Two Finished

Yes two little quilts finished. I have finished quilting and binding two of the quilts that I 

have been working on over the Christmas period. Oh I do love that feeling of a quilt all 

done and ready to hang or exhibited.

This is the first one done - my Embroidered Flower Garden.  I was planning to bind it

 in the green that I had backed it with, but I got the binding machined on and thought no 

that is not right - so off it had to come - luckily the hand sewing hadn't been done.

Then I auditioned all sorts of other colours for the binding and finally settled on the 

deep red. - it seemed to need something dark.

Then I finished quilting my Hexie Quilt - I outlined the hexies, did diagonal lines one 

way across the background and put a criss-cross in the centre of each hexie. 

The binding is the same as the border.

Back soon,  Robyn

Shoulder Bag

Oh it has been a great week for getting onto my machine and finishing some projects.

I had  a lot of time over Christmas to sit and hand stitch but that left a lot of machining 

to be done and  a lot of projects to get finished on the machine.

This is a new bag pattern - I picked up the concept in Japan and have had a play 

developing a bag pattern. It has hand applique and hand quilting.

 I have made it in a new fabric that I brought back from Japan. 

I love the texture of it  - it a heavier woven solid. We also have it in navy and cream.

The photo above is the front. I have had these toggles for ages and have been wanting a project to use them and I am pleased with the look of it on this bag.

This is the back with a pocket and more applique.

The handle is long so it goes well over your shoulder. We will  have the pattern in the 

shop very soon and we will kitset it in a variety of colours -  probably this tan, navy and 

maybe a chocolate and a taupe!

The kitsets will be off to Palmerston North mid-February where we are 

attending the new Expertise Events Quilt and Craft Fair.

Hexie Journal Cover

As you may already know we are running a Hexie Club at the shop this year,

 so I have been busy designing projects for it.

I posted about the 1800s Schoolgirl Quilt which is based on hexagons on 3 

December.Here is a reminder photo. It is now almost quilted ready for binding.

This is my very first quilt - yes hexies way back then!

A Pin Cushion from my Pin Cushion Club

And now the Journal Cover just finished today.

The front

The back . . . .  and there is a wee surprise on the front cover flap.

I will make this into a pattern and it will be one of the options for people to work 

on at Hexie Club nights. I have lots of other project ideas that I will work on during the year.

So watch this space!!

Kimono Silks

I popped into the shop yesterday - I know I am supposed to be 

on holiday - but who could resist!

And it was well worth the visit as the boxes that I posted home from Japan 

in November had started to arrive.

These are the red kimono that I bought in the various flea markets that we went to.

The two rolls at the top left are how kimono fabric comes when it is new.

Kimono fabric is 13" to 15" wide and very few cuts are made in it to create a kimono.

So the kimono that we unpick is still in very usable pieces.

The pile is now ready for unpicking and washing before we recycle them into quilts.

How could you resist any of these designs?

Cranes - a symbol of longevity.

Fans and Plum Blossom.

Now for a bit more subtly in colour.

A classic - Fawn Spots.

And a stripe.

As you can see in the pile photo there are more and each quilt kit will probably

contain a little bit of each.

The red kimomo would be worn mostly by young women in Japan - the older you 

get the more subdued your kimono should become. A big advantage of young

girls kimono is that the sleeves are so much longer so we get more fabric.

As your kimono colours become your subtle your sleeves become shorter.

These kimono will be recycled into kitsets for this quilt. It is throw size.

See you soon, Robyn

Embroidered Flower Garden

Happy New Year everyone - I hope it has started off well for you. Mine started with 

family in Wellington and lots of sewing time.

My Embroidery Quilt is now ready for binding.This is the one that I have been working 

on for about six months! I started it in a class at the shop (Patchwork Passion,

Auckland, NZ) with Alison Smith. We chose a piece of fabric to Embroider and

Embellish and  this was mine. Some of you who have been following my Blog 

for a while will recognise this as posted about it last year

My fabric is piece is half a metre by the width of the fabric and this is how it looks 

now - all embroidered and embellished with beads in places.  I am hoping to have it on 

display at the Auckland Quiltmakers' Show in Parnell over the first weekend in May 2013

Every flower is different - either different stitches or stitch combinations, different 

colours, different threads, different centres, beads, yoyos or tiny fabric flower centres.

It has been so much fun to create - thank you Alison.

These are some of my favourite flowers - beading,

. . . . . . . cross stitch as a filler and a few beads in a ring in the centre,

 . . . . . . . a focus on the gold centre with couched wrinkly blue thread as the outline,  

. . . . . . .green blanket stitch of various lengths with a centre pre-made flower,

. . . . . a filler of a couched grid,

. . . . . herringbone stitched outline with metal bead as the centrepiece,

. . . .  three lines of chain stitch in shades of taupe as the outline and a yoyo in the centre,

and last my all-time favourite - seed stitch to fill using a variegated twisted thread.

I chose a green shot cotton for the backing and have outline quilted each flower. 

I think the binding will be in the same green fabric.

Alison will be running a monthly embroidery group at the shop on a Monday morning

if you would like to join her. I certainly enjoyed sitting at nights a stitching new flowers 

with all the new threads I had discovered and the new stitches and stitch 

combinations she had shared.

And one of my New Year Resolutions is to post more regularly on my Blog!

So see you back here soon,  Robyn