Christmas wreath quilt

I was rummaging through my stash and found these 1930s reproduction Christmas fabrics (the range was called Aunt Grace's Christmas) and decided to use these to finish off my Christmas wreath. I wish I had more of the fabric, I would have liked to keep going and make this bigger. But I refuse to buy more fabrics (except for occasional lapse!) so this little quilt is staying at a humble 26 1/2".

Stitcheries everywhere

This is the Rosalie Quinlan stitchery I blogged about previously. I've finished the stitching now and need to decide what to do with it. The original pattern has it stretched over a frame or canvas to create a simple hangable artwork, but I'd like to use it as the centrepiece of a small table quilt or wallhanging, or maybe even a gift bag.

And I've put the Leanne Beasley stitcheries into a little runner with gorgeous Portobello Market fabrics.

Some more stitcheries and ramblings

A couple of Leanne Beasley stitcheries I have been working on, from old issues of Homespun. They were a set of three and I haven't decided if I am going to do the third one or not. I've trimmed these quite ruthlessly so clearly I plan to piece them into something. I don't know what yet though.

I also received some goodies in the mail this week, including a Rosalie Quinlan Christmas stitchery in redwork which I started yesterday. It was quite expensive, but pre-printed on linen which saved me tracing what was quite a complex design. I'm looking forward to making it into a centrepiece or something for Christmas.

I also received a parcel from The Fat Quarter Shop which I had despaired of ever seeing. Their service has always been faultless and my last order, in early July was dispatched in 2 packages within a day of placing the order. One parcel arrived within a week and the other never showed up. I've been meaning to call the post office about it and never got around to it, and to my surprise it arrived today! It was just a few charm packs and things that were on sale. I wonder what stories that parcel could tell, where it has been on its travels. I live in an area with a lot of similar street names - lots of Aboriginal words starting with "B" - so I frequently get mail addressed to the same number in neighbouring streets and go around delivering them myself.

The pups and I spent a happy weekend in the garden, weeding and paving, getting our vegie patches ready for Spring. We were startled by an equally startled frog; tried to work up a level of murderousness to kill a snail but it looked at us too beguilingly so we just moved it to a plant we didn't care about; watched the antics of a Golden Wattlebird who was frolicking around the garden; and found an interesting stone that we like to think is an ancient Aboriginal flake tool. All in all, an exhausting but fun and productive weekend.

Brrrrrrr!

It's turned cold again so I've been spending a bit of time snuggled up warmly with some hand stitching lately. The above needlecase is from an old issue of Country Threads. And wouldn't you know it, I've just tidied up the house and put the magazine away so I can't tell you which issue or who designed it.

I've also been whipping up these tiny stitcheries which are for for a Birdhouse designed quilt called Sweethearts, which I came across while cleaning last week and I had forgotten I had. (Does everyone else have houses where craft goods are stashed in every conceivable place, so you're constanly coming across a pattern or fabric or half-finished project every time you open a cupboard or a drawer, and wonder who put them there?)

I used a variegated DMC thread in pinks and red. I only had 1 skein and I just had enough to finish these.

One UFO down

I was really disciplined today - in the mood for a little sewing, instead of starting something new, I actually went to one of my many UFO drawers and pulled out this table runner. It was pieced and basted so it just needed some quick quilting and binding.

From memory, I pieced this simple runner from a charm pack, however, I can't remember the name of the fabric range.

Stitchery door pillow

My patchwork friend Caz surprised me with a wonderful parcel for my birthday, including the kit for the little Birdhouse door pillow which I made up yesterday. This was a fun quick project and the pillow looks so cute hanging from a door by its rick-rack handle. It has little bells on the ends of the prarie points so I there's a delightful little jingle too!

Caz also sent me a huge and gorgeous selection of vintage doileys, too many to picture here, as well as a cute knitting kit for a toy octopus.

Autumn is random .... and maybe a little ugly

Long time, no post! My boss has been away for a few weeks at work so I've been super busy and haven't been able to do much more than collapse into bed at the end of the day, so I am way behind on everything else - housework, gardening, crafting, emails, blog reading and of course, blog posting.

But in the little time I have had to sew, I've been back on a stash-busting mission. The above is one of the stash-busters I've been working on. This is a disappearing nine patch with two alternated colour blocks. It's in autumn colours although in the photo they don't seem very autumny at all. The colour placement was really random, and hence it has come out a bit clumsy and maybe a bit ugly. But what the hey, my goal at the moment is to use up fabric, not make anything gorgeous! The above used the equivalent of 18 fat quarters - yay! I still need to trim the blocks and sew them together. That is my least favourite part so I'm having a rest for now.

I'll have to post about the great birthday gifts my friend Lyle gave me too. The cutest sewing basket, a huge pack of mixed blender fabrics, a full quilt kit, a book on colour and composition (which maybe I should have read before piecing the above!), and some geisha panels. I was soooo spoiled! I started the kit yesterday as it was pre-cut and the pattern is super quick with big chunky pieces, perfect for showing off all the beautiful fabrics.

I hope my bloggy friends have been well, and I hope to catch up on your blogs soon.