Christmas Crackers

How lucky am I here are some photos of the 2 beautiful Christmas Crackers I received in the swap. Velvets, satins, lace, beads and beautiful threads

Thank you so much Juli I just love it all and plan to do something very special for my bedroom with all the gorgeous bits and pieces.

 More of the beautiful pieces from Juli. There is a tiny little bee in the zip bag I am going to make sure she does not fly away.

Beads, threads and buttons and the prettiest little fairy silky this is just wonderful.

Here is the cracker from Suzie. So many things to play with I think I can see mermaids and fishes and all sorts of sea things trying to get out here.

 I can just see the seaweed and shells, sand and fishes and there are definitely mermaids.

There is even some foam of the surf. I am going to have a great time trying to encourage all these special things to come out and play with me.

Thank you so much to both my special swap friends. I hope the ladies I sent crackers to enjoyed theirs as much as I am enjoying mine.

Hi all
It's been a while since I wrote here. I have been busy with Christmas and all. One of the things I have made is a lap quilt for my MIL. The wonderful bicycle designs came from Juli at http://www.sewweird.com/. I have also been getting my Weekly Joe swaps and Birthday Swaps ready for next year. This is the year I am going to try and organize myself instead of lurching from one disaster to another.
I am setting myself 3 projects. I get bored with only one thing on the go,.
The first one for home only not sure what that will be yet probably a crazy quilt with all the stitches I have colleted from the Build a Seam Challange on http://kerrykatiecakes2.blogspot.com. This will require some disipline on my part as I tend to go off on tangents at the drop of a hat.
The second project will be a quilt for my thursday night quilt group and I want this to be an Origami quilt using the books of Kumiko Sudo for inspiration. This will be quite a challange I think.
And the third will be whatever the U3A can think up.
Here is a photo of the bicycle quilt.

In the next day or so I will post som photos of the cupcakes and some of the coffe mugs for the Fat Cats swaps

Christmas Crackers are on theri way

The Christmas crackers are on their way to their new homes. I hope their new owners enjoy them as much as I did making them.

They are stuffed full of goodies and I hope they are not too badly crushed by Christmas. I have not photographed the goodies as they are a suprise for my partners. Thank you all for a great fun time.

Now to do some catch up sewing.

Christmas Crackers Finished

At last I have finished the embroidery on my Christmas cracker swap blocks. I have continued to pratice new stitches as well as this time I did a vine for the Crazy Quilting International vine challange.

The base is feather stitch with ribbon leaves, flowers (rosebuds?) and colonial knot spots. In the background you can see some of  my pratice stitches. Here are some more closeups of the embroidery on this block.

Water Bottle

I did this water bottle carries at a U3A class. The bag is linen lined with some antique cotton fabric I have and the embroidery is fine wool.

Some if the wool is hand spun and dyed I purchased in Yass New South Wales years ago. For those who do not know Yass is in western highlands of New South Wales about 3 hours drive from Sydney and 40 minutes drive from Canberra our capital city. It is the wool raising center of Australia.

The gumnuts I used as beads on the ties I collected in Tasmania. They are from the Blue Gum the floral emblem of Tasmania. And of course I had to use Dorset buttons my new obsession.

Here is a closeup of the stitching.

The Dorset button holds the little outside pocket for odds and ends, like money and ID, closed. I plan to use this when I go walking.

First Christmas Swap Block Finished

Here is the first of my Christmas Swap Blocks. By using the BAS stitches I was not so lost with what to do next. I had great fun creating this block but felt a little restrained because I decided not to use any beads or charms because the block looked to me as if it could be used as part of the Christmas table setting in future and the beads and other embellishments would not suit the future use. Any how here is the first block with some closeups of the individual stitches.

This is the woven cross stitch, detached chain, pistil stitch, backstitch and reverse buttonhole

Another spider and web I love doing these.

A little try at ribbon embroidery it was supposed to be a white poinsettia but looks to me more like a Christmas rose. The leaves are closed cretan stitch and the little dots are colonial knots in gold thread.

The little apricot stitches are picot buttonhole a really pretty stitch and very easy.

And last but not least is the scalloped chain but I over sewed it with the loop stitch that is used in Peking stitch. The flowers in the center are buttonhole eyelet flowers.

I will get started on the next block now although I could keep on playing with this one because there are still some blank spaces.



BAS Challange and Cracker Swap

I wanted to do the BAS challange but had little time to indulge myself; then I thought wait a minute you have signed up for the Christmas Cracker Swap with the Crazy Quilting International Group so why not use these blocks to do the challange stitches on. I started on week 60 - naturally I have always been a little backward and here is the result.
I forgot to take a photo of both the naked blocks but here is one naked and one started. I just love the Woven Cross Stitch which is the challange stitch and the herringbone and detached chain that were one of the challanges but I cant remember the number.
I hope my partners will like what I am doing.

Crazy Quilt Block Bits

As you have probably guessed I am very new at this crazy Quilt thing but I just love seeing every ones' work at Crazy Quilting International Group. I thought I would show some of the things I have been working on. This was for the University of the Third Age and though I enjoyed doing the sewing not many of my fellow students though much of the concept so I am afraid I got a bit lost but these blocks will be a WIP to pratice ideas and stitches on.
I hope you enjoy and please feel free to give me advice on where I should go next.

At last I am able to upload the images from Meaghean's Graduation yesterday.

Here she is with Jim they both look pretty smug.

And here she is with me I am very proud of what she has achieved so far and know she will continue on her studious way until she has achieved her goal of a PhD.

Thank you and other important things...

I'm not very good at this Blogging thing yet and don't know how to thank you individually for your kind comments about my Blog , so please take this as a thank you ;-). I really appreciate your feed back but please don't be afraid of constructive criticism. I am learning like all of us and praise while good for the ego is not all that good for the soul.

I have not been working on anything for the last couple of days as we have been preparing for our daughter's graduation as a Master of Special Education. I am so proud of her work and dedication congratulations Meaghean on a job well done!!!

I don't know what is happening here I can't insert a photo so I will upload one as soon as my computer will co-operate.

Buttons, Buttons, Buttons

I love them!!! I read about Dorset Buttons and had to have a go so here are my first try at these gorgeous buttons. The two plain pink ones are a bit rough. They are my very first attempt but I think the two multi colouted ones are a bit better. To find more information about these and other embroidered buttons. http://www.britishbuttonsociety.org/20070401DorsetButtons.htm

These next ones are made with Colonial Knots embroidered over the woven framework I think they are rather pretty and look like little bouquets.

These last three are my daughter's favourite. The center weave is done with the same varigated thread I used for the Colonial Knot on the previous buttons.

The next lot I have to try are Singletons.

Button Challange

My Crazy Quilting Group is having a button challange so here are my contributions. These buttons were made a couple of years ago to go on some cushion covers that have since gone to the duster bag.
I could not throw away the buttons because I thought they were cute I hope you do also

Crazy Quilt Tin Swap

It has been so long since I posted on my blog as I never seem to have much to say but here goes. I have become addicted to Crazy Quilting and have just finished and mailed my first swap item. This is a decorated tin I hope my swap partner enjoys as much as I enjoyed makin it. The photo on the side is tje top of the tin and the two following photos are the side view and inside. One of the criteria was the tin had to be decorated in and out.

Happy New Year

It has been al long time since I said hello to every one and I have forgotten how to do most things. It must be the Old Timers or otherwise I have C.R.A.F.T disease (Cant Remember A Flaming Thing) LOL ;-}.
 Last year had its' ups and downs and no doubt this one will also but we are surviving and this is the main thing.
I am trying to work out how to load a tutorial I wrote on how to Quilt As You Go when I work it out I will write again with hopefully a PDF download for you.
Cheers and Happy New Year
Merle