A few stitches for Friday Night With Friends

I enjoyed doing a bit of stitching last night while my cake baked. I have been slowly appliqueing owls onto what will eventually be a cushion for my niece. Last night I managed to finish off the middle sized owl and start the outside edge of the large owl.

Medium sized owl - Outside edge completed

Detail of blanket stitching 

Large owl - Outside edge started

I love the bright fabrics for the owls which came with this kit. I'm think they may be Amy Butler fabrics.

And the cake went down well with my visitors this morning too. So all in all, a good night's work. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did.

Enjoy your weekend,
Tracy

Sleep or Stitch? Hmmm...

I am soooo tired (little Miss M has a tummy ache and is teething) but really want to do some stitching. Luckily I have a cake in the oven so I've decided to join in with Cheryl and friends for Friday Night With Friends, even if only for a short while. :)

Happy stitching,
Tracy

A Crafty Weekend

How does that old saying go?...While the cat's away the mice will play. Well, dear hubby and son have been off hiking so I have been able to leave my craft stuff all over the house and have a wonderfully creative weekend. Hooray!

Before I tell you all about it though, at quilting on Wed night my wonderful friend Tracee from Quilt Kitty Loves Life gave Miss M a beautiful, handmade gift. She made her a lovely stuffy doll which Miss M loves. Not only is it soft and good to chew on, it sounds great because it has bells inside it!

The stuffy (no name yet but it reminds me of Miffy)

Big hugs from Miss M

So, back to my weekend... after dropping the boys off at the start of their hiking trail I came home and managed to get Miss M off to sleep. A couple of weeks ago I did a workshop, Free Wheeling Around the Curves with Jan Rowe, and I have been hanging out to get back to sewing my curved pieces together. Yesterday arvo/evening I got my chance. This is what I ended up with...

Then, this morning, Miss M and I went quilting with the WA Quilters' Association (WAQA) for their Community Quilts program. There were a lot of jobs to be done to get things ready for the Quiltwest show. Miss M and I chose to do some ironing. I did most of it while she slept :-)

It's so tiring being the centre of attention all the time!

After returning home and getting Miss M off to sleep for her afternoon nap, I got back into my Free Wheeling project. The next stage was laying it all out in a pleasing design. I'm basing my design on a photo I took at Ayer's Rock several years ago. So, this is where my project is currently at...

Design - Early stages

It's interesting looking at it in photographic form. It gives you a different perspective. I may move things around a little if I get a chance tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath though as the boys return tomorrow and everything will have to be packed away again.

It's early stages yet. I still have trimming of the blocks, sewing it together and some applique to do but I'm really happy to have had a chance to get this far. Can't wait to see if the end result looks much like my photo.

Hope you all had a creative weekend as well. Happy stitching. 

Cheers, Tracy.

Good for the Soul

Last night I finally had the time and energy to sit down and do a little hand stitching. Talk about good for the soul! I love little Miss M but you do forget just how much time babies take up (especially when it's been 16 years since you had your last one) and how worn out you are at the end of the day. Anyway, she had a really good sleeping day yesterday which gave me plenty of time to do the other things I needed to do, meaning I was able to do an hour's stitching last night. Doesn't seem like much but it was just enough to finish off 2 small projects.

First, my 'Snowmen Melt Your Heart' stitchery. I started this project when I was a member of the Joondalup Embroidery Group back in 2002. We used to take turns at picking a project to share with, and mentor if able, the rest of the group. I picked this one as I love Christmas. Unfortunately I can't remember where I found the pattern but I think it was an issue of Handmade. I finished 80% of it back then before I started another project and it went into the UFO box.

Last year I organised my UFO box and scattered UFO projects and came across the stitchery again. I was determined to finish it asap and I did manage to get the stitching finished fairly quickly. Then I hit a hurdle...I didn't have a carrot button for the nose. I really wanted to finish the stitchery before Christmas so I hunted around at the May Craft Fair and found one but it was waaaay too big. I tried several online stores but only found 1 more - turned out it was too big as well.

Last week I had another go at Googling 'carrot buttons'. I found a wonderful store, Sewing Box, which had a 'Build a Snowman Kit' that included a variety of buttons to create a snowman. It had not one but two carrot buttons in it so I bought it straight away. It arrived a couple of days ago and last night I was able to use the small carrot button to sew on my Snowman's nose. I'm so very, very happy to have it finished after 12 1/2 years! This is what it looks like....

Now I just have to find the perfect frame for it. Who knows how long that will take!!! I'll share another pic at the end of the journey.

Second, my 'Ta Da' block (better known as a 'Diagonal Square Quilt' block) for the WAQA Community Quilts program. All this required was closing the hole I used for turning it right sides out.

This amazing little block is double sided and looks exactly the same on both sides! It is really easy to make.

This is the 3rd type of block I have made for Community Quilts. In a future post I will share more info on the program and pics of the other blocks with you.

Until next time, happy stitching!

The Christmas Spirit

I have not had much time since M was born mid-December to do any stitching or quilting. However I did work madly before she was born to try and finish at least 1 project on my to-do-list...specifically a Christmas project.

I love Christmas. It's my favourite time of year. Last year I was determined to have at least 1 handmade Christmas item on display which I had created myself. The Stars and Swirls table runner fit the bill nicely and, as an added bonus, was the 2nd quilting item I have completed since starting quilting!

Here it is in all it's glory, nicely set off by some new Christmas decorations.

Here's a close-up with some of the detail. The stars were hand appliqued with blanket stitch. The swirls were hand embroidered with stem stitch in metallic gold thread.

I now have a couple of other Christmas projects I want to complete but at the rate I am currently going I don't think they will get done in time for this Christmas!

Happy stitching everyone.

Cheers,
Tracy

Getting Back On Track

It seems like forever since I last had time to post on my blog! So much has happened since October last year that it's going to take a few posts to bring you up to date.

The biggest news first...we welcomed our beautiful little girl, Miss M, into the world in mid-December. She is absolutely gorgeous (even if I do say so myself :)) and is settling in well at home. However, as you can imagine I find it pretty difficult to get time on the computer at the moment.

When I do get time, I tend to be doing things for the WA Quilters Association (WAQA). In September last year I took on the role of Workshop Convenor for them. In the lead-up to Miss M's birth and during the minimal spare time I have had since then I have been organising the schedule of workshops for 2013. This has included creating flyers, registration forms and promotional material, organising tutor contracts and taking registrations. While it has kept me very busy I am really enjoying it and we have some great workshops lined up. You can check them out on the WAQA website here.

We had our first workshop this Sunday just gone. It was a joint workshop between myself and the Community Quilts team called Scrap Magic Workshop for Community Quilts. We had a great turnout and learnt some wonderful techniques for turning scraps into simple, but very effective, blocks. There were enough blocks created to make at least 1 full quilt top for Community Quilts which will be donated to a deserving organisation at some point in the near future. Here are a couple of photos...

The Littlest Quilter - Miss M enjoyed the goings on

Some of the gorgeous blocks created

Well, Miss M is calling so I must be off. Hopefully I will be able to get back into regular posting now.

Happy stitching, Tracy.

Softie Cutie

Last week I completed my latest softie, Lamkins, designed by Pauline from Funky Friends Factory. I wanted something soft and cute for my cousin for her 18th birthday present & this pattern was just the ticket.

My version of Lamkins

I'm really happy with the way she turned out but boy, did I have some tough moments with her. Thanks to my pregnancy brain I kept sewing pieces in the wrong spot! ... and it took me quite a while to get my head around how to attach the ears. Eventually I worked it out though.

This is the first time I've made a softie with polar fleece and I really like how soft and cuddly she is. I definitely think I'll use this type of fabric again.

Happy stitching everyone.

Tracy