Easter was fun

What a fabulous Easter we had here,  I even got time for a little Easter project  yesterday.

Meet my newest pincushion. He looks a bit shy,  he's the keeper of the pins and he loves sunflowers. He's velvety soft and took no trouble to make, even with him being stitched by hand.

The oval cushions were a bit of a bear though, I had trouble with pulling in the threads nicely and did those about three times.

I bought my kit with pattern included from Cathy Pendleton.

Friday is always hot cross bun making day. I don't lke to eat them before Good Fridaybecause of the religious significance. When they get a bit stale, they are delicious toasted on the soft side.

On Saturday the weather was perfect for getting out and about so we packed a picnic and headed to Sublime Point lookout for a picnic. This was our lunchtime view of Wollongong.

We headed down that hill and unpacked our bikes to ride some of the bike track that goes around the ocean. That's my bike in the photo you can see. I've decided I need a padded seat.

On Monday we caught a couple of trains out to Olympic Park for the Royal Easter show. It's one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

It's been a few years since we've been , there's no need to go every year and I wouldn't go when the weather is so hot but this day there was cloud cover so it wasn't too bad.

I can't do the rides any more but there's plenty else to see and do.

The largest camel in Australia.

You could go for a camel ride for $8

My daughter would love to spin the wool off this angora goat.

The kids can watch chickens hatching.

My favourite cakes

I think I've rabbited on for long enough.

Since I had a few that would have liked the pattern in the last post, I had to draw a name out.

Congratulations Mona, I'll get it out to you as soon as possible.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break, Janet

Take your time tuesday

Whoops, I nearly got caught out and forgot about Take Your Time Tuesday. I'm getting in by the skin of my teeth here but that's OK because Tuesday is just starting on the other side of the world.

Kristen over at So Happy set this idea up to celebrate all that is handmade with needle and thread and so that we can encourage and motivate each other.

This cute pincushion (or tree decoration) is made from a free tutorial over here. Once I got started, I went off on a tangent with my own changes. I haven't finished yet, I think I'll undo the bottom and put something inside to weigh it down a bit. It does stand up nicely but it topples easily being so light.

Instead of the felt circles on the top, I stitched french knots with different weights of Perle thread. It's a great size too, it's just a little smaller than my hand.

 I spent some time today making some Pomegranate jelly, also inspired by Kristen. Actually, I'd made some yesterday but it was a big fat fail. Not to be beaten and knowing that homemade and handmade is the best, I had another go with a different recipe.  Success people!

I'm not a big jam eater myself but I do like plum jam and this is a little like that, a bit tart. Besides, I couldn't resist the beautiful clear glow and colour of it plus the thought it would make a nice gift.

Pomegranates aren't in season and given that they would cost around four or more dollars each anyway, I found a recipe using Pom's 100% pure juice. If you make it, follow the recipe exactly. I did warm my sugar before adding it and I sterilised my jars so that I don't need to freeze it. I got the thumbs up from DH who is the jam lover in this house.

Today is the 15th of the month which means the next panel of the Trailing Vines quilt is available for download. Just click on the Trailing Vines page underneath my header. I'll try and get some more photos on Flickr in the next few days of this panel.

Good and bad, sweet and sour

What a week!  I disappeared of the blogosphere there for a bit to energise myself and spend time with family but at one stage I couldn't access my blog or anything associated with it due to a message from Google that I'd breached terms of service. What ... ..???
Don't panic if this happens to you, just follow the links from the message and reset your password.

I had a wonderful surprise which came in the mail last week, this sweet little doll quilt from Kathie over at Inspired By Antique Quilts. I'm so happy to have received a random act of kindness (RAK) after admiring it on her blog. Thanks so much Kathie, it's a special treat to have something from your heart and hands.

I love the all over clam shell quilting that her friend Lorre did and I'm still looking at all the fabrics so I can't hang it up just yet.

I've had a few lemons in my life this week too, it must be the law of opposites.

Thinking along those lines, I decided if life is giving me lemons, I'll make strawberries to balance things out. Even better, I made strawberry pincushions.

The pattern and kits are from Heather Bailey and are a lovely size to pop in the sewing bags I have all over the place. They're quick to make and great to look at and use. They're so addictive that I'm now thinking that they'd make great Christmas tree decorations.

If you're a hand quilter, have you linked up to Caron's celebrate hand quilting post yet? Lots of lovely quilts to visit there.

Another fabulous way to promote hand work and give each other motivation for those long slow burner's is to visit with Kristen over at So Happy to register your interest at having a place to show your progress and help each other along each week.

I'm late for a very important date.

I was hoping to get back into some serious machine bonding until I was told the secret Santa swap for my sewing group was in a week. I've only had a whole year to make a small Christmas decoration to swap and I did think I still had a few weeks up my sleeve but it's been bought forward. Tick tock, tick tock, there's nothing like a deadline to get me going.
A quick but frantic search in the dark archives of the sewing room and I've found something suitable. You'll have to do with a sneak peek because who knows who might be lurking on my blog.

I still snuck in some time on the machine because I don't want to slip backwards on my machine quilting practice and get all rusty again, after all  how many times can I call myself a beginner?? I'm going for intermediate status here people.

Since I'm close to finishing that applique thing I've been working on for ages, I think it's about time I thought about how it's going to get quilted.  Grand ideas are brewing but I need a bit of guidance, not having that much quilting under the belt you know. Wendy over at Ivory Spring is a quilting goddess and  I want to stitch like her so I asked for some advice and she's sharing her wisdom over here.

My very first attempt at McTavishing is on the bottom and another wiggly worm filler on the top.

So I've learnt a lot just with this attempt. The stitching is a bit close together than what I'd like.

I have to pay attention to the puffy bits in between the stitches and I better practice some more, it's looking a bit busy so maybe I need to simplify it. I darkened the photo to show up the quilting a bit better.

While I was on holiday, I met  my daughter's talented friend Christine and gave her a very basic lesson on needleturn applique. What a quick learner, she got it pretty much straight away. This is what she made for me as a thank you, gosh I'm just happy if I can pass on anything useful. This pincushion was made out of New Zealand fabrics and has a metal pot scrubber inside which is supposed to be good for the pins. I love pincushions!

 I was pretty restrained and only went to a few patchwork shops on holiday. I can't get the lime green of this fabric to photograph the right colour. If you saw it in real life, you might need sunglasses.

 A few brights to add to the stash for future kids quilts cause I don't see many around here so grabbed a sampling of them. I found it interesting that not one of the shops had any reproduction style fabrics, not a one.
I guess that style is more popular in Australia.

Back to that Christmas stitching, I'll be able to show it next week.

I've been busy

I've made another pincushion, it's Anna Maria Horner's pincushion caddy from her book Seams To Me. Before I started, I did a google search on it and just lucky I did.

I read that it was a curse to make and that the pattern pieces in the book didn't fit together. Darn! I really wanted to make it but all's not lost thanks to a blogger who did all the figuring out stuff.

Yes it was a curse to make, there was unpicking but it's finished with all it's pleaty imperfections. If I ever make another one which is doubtful, I'd hand sew the inner tube to the outer part to try and avoid the pleats.

Click here if you'd like the information for the tips and tricks.

I'm still on the search for suitable fabrics for Broderie perse and found this one over here, not much of a swatch to tell what it was like but it's good, the flowers aren't too small or too large.

Lisa from Stray Threads and I are doing a bit of bartering and swapping of fabrics as she's doing the Morrell quilt too. Go have a look at her blog, she loves antique quilts and dolls.

I have some very important people coming next week to stay and some fun things to do so I thought I'd make a divine chocolate desert to go in the freezer. Call it chocolate fondant, lava cake or whatever. I call it delicious. I cooked two of them to test and they have my thumbs up. Cut into it and the melted chocolate filling oozes out. I can post the recipe if anyone wants it and it's an easy one. The uncooked ones are in the freezer all ready to go. It's definitely in the special treat category.

Just take a look at my poor injured fingers, I know, it's gross, lol.

I've nearly sewn them to the bone and that thumb nail keeps getting the tip of the needle. I'm going to try a trick I heard which was to put some super glue on them. The gel not the runny stuff, I've glued my fingers together before because the runny one is  like water. Edit: I'll stay clear of the super glue after some warnings I got, thanks bloggers!

I've tried putting other things to protect the fingers but they all get in my way. Does anyone else have the same problem?

 

Trot on over to Glorious Applique if you'd like to see why my fingers are so worn out.

Pincushion giveaway day 5

Dear  lovely readers, I've been having so much fun with my five day giveaway but alas, sadly it has to end. Today the final  kit is from Crab Apple Hill and is a very elegant pincushion with an embroidered button and some ribbon and beading to dress it up.

Leave a comment on each of the five giveaways you want to be in the draw for which I'll do on Friday. See you then.

Pincushion giveaway day 4

The days are whizzing by and already I'm up to the fourth of five pincushion kits to give away.

This one is just too cute. A fairytale mushroom cottage from Gigi Minor at Pinks and Needles, the pin topper maker extraoindinaire. There's one pin topper that goes with this too.

Same as all the other days, just leave a comment. Winners are drawn on Friday. Good luck.

Pincushion kit giveaway 3

G'day, here I am having lots of fun with this giveaway and it's day three already so lets  move from pretty to fun with this one from Rosalie Quinlan, half of the Melly and Me team. It's a ladybird pincushion with a pouch to match, how cute is that? Just leave a comment on this post to be in the draw. Winner to be announced next Friday.

No klosje (spool) blocks to show this week as I surge on ahead with hand quilting. I spend an afternoon cutting pieces and it only takes an evening and a bit to sew what I've prepped. The hold up is getting out the fabrics and folding and putting them back.

I thought I'd look for some charm squares or fat eights to give a bit of variety without the outlay but there wasn't much at the shop.  I did find this jelly roll in the style of fabrics I'm using. It's called Old Primrose Inn by Blackbird Designs. I can easily cut blocks from these and it'll be faster too.

See you all tomorrow for day 4.

Pincushion giveaway day 2

Todays pincushion kit for the giveaway is Ivy's Bloom from Australian designer Janelle Wind.

It includes the supplies for a 7" pincushion, wrist wrap and needle book.  It also has a secret pin to go with the kit.

All you need to do if you'd like to go into this draw is leave me a comment. How easy is that?

For every pincushion draw, you need to leave a comment on each one you'd like to enter as there will be a separate draw for each kit next Friday.

Good luck, Janet

Five

I'm celebrating the number five. Why is that I hear you ask. When I started blogging, I thought it would be great if some people would take the time to read my humble blog. This week the number of followers on my blog hit 500 and then it went to 505. I can't believe it, I'm very happy to be sharing my stitching journey and I'm thrilled to bits you follow along with me. Many of you have also become friends.

Its Friday today, the fifth day of the week. May is the fifth month of the year so I'm celebrating by having some giveaways of some pincushion kits I have but am unlikely to make from a pincushion a month club I was in last year. It also includes a specially made pin by Pinks And Needles. 

The first one is a sitchery kit by Leanne Beasley

Leave a comment on each giveaway  post to go into the draw. I'll read them all but not reply to comments for the giveaway posts. I'll also not be able to include any no reply or anonymous entries beacause I need a way to get hold of you. I'm happy to post internationally.

I have another four pincushion kits to giveaway each day so come back to see if you'd like to win what I have to offer. I'll close the draw next Friday to give followers, lurkers and readers time to enter.

Some little things

Sometimes you just have to get out and about  when the weather is so nice. Mr Q and I had a day wandering around historic Berry on the South Coast. There is one shop which is a favourite with anyone who likes to ply a needle or two of any kind. It's an embroidery shop called Sew And Tell (no website) and out the back is this shop which is part of it. It has beautiful gifts and items and is just delightful to wander around.

I never leave the shop without helping to support them. I picked up two books by Rosalie Quinlan, one half of the Melly and Me team. There are a few yummy projects in the books which would make great gifts.

I'd been looking everywhere for this DMC varigated thread so I grabbed three for stitcheries. It has a  lovely rusty brown and pink colourway. It'll be a nice change from the red varigated I've been fond of using.

I had to have this alphabet  fabric. I could imagine this would be a great for kids quilts but then I got to thinking how good it would be as pillowcases, crayon rolls or kids aprons. I could use a bolt of this but there was a limited amount left and I grabbed the whole 3 1/2 meters. Then I went back at Mr Q's urging and bought a bit of the co-ordinating stripe. I'm such a sucker for anything with text ot letters on it.

This week I got some lovely fat quarters of Jennifer Paganelli fabrics in the mail. I have no plan for them except to use them in scrap quilts and small projects eventually. I picked a couple of fat quarters to make a pincushion out of  the Raslie Quinlan book, A stitch in Time.

I'm a bit of a sucker for pincushions and especially if it means I get to use one of my vintage buttons.

The pincushion turned out huge, it measures about nine inches from one point to another. Too big for my use but I'm thinking of someone who could make use of it. These fabrics are just up her ally too.

This is my favourite pincushion that's been on my blog before. It fits next to my machine perfectly and yet it is still big enough. This one was made out of paper diamonds that measure 2" on each side. The sides are made up of the same diamond shape and it was all stitched with the english paper piecing method.

When I get tired of one side, I can turn it over and use the other.

I haven't been doing anything else that's new, I'm still working on my current projects which are not very blog worthy at this point so hopefully next time I can show some progress.