Midway through November - Weather Heating up, Stitching slowing down

 

Hello friends.

I have been slightly distracted these past 2 weeks and don’t appear to have made much progress on anything but will at least share my progress with you.

I last left you with my 2” Churn Dash blocks.   They are not perfect and the fussy cut squares for the middle are not perfect, but I am happy with my progress so far.  I hope to have this finished – quilted and all this weekend.

I got sidelined by a couple of mug-mats for which there are no photos. These have been gifted to work colleagues and I hope they like them.  I used up a few of my scraps. 

I have a mug-mat by my machine and it was gifted to me some years ago and although it has a Christmas Theme, I use it all year around.  Do you like mug-mats?  I like that I can usually make one in an evening for an emergency gift.  Add a cute mug and a sachet of Tea, tie up with a ribbon and there you go...

I got my hair coloured again – now that restrictions have lifted in Victoria I had a chance to spend time with my hairdresser and she has done a marvellous job.  Allan got his hair trimmed too – don’t we make a cute couple?? 

I so enjoy having blue hair.  My sister has purple hair, but mine is blue.  I should be re-doing this in about 4 months, but for now it has vibrancy. 
I have been blonde, I have been brown, I have been red, I have had to colour my hair since I was in my early 20's - I feel that now in 2020 I have come into myself and am enjoying all that life has to offer.

I did pick up my needle and worked a bit on the English Floral Sampler. I am up to P for Pansy.  I might try to finish the other 2 pansies this weekend.  This pattern is from UK Cross Stitcher magazine, and was a series in 1993. 

I’ve been stitching this very slowly since 2004.  It seems that a lot of UFO’s are becoming WIP’s - this is good. 

Next week on my rotation should be SOHRH – It has been a few months since I’ve worked on that, and I may have to put it aside for a day or two, as I’ve just realised Christmas is around the corner, and I really need to get one or two ornaments completed.  You are here to keep me honest, so I hope to show you some SOHRH progress on my next post.

Planning – it seems to be the time of year to think about Planning for 2021.  I have lashed out and bought myself a small planner/journal.  It should live in my handbag all year.  I’m not happy about keeping all my appointments and thoughts in my head or in my phone.  I have been pretty consistent this year with notebooks, but there are a lot of plans for my stitching life for 2021 and I need to be organised. 

(evil voice on my shoulder:  “Let’s see how long that lasts!”)

What are you planning for 2021?    I am planning ‘Year of the Sheepie revisited’  My weather chart is ready to go, using sheep instead of houses.  I have 4 or so sheepie charts ready to be kitted out.  I want to take part in a SAL for Christmas ornaments (Jo – this is your doing, so you better be ready to stitch Bothy Threads 12 days of Christmas with me)  I am planning to start a floss-tube channel of my own (over thinking the process) I am planning a Stitchers Advent Calendar – either a project or design release for July-August 2021.  There are still charts which will remain in my rotation to complete and I’m sure there will be new charts that call to me.  Where will I find the time??  I don’t know either…  How many of you work full time as well as stitch?  Do you work part-time?  Are you retired and consequently busier than you ever were?

 

Off to put fabric under needle for the weekend.  Please leave me a comment.  What do you like to see in Floss-tubes?   What annoys you?  It is all research for me… 

 

Stepping into Spring and Stitching

Hello Friends

Gosh in these times a week is screaming through so quickly – it is now a week

into September and well past time to update you on the life in lockdown.

I have joined Steptember, a charity program encouraging all to walk 10,000 steps each day to raise money for Cerebral Palsy.  My work is running with teams of 4 and our team is named Thunder Pandas – random name picked out of a hat by a 5 year old.  That works for me!   I am 12 months out of a knee replacement, so my personal goal is anything over 6000 steps each day will be good.  I started the first 5 days with over 8,000 steps each.  Yesterday I walked around my neighbourhood and looked at gardens.  I found this cute flowering gum – no idea what type, but it was pretty enough for a photo. Today is a rest day and have spent it catching up with technology – weeding out emails etc…  

Stitching and sewing has been busy.  I have been working on the Halloween Quilt – as shown last post and have now finished the top.  This was a methodical process of quilt, rather than organic and I have enjoyed putting this one together - particularly as it is the first one made using my new cutting desk.  I plan to use a simple 2” border on it and bind it using strips from the leftover fabrics.  I’ve lost the intensity to finish this and might move back onto my bee quilt while I figure out the next quilting project.

On the stitching front, I have finished ‘O’ on my Floral Sampler – Oriental Poppy – This is slowly, but surely progressing towards a finish – Only 11 more motifs, so surely I can finish it sooner than 11 months away…. Perhaps as the 2020 Sampler is now winding down, I can increase the rotation time on the Floral sampler. 

I have started the August row of the 2020 Temperature sampler, it is part of this week’s rotation.  I am looking forward now to stitching the end of August and beginning of September because Spring certainly has Sprung, with kookaburras in our garden.

 

I have also made a start on my Christmas Heirloom Tablecloth for the 2019 square.  I’ll reveal the whole design later this month when it is finished.   It is a quick stitch, but there are so many other stitchy things that have a deadline.

 

 

 

One thing that does not have a deadline, are my scrappy hexies, all in a box for when I’m waiting for an appointment, or taking part in an online meeting.  They are growing steadily and when I run out of templates, will have to look at just WHAT I plan to make with them.  

I must also stop rummaging around in my basket of finishes, because I keep finding things that need framing, made into a cushion or similar.  While I have my Halloween fabric out, have found a couple of old Halloween finishes which need contemplation…  I think one will become a cushion and the other a notebook cover.

 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today – please come back again soon.

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

Easter Basket Flurry of Finishes

So much fun participating in the Easter Blog Hop. 
I spent Saturday, finishing off a few smalls out of my overflowing basket of finishes.

I have sorted them by size, and leaving aside those finishes which need to be framed, and the larger finishes to be made into cushions or wall hangings, set about making small fobs or pin cushions, slightly larger cushions and padded ornaments.  I selected a few to be turned into mug-mats. 

Those of you with eagle eyes may notice some of those finishes from the Easter Hop are now finished and ready to be gifted to friends.

A lot of these were practice pieces and I have no information on the source.  I guess you can spy a Lizzie Kate.  In the larger pillow section, there is a carnation which I stitched in 1981.  It was from the background of an Assisi piece which now sits on the wall of my parents house.  This would have been my first experiment in applying my own colour shading to a pattern as the original was outline only.  Bronny's sheepie farm was an original design by myself in 2011
In amongst the mug-mats is an applique sheep, I rescued this from an op shop some years ago, but buttons and all, will make a fine mug-mat

Later in the evening, I turned my head towards my English Floral Sampler - to finish off week 1 in rotation and finished "M" - Morning Glory.  I've been looking forward to this one, as I love the blues/lilacs.  This means I'm now half-way through the alphabet and therefore the sampler, so a bit of happy dancing being done here right now.

Today's plan is to play with a couple of small patchwork projects which have been living inside my head for a few weeks.  I hope to have these done, so tomorrow I can move onto attempting to finish a couple of backs for existing quilts.

I hope the Easter Bunny has been kind to you all and your needles have been productive.

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.

February - how my year is progressing

It's been a full-on February
Many birthdays in the month to celebrate, and preparation for a new Grandchild who may show up early (due on 20 March) 

To this end, I've been stitching a quilt - mostly on weekends. 

I selected a free quilt pattern - Ahoy Sailor - online from Suzy Quilts and started with the blocks, these ended up 8" square    
I changed the shoulder blocks and the size of the 'water' blocks under the sailboats, added a strip of sky and found a great border print.   I even made up a buoy block. 

I have therefore titled this one "It's a Buoy!"  So have hung it out on the clothes line (as you do), to take a picture which really serves to show all the seams up well.  When it is quilted, it should be a better photo.  One of the strips of 'water' is full of sharks.

Stitching today, I've been watching you-tube channels and am picking up some great tips to try out - have binge-watched Just Do It Quilts and now that the top is done, (and because I cannot learn to stop before I make quilts too big - its a 60" cot quilt) I"m making an after-quilt for the back - using up as much of the scraps as I can.   I plan to make a prairie point border after watching Sew Very Easy tutorial.
Cutting the border fabric here I am using a vintage hot iron to weigh down the other end of my template - This idea came from watching Donna at Jordan Fabrics

I've been so busy that I now need a new iron!  The teflon coating has given way and is peeling off.  Allan tells me that I can use his, so it's not all that bad.

Embroidery Update for February

I've got my new fabric for Harriet Salt and have so far, only gridded it out ready to start stitching.  

However, due to my plan for the year, tomorrow, I will be back to stitching on the English Floral sampler - I've made a plan and it's only fair that I try to keep to it

• First Week is English Sampler
• Second Week it my TOL mystery Sampler (so I can have it ready for the 20th)
• Third week is Christmas stitching... hmm 2 months down and no Xmas stitching in progress.
• Fourth week is Harriet Salt.
• Weekends and daylight is left for Quilting 

 

Feburary floss, finishes and flusters

 My new grandson is due mid-march, with a possibility of arriving much earlier.  I realised the pattern I wanted to make for his quilt was more in my head than under my machine needles, so have spent the past couple of weekends cutting and preparing a flotilla.
The pattern is Ahoy Sailor from Suzy Quilts.  I've cut enough fabric for two flotillas because I wanted all my sailboats to be different.   This pattern has a lot of reading twice before you cut..... well perhaps I should have in a couple of instances..  grin

I've laid it all out on my bed, I have 18 sailboats, four more than called for the pattern.  I'm working out if I need them all and which ones I want to cull.  I've changed the layout slightly, using a thinner strip of 'water' under the boats.  At least one, if not all the strips of 'water' will be full of sharks.  So with a bit of luck, this quilt top will be finished this coming weekend, ready for quilting.

I've really not done a lot of stitching.. have not caught up much on the English Floral Sampler...  Finished the K - Kniphofia the red-hot pokers, and started on the L - Lily.  That has been put away until the 1st week of March.

2nd week of the month, I work on my TOL 2020 Mystery SAL.  I decided I needed to stitch a second version of my pattern, and this is what I have offered up.  If you want to stitch along with us with this free chart.   There is a link on my page to the chart.

 Week 3 is supposed to be Christmas Stitching.... fell through the cracks because I spent this week after work being a socialite.  Birthday Week started with a birthday dinner with my partner (feb 13) and my son (feb 19). 

We were able to sit on the deck in the summer sunset and enjoy a lovely meal.  Monday night was a scout meeting (I really should get those minutes sent through) Wednesday 19th was a birthday lunch, with Pizza with my workmates.  Wednesday night was also Birthday Dinner at the restaurant my son works at - well it was the only way were were going to see each other for our Birthday.  Bonus points to me - it's a Japanese restaurant and I ate Japanese food including raw fish.  I also finished off a small bottle of Sake (- it tastes like warm gin)  Thursday night was a cub scout Grey Wolf presentation with Friday night being a quiet day at home.  No stitching on the weekend, as Saturday was spent at my girlfriend's home, celebrating 12 months in her new location. 

Sunday, Allan surprised me with tickets to see Chicago.  I had long given up nagging to see it, so was happy to sit in the Gods for the last matinee show.  A bit of a happy sunny walk in the City and suddenly it is Monday all over again.  Tonight it is a catch up for blogging and to re-set my brain...


This week is Harriet Salt stitching.  I ordered and received Murano fabric in a mottled grey.  It is a much tighter weave than the original fabric I started with and I plan to stitch this 32count fabric using one strand over one thread.  I need to spend a bit of time preparing the fabric and finding the place to start, then I'll be working on Harriet this week when home from work.