Heirloom Christmas Stocking -Tutorial now available

I have spent my Sunday stitching out the heirloom cuffed Christmas stocking and writing the tutorial.

Heirloom Cuffed Christmas Stocking

 You can download the heirloom cuffed Christmas Stocking tutorial from HERE. (This is the updated link)

 

The stocking pattern can be downloaded from HERE.

 

The tutorial about lace to use for heirloom sewing can be found HERE.

The tutorial about successful tips for heirloom sewing can be found HERE.

 

 

Photos to share and project progress

I have a few photos to shire with you today from a variety of things that I thought you might be interested in.
First up we have the first baby penguins appearing for the 2013 season. It is hard to get a good pic as we cannot use flash photography and these little fellows do not appear until it is dark.

 

This was the sunset last night at the penguin platform, almost like a colour wash quilt.

This gorgeous shrub in my garden is called a Kalmia or Mountain Laurel and its flowers are just exquisite. The flower buds are just delightful in themselves.

 

I have just sent out Block 36 in the Crazy quilt BOM

 

These are some more stitch outs I have done in the Graceful BOM and they will feature in up coming blocks.

A Busy Day

I have spent the day today doing bits and pieces to both BFC BOM's that I am doing. I have stitched out some more blocks and got my fabric organised for both of them.

Remember if you wish to be part of either the Sassy Cays BOM or new Graceful BOM you will need to email me. For more information please read yesterday's post.

 

 

 

I have also stitched out Part 2 of the San Francisco Stitch Co Christmas Mystery. You can download Part 2 from their website and purchase Week 1 if you have missed it. Both these block finish at 6 inches square.

I have also sent out Block 35 of the Crazy Quilt BOM. Remember there are 64 blocks in this ongoing BOM.

Crazy Quilt Block 35

Bonnie Hunter's latest free mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice is being released later on tonight Australian time. In fact it is in about 3 hours time. There will be more fabric pulling out sorting and cutting. If part 1 is released before I go to bed I will be dreaming about cutting out and stitching all night. I will be out of bed early in the morning to get started.

Don't miss these - another new BOM is underway

BFC Creations are having their 10th Anniversary 60% off sale and Suz is graciously giving away a design a day. You must visit the website to pick up the designs. The set will be put up for sale the day after the sale ends so be sure to collect all 12 designs. Do not worry if you miss one day during the 12 day sale as they will remain there until Day 12. 

 

I have a new  BOM underway which I shall call Graceful using these beautiful designs. Block 1 has been done with Design 1.

 

 My colour palette this time is plum, black and white, dusty sage green and pale yellow from my stash. My inspiration for this palette had come from this lovely border print piece of fabric  called Floragraphix II by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning fabric. It is a few years old now but think you can still pick up bits and pieces of it.

Floragraphix II fabric

 

People doing the Sassy cats BOM will automatically receive these new BOM files but if you want to join and are not part of that group you will need to email me to be included,

San Francisco Stitch Co are having their Christmas mystery. I have stitched out part 1 which is an appliqued bow on a pieced present block. Part 2 will be posted this weekend so be sure to pick up part 1 from their Yahoo group files before then.

Spring Cleaning Time

Sewing and crafting has to be one of the worst pastimes for accumulating stuff. It seems that I no sooner get all the decks cleared and I start another project and things are just as bad again. I have spent the last few days trying to wrangle my craft magazine collection into some semblance of order.

 

As promised on the weekend here is the pic of blocks 1-4 stitched together in the  BFC Sassy Cats BOM, or more like Block of the Week!. I have got Block 5 finished as well and will be doing the tutorial for those over the next few days.

Smart Needle have released this new free design. It is an acorn towel hanger so be sure to go to their free designs page and pick it up.

 

Sassy Cats Block 3

I am just about to send out Sassy Cats Block 3 in the Sassy Cats BOM. I have also attached Block 3 to Block 2. With this BOM quilt we will be putting pieces together as we go. The block isn't really as crooked as it looks in this pic. I always seem to gem bits tucked up  or under when I take pics of things.

As you can see Misty had to check that I was doing it correctly.

 

Sassy Cats Block 2

Spring seems to have disappeared and I am back into my winter woollies. I only went through my wardrobe in Monday putting the winter clothes away and bringing out the summer pants etc. Had to dig the Ugg boots back out again as well.

I have been working on another Sassy Cat block today. Block 2 is done but I am still writing out the instructions. I hope to have them ready to send out to everyone who has signed up tomorrow.

This quilt is a real jigsaw and it is taking a bit of wrangling to get all the bits to fit together. However, as people know from having done my BOM's before Block 2 does not necessarily join to  Block 1 and so on. This block uses the free design that accompanies this set of designs.

 

Remember if you want to join this BOM you need to email me HERE

 

BFC Sassy Cats BOM Block 1

I have just sent out Block 1 to those who have signed up to do the Sassy Cats BOM with me. This free BOM showcases the Sassy Cat design set form BFC Creations. If you are a member of the BFC Yahoo group you will find a discount page to purchase the designs on the group site.

BFC Creations Sassy Cats BOM Block 1

 

The finished quilt is going to be approximately 70 inches wide x 90 inches long but that may change as I get further along the design phase. My colour palette is black/ white and pink to hot pink.

If you wish to join this BOM please email me

New BOM and Heirloom Stockings

Seems like we have a goer for the heirloom stockings so will get onto that in the next couple of days.

I have uploaded two documents for those wishing to do the stocking to download so that you can get your head around what you might need if you are an heirloom novice.

The first is about lace to use for heirloom sewing and that can be found HERE.

The second is about successful tips for heirloom sewing and that  can be found HERE.

 

We will use the stocking pattern from my strip pieced stocking so you will need to download that from HERE.

 

I am also starting a new BOM for the Sassy cats designs from BFC. This will be a little different form my other BOM's as the individual blocks will be smaller and there will be more of them. We will be using the  freebie on the page so make sure you download that.

I have combined the freebie 3 times for this design below to fit the 5x7 hoop.

If you wish join  my new BOM please email me. If you are a member of the BFC Yahoo group there is a discount page you can buy them. A they are an unusual shape I am going to be using all three design sizes so if you can afford it would be best to buy the all size or Complete option. The largest size option has design that fit the 5x7 hoop

 

 

 

 

Anyone interested?

I have had a few emails from people wanting know if I am going to do a tutorial for the heirloom inspired Christmas stockings. The stockings I have made as class samples are a little more advanced than basic beginner heirloom sewing but if there us enough interest I will do  stocking with some basic heirloom techniques. Please email me if you would be interested as I need to gauge the interest.

 

 

It is a lot of work for me to write up the lesson and as much as I hate to say it not worth my while for only 10 or so people.

Heirloom Inspired Christmas stockings

I have had a mixed day today. We have had very slowly internet connection for a couple of days and  this morning we completely lost our landline phone connection.

 

All of our calls are coming and going through my mobile phone. I do not know how much longer we will have the internet for. Looks like it will be about a week before it is fixed so if I do not post for a few days  or answer your emails you will know why.

 

The next heirloom class I will be teaching is in about three weeks and I have decided to make some heirloom inspired Christmas stockings.The heirloom cuffs are a great way of experimenting with new techniques so I will have to design a few more for the ladies to try. These were today's efforts.

Heirloom Inspired Christmas Stockings.

Have a look at my photo on the TV weather

I sent in the pics I took on Saturday night to Channel 10 in Melbourne and one of them was chosen to be used in the weather segment tonight.

You can view the segment HERE. An ad will precede the segment

Whirling Squares Lap Quilt Tutorial-uploaded

 

 

I have just finished writing up the tutorial for my Whirling Squares Lap quilt. The tutorial can be found HERE



Whirling Squares Lap Quilt

Embroidery Club Meeting

Today we had the monthly embroidery club meeting. During the morning the members had the opportunity of making one of the Embroidered 10 Minute Table Runner Variations if they wished to as the project of the month. We had three enthusiastic members who took up this opportunity as well as another industrious member who worked on paper piecing some lovely Christmas cards. This group used to have 30 members regularly attend a few years ago but attendance has dropped off dramatically so I hope this is not a sign of things to come for this hobby in our district. For me, this is the only machine embroidery group that I have the opportunity to attend and meet others.

 

If you do not have a group in your district why not start one and invite fellow enthusiasts to attend. If we do not foster the hobby and encourage others to join it will cease to exist.

 

These are the three lovely runners that were made. The ladies used a free design set that was available for download from Designs By Sick last month and each one looked completely different depending on thread used etc.

During the afternoon session we had another six people arrive and I gave a hints and tips session and one member brought along their Antique Rose quilt top. She had also embellished her Antique Rose designs with some sea shell designs as the fabric had sea shells on it.

 

Beautiful sunset last night

Last night (Saturday night) at the penguin viewing platform at Lillico beach I took some  lovely photos of the setting sun shining over Don Heads. Although not your glorious crimson colours the different tones and hues were almost haunting at times.
(Just a note to remind people that I am in Australia and although the blog post comes up as being still Saturday it is actually Sunday afternoon here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have finished my new Whirling Squares lap quilt and just about to start writing up the tutorial which I may get done today, if not tomorrow.

Whirling Squares Quilt

 

The size of the quilt makes it a perfect table topper as well for a god sized square table. The movement of the squares is just perfect I think for table topper put on point on the table.

Beginner's Heirloom Class

Today we had the second part of our beginner's heirloom sewing class at the local sewing machine shop Stewart's Sewing Machine Centre. They also have a Facebook page.

We had 5 lovely heirloom garment covers being completed. Everyone appeared to enjoy themselves and are eager to learn some more techniques in a month or so. It is great to teach these techniques so that the craft continues with talented students.

It is turning chilly just as we are about to head out for our weekly stint as interpretative guides at the Lillico Penguin viewing platform.