More work in progress

Great news - the book, templates and paper pieces for the La Passacaglia quilt arrived last week. The bad news is that the book is shrink wrapped so I can't take a peek before Christmas. That's probably just as well because I would be tempted to make a tiny start, and I've got so many other things to finish first.

I have picked up a few fat eights though so I'm ready to make a start on Christmas Day (ha, ha - Christmas lunch is at my house this year, so that won't be happening. However Christmas in New Zealand is often low key, and my husband has announced we'll just have a BBQ, so maybe there will be sewing time after all).

The Kaffe fabric at the back is my inspiration for this quilt

I've seen people doing amazing things with their fussy cutting for this quilt, so I'm keen to give that a try with the stripes and zig zags.

I've been working away on 'Your Place or Mine?' because I am committed to finishing the top before the end of 2014. I've now made three of the four corner sections and only have one panel left to applique.

I've also made the next two blocks for the Women of the Bible quilt. I love how they are turning out too.

Noah's wife

Sarah

all four blocks together 

I hope you're having fun with whatever you're making this week.

The blue theme continues with Goldwork

When I started my blog I always wanted it to be about all of my sewing endeavors and that's why I called it Wendy's Quilts and More. Today I want to show you some of my goldwork embroidery.

my Illuminated Initial

I first developed an interest in goldwork about three years ago when I saw some lovely pieces on display at my local embroidery shop. The entry point was a bumble bee class and I made this bee:

He's only 1.5 inches long and 2 inches wide, so is really quite tiny. At the moment he sits quite lonely in the centre of a big piece of silk because I intended to give him some friends, but of course other projects came along and he's remained lonely for three years now.

Once I'd made the bee, I was qualified to enrol in the next class I wanted to do - the goldwork initials. Perhaps I should have chosen a different initial and made a piece as a gift for someone else, but I chose 'W' and kept it for myself.

my framed initial

The lady who created the designs was our tutor and taught us the skills needed to complete a piece like this. We also learnt long and short stitch because the flowers are made that way.  Of course we could choose our own silk and threads, so I made mine in my traditional colour palette.  This piece is framed now and I'm really thrilled with how it turned out.

The following year I went back for more and made a floral sampler. This time I tried to be quite different and I went for silver on a dark background. I love this piece too and it hangs in our bedroom.

Goldwork Floral Sampler

I haven't done anymore goldwork since then, but I am very inspired by a book by Hazel Everett which has amazing designs in it, both for flowers and animals. Maybe one day ...

I'm linking up with Esther this week.

Just a reminder that the voting is now open in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. There are great quilts in every category and you can vote for your favourite 3 in each category. Just follow this link and click in the top right hand corner of the quilts you want to vote for. Have fun looking at all the amazing quilts that have been entered. Voting is opne until Saturday 8 Nov.

Blue, blue and more blue

Lately I've been very busy with my day job (paid work), but I've still managed to do a bit of stitching along the way. Strangely enough, most of it was blue!

First up, my Celtic Snow embroidery by Northern Expressions Needlework. I'm turning the final corner now and just need to check both sides are going to meet up correctly. Then I'll finish some more crosses and add all the yummy beads. It might even get finished before Christmas.

Celtic Snow

I've also had another lesson on the Needlelace I started five weeks ago. There's hardly anything to see, but this is the start of a chrysanthemum flower. It's really hard to get these petals even but I'm persevering. It's stitched on the same hand dyed linen as the Celtic Snow above.

Needlelace in progress

I haven't made much progress on the first motif because I was out of action for a few weeks with a problem in my elbow. It's a lot better now thank goodness. The photo below shows what it will look like eventually.

the model answer

The third blue thing was a star block I made for the Capital Quilters block of the month. These stars looked so good when they were up on the wall. Bridget was the lucky winner, so have fun with them Bridget.

The final blue thing was this lovely surprise that I found in the letterbox. It's a pincushion, custom made for me, by Carla of Granny Maud's Girl.  It was a great surprise, because it wasn't part of a swap or anything - it was just a random act of kindness. We've got to know each other through Possum Magic, and for some strange reason, Carla just thought those fabrics were meant for me! Carla has written a blog post about it, in which she calls me Mrs Peacock. You can read it here.
I love it Carla, and as you can see, it fits right in to my home. Thank you.

pin cushion by Granny Maud's Girl

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Trellis Crossroads

Hello and welcome. I'm Wendy and this is my second entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. This is my Trellis Crossroads quilt that I finished a few weeks ago. I'm entering it into the Home Machine Quilted category. 

Trellis Crossroads

I love bright colours, and I've used plenty of them my Trellis Crossroads quilt.  I started this quilt to try out the Trellis Crossroads pattern, but I loved how the bright batiks looked against the navy, so I kept going until I had used up all my batik charm squares.

I used hot pink for the quilting because I knew it would stand out against the navy background. I used my walking foot to quilt diamonds with straight line machine quilting. Once I reached the edges of the quilt I changed to straight lines radiating out to the four corners.

I added a little bit of hand quilting in the centre with a thicker thread as an accent.

This quilt is quite small - just 38" x 38". It's now hanging on the wall in the hall way of our home, and looks very welcoming when visitors come to the door.

You can read more about this quilt in my earlier post here. And you can see my other entry in the Bloggers Quilt Festival here - my Redwork Christmas.

Thank you for visiting.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - my Redwork Christmas quilt

Hello, and welcome, especially if you're visiting for the first time.

I'm Wendy, an accountant living in Wellington, New Zealand, with my family. I like to describe myself as a modern hand quilter, because I make bright modern quilts, and I hand quilt them with Perle 8 thread.

Some people might think hand quilting is a dying art, but more and more people are wanting to learn hand quilting. I'm a member of the Celebrate Hand Quilting facebook group which is a very supportive online forum for hand quilters. It's a private group, but anyone can ask to join. There are almost 9,000 members of the group now, so hand quilting is alive and well.

It's a Redwork Christmas

This is my entry for the hand quilted section of the Bloggers's Quilt Festival. You can't vote just yet, but you can click on the links as the quilts are added, and then return to vote next week when the voting opens on 1 November USA time.

I made this Redwork Christmas quilt through a block of the month programme. The pattern was designed by Rosalie Quinlan of Australia and the designs really appealed to me. I had never done redwork before, but I loved stitching each panel. Here are some of my favourite blocks in the quilt:

Each month I received a transfer in the post, and I ironed it onto a piece of calico. I then hand stitched each panel with red DMC stranded cotton using backstitch. I used an embroidery hoop because I wanted to keep the tension even. It took quite a while to stitch each block, but I was always finished before the next block. That's because I enjoyed doing it so much.

Once all nine panels were completed it was time to add the sashing. I decided to use a range of complementary fabrics for the sashing. I then hand quilted as much as I could without impacting on the panels. I used red and cream Perle 8 for the quilting.

I bring this quilt out each Christmas and drape it over the sofa.


The facts:
size 52" x 42"
pattern is "It's a Redwork Christmas" by Rosalie Quinlan

You can find this pattern here.

2015 Plans

As 2014 starts to draw to a close, I've been thinking about what I might like to make in 2015.  Yes, of course I'll finish 'Your Place or Mine?' first, but then what will I do?  Someone suggested I might get more done if I wrote a list, so here goes:

1. Most of you will know that I like complex challenges that test my brain, so yesterday I ordered this book from Paper Pieces.

I've always loved Kaffe Fassett's Millefiore fabric in blue (below), and the patterns in the book reminded me of this gorgeous fabric.  

I've met quite a few people on Instagram who are working on the la passacaglia pattern from this book. If you're not on Instagram, just google la passacaglia and look at the images. 

It's all paper pieced and hand sewn. Would you believe there are 2,400 pieces in it? A lot of people are fussy cutting their fabrics, so I've ordered acrylic templates too. 

Watch this space.

2. On a more modern note, I've also ordered the Moda Modern Building Blocks kit. The Fat Quarter Shop are currently sold out, but I'm still hoping to get it before Christmas. It comes in a lovely box and my husband can wrap boxes, so hopefully it will be sitting under the tree on Christmas morning. Is it OK to sew on Christmas Day?

I've ordered the fabrics too, but I intend to mix in my own fabrics as well. Again, lots of people are already making these and I've seen a wonderful variety of quilts. I don't even know if I'll do the biggest blocks as they are, I might try and resize them down and fit in a few more smaller blocks. Who knows at this stage.

3. I've just started receiving the free patterns for a Women of the Bible quilt and it will run into next year too.  I'm not at all religious, but I liked the idea of trying out lots of different blocks. It's run by www.littlequilts,com, although I think signups might have closed now.

Women of the Bible

Yesterday I made the first two blocks:

Eve - she deserves pink for being the first woman

Rachel

They are quite big - 15" x 15" each. I decided to use my Denyse Schmidt fabrics that I bought at Spotlight recently. The blue block looks a bit busy, but I refuse to unpick or remake at this very early stage. I'll reassess when I've made more of them. 

4. Possum Magic - of course I'll continue working on the Possum Magic quilts too. That will run until about June. 

5. Then there's all the embroidery projects I want to do. I think I'll do another post about them another day.

The Bloggers' online Quilt Festival starts this weekend. I'm entering two quilts this time - my Trellis Crossroads and a Redwork Christmas that I haven't put on my blog yet. Here's a sneak peak: 

 I hope you're having fun wherever you are.

A flashaback

Were you into sewing when you were 16? Had you already started quilting and stitching while you were still at school?

Although I took piano lessons, played the clarinet and oboe in an orchestra, played tennis at the weekends, and was a young leader at Girls Brigade (like Guides), I somehow found time to embroider this cross stitch when I was just 16 years old.

DMC Pako embroidered by me when I was 16

I certainly wasn't into quilting when I was 16 because I wasn't really aware of it then. I could use a sewing machine, and I had made some clothes and bags during compulsory sewing lessons at school. Back when I went to school, all the girls in New Zealand did cooking and sewing in Years 7 and 8, and all the boys did woodwork and metalwork. We swapped over for one quarter of each year so we could get a taste of what the others did, but these lessons were firmly segregated along gender lines at my Intermediate school. (Dunedin North Intermediate in Dunedin, New Zealand)

However, my mum always did a lot of knitting and embroidery in the evenings and she taught me how to do cross stitch when I was quite young.

You might wonder how I had the patience - well we didn't have the internet as a distraction back then. I saw this kit in a lovely embroidery shop in Auckland's High Street back in the early 1980's. I can't remember the name of the shop, but it was a basement level shop and it stocked beautiful Permin, Lenarte, and Eva Rosenstand designs. I loved poking around in that shop. The fact that it was underground added to the intrigue and mystery of it all.

I must have been given this kit for Christmas when I was 16 and I just plugged away at it, a little bit each night. I loved doing it, and I still love it now. It doesn't hang on the wall in my house at the moment, but it might again one day.

Here's another large cross stitch sampler that I stitched when I was in my 20's. I like it too, but it's also taking a break in a back room at the moment.  This design is Permin Flower ABC. Sorry that the photo isn't clearer, but there is glass in the frame.

Permin Flower ABC

 I'd be interested to know if you what your hobbies were when you were 16, and if they involved much sewing.