Yin Yang

I've been really excited about fabric, needle and thread of late. I decided to rummage through my quilting stash and came across this little block that I made a few years ago. I'm using Inklingo as I can't imagine any other way of stitching this block. I had a play with Inklingo a few years ago and really enjoyed using it. I have printed out about 10 of these blocks. Not sure where I'm going with these but I'm enjoying hand stitching them at the moment.

I just love how the centre spirals around like that. It makes everything lay so lovely and flat.

What do you think? Do you like this spiralling block? I think I will be combining it with another block but haven't decided what yet. There are lots of design ideas over on the Inklingo website. I sound a little like an ad for Inklingo. LOL. I'm not trying to push the product at all. I have just found it to make my life easier and thought I'd share.

I don't get a lot of quilting time. I prefer to hand stitch everything I do even though I have a lovely Bernina machine. I just find machine work takes me away from my family. I'm not home much either. I work full-time and have adult and teenage kids. We are always on the move. I can take my hand stitching with me and do a little here and there. I'm not worlds fastest stitcher because of my limited time but I sure do enjoy it when I get a chance to pull it out.

Busy times

It's been a long time. No excuses. I suppose other things have just taken priority over blogging. My family continues to grow with 5 grandchildren now and another grandson due in early August. It's a very exciting time in my family.

My own health has been challenging to say the least but I am still able to work full time which I am grateful for.

We had a busy Mothers Days with 16 of us crammed into our little house. Our kids, their partners and their kids quickly fills our little space. We really need a bigger place for our get together a. LOL.

I'm still enjoying stitching away when I have a spare moment.

I've actually finished the above project but noticed on my blog that it's taken me over 12 months to finish it. Wow! More on that next post. Hopefully now that I have a blogging app on my phone I will be able to find more spare moments to make some posts. Till next time. Love, Dot.

Friday Nigh Sew In

I recently went to our local Craft Alive which is held at the Seymour Alternative Farming Festival in February each year. Imagine my surprise at finding one of my favourite stitchy designers. None other than Rosalie Quinlan. What a delightful lady. Her display was totally irresistible and so I came away with four of her stitchery designs and two books.

Here's a photo of the little bit I started working on late last night. It's "Polka-Dot Dreams" stitched with Cottage Garden Threads, colour #601 Tulip. I had the most difficult time settling on a single CGT thread to stitch with because they are all so absolutely gorgeous. Impossible to choose however after much deliberation, I told myself that regardless of the colour I choose, it will still be beautiful.

I must say, this is the first time I've used Cottage Garden Threads and it is lovely to work with. I was a little miffed when I first opened the package to find that the threads are pre-cut. I really like to cut my own threads however I found that the pre-cuts were the perfect length. Should've known.

I've decided to join the Friday Night Sew In which you can find over here. Won't you join me?

Happy Australia Day

I thought I'd have a go at my first Friday Night Sew-In last night.

 

Here is what I managed to do. A little more on "Sew Laugh Love" by Lean Beasley

 

This is really lovely to stitch on. No rules.

 

 

Tomorrow is Santa Sunday cross stitch. I've decided to join a few Instagramers on this one and I'm lovin' it. Cross stitch anything with a Christmas theme. I plan on working on The Prairie Schooler "Christmas Eve Deer". The same one I did last Sunday but this time I will stitch it as charted. I have ordered a few "Beards of a Feather" Santas. Can't wait to get my hands on them.

 

Hope you've had a wonderful Australia Day!

 

PS: You may notice a few changes to my blog over the next few days. I do hope you will bear with me whilst I try to beautify my blog.

Christmas stitching

I could really relate to this post by Siobhán at Notes from Blue Hen Hollow. Especially her thoughts on Christmas stitching. Early in January, I always have great intentions of stitching on ornaments or the like, throughout the year, only to fizzle out about half way through and find myself feeling regretful about late November that I didn't get more done for Christmas. When I read of Siobhán's intentions of stitching for Christmas on Sundays, I thought "what a brilliant idea". After a couple of emails to encourage me, I decided I would work on this today.

This is The Prairie Schooler "Christmas Eve Deer".

I think I started this close to Christmas 2011. I didn't almost zero stitching during 2012 due to one thing or another but I did quite a lot during 2011. I'm pretty sure I started it before Christmas. I can remember my changes. The original is charted with snow on the ground and snow flakes in the air.

As we celebrate Christmas during summer in Australia, I decided to change the snow to grass and put sunshine in the sky. Although if you could see how dry the ground is here right now, you would say I should have coloured the ground in shades of brown and pale gold. There is very little green to be seen where I live right now. It's been very hot and dry.

Here's how it looked when I finished it.

I've decided to stitch the original design as charted as well. Stitching the snow might have a cooling effect on me. Ha ha!

Ironing it out

I have had a very dingy ironing board cover. The thought had occurred to me on more than one occasion that I should purchase a new one but I have a very large ironing board and it's not easy to find covers that fit it. In fact, I've never been able to find a cover for it. I've always made them. Besides... I sew. Sheesh! I should be "making" them. It's just one of those jobs that seems to get put off all the time.

Well, enough is enough. Time to pull finger and get the job done.

I was blog hopping the other day and came across this brilliant tutorial over on lovely Bloom blog. How clever and how simple. So away I went and dug through my stash to find some suitable fabric. I neglected to take a photo of my old dingy cover......... for good reason. It really was a disgrace. Here are the two fabrics I chose.

 Ta Da!! Finished. A lovely fresh new ironing board cover and all in under an hour. Silly me for putting it off.

I apologise for the poor photos. I took these photos as an afterthought on my phone at just before midnight. I do things like that. Decide something needs to be done right when I'm tidying up and getting ready for bed. Nutter!

Giving myself time

In 2010, I thought it would be a good idea to join a SAL over here at Stitch-a-Long blog run by Chookyblue. I really enjoyed it but as I have the attention span of a very tiny gnat (not even a regular sized gnat), I found myself with many other projects on the go some months after starting.

You know, I have to shamefully admit that I still do not have that "A Gardener's Journal" quilt finished. I have no good excuse really. Oh, maybe lack of time but really, I stitch because it's what I love to do and if I don't stitch, I simply do not make any time for myself. We all need to make time to do those things we love to do besides working and being a mother, daughter, wife and more. This is a big reminder to myself. I need lots of reminders so feel free to prompt me. (smile) Blogging is another one of those things that I really enjoy doing but tend to put it off because I'm busy cleaning the house, cooking, hanging another load of laundry or working or....... well, you get the idea.

I've been following the Stitch-a-Long blog for a couple of weeks now and finding it very hard to resist joining in. After sleeping on it for a few days, I went ahead and ordered all three books that are involved in the 2013 SAL. That was an accident. I was just going to buy two of them and then .... well, I don't know what happened but I bought all three. Ha!

I'm really enjoying this "Sew Laugh Love" stitchery so I just had to buy a few more stitchery patterns. How could I resist? Clearly I couldn't.

Well because I accidentally on purpose bought those three books I knew the next step was to put in my request to join the fabulous Stitch-a-Long group and so I did. :o)

I really must dig out my old "A Gardener's Journal" blocks and work on those a little more. Oh my goodness, so many gorgeous designs to stitch. It never ends. Oh bliss!

I don't make New Year's resulotions because those resulutions don't generally last very long but I do like to think about something positive I can focus on throughout the coming year. Last year I wanted to take time to read more. I'm pretty happy with my effort there. I read quite a number of books last year. Despite my love of books, I rarely would get through more than a couple of books each year simply because I wouldn't allow myself time to sit and read. This may sound silly to some of you but I bet there's a few that can relate.

Well this year is my year of stitching. I won't put too much pressure on myself with strict commitments but I cannot help but feel that being part of a group of like minded souls to be very motivating. At the very least, I will have focused on allowing myself more stitching time and that can only be a good thing... for me and all those closest to me as well.

I wonder how I'll feel about my stitching progress next New Year's eve?