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Friday 27 June 2014

Looking back and ATC's

Two years ago I published my first blog post! Well, it was not much of a post as all I put on was this picture of my Peace River II quilt.


No words! How odd, but one lovely person managed to find me and became my first follower.

I must say that I sometimes still struggle with how blogger works - like for instance I would love to have a 'signature' at the bottom of my post like an email but can not find how to do this. I shall probably find out when looking for something else!

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And so on to ATC's. In my last post I showed you the lovely little ATC that Susan sent me and I had promised to send her one too. With our pomegrantes now flowering they reminded me of the pomegranate project I did a while ago 'A Year in the Life of a Pomegranate'. I took photographs over a year of the pomegrante bud and flower through to the following year when there were still pecked out pomegrante skins on the tree.

This pomegranate spent the winter in my fruit bowl and dried out like a gourd.


I remember loving the colours of this and this zoomed in picture with it's bit of sparkle.


I did a lot of work based on these colours.

Thinking about this project again I remembered a recently re-discovered Stef Francis thread pack I had come across while re-organising my threads and decided that now was the time to use it!

Also in the pack was some dyed scrim which, when ironed onto pelmet vilene with bondaweb made the perfect base for the stitching that I planned. Fun time! Using various machine threads and the few embroidery stitches that my basic Bernina has I covered the piece with stitching and couched threads ending up with this.



Which was then cut, trimmed and edged to produce these.


My original intention was to add some hand stitch or beads but once they were cut I decided that they looked great just as they were.

Susan - yours will be in the post tomorrow! If anyone else would like to swap ATC's then I have three more ready to go.

Hope you all have a great weekend - it's going to rain here!

Lin xx

Thursday 26 June 2014

Lovely things in the post!

Yesterdays post brought two delightful treats.

The first a postcard from Monika Kinner-Whalen part of the Canada Day postcard swap.
The theme for the swap was 'Maple Leaf' and here is the card I received from Monika.


The lovely rich colours of these leaves give it an autumnal feel as though the leaves are gently floating in the sky.

The second treat was this pretty little ATC from Susan.


I love that little rabbit!


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In the garden the pomegranates have a few flowers on them



I do love these flowers.

Hope you are having a good week.

Lin xx

Saturday 21 June 2014

FNSI and postcards


When I made my Maple Leaf postcards recently I had intended to make six and had printed up enough bondawebbed newspaper to do so. However a look in the cupboard revealed that I was out of pelmet vilene - either that or I have put it somewhere safe! Fortunately I had one piece put aside that was enough for the four postcards that I made.
Now that fresh supplies have arrived from Nid-Noi I decided to spend my afternoon  finishing off the other two cards.
I wanted to make these a little different from the other four so decided to use a different thread and highlighted the dark print instead of the light print. I also left a little space to write the words Maple Leaf.



Right, now I am off to see what everyone else was up to.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Lin xx

Tuesday 17 June 2014

A Finished Present for my Sewing Machine

Finally I have finished making these


into this!


A nice cheerful addition to my desk and the horrid plastic cover is consigned to the back of the cupboard!
Just a few more shots as I am really pleased with the way this has turned out!



And maybe a few more!!









Hope you are having a good week.

Lin xx

Tuesday 10 June 2014

A New Orchid in the Garden

Why this orchid has suddenly appeared in our garden I have no idea! However, it is lovely to have found one and we will appreceite it while it is here.


It is a Fragrant Orchid - Gymnadenia conopsea and stands about one foot high.


It is a pretty, delicate pink against the strong colour of all our Pyramidal orchids.


We also have a lot of bee orchids this year - this one is the normal colour


But I also found this paler version today. It looks white in the picture but is actually a very very pale pink.


The temperature is creeping up here again today - I am looking forward to a day at the coast tomorrow.

Lin xx

Sunday 8 June 2014

Maple Leaf postcards finished


A lazy day today so I have completed these postcards.



Two of them are for the Canada Day postcard swap.

If there is anyone not doing the swap who would like to do a private swap with me for one of the other two cards, then please let me know by Friday 13th. If I get more than two requests then I will do a Mr Random.


Have a great week.

Lin xx

Saturday 7 June 2014

FNWF and Canadian Quilt Talk Postcard Swap


Friday Night With Friends started just after lunch - well I do have some Australian friends to sew with!
My aim for the afternoon was to get on with some postcards for the Canadian Quilt Talk Canada Day postcard swap. This is being organised by Brandy Lynn and all cards need to be in the post in time to arrive for Canada Day on July 1st.

The theme for the postcard swap is appropriately Maple Leaf.

I knew that I wanted to use this for my background.


It is a collage of painted newspaper and painted bondaweb a la Kim Thittichai which I put together a couple of years ago.

My first task was to make a maple leaf print block from Funky Foam and Foam Core Board.



Fortunately the temperature outside was around 30 degrees so my layer of sealing varnish on the block dried in super quick time!

When I am printing I usually have a 'practice piece' that I print on to before printing onto my finished piece.

I used three different green acrylic paints but in the end decided that only the darkest and the lightest would be best.

Here is my practice piece


which I love! It's on brown paper which means I will be able to crumple it up to give it more texture and then stitch into it.

Here is my printed piece for the postcards.


I use a roller to put the paint onto my block and I use the roller to give me some secondary prints.




Again, I am really pleased with these and they will make great backgrounds for future work.

Back to my postcard piece and I sprinkled it with green and bronze glitter - well this is a celebration! - some supermend and then ironed on a turquoise sheer fabric to enclosed any rough edges.


Here are my four cards ready for machining - oops! no picture of the machining I did. I will post one soon of the completed postcards as that was as far as I got that afternoon.

I spent all afternoon looking at, but not touching, this tray of brownies ready for the Strawberry Tea fundraiser for our Church where we have been helping all day today.


I did get to try a small piece today and it was scrummy!

So to yesterday evening and I finished off the embroidery on this


my ongoing project for a sewing machine cover. I also started adding hexies to the top to shape the cover.

Hope you all had a good FNSI and are enjoying your weekend.

Lin xx