Tuesday 23 February 2010

Meet Lucie the Goosie and Harriet the Hare...

Two new members of the family have moved in with us. I'm pleased to introduce Lucie the Goosie and Harriet the hare.


Apart from Christmas I don't usually decorate according to the seasons, but this year I decided I would like an easter/springtime display. I found a beautiful book called Crafting Springtime Gifts by Tonne Finnanger and couldn't resist the cute bunnies, hares, geese and chickens inside.



Harriet and Lucie weren't very happy about sharing the limelight so here they are on their own.





The book shows a flock of geese stuck all together in a basket so I think I'll make some friends for Lucie and do the same. There are also some other beautiful ideas in the book which I'm planning to make for an easter display.

Now an apology. Before Christmas I was lucky to win one of the prizes in a give-away by the very generous Simone and it's taken me until now to thank her for it on my blog. I did thank her personally though.
I won this pattern for a beautiful Melly and Me bag and some fabric. One I've finished a couple of works in progress and get going with the bag.



Many thanks Simone.
Bye for now, Maria.


Thursday 11 February 2010

Twirly wirly quilting.

Hi. Today I thought I'd show what I've been working on over the last few days.
Firstly I've been going round and round with what I call twirly quilting on my wonky log cabin quilt. If you look closely you may spot some little flowers too. I'm desperate to finish it and it seems to be going on forever but I'm over half way there now.







I received the book Material Obsession for christmas and loved a really cute quilt in it which has appliqued birds, leaves and flowers. I didn't think I could face all the applique required to do the whole quilt so decided to do a smaller version just using one section of it. I'm now hand quilting it which I'm enjoying. I'm thinking of mounting it on a board rather than binding it for a change.



I would normally have rejected this picture due to the lighting but I rather like it. I think the birdies would rather like the sunshine and shade.
Must dash, I'm off to a body combat class at the gym!!
Bye for now, Maria.





Saturday 6 February 2010

Pebbles.

Hi. I've been doing bits and pieces of various projects lately and have only managed to finish one item so far this year. I really want to finish my wonky log cabin quilt which I'm in the process of quilting but it seems to be taking ages. I've decided to try and do at least an hour a day until it's done (starting from tomorrow).

The piece of work that I finished is part of a project which my sewing group have started. There are 7 of us, we have chosen 7 colours, we have each dyed 7 pieces of cotton which are all 7" square, we will then all produce a piece of work using the same technique and subject. They will then all be displayed together as one piece of work. Not sure if that is clear but it should all make sense eventually.
I dyed my fabric purple and started with this colour first. The first subject we chose were pebbles and the technique was machine embroidery. This is what I came up with.



It was very interesting to see what different interpretations we came up with.
We have now swapped colours and the next subject is water using sheers and metallics. My colour is yellow.
That should be fun!
Bye for now, Maria