Amelia's Charms Quilt

Have started this single-bed quilt, using two Amelia (Me and My Sisters for Moda) charm packs and my own design. Have used a black on white polka-dot fabric for the sashing (thanks to quilt-blogger Wendy for her Moda Bakeshop Hot Cross Buns quilt 'recipe' for the inspiration). 

the square-patches: four by four blocks with sashing between - squares taken from two charm packs

This week I'll buy some yardage of the Amelia fabrics at my favourite quilt shop in Invercargill, to use for some wide strips at the top and bottom to lengthen it. I have earned my loyalty discount  so will be able to get them for 15% off.

I have also bought a layer cake of the Amelia fabrics so I can do the actual Hot Cross Buns quilt for myself as I absolutely adore the colours.  This charms quilt I think I will give to a young friend who turns 11 at the end of December.

UPDATE: bought some more fabrics (there is a sale on so got 30% discount!) and here is the finished quilt top (single bed size), ready to be quilted and then bound...

Quilt for my nephew

Earlier this year I put together this single-bed size quilt from a kit-set called "On the Go" by Karen Herbert (bought online from In Stitches, Armidale, NSW, Australia) for my nephew Austyn who turned 5 today.

I was a bit slow to get it to the quilting lady (Janet Pope at Browns) and so it is still being quilted. So I gave him a copy of this photo and will give him the quilt in a few weeks when I have put the binding on it.

It is strips of fabric, with hand stitching on the green and orange strips, and the vehicles and hills in the middle are appliqued. There is a strip of 'bargello' style patchwork in the middle.

I will take more photos once I get it back and finished off.

Quilts catch-up!

This scrapbook is slowly getting up to date!

2003 - Queen-size sampler quilt "Family Treasures" - a block-of-the-month quilt from about 1999? at the Whichcraft shop in Invercargill.  I loved the blue and gold colour scheme but had only started patchworking (a couple of cushions) so ordered the block of the month but stored it away until I felt I had the experience to make it.

In 2003 I felt ready to create it - the 12 centre blocks are all different and most were quite easy to do, the outside blocks are the same as two of the centre ones but in a different colourway - I decided to have alternating blocks.  Was machine pieced by me and then quilted by Janet Pope on her big quilting frame - she stitched in the ditch for the geometric shapes and stippled in the cream background.

2005 - I used scraps from the bed quilt to create this lap quilt from a magazine pattern called "Scrap Happy".  The patchwork is machine-worked and quilted in the ditch but I had a go of hand-stippling the centre block and was very happy with the results.

2006 - this is a block from a queen-size quilt pattern from a magazine (that I hope to make one day) but I just made this block as a wallhanging in the meantime. Again it is machine pieced but has hand applique and stippling in the centre.

"My Lavendar Delights" -2004-  own design - so called because I had made three other wallhangings and one cushion using the same fabrics (for my mother, mother-in-law, and a young family friend - no digital images - in 2003-2004) and wanted to make something for myself with the leftovers as I just love the colours.

Machine pieced and hand appliqued.

2005 - a quilting panel - Xmas ABC - machine quilted by me and added the borders

2009 - xmas stocking for my friend Alison's new baby girl Elizabeth - baby was due in December so had to have it all ready to go and only the name to stitch on so she could receive it in time for her first Christmas!

Cross-stitch 2010

Having returned to full-time teaching in 2006 I have not had as much time to craft, though that is improving as I MAKE more time and aim to do at least 30 minutes of me-time each evening, plus a couple of hours in the weekends.  Last year I completed these two pictures...

Romeo and Juliet - a pattern that came free with a magazine I bought in the 90s.

from a magazine also bought in the 90s

My paper tole phase

In the mid 90s I attended a nightclass at the polytech and completed some papertole pictures - three or four have been given away and I don't have digital images of those, but the three that I kept for myself are here...

More cross-stitch catch-ups!

More from the 90s...plus a few from the 2000s - am gradually getting them onto digital!

1997? - we had cat called Tigger who spent a lot of time looking stressed out and we joked that he would just sleep if it all got too much for him - I adapted this from a pattern book, changing the colour of the brown cat into ginger to look like my cat.  I experimented with different stitching techniques to make the patchwork blanket.

Late 90s, this was from a pattern that my mum asked me to make for her.

This also was stitched for my mum from a kitset she had, to match the one done earlier of the cat under the blanket.

A trio set from 2008 - this is the view of the girl at the front...

...here is the side view of the "Girls on Bike" - was a kit set again...

...and the girl at the back!

I did this picture in the early 90s - Phoebe was our little Sydney Silkie dog;
I took a photo of her and sent it to a lady who turned it into a pattern for cross-stitch.
This was  a gift for my mum; she recently gave it back to me.

Raggedy Quilt

Made this raggedy lap quilt last week as a present for my wonderful friend Donna who actually turned a big-0 earlier this year -  Donna has four boys so I figured she needs some girly stuff in her domain!

Is all flannel (I used some fat quarters I'd bought from Kits'n'Thingz in Invercargill, and went back to get matching flannels for the border and backing) and I love the colour combo - was amazed at how easy it was to do this style of quilt. I loved being able to quilt as I sewed (but will take more care next time that the back seams are matched more carefully).

Early 2000s cross-stitch

Achoo! was done in 2005 from a"kitset.  It is a "Newton's Law"design by Rory Tyger.
I get hayfever a lot so it has personal meaning!

This Pooh and friends birth sampler (kitset) was done for my son in 2001 - I began it while sitting next to his incubator as he was delivered 12 weeks early (hence his low birthweight - was just a wee fart!)

I did this little Santa door hanger in 2002. It was a kitset also and is stitched on plastic canvas.

I finished this "Rose Arbour" by Nora Corbette in 2005 - it really suited the character of the old house we were living in at the time. This was also a kitset.  It is on Belfast linen, 32 count, and has metallic thread highlights and some beads too.

"Garden Charm" was completed in 2002 from a kitset - it has about 12 little charms attached.

Peek-a-Pooh was a 2005 project as well, for my son again.

Tapestries

This fruit bowl was done in 99 - I bought it from a shop in Cromwell while there for New Year 98-99.

The spaniels were a xmas gift from my mum in about 2003 - I had a spaniel for 12 years so it means a lot to me.

These Jennifer Pudney designs are only postcard size and I did them in about 1999 or 2000.

Porcelain doll - French reproduction - Bru doll

I love antique dolls and loved making this Bru - she stands about 30 cm high and is still waiting on the dress as I have the fabric (pink velvet) but haven't got round to making the dress (can't remember if I have a pattern for her yet or not) but envision it being a type of old-fashioned late 1800s sailor-style dress that young girls would have worn.

Her glass eyes have also turned cloudy -the dollmakers had obviously
bought a big batch of the cheap glass eyes that the other dolls also have.

Porcelain doll - Googly #2

This is a taller doll, about 40cm; again with a composite body - the eyes don't seem to be affected like the other googly.

Porcelain dolls - Googly reproduction #1

This is another of my dolls, made in 1998-99, she is a Googly (the shape of the eyes and mouth give it away) and is called Alice (after my granny). This one only stands about 20cm high - she is a wee sweetie! Has a cotton body and was also hand-painted. I made her outfit, which includes layered petticoats and the pinafore.

Unfortunately that year there was a company that manufactured glass dolls' eyes which had a problem with the coloured pupils going cloudy a few months after being used and you can see that has happened here with Alice.