Saturday, October 24, 2015

Latte Quilt

I finally finished beading the centre piece of this quilt 5 years after finishing it.  The difference is quite extraordinarily.  Adding the 1350 or so beads by hand was definitely worth it.



Below is a photo of the quilt before the beads were added..



I started adding the beads before our house fire  Luckily the quilt survived it!


Another UFO done!  Better late than never I suppose...

You can read more about this quilt here and here.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Baby Quilt with hot air balloons

Friends of ours asked me to make a quilt for their first grandchild using hot air balloons.  The room is painted accordingly and although I was rather apprehensive about the theme, the quilt turned out beautiful.


I took my husband with when I went fabric shopping which turned out to be a blessing as he picked the polkadot fabric!  I then proceeded embroidering the second batch of balloons incorporating these colours.  The first batch was embroidered in primary colours as is painted in the nursery.  Below are close-ups of the balloons side by side in the different colours.

















Thursday, October 8, 2015

21st Birthday presents

I started to embroider for the first time in 18 months again and although I was rather out of practice, especially with all the problems one can encounter whilst embroidering, I quickly got the hang of it again.

When a colleague of my at work turned 21 recently,  I was asked to embroider his initials on a set of handkerchiefs.  I used co-ordinating colours which blended in quite nice.



His parents gave his room a makeover, so I decided his bathroom needs one too.  So, I embroidered a set of towels for him.

 
I used a silver/black mixed metallic thread which co-ordinated with the charcoal towels with just a little bit of silver in the scrolls.


 It did not photograph well at all, but the end result in real life is really stunning.  Plain, but beautiful.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Jumbo CAC Crazy Legs Applique Monograms

I finally started digitizing again after our lives were severely disrupted the past 12 months.

I designed this set when we decorated our son's bedroom in our local rugby team's colours.  Each letter is 5 x 7" (130 x 180mm), so it is truly jumbo! 

I added batting to create a 3d effect to the lettering and digitized accordingly.  At the time I embroidered this, my largest hoop was the 5 x 7", so I embroidered each letter separately!

The set contains lower case set, upper case letters and numbers.  The punctuation set contains 20 different symbols.

The complete set is for sale for 35$.




 
I embroidered the cheetah head in 14 separate hooping's with my 5 x7 " hoop.  As it is copy protected,  I can't sell it though.  The cheetah paw print is available.


Saturday, September 26, 2015

Advanced Beginners Quilt

Another four blocks finished and only 3 more to go!

Block 13 - Folded strips
Block 15 - Celtic applique

Block 16 - 3D Bow ties


Block 17 - English paper piecing

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Advanced Beginners Quilt

This quilt is growing at a steady pace now with only 4 more blocks to go.  I am really excited to see the end product.  As we are quilting-as-you go, this will surely be finished at the end of the year and will not turn into another ufo.


Block 10:  3d block - All done by hand with hexagon shapes using English paper piecing.

Block 14 - Bargello with strip piecing

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Items for sale

I decided to sell some of my stuff which I'm not using anymore.

First up is this Bond Elite knitting machine for chunky wool.  It works like a dream and is quite easy to learn.  I just don't have any time for knitting anymore.  The price is R1 000 ($72).




Then I have this Empisal 4 thread overlocker for R500 ($36)



and finally the Brother Innovis 700E embroidery machine for R10 000 ($720).  Since I bought the Big Brother, I don't use this one anymore.

 
130 x 180mm embroidery area

 
It comes complete with PE Basic and the XL frame which can embroider an area of 130 x 300mm.



Prices exclude postage.

Edge te Edge quilt

I tried to finish this quilt also in time for Bloemshow, but with working overtime wasn't able to.  I used all the practice stitch outs ...