Well here it is - Block number one! I did tell you I was going to stitch the entire Gingham Girls quilt by hand but after some persuasion from my daughter I have decided to use the machine to piece the blocks. It makes more sense with all the little pieces to be stitched and my daughter liked the idea that I would have time to work on other projects at night if I wasn't hand stitching the blocks. There, confession over!
It's a big week in Canterbury this week. I had a great time with the family on Saturday night watching our rugby boys win the National Championship at AMI Stadium. We now have the New Zealand Cup (horseracing) tomorrow and Show Day on Friday which is a public holiday for Cantabrians.
I won't be going to the races but I will be taking some time out from my daily routine to do more sewing.
I have now finished all the stitching and applique in the Gingham Girls quilt (except for the quilt label) and have started to pick my fabrics to make up the remainder of the blocks. Before I get too carried away though I will be finishing Ruby's bag that I gave you a peek of a little earlier.
I now have 144 ladies registered on the Great Global Christmas Swap and currently need 4 more ladies from the Northern hemisphere to match up with Jennie (NZ), Lorna (NZ), Beverley (NZ), and Glenys (Aust).
I received an email from my swap partner, Paula in Holland, the other day. Our friendship dates back to the 2006 Christmas swap. She has a wonderful way with words and I always end up giggling reading her messages. She has been a great friend (she will be reading this) and I am very glad she was rejected by her original swap partner back in 2006 and that I took pity on her and became her partner instead. She is much better at keeping in touch that I am but I am sooo lucky she continues to perservere with my slackness and hasn't given up on me yet. When my little daughter Jessica was in hospital for 4 months in 2007 Paula sent a card to the hospital for her every week. She absolutely loved receiving them and by the end of her hospital stay she was convinced that everyone in Holland...yes, the entire country, wanted her to get well. - Thank-you Holland!
Here is a photo of Jessica at home with some of the cards.
This is my last large stitchery to stitch for the Gingham Girls quilt and soon I will be going back to block one to start piecing it all together. It reminds me of a verse I memorised as a child from a greeting card:
Life is mainly froth and bubbles,
but two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another's trouble,
courage in your own.
P.S. Unfortunately I didn't win sqillions with my bet on the Melbourne Cup...there's always next year...
I don't know what has come over me - I can't seem to control my creative sewing urges at the moment. I have 3 projects on the go...I'm all over the place...but I am having fun!
First up I found a lovely book in the library 'Beginners Guide to Mountmellick Embroidery' and it really got me thinking about designs to create using the general concept, that is basically 'white-on-white'. So I have been busy buying up trims, embroidery cottons and interesting textured fabrics. I am going to design a scented potpourri cone to hang from the curtain track using the gorgeous New Zealand Native Mountain Daisy I have stitched using this technique. Now all I need is to find the remnant of ivory Thai silk left over from my wedding dress...
Next...I have slowed down a little on stitching the Gingham Girls Quilt as my attention wanders but I am still plodding along completing the last block. Here is the little 'Romance' stitchery and I will have the lady in the bath to show you very soon as it's almost completed.
Next...I am stitching the Fat Quarter Bag from the Melly & Me pattern range for my daughter Ruby. She picked some gorgeous fabric and I can't wait to finish it. I will post a photo as soon as I do but in the meantime have a little peek.
There's a definite floral trend in my work at the moment, probably because it is Springtime in New Zealand. For the rest of the day I will be processing standing Block of the Month orders before embarking on a crazy afternoon of running around after the children including a haircut, orthodontist appointment, touch rubgy practice (I coach a lovely bunch of 12 year olds), basketball practice, and to top it all off I get to spend an hour at my Yoga/Meditation class - perfect...by the time I get home the kids will have eaten their fish and chips and I will be in a calm, relaxed state ready to finish off the day with a little stitching!
We had a lovely long weekend. The weather was beautiful, we caught up with our old friends Karen and Vittorio and had a gorgeous dinner of fresh salmon, asparagus, roast potatoes and avocado salad. Very seasonal ingredients and it was delicious. For dessert we had Lemon Posset (mousse), a little bit of citrus flavoured chocolate and a slice of lemon shortcake. It all looked very flash arranged on a plate together. I have been watching too many episodes of Master Chef as the big thing in our house at the moment is "plating up". "It's dinner time everyone, I'm plating up the sausages!"
While it was a very lazy weekend I did spend time with Jessica as promised sewing on the Monday. She got to choose a pattern and the lucky winner was Melly & Me's Clucky pattern. I didn't realise there was quite so much work in it as you are actually making Clucky the hen as well as her four chicks. While the sewing was too complicated for Jessica to attempt she did choose all the fabric and helped with the prep work of tracing around templates onto the fabric.
Hot Tip: A while back I bought a cheap laminator on sale at my local stationery shop and I use it as an easy and quick way to make up templates. I laminate the template page in the pattern or photocopy the parts I want onto an A4 page to laminate, and then cut out the pattern pieces to trace around.
I managed to get most of Penny (as Jessica named her) completed on Monday and finished off the chicks last night. We all love her and Jessica will be taking her to School on Friday for News.
Does anyone have a suggestion for the chicks names?
The Thread newsletter is now available to read! Find out about the October pattern giveaway. As I write I still have patterns to giveaway to my next 3 customers. I have sold out of Rosalie Quinlan's new book A Stitch in Time but I'm still taking orders and expect to be able to fill any backorders in around a week. The hot seller has been the new Don't Look Now! patterns just added to the store.
Another Gingham Girls quilt stitchery - very cute! And speaking of tea...have you tried the Healtheries fruit tea - Tamarillo with Kamahi Honey...delicious!
