'Jenny' doll

My sixth finish for this year is a rag doll for my wee cousin, Florence McGowan.

Her big sister, Lucia, received this version in 2020, so it was only fitting that I make one for Florence too.

I've insisted that this one is called Jenny, due to the first one being named Dana (my sister-in-law's name -see the post for the first version) - so I think it is only fair that we have one doll each!

I used a pattern called 'Pip', ripped out from Australian Patchwork and Stitching magazine, Vol 11 No 1 2010, and she is about 21" tall.

Sharing with my quilting and crafting friends via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!

Re-Assemble Challenge for NZQS19

Earlier this year I joined in with the Re-Assemble Challenge for this year's NZ Quilt Symposium.

Each entrant was sent a photo of one portion of an art work and our challenge was to represent our portion in any 'quilty' way we wished as long as we matched the (roughly) A4 size and our edge lines matched. 

Here is the original photo I received:

And here are the two side-by-side; I am really pleased with how it turned out:

Each portion will then be joined together to recreate the original artwork in quilt form.

I chose to do an applique/thread painting method, with some painted areas in the green background.

I actually used bubble wrap to apply the green paint (which was a mix of light/med/dark greens, on a forest green marble fabric), quilted with an all over mini stipple.

The thread painting gives some texture and tone to the greys of the roof and poles.

I am really looking forward to seeing what the whole picture looks like! 

(I will add the finished result once I have been to Auckland in October).

Thread Painted Portrait of Bess

This is our beautiful Bess (part Labrador, Retriever, Huntaway and Samoyed!) who turns nine in February and has been with us for eight and a half years after we adopted her from the SPCA.

In October 2018 I attended a two-day thread painting workshop in Winton, with tutor Sonya Prchal, hosted by the Otautau Patchwork group. After our New Year holiday I took a day to finally 'frame' the picture up as a wall-hanging.

I really enjoyed learning the technique of thread painting (basically using free-motion stitching to 'colour in' a pre-printed photo) - it was really fun to do and so exciting to see how effective it looks!

We started with our photo printed onto fabric. Sonya guided us through the stages of thread colour selection, use of the free motion, where to start, where to move to next etc. Here are some progress photos...

After printing our photos Sonya had worked out some of the main colours we would need for thread and instructed us to buy those; thankfully she had her own collection of a huge range of colours for us to make use of for the areas where we only needed small amounts of the colours.

After all the stitching was done Sonya helped us to use some fabric colouring pencils to add depth or shading as well.

Original stitching 6x8" and final wallhanging 16x12.5"

Here is a photo of the work of some of the other workshop ladies - their quilt group holds an annual exhibition (photo via Sonya's Facebook page):

 

Happy summer hello to anyone visiting me via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!

Hint of Spring

I created this little piece of quilt-art to get an idea out of my head 

regarding making some Spring blossoms.

It only measures about 9" x 10". I used some hand-dyed fabrics from Mallee Textiles as well as organza and satin ribbons, a pale pink solid, and some pink tulle.

These two photos taken at night, inside - so aren't wonderful, sorry.

The blossoms are four layers of fabric/ribbon/tulle in various combinations.  

The 'twig' is a brown organza ribbon that I have re-purposed from a gift box.

2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry #2

And this is my second entry in the applique section of Amy's Quilt Festival, my hand-appliqued queen-sized Bear Family Album...each bear was hand-appliqued with blanket-stitch...

 ...with twelve different members of the family, this is  photo-heavy post, but worth it!

You can nominate my quilt for the Viewer's Choice here (if you like!)

...this was a block of the month quilt from Whichcraft in Invercargill, created over a period of months during 2008-2009. In 2012 I was able to sash the blocks and it was beautifully long-arm quilted by Barbara Joyce Quilting in Otatara...

Naturally, the teacher is my favourite!

Pre-quilting photos of each block...Sporty Bear...

Teacher Bear

Mama Bear

Papa Bear

Engineer Bear

Jogger Bear

Quilting Bear

Fishing Bear

Techno Bear

Gardener Bear

Nurse Bear

Dancer Bear

Test patch and the cat's approval!

So this bag panel has Rumbles' approval it seems...turned my back for a second...look at him acting all innocent!

 Of course, it probably helps that the batting is warm and the sewing table is in direct line with the wall-mounted heat pump...cats, so self-centred!!


Sometimes the practice pieces turn out to be as cool as the real thing!!