Busy Time

What a busy time it is in the run up to Christmas, presents to buy and wrap, cards to write and post, food to plan etc etc,  how do we find time to finish sewing the items planned as presents.

Just managed to finish this little trio that I've made for my friend for Christmas who I am seeing tomorrow.

Its from a pattern purchased from Daisy Chain Designs www.daisychaindesigns.co.uk  Its a little draw string basket with needle case and pin cushion (I've done my own version of the pin cushion as I ran out of time).

I used fabric from the Downton Abbey range - The Dowager Collection.

The Hexagons were done in the traditional English patchwork tradition over papers then appliqued onto the main fabric.

 

3D Christmas Tree

No posts for ages then two in one day !

Last night I went to a workshop at BarjanB Crafts in Newbold Verdon   www.barjanbcrafts.co.uk/

It was to create a canvas, it is the first time I have done one of these and I really enjoyed getting messy

We ripped up pieces of paper and using mod podge attached them to the canvas adding a layer of mod podge on the top, once the glue was dry we  added some colour with acrylic paint in red and green and using bubble wrap and white paint gave it a bit of texture.  We then added some red and green metallic paint to the edges. 

Next step was to add a little text using rubber stamps and black ink.  The tree was done using pages from an old dictionary torn in to small strips and then screwed into small pieces attaching them to the canvas with mod podge glue.

The trunk or pot was added with but using a scrap of patterned paper.  Once the glue was dry we painted the tree with twinkling H20's and added stickles and glitter finishing off with some bling to look like baubles.

The pictures around the edge were stamped onto tissue paper torn around and then attached to the canvas again with the mod podge glue.

I think its turned out really well.  Thanks to Maggie & Barry for a lovely evening

 

Christmas Cushion Competition

The competition this year at Quorn Country Crafts in Loughborough www.quorncountrycrafts.com  is to make a cushion.
 
We had to buy a pack from the shop which contained a picture square of fabric and two small strips of coordinating fabric.
 
The rules were 

• The cushion can be any shape or size up to a maximum of 14" square
• The cushion front must include the picture square and some of the other two fabrics
• You can add any other fabrics and / or embellishments of your own choice
• You can use any technique ie patchwork, quilting, knitting, embroidery etc

 
and this is my finished piece :-

The two fabrics supplied are the green holly patterned and the mid green / gold mixture, I added dark green strip and red/gold pattern

Wording was done by hand using back stitch with thick black cotton, scroll is calico tied with red ribbon and I have written on it :-
"Dear Santa, I have been very good this year, please could I have .......................
I put a loop on it so it can be hung on the fireplace, chimney breast ready for Santa coming !

Judging takes place today 30.11.13 and the winner wins £50 worth of fabric.

Quilting Holiday Update part 2

Following. On from my previous post, we are still having a wonderful time here in Canada the weather has been wonderful with temperatures into mid twenties each day.
Wednesday saw us moving onto Quebec city where we had lunch in the panoramic rotating restaurant l'astral followed by a guided tour of the city
Thursday we had a tour around the isle of Orleans home to the firsts settlers before stopping at Montmorency Falls.
We had a talk by Quilters Guild Les Courtepointieres Appliquees about their yearly textile challenge and saw a display of their work
Today saw us return to Montreal we had lunch with members of Coortepointieres Quebec Quilts and a talk and display on freemotion quilting by Ms Pierra Vernex before a little retail therapy at Stylists & Complice a lovely quilt shop with a wide range of fabric and accessories.
Tomorrow we have a meeting with Montreal Modern Quilt Guild and a last look around Montreal to finish what has been the most wonderful week

Quilting Holiday Update

Having a lovely time here in Canada, the scenery and colours are fabulous it's hard to describe.  We have been to some lovely places so far Montreal city, with visit to the Notre dame Basillica.
A little village called Hudson where we met with a lovely group called the Hudson village quilters who showed us some of their work and gave us a demonstration on needlepoint applique and Hawaiian quilting.
We have visited a quilting shop on the mohawk reservation and met with the owner who showed us some of her work and explained about their culture.

We then moved on to the eastern township's and yesterday met with the lennoxville quilters who were very hospitable. We had  a demonstration on the stack n whack tecnique.
We've also visited the abbey of st Benedict and a vineyard for wine tasting.

You can see some pictures over on quilters haven blog

http://quilters-haven.co.uk/blog/2013/10/trees-and-lakes/

I'm sew excited................

Tomorrow I am going on the Colours of the Fall Quilting holiday with Arena Travel  http://www.arenatravel.com/holidays/quilting-holidays/quilting-and-the-colours-of-the-fall-in-eastern-canada/


and Karin Hellaby of Quilters Haven http://www.quilters-haven.co.uk/

Canada is a place that I have always want to go to and so being as it was my big birthday in May and with everything I've gone through this year with my illness I decided to treat myself.

I'm excited and really looking forward to it although must admit I am a bit apprehensive as I have never travelled so far and not done anything like this on my own before, I'm sure that once I get to Heathrow and meet up with Karin and the rest of the group I will have a fab time.

I'll update my blog when I get back with lots of pictures





 

Machine Embroidery Workshop

I attended a machine embroidery workshop this week at Quorn Country Crafts and as well as learning and playing with different settings on my machine we did a little Christmas wall hanging

 

The picture was embroidered onto fabric, then ironed onto a piece of Decoville (from Vilene), backing added with bondaweb then satin stitched all around, ribbon and buttons added at the end.

 

    

Patchwork Day

Today I've been to a QCC sewing all day at Old Woodhouse, its been lovely spending the day with like minded people and I've managed to finish a couple of projects

A couple of weeks ago I posted a piece about the Angel in the Garden tote bag that I had been working on for quite a while.............
Well here's the finished project and I must say I think its fab

The second project is a humbug bag that I started at an embroidery workshop at Quorn Country Crafts www.quorncountrycrafts.co.uk on Wednesday, the crocheted daisy's were done on my embroidery machine and then stitched onto the main bag
The bag shows some of the different stitches that the machines can do
Its just big enough to throw my sewing equipment in when going to classes.

 

Our Church Scrapbook Crop - September

Its that time again our Church Scrapbook Crop next Saturday, the kit this time is made up using Kaisercraft Miss Empire Collection, matching bazzill cardstock, ric rac, bakers twine and buttons

I've done 3 sample layouts from the kit

 

Kaisercraft Photo Storage Box

Back in June it was the Merly Impressions http://www.blogger.com Scrapbook weekend retreat which I was booked to go on, unfortunately I was in hospital with various complications following my Chemotherapy so was unable to attend, of course I was absolutely gutted. 

 

Chrissy very kindly sent me all the kits that they had compiled for the weekend.

 

Yesterday and today I have been working on one of the kits which is one of Kaisercrafts off the page products - the photo storage box together with papers from and the 75 Cents & Up Up & Away paper collections.

 

I must admit I'm very pleased with it.

 

Angel In The Garden Tote Bag

For a while now I have been in the process of making the Angel in the Garden large tote bag by Button Angel

All the applique is done by hand using bond a web then hand button hole stitch.
I have had all the little panels finished for quite some time but due to illness had not having felt like sitting at sewing machine and putting it together.  Now that I am back up and running and in the with lots of enthusiasm for finishing things I have got the four big blocks together.

Just need to quilt and put the whole thing together now

Pictures of finished bag to follow later

 

Charity Quilt

The patchwork group that I go to QCC Quilters are hoping to make a lot of quilts for Project Linus, one evening was spent sorting fabrics into groups and then cutting into squares of either 10" or 5" depending on the pattern being used, another evening was spent sewing the squares into quilt tops, all to be finished by different members of the group.

Unfortunately as I was in hospital for both of those evenings I thought I would have a go at home, it is a pattern that I've not done before and I must admit I really enjoyed it and would certainly do another one.

I love the bright colours and the co-ordinating fleece used on the back.

 

Patchwork & Quilting Update

I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham yesterday, fabulous day lots of inspiration from the beautiful quilts on display and lots of shopping for new patchwork & quilting goodies.

Tomorrow sees the start of this years week long Patchwork Summer School run by a lovely lady called Sheila.  It is held from Sunday to Friday 9am till 9pm so lots of sewing and chatting with like minded people.

I  have this week finished the items that I started at last years Summer School which I'm really pleased with :-

This was called Tower Block Windows, the effect of the small strips looking like the windows in a tower block
Instead of doing a large quilt like Sheila had I made 4 blocks and made them into two cushions

 

This was a triangle puzzle, which took some working out of how it went together, from the length I have made a bag which is big enough to take my 18" x 24" cutting board and rulers to class / group

This was a scrappy strippy quilt, its a good way of using up all those accumulated scraps of different fabrics. I made two long strips and with borders added has made a lovely bed runner.

and finally a small shoulder bag, this was done by sewing strips together and then twisting the strips to show both the top and underneath fabrics.

 

Back to Scrapping

Can't believe I've not posted anything since May, unfortunately I spent the majority of June in hospital with various complications following my 4th dose of Chemotherapy.  However I feel so much better now and have even started back to work part time.  Crafting juices have been flowing and have done the following layouts :-

 

These were started at Our Little Scrapbook group crop on 06.07.13 and completed at home

The papers are from the Memories Collection by Teresa Collins and I used sketches from Page Maps www.pagemaps.com for all three layouts

These were done at the Merly Impressions crop held at Renhold Village Hall on 20.07.13

Papers are from the Kaisercraft Enchanted Garden Collection and layouts were designed by Chrissy Tingley of Merly Impressions www.merlyimpressions.co.uk