Handmade Exchange

There has been a little exchange made, of the handmade kind, between two bloggy friends on opposite sides of the world.  One arrived in the sweltering heat of Australia's summer, the other in England's snowy Winter.

Isn't it delightful to stumble across someone's blog in which you have an immediate response?  You read over old posts and eagerly anticipate new ones.  You get a teeny sense of who that person is, you celebrate each other and you have a feeling that if you were to meet you may just be friends.

And that's how it happened that this beautiful, quirky brooch landed in my letterbox all the way from snowy England.

Isn't it adorable?  Do you remember how I said that I needed to make time and the only way I could do that is if I found a little piece of old, faded linen, hand stitch some numbers on it and a couple of wonky hands to show my favourite time of day, add some pretty touches Julie Arkell-style, make it into a watch that I can wear around my wrist so that every time I look at it I will have plenty of time left in my day to do whatever I wish!  Now I can.

And my handmade exchange in return.  A linen and cotton cuff, with buttons, frayed edges and a Chinese girl with red lips, pearl earrings and sharply defined eyebrows.

I love being a part of this gorgeously generous blogging community.  It's nice, isn't it?

Trudy

Made in a Day

Do you ever have those days when you want to put aside all your major craft projects to start something brand, spanking new?  You know that you have a gazillion hours left to finish on each and every one, so you want to choose new fabric or wool, or paper and start playing.  You want to sit down and go through the entire process in one day, and at the end have a finished product.  Do you have these days?  It's not just me being fickle, is it?

Sometimes it doesn't matter what it is.  It's simply the newness and the satifsfaction of creating something in a small space of time.  Well that hit me today!  What to make?  I found inspiration on my Pinterest boards from creative people such as Julie Arkell, Cathy Cullis, Jessie Chorley and Rebecca Sower.  Absolutely adore these gorgeous creative women.

I gathered some wrinkly linen, old doileys, buttons and thread and started sewing it all together.  This red button didn't make the distance, although it looks rather pretty here.  Any clues as to what I'm making?

 

 

Blue button instead of the red.  It's so much fun, just doing exactly what I want.  This stitch here, a running thread of red there.  One more photo, then I'll tell you what it is, or have you guessed already?

It's a cuff.  For around a wrist!  Purely decorative and fun.  To make a statement, of the Granny Chic kind.  Bit tricky to photograph without my wrist in it, but you'll just have to visualise how fun it looks!!

 

 

 

Okay, I'm happy now.  I have had a play today and thoroughly enjoyed the process.  I've started something, designed it, tweaked it, finished it ready to wear, and now I'm ready to get back into my long-haul projects.

 

 

Bye for now!

Trudy

The Best Bits

the best bits

of today

in between the less interesting bits

that we don't even need to mention

 

 

admiring a bouquet of basil from a dear friend

each time I walked by I put my nose right into that basil

strategically photographed to not include unrenovated bits

 

 

new sheet music

from a much-loved movie

wanting to master it immediately, or even sooner

realising it will take longer than that

 

 

magazines ready for a long, leisurely read

do you like having them there, ready for the right moment?

like a gift, unopened

 

 

fabric begging to be sewn

dusted the machine off, and hit the pedal

filled the bobbin three times

 

 

 

now only six seams to go

and it's a quilt top

 

 

the best bits, without the other bits

how was your day?

 

Trudy

Roses, Jugs and a new Hexagon

Thought I'd share with you some rosy posy photos from our garden, and front fence.  They are simply gorgeous at the moment and I keep wanting to capture them on my camera and push my face into them and inhale deeply ... ahhh bliss.

 

 

Don't ask me what they're called - apart from roses!  I refer to them as the red one, the apricot one, the yellow one etc. If anyone would like to enlighten me, I'd be happy.

 

 



And because I've been getting some gentle nudging, I've finished another hexagon.  The countdown is on.  Only sixteen to go.  I thought this one looked like it would complement my collection of windowsill jugs.

 

 

 

 

 

And now for some feet up time, with my crochet.

Trudy

A Favourite Quilt

With spring here, it was time to pack away my winter quilt and put on the bed a softer, lighter coloured one.  And this is one of my favourites, with lots of dreamy, faded fabrics in both linen and cotton and a few feedsack fabrics thrown into the mix too.  This one is called Faded Secrets.

The quilt had an interesting beginning as I had set out to make an advent calender.  I had carefully chosen all the fabrics from my stash ready to make little advent pockets, but when I saw the collection of fabrics all over the table I loved it so much I wanted it to become a quilt, not just something we brought out once a year.

It is a very simple grid of 11 x 11 squares, of 5 inches.  I love squares so much, but when it came time to quilt it, I wanted something a bit different, to make these quaint fabrics a little more contemporary and had the idea of quilting in circles all over it.   And I think I set a record with this one, because I hand quilted it in 28 days - obviously nothing else got done in those days between April and June of 2010!

On the border I quilted in diamonds, and when I had finished, I calculated that the quilt had approximately 13,860 hand-quilted stitches in it.

The backing fabric of stripes was rather expensive, so rather than buying enough to cover the entire back, I patched that too.  The binding fabric was a gift from a friend's stash, she no longer wanted, and the feedsack fabric was also a gift from a friend, so I have lots of lovely memories of friendships sewn into the quilt.

 

I love that within this quilt there are sheep and little houses, and girls tucked up in bed.  There are red roses and little cottages and the Eiffel Tower.  I love to run my hands over all those stitches and dream about the little girl in bed and wonder if she has been to Paris and seen the Eiffel Tower, and whether the roses have been painted red by a pack of cards and who lives in those sweet little cottages with the blue trees in the yard.

 

 

Enough, I'm rambling now and this post is just covering up the fact that I don't have anything new to share with you today!!

 

Hope you're enjoying your Tuesday.

Trudy

 

 

 

Let's talk Quilts

Yes, I talk wool for a while and then I want to talk fabric, love flicking between the two, love creating with both.  I have a couple of quilt tops ready for the sandwiching stage, where quilt top, wadding, backing and thousands of stitches becomes a finished quilt.  Thought I'd share a couple with you in the hope that it inspires me to finish them.  Good thought, let's see if it works!!

This first one, 'Hopscotch Harriet' is a stash buster, using a favourite pattern called 'Rebekah Amy Quilt' by Rosalie Quinlan.  Maybe it's still in its unfinished state because I cut out and sewed three versions of this same pattern at the same time ... whatever was I thinking?

Love the colours.  Want to see the other two versions, the other two finished versions?  I think it's just the 300 squares of hand quilting required on each quilt that I'm resisting.  This next one, made for Girl 1, is called 'Milk and Honey'.

 

And for Girl 2, 'Strawberries a Go-Go'.  They look so completely different in the different colourways.  Do you have a favourite?

 

 

Then there is 'Iced Cupcakes' which I started in 2003 ... yikes, that's a confession and a half.  Designed by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House, it consists of lots of stitchery and applique, neither of which I had done before.  It was a monumental task!!

 

 

And of course, my recent 'I See Red' quilt is in the queue, and may just jump to the front!

My current hand-quilting project really needs some time devoted to it. I've almost missed the best time of year to hand quilt, when it's cold and the near-finished quilt is all snuggly on your lap ... ahh, bliss. Looking over in the corner there, I see a very sad sight. My neglected project sitting sadly on its hoop ... like an old party frock that no longer fits, but still hangs in your cupboard reminding you of slimmer days.  Constantly reminding you!

So armed with all those reminders of unfinished quilts, I really shouldn't be thinking of making any more right now, should I?!!  But.  My two girls are now wanting their own bedrooms and when girls go into new bedrooms they want to decorate it exactly as they want (yes, I'm scared already!!) and they have asked their Mum/Mummy to make them a special quilt for their new rooms, one will be green and one will be pink, I know this already.  So the other day, out came the necessary tubs of fabric.

 

And from those tubs of fabric, young fingers picked favourite pieces of fabric.  And we ended up with a green pile of fabric and a pink pile of fabric.  A little tweaking needs to happen, shh don't tell them!!

 

 

Okay, now just to find a few more hours in each day, and I'll be set!!

 

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

It will be fabulous here, hubby's home from hospital, and we're celebrating Fathers Day!!

 

Cheers, Trudy



Janome, I've missed you

My sewing machine and I have been spending some time becoming re-acquainted with each other.  It all started with the tea cups.  Many happy moments were spent feeding fabric through the cogs and wheels of my machine, and it made me realise that it has been such a very long time since I've sat sewing pieces of fabric together.  Not anymore.

This weekend, any chance I could, when no-one else was taking any notice of what I was doing, I would sneak off to do some more chain piecing of 1.5 inch squares onto 4.5 inch squares.  There are 576 little squares to sew, and I'm on a mission!!  There was a moment when I thought fabric bunting draped around the room could work a treat, but no, on I went.

This is a quilt I have mentioned before, back in January in fact ... oh my gosh!!  It has sat for quite some time now progressing Not At All, not one little bit, not one single seam, gathering dust you could say, but now I have a secret aim that this will be a finished quilt top within say, ooooh the next week? (or maybe two!)

It is such a joy to play with so many vibrant and stunning fabrics.  Thank you Mr. Fassett.  I actually can't wait now until this baby's finished.

Trudy