Origami Candle Mat

Ever since I saw this beautiful Origami Candle Mat by Skeldale house I thought of making one myself.  I chose fabric to co-ordinate with my dinner set's theme - chickens and hens.  This way I can use it the whole year around and not only at Christmas time.

If you want to get the free machine embroidery file, you'll have to join Skeldale House's Yahoo page or you can download the free quilt only pattern at Fiery phoenix.

Angel Hearts Workshop

A Facebook friend of mine started a workshop for disabled people called Angel-Hearts-Workshop .  From the start it was Karen's goal to produce quality products.  Under her care these people flourished and became known for exactly that.  So, if you are in Bloemfontein and want a special gift, go visit them at Leviseur street 4B, Westdene.

I recently embroidered for each a facecloth in their favourite colour with their name on it and included a bar of soap which my husband and I made.  They were absolutely thrilled.  This just reminded me again that the size op the gift does not matter at all. 

                 

Sammy (left) and Richard

Elizabeth

Lobi

Gloria

Graffiti Blocks

The Oranje Quilters Guild's Chair lady for 2016 - 2017, Iessie Steenberg, took on a huge challenge this year by making a graffiti block for each of our about 80 members for their birthday.  For our final meeting of 2015, I embroidered a few which Iessie then completed.

The two heart blocks was part of the designs I bought for the Row by Row quilt from Molly Mine

I embroidered 6 of these sewing machine blocks for the Row by Row quilt, only to discover I need only 4.  I bought this design from Smartneedle

This design is from Ageless Christmas roses collection.

This cute cupcake is part of A stitch and a half's Yummy cupcakes collection.

And this beauty is from Zundt designs.

Row by Row Quilt complete!

I manage to complete the quilt with 12 hours to spare before our quarterly meeting on the 5th of November!  And this is what the end result looks like:

Below are some close up shots of the quilting which was done in 10 days time whilst working fulltime as well.

I embroidered a label to compliment the quilt's design:

And last but not least - it won first prize!  I received this beautiful goody box sponsored by our local Pfaff dealer containing a Rotary Cutter blade (always welcome), a measuring tape, pin cushion, 4 fat quarters (what will be stitched with this fabric?) and various metal charms which will most definitely come in handy.

Thanks Marie!  And everybody who voted for my quilt.

Below is a photo of all the Row by Row quilts on display.

It is truly amazing how diverse one quilt pattern can look.  From a single row to form a bell pull to a 3d story book roll from Mariaan who dyed all the fabric she used herself.

Row by row quilt - Row 7

Although all 9 rows is finished and the quilting 2/3's of the way done, I have not posted pictures of row 7 yet. 

I struggled with the 2 rouche blocks that forms part of this row and in the end opted for two 9 patch blocks as time was running out and I just could not get the technique quite right.  So, this is the only deviation I made to the quilt.

I stitched the 4 sewing machine blocks in the 2 colour ways shown below:

The design is from Smartneedle.  It is actually part of a beautiful Sewing Pouch and you can find the design here.

and the 9 patch blocks looks like this.

Now I just need to finish the quilting, border and binding in time for our meeting coming Saturday 5 November...

Row by row Quilt - Row 1

I finally managed to complete all the blocks and rows required for this quilt and started quilting it today.  With only one week left to finish the quilting, I really have my work cut out for me.  As Murphy stated, the work expands to fill the time available and I am really testing that saying. 

I was really apprehensive doing the Texas star version that represents our Guild's logo as the blocks is really small to incorporate all the little pieces.  The first one I did earlier this year, ended up in the trash as I just could not get all the points to match up.  At that stage I thought it best to do another block or just omit this row, but as it is our Guild's logo, it didn't really made sense.  So, whilst stitching all the other rows, this stayed in my mind and I finally came up with a solution by buying tracing paper which weighs only 50 grams to the 80 grams of normal paper to use for the paper piecing method. 

I started with this row of which I stitched 12 as well as another 12 without the squares on the edges.

 The centre pieces looked like this:

and this is how the completed blocks looks like after assembling the 48 different pieces



which I made in the two colour ways.  By pressing some of the seams open as well, it really helped with the bulky seams.  I also kept the paper pieces at the back until the row of 6 blocks was completely finished.  It did took 2.5 hours to unpick all the paper pieces, but they did what they were suppose to do - lining up all the corners.

Spit cloths

Whilst trying to finish the Row-by-Row quilt in time for the last quarterly meeting of the Oranje quilters guild, I took a night off to embroider a few spit cloths for a dear quilting friend of mine who had a baby shower yesterday.

Magda made this beautiful quilt for the baby on request of the grandmother.



I then used some of the leftover fabric to applique elephants on 3 of the spit cloths

and clouds on the fourth one.

The pink elephant is from Hatched in Africa's  Cuddlesome Critters 1 set and the purple one from their Cuddlesome Zoo Animals series.  The green one can be found on the Adorable applique website.

Row by Row Quilt - Row 4

Took a few nights, but the second to last row is finally finished.  Yeah!

I used paper piecing to stitch the ends of the crosses with normal piecing for the rest of the squares.

I did it in 2 colour ways, 3 blocks each.

Now for the Texas Star block which resembles our Guild's logo.  A block with lots of minute pieces which I have been dreading since starting to work on this quilt.

Row by Row Quilt - Rows 6 and 8

It is amazing how fast a quilt can grow if you just get down to business.  Working 3 nights this week on this project left only 2 rows of 6 blocks each to be done.  5 rows are joined with another 2 rows ready to be added.  The 2 rows left is however the most difficult ones.  Paper piecing but as the blocks measure only 5 inches it is minute pieces that must be stitched together.

The 2 rows I did this week was one with stars as suggested by another group of our Guild, called Stars (a.k.a. Sterre in Afrikaans).

Then I continued on with the row of Courthouse steps

whilst Gizmo kept me company.

Crown Catering

I have been struggling with myself the past week to embroider logo's on the staff of Crown Caterings' new uniforms. 

August and September is notoriously difficult months for us with extreme lows as we remember the passing of our first born on the 22nd of August 2003 as well as his birthday 17 September 1983.  Our house burned on the 31st of August 2014 followed by our 34th anniversary on the 4th of September.  So, it is a lot of extreme emotions all bottled up with nowhere to go.  And as if to add insult to injury on the 31st of August, whilst waiting at a traffic light in town, my husband's cell phone got pluck from his shirt pocket through the slightly open car window.

I am however slowly starting to climb out of the black hole I have been wallowing in the last few weeks as it does not solve anything.  It only steals precious time that could have been spend more wisely and/or productive.

Below are photo's of the logo as embroidered on the front and back.

18 x 18cm on the backside - stitching time 39 minutes.

 

With the smaller 10 x10cm on the front.



 

 

 

 

Spit Cloths

My husband, Trevor and I have been embroidering spit cloths last week.  As he was on sick leave due to extremely high blood pressure, he embroidered a few by himself.  It was the first time he embroidered with the Innovis 400 and he quite enjoyed it.


The theme was animals and we had to add the days of the week.

For Monday I picked a beautiful Persian.

Tuesday and Wednesday - a Collie and a sheep.

 Thursday and Friday was adorned with a cow and horses. 

 For Saturday and Sunday we picked a hen and a rabbit.

 

And on the eight nappy was pigs.

About a month ago I embroidered the 4 spit cloths below for a baby boy named Lambertus.  I chose various funny/comical modes of transportation .