A Baby Quilt

Towards the end of last year I had word that another little baby was due in the family. The delema was what to make, so I thought I would use up some fabric from my stash and make a quilt.

The fabric that I had in mind was an all over print, a cute print, but I was just going to quilt it and not cut it up. This piece of fabric was ear marked for another little baby a few years back, but I actually did something else for him.

So I had it all planned out, until I heard that a second little baby was due. Then my plans changed. I was away on holiday when this news was heard, and I had discovered a beautiful patchwork shop in this country town we were visiting. So I walked in, was amazed at what they had, and bought a panel. I had decided a panel as it would be quicker to do,  after all I now had two quilts to do.

So behold, my latest finish. I have had lots of oohs and ahs, but in reality it is just a printed panel that I have quilted. It still took a long time to quilt though, as I quilted around all the animals, the clouds, the sun , then quilted the background.

The quilt is with it's new owner now, and I believe he is very happy with it, or at least his mother is. Now I can get back to finishing some more UFO's

A Counted Thread Needlecase

This needle case started life in a workshop way back in 2013. It was a fabulous workshop with a fabulous tutor. It was supposed to be a hussif, a small container to keep all my sewing goodies in, but
I decided right at the beginning that I would turn it into a needle case, I thought I would have more use of it in that form.

Like a lot of things that  do, I will get the stitching done, then they may sit there for quite some time before I finish them or make them up into something. This one has sat for five  years. So why did I pick now to finish it?

Well, I was finishing off another UFO and it needed a closure. I wanted to make a hand made toggle. I had made one  once, many years ago, and was trying to remember how to do them. What I was producing just wasn't quite right. I could still see the base fabric, ( some white cotton tape) underneath. Well, a month ago, I participated in a mini creative exercise with my Stitchers Plus friends, and  I felt sure one of the ladies there would know how to do them. One of them pointed me in the direction of a book which I had a copy of at home. When I looked, the instructions were not quite what I wanted.

So then I asked around at my local stitching group, and was pointed in three different directions. One of the ladies there helped me fix up the dodgy one I had made, and I was also pointed towards one set of workshop notes and two books, all of which I had at home.

The workshop notes were the ones attached to this piece, and they were very clear and precise. So I used those notes to make my toggles on my red needle roll, and my mauve counted thread needle case. So while I was at it I thought I may just as well finish this one off too, it just needed a lining , some needle pages and a toggle closure.

So another UFO finally finished. That's two done for the year, just another eight to go to complete my personal challenge.

Double Eyed Spider Bookmark

Back last year when I was working my yellow lace edged handkerchief, there was a pattern for a book mark on the same page as the edging. I had wanted something little to take to lace meetings, so I drew up the pricking and proceeded to start.

What I hadn't counted on was these double eyed spiders, and they stumped me. I tried so hard to work them out, but my lace meeting was getting closer and I needed something to do. In the end, I changed my pricking and inserted  whole stitch ground  diamonds instead. That book mark can be seen here.

I was going to master these little double eyed monsters, so I tried again, and still had trouble. The pricking was tiny and the lines were fine, so I made a larger version to try to work out the thread path. By looking at this larger version, and also at the photograph in the book, I realised that I had pin holes in my pricking that should not be there. OK, I could just try to ignore them for now and fix up my pricking for next time. One problem solved.

As I continued to work, I still got confused every time I came to one of those double eyed monsters. In the end I came to the conclusion that that there were still pinholes there that should not be. I couldn't figure out what to do with them. Anyway, I got my book mark up to a point that I could take it to a lace meeting and have something to work on for the afternoon. One of the ladies at this meeting had made a number of these book marks, so I had a chat to her and she sorted me out. Yes, those pinholes needed to be there, but as support only.

So behold, my new finished bookmark! It has been made with Guttermann Sulky 30 thread, with a purple crochet thread acting as a gimp down the side. My double eyed spiders leave a bit to be desired, and like the spiders in nature, they are all different. Watch this space for another one when they are all the same.

A New Needlecase

Back in January 2017 I was enticed to join and on-line group called 'A Year In Stitches'. The idea of the group was to encourage people to stitch every day. Do I need encouragement to stitch every day? Definitely not, I have been stitching every day for most of my life.

I really didn't need to start anything new, but I did. Everyone in the group appeared to be doing surface stitching of some kind. Well, I am a counted thread/lace kind of person, so I looked in my fabric stash and found a piece of linen that I had bought at a Christmas function with my local stitching group. It was a light pink/mauve colour and had in the packet with it a skein of Waterlilies silk floss that blended. All I needed now was a needle and I could start. But what to do?

My passion is drawn thread work, and for a long time now I had wanted to try some coloured needle weaving. So I began creating the sides of a drawn channel with a 4 sided stitch, using the lovely silk thread that was in with the fabric.

OK, channel edged and drawn, I needed to find some Perle threads that blended to needle weave with. That was easy, I have plenty of left over balls of Perle threads, so enter the blue, pink, and cream.  The coloured needle weaving was fun, and I found it much more practical to run three needles. So much easier than threading & re-threading needles all the time.

The piece grew over time. I added fine borders  that I found in one of my books, decided what to do with corners, and added a black work pattern. With the black work pattern I blended different colours with the silk floss that made it blend in with the needle weaving that  I had done. All the while I kept thinking 'what am I going to do with the piece?'

The piece went on hold while other things took over. Then last year at Stitcher's Plus, we were setting challenges for ourselves for this year. My challenge was to finish some UFO's. So behold, my fist UFO for this year is finished! I have turned my piece into a needle case. I finished the black work stitching, hemmed it with a four sided stitch hem, added some lining and Doctors flannel, then a closure of toggle and loop. There is a hand made twisted cord for the spine with a bottom tassel just to finish it off.

So one UFO done, hopefully nine more will happen over the remainder of the year.

An ANZAC Tin

My ANZAC tin is number seventeen in my collection. This one I bought a few years ago purely for the tin, though it did contain ANZAC biscuits that were OK. I tend to make my own ANZAC biscuits.

This tin is rectangular in shape, and about 7cm high. The lid is in relief, with a scene from the Kokoda Track, a famous track from WW11 in Papua and New Guinea. My Dad fought in WW11, though not in New Guinea. I bought the tin in rememberance of him and all the other soldiers who fought in the war.

On the base of the tin there is lots of information. There is a story about the history of the ANZAC biscuit, and how it was included in the rations of the soldiers at Gallipoli in 1915. It goes on to tell  how it was the women back home who were baking the biscuits not only for the soldiers, but also to raise money for the war effort. There is also a story about the RSL, and the New Zealand equivalent.

Of course there is nutrition information, and information about the company that made the biscuits, as well as a use by date of March 2013.

I’ve found them on EBay selling for anything up to $30, but I will keep mine for a while yet, it is, after all, in use. 

So what does this tin hold? Embroidery supplies of course. There are embroidery hoops, threads, half finished pieces of work, my good embroidery scissors, threads, a thimble etc etc. I am sure you get the picture. It's a tin I  can pick up and take to group days and I will have something to do on the day.

ANZAC Day will be upon us again  later this month. I must look in the shops and see if I can acquire a different one to keep this one company.