Country Favourites

This was a kitset which I must have purchased from an Australian quiltshop's website maybe 10 or 11 years ago (I'm not sure, but the copyright on the pattern says 2007). The shop was called In Stitches and the pattern is by Karyn Herbert www.butterflyquilts.com.au

The quilt is 44 x 52", with the blocks being 8.5".

It was a panel of the images along with yardage for the blocks. I can remember cutting it out and sewing it up at the time I received it, but then the top has sat in my UFO pile ever since (basically because I really don't like it LOL!) - so my New Year resolution was to get it quilted so I can give it away.

I've decided, in hindsight, that the golden yellow of the background fabric (which is what was supplied in the kit) is just too much (it is a lot darker than it looks in these photos) and it maybe would have all looked a lot nicer if the background had been more of a cream colour to help tone it all down.

For the quilting I did stitch in the ditch or echo quilting to outline the main shapes of the images; the pieced blocks just had simple criss-cross lines. 

The backing was pieced (at the time I first finished the top)
from leftovers plus some green that I had in my stash.

Anyway, it's finally finished, out of the pile of UFOs (of which there are now only two) and ready to find a new home with someone who will appreciate it - charity shop, here I come!

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!

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.

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.

2009 Paddington Bear quilt

I found this cute Paddington Bear fabric and made it into a easily machine-patched small cot quilt of about 1m square at the end of 2009.

In 2010 I gave it to my newborn nephew Bain for use as a pram blanket or kick mat etc. Gotta love Paddington Bear!

I don't have a walking foot yet for my sewing machine (it is on order) so hopefully that will help me get rid of the bunching that happens when I quilt with the machine (I get another lady to quilt anything I do that's bigger than this).

I used a pattern from Spotlight and have got a xmas fabric quilt that I made in tandem, but will quilt that once I get the walking foot.

2003 Advent Calendar

This felt wall-hanging is from a magazine too.  It is about a metre long, made of felt and was machine and hand-stitched.  At the start of December the little pockets are filled with a xmas chocolate treat.

In 2004 when Kieran was three we heard him trot down the stairs one morning, but didn't think much of it until he came into our room to say good morning and we could smell the chocolate on his breath...he'd been down and eaten about six days worth of the treats!  All the wrappers were on the floor!

2001 and 2003 Christmas Stockings

Kieran's stocking was made from a kitset that I was given by a workmate of Brian's when I was on sent to Dunedin Hospital at 25 weeks pregnant and put on bedrest due to a complication.  Kieran was safely delivered (by emergency Caesarean) at 28 weeks in June, so I managed to have his stocking made well and truly by December.

It is all hand-stitched, on felt and is about 50cm long.

Two or three years later, in our new house in Edendale, I decided that Brian and I should have stockings as well and I adapted the designs from a magazine.  They are about 30cm long and also made of hand-stitched felt, with attached buttons and some use of metallic threads with the applique.

2009 Christmas Angel wallhanging

Mao was a Japanese exchange student who lived with my brother and sister-in-law for most of 2009. She left just a few days before Christmas and I wanted to make a little something for her to take away with her.  This angel applique was in one of my magazines and I created my own border design. The completed hanging was about 40cm square and it was machine stitched with hand embroidered applique.