Stained Glass Wall hangings - 4

Another one of these beauties finished, just waiting to be framed. 

Whilst embroidering the different pieces, it looks rather ordinary but when starting to combine the whole piece, it comes to life and turns into a gorgeous piece.  Utterly rewarding after the many hours of embroidering.

The design is available here.

Spiral Burst 7

I finished this top a few weeks ago and it is huge.  I couldn't find a place big enough for a photo anywhere and although here pinned to a quilt frame, still laying on the ground.

As I am currently busy finishing up various smaller projects, I plan to quilt this baby during the December holidays.

Shadow Trapunto Quilt 3

I finally managed to finish this Shadow Trapunto Quilt. It took a few nights of pebbling to got the whole background done with the yellow/orange variegated thread as I have to be super cautious not to put too much stress on my neck and shoulders as not to cause migraines.  I still have another one to finish though.

Stained Glass Wall hangings - 3

Another one finished and ready to be framed.  These designs are truly gorgeous!

Design from BFC-creations

Twisted Pole Table runner

The table runner I wrote about in this post is finished and our quilting group will display our runners at our Guild's General Meeting on Saturday.

It was a fun, fast project leaving us all time to finish up some more UFO's before year's end.  I did however struggle again with the quilting - just deciding what quilting to do where.  Wasting a week on something that should take a single evening.  One of the reasons a whole month had slipped by since my last post.

I also finished a cushion for Choc House as part of our Guilds' Outreach for this term.  They provide comprehensive countrywide support for children with cancer and other life-threatening blood disorders, and their families.

A fellow member of the Rotary Cutters, Hanlie, gave us all a Pooh Bear panel to utilize.

May this friendly fellow help lessen a child's pain and anxiety whist receiving cancer treatment.

Summer Lily 6

All 4 corner units done and ready for assembly.

Stained Glass Wall hangings - 2

Well ,as promised this is truly a stunner.  After embroidering the last 4 panels, the wall hanging could be assembled.  So, if you want to embroider one of these beauties, you can find the designs here.

Below are photo's of the other 4 panels before assembling.

 And now on to the next one before framing...

Spiral Burst 6

With only 13 more strips to go, this one is almost done.

But while ironing, I discovered this mistake - a first for me...

But luckily it was an easy fix.  So now, to finish the last few rows.

Twisted Pole Table Runner

As our Shadow Trapunto Quilts are almost finished, our quilting group decided to make a table runner under the direction of Elsa de Wet, one of our Rotary Cut group members.

So, after selecting fabric

cutting and stitching, we had 5 centre blocks assembled and ready for the next step.

This one is mine, followed by

Hanlie's,

Frances,

Marietjie,

Elsa,

and Rika's runner.

Summer Lily 5

After finishing all the strips and diamonds, it was time to start putting this baby together.

4 border print triangles added in the centre

and diamonds added around the outside

No progress on this quilt however this week as the migraines is getting to be a weekly thing.

Stack and cut squares jacket - 1

I downloaded this pattern about a year ago and have been itching to stitch one.  So, I rounded up some off cut cosmos fabric my Mother gave me a few years ago and started cutting, stitching and squaring.

400 4x4 inch squares ready for the next step

which is stacking and cutting them into 800 pieces

and after some serious string piecing

ended up with a big heap of fabric ready to be ironed, squared and stitched together in panels.

And this is what I am working to.

Stained Glass Wall hangings - 1

It's a new day and a new project under way.  With no embroidery projects waiting to be finished, I looked at my Embroidery Wish List and decided to start with these beautiful wall hangings.

With today being a public holiday, I manage to embroider half of the panels needed for this wall hanging which will be 14.2" x 19.8" (35.5 x 49.5 cm) once finished.

Each panel measures approximately 6" x 8" and took between 70 to 140 minutes each stitching time, with an average of 15 thread changes and between 40 000 to 80 000 stitches each as well as having to clear the odd crow's nests every now and then.  But it will be well worth it in the end.

Summer Lily 4

Finally all the panels needed for this quilt is completed.  8 of these diamonds in pairs of 2 cut at different angles and widths from the strips I wrote about in Summer Lily 3.

Now for compiling the top!

Spiral Burst 5

It's been such a long time since I posted anything as life happened in the meantime and thus my hobbies had to take 2nd place (apart from a few small embroidery projects here and there).

From being formally retrenched at my work (which was reversed some 6 weeks later after a hefty battle) to visiting our kids in England as well as having a severe bout with the flue and my brother-in-law dying, I didn't have much energy left.

But the juices started flowing again and I have some progress to report.

With 1/3 done this quilt now looks like this:

I also have a new companion in my studio, my son's kitten called Lily.  She was the runt of the litter and remains quite small.  She got lost on the 27th of April and we were quite lucky to find her via Facebook on the 8th of May.  She was however bitten by her rescuer's dogs (who actually broke her right front leg in the elbow) but not taken to the vet.  So, when we got her back, the leg was already set in a crooked position and the vet recommended we amputated the leg purely for pain management.

I just never could bring myself to make such a drastic decision which would impact her for life and decided to rather see how it goes whilst giving her pain medication.  Although limping, she used the leg for various activities and finally started walking on it.  So, a four legged kitty she will be.

Spit cloths

Various spit cloths I embroidered over the past few weeks.

Morehead-Bountiful-Bunnies-Embroidery-Design-Collection

 Various Saint Bernard dogs from unknown origin

Yet again the Zoo Baby elephant from Appliquetion_station on the right and the elephant of the Cuddlesome critters set 1 on the left from Hatched in Africa

Summer Lily 3

I have been stitching away at all the panels needed for this quilt.  At the moment I am busy stitching diamonds consisting of 8 sets of strips of different widths.

All of them started with the same 8 strips

which are then advanced by adding a lighter colour at the bottom, losing the darkest at the top 

until ending up with these 8 strips.

All of these are then again cut up into strips of different widths at set angles giving these beautiful diagonal stripes.

I started stitching these strips together only to find out that that is not as easy as it might look!  But nothing worth while happens overnight, so I'll just keep on stitching, unpicking, stitching and unpicking again until all 64 (!)  strips are done.

Spiral Burst 4

Another 4 rows added.  Growing slowly but surely.