Stitch Sampler Pin Cushion

A quick and early post as firstly I had to work lots of extra hours this week and therefore couldn't get any craft work done (I didn't even get near a needle and thread) and secondly we are heading away for a few days to take advantage of the long bank holiday weekend and my husband tells me we will have no internet access. But I thought you might like to see this. This little redwork pin cushion was  designed specifically for my beginner sewing classes and always goes down a treat.  In one of my classes there are two students to each machine so I needed something that one person could work on by hand while the other stitched on the machine. The front panel is a stitch sampler which allows the student to try out all the stitches on the machine (a Janome) and on the back there is some hand embroidery. The four corners are made up of squares folded on the diagonal and then turned back to give that rounded curved look, and it is finished off with two buttons, one sewn either side. I made the sampler in redwork (items made from red/white fabrics and threads) and used some stuffing from a pillow.

Maybe if I have a word with my students some of them will allow me to show photos of their work also. Stay tuned!

Millie and Max during one of their quiet moments!  Hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you might be and that the sun shines.

Pupcakes & Pillowshams

When I arrived in from work the other evening I went straight down to the kitchen and turned on the oven. I didn't know what I was going to put in there but I knew it was going to be something home baked. This normally happens in the middle of winter when it is cold and dark and wet outside and I get the urge to bake, but the unseasonal cold weather and grey day made me want to "do" something to shake it all off. By the time I had my coat off I knew it was going to be Fairy Cakes (my generation's version of cupcakes) and within minutes they were in the oven. I have been using the same basic Madeira cake mix since I was in school and this recipe has never let me down.  I change the flavour and filling all the time and use fondant icing, butter cream icing and royal icing to decorate but the basic cake mix never changes. I weigh 2, 3 or 4 eggs (depending on what I am making) in their shells and then use the same quantity of caster sugar, butter and flour and that's it. This time I decided to add some vanilla essence.  Very quick and easy. Soon the smell was wafting all around the house (that's my favourite bit) and the kitchen was becoming crowded, with two legged and four legged hungry mouths. The fun bit was decorating them, I had some fondant icing left over from the Easter Cake I made so I used that, and then there was some "writing icing in tubes" that I found in the press (you wouldn't know what you might come across there!). I used those as well and when my daughter saw the finished result she proclaimed the "pupcakes" were gorgeous. Pupcakes! Now, I can do Fairy cakes, and Queen cakes and just about manage Cupcakes, but Pupcakes! That was a laugh, and I didn't even know I was making them.

I managed to finish the two pillow shams to match the "Over the Rainbow" quilt. What do you think? I used all the scraps to make a piano key border and some ribbon I had in my box. After transferring the designs to the background I hand embroidered one and appliqued and machine embroidered the other and, like the quilt, I think they turned out to be bright, colourful and cheery.  There is a zip closure at the back and the free motion quilting echoes the quilting design on the quilt itself. My daughter hasn't seen them yet, I hope she will be happy with them. Now I just need to finish the label and sew it to the back of the quilt. 

QUILT FINISH - YEAH!!!!

Another quilt finish and I am delighted with it!  It turned out better than I had hoped and is so colourful.  I tried a different quilting approach this time as I broke the quilt down into three parts and quilted them separately, then I joined the three pieces together and I think it worked.  It certainly made the quilting process much easier. The quilt is for my daughter and she is thrilled with it herself. She is moving away from home soon to start a fifteen month internship not returning until Sept 2014 to complete her fourth year in college. She is looking forward to putting this on her bed and I hope to have two pillow shams to match before the time comes. Good news is she will be returning home some weekends as it is not that far away and it is in a lovely part of the country that I look forward to visiting too.

Also this week I lucky enough to attend an event in the Mansion House which is the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. The event was attended by the Lord Mayor Naoise O Muiri and the Australian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Ruth Adler and was staged to showcase the unique memorial "Roses from the Heart" by Dr Christina Henri who also attended.  The reason I was there was because some time ago a friend of mine who came across the "Roses from the Heart" memorial bonnets thought it would be a good idea to make some bonnets and be part of this. A group of us got together here at my house and between numerous cups of tea, coffee, lunch and chat proceeded to cut out a small number of bonnets to embroider and make up, but before long, due to the hard work and encouragement of my friend a whole ship load of bonnets were completed by our local embroiderers group commemorating the women convicts transported to Australia on The Andromeda. It was lovely to be invited and meet Christina who started this worthwhile project.

Welcome Max

Great excitement in our house this week as we had an unexpected addition to the household.  Well not really unexpected......let me explain. For a while now we have been looking around for a pal for Millie(our maltese terrier) and our search has brought us far and wide. We have visited many dog owners and doggie places but just couldn't find what we were looking for. We didn't have a long list of requirements, no, we were just looking for a male (apparently one of each gender is best as the dogs get on better with each other) and that he needed to be a bit younger than Millie and also of a small breed. Harder than you might think though, to find a puppy that fitted the bill. Anyhow, my daughter was keeping an eye on things and she came across what seemed to be the perfect little fella, so when she showed me a photo of him (one of 100's we had looked at recently) my heart melted and I was in full agreement with her. Impossible to believe but within an hour we were all on the way home with him snuggling up in her arms in the back seat of the car, my husband and I trying to figure out what had just happened. By the time we got home and sat down to finish our dinner it felt like he was part of the family already....................hence the arrival of Max! He is really cute and we have nicknamed him already, Buster, or as my other half likes to call him Little Man.  Only nine weeks old and full of character I wanted to smother and mother him as I felt he had been separated from his mother too soon but Max is a tough little buster and though 100% lovable he has a fighting spirit and was not to be taken for a softie. Can't wait to see how the next couple of weeks go!  Oh and to top it all off did I mention that he is also 3/4 Maltese! Didn't I say he was the perfect puppy.

As a result not much work done around here over the past week but I did manage to finish all the dresden plates for the "Over the Rainbow" quilt I am presently working on. I used the English Paper Piecing method for these dresden plates as I liked the look of the rounded softer edges, and I have also managed to finish the patchwork squares that will frame them. Keep posted to see how it all turns out when completed.

Until next week

End of Term - almost!

This week saw the last of all my Spring term classes, well almost all as I still have classes running until end of June.  I will miss all the lovely ladies I got to know throughout the year - a big thank you to everyone - and well done on all your hard work!  I thought it might be nice to share some photos of a very small number projects that were completed this year throughout the classes.  I am afraid I am not so good at remembering to take photos of all your lovely work but some of you kindly sent on some of your own photos so thanks again.

The first two photographs are of samples I made for class. 

1) This is the Dresden Plate which I made into a table topper.  There is a full dresden plate in the centre and a quarter plate on each corner.  Some students went on to make a full quilt from this patchwork block and others chose to make a cushion top. All turned out lovely and I think most people enjoyed working on this.

 2) Lots of interest in this little bag when I showed up at class with it so nothing would do but to make this into a class project also.  The inside of the bag has various pockets for a mobile phone, an elasticated pocket for jangling keys and another larger pocket for bigger items.

The following photos are just a sample of the many projects made in class throughout the year.