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The second month of "Tree of Life" - the latest mystery button club by Lynette Anderson Designs - arrived in the post from Cross Patch yesterday. This gorgeous block is called "Take Flight" and a combination of Lynette's distinctive embroidery and applique. I haven't started month yet - still finishing off a few smaller projects and still deliberating over whether to use this gorgeous yarn dyed fabric or a beautiful piece of linen for my background fabric. Ohhhh decisions, decisions, decisions! 
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A couple of weeks ago, a very parcel filled with some beautiful kits arrived in the post from Cross atch, an online quilt shop based in Wales, here in the UK. One of the kits that was in that very large parcel was "Basket of Flowers" by Lynette Anderson Designs. I've been using some gorgeous Valdani perle threads recently, from the Cross Patch Favourites collection, and used some of them for the hand embroidery for this project too. These threads are really lovely to use, I think I prefer them to the Valdani stranded threads!...
...the front of the cushion has been quilted very simply in a cross hatch design using grey 40wt Aurifil thread. This has blended well with these gorgeous fabrics. I added a few more to the kit, and linen borders to make the cushion larger. The embroidered piece has been trimmed with vintage lace and appliqued onto the centre of the cushion, with some self-covered buttons added as the sunflower centres. The feature print from the Peacock Manor collection was included in the kit for the back of the cushion. As I prefer to use a zipper enclosure for cushions, I used teamed it with some Tilda fabric, and inserted a hidden zipper...
...and here's the completed cushion. Adding the linen borders has made it a much more useful size, and this linen works really well with the soft muted tones of Lynette's fabrics. It's been filled with a plump feather inner, and is all ready to be wrapped and given as a special birthday gift for my mum. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!  Several weeks ago I'd bought this pattern Vintage Sewing Collage by the Australian designer Gail Pan, from Cross Patch in Wales. Along with the pattern, which includes the full-size traceable sheet and very easy to follow instructions, Julia had included some tape measure ribbon and ric-rac for trimming it with. After deliberating for absolutely ages about what colour thread to use for the hand embroidery, I decided to use one of the beautiful spools of hand dyed Valdani variegated perle thread that is part of the Cross Patch Favourites collection. I used the P11 colour and teamed it with a piece of linen. The design was traced using a lightbox and a very fine tipped Micron Pigma pen (my favourite is the 005 size nib in brown). This Valdani perle thread was a delight to sew with and this picture really doesn't do it justice as it looks even better in real life...
...I've added some colonial knots to the ric-rac trimming, using another one of those gorgeous hand-dyed Valdani perle threads from the Cross Patch Favourites collection. A good rummage in my enormous button tin produced some antique buttons that have been stitched into place...
...for the background of this piece, I used some "vintage sewing-themed" fabric that had been in my fabric box forever. Unfortunately it was only a fat quarter and the selvege with the fabric information on was missing, so I have no idea of designer or fabric collection that it's from.The tape measure ribbon has been "coffee stained" to make it look older before being machine stitched in place, along with some sewing themed bits and bobs for embellishment...
...a quick trip to my local Hobbycraft store for some more supplies (I love their white box frames) and I was ready to get it finished. The embroidered linen was machine appliqued into place on the background fabric. A layer of polyester felted wadding was fused to the wrong side of the background fabric, then it was quilted very simply. A piece of thick card was covered in another layer of felted polyester wadding, and the background fabric was wrapped around it and secured into place with a layer of craft glue. Now it's been framed in a Hobbycraft deep box frame, and it's ready to display on the wall in my sewing studio!  A few weeks ago I had a lovely parcel arrive from the Little Quilt Store in Australia. This pattern is called "Stitching Pouch", designed by Lynette Anderson - also included was a vinyl sewing-themed flap. I pulled a few fabrics from my "Lynette" box for making this project - the pattern suggests using strips of fabric for the back, but I preferred to use this piece from one of the feature prints from Lynette's Hollyhock Cottage collection. This has been machine quilted using a variegated King Tut quilting thread, in a very simple cross-hatch design...
...I used a piece of linen for the front of the pouch, which was then hand embroidered using a selection of Valdani Perle threads from the Cross Patch Favourites collection. The vinyl sewing-themed flap was hand stitched into place on the back of the pouch, and folds over to close with a popper fastening...
...inside the pouch there's a plastic zippered pocket which is perfect for storing some sewing bits and bobs and a pocket for a small embroidery hoop and pencils and pens. There's even a small pincushion for keeping needles safe and secure...
...this stitching pouch is ideal for putting my latest hand sewing project in, and will be packed in my suitcase when I'm off on my hols next week as I always like to have a sewing project or two with me for the journey!  **GIVEAWAY** exciting news as well as having five pairs of tickets to give away for the fantastic Festival of Quilts 2019, I also have a discount code which is NICOLA19 and gives £2 off standard advance adult tickets/ £1 off advance concessions (£14.50 instead of £16.50 adult advance/£14.00 instead of £15.00 concessions), plus £1.95 fulfilment fee per transaction. This discount is for advanced bookings only and can be redeemed before 23:59 on Wednesday 31st July. Tickets can be booked online at https://www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/tickets/ticket-options/ or by calling 0844 581 1319 and quoting the discount code. Remeber to comment below if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a pair of free tickets! Good luck in the giveaway and I'll announce the winners of the free tickets on Sunday 7th July.  Ohhh those lovely people at The Festival of Quilts have offered FIVE pairs of tickets for some of my lucky followers. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets, just comment below, and I'll announce the lucky winners on Sunday 7th July. This giveaway is also on my Instagram account and on my quilting FB page. *Please note this is only for people with a UK address.  Here are just a few of the beautiful quilts on display at the exhibition of students and customers work, in the Emmanuel Hall, Bungay. Organised by Sew and So's of Bungay, this event is also on tomorrow., so if you're free, why don't you pop along to have a look? Oh and there's tea and cake too there too - and I can highly recommend the lemon drizzle. And after that, there's always Sew and So's for some shopping too! 
 Last year I bought a super book called Make it Blue by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs. It's filled with lots of smaller pretty projects, as well as the instructions for making the larger quilt that's featured on the front cover. I'd bought this kit from Cross Patch to make the "Share Your Heart" wallhanging last year, and thought it was about time I put it to good use. Most of the hand embroidery was stitched using DMC threads and the 2 hearts were stitched using a gorgeous blue varigated Valdani perle thread. Rather than embroidering the mouse's nose and the flower, I used some vintage buttons instead...
...these gorgeous blue fabrics are by Edytar Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics. I particularly like the stripey fabric that Julia included in the kit for the binding. The applique was stitched in place using Aurifil 80wt thread. This wallhanging is approx 9" wide x 16" long and was machine quilted very simply using a neutral coloured Aurifil 50wt thread, that I'd also used for piecing...  ...a small quilt sleeve was hand stitched to the back of the wallhanging, and it's ready to display on a decorative quilt hanger.  This project has been on my "to-do" list for several months! The pattern for Forest Friends, by Lynette Anderson Designs, and these hand painted wooden buttons, was a Christmas present from a very good friend - she knows me so well! - and I bought the white wooden frame from Little Quilt Store in Australia. The stitchery design was traced using a Micron Pigma pen, and hand embroidered using a selection of DMC threads...
...the stitchery designs have been embelished with hand painted wooden buttons, and each individual picture has a small piece of wadding fused to the back. There's even a small piece of ribbon trimming that has been appliqued into place. Here's my completed picture, and it's all ready to be displayed in my lounge.  Ohhh some treasure was waiting for me when I arrived home from work today ! These GORGEOUS skeins are from the Vintage Sewing Club by Cottage Garden Threads, and arrived in the post today from Cross Patch. I haven't started stitching the designs that come with these threads, as I may just keep the patterns for a rainy day, and add the threads to my ever growing collection!  |
 About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! 
 
 
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