Where did you come from?

I have tall purple irises opening into flower now but there is a rogue in the garden, where did you come from? I love the colour. I hope it does well.

This is the 'Snowball' tree. It was here when we bought the house but I think it has enjoyed all the extra rain this year because it has grown and flourished  and the Echiums continue to be wonderful. They are humming with bees.

The X stitch continues to grow too but I still find the 'single thread' stitching
very tiring on the eyes so I will lay it aside again for a short rest. The next 2
areas to be sewn are a cat behind her chair and a little stitchery on the stand in front of her. Both are single thread work, then onto the last row. I need to get the trinkets, a key, an acorn, scissors and a heart to finish it off.

           

Homage to Mary Brown quilt

This is my centre of the Homage to Mary Brown quilt that is shown in my last blog from the Quilt show. I had cut all the applique pieces and attached them to the background fabric months ago but hadn't started stitching it until this week.  There is soo much sewing in this pattern that I can see myself putting it aside and bringing it out among the other pieces I have. Just now it is a lovely alternative to the close -up work of my X stitch. To give a better idea of size to you this centre is 37" - 94cms. The fabrics are from Reproduction ranges which I love to use.

Quilts, the Garden and X Stitch

These are the photos of the quilts from the Barn that I took. The light shining on the quilt has lessened just how beautiful this quilt is. It is called The Burnt Quilt and is Di Ford's latest pattern.

This one I was really happy to see because I have already started to make it. I took quite a lot of close up photos to show me the colours of fabrics they had used for the birds in the outer border, which will be quite a while away as I am only in the middle at the moment.

This was so different. The Broderie Perse was magnificent. I loved how the picture of the little temple had been surrounded by flowers and all needleturn-ed to the background.

As the first lot of Irises finish, the dark blue ones flower. It is lovely to have  continuous colour in the garden. Behind them the roses are out on the Rugosa hedge and the aphids have arrived enmasse. Time to get them sprayed.

I have spent the last week x stitching in the evenings. I have a really good light and a magnifyer but it is slow going. The verse is stitched over 1 thread.

Quilts Quilts and more Quilts

Unfortunately photos are not loading at the moment. So this is just an update. 
I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Quilts In the Barn selling tickets for the entry and the raffle.
Linda has a quilt show in her barn every year to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. It was terrible weather the whole weekend which included rain, hail and snow but it did not stop the Quilters from coming.
I didn't take many photos because Linda will show them on her Blog. @ http://www.quiltsinthebarnaus.blogspot.com/
  and you can see them all and maybe make a donation to this worthy cause.  Each year a different Australian quilters' quilts are displayed. This year it was Di Ford's and her ladies of the Secret Sewing Sisterhood group, who also have a blog, under that name.  You can see their amazing beautiful work there. These ladies spent the weekend chatting to the visitors and the workers and are just lovely. Everyone had a wonderful time.
I have been spending the last few nights x-stitching but it is very slow going. I will add a photo of it later,too.

Applique with Felted Wool

This is the first quilt I made with felted wool for all the applique. It is called Primitive Garden and I got the pattern and kit from Primitive Gatherings. It is lovely to work with and soft on the hands. I made it in 2009 but only got it back from the quilter yesterday hence the untrimmed edges. This will be a winter quilt as the wool makes it heavier than normal.

This one is wool applique on cotton as well but I have just finished it and did the quilting on this one myself. It is called The Scrapbook quilt and I used my own material and wools. I now buy old wool coats and jackets and felt them myself. Depending on what colour I want I have also dyed some of the wool

myself. I have combined my love of Prim with my Reproduction fabrics which I used for the small pieced blocks in the centre. This quilt was designed by quiltsbycheri.com

 

 

Putting Together

                         

                 

I have stitched the borders of my Ann Daggs quilt to the centre piece.It took 

a bit of time to get the sawtooth border to match on all 4 corners. There is still quite a bit of applique to be sewn over the mitred corners and the pattern has a dark border on the outer edge.

 

 I get together with a couple of friends that are making the same quilt, monthly and it is keeping us motivated . We all sew other projects too and this one hasn't ending up in the cupboard as a UFO.

            

Ready For The Quilter

I won a voucher towards the cost of having a quilt quilted by Kelly of Fernview Cottage. The quilt is booked in to be done in November, so I knew I had to keep sewing and get it finished in time.
Having had the last two weekends busy with 'footy' finals and this week with the Commonwealth Games on the TV, I have happily sat at my machine and sewn.
The pattern called for a 4 1/2"wide border but as there had been more than enough fabric supplied in the kit I cut the border at 6 1/2". This has now made the quilt 82" square.

A Touch of Summer

This my border for the Ann Daggs quilt.

The border has mitred corners. The next job

is to attach it to the centre then there is more applique to be sewn over the seams.

The sun is out and it is 23C, a beautiful day.

Because it has been a little bit warmer the irises have all flowered at once.

The Echiums are all in flower too, so my garden
is full of colour.

The next photo is one I took on holiday. We are

sitting in a beach-side restaurant having breakfast.

This is the beach at Noosa in Queensland where they have a saying.

"Beautiful one day, Perfect the next"

It certainly was.