A lovely visit and some hand stitching......

This time last week I had just arrived in the UK to visit my son, daughter-in-law and their sweet little family.  It was an absolute delight to see my latest grand-daughter together with her older sister.  They are just so gorgeous!

We also visited my father-in-law as we hadn't seen him since October of last year.  While we were there I saw the memory quilt that I made for him to celebrate his 90th birthday. 

He has it hanging in the kitchen.  As I looked at it, I kept thinking that there was something 'missing' from the scene..... something that I had felt when I finished it but, that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I decided to add some hand embroidery to the lower edge of the quilt beneath the tree.  To me it seemed to 'ground' the tree and somehow balanced the whole quilt.  I was pleased that I had added the stitches but, more importantly, my father-in-law liked the additions too.  They were all stitched using variegated hand-dyed fine silk thread from Stef Francis.

While travelling I also managed to finish off my first completed project for 2020!!  I finished stitching a lovely design by Anne Brooke of H-anne-MADE. 

I really enjoyed working on this while I was waiting for various flights.  It made the time just fly by!  This was also stitched using variegated hand-dyed fine silk thread from Stef Francis.

Since I've been home I have trimmed off the excess background fabric and have framed it.

I now have three of these beautiful embroideries in my sewing room.  I love them all!!

Exciting news.....

Just a quick postscript to my last post where I was awaiting the imminent arrival of a new grandchild..... 

A big welcome to the World to my new granddaughter, Amelie Frances, who arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning.

And here is her sister's first visit with her.... so cute!! 

A Quick Update......

It seems that is has been a busy start to 2020 and I haven't had much time to post here on my blog.  However, that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy stitching between baking birthday cakes for my husband, entertaining guests and other exciting adventures!!

Husband's Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake)

First of all, I have started work now on the Gail Pan BOM 'Wish You Well'.  This is the project Gail has designed for 2020 for her i-stitch-club.

January's Block

February's Block

I really love the two blocks that have been released to date and have had a lot of fun using up some Tilda fabric scraps to complete them.

January and February side by side

I have also been excited to join in a Challenge set by Anne Brooke of H-anne-Made which is called 'sew4thesoulhannemade'.

January's additions and stitching

It is basically using up a scrap of batting (wadding) and adding scraps of fabrics, trims and anything else you would like and then adding texture using stitching. 

February's additions and stitching

It is such a liberating thing to work on as you can just follow your heart and add fabric scraps and stitching to please just yourself. Here is a closer look.

Closer details

I will probably make my piece of 'textile' into a bag of some sort.  As I have just treated myself to Anne's new book 'Textile Wanderings' I may even use it as a book bag to keep it in!!

I am also awaiting news of a new arrival in the family.  My second grandchild is expected any time now and I can't wait!!  So, I have also been looking at ideas for a new baby quilt. 

So far, I have made a trial QAYG (quilt as you go) block which I am very pleased with.  So I shall have to get my skates on a make a few more!!

Thank you for visiting and until next time.....

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year 2020!

I know I am a bit late wishing you a Happy New Year but, I have only just returned from visiting my family in the UK.  It was lovely to see all three of my children, my granddaughter, my siblings and my parents!!

Since I got back into my sewing room, I have been organising myself ready for lots of new sewing projects for 2020.  I like to keep a record of the projects that I have completed including swatches of the fabrics used and details of how I completed them.  So, my first task was to close the file for 2019 and open some new files for projects I know I will be starting in 2020.

However, before I go any further with what I am hoping to start work on in 2020, perhaps I should show you the last couple of projects that I finished in 2019.

The first, I had already given you a glimpse of last time, and now that the gift has been received I can reveal the full project.  This cute little sheep that I crocheted, using a pattern designed by Liz Ward.

The second is a Japanese rice bag which I made by adapting a pattern designed by K Z Stevens.  I made it for my daughter for Christmas, filling it with bees wax pellets and organic cotton fabric so that she can make some bees wax wraps to use.  I really enjoyed making this bag and I have some more on my project list for 2020!!  They were my final two projects for 2019.  To see all my completed projects for 2019 you can visit my Projects 2019 page.

I didn't manage to get all of the cute little stitcheries for the mystery advent project designed by Helen Stubbing of Hugs and Kisses completed but I have them on my list to complete this year and will then be ahead with my Christmas stitching for 2020!  Now that the stitch-a-long is complete you can buy this pattern from Helen here.

Also on my list of projects for 2020 is the BOM i-stitch-club project by Gail Pan.  The January block looks gorgeous and I am looking forward to seeing the project take shape month by month.

I joined Gail's BOM i-stitch-club in 2018 too but only managed to finish the first three months as we then relocated back to Switzerland from the UK and I didn't manage to catch up again.  So, I have decided to try and fit that project in on a monthly basis along with the new one! The 2018 project can now be bought as a pattern called Send My Love.

I have started a new file for 2020 and as well as the two projects mentioned above, I have lots of other projects in mind for this year.  I will add them to my file as and when I get started on them.  One of them will be another baby quilt as I have another grand-baby expected for February! Better get started with that!!

Time for another catch up!

It has been a little while again since I last posted and I thought it was time for a bit of a catch up with what I've been doing.

One the first things I have been doing was to crochet a little owl for my grand-daughter.  This little owl is currently making it's way to her new home.  I hope little Sophie will like her!!

I also finally sent my Family Tree Memory Quilt to my Father-in-law for his 90th birthday.  Although we had the party to celebrate in September.  His actual birthday is in December.  Since you last saw this quilt I decided that it needed a bit more colour, so I added some red buttons to the tree to give it a bit of a 'pop'.  He was delighted with the quilt which made me very happy.

I recently had a visit from my youngest daughter and while she was here we got out some of the Christmas decorations which included some of my favourite Christmas quilts.  We had a lot of fun putting them in place.

Since the beginning of December I have been taking part in a Christmas stitch-a-long.  This is being hosted by Helen Stubbings of Hugs n Kisses and is such a lot of fun.  It is a mystery project.  Each day you are sent a little stitchery pattern to download and stitch.  I have been keeping up quite well so far and I am very excited to discover what the mystery project will be!!

Finally, I crocheted another gift for a family member but, as her birthday is later this month, I am not revealing the finished project.  That will have to wait until next time. In the meantime, in case I don't get back here until after the Christmas and New Year holidays, I wish you all a very merry time!! 

Finished!!

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, I have finished my feathered star quilt!!

I am absolutely thrilled with the way it has turned out.  It is my first real attempt at combining precision piecing with free motion quilting.  I normally opt for an easier, more relaxed style of quilt (i.e. quick finish!)

It gave me such a lot of pleasure making this and I think I will definitely choose to make some more quilts of this style in the future.

I'll leave you with lots of photos and wish you all a lovely upcoming weekend!  I'm off to celebrate my grand-daughter's first birthday!!

Some more progress....

After my last post in which I showed the progression of my latest project from completed feathered star block to four borders on, I thought you might like to see how the quilt has grown since.

I have never made a medallion style quilt before but, I have looked at many in books and on the internet and I know that many of them include an appliqué border, so that is what I decided to add as the final border on my quilt. 

I found the tulip appliqué shapes in a Debbie Mumm book that I have had many years and I adapted them to fit the size of the border I wanted to added.

I used scraps of the fabrics that I had used in the pieced section of the quilt and I was pleased that I had just enough of the aqua/teal blue striped fabric to add a few dots so that it was represented elsewhere in the quilt and not just in the narrow border. The next stage was to layer, baste and then quilt it.

I am not used to quilting this size of quilt and, it has been a bit of a challenge here and there but, overall I am really pleased with the outcome.

Yesterday I started quilting the outer border and, I wasn't sure whether I should quilt the appliqué shapes or not.  In the end I decided I would and I am glad that I did as I am really pleased with how they look (apologies for the loose threads everywhere in these photographs). 

Now, I am looking forward to finding time this week to finish quilting the remaining borders and then to get the binding added.

Tidying up all the loose threads and finishing the binding is my favourite part of making a quilt as the whole quilt suddenly seems to come together!

Thank you for visiting and wishing you all a lovely week!