RR #14

At last the time has come around to start my very first Round Robin. This is so exciting I just hope everyone likes the naked block I have made. The fabrics come from some linen shirts I was given as well as a linen coat that is too big for me. 
This RR also made me look for a desktop publishing program that was free so I could make the little booklet. I found this one called Page Plus at http://www.serif.com/desktop-publishing-software/. It works very well and is free although there is a pay for upgrade.
I am so looking forward to getting Janet's block to work on and just hope my work will be acceptable. I know anything I recieve will be treasured for a very long time .

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.