Jaoanese Sampler Quilt

My Japanese Sampler Quilt has made good progress over the summer.

I now have all the one hundred blocks machine pieced and patterns drawn up.

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And I just about have the first fifty blocks hand quilted and sashiko stitched,

The first four rows are ready to go together.

This project is Quilt-As-You-Go which is working well, especially in this hot summer 

as I am only working on block at a time.

Back soon with the first four rows joined together with the sashing strips.

Bees Wax Wraps

Over the summer holidays we made bees wax wraps. 

These are great for wrapping cheeses, etc when storing them in your fridge. 

Reduces the need for Glad Wrap.

Our friends have a bee hive and had harvested the wax from it.

Hence the fun day we had creating fabric covered in wax.

Ready to go - nice boiled and boiled wax to purify it and fabric ready to go.

But first lets get the fabric prepared - it had to be washed and 

then cut to the size we wanted.

I had chosen some of our 1930s Reproduction fabrics -  somehow seemed appropriate.

 Meanwhile Mark's role was to grate the wax ready for melting.

Wax suitably melt now in goes the fabric.

And out it comes covered with a fine layer of wax.

Hang to dry and iron to set nicely.

Now ready for cheeses or pot covers.

A pot of Deb's honey.

What a fun day.

Old Laces

The third in my series of photos from the Warkworth Museum.

What a treasure trove this was. 

This time the focus is on laces.

These are late 19th Century laces from the Barbie Stanley-Harris Collection.

Cushion Lace

More Cushion Lace

Crochet Lace

Ribbon Lace

Net Lace

Ribbon and Lace Bonnet c. 1890

Thanks you Warkworth Museum for a wonderful display.

And what I have shown is just a small part of it.

Do get up there and visit if you can.

Old Buttons

More from the Warkworth Museum.

This time buttons.

What a wonderful display - all nicely labelled.

And what a range of products buttons used to be made from.

"Buttons were made for ornamentation long before 
they came into general use as fastenings."

    

           

     

     

 

And then the 'Piece-de-la-Resistance - a tin box full of tiny buttons.

Back soon with laces from Warkworth Museum.

Warkworth Museum, Parry Kauri Park, Tudor Collins Drive, Warkworth. 

Old Sewing Machines

We visited the Warkworth Museum while up that way staying with friends.

I was really impressed with the museum.

It has a whole display of tiny old sewing machines. 

Casige - Toy Sewing Machine

Singer 1890

Bigger Unity Machine set in the beautiful table top.

 

Back soon with laces and buttons from the same museum.

Warkworth Museum, Parry Kauri Park, Tudor Collins Drive, Warkworth.