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As usual I've had another VERY productive year, with lots of quiltystuff being produced in my sewing studio - quilts and bags, scarves and wallhangings, tablerunners and journal covers and fabric bowls - the list goes on and on! Now I need to blitz my sewing studio and make a list of the projects that have been tucked away waiting to get made.
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Well here it is, my final project for 2020, this quilt is called Peace and Joy, and was the 2020 mystery button club quilt by Lynette Anderson designs. I'd signed up for this with Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts, based in Cornwall here in the UK, and each month I received a pattern along with a hand painted wooden button...  ...now the quilt has been completed (I machine quilted this one very simply) and the binding has been added, the hand painted wooden buttons are stitched in place with embroidery thread...
...this shows a close-up of the machine quilting - I did a very simple machine quilting using the stitch-in-the-ditch technique between the rows, and along each side of the inner black border, where the border is pressed away from the centre piece, and pressed away from the pieced border. It's easier to see this on the back of the wallhanging. ...I'd been doodling some ideas for the quilt label, and try to incorporate the theme from the front of the quilt on the label. The Christmas tree is a design from one of the blocks, and a circular wreath seemed very appropriate. I used a few variegated Valdani threads for the hand embroidery, in the same colours that were used on the quilt...
...the label was then hand appliqued to the back of the wallhanging, making sure that my stitches didn't come through to the front of the wallhanging. I'm getting short of quilt hangers, so I've ordered one with a festive theme from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts, so that this quilt will be able to be displayed for Christmas 2021.  My absdolute FAVOURITE needles for hand embroidery are Hiroshima Tulip needles. Not only are they the Rolls Royce of sewing needles, they come beautifully packaged too. These arrived in the post a few days ago from Cross Patch - ready for putting into my sewing basket, along with a few embroidery threads and a couple of new projects to start in the new year.  Peace and Joy is the 2020 mystery button club by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. The sixth and final installment is called Flying Santa and the pattern, along with a hand painted wooden button, was supplied from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts The pattern includes full size stichery design and applique templates to trace. You can use whichever method of applique you prefer, but I'm using the Apliquick method. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube demonstrating this method if you're not familiar with it...  ...once all the blocks were joined together, along with the pieced border, it's all ready to be quilted. I prefer to use a thin felted fusible polyester wadding, H630 for small wall hangings and tablerunners, as it is quite thin but still gives some structure to the project. I've also been doodling some ideas too for a label, and all will be revealed when this quilt is completed - hopefully by the end of 2020. I need to order a festive quilt hanger too so that will be top of my list for some online shopping!  Christmas Cheer is a pattern by an Australian designer Janelle Wind and has been in my pattern box for several years. I'd originally made some a few years ago, and I don't know why I haven't made more of these, as they look so much nicer than a normal bottle bag! I used some festive fabrics from the Scandinavian Christmas 2 collection by Lynette Anderson Designs for this project which I'd bought from Cross Patch, along with the variegated red Valdani perle 12wt thread that was used for the hand embroidery...
...fabrics from the same collection were used for the lining and the handle, and the front flap is trimmed with ric-rac. The machine quilting was kept very simple, using a variegated green King Tut quilting thread in a cross hatch design...
...here's the finished article, with a bottle of fizz inside, before it was given as a special gift for Christmas. I'm planning on making a few more of these ready for 2021 when hopefully we'll be able to spend more time celebrating with our loved ones.  Drum roll please - my latest project is completed! This is The Christmas Box, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs and was bought last year as a kit from Lynette's online shop Little Quilt Store in Australia. The kit included the fabrics for the outer part of the box, applique and hexagons, wool felt and the pattern. I just needed to add fabric for the lining, threads, wadding and a 2 way zipper. Making this box has included lots of hand embroidery using a selection of variegated Valdani embroidery threads along with hand applique...  ...I used fusible Bosal In-R-Form for the wadding, this is a structured foam wadding which keeps the box firm. The 2 way zipper was reasonably easy to insert. I bought a metre of zipper tape along with a couple of zipper pulls online from Zipper Station (I was very impressed with their prompt delivery) and it only took a couple of minutes to put the zipper pulls on the tape in opposite directions...
...a row of hexagons were hand appliqued around the middle of the box, and I used a mid grey Aurifil 80wt thread for this. As I was using a fusible foam wadding, I constructed the box a bit different to Lynette's instructions, and made my hinge dfferently too. I'd made lots of notes when I was constructing the Stitching Circle Basket a few weeks ago, so that helped too...
...I've appliqued a small hand ebroidered label to the inside of the lid. I used a very fine curved needle to stitch it in place, as the lid was already constructed with wadding and a piece of firm card...
...this is the perfect size for keeping a tin of chocolates or biscuits in and no-one else will know they're in there except you. Merry Christmas everyone!  Before this project is finally revealed, The Christmas Box, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs, is also in need of a pretty label! I used a similar design for the Stitching Circle Basket, and just needed to change the central motif for something with a festive theme. This will be hand embroidered using a selection of variegated Valdani threads that were used for the embroidered lid of this box, and when it's completed it will be hand appliqued into place.  Here are my two recent festive makes - both of these designs, A Christmas List and Spirit of Christmas are by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs and the patterns were both purchased from Cross Patch. These have been hand embroideredand pieced together very simply. They're now on display in my sdewing studio , although I think I really need to purchase a mmore festive looking quilt hanger!  Whatever would I do without Clover Wonder Clips! These little clips are essential for my bag making projects and they're brilliant at holding lots of layers together. My fine quilting pins would be bent to death if I'd used them on this project, and these super little clips made a tricky job so much easier!...  ...this pretty festive fabric that I've used for the lining is by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson Designs, and is from her Scandinavian Christmas 2 collection. I'd purchased this from Coast & Country Crafts and Quilts especially for this project, and have plenty left over for one or two other festive makes. Once the base has been machined into place, a bias strip is added to cover all the raw edges and to keep the inside looking neat and tidy.  A Christmas List is another festive pattern by the Australian designer Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs. I've made several projects using her patterns, and this festive wallhanging was perfect for decorating my sewing studio. The pattern includes a full size traceable stitchery design, and I've used a variegated red DMC embroidery thread for the hand embroidery. These tiny patchwork blocks are used to trim the top and bottom of the wallhanging...
...I usually add a small hand embroidered label to my projects and decided to embroider directly onto the backing fabric for this one as the wallhanging is just 3.5" wide. I used a white Sewline pencil along with a lightbox and also traced some festive motifs from the original design. Then I simply stitched over the drawn lines using an ecru embroidery thread in a simple backstitch...
...I kept the hand quilting very simple, using a variegated ecru Valdani perle 12wt thread quilting some "rows" between the words on the list and also aound the outside of the stars on the patchwork blocks...
...it's a bit tricky to photograph as it's long and narrow - 20.5" x 3.5" - but it's all ready to display in my sewing studio with another Natalie Bird design.  |
 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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