Cyra ~ A walk in the Park

Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day when Tony & I had a trip to Hawera to take a leisurely stroll through the park.

It's a beautiful place, full of very well kept gardens, a great kiddies park area, duck ponds, Chinese garden, rose gardens, and lovely nooks, shady areas, and secret gardens. 

It always looks amazing there, and you never know what surprises you'll find as you follow winding paths or peep around the hedgerows.

Whoever created this space did an excellent job of keeping people and children entertained.

Stitching

I have designed a hexagon quilt for a long-term project.

It is going to be humongous (for a super-king sized bed) and will probably take 5 years or more to stitch because I'm using ¾" hexagons --- oh what was I thinking, mad, totally mad, hand stitched English Paper Piecing, oh dear.

Here it is so far, the humble beginnings...

I did not get any photos of my latest crochet block for my blanket, but I did do some stitching on my 'A Year of Stitches' project. I'm not managing to do stitching every day on it, but hey, I'm only human.

Susan: Next Best Thing to Nothing

A few leaves and some French knots. I'm using up threaded needles with bits of color left on them. That's it for this week!

Susan: CQJP Yet Again

Only one seam and one corner left to finish on the June block. I'm not catching up, but I'm not falling further behind, either.

Here was seam 43 - just a bit of doodling on a short seam.

Then I did this longer seam and the corner. I may yet add beads to the long orange seam, but I'm happy with the corner. I had the camera on the wrong setting, I guess, 'cause it's pretty fuzzy. Better luck next time.

The whole block so far:

Susan: CQJP2015 March Update

Seam 20, hard to see at this size. Needs beads.

Seam 21, not really seams, but not motifs. I just thought it would be fun to put a blue French knot in each yellow dot.

You can see the next part, a corner that isn't finished.

Slow and unsteady, but eventually a finish will happen. =)

Cy - Crazy Quilting at last

Phew! Finally I have some stitching to show you. 

We've been so busy here on the farm lately that I've not had much time left over for sewing.

The grass is almost ready for cutting and bailing again and that will be another busy time here at 'Lewis Acres'.

But for now, here is what I've been up to.

Crazy Quilting with 'Kathy Shaw' inspired seams plus a few 'personal flourishes' of my own.

Plenty of room left on these seams for the addition of beads and SRE.

I'm just waiting for the postman to bring my new supply of Silk Ribbons.

I had to order more because my original stash is packed away in sealed boxes in the shipping container, and no way am I going in there to start opening up already packed boxes, lol, assuming, of course, that I can find the 'correct' box.

And just in case you are wondering about the background fabric.... it is all my own hand dyed neutrals.

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Fitzy - Better late than never!

I understand I'm my own worst critic. Maybe with LOTS of practice, it will get easier? Here's my addition to my round robin block.

I can see I need to add some more stitches inside the unopened bud, funny how the photo let's you see more than the eye. I thinking of of a dragon fly in the left upper corner, a nice silk ribbon on the stem and perhaps a caterpiller climbing up. Of course the seams are still "in need". All in good time.

Kind of creepy, I took the close-up and the camera said, "blink detected". REALLY?

Hope you have a fabulous week. I've added in some race training into the mix. I seriously need a few more hours in each day!!

Susan: 1 Embellishment, 1 Seam

Not catching up very fast. The tree now has tons of French knots, 5 different pinks, 5 different flosses and 1 Sassa Lynne used. The floss was used 2 strand, and all the knots are double wraps.


Seam 58, small and possibly getting more small beads later, Kathy Shaw's TDiTM, #110:

Cy ~ Hearts Quilt week 7 : Dresden Plate

 Straight From the Heart 

Week 7

The Dresden Plate block is progressing.

My monogram is centered on it and the French Knots surrounding the middle are now complete.

I have to admit, before I go any further, that I did not personally stitch this Dresden Plate block. My mother did.

It was one of the first "lessons" that I taught her when I was doing the 2 yr City & Guilds Patchwork & Quilting course.

As a professional seamstress she was always making clothing and garments, but had never ventured into quilting. When she saw the fun things I was learning on my course she was very eager to learn what she could about this new style of stitching.

The fabrics used on this piece are all recycled from dresses,skirts, and tops that were either my mothers, mine or my daughters. 

This quilt of many memories is for me.

The seams of the Dresden Plate will be embellished with stitches in the crazy patchwork style.

Cy ~ Heart Quilt update - week 6

 Straight from the Heart Quilt 

Week 6

I created a Dresden Plate block for the Monogram (from last week) to be placed in the centre.

When finished, the French Knots will be all the way around the Monogram, but at the moment I am about one third of the way around.

You can probably see that I am trying to blend the colours. It's a long job, but enjoyable.

I'm thinking I will go back with these colours again and stitch right up to the stem stitch circle around the motif, as I'm not sure I like the yellow fabric showing outside of the circle.

I'll continue with the French Knots like this for now though, and then make up my mind later whether or not I will be covering the yellow.

The Dresden Plate story will come next week, as I'm running out of time today.

 Tatting 

I haven't progressed any more with needle-tatting, but I have tried Shuttle Tatting now, and here is my first ring completed.

I think I like this technique, but I got in a right mess (just after this photo) trying to get another ring done. I just cannot get any subsequent rings to 'pull' into a ring.

I shall keep trying.

 Selling House and Packing 

Oh boy is this a horrible job. I have so much 'stuff'.

Tony has bought 'another' shipping container so that we can pack and store everything that we want to take to the new place, but do not necessarily need to use here. The thoughts behind this is that we empty the house of 'clutter' to make it easier to keep clean and tidy, and help make the rooms look larger, and stage it so that it is more appealing to prospective home buyers.

I have packed away all my blue & white pottery from the Welsh dresser, all my sewing stuff including tools, fabrics, wool, threads, art equipment etc., books are packed, office paperwork packed, surplus kitchen things are packed, precious items are safely packed, photos and mementos packed. All boxes and surplus furniture are now in the lounge and hallway awaiting 'someone' to carry it all into the container.

Now I have to start on the bedrooms and walk in wardrobe. How do I know what clothes I can pack away? It may be a year before I see them again.

Oh woe is me......

Cy ~ My Monogram for Crazy Quilt

This week I designed and stitched a Monogram for my

Straight From the Heart Crazy Quilt.

Stitches included are: Whipped running stitch, Laced Herringbone stitch, French Knots,Stem stitch, and Back stitch.

Step-by-step photos are on my blog

And the finished Monogram......... 

I know it it usually required to "sign" quilts when completed.

But, as usual, I am doing things back to front.

This Monogram of my initials is for the front of the crazy quilt.

With a bit of luck (and time), next week I can show you the setting I have planned for the Monogram.

Cy - A Happy Stitching Week

It has finally stopped raining here long enough to be able to walk in the fields without getting the 'slurpy-slurp' of stuck-in-the-mud welly boots (gum-boots). 

The flowers in the garden are brightly bobbing their colourful heads at me, the plum trees in the orchard have that wonderful white blossom that looks amazing as I stand underneath and gaze dreamily skywards and catch the beautiful glimpse of blue sky as background to the white blossom.

I have to look for the tell-tale signs of newly scratched earth in the undergrowth to direct me to the nesting spots to collect the hidden chicken eggs.

Oh what a merry dance I perform on my daily rounds.

Spring has sprung.

And the stitching.................oh, the stitching.

First, here is the August Block final pic that I missed showing you last weekend ..........

And so onto the stitching done this week on the September block.

This drizzle stitched piece was actually stitched the previous week, but I attached it to the block this week and added all those lovely French Knots to 'embed' it in its new place.

Does it looks like a multi-layered cake or a flouncy ballerina's tutu to you?

Do you remember that 'string art' craze of your youth?

Or maybe you remember it as a required lesson in the math classroom.

It was created by hammering nails into a wooden board and then you had to wind string back and forth to create geometric patterns.

Or you started with a piece of card with perforated holes that you threaded string through.

Well.................

............. here is my free form stitched version. 

A happy accident that appeared while I was 'playing' on my block this week.  

And now for this weeks TAST stitch.

Week 39 

(at least I think it is week 39, I seem to have lost my memory track)

The Knotted Buttonhole Stitch

And I'm sure you know me well enough by now to know that this Knotted Buttonhole seam is going to get some extra 'Cy embellishing treatment'.

My crochet trim for this block has been created too, but just not added to the block yet, so pics of that one next week. Also, I have stitched most of the butterfly for the central patch, and a few more seams that are half-stitched so far.

This block is progressing nicely, but I'm not sure that I can complete it during this coming week as I have a couple of other project deadlines looming up fast. But at least it is mostly done now.

I'm happy.

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Happy Stitching

P.S..  I have two people I'd like to give credit to this week, but I can't remember who it is that I wanted to thank.

One person mentioned putting ribbon in the crochet trim on my August block (so I threaded the black ribbon through it and love it even more now), 

and someone else suggested using my drizzle stitched piece on the Sept block. yes, it sure looks good there.

Thank you ..... stand up and be counted, lol,

 Remind me who you are and please forgive my sawdust brain.

Cy - TAST wk 25 & CQJP WIP

I have used this stitch in the past, but not too recently, so I used this week as a bit of a 'refresher' stitching time.

I was rather surprised how quickly I had forgotten how to do this stitch, lol. 

I started with two straight rows following a seam on the block. It looked so wrong though, and it took me quite a while to work out what I did wrong - I must not have been concentrating when doing the 'chain' part of the stitch because some chains were twisted and some were not, it looked so uneven that I 'frogged' the lot - and I'm not a person who usually unpicks anything, so that just goes to show how very wrong it was.

So then I stitched these two wavy lines, making sure that I got the working thread coming from the same direction each time, so as not to get any chains twisted like before.

Cable Chain Stitch worked on my Crazy Quilt Journal Project June block.

This is another of my INVENTED seam treatments.

Stem stitch roses and Satin stitch in between them.

I quite like the effect of a band. It's a nice 'solid' seam treatment.

This one started with the turquoise ribbon Running stitch.

Laced to-&-fro with 6 strands of green floss, and a white bead added in each circle.

A motif in one of the patches.

French Knots, Silk Ribbon embroidery, silver metallic thread Straight stitch & V stitch, silver beads.

I have also done a couple of other stitching pieces on the CQ block but I've not got any photos of it yet.

I should be able to finish this block during the coming week so will reveal ALL next weekend.

And I have been 'playing' with fabrics, paints and dyes for yet another project that I cannot reveal until September. (Watch this space with patience, hahaha).

As a follow-up from a previous post on my blog about Life on the Farm - Applemunchers, here is a pic of some more Applemunchers that visit the orchard everyday.

Aren't they beautiful? 

They are very social and vocal birds, and live in small family flocks here in NZ. 

I also saw these in an almond tree today, and as there are no almonds at this time of year I am puzzling over what they were eating.

Happy Stitching