The Last Post of 2014

Some Highlights from 2014

Well, that just about wraps it up for 2014.

All that is left, is for me to say

    HAPPY   NEW    YEAR     

Joy To The World

    Merry Christmas to all    

  For my online and offline family and friends  

  May your celebrations be joyful and loving  

This is my Christmas Tree for this year.

A minimalist decor to match our home as most of our belongings are already packed away for the sale of our farmstead and home.

The Christmas sheet-music collage on the wooden tree base was fun to create. Here are a few close-up photos.

  Love and peace to everyone  

2014 Int. Free Form Fiberarts

I can finally reveal my Free Form Cerise Fiberart Neck Adornment.

It has now been published in the book: One Color

by the International Free Form Fiberarts Guild, of which I am a member.

The book is available at the following link:

    One Colour by Cyra Lewis 

ALL profits from the sales go to an International Charity (or charities) nominated by the members. 

I am honoured and proud to be in the company of such talented and inspirational fiber-artists, and I am pleased to call them all my friends.

Heart Crazy Quilt & Winter Warmer

 Straight From The Heart - Crazy Quilt 

Week 10

The crochet edging for the Dresden plate center is complete - all 60 inches of it.

Took a while to crochet it and stitch it in place around the 'swags' of the plate.

Another patch embellished with a crochet Mandala/flower. 

Love, love, love these colours, lol.

And, now that I have finished the Dresden plate central work, I get to stitch the patches together onto the quilt.

Fun.

No perfection is required for this part. Raw edges to the patches, large stitches, wonky stitching......whatever happens happens.

Just pick up the next patch from the pile and stitch it down somewhere.

An occasional fill-in patch required to cover a blank space.

You might recognize a few of the stitchery patches from earlier this year.

No progress on my Boho skirt this week, but I did get two more parts of the Winter Warmer done.

Guess who's having fun...........

Crazy Quilt Week 4

 Straight From The Heart 

Crazy Quilt Week 4 

A 'broken' heart gets mended. 

A crochet flower with bullion stitch and French Knots.

Another crochet flower with French Knots.

Buttonhole wheels, French Knots, whipped chain stitch, and couched braid.

I am still searching for the perfect backing for these stitchery's.

2014 - Plans - Ideas - Goals - Dreams

Hi everyone, I'm back from my hols, and raring to stitch.

Plans, Ideas, Goals & Dreams

This year I am going to make another crazy quilt.

It will differ from my last one in a few ways; colour, style, theme, and process.

My colour scheme this year is going to be from 
purple through pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and golds 
and will probably include some black, white and neutrals too.

The style will be slightly traditional in its overall look but probably will not be labelled traditional, and may even be classed as contemporary. 

Perhaps "rustic" or "naive" might fit what I have in mind for it.

Those of you who know me well will know that Free Form Stitching will play a big part in the crazy quilt too.

As for the theme - it will be  Straight From The Heart 

with a hint of love, 

so hearts, flowers, birds, doves, music,

names, monograms, poems, quotes & symbols,

will be included in the embroidery and embellishing, hopefully without too much gush or frills.

THE PROCESS of creating the Crazy Quilt (bed quilt) 

will be a different way of working for me. 

I have thought, long and hard, about what other commitments I have this year, and how I am going to get my stitching fix when I am travelling back and forth to Hawkes Bay with the house moving process (which we anticipate will take us most of the year to sort out).

So I have planned a crazy quilt that I can create in small pieces each week (small enough to keep in my handbag) and then, hopefully once a month, attach each small piece to a bed-sized whole-cloth backing fabric.

Oh, a couple of other things about these small  STITCHERIES  - 
They will be of irregular shapes and sizes as befits a crazy quilt. 
The background fabric will have to fit into a 6" embroidery hoop. 
The motifs & symbols etc. will be stitched all over them before being attached to the backing, butting up against the straight edge of the next Stitchery. 
Straight running stitch will be used to attach the Stitcheries to the backing. 
Raw edges will be showing.

This is what I have managed so far over the last two weeks while we were in Hawkes Bay.

I started with a heart that I appliqued with blanket stitch to a dusky pink velvet base fabric, then hand stitched a meander over the heart, and added some raised circles in pink.

I crocheted a couple of flower shapes. 

Then added the heart outline, latticework, another crochet shape, buttons, beads and French Knots etc.

Week One complete. 

Week Two started with another heart, but a braid one this time.

Then came a swirly thing in pink and black, and another latticework pattern that was inspired and developed from the pattern on the fabric.

A random bit of crocheting created the appliqued purple piece.

Then came some Lazy Daisy flowers to fill the empty space on the right.

Both of these stitcheries are about 5 inches square. I will cut them in different shapes with 3, 4, 5, or 6 sides, depending on what shape is needed to fit all the Stitcheries onto my backing fabric.

I anticipate making at least one small Stitchery each week, sometimes more than one if I have time. This means that I will have something to show each week, hopefully.

And I will have a goal of attaching a months worth of Stitcheries to the backing for a 

 monthly reveal , 

and to show how the quilt is progressing.

Other projects for the year include:

The annual challenge for a Freeform Fiberart work - theme this year is One Colour, 

Deadline = 1 May.

Edit and create the official book for the above challenge. 

Deadline = 1 June.

Learn how to tat.

Make crocheted garments and publish more patterns for my Etsy shop and Ravelry.

De-clutter the house to make it presentable to prospective purchasers.

I think I have a busy year ahead.