Fiberart Fun

I was at my usual weekly quilt group meeting, but I was stuck, and could not continue stitching on my quilt. So, I found some spare pieces of fabric, dropped the feed-dogs on the sewing machine, and started free-motion stitching a continuous line drawing straight onto the fabric.

Two panels later, I have 'me & him' caricatures, which I then framed with fabric to make two quilt blocks. 

A few more projects

I have been busy on a few projects lately. Here is a quick run down of them.

An embroidery piece. Two of these made. The pink is crochet, and there will eventually be a bead or two stitched to the middle of it.

The following pic is the beginnings of what I hope will be a dandelion. It's a bit of an experiment.

Celebrating the number 5 for an anniversary in one of the groups on Ravelry. 

Just for fun.

1. 5 colours x 5 stitches wide x 5 rows.

2. 5 colours x 5 different stitches x 5 sides (pentagon).

3. 5 threads x 5 foundation ch. x 5 sc.

4. 5 colours x 5 puffs x 5 bead stitches.

5. Multiple of 5 foundation x increase every 5th st.

Sorting out my mothers bobbins. Three piles like this. This stack is now untangled and sorted into order. I'll show the sorted photo when I have done all of them.

My mini HEX quilt has progressed a little bit with the blue, black, green and purple rounds added.

The ANZAC day dawn service.

We walked to the town hall and followed the pipes and drums band to the cenotaph and monument.

What an emotional event that was.

When the bugle played and then the silence, apart from the crashing waves on the beach below us.

It really brought it all home.

That 'just-after-dawn' moment.

And a stroll along our Opunake beach yesterday.

Quite an eventful and productive couple of weeks.

Happy Stitching 

from

Cyra

Sampler Catch-up & Crochet Block

I've been busy on my genealogy work over the last couple of weeks, hence not much happening on the stitching side here. I have made a great headway on one particular small branch of my tree, and I always get a lump in my throat when certain discoveries pop up in my research. It is so interesting to discover new people in my tree.

But now I've actually got some stitching things done again I can show you what I've been up to.

The Embroidery Sampler has two small simple stitch bands added.

(sorry the photo seems blurred)

....and here is the full sampler so far.

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BAMCAL 2017

The12" Block Seven for my Blues Blanket is That One Sister

Again, I have adapted the pattern to suit my personal preference (the freeformer in me always wants to take over, lol).

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And....... tada!!!!

This is a sneak preview of a pattern that will be released soon.

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So the only 'finish' that I can add to my YOP (Year Of Projects) is the 12" crochet square.

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Tony & I have been out for a couple of coastal walks, all close to our home.

The first photo is Opunake beach from the cliff top (looking north across to Middleton Bay), and the second photo is the walk past Opunake lake and heading south to the next bay.

Two very different coast views and an enjoyable couple of days adventures.

See you next week when I hope to have more of the sampler done, and another 12" square, 

plus whatever else takes my fancy.

The Hexagon Quilt

I have designed a hexagon quilt for a long-term project.

It is going to be humongous (for a super-king sized bed) and will probably take 5 years or more to stitch because I'm using ¾" hexagons --- oh what was I thinking, mad, totally mad, hand stitched English Paper Piecing, oh dear.

Here it is so far, the humble beginnings...

I did not get any photos of my latest crochet block for my blanket, but I did do some stitching on my A Year of Stitches project (not managing to do stitching every day on it, but hey, I'm only human.

Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day when Tony & I had a trip to Hawera.

We decided to relax a bit and take a leisurely stroll through the park.

It's a beautiful place, full of very well kept gardens, a great kiddies park area, duck ponds, Chinese garden, rose gardens, and lovely nooks, shady areas, and secret gardens. 

It always looks amazing there, and you never know what surprises you'll find as you follow winding paths or peep around the hedgerows.

Whoever created this space did an excellent job of keeping people and children entertained.

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This has been another Year of Projects Post

BAMCAL - YOP - FO's - AYIS - MYIS

Oh boy....... I've done it again..... started lots of projects.

And just in case the title of this blog is reading like a foreign language to you, let me translate it for you here.

BAMCAL = Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long

YOP = Year Of Projects

FO's = Finished Objects

AYIS - A Year In Stitch

MYIS - My Year In Stitches

2017 BAMCAL is a Ravelry group in which we are given a choice of 3 blocks each month to crochet as we wish for our chosen project. I am going to see if I find enough time to do all 3 blocks, as I would like to make at least two afghans and a tunic/poncho.

My first 12" block is finished - Floral Kaleidoscope Afghan Square by Julie King.

I am using yarn from my stash for this project.

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While I'm showing you FO's, here is a Free Form Ball that I finished for a CAL in another Ravelry group. 

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A Year In Stitches is all about making stitches every day for a year and in a random, freeform style.

I have chosen a colourful printed fabric to randomly embellish with stitches.

And here is the start - Day 1 stitches.

Just a little bit more each day.

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My Year In Stitches is a different project. It still incorporates a little bit of stitching each day, but this one is slightly more organized. It started off life as a patchwork wall hanging that I made a few years ago.... but.... I never really liked it the way it was, so I have decided to spruce it up with a whole heap of stitching to make it more appealing to me, and hopefully, I'll enjoy it enough when it's finished to actually hang it up instead of hiding it in a box.

The green stems are what I have stitched today, and there are quite a lot more of them to stitch too, so I might not share photos again until I get onto something more interesting to see.

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This has been another YOP blog post.

Happy New Year to you all, and Happy Stitching.

Cyra

A YOP finish & 'My Week'

Another YOP finished object to add to my list on the YOP-FO tab

I have finished the Christmassy Cat decoration- what a little cutie. 

My 'someone special' is going to love it.

It's about 6" high and embroidered with DMC floss.

An enjoyable and quick project to stitch. I might do a whole load for next Christmas, lol.

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My Summers End crochet mandala has not progressed any this week, but

I have started another 2 crochet projects, but can't show pics yet because they are for Christmas presents.

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I enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner with the Embroiderers Guild group that I belong to.

Lovely company and great food.

 (or should that read)

Lovely food and great company.

Either way works for me.

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I went to my local church fair this week. Plenty of nick-nacks for sale, and lovely music provided by a couple of teenagers from the high school, singing and playing guitar and keyboards. They were very good, and certainly in the Christmas spirit. Isn't it good to see the youth of today enjoying making people smile.

One of our junior schools in our little town also had a Country Fair, which was very fun entertainment for all the children. I do so enjoy listening to the happy little voices of children playing and having fun. It was another day of smiles for me.

There is a Market Day at the High School tomorrow, and an evening Crafty Christmas Fair event later in the week. I shall happily be attending those events too. I try to buy locally if I can, and I do my best to support local events and fundraisers. 

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The garden has taken up some time this week, so with a lack of stitching related photos to show this week, here are some of my lovely blossoms and blooms purely for your enjoyment too.

Well, that's it for this week folks.

I hope you have a great time if you are attending any functions.

This has been another Year Of Projects post

A Few More Stitches

Here are a few more stitches that have happened this week.

This Christmassy Cat will, in the next week or so, be made into a hanging decoration and posted off to someone special for a very special greeting.

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My Summers End Mandala Madness Part 14 is done (the fawn bit). Hope to get part 15 started this week too.

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And I enjoyed making my last garden inspired weaving, so I've started another fiberart weaving to match it using the same warp, and it has begun with an even plain weave at the bottom for a reason, which will be revealed at a later date when a bit more has been completed, and some more of my freeform style has been added.

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And, after a joint effort (hubby & I), we got all the lounge furniture out of the lounge so that we could get that carpet cleaned before putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. It looks so much better now, and we can put the furniture back in tomorrow.

We also went shopping for two days to select a houseful of furniture for the new house we bought for our son to live in while at Uni in another town a few hours away from us.

Phew!!! It has been a very busy week.

This has been another YOP post.

Happy Stitching

A bit of fun stitching

I've managed to get quite a bit of stitching done on some fun projects over the week, so here are my current project photos.

Completed Band 1 of the Embroidery Sampler.

The blue and purple are the additions this week.

And a childs cheerful crochet Beanie Beret of my own design.

Also, a little update on the Party At My Place Quilt. Two more 'building blocks' added.

And some progress on a baby blanket that somebody else made, but I am repairing and joining the remaining circles.

So that was my stitchery week.

I have a lovely variety of projects still on the go.

I have a quilt wall hanging to finish off over the next few weeks, and the white circles baby blanket must get finished soon too, as the new baby it is for is due in October.

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Happy Stitching

This has been another Year Of Projects post.

When is it going to be Spring

 When it's spring again 

 I'll sing again 

 Tulips from Amsterdam  

Winter has dragged on here (New Zealand), and I'm longing for spring to arrive. I need more sun in the days please. Today was a teaser of what is to come. I managed to actually get three loads of washing on the line and dried. First time I've been able to do that for a long time.

Anyway, enough of my dribble - here's what I have been up to this past week.

I attended an online workshop by JThouse to learn how to make her motif called 'Dione'.

I played YARN CHICKEN with it .... and lost. I ran out of thread just before the very last three picot edgings to the very last 'leaf'. How very annoyed I was (hah! I won't repeat here what I actually said).

But at least I now know how to make the motif.

 Embroidery on my Crazy Quilt block #8. 

Filling in details on some motifs.

Craft Room Organising

Since moving into our new home back in March, this room was 'earmarked' for my craft studio, and also as a spare tv lounge.

This part of the room is my sewing area. All my craft books will be on the bottom shelves, and then all my sewing equipment will be on the top shelves close at hand for my sewing/project table.

The three red stacked boxes on the floor on the left have more of my books yet to be unpacked, I hope they will all fit on the shelves ok.

I'm looking forward to having this place sorted soon so that I can plug in my sewing machine that I have not been able to use for well over a year now.

All this in the photo has been in storage all that time as well. Unpacking it is like Christmas and lots of birthdays all arrived at once and I am being reunited with long lost friends here too, lol.

I hope to have the table clear by next week and carry on sorting the other parts of this room, some of which will be the art & designing area. Lots more unpacking yet.

So that was my busy week.

And this has been another YOP post

Happy stitching