CHRISTMAS STOCKING - BUCILLA

I know its months until Christmas but I found these wonderful Christmas Stockings whilst searching other blogs and I just had to have one.

 

They are made by Bucilla and there are many different designs.  I didnt have to many to chose from as there was only one on Ebay.  I havent been able to source them in Australia as yet but I will keep looking as I intend everyone in the family to have their very own.

 

Its all hand sewing which has been good for me as I can watch the Olympics and sew at the same time.  They are not hard but its time consuming with embroidery and sequins to go on as well as stuffing them to give the 3D effect.

 

I am tickled pink on how he  is coming up........ 

 

Hat and Face - 1st Stage

The kit comes complete with all the felt printed on sheets so all you need to do is cut them out and assemble according to the instruction sheet. Each piece is then appliqued to the base shape and everything is built up bit by bit.






Taking Shape

Santa so far......

 

Hopefully by Christmas I can have a couple of Stockings done for the children and then I can start on Stockings for the adults, cos everyone loves a Christmas surprise.


 

BELLA GARDEN - WISTERIA BLOCK

I have almost caught up with my Bella Garden's second block 'Wisteria'.  I thought that by the amount of work and time it took me to do the first block, I would fall way behind with all the others, but the second block came together much quicker.  I like to think it was because I knew what I was doing :)

Anyway here is the block so far......I can't do all the Wisteria flowers as some of them overhang onto the border pieces and I need to attach them before I can finish the applique.  I will have to wait until Block 6 before I can start to assembly the whole quilt and there will be more applique to finish then.

Woops, I may have spoken to soon, these wisteria flowers are driving me crazy, the large part of the flower was fine, but the smaller round petals are very difficult to attach, I have had to resort to my free motion foot and do a circular motion around the edge about 3 times.  It actually looks like fabric painting now.  I'll keep at it and you can see the result soon.

A QUICK THANK-YOU

Just wanted to pop a quick post out to say thanks to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for thinking of the Lets Bee Social post.

I am a newbie when it comes to blogging and I was finding it hard to get people to check out my blog - then along came Lorna and viola..... People are stopping by to comment :)

I'm very happy although my husband is wondering what has overtaken me, staying up half the night checking my emails and replying,  he just doesn't understand haha

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and let me know if I'm doing alright at blogging and I promise to write back.....who knows where it will lead.

Another plus, I get to check out the wonderful blogs out there and even catch pictures of snow which we don't get over here, it's so beautiful 

JAKE'S COT QUILT

 

Jake is 3 and a half months now and almost ready to go into his cot from the bassinet.  Just in time, I've finished his quilt.  His room is navy blue and white so I went with the nautical theme and found a pattern on the internet which I changed around slightly.

   The pattern was on the website for Allquilts, but when I check recently, the link was removed.   Luckily I had printed out the pattern a while ago.

What a change different colours make !!

Instead of the small boats pieced together, I opted for just a square of nautical print.

Rather than the second row of stars, I thought Jakes name made it more personal, just for him. 
       I usually use the iron-on batting for my creations but as this is for a baby, I went for the wool batting. This of course meant that I had to use safety pins when I quilted. Down on my hands and knees on the bathroom floor and I used 1.5 boxes of pins. Probably over-kill but there was no way this quilt was going to move!

Too many pins????

The quilting took much longer than I thought and I kept it quite simple as it was my first real attempt at quilting.   Its hard to take the plunge and do free motion on a finished top, but eventually I had to do it.....I admit its not perfect but I really did have to start somewhere.  The swirls around the boat came up quite well as did the waves underneath. I felt a bit more comfortable doing the stippling around his name as I had done this before.

Swirls

Free motion Waves

After the swirls and waves, I didnt want to push my luck with any more free motion, so I changed over to the walking foot.  A simple double line inside each block and a diamond pattern along the border completed the look.

Diamond Border

Now my biggest fear (apart from the free motion) is when I wash the quilt.  I really really hope that these colours dont run and spoil everything.  I have bought some Colour Catchers in the hope that they can grab any floating colour before they do any damage......wish me luck.