UFO Weekend Away - Ballan

I really hope everyone has had the experience of a girls UFO weekend away like the one I have just had to Mill Rose Cottage in Ballan

Wonderful weather, beautiful setting, delicious food, inspiring craft and best of all lovely friends.

As this was a UFO we all took those numerous projects that were gathering dust just waiting to be finished.

I accomplished two complete finishes, so I was chuffed (my stash is getting smaller now)

Quite a while ago, I had done a class with Sue Weeks to make an embroidered bag.  Of course I had finished the embroidery (finally) but it took some extra coaching to turn it into a lovely tote bag

A visit to the AQC earlier last month saw me purchase a kit for a modern hexi table runner from Hugs N Kisses.  All material and iron-on hexis were included and this was another achievement on the weekend.

A tiring but exciting fun weekend, cant wait to do it all again soon

xxx

Modern Baby Quilt

I’m so used to either pastels or brights even pink or blue baby quilts, that I was totally out of my comfort zone when my girlfriend requested a modern grey and white only baby quilt.  No Applique or any other colours so I started thinking...what should I do.

They say simple is best so I went for s herringbone pattern with a soft grey with white crosses teamed with a solid white.  A very simple straight line quilting completed the look and I must admit, I was very happy with the end result.  My first modern quilt!!

FOXLEY FINISHED

It’s so nice to get my finished quilt, Foxley Village, back from the talented Mandy who does my quilting.

What a stunner this project has turned out to be. A monthly project that was featured in Homespun Magazine last year made with Tilda fabric and comprised of both appliqué and machine pieced blocks.

I am still sewing on the binding but you can see how lovely this quilt is.  

Take a closer look at Mandy’s wonderful quilting, there is so much variety in patterns, I could look all day and still find a different one.

Just look at the difference the quilting makes.......

Quilted Block

Original Block

I’ve already made space on the wall for this one as I think it’s nice to display my quilts rather than hide them away, after all they end up costing a lot both in money and time.

If you ever think you can’t do a quilt like this, I suggest a BOM with a friend as each month you help each other with problems and ensure you finish on time and before you know it you’ve made a whole quilt over a 12 month period.  

DANCING CHICKENS & FLYING PIGS

Each Christmas, I buy myself a Block of the Month for the coming year.  This years project is by Annie Downs, and its called - Dancing Chickens & Flying Pigs.

Its a 12 block quilt/wall hanging  worked on a Linen background with felted Wool shapes and embroidery.  I am loving working with the Wool (no need to worry about turning under the applique pieces).  By using matching wool or DMC threads, a simply applique stitch and viola......its done....easy really.

I love my first 6 blocks, the colors and textures are just so lovely and I can't wait for my next package to arrive....stay tuned to see the rest of the blocks.

BABY BOY QUILT

Now that I have mastered using Minki on the back of my quilts, I whipped up a modern baby boy quilt for the young mum to be, at work.

I went for a lovely peppermint and brown polar combination for the quilt top, and matched a Pooh Bear brown minki on the back.

Sometimes the simple designs are the best and I chose a triangle pieced top

I'm still not confident to do the quilting especially as this was for a gift, so off it went to my quilter, Mandy, who again did a lovely job with an overall swirl of her own design.

Sorry this picture doesn't capture the beautiful Pooh Bear brown of the minki but it does show the quilting design.

Here's the lovely minki colour that it really was.....trimmed with a plain peppermint binding.

FOXLEY VILLAGE BLOCK 4

I must apologise for not keeping up with the blog world, but life gets hectic sometimes (as you well know) but I'm still enjoying my quilting and sewing.

Here's the latest block that I've finished for my Homespun Foxley Village project.

Just loving the Tilda fabric, I would never have selected some of the colour combinations but there you go,.... they work !!!  Just goes to show that just because you wouldn't choose it, doesnt mean it wouldn't work  Sometimes its nice to just do and you are told and you get a very pleasant surprise.

YOKO SAITO "HOUSES"

How nice are some people, especially quilters...Helen from Helens Patchwork Passion  invited me to join her, Sue and Julia (no blogs) to get together to work on this beautiful quilt by Yoko Saito.

I only met Helen thru blogging and she's been so generous both in her knowledge and in sharing her supplies....big thanks to you Helen 💐💐💐💐

I've almost finished Block 1 - all needle turn (although I did use some appliqué paper on the small pieces) 

We are using Japanese woven material which I'm finding does fray quite a bit so the idea is not to fiddle with it too much, easy said than done with needle turn!

The embroidery accentuates the features and finishes off each piece nicely.

This type of quilting is more rustic than normal but the finished quilt is quite stunning and all hand worked which is so relaxing.

We are all meeting up this Thursday to start the next block so I'd better finish my embroidery ready to go again.....I'll keep posting each block to show you the process.

FOXLEY VILLAGE progress report...

So far I'm on track with the Homespun BOM having just finished the April edition.

I'm waiting for my next bundle of fabric so I can begin the May edition now.  There's no rest for the wicked Haha

Here are the blocks completed since my last post......

Just love the fussy cut centerpiece on this block!!!

Here's the Schoolhouse and Sisters Choice Blocks.

Really enjoyed doing the embroidered trees each side, such a lot of satin stitching but I think I'm getting better :)

FOXLEY VILLAGE BOM

I needed another long term project to start on (as if the 10's of other projects weren't enough) and I liked the look of the latest BOM from Homespun magazine.

Entitled Foxley Village, it is made with Tilda fabrics, my very first experience with Tilda...yah, and combines hand-turn appliqué and piecing blocks

The blocks are much larger in real life than they look in the magazine, which is handy as my needle turn work is not really good yet.  

First block ticked off the finished list

  

Second block was a pieced block

Third block, getting harder...more appliqué 

This block Is almost 16" high and it's almost complete. Just need to finish the fox and hang out the Open sign.

I trying not to fall behind but I've got one block to catch up and my next two have just arrived....better get sewing

MARCH EMBROIDERY SAL

Been a bit slack with my blogging lately, too much talking and not enough sewing !!

I love to try new techniques, and when I was visiting the beautiful Mill Rose Cottage late last year, I picked up some  Sashiko embroidery panels.  The lines are pre-printed onto the panel and all you do is stitch using a running stitch.

  I used a Sashiko thread which is similar to a Perle Cotton, in a bright white colour to highlight the lovely pattern.  There are also special long needles that you should use but I found my embroidery needles did the trick.

You can see that I haven't embroidered all the outside crosses, as I am thinking of attaching a border and maybe even adding more panels for a table runner.

Now why not pop across to Martina at Sunshine Quilting and have a look at the other works of art that the lovely bloggers have done.  Always inspirational

Enjoy your day,
Dawn

FNwF - BABY GIRL

We are surrounded by babies at the moment....must be the season! 

I always like to do a baby quilt for my family and friends when they become parents or grandparents. I really wanted to try using minki fabric as the backing, but have been terribly afraid because of the stretch, but after reading up on how to sew it, I decided to give it a go.....

Using a pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew , I gathered my scraps of pink fabrics and teamed them with a plain Emma Louise white.

To add something different, I bordered the edges with grey dot material.

I was most afraid how to quilt the top with the minki.  Using my walking foot, I sewed straight crossed lines fairly wide to keep a nice soft feel.

I thought it was lovely and soft but then I washed it and wow it came up even  softer than before.  Now I think I will do all the babies quilts with the minki on the back.....so cuddly.

I think it turned out beautifully and it's off to its new owner next week. I'm sure she will love it!  

FBwF - Butterflies

What do you call lots of butterflies? .........a kaleidoscope (according to Google)

Well I'm surrounded by a kaleidoscope of butterflies this Friday night.  I spent my time drawing and cutting wings and bodies.

Still have a few more to cut out and then they will all come together into a baby quilt  for Harper. 

If you'd like to see what all the FNwF got up to, why not pop over here and visit everyone.

Happy stitching everyone :)

SAL 2016

Hooray .......joining the Sunshine Quilting Patchwork and Stitchery SAL 2016' has pushed me to finish a project that I had started in December.

Adding color to embroidery adds that extra zing to the finished project, and Jo from Gemelli Girls (check them out on Facebook) showed us how to combine coloring pencils and embroidery to achieve a beautiful result permanently!

First of all, we painted a small section of our printed embroidery pattern with a fabric medium

Then we colored that section in using Derwent Inktense pencils which actually have ink in the leads

Once the whole embroidery is colored and stitched, you iron the piece which sets the color permanently. You have the option to embroider first then color in or vice versa.

Add the border and hanging sleeve and it's ready to display

This ones ready for next Christmas and I'm thinking I might go over some of my old embroideries and color them too.