Blog Archives

Plaza Regency Hotel - Sliema, Malta

31/3/2024

The reason I've been a bit quiet on social media is that we've been away to Malta for 10 days, while my husband took part in the 2024 Malta Seniors Cricket Festival playing for Norfolk and Suffolk Seniors - and his team won!! We had glorious weather, delicious food, some sight seeing, and this amazing view from our balcony at the Plaza Regency Hotel. We've had such a wonderful time, however now we're back, it's time to resume our renovations at home - lots of decorating needs to be completed, boxes unpacked, then maybe by the end of April I'll finally get back into my sewing studio!

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Poppy Patch Valdani Thread Club - Month 2

9/3/2024

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These GORGEOUS variegated Valdani Threads stranded embroidery threads arrived in the post recently from Poppy Patch here in the UK. The following colours arrived this month -

O522 Raspberry
O575 Crispy Leaf
JP2 Spun Gold
M24 Water Reflections
M68 Blue Clouds
M47 Robin's Nest

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Cool Blue Lavender Cushion

3/3/2024

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This project was perfect for stitching while I've been away from my sewing studio, as it incorporates lots of hand sewing. This pattern was designed by Jo Colwill of Cowslip Workshops and was originally purchased back in 2022 from their stall at the Malvern Spring Quilt Show. First of all, the stitchery design was traced onto the background fabric - a very smart blue ticking - and then hand embroidered using the blue DMC embroidery thread supplied with the kit. The lavender really does look as if it's gently blowing in the breeze...

...this hare has been cut out of a piece of printed linen, fused to the background fabric using a piece of Lit-Steam-a-Seam 2 and then free-motion appliqued into place. The front of this project was hand quilted very simply in a cross-hatch design using a DMC perle thread in ecru, and a few wooden bee buttons were finally stitched in place...

...although this is a pattern for a wallhanging, I've adapted it and made it into a small cushion. The back has been hand embroidered with my name and date, and has a hidden zipper so the cover can be removed if it needs to be laundered. The front and back were machined together with wrong sides together, then this smart yellow checked fabric was used to make a strip of double-fold binding, which was used to cover all the raw edges. The corners were mitred, and the folded edge of the binding folded over to the back of the cushion cover, and hand stitched in place. Finally a plump feather pad was put inside...

...and here's the finished cushion - my first completed project for 2024. A beautiful sunny morning gave me the ideal opportunity for a photoshoot outside. I couldn't decide which picture I liked best so here are all of them! There is fabric with greenhouses on, so obviously I had to take a picture there, and we've seen hares almost daily running across the salt marshes, so that was another obvious location...

...I couldn't resist tucking it in a beautiful camelia, to reflect the pretty floral fabrics used in this kit. And obviously it had to photographed among the lavender in the walled garden, although that's not flowering yet.

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Plaza Regency Hotel - Sliema, Malta

Poppy Patch Valdani Thread Club - Month 2

Cool Blue Lavender Cushion

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