A little gift for friends

The little gift I am about to show you, is from earlier this year, when the lovely ladies from our little sewing group got together, up at the lovely tea rooms Harvey's Range. It must have been early July I think just before I started my course. We all got together knowing it was going to be a while before we would meet again, due to all our busy scheduled life's. We had a fantastic time sharing stories of achievements and adventures within each of our busy life's. I decided on the spur of the moment, a couple of days before we were meeting, to make them something just to say thank you for being their as my friend's, and supporting me while I was going through the transition, from being made redundant and starting a new career change.

I decided to make my version of Val Laird's beautiful placemats

I didn't do all the embroidery work, because I only had a couple of days to get them done. As it was I was up late getting them finished. But overall I don't think they turned out too bad, they were made with love for very special ladies. For which I am very thankful and glad to have them in my life.

First was deciding the materials, I was restricted to what I had in the cupboard. My friends will tell you, I don't know who designed what, I don't go for any particular persons material designs, I just go for material patterns that I like. And trying to put colours and patterns together is something I'm very much still learning.

 

All cut out and ready to sew,

 

 

I did the stitcheries first, but forgot to take a picture. I'm only new at this blogging thing, so remembering to take a picture at ever step, is a hit and miss I'm afraid. But hopefully I will get better. As you can see in the picture below I have done the stitching, added a lace frill, this was quicker than embroidering  the frill like Val's.

Next step was to add the pellon and prairie points, these I have not done before, so found it challenging but fun.  

 

 

 

 Overall I don't think they turned out too bad.

My wonderful Girl Friend's
Jenny, Wendy, Barbra, Heather

 

Fireman Sam Quilt finally finished

 

I know it as been awhile, if you are just checking out my blog for the first time, the start of this project was a few months ago. If you look back on my blog you will see the start of the creation of this project.

Laying out the piece's as I make them. No actual design I tend to make up the design as I go along. I know this is the incorrect way but I don't have a stash of material, so I tend to use what I have to get started then attempt to create a quilt. All the panels with pictures were coloured with pencils and sealed, them I stitched around edges in back stitch, which helped the pictures to stand out.

 

 

trying to add the large fireman Sam 

 

Here I'm adding the white boarders separating the panels 

 

This is the bottom row of panels finished and ready to have the white boarders attached

 

Dining table coming in very handy, trying to visualise the layout of the quilt.

 

 

White boarders added to panels. The worst thing about making up the design as I go, is trying to work out the exact measurements. But I can say it was fun in the making, especially when the quilt started to come together.

 

Here I have added the white boarders and attached the strips together

 

This is where I got stuck and had to sit and just look and try and add the large panel, making it look like it belonged.

 

As you can see I managed to add the large fireman Sam to the quilt top, along with side panels. Getting it centred and the side panels to fit was a feat, it took me ages to work out the measurements. But overall I was quite pleased with the outcome.

 

 

The next step was to add the boarders of red dot and black dot. I really think the quilt top came up a treat, even if I do say so my self.

 

 

You can see a blank square block on the first row, this I embroidered Lennon's name and date of birth. Sorry I forgot to take a photo.

 

Next I have the quilt on my sewing machine where I sewed around each block and fireman Sam.

 

 

Here I'm just showing the backing material I used. I love the dots, plus I thought it was a good piece of material where any mistakes would not stand out. Especially when I did the free motion quilting.

 

I thought I would show you the extended table top my lovely husband David made me.

 

As you can see, the table top interlocks with the sewing machines table top. Giving me a larger area where the quilt lies flat and easier to mauver along table. He varnished the top so the quilt slides easily.

 

This is my long arm my lovely husband made me. I am so spoilt, David is always trying to help me with making items to make my sewing easier.

 

 

I quilted all the white area and boarders. This made the coloured panels stand out.

 

Here I hope you can see a full view of the long arm, it can take a 3metre quilt.

 

Well I'm very sorry but I forgot to take a photo of the finished quilt. I was in a hurry and had to get it posted off to the UK and didn't realise I'd missed taking the photo. I can tell you I was very pleased with the outcome and Lennon was a very happy little boy, he loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been awhile but i'm back

It's been a while I know but I have been very busy trying to sort my life out. Being made redundant was not very nice and it has taken me a while to get myself back on track. I am now moving in the right direction, so hopefully I will be able to start adding new posts to my blog. Over the next couple of days I am hoping to bring my blog back up to date. I might have been absent from the blog, but I have been busy sewing. I am currently learning how to use my new lap top my husband kindly bought for me. I am hoping now that I have my own computer I should be able to go onto my blog more often, well here's hoping, has my closest friends will tell you, I'm not the best at doing things on the computer. I get too frustrated when the stupid thing won't do what I want (well  it's really me the operator who doesn't know how to do what I want on the stupid thing) but here's to learning. I have managed to down load some photo's from my camera onto the laptop so you never know I might be able to manage to up load some onto the blog later today, that's if I can remember how Jenny showed me, it's been a while since I last posted.

Like I said I might not have been blogging but I have been busy, I finished the fireman Sam quilt, I have made another quilt for my new granddaughter Zoey, made a small gift for my sewing buddies, birthday gifts, my lovely husband has made me some items for my sewing room. So I am looking forward to showing you once I have worked out how to post the pics, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.

Michelle

My sewing bag

I decided I needed a sewing bag for when I get together with the girls on our Monday sewing days. After looking through plenty of mag's & books I decided to do the one pictured below,"Sewing Notions Bag by Rhonda Thornley"  from Patchwork & Stitching magazine Vol 14 No 1. Well my version anyway. - This is a work in progress along with many other projects.

 

 

As you can see the pictures on the bag were created by an embroidering machine. I don't have one of those so I drew them free hand,

Once I had drawn them onto my material,(sorry no picture, I forgot to take one) I coloured then with Derwent pencils and sealed with Plaid textile medium

 

 

 These are now ready to be stitched.

I am going on holiday in the next couple of days for 4-5 weeks, so will have plenty of relax time to do stitching.(maybe)

 

 

I now have plenty of stitching to do, with these 3 pic's and 6 Fireman Sam pic's so I should keep out of mischief.  I will take lots of pictures of my adventures over the next 5 weeks & I will up date my blog as soon as I return home.

So Please keep looking in to see my progress on all my projects.

Happy stitching Ladies.