Sunday Sewing & Ocean Walk with Lola the Labrador

  After reading the Sunday papers, a bit of gardening, cutting the blocks for my quilt and then an afternoon     walk along our beautiful shores - along the boardwalk next to the ocean at Curl Curl in Sydney with Lola - great afternoon with the sun coming out finally.

                  

  Our Rock Pools filled by the ocean - where I learnt to swim. Most beaches have these pools with a smaller pool for the younger children.

Morning's work and borders around the doll block

               Birdhouses from the kitchen window

Saturday 4 June 2011

                                   By the end of last Sunday nite I had placed all the embroidery and circles
                                                        and pinned onto the 4 patch squares

                                                         .
The weather in Sydney is dull and overcast so have the new knitted rug on the end of the bed. I can add
on more strips if I want to but it is quite heavy.  This project was good while watching the television, but I certainly had to watch the pattern.

This sits on the lounge a well used knee rug made from different techniques.

                    .Cup Cake Oven Mit from Hot Cakes.  Hand goes in the top - wadding is 2 layers of Insul Bright. I added a sewing line on either side of the top part so my hand fits more snugly and won't slip off!

                          A Work in Progress (WIP) Babushka Doll Applique for a bright floral quilt

         It's a Rosalie Quinlan Design   Finished the applique during the week and will cut out

the blocks tomorrow. 

Running around the house taking photos of quilts/craft

Sunday and very dull & cold - ready to rain in Sydney for the next 5 days.
Have uploaded computer with bits and pieces and have been sewing the last
2 Sundays on my 'Life is Beautiful' quilt which I started early 2010.

This is a 'Hugs and Kisses' quilt with 4 x 4 blocks and stitchery circles interspersed
with smaller matching block circles to be added into every 2nd block and on the
joins of the 'tramlines'.

It's in the Moda 'French General' collection which I love and have been mulling over

the 'tramlines' and selected a greenish brown from the Le Petite Ecole range.

31 Large circles will be interspersed onto every second  4 patch block

32 Embroidery-applique circles

Now back to the quilt and sort out where I want all the circles and then

hand sew onto 4 patch blocks which will be a good night job for the next week.

I then have to decide how to quilt it -

Quilt as you Go - Haven't done this method before but a great tutorial

from Hugs and Kisses - Life is Beautiful site.

Add the embrodery circles and cut wadding and backing and then quilt around the circles.

From what I looked at on the internet looks this may be the way to go. Then sew the

borders onto back and front and nearly finished.

The INSPIRATIONS ON THE APPLIQUE were inspiring as I started this quilt after having a breast removed from breast cancer. Didn't think I was going to do the quilt but realised I could take it with me to Chemo for the 12 months and keep myself occupied for 7 hrs over the 1st 6 months and then 4 hrs over the following 6 months.  Also it was a good way to get to talk to the staff and other patients as they always

wanted to know what I was doing and talk about the inspirations and what other staff and patients were involved in and where and when they started sewing, craft, painting etc.  It was a way of getting the blocks done every 3 weeks so I could take the next one in to show everyone.I have left the blocks for the last couple of months but really want to finish it now.

                           Left over pieces of the French General Material for my sewing caddy.

                Needle Case, embroidery thread bag and large carry all for my embroidery blocks

      I wasn't happy with the blue and pale beige material, so used them up with assorted items to hold everything in and stay all together for the LIB project. 

1st Blog

Everyone seems to have a blog and hope to get started and hope I have the time to keep the
blog interesting with crafty bit and pieces and follow ups.  Another 1st and hope to learn
about blogging along the way. I will of course have to learn the ins and outs of setting up the
blog page and producing updates and pictures to make it interesting. 21.5.2011