April 30, 2017

Roses are Blue

I'm always thrilled to be offered fabric to make my projects!!! Handmade magazine gave me some of the lovely Indigo Essence fabric range by RJR Fabric to design whatever I liked. I chose three of the fabrics - a blue tone-on-tone, a black background blue roses print and a khaki tone-on-tone.  I had in mind to make a bag and to use a set of handles that I had purchased on a whim and been waiting to use in just the right project.


I was very happy with the finished project and rather like the way the blue tone-on-tone fabric peeps out from the pleats. I used the khaki fabric for the lining.


There was plenty of fabric, so I made this pretty glasses case to match:


The project is in Handmade Vol 35 No 11 but unfortunately it wasn't printed correctly. The glasses case instructions were not included either, so the magazine has made the corrected pattern available on their website in their pattern library:   http://www.patchworkandcraft.com.au

Yesterday, hubby and I had a fun afternoon at an old-time movie matinee, complete with newsreels, cartoons, shorts and a classic Aussie film from the 1930's. We were even treated to an icecream during interval! It's a while since we laughed so loud and so long and it brought back lots of memories of childhood excursions to the cinema, watching comedies (in black and white of course!) Those excursions were very occasional so hold a special place in the memory and it was lovely to have them revived in such a delightful way.

My fruit quilt is steadily progressing:


The grapes were a bit fiddly but turned out OK:


Apples good enough to pick!:


Since this quilt is in the hand-stitching phase at the moment, and I like to do that in the evening, I have been thinking about a new project which will need machine work which I want to do in the daytime. There are a few designs running around in my head and I have started exploring them in my EQ7 software. It would be so much easier if my brain would just focus on one thing at a time!!!

Happy stitching!
Val

April 16, 2017

Free Block of the Month Wall Quilt - Block 4

Happy Easter!

In looking past the eggs and the bunny, I've found that the true meaning of Easter is an amazing reality that deals with our past failures, puts our present life into perspective, and gets our future sorted. What an amazing gift is the death and resurrection of Jesus!

Today I have block four for you in the free Block of the Month Wall Quilt

 

Block 4 features a scarf and it will make up very quickly, so it's a good opportunity to catch up if you're a bit behind!  You can find the pattern in my Craftsy Store here.

Last weekend we had the joy of having nine of our family with us - so special to be able to spend time with them. It was tinged with sadness because our daughter and her family were supposed to be with us too. They live at Airlie Beach which was where the huge Cyclone Debbie hit Australia just the week before and caused so much devastation. Thankfully our family were kept safe with only minor damage such as their fence smashed down, the clothes hoist dead and some damaged gutters from tree branches being flung around. Their cars in an open car port were amazingly protected from damage. They were without water for 2½ days and without any electricity for 9 days. We are so proud of how the family coped, kept smiling, helped others worse off, took a friend in as his unit was unliveable and shared lots of meals with neighbours who had no means of cooking. Of course they were unable to leave their home with all that happening, so we have had to resort to long Skype calls!



My Arbor Window quilt is coming along really well. I stitched all the blocks together then a week later, unpicked the lot!!! It just wasn't as good as I had hoped. After lots of thinking and a couple of mock-ups on scrap fabric, I decided to make the sashings wider. That has worked well and it only took me a couple of days to put it all together again. As I am using the QAYG method, my new dimensions mean that the walking foot fits more easily in the sashings when joining the rows which in turn makes it easier to obtain good neat results.


Now I'm on the fun part doing the appliques.


We're big fruit eaters in our house but the plan today is to indulge in a decadent dessert I made to help celebrate our 51st wedding anniversary! How blessed am I to have the love of my life with me for 51 years!

Val