Embroidered Quilt Gift

I am one lucky girl!

At my birthday gathering back in Feb. my dear friends had planned a surprise and presented me with this wonderful embroidered wall hanging.  It blows me away to think that they think that much of me to make me something so very special.

Close up of the blocks.  The work in them is exquisite and I love how the ladies have included some bright colours to make the whole thing ‘pop’.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

My friend, Joan, also gave me this fabulous hand knitted face cloth and sweet smelling soap.  It was tied together with some of her lovely cotton lace.  xxx Thanks Joan.

Marleen gave me this colourful, handy pot holder which has been put straight to use.  She made it using some type of lined paper, and all she had to do was sew on the lines.  She said it was easy - I might have to commission her to do some for me to give as gifts!!  Hugs to Marleen.

The months are flying by and now it is officially Autumn, although you wouldn’t know it by the heat waves and tropical storms we have been getting.

Looking forward to Easter – one of my favourite times of year here in Toowoomba.

Until next time – happy quilting and crafting – Dianne.

TAST Embroidery 2013 & More Dyeing Fun

 

There has been some frantic stitching going on here at Eat Play Quilt.  Christmas is looming fast, and, of course, the ‘last minute girl’ has just realised this.  There is always good intentions in the New Year to be more organized but, alas, it is just the make up of the girl.  There is a lot of Secret Santa stuff, so I cannot show at the moment.

As the stitches come on to Pintangle each week I have been trying to keep abreast of my TAST i.e. (Take a Stitch Tuesday).  You can check it out HERE.

Here is the latest sample I have finished:

The little coloured ones are Raised Cup and the pink one underneath is Turkman Stitch.

I enjoyed doing the Turkman stitch very much.

Week 68 – 75

top to bottom:

Slipped Detached Chain

Buttonholed Double Chain St.

Crested Chain

Bullion Buttonhole

Wrapped Coral

Portuguese Stem Stitch

Zig Zag Chain St.

Woven Zig Zag Chain

Week 63-67

Top to Bottom:

Scroll Stitch

Top Knotted Buttonhole

Buttonhole Bar

Coral Stitch

Fancy Hem Stitch

 

Week 76 – 81

Vandyke Stitch

Woven Cross Stitch

Cloud Filling

Chained Cross Stitch

Raised Chain V1 ( L )    Raised Chain V2 ( R )

I have really enjoyed doing these samples but I will definitely have to refer back to the instructions to repeat them.  So many interesting ways to use needle and thread!!!

My friend, Joan, has just returned from a marvellous holiday around England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts of Europe.  Lucky duck!  She brought me back these goodies.  The little reindeer decoration is wooden and carved by hand in Austria.  Thank you Joan.

Shirley has been a bad  good  influence on me and I can’t go past a second hand bookshop anymore without checking out their old embroidery books.

I was lucky to pick this wonderful book up from Lifeline for just $4.  The book says it is about colour, but most of the illustrations are in black and white.  There is quite a bit on colour theory at the back of the book which is very informative.  There are also many design possibilities for creative embroidery.

 

There has been some more attempts at botanical dyeing.

Firstly I tried some bark.

“mmm What’s for dinner dear?” 

The fabric came out a beautiful deep rich caramel colour.  (no photo yet – too boring)

Next, I decided to try the bouganvillea flowers as they are so rich and steeped in colour at the moment. Here are pictures of the plants.

Lilian & I plucked the blossoms ready for the boil up

This is the fabric soaking in the pink bouganvillea juice.  It looked very promising – smelt disgusting.

Alas, the bouganvillea experiment needs more work.  Must get some mordant of some description.  Anyone got any ideas??

The fabrics from both the orange and pink bouganvillea came out pretty, but very insipid (no photo – boring again).

I will keep trying.

Until next time……………………..

Visits–Quilts 1700–1945, 80th Birthday & My Sewing Room

It has been a busy couple of weeks.

While I was in Brisbane on 5 Sept I went along to the Qld Art Gallery and saw the fantastic exhibition of historical Quilts from the Victoria & Albert Museum.  As I walked around the quilts and articles I wondered at the workmanship and attention to detail the makers managed to achieve in challenging times. It was one of the best displays I have ever seen at our wonderful art gallery.
If you would like to view some of the amazing quilts go to the QAGA site HERE and click on the videos to watch them.  Some of the stories behind the quilts are inspirational.

(View across the river to the City)
Last Sunday we drove to “Serenity” for a friend’s 80th birthday.  Serenity is what they call the property and it is easy to see why.  Surrounded by rolling green hills and friendly wallabies it is indeed peaceful.

Here is the birthday boy with his giant pavlova birthday cake.  He got an OBE presented to him which hangs around his neck.  No, not an Order of the British Empire – an Over Bloody Eighty award. 

Yesterday I visited the sewing room for a clean out of the project boxes. In my present decluttering state of mind, I decided ‘enough is enough’.  Some of the unfinished (and not even started) items went to either the op shop box, the trash, our local community quilting group or repurposed.  It was quite liberating!! 
Project Box 2 no longer exists!!  Hooray! They have been amalgamated into one. Of course, I would be lying if I said these were the only unfinished items in the sewing room.  There are some lurking in other places

In 2009 some friends and I went to ‘Stitchers Day Out’ at Highfields and I completed this little stitchery which I re-discovered in my clean out.  So I was momentarily distracted from my decluttering duties and went ahead and made the book cover for which it was intended.
The stitchery is an Ella & Skysie design and I coloured it with prismacolour pencils.

Book Cover outer                                                Book Cover Lining.
The fabrics bought on the day were just perfect for the stitcheries.

The finished book!  I am going to give it to my gorgeous Goddaughter, Gabrielle as part of her 21st birthday present.
  Gabrielle
The next couple of weekends are going to be busy with Gabrielle’s 21st party next weekend and her sister, Angela getting married the following weekend. 

Iris in my garden.  Did I tell you how much I love Spring time??

TAST Embroidery Re-visited, Spring Garden & Leafy Greens

 

Spring is here at last and we have been having the most delightful warm spring weather.  Lovely sunny days and cool, good for sleeping, nights.

Plants in the garden are loving the conditions and some have decided to send forth their blossoms a little earlier than expected.

Lavender given to me by my good friend, Shirley.  It is growing wild and I know it is wild because it has not had any special attention.  Goodness knows how it has survived.

Some of the lavender came inside for display and the perfume is gorgeous.  Do you like my vase?  It is Venetian glass which I bought in the early 70’s when travelling around Europe on a 9 1/2 week bus tour with a heap of other young Aussies, Canadians, South Africans and New Zealanders.  It survived the journey along with a very heavy ashtray in similar colours.  I love it.

Very vibrant iris also a plant given to us by Shirley.  (She has a green thumb)

The magnificent unkillable white daisies which are stunning when all out like this.

Finally I felt in the mood to do a little more TAST stitching.  Alas, I never did complete 2012 stitches.  These latest samples are from the 2013 stitches and I decided to do a much simplified version of each stitch. 

TAST is conducted by Sharon over  on Pin Tangle.  You can join in whenever you like and learn some very interesting stitches.  I have close ups of a couple of favourites shown here.

Top to Bottom : Knotted Feather St, Inverted Feather St. Raised Herringbone Band. Triangular Feather St. Herringbone Square and Laced Square Herringbone (combined) and Buttonholed Herringbone.

Buttonholed Herringbone

(oops blurry) Combined Herringbone square with Laced Square Herringbone

Do you like rocket?  I hadn’t had much experience of rocket until our neighbour grew masses of it and gave us some .  Now I am hooked on this leafy green which has an unusual, peculiar taste.  We are told by the medicos and nutritionists to eat our greens for optimum health and the rocket is lovely combined with other salad leaves.  Eat some rocket today!!

Now for some family photos.

Lilian is displaying her organic collection of bits and pieces she sourced from her Papa’s backyard.  She was very proud of her ‘allection’.  She is looking even more cute now that a few freckles are popping up.

 

L-R:  Lilian’s Papa, Lilians Grandad, Lilian and her mummy.

Jam Making, Camp Oven Cookery & Scary Scraps

There is something very satisfying about making your own preserves.  My husband loves to cook and wanted to try his hand at jam making after being gifted 2 x grapefruit.  I don’t like grapefruit and he cannot eat them fresh because they may interact with his medication.  Grapefruit can react badly with some medications – this article outlines some of the dangers.

His marmalade has turned out rich and delicious.  I love it on wholemeal toast.

When we are out in the bush we love a good old cook up in the camp oven.  In this picture my husband is preparing the fire for a roast pork dinner for 6 people which will be cooked in the large camp oven. 

We also have a cast iron frying pan which is used over a special grill set over the fire as shown in this photo.  Beside it, the billy is boiling for a cup of tea or coffee.
The food seems to taste better when it is cooked in this way and it is so simple to prepare.

Lovely Sheila presented a few of us ladies at quilting with this book, knowing we all enjoy this type of cooking when we are travelling around.  Thanks heaps Sheila, it will be really fun to try some of the recipes.


(A few of my scrap boxes – there are many, many, more including a big box of selvedges – SCARY)
As I was cruising the blogs I came across this one which is encouraging people to use up their scraps and make useful items – 52 Week Scrap Challenge (Samelia’s Mum blog)  I soooo wish I could join in, but time doesn’t permit at the moment. I read about this on Teresa’s blog “All Things Vintage” and she has made some great things (as usual) with her scraps.
Nonetheless, I have bookmarked it for the future, because God knows, I have enough scraps to sink a battleship.

‘Luke’s Quilt’
My daughter has requested a scrap quilt for her partner and wanted it in blues and greens to depict the ocean which he loves.  She wanted one just like I had made her a couple of years ago. 

I call it a ‘random’ quilt and it is just square and rectangle scraps sewn together at random and then I use perle cotton No. 8 to herringbone over the seams. It is a great way to use up scraps. 
This needs to be finished by March next year for his 30th birthday.  It is very fun to do and easy to pick up and work on as I sew it in large sections and then sew it all together.
To finish this post – a photo of our darling granddaughter, Lilian.
She insists on wearing this pink tutu to pre-school every day stating her Mummy says she HAS to wear it. LOL. 

Until next time………………