Mandala

I seldom buy fabric without a quilt in mind, but couldn't pass the opportunity to get one of these mandala prints from Amafu when they visited Bloemfontein in 2018.  I had no plan or idea what I was going to do with it at the time, just thought it was pretty.

So, during 2019, Daleen Lubbe of Stitchdelight digitized designs to embroider on a Dream Big panel from Hoffman's, and I thought it could work on the mandala as well as using it as an exercise piece before tackling the actual Dream Big panel I bought. And boy, was I hooked.  Once I started I just couldn't stop, so 2 weeks and 52 hoopings later, the mandala is done.

Embroidering for 20 years now, I know how challenging it can be to get designs to line up, but Daleen's instructions made it super easy as did the way she digitized it with a placement line first.  

It was so satisfying to see this project grow petal by petal and turn an already beautiful piece of fabric into something truly exquisite.  

Stained glass pictures

 My husband finished framing and hanging all the embroidered stained glass pictures and they are absolutely beautiful.

I also put the Heritage Quilt on our bed in place of the Latte Quilt which was on our bed since 2010.

The Latte Quilt - an extremely old photo from before the fire of 2014.
(The very first quilt I made - this post as well as this one refers.)

The two done in shades of purple below are in the guest room complimenting the satin/tafetta quilt I made in 2015.

Advanced beginner quilt

I added a turquoise border to the remaining butterfly which brought out the colors beautifully and gifted it to a dear friend of mine who had it framed in silver.

So proud of these beautiful embroideries.

Shadow Trapunto Quilt No. 2

I finished the second one, yeah!  When I started with them last year, we intended to hang them above our bed on both sides, but that spaces will now be filled with two of the stained glass embroidered pictures.  So I stitched away on this one not quite knowing what to do with it, but I found a place on the coffee table, so no time wasted.

Playmats done

The playmats and accessories for our two grandsons are finished and it is quite amazing what a border or two can do to a project.

Nathan's playmat

Aiden's playmat

The play pieces and dice.  I made the same for both boys.

Weddings

I have been working on various projects the past month as well as battling the old flue.  Some of the stained glass pictures have been framed and hanged and one was gifted.  I will do a follow up post on all of those once they are all done.

I also made 2 more sewing pouches for gifts (this post) and almost finished the 2 playmats I made for our two grandsons as the lockdown levels were eased and I was able to buy all the stuff needed to finish the various projects.

With lockdown phasing out, couples are once again able to get married, so I also made some wedding gifts for friends of mine to gift at a wedding later this month.

The happy couples son will also receive his own towel.

I also played around with different ideas to embroider on masks for another couple, but what started out as a fast little project turned out rather tedious as some of the free designs going around on the internet are of little or no quality at all.  So, after a disaster or two, we finally settled on Mr and Mrs in fancy lettering which quilting friend Hanlie will stitch into masks. 😀

Face Masks

As wearing face masks in public places are now compulsory under Level 4, I spend the 2 public holidays we had this week making a few.  I have been collecting various free designs since March from various websites I follow when the face mask craze hit the northern hemisphere.

The first two I made was done with my sewing machine, but both could be make entirely by hand as well.  Instructions for both can be found on YouTube.

Follow instructions here for the round one and the rectangular one's can be found here.

I also made some masks from Stitch Emporium (featured in top position) and Ohana which are our favourite one's.

My husband ordered this one with shark teeth, but as it is heavy embroidery, it is extremely hot, so this is the only one embroidered with a motif.  As I could not get any pipe cleaners to shape the nose part, I used Stitch Delight's in-the-hoop mask pattern an added the shark teeth from Smartneedle .

Below are some more of Smartneedle's designs.

Kaleidoscope

This quilt I wrote about way back in December 2012, is finally finished and just in time to be used as a lap quilt for the coming winter.  

Lily was inspecting it all the way

and made sure she was the first one to try it out.