no pics of anything but I will hopefully have some to share next time.....

Sunday 25 November 2012

Christmas Baubles, threads and magnolia

This is the final Christmas decoration for a while as I have started on magnolia this morning and completed winding all my new threads yesterday and placed them in order in my DMC box.  I think I will run out of room when I get the next lot lol.  I might have to move the DMC into plastic boxes and place my other threads in this box perhaps.  Not sure what I will do yet but it will be a while before I order anymore.  I can highly recommend www.ozstitch.com.au  and they even provided me with a $10 off my next order because it was over $100. 




Well it is to be very hot here today so I will now continue to stitch the leaves on magnolia.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Christmas bells

Here's the christmas bells.  They were to have buttons sewn on the cream strip but I went for lazy daisies with a bead for their centre.  Less is more sometimes.

Friday 23 November 2012

Ginger bread houses

Here's the cute ginger bread houses.  The original was to have coloured dots on the roof etc and I decided seed beads and as the house needed something else Lance came up with the idea of a sprig of holly or some candy canes.  I went with the holly.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Christmas stockings

From the same book came these.  I wanted to do some chistmas stocking and used one of the large stocking patterns but didn't enlarge it.  I also didn't want too much decoration on them as I felt the baubles had almost too much.  I'm heading off to start on a set of bells now lol.  They are very quick but I have decided to schedule one set per day on here.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Christmas baubles

Here's a pair of Christmas baubles from 'Fa la la la felt' by Amanda Carestio.  There are quite a few I really like and have 5 different sets of two cut out to sew at the moment and as they are fairly quick to make I might even be able to squeeze in a few more lol.  Over the next few days I will show each pair and they will all be from the same book.  There are also some cute ideas in one of the magazines I picked up yesterday.


Mind you still need to hole punch and put ribbon hangers on them.


Tuesday 20 November 2012

I was a very naughty girl .......

who fancied a trip to Kyabram to see what cheap fat quarters might have been available and spent just a little more than intended.  But how often do you see $2.50 fat quarters.....
 
and then have a couple of $5.50 ones catch my eye....
 
 
After spotting these kits and umming and arring about getting them....
 
 
 
I walked to the back of the shop and found a box full of Cascade and DMC wool threads at 50c a piece!  I am trying to gather a little collection of colours so that one day I can make something with them.  I did manage a good colour selection to add to some I already had from a discontinued Appletons sale last year.  Slowly but surely I will have a woollen project on the go either this coming winter or the next.  As usual I will pick something lovely, delicate and florally and just use whatever yarn colours I have amassed.  Would be nice on the next trip if she had the entire collection of Cottage Garden threads at $1.  I think that will never happen lol.
 



I also visited a little newsagent in Tongala which is a really tiny town and found a few magazines that I hadn't come across before.  Now this is the really naughty bit because they were all over $10 lol.   But then again I have only done this twice in the last year so its not so bad if you average it out over 12 months right?

Well back to some felt ornaments I have started making as they all need to be finished by Friday this week.  Thats my self imposed time limit because I am hoping that thread will be here and I can start the Magnolia project.  The week is warming up too so I plan lots of stitching between now and Monday lol.


Friday 16 November 2012

Yay it's Friday!

Well FNSI has started well.  I have managed to get quite a few things done and it is only lunchtime lol.  

Fristly last night I finished off the leaves for the scissor keep and pin ball.  They have been pressed and prepped ready for sewing together.   It is from Inspirations maagzine and the orginal was worked on silk with beautiful silk threads.  I chose a white fabric and DMC threads.  There was a conversion for the silk to DMC but I didn't use it and now wonder how much of a difference it might make.

 
 
 This gorgeous magnolia is designed by Trish Burr and is from Inspirations magazine.  I have prepped the fabric and have it in the hoop ready to start some of the preliminary stitching.  Can't wait for that thread order to arrive lol.
 

This is a pic of the original 'we are family' quilt designed by Bronwyn Hayes from Red Brolly.  The pattern featured over four issues of Homespun magazine Vol. 13 - No. 1 - 4.

This is where I started off this morning ......



 
and ended here with a completed top.  You can see from the original pic I changed blocks, colours and even left blocks out lol.  Suits what I wanted so why not.  All those beautiful fabrics were all $2 fat quarters that I picked up back in April and washed and put away for Lance to give me for my birthday.  I love them all and one day I might have to see if that store still has her $2 fat quarter table lol.  At least the stash has grown a bit but I can still get the lid on that 52ltr tub.  Might be time to go shopping and get another tub and fill it lol.  Might just need to find the money tree first.
 
Well that is the first half of my FNSI and I will be back in the morning with the second half. 
 
Have fun stitching the night away everyone.