I am still sewing!

I am still sewing but I have nothing to show yet, so decided to show you some embroideries I purchased in Croatia, which are quite lovely.  The woman I bought them from said her sister and her family make them.

A larger table mat, a small one and a cute bookmark.  (Not a great photo, sorry.)

Here's the lady at her stall on the city walls in Dubrovnik.  We had a lovely chat and I wished I had asked her name.  It was nice and shady early in the day, but would have been a real hot spot in the afternoons. 

November 2023 fabric tally

Finishes since March:  two shirts made in April = 4m; gardening apron for granddaughter = 1/2m,  I posted about these earlier in the year. 

Purchases between March and November:     = 12 m.  I had some spare time in the large town near us, and just happened to walk by the fabric shop, where I bought some metres on special as well as a couple of new to me cat fabrics - never can resist them.  And, after seeing a quilt on someone else's blog, decided that I would make a USA themed quilt for an overseas relative.  Of course I had to purchase the fabric from a US fabric store.  It arrived within a week!  When I make the quilt, remains to be seen.  

Fabric used:  - 4.5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 12 m

2023 running tally:          + 3.75m

Mindless sewing to get back into it

Once the sewing room was cleaned up and the urgent mending out of the way, I did some mindless piecing, to get my hand and eye back in.  In my collection of scraps are many pieces I've cut into specific sizes.   

Here's the little box of  1/2" x 2 1/2" pieces.  I've sorted them into colours and am making small crumb blocks with them, each block with 18 pieces, finishing at 6"

I also have a small box of 1" pieces (what was I thinking?!!)

I've also sorted these into colours and have made 2" finished blocks from them, 16 pieces of fabric in each one.  Despite the large number of 1" pieces, any quilt made from them will be small.  There is a lot of piecing in each block.  

 

I'm just about at the stage now where my brain is ready to deal with "real" sewing and I hope to get some of the planned baby quilts finished in the next few weeks.  

Finally home and sewing

Home sweet home!  Finally back home properly, after first nine + weeks and then four + weeks away, with four weeks at home between.  In that four weeks home, I was so busy including a week in hospital, that I got no sewing at all done.   However, life is now back to normal and this week I've been  in the sewing room properly for the first time since May.  First I did some urgent mending then the fun stuff.  I could only cope with mindless piecing but that was fine by me.  Audiobook on and away I went.  Before I sewed though, I did clean the room - vacuuming all the cobwebs and dust bunnies, and wiping down major surfaces.  So I feel like a new sewist!

While overseas, I did see some amazing textiles and embroideries.  Since I don't have much of my own to share, I will show you a few of my favourite pieces.  

First - from the Raustenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, Germany.  I do like ikat!  😍

            

Hardanger embroidery and knitwear in the folk museum in Oslo, Norway.  I quite like hardanger embroidery and have done a few pieces myself.  

 

Wonderful embroideries in the national museum in Reykjavik, Iceland.  

            

And some nice embroidered folk costumes in the Rupe Museum (the ethnographic museum) in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  

           

There were some great examples of lacework in Dubrovnik's musum, as well as in the lace museum on the island of Burano in Venice, Italy.  That is a great little museum, with some wonderful examples of various types of lace.  Disappointingly on this visit, there was nobody demonstrating lacemaking.  

I still haven't sorted all the photos from our two holidays, so what I've posted here are maybe not the best examples of the wonderful textiles I saw while travelling.  

Two months away from home

 We’re away on holiday so not much sewing has been done. 

However I felt the need to do something so bought an embroidery kit in Chirk in Wales. I’ve just finished it!  Nothing big, but it was fun to work on. I haven’t done any crewel embroidery for years. 

Apologies for the lack of pressing!

April and May aren't quite write-offs

Before travelling in late April, I did get some sewing done.  Two shirts for me and a gardening apron for the granddaughter.  

The shirts were made from a Butterick pattern.  The design is OK and is easy wearing, but still needs a bit of modification before I would feel really comfortable in it.  (Sorry about the terrible photos.)  I had the blue fabric in my stash for quite some time.  The paisley floral fabric is actually a piece I picked up in India a few years ago. I never can resist a paisley fabric.  Lovely cotton.   

The gardening apron is likely to be too small for the granddaughter before too long.  I should have made it with room to grow!  Never mind, at least it is right for now.

I had high hopes of getting some more sewing finished in the three weeks between getting home from one jaunt and leaving on another but it wasn't to be.  My friend's wall hanging is still unfinished, although I have done more embellishments this month.  I will have to learn how to do a facing binding when finished - that should be interesting.  

And although I started on the baby quilts, they were laid aside when other things intervened, such as mending clothes to take away.  The babies will get their quilts in August.  

And I can't work out my fabric tally this post - my brain is overloaded - so that can wait until later in the year.  See you later!

Not a lot to show for March

What a social month this has been, with time away at the Port Fairy music festival with good friends, more time spent on a Murray River houseboat with other good friends, a visit to Melbourne for a music event, time helping out my daughter and her family after her surgery, a group of friends staying with us for a weekend - the month has just flown by, and I've hardly slept in my own bed.  

March is my birthday month and I spent the day with my daughter in her flood affected town.  I bought my own birthday present - fabric and thread from Quilting Patch in Rochester, Victoria.  And the owner, when she heard it was my birthday, gave me a half metre of the pink dinosaur fabric as a gift.  So kind of her.  And I know a certain four year old who would love it.

I've done very little sewing sadly, mainly just some hand piecing of my Quatro quilt while away from home.  On the few nights I was at home, I kept on embellishing the elephant wallhanging.  When I finally get home, I will have to spend a couple of days putting my sewing room back in order, after it became the dumping ground for all excess furniture and other stuff while we had six friends sleeping in various places around the house.  

However I do have plans for April and May - but you know what happens with plans!  We move from A to B to C and sometimes even to D.  Fingers crossed.  

Anyway, here's hoping I get the following done before the end of May.

• Finish the elephant wallhanging
• Make a baby quilt for my great-nephew - born eight weeks early in February
• Make a baby quilt for my great-neice - due in June
• Make a couple of tunic tops and a pair of trousers for travelling in June/July
• Sew a gardening apron for the granddaughter
• As I empty the sewing room, clean and declutter some of the stuff.  There really is a lot of things I will never use or complete before I head off to the nursing home

Apologies to those who receive my blog via email.  It doesn't format very well in emails and there is a lot of blank space to scroll through.  Hopefully it is worth the scrolling?

March 2023 fabric tally

Finishes this month:   = zero

Purchases in March:     my "support the local quilt shop in a flood affected town" shopping went well with  5m of fabric purchased.   

Fabric used:  - 0 m         Fabric acquired:  + 5 m

2023 running tally:          - 12.75m

February 2023

I seem to have done lots of sewing in February but nothing much for me, and not a lot to show. I did collect a painting from an artist near Bendigo, Kerry Punton.  I had commissioned this painting from her after seeing one of her works at a friend's house.  I love her style and use of colour.  And I love pelicans.

 

Our Days for Girls group was donated some quilt tops.  One member quilted them on her longarm machine, and I volunteered to bind them - which I don't mind doing.  So they were both done. Only a photo of one of them though.  I've already taken the first one to a group meeting. Both are lap size quilts, not very large.  We will be able to sell them for a small amount and use the money for more fabric and threads for our work.  I quite like the fabrics in this one, all vintage style.  The binding fabric came from the donations the group receive.  

I made bunting for my daughter's shop - Twist and Sprout.  In line with her philosophy of reduce, re-use, upcycle, recycle, etc., I made the bunting from some sheets picked up at the op shop.   I actually picked the sheets up before Christmas but because January was a write-off, sewing wise, I didn't get a chance to make the bunting until this month. I did have to buy more fusible bonding web from the local patchwork shop, which stocks a good quality product.  I have had some dodgy ones in the past which separate or won't work properly.  This one worked well.  16 flags in total, about 4.5m of bias binding needed but probably twice that made!  I'll use the leftover binding for something eventually.  And I still have about half the sheet fabric in my daughter's preferred colours so can make something else for her shop with that.  The non-bunting sign used up the letters which I realised too late were too small.  I appliqued them on to some of the sheet fabric, and will hand over to my daughter to do something with it.  

             

Another job I've done is to work my way through sewing a pile of cloth Girl Guide badges onto a wool felt poncho for a friend - her mother started sewing them on by hand but sadly passed away.  So Cheryl passed on the poncho and bag of badges to me and I've sewed them on by machine.  Much faster than by hand.  I will be meeting up with her next week and will pass back the poncho to her.    

A few months ago, I added a pile of Girl Guide badges to a blanket for Cheryl's daughter.  That was harder as it was a knit blanket and moved every way but the way you wanted.  The poncho has been heaps easier as it acts like a woven fabric.  

February 2023 fabric tally

Finishes this month:  Emma's bunting = 1.5m fabric

Purchases in February:     no fabric purchased

Fabric used:  - 1.5m         Fabric acquired:  + 0m

2023 running tally:          - 17.75m