Latest Purchases

I did purchase some wool roving and embroidery supplies at Gaspereau Valley Fibres on Saturday.

 

The cone is 100% cotton that I want to dye using my Intense Color Blocks. I will paint them with a brush, let the fibres dry, then heat set with an iron.

 

The gold and turquoise fibres on the bottom of the photo are root sizing 100 % silk that has also been hand dyed. I would have loved to get the undyed silk so that I could colour it myself.

 

Of course, I couldn't pass up the wool roving. The cone contains some curly roving.

 

Don't you just love the Unicorn Tails! These South African wools were hand dyed in Texas. 

 

I can't wait to use these in some art projects.

 

The card with the lamb will be mailed to my granddaughter with a printed message from me.





Practice Makes Perfect?

I've started to do some experiments with different stitches. It's sort of a sampler of stitches using various weights of threads. My intention is not to have a 'pretty' piece when the cloth is all stitched but a practise piece that I can reference when needed. I have a length of fabric that I've hooped. When the hoop is filled, I'll just move it down to the next clear space. It's not pretty but it works for me!  Some stitchers have been recording on fabric sheets that they bind together into a book. Others do line samplers. Mine will just get rolled when this length is filled out!

I'm using the book by Judith Baker Montano, Free-Form Embroidery as a guide. This is Judith's third book in her stitch dictionary series. Sixty traditional stitches are featured along with her watercolour illustrations, which shows the reader how to distort the stitch into organic shapes. The final chapter covers “Thinking Like a Painter” and features some of her land/seascapes and underwater projects. 

Personally, I like this book.

For online reference I usually default to Mary Corbet's Needle'n Thread web site. Have you looked at her Stitch Fun Index. "Stitch Fun is a series of articles featuring step-by-step photo tutorials that explore various hand embroidery stitches and the fun things you can do with them."  However, Tips & Techniques is another section to explore.

This is the 'pretty' stitch sampler that I did for a hand embroidery program a number of years ago. There are over 50 different stitches in this piece. Wool was used on linen. I was a bit of a challenge but I'm pleased with the result!

From Ewe to You

I was out walking this morning in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, and found a great little yarn shop called From Ewe to You. The owner is Rachel Hooper. Her shop has beautiful yarns. Of course I was drawn to the glittery stuff. She also has fun projects and patterns, needles and knitting accessories, books, gifts (some made by local artists), as well as some felting supplies. Here's some photos of the shop. The second photo shows a knitted shawl that has been blocked to the correct size. Enjoy!

Appliqué Patterns

Here's one of my machine appliqué Fantasy Fish. I love using batiks as the colours are so bright.






As promised in the previous post, I've made a list of a few sites that have free patterns for Appliqué. Have fun checking them out.
Make Baby Stuff is just that, stuff for baby!
The Stitching Cow has a simple house to do.
Lots of applique patterns at the Sacred Spiral.
Bella Online has some wonderful applique patterns that Judie Bellingham found on her web travels. Something like I'm doing.
A simple butterfly at About.com: DIY Fashion
Wee Folk Art has applique done in felt but that doesn't mean you can't use cotton. In fact, check out the whole web site as there are lots of other patterns too.
Have fun with these!
If you like cats, there is a pattern on Craftown.
Block Crazy has free patchwork and applique patterns.
Teddlywinks has a couple of bear patterns to put on a small wall hanging or mini-quilt.
Applique pitchers in a log cabin quilt.
Welcome spring with this flower applique. More flowers here!
Using geometric shape templates in applique.
Stain Glass Spring Tulip

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

Table Toppers

The Eastern Edge Quilters are making table toppers for Quilt Canada 2010 in Calgary. As a result, I searched for some free patterns for quilters to use.

Fat Cat Patterns
Hexagon Table Topper or Wall Hanging
Wool Flower Table Topper
Hot Cross Buns Table Topper
Free patterns.com has lots of table topper patterns

As a rule, I don't do piecing. My hexagonal table topper consisted of a basic quilt sandwich. The back fabric was about 3 - 4 inches larger than the front because it is brought to the front and used as a binding. I did free motion stitching over the hexagon shape using a variegated thread. The binding was machine stitched. This particular type of topper is reversible. I thought for sure I had taken a picture of it but I can't find one!

Several quilters used leftover blocks from quilts they had made.