As July 2020 comes to a close - a roundup of Stitching events...

Hello Stitching friends… 

Not much progress in July

I do not appear to have much stitching news to share this past week or so. I, like so many Australian stitchers have been putting my time into sewing cloth masks for family and friends. I am fortunate in that I do not need to run a cottage industry to gather spare coins to pay my bills. My household is still employed and the Covid crisis has not impacted us greatly. For this I am thankful and I know there are a lot of people out there who are doing it tough.

 

I recently celebrated 15 year work anniversary. I have been a contractor at the same site since 2005. I was gifted some (amazing) chocolates and two bunches of flowers, one from my employers and one from the business I have worked with for such a long time. Work practices have changed substantially since I first started as a junior with an accountancy firm in 1981. Few people seem to want to hold onto a job for more than 5 years, leaving to acquire more experience with multiple companies. I just have a talent at longevity and am good at the role I currently hold. Along with the flowers was a very lovely bonus gift card. I have put the $$ to good use and have ordered the final components for my sewing nook

 

I love my little vintage laminex dining table – it seats 4, but has extending panels to seat 6 comfortably, and was perfect for my little flat when I moved in 8 years ago. It moved with me to this house, and as I did not intend to need a dining table, designated my little table to my sewing area as a cutting table. Now most of you quilters will know that a dining table is not the best surface to stand at for any length of time cutting fabric. This little table has made-do for the past 3 years, however when I decided at the beginning of this year to organise my life – I put a lot of thought into replacing this table. I looked at work benches at both IKEA and Bunnings, as they were the right height – but golly they were industrial in finish and just not quite right. Lo and behold, in OfficeWorks I discovered a manual high-low or sit-stand desk. It is the right length and perfect depth to hold my cutting mat. I can still store my fabric tubs underneath it. The hole cut into the edge for computers is perfect for the ironing power cord to feed through neatly. I can fit a small pressing station to the side of it, leaving plenty of cutting surface – best of all, I will be able to set the height correctly so a tired back will be a thing of the past. To round out the purchase, I have ordered a new ergonomic chair to replace my current chair which will sink down at the most inconvenient times.

 

I have also ordered a pressing mat – to make the pressing station, so my ancient concave ironing board can hide back in the cupboard waiting for me to iron clothes… I’ve been making do with an old towel folded and covered with a linen tea-towel as a mini pressing mat, but am looking forward to trying out something a bit more professional. I’ll give an honest review, once I’ve used it for a short while.

 

I have been able to make a few more ¾” hexies and am loving my little project box. There is no plan yet just what to do with these, but I’ll keep making them. Not sure if I’ll use these as the centre of grandmother’s garden flowers or as the outside petals, keeping one central colour. It all depends on how many I make and just what colours I have when I’m ready to stitch them together. Or they might become something else….. I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not sure…

 

I am proud of myself this weekend, for putting some serious time in and working on my online Scout Training. I’d been putting it off for months, but set myself this weekend to work on it in earnest. I still have some hours left to work on this, but have broken the back of the training.  Once completed - I should have earned my Wood Beads as a Leader of Adults

ready to sail!

Checking my stitching rotation – this week I will bring out Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I’m up to stitching blocks 6 and 7 – the sailing ship in the middle. This has been a long time WIP – as most of the projects I’ve been working on this year.

 

As a result of my recent fit of tidy – sorting through my specialty floss I do have another alternate WIP – this scrap of fabric fits three of these hearts nicely. I am using Colour Streams silks and am enjoying the process. I’ll adjust the patterns to suit myself as I go along. I do know I have a wide range of beads in my stash to choose from This will most probably end up this life as a pillow.

 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit with me today. Whether you have dropped in though Bloglovin’ or through your reading pane on Blogger – or even followed one of my unashamed links on various forums – please leave a comment – introduce yourself. Please leave a link to your own blog – are you a quilter, a stitcher, an organising guru? What is your passion? Let us get this blogging community a little tighter and get to know one another…  I leave you today with a closeup of my lovely flowers - a bottlebrush and a sea holly in particular

Mid Month roundup and progress.

Hexies.

OMG - I've finally succumbed

I bought 1/2" and 3/4" laser cut hexie papers and templates to start. Now remember, these are measured by the SIDES of the hexagons, not the width. How people can work with 1/4" hexies is beyond me - let alone complete full on quilts

Anyway... have been having fun using up my 2-1/2" squares that I've been cutting up out of my scrap buckets to make my beginning stash of 3/4" hexies. I have no discernible project for this yet. I am pleased to discover a new use for my 1-1/2" square scraps - they fit the 1/2" hexie papers nicely.

Hexies - not exactly a NEW craft, just a sidestep from Patchwork and a method of handstitching that does not need the intense concentration of cross-stitch.

On a facebook forum, the question was raised about left handed rotary cutters.  I shared a pic of my cutters and thought to show it here too.

The green one a Clover brand is my favourite, swapping the blade also swaps the seating, from R to L, meaning the action to open comes out on the better angle. The purple one was my first, and the blade comes out the top. The blade is reserved for non fabric cutting and the handle is marked as such. This and the red cutter are Birch cutters. The blue one is an ergonomic Fiskar won in a competition. It has a thumb button on the other side of the handle when set up as right handed, to retract the blade.  I don’t use it much, have to get used to handling it – more like a bike handlebar than a pencil grip.

 

I have stitched up one version of the July SAL, and will show that on the 20^th, so have freed up this weekend to continue tidying up my sewing area

 

I have embroidered 6 bees on my Honey-B quilt.  I may or may not get around to working on the back for this quilt this weekend.  The car is on order, so there is no rush.  I want to really time the finish of this quilt to match when the car arrives…..  Each bee is slightly different.  I might go back and add antennae – or may not..

July and progress report on June Stitching

I've caught up to date with my 2020 Temperature SAL.  As of last night, June is completed.  I have yet to add the motifs on the side of the months, but will add those when the year is done, I'm not quite sure what to stitch there yet..  I'm happy to stitch this with these colours, as this will give me an indication how to set out my 2021 Weather Sheep  (Aha!  a title - Wethers of 2021 !)   This colour scheme was selected with one colour for 2 degrees of temperature...l  and there is so much of five colours.. so that's 8 degree variance..  so next year, I might look at one colour floss per degree.  While deep red and dark orange might represent the higher degrees, I feel the aqua and teal shades should be around the 20-25 degree, rather than the 14-21 degrees predominant from April-June. 

The May and June minimum and maximum temperatures have a variance of 6 colours and we are now moving into the colder months, so June should show a predominance of the purple/lilac.

I know the colours on the guide above are not accurate - DMC3835 is more a purple than a dull rose for 4-5degrees, but it helps when I'm making an excel chart.

I've also sorted out a few more of my scraps into predetermined sized squares and strips - a plan to spend 30 min to one hour per week to then have the ability to run a stash-busting quilt weekend. 

So using fabric boxes from Ikea (don't you just love repurposing items) and my bargain strip boxes from the Reject Shop - (Painters Tape makes GREAT temporary labels!) my huge tub of scraps are being organised by size instead of colour (until I have all my scraps cut to size, then you just know my OCD will kick in and I'll have to organise them into colours...  sigh!)  I hope also to make up bags of scraps to trade with other patchwork friends down the track...

My next patchwork project is to finish this lap quilt.  I will back it with one of the two (or both) the black/white fabrics and plan to bind it with a bright yellow.  I want to embroider a few buzzy bees around the stars, turning them into sunflowers. I am feeling the urge to hand-quilt this quilt too.. This quilt will then become a car quilt for my NEW CAR!!   Oh excitement, I have ordered a new Toyota Hybrid C-HR which will arrive in 10-12 weeks.  Of course, I have picked the vibrant Hornet Yellow as a colour and her name will be Honey.  So this quilt top, made about 2 years ago, will be perfect for her.

ohh  almost forgot... picked up a box of vintage items from the local facebook marketplace - mostly for the wooden cotton reels, but weeding out the other random items, these were the best.  The pink papers are all rusted through, and I would never use the pins inside the packets, but are an interesting look into how pins were supplied to dressmakers - I would hesitate to guess these are from mid-60s.  A few random buttons and elastic on card/foil and zippers for my collection - best of all was the round blue pin tin - metal and in mint condition because there were no pins left in it to rust it from the inside out....so quite a few nice things to add to my sewing room decor.  The box is a lid (only) for children's socks.  Just a nice peek into manchester items of times past.

Time for me now to get into my weekend projects - to stitch or sew while inspiration hits me...

Please leave a comment - particularly the new visitors - Where are you visiting from? 

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.

A few finishes for the weekend

I had a couple of finishes this week.  Bent Creek's Redbird sampler I finished in 2009 and it was on the same fabric as 2/3 finished Bluebird Sampler

As I am intent on stitching and finishing WIP from my stash, it seemed a shame not to pick this one up to finish.

Another finish today, having had to wait for my sewing machine to return from service.  I finished the sheepie cushion in 2011 and decided it was perfect to make up into a cuddle cushion for my 2yo Grand-daughter who can now count up to five!

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.