More muddling around for the moment!!

I think I mentioned we have our local Guild Quilt Show coming up (this coming Saturday) and so there has been a lot of other necessities to get done.

One of the demos I am doing is quick quarter-square triangles in various colourways hence the necessity to put together some examples.

I have also been playing around with coloured paper and pasting up mockups of various traditional blocks where these could be used.


Our theme for the show is 'Go Green' which is really quite an ambiguous theme .... hence this little wall hanging which has a double use as I need an example of various applique techniques for something else later in the year.

I now need to get onto all the notices and tickets which will be required so there will not be much sewing for the moment.

Muddling around

I have had a lot of interruptions and deadlines which have meant that the sewing machine is collecting dust at the moment.  My fingers and hands have been busy though.  These are felt cut outs that are going to be packaged and sold at out local quilt show at the end of the month.  They can be used to embellish book covers (one of the workshops I am doing)/ shopping bags (I have shown a pic before) or used for whatever you would like.

Otherwise at night I have been playing around with some crochet.  Amongst the teapot cosy and mug warmer is a pom-pom  beanie, a bit of fun.

These patterns are courtesy of the Simply Crochet Magazine, Issue Eleven which I purchased over the weekend. 

I also came across this pattern called the 'Catherine wheel stitch' which I fell in love with. The only 'wool' I had was some tapestry wool from somewhere so I have played around with it and hopefully it will end up long enough to turn into a cowl.  I love the effect and would like to do a blanket once I have finished the one I am working on at the moment. 

My piece comes home!

After travelling almost all over the world my piece that I did for the three country challenge (Japan/France/South Africa) has finally come home. There were 30 participants in each country and one from each country was given the same Movie Director to draw inspiration from and to create a piece.  My Movie Director was Alain Resnais who I knew absolutely nothing about.

I chose the movie Hiroshima - mon  amour as It was the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, movie made by a French Director and the piece made by a South African ,,,,, all the dots connected the three countries.  This challenge took place in 2010..

I have finally finished my Japanese Anemone piece.

I chose the spotty binding as I thought it softened the 'white' of the flowers, however, it 'dances' on the edge of the piece and is quite distracting.  I think a more regular pattern would have been better.  I may revisit this one.

An unexpected break !!

I have managed to get to the sewing machine and finally have been putting the 'Japanese Anenome' piece together which I started a while ago.

The background flower is drawn on as well as the buds with fabric oil pastels. At this point I have also just fused the stems and leaves in place. The stitched flowers are just placed.  How to quilt the background?

After stitching the leaves, buds and stems I used a mix of stippling around the leaves and then I changed to the very open pansy design around the rest of the piece. I now need to stitch in place the flowers and finish them off with hand stitches and beads. Sort of happy - I think this is one that will grow on me once finished.

I was given some young sprouting bulbs by a friend a while ago and they have been doing well. Look what I discovered a couple of days ago ........ one is about to flower, well, actually to my delight I have discovered a few more popping up in the other pot.  I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the plant!

Visitor to the garden

Apologies as he would not stop pecking away at the noo-noos on this dried up piece of palm casing, but what a special treat to see this golden tailed woodpecker foraging amongst  the trees at home yesterday.

Glorious bloom and night time activity

I just have to share the current protea bloom on my young plant.  Although not one of the prettiest varieties I still love it.

While relaxing and enjoying the now cooler evenings (they are quite magnificent) I like to keep my fingers busy.  This is what I am working on at the moment.  A very quick and easy crochet daisy pattern which is joined together when the outer pale olive green surround is done.

I still need to finish off the threads at the back and am a long way off from finishing as I am not sure the size I want it.  

Easter surprise

We had a lovely surprise when my youngest and daughter-in-law decided at the last minute to visit us for this past Easter weekend and instead of hunting for Easter eggs ( really - actually no !) we had live 'bunnies' running around the garden.

Our neighbour across the road has two - this white one and a black.  I think as with most pet rabbits unless you have them in a concreted bottom enclosure they will escape.  They do also have two small dogs so I think they run the gauntlet and come to visit for some peace and quiet.

The final of the three challenges is now finished ..........

....... and I handed in the three yesterday.