October 2020 - Don't Overthink things...

Hello friends.  I really hope there are more than just one of you out there reading this.  Am I still in archaic land just blogging – writing about my stitching life?   I really need to teach myself to use Instagram and branch out there.  I am also thinking about branching out into Flosstube videos, because I know I can really talk a lot better than typing.   I feel that some of the Flosstubes I am watching I am sitting opposite a stitchy friend and just watching a private show and tell.

Something to ponder in the weeks ahead.  Just a chat between you and I – where I show you what I’ve been working on…. Pretty much exactly what I’ve been blogging on for the past 10 or so years.

I have not felt so motivated last weekend, because I didn’t feel I had anything to share on the Saturday afternoon I put aside to talk to you.   This week I do have a couple of finishes to show, but cannot say that I have bound the mugmats and mini quilts from a couple of weeks ago..   I might have a look at these over the weekend.  I want to clear up and re-organise my craft area, pack away all the excess floss from all the projects started for the past 2-3 months…  particularly spending some time cutting up my scraps.

My stitching rotations have all gone manky wumpus over the past few weeks because I dropped Harriet Salt much earlier, stagnated again on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and the SAL got too close to finish – I seem to have completely lost what week was what to work on which pattern.  Was it the Temp SAL?  Was it my Christmas Tablecloth?  How close was it to the 20^th of the month?  Did I have to finish that month’s section of the TOL SAL?  I was also doings

I have finished the lilac version of my SAL – the beads are all attached now and all the bands are stitched, including an extra band on the bottom to round off the alphabet.  I think I will make a couple of quick Christmas Ornaments from the square motifs near the bottom and have them ready to send out for my Christmas Stitchaglongs.   I don’t think I’ll frame this one, as I will be framing the blue one.  This one may be made into a wall hanging and sent out as a gift this year.  What would you think if this turned up in your letterbox for Christmas?

In my last blog post – I showed the Storm At Sea blocks started.  I did put this together, finding that 2 of the long diamond blocks had come out of the copier a whole 3mm smaller than the rest of the foundation blocks had printed and the same for one of the major square blocks – this meant that I had to put those 3 blocks aside and re-make them.  Fortunately I had enough of the scraps in the right colours to do so.  I was then able to put it all together.   

I was unable to see the full effect of the blended colours until I took this picture and I was so amazed at the shading and how well all the colours worked.  I have put this one aside for awhile, while I think whether to make a scrappy border – or rather to frame it in navy blue batik – then yes, it gets bound and will end up in this year’s gift pile.  (should I set aside one week in November for a binding binge?)

I do have a quilty finish – I HAVE finished the binding on this one, but there will be no complete photos shared anywhere until I do the official photo shoot when I PICK UP MY NEW CAR !!!!   I have spent a few nights where I normally do cross stitching, instead stitching the binding on.  

I have made labels which now adorn my sewing machine simply saying:  Don’t Overthink it.   Otherwise, I would have overthought the backing – but instead just used two lengths of fabric I had put aside for the purpose.  One is the fabric used on the legs of the stars, one is a simple black/white fabric that was asking to be used.  Both of these are good as the quilting does not show up on them.   I love the way the binding pops on the quilt – but no full photo until after I pick up my car…. Come back next weekend.

Time today to let you get back to your stitching pleasures – I have been watching Pumpkin Hollow Quilts flosstube and enjoying watching Olivia and seeing what she is stitching…  I’m envious…

September fades away and October beckons

 

 September not bound for finishes…

The day has dawned warm and windy here in Frankston, Victoria.  Meteorologists have warned about horizontal weather – so batten down the hatches.  When I get to stitching the past few days in the Meteo 2020 SAL I think it will show a dramatic change to temperatures.  And yes, that is on my cross stitch rotation for the coming week – to stitch September and see the changes.  I must also consider the extra motifs to fill in the blanks.  The end is in sight – it should be finished the first week of 2021 – and how quickly is that looming?  

Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne has morphed into stage 3.4 with the prospect of easing to 3.2 in a week or so… I don’t know, it has become a bit too hard to follow as most of the restrictions do not affect me – apart from businesses closed, not travelling outside my 5km radius, with the exception of travel permit to head to work as an essential employee – (15 years’ experience has won out) – I don’t have school age children and pre-lockdown, I didn’t spend much time at cafés or shopping centres, but now I’m fanging to get to a restaurant to have a dinner out, to drive to the country to see my girlfriend or my sister – plan a weekend away.  I don’t like going to supermarket shopping anymore – I get anxious around groups of people now.  Not to mention that the Car Dealerships are closed down, but the benefit is that I am saving up a whopping deposit on my new car, ordered at the end of June.  When lockdown is eased and I CAN drive more than 5km, then I’ll have a new car to drive into the country to see my girlfriend and sister….. 

I always thought personalised numberplates for cars were a bit wanky and pretentious… but guess who has bought personalised plates??  Yep…and they arrived this week.  It’s not quite regulation to show numberplates on social media – but here is a snippet..  

 I must really pull my finger out and finish the hand embroidery on this quilt so I can get it sandwiched and quilted.  I’m still thinking of combination machine and hand quilting this one.

Reading back to my last post, I realised I missed last Saturday – I remember the weather was dreadfully chilly and I spent a lot of my time at the sewing machine – sewing for no real purpose, but trying a couple of techniques.   I had the idea that I needed to make a couple of mug-mats to go into my Stitchy Gift Bag of bits – so I had a go at a bit of Quilt-as-You-Go mug mats  - random stitching and these 2 are the result.  One has had the binding finished, but the other is waiting for the binding to be attached… which seems to be the running feature of my fortnight  - but I digress..

I then found a bit of patchwork that I had pieced and had the backing ready to go to be quilted…. (I have a pile of these that I walk past at least 8 times a day and it was on top of the pile) and of course that fell under my machine needle for a bit of distraction.  I’ve done all the quilting process now, and now I need to put some binding on and stitch it down.. I also need to darn in all the ends of the quilting, as I started in the middle of the project.  – So this is another project not quite finished.

Missouri Star Quilt Company Tutorial last week was a fun quilt of patches of Sewing Machines.  It caught my eye (as so many of their tutorials do)  Of course, I had to have a go… and an afternoon later, I have two more mug-mats quilted and ready to be finished off – the black one will probably end up with some felt applique – and once again, the binding is attached but is waiting to be finished down.

Halloween quilt is on hold for the moment.  I’m thinking how I want to quilt it – and because it is such a fussy pattern, I don’t want the quilting to distract from the pattern, particularly the bats.  I’m leaning onto just making some spiderwebs across the whole pattern…  Then, there will be binding to attach and stitch down…

Then of course I got side-tracked again..  and started another technique.. Storm at Sea is a really distinctive design and I spent a lot of last Sunday on quilt math… colouring in options for designs.. I didn’t want to make a whole quilt, just 4 patches together to get the idea of paper piecing…  I spent a few after-work evenings putting them together and neglecting my cross stitch, but hope to spend this afternoon pulling the paper sections off and putting the mini-quilt together.. Then I can sandwich it, quilt it, put the binding on and finish it – it can then also go into my gift pile.

I’ve ordered some Australiana fabric for a requested project, so when that arrives, will want to put that one together fairly quickly – until I have all the fabric together and see it, I do not have a direct pattern in mind, but inspiration will hit.

I have a new friend in my Sewing nook – Meet Jacky Lamby.   She has been gifted to me by a work colleague who is extremely modest about her crochet skills.  Jacky is a shelf sitter and is positioned to look over my shoulder and watch me at my sewing machine.  Jodie – thank you.  It is almost a backwards compliment to a hand-crafter to describe something as good as something you’d find in a shop…  but Jacky is so well made – I could imagine finding her in a baby-wares shop for an exorbitant price

Bit by bit, I’ve been finding little things to sort out the organisational aspects of my sewing nook.  I have a LOT of printed patterns, some freebies I printed around 2004-05 which I still want to stitch (someday), some magazine charts I’ve pulled out – rather than keeping an entire magazine.  I have sorted these into Stitchery/Cross-stitch/Patchwork.  I have them sorted into Christmas/Halloween, Sheep/Teapots, Samplers by Motif/Band/Alphabet and Blackwork.  I have been very good and have kept an excel spreadsheet to document what chart can be found in what book. 

Now those of you who have display folders (I may or may not have gone out and bought some 50 books to use), you will know that they are floppy, exasperating things to put on a shelf without some sort of restraining system.  I am using the Ikea Kallax unit and was finding the books just kept falling sideways and not sitting where I could put them clearly.  I went online to search for a solution and I think I found a simple one.  At K-Mart of all places, found a wire rack in the office solutions and this is the result.  Wonderful!  The books are staying upright and are divided into groups.  You can see the basket on the floor, with another lot of books, but I have to work out which of my cube squares I am going to abandon to put the books in…  I am using all the other squares, so this will be a difficult decision – but my room IS a work in progress

Nearly forgot a finish of sorts... My TOL 2020 SAL is nearing completion and of the 2 versions I stitched, I had to adjust the last couple of bands of the blue/yellow version because I miscounted the fabric I stitched it on.  So now it's finished and I've added the beads and sequins.  When life opens up again, this will be sent to the framer

I hope you have enjoyed my meandering today – I was listening to a new to me Floss-Tube – Jan Hicks Creates..   in this time of isolation, felt like I had a stitchy friend sitting next to me and telling me what was in her week…  I wonder if I should investigate floss-tube a bit more..   Do you have any channels you like to visit?  Please leave a comment and let me know.

 

 

Sauntering into the Winter Solstice - Sewing, Stitching and stuff....

Hello again friends,

It's been another couple of weeks to  catch up with.

First of all, if you are looking for the next pattern for the 2020 SAL, I'll be uploading it to its own page again..  Navigate your way through the tabs above to find the June pattern and photos

Last weekend i spent hand sewing some patchwork after watching a sequence of YouTube videos.  I made a cute little owl purse and decorated the back with vintage lace.  I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process and the recipient loved that I spent the time making something for her. 

I also finished the binding on the 1985 quilt, which I've called Procrastination.

I have handpieced the front, and for some insane reason, decided to machine piece a sampler back.  Finally got my act together and quilted and bound the quilt and now it is ready to cover me on the couch or add extra warmth on the bed.  The patch with the cat was planned to be in that position on the quilt, as that was where the ginger cat from my childhood would lie on my bed. 

 The front was hand pieced in 1985 and the back was machine pieced in April this year...  so 35 years in progress.  I'm happy with the binding on the quilt and the decision to round the corners.  Now that it is finished so I can move onto to the next WIP.

As for cross stitching, I've found a unique SAL on a french site.  After accidentally buying some sheepie charts (for 2021 I swear!) I found a facebook fan site where there is a Temperature SAL, using little houses in a range of colours to represent the high and low of each day in a year.  Each house is under 24 stiches and each roof is 9 stitches, so a month will stitch up really quickly.  Most of those I've seen are from France or Italy, a couple are from the USA, but being from Australia, my colours are different.  I'm using this as a test and hope to stitch the same idea in 2021, but using sheep!

A lot of fun stitching to catch up with and a new quilt WIP to get on with...

OH ...nearly forgot...  My TUSAL jar has filled up and although it is a pain to try and capture a good shot with the reflection in the glass,

you can see a lot of floss from the temperature SAL has now been captured.

It's been awhile.... let's sit a spell and chat...

Hello everybody.
Since reviving my blog, it was not my intention to leave it so long between posts.  The last few weeks have been interesting and I seem to have a lot to chat about.
Lets see... what have I got to share..
Quilting
Cross Stitching
Me behind the scenes
The world and the current environment
And in no particular order.

I have blue hair .... and a brand new grandson.  I was due to fly up to Townsville to help look after my Mini-me while her mum was in hospital.  Unfortunately, my flight was 7am Wednesday, and the borders were closed due to COVID-19 at midnight Tuesday.   Lachlan was born 27 March - and I changed my hair to a vivid blue to celebrate.   It is slowly fading, but it is such a lovely shade, I'll be getting it re-done in a few months, in time to visit when the borders are re-opened in Australia.

It's a Buoy!

I made a baby quilt for Lachlan - it is titled "It's a Buoy!"  I had fun creating this quilt - referenced SuzyQuilts Sailboat quilt pattern.
After the quilt was finished, I then used the Just Get it Done tutorial and made an 'After Quilt' 

This I had a lot of fun with and I really like the way the spare sailboat sails now look a bit like bunting. And the border was stitched with prairie points, using the information from Sew Easy tutorial.  It really sets off the whole quilt

The next quilt which captured my attention, as part of my "Finish it off" obsession was a hand pieced quilt.  My first quilt.  

1985 Sampler quilt

detail of hand piecing

I had attended a night school in 1985 and this was the result.  Yep.  1985.  This quilt top has waited since 1985 to be finished.  (35 years....)  Trying desperately not to overthink things.. I failed majestically. 

Batik pieced sampler back

 I started by drawing out 12 patchwork blocks that I thought would look good.   6 basic 9-patches and 6 basic 4-patches. It was my intention to sash it with dark green and border it with the orange fabric... but I changed my mind at the last moment.  The orange fabric will be the binding too when my machine comes home and I can finally quilt it.

I had a load of batik FQ's and using quilt math, with only a few re-do patches, spent time working out the best method of HST that was economical for my fabric reserves.  I carefully pieced and measured and made sashing and borders and now I have a quilt top and bottom for a double-sided quilt.  It is so near completion, but my sewing machine had a hissy fit with all the sewing and is now in the service centre, getting a tweak and a push and shove and a gentle massage before coming back to me next week


This month in cross stitching I had an epiphany in regard to HATS Harriet Salt Sampler.
Firstly I couldn't find fabric which was 'right'.  I found some online and ordered some lovely 32count floss.  When I finally started Harriet in rotation, was happily stitching the first alphabet and got to the end of the fabric before realising I was in error, stitching the design over 2 threads instead of one.  Slightly frustrated, I flipped the fabric over and started again.  I barely got through the 'A' when I realised I was not enjoying the process, nor the look of the result.
I made the decision to stop stitching Harriet.  I may take her back up again another time, or I might make use of various alphabets in other designs.  The floss I will use in another single colour stitch of my own choosing in another time.  I do have a lot of choices of charts.  The fabric should suit another Mirabilia mermaid, or will be put to use on another design.  The time allocated to Harriet in Rotation, I will change to Shores of Hawk Run Hollow.
 

As for the rest of my stitching in rotation... The English Floral Sampler has now completed to N - Nasturtium
I get a lot of pleasure knowing this is growing and I'm now more than half way...


Today is the 20th of the month and my TOL 2020 SAL section for MAY will be updated on the page.  There are a few people stitching this, and it is lovely to see each version and how different but same they all are.

Despite 2020 being extreme circumstances for most people worldwide.  I had earlier this year determined that 2020 was to be a good year for me - I have a new mind-set and am working hard to re-set my work/life balance.  I am one of the lucky ones, I work M-F from 9-5 and that has not changed.  I work for a company which has been determined to be an essential business.  Social Restrictions have meant traveling from home to work and back again, and I've spent most of my home life sewing and stitching.  I have been keeping in touch with my friends and family through phone and video calls.  However, late April, I had a major panic attack, brought on by work stresses from July 18 to Dec 19.  As this has been resolved, it was as if I was wound up and after relaxing, a spring went off be-doinnng!  The bright light in all of this, is finding out my heart is sound and healthy and there is no evidence of a heart attack.  I know the triggers now and after a few after-shocks am healing well with confirmation that the mind-set I started in January.  It did, however, mean that I avoided most social media, including facebook and blogs for a few weeks
I feel much better now and am catching up... hence this lengthy catch up 
If you are still with me... thank you. 

Mid-April weekend of finishes show and tell.

It's been a busy weekend again.
I managed a few other finishes.  First I sorted my batting scraps, and using the inspiration from 'Just Get it Done' tutorial, made up some Frankenbatting. 

All those strips of batting left over from quilting projects, trimmed and stitched together.  It gave me a useful table runner sized piece to use.     

I found a table runner I put together some New Years Day a couple of years ago, after somebody on some Facebook group asked where to get the pattern.  I looked at the picture and figured out the pattern pretty quickly.  The reason this one is special, is that the yellow floral fabric was once a favourite shirt. 

The butter yellow linen was so soft, and when one or two rips became evident, the fabric made its way into my stash.
So it's quilted and bound, tonight I'll be stitching the binding down and tying off all the quilting thread ends.   Then it will make it's way into my gift giving basket.
I also managed to simply quilt the disappearing Shoofly mini quilt - made up last weekend after watching the Friday Missouri Star tutorial.  See, I tend to make their quilts in miniature, because I don't need to make a big quilt at the moment, and I just want to try a new technique.  
This has a recipient and will make it to her home shortly.  I didn't take a picture of the coaster using the same fabric as the binding.
Oh what else do I have to share?   What about some detail of the April TOL SAL.  Check out this blog page on the 20th of each month for the monthly pattern release.  This is the 2nd colourway I've made of this pattern.  I've not updated the lilac version yet.
Who knows what next week holds??  Enjoy your week everybody

March update on stitching and crafting.

We crafters have been practicing for self-isolation for years.  I am lucky as I am still working and likely to remain so, while the building is operating.
However, It is Saturday here in Sunny Australia and on Wednesday at OMG-o'clock, I have plans to fly interstate, to act as carer to my not quite 2yo Granddaughter.   Why?  Because on Friday (if not before), My wonderful Daughter-in-Law is booked for a C-Section on Friday 27 March and we are waiting eagerly to greet my new Grandson.  While My son is allowed to visit, young Claire is not able to visit due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

I have taken all precautions and have been given a clean bill of health from my doctor and will be flying up to help out for two weeks.   I have also prepared a Grandma bag of crafty bits to take with me and am looking forward to Tea-party with dolly in the park, painting the driveway with water, drawing on the footpath with chalk, (as little miss is not allowed to use texta or crayons at the moment!), many little craft ideas to keep her occupied and hopefully not missing mum too much.
I'll be looking forward to my few days holiday on the way home!

I have been stitching, although by looking at my TUSAL jar for March, you wouldn't think so. 

 
  

I've finished L for Lily for the English Floral Sampler  - really pleased how it is progressing after all this time.   
 







 
Keeping to my planned stitching list I've managed to finish the March Section of the TOL 2020 Sampler - Lilac version and well through the Blue version.

I'll be taking both of these with me for some downtime stitching while away.   Poor Harriet Salt may be passed over again this month. 

Well that is that,  I haven't got a progress shot of the quilt but that will be shown off when I've got a Grandson to complete the photo-shoot.

Wherever you are, and whatever you do, please try to stay positive and follow directions.  This is an interesting time and we will live through it.  Virtual Hugs from me and mine to you and yours.

Time to release the first part of my 2020 Mystery SAL.
I'm stitching on a random overdyed 14 count Aida from my stash.
I'm stitching in 2 colours, using Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Hand Dyed Floss - Purple 113 and a random Deep Sage green (have lost the tag - sorry)  I have also selected Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads to augment the design.  I prefer beads to french knots, but it is up to you.  Purple 00252 and Green 02031  
The first picture shown is without the beads and for some reason shows the colour of the fabric better.  The second photo with the beads is washed out somewhat, but I'm really happy with the way the beads have made that design POP
 

Look for the pdf of this mystery SAL on the dedicated page.
Send me a picture of your progress and I'll add it to the page as we travel through the year.
Look for the next part of the SAL on 20 Feb 2020 

This was the week that was.... First week of 2020

HI friends,  I have spent the past 2 weeks in organising heaven.  I am determined to be more organised in 2020, and have a scheduled amount of sewing to get through.  I have 4 SAL's, a baby quilt, a wedding quilt, Christmas Stitching, and a pile of WIP's to get through.  Add to this, October and November will be spent touring the USA...  I have THAT to plan also.  

I have spent a lot of time sorting all those magazine and freebie downloads I'd kept from about 10 years and more ago.  I've sorted them into display folders by type and theme, and using excel (bless it's little cotton socks - I LOVE excel) have made indexes for each book, which is now labelled and filed in my cubes.  The total of display books is currently 15, but I have a big box of quilting patterns and another couple of saved boxes of mostly Halloween, Christmas and samplers to sort through.   I hope to run a couple of giveaways this year for those who are interested in my excess patterns and charts.

English Floral Sampler

This is one of my WIP's.  I refer to it as my English Floral Alphabet Sampler - I started it around 2005.  Found it, and the charts during my clean up and have put it on high rotation.     The patterns were issued in a series in the English CrossStitcher magazine in 1993.     I participated in a round robin in 2005, and stitched the W - Waterlilly for my part. (if I think hard, I should be able to find my round robin item - it was teapots)   The flower was easy to stitch and I thought how nice it would be to have the full alphabet as a banner sampler.   My plan is to stitch this at the very least, the first week of each month.  It is to be my fall back sampler stitch for 2020.   I finished the K this week - today I will kit up the floss (DMC) for the letter

T.U.S.A.L. 2020

 In preparation for T.U.S.A.L. 2020, i had to empty my special jar.  The floss inside had gathered there from at least 2017 and also at least some 2018 stitching.
As I had done some intensive cross stitching in the last 3 months of 2013, the orts had been gathered in my little fabric box by my chair.  It was fitting that they had their photo taken in my TUSAL bottle.

If you wish to participate in the TUSAL for 2020, click here for the link to my TUSAL page which explains all.

Speaking of SAL's  - please feel free to join in - here are the links to this year's SAL's (so far)

Harriet Salt - A SAL from HATS - stitching a reproduction Sampler and hoping to finish in 2020

TOL 2020 Mystery SAL - Threads of Life - an online group I've been part of for over 20 years.   This year, I'm offering a 20 line sampler over 11 months.  Each section will be released on the 20th of the month.

NFSAL 2020 - Following another blog Magical Quilts and more - This SAL is for using up the neglected floss I've collected over the
years 

Not much action on the sewing machine so far this year, but there is still another 50 weeks of the year to go.  After all, there is still a couple of quilts to produce at the very least.   Time now to go and see what all of you are blogging about.  

See you all soon with another Bronnys Sewing Nook update.