12 Days of Christmas update

Hi Everyone,
It has been slow but steady progress the last two weeks.
Have completed the stitching on the first of my bells.

Stitching with a soft gold metallic thread has really brought my bells to life.
I had been putting off making my last four baubles as two of them kept posing me a problem as to what fabric to use. Nine Ladies Dancing and Ten Lords-A-Leaping.
Blue against my red bauble background was the obvious choice but I am using so much blue!!!
Finally my lady dancing is made.

A tiny scrap of sea green plus mauves gave me her dress

But for my lord -a leaping

I just had to go back to blues, his jacket is a very dark iridescent navy.

This was the fiddliest bauble of them all.

The last two I thought would be much easier, the piper only being two pieces

The biggest headache was what thread to stitch it with, It was only one shape with a black oval.

I didn't want a hard black outline but felt my gold mettalic might just be lost.

Searching my threads I found a black/gold metallic and it has worked, didn't on the black oval though so had to unpick and restitch with black thread.

Finally Twelve Drummer's Drumming.

Not Blue which would have been so easy !!! Mauve plus the fabrics from my dove has given me my drum.

I still have to do some finishing on all my baubles to round their edges a little more, that is going to be quiet but peaceful mornings work.

My 12 Days of Christmas Baubles are now complete.

So today I am starting my second Christmas Bell.

I have six days back at work from tomorrow and next Saturday 28th March I am attending a specialty threads and stitching workshop with Country Dawn so my sewing time will be limited.

Have bought a spare bobbin case and a cording foot in anticipation of a day that may well stretch my current  boundaries, am so looking forward to it. 

Cheers's everyone, I think I am still in time to link to Esther's WOW.

Jenny

12 Days of Christmas, Progress

Hi Everyone,
Has been a couple of weeks since I blogged. So much has been happening at work recently and my days off are now Fri and Sat so I always seem to run out of time to blog for Esther's WOW.
Today is Monday, I had been summoned for jury service but released at 10.30 am due to legal hiccups and have to report back tomorrow. Checked in with work and everything is fully covered so am taking lieu time for rest of day so will be ready early to link this week.
So how is my 12 DOC progressing.

I am loving how it is coming together. My border fabric has worked so well tying my fabrics together. The little green border brings out the tree and the words at the bottom, well they tell the whole story

"The stockings were hung on the chimney with care"

I decided to let the stockings extend to the bottom edge to accentuate the bottom border, also that border is  narrower than the sides and top to fit my finished size.

My tree is double padded. I decided to trim away the backing fabric and cut an extra layer of batting for the tree shape. My iron on batting is already in place, the wrinkles are from it releasing from my background as I manouver the fabric to stitch my applique. This will press out before I add my backing fabric.

The top corner's of my border. I was making my life so difficult, wanting to add charm squares and extend the small green border around them. I still might but when a friend said "just mitre them at present and move on to the next stage" I did, they are better than I thought they would be and I had spent 2 days worrying about them.

My parcels, well the only two fabrics I found that were right sizewise were the green and the red with stars.

The parcels without bows yet, their ribbons are commercial ribbon and I plan to make 3D embellishments for these ones, so not until it is completed..

My Peace Dove, I just love her and think she is almost the most beautiful part of Esther's pattern. The heavily overlaid gold fabric had only just arrived into store the day I went shopping and was sitting on the counter waiting to be checked off. I just had to have it!!! the body fabric has silver embossing.

My star, I wanted to move away from blue but nothing else seemed to work. I chose a blue backgound and now have to let it dictate to me.  I followed Esther's instructions for the star, I thought to a T.
My center was not the greatestalthough esther's method worked very well, hence the little gold circle to cover a multitude of my sin's, LOL
I know I want to hang my baubles on the tree but that  meant I had a big expanse of open space to each side of the tree in the top third of the hanging. I loved Glenda's addition of candles to her version of the quilt but they were not the right option to position in the top third.
I went back to pattern's I have collected over the years and found this one of Christmas Bells from
"Just Patchwork" which seems perfect.

I adjusted my pattern size to fit my hanging and am really happy, have a mirror image to make for the left side of my hanging. DH has not put up my design wall yet so I am using a piece of polyproplyne resting on my ironing board, hence some funny fabric angles in my photos.

Again, I did not want a blue bow but nothing else worked!!! I now have some back sewing to do as my ribbon moved while I was stitching it and it is not straight over the top 2 inches and it annoys me - a lot!!!
Bells to finish and then 4 more baubles to make.

I Love to hear from you and try to reply to all comments.
Cheers Jenny

WOW or rather Thursday 19th Feb

Hi Everyone, thanks for dropping in.

Am totally loving Esther's 12 days of Christmas but progress has been slow.
With eight baubles finished and four to go decided it was time to finish my tree blocks and applique them to my background fabric.

I loved my background fabric when I bought it but have had second thoughts about it ever since.

An icy blue with silver metallic snowflakes - and as I am working with gold metallic's will it work?

With my mottled trunk in place I stitched the tree this morning and am happy, too much gold might just be an overkill. Am I going to be a purist and cut out my background fabric from behind my tree, possibly as am thinking of double padding the tree to push it forward.

Went shopping this morning for my batting, for wall hangings I prefer Flieslina H640 iron on and I want to add this now before I stitch the lower applique. I also wanted fabric's for the applique parcels.

Have been unsure about my border fabric as I want to make this slightly bigger than the pattern so it fits the rod where my Faberge quilt now hangs. Looking for parcel fabric I found this border fabric.

I love all the stockings but will it work?

Reduced to this width of border, I love it with my background and tree.

You can see my background fabric better here, I think it is the blue version of the red fabric that Esther used for her 12 Days of Christmas. I will need corner stone blocks to make this fabric work perfectly for my border. Esther your video on charm blocks could be just at the right time for me

I also found the perfect  fabric for my doves wings, just arrived in store and not unpacked yet, I chose the perfect day to go shopping!!! No photo's so that can wait till my next post as I have plenty of prep work to do now.

Linking now to Esther's WOW before I run out if time.

Cheer's everyone, Jenny

Progress on 12 Days of Christmas

Hi Everyone,
My 12 days progress has been slowed down over the last week as my brother and his wife have been in town. They are doing a month long trip around the North Island and have stopped in Whangarei to catch up with us for a few days. Not staying with us as the spare room is still full of everything Lol, but they are spending every evening with us and we are a having a few late nights enjoying their company.
The house is the cleanest and tidiest it has been in months and this is wonderful to enjoy, also the reason for not much sewing.
Thought I would show how I finish my baubles. I can't handstitch well enough any longer to follow Esther's technique so this is what I have been doing.

As you can see I add my batting before stitching my applique. 

Once my applique is complete I use it as my template for cutting the backing. doesn't matter if it is slightly bigger.I then stitch from this side leaving the top open from the edges of the gold top segment which I have not stitched down yet

From this side you can see my stitching with edges trimmed, bottom point cut off and any excess batting removed ready for turning. My finger only just fits thru the opening but having my batting held in place by my stitching as well as being fused, turning is relatively easy.

A little more easing out of the seam needed but top edges have been folded in and then the gold top stitched around with blanket stitch to close the opening.

Have also completed my Milk Maid

Faceless as yet, I'm scared to attempt it but one day I will.

My red background fabric is very vibrant and finding fabrics that work well is harder than I thought.

today I finished my Swan a Swimming

For me the Swan was easy - but the stitching on the wing!!!!

After a couple of days pondering as my free motion stitching is not great I decided to draw the pattern on to my wing with a fine yellow marker,  it wasn't a  gold mettalic but next time it would be.

However with my metallic thread slowly stitched over top I am happy with the result.

so that is 8 Baubles finished, four to go.

The day before my brother and SIL arrived I was frantic, my old dining table topper had to go and is now some restoration work. What to replace it with, a search through my wall hangings found this one from a few years ago. 

Butterfly Garden

My first and only Bargello attempt so far. I picked the colours of the Hydrangea for this quilt, got the pattern wrong as I reversed blocks I wasn't meant to, in the end a totally differnet result with a horrible center 4 blocks from my first attempt at stitching a Bargello. However I learnt quickly and the rest of the blocks were much better. I decided to add Mosaic applique butterfly to hide the center stitching flaws.

Covered a multitude of sins in my first blocks- but looked very lonely so I searched my butterfly patterns for other options.

A foundation pieced butterfly for my middle size.

And an applique butterfly for the smallest size. 

The result on the table was this.

With a vase of artificial  Hydrangea's in pride of place, this looks much better.

This week I am finally in time to link to Esther's WOW so doing so now.

Enjoy your Wednesday, 

Cheer's Jenny

WOW Thursday 29th Jan

Hi Everyone,
Has been a quiet week for me sewing wise as DH wanted to make progress with our renovations.
Up until Saturday I could sew but that night was told pack up your machine, your sewing room is moving tomorrow while you are at work.
When I got home I was just in time to help as Steve had finished taking my table apart and it was ready to move. My table is purpose built, 3 student desk tops, an old kitchen cupboard and an old overhead china cupboard with sliding glass doors to my fat quarter collection, at the moment all suffering from sanding dust!!! But it is in place.
My DH is very clever though. At the moment there is NO power to this room!!!
This means I can clean up and help him with progress around the house before disappearing into my sewing room. There is such a thing as an extension cord but I will forget about that for the time being!!!

You can sort of see the configuration here.

Glass cupboard is under the long side and ALL is dusty!!

New cutting bench in front of the window, quilts and fabric with no current home, 

covered until I can get to them

What is left of my old sewing room

Cutting bench plus Scotch Chest with no home from our bedroom.

New wall being built across the room for our office and the good bit for me,

all that space on the left side is becoming storage cupboards.Yeah!!!

Start of our office or 4th bedroom.

Disappointed to find we can't fit a single bed as well with the size of our computer desk/chair

but plenty of room for a bookcase or two. 

Most of our books have been stacked under my sewing table for the last few years, leaving just enough room for my foot control. Lol.

The early shift into the computer room was because of this chair.

This is where our computer desk used to sit, in our YES also unfinished lounge.

Can't wait for our new carpet to get rid of the temporary fix for our extension.

The store next to my work is a baby store and this is one of their breast feeding chair's.!!!!

Returned by a customer as faulty, they had not followed the assembly instructions correctly 

I sat in one a few years ago and fell in love with it, far too late for me to need one but they are so comfortable. It swivels, rocks, reclines and it's foot stool adjusts to your position and rocks as well.

Repaired and for sale at under half price.

Rang Steve and asked him to come in and see what he thought of it - he looked and then he sat in it.!!!

Result - if you want it, buy it!!

Got home, the computer desk was moved out of the lounge and guess who is sitting in the chair most night's.

The baby store told me, if we get the husband in the chair - it's sold, worked for me!!!

To what quilting I did get done before having to unplug my machine. Am nearly half way with my baubles as have finished five plus the applique on the sixth. As I can't handstitch very well any longer I changed from Esther's pattern method of handstitching aound the padded bauble and will photograph my technique for my next blog post but here are my next 5 baubles. you can also see my background fabric's better in these photo's

Two Turtle Doves

We have very similar wild doves in Northland NZ but under a different name.

3 French Hens

This was fun but was several attempts to get fabric choices I was happy with.

4 Calling Birds, Esther's blog archive let me understand this one.

Five golden rings. Would love to do an embroidered spiderweb wheel top but I tried one for my poppies and it didn't look good and I had to take it off.

My Thumbs do not like handwork.

Six geese a laying. Not finished yet as this is when I had to pack up my machine.

Will show you how I am finishing my baubles with this one on my next blog.

Final Photo, six baubles on part of my tree background.

Now to link to Esther's Wow and then start organising my sewing room,

Enjoy your week everyone, Cheer's Jenny

Quilting with a House under Renovation.

Hi Everyone, This should be a WOW link to Esther, if I finish in time it will be but it is already Friday in NZ and time is running out. This was last week, I ran out of time !!!!
The last week has been DH doing the major renovation work as he has to start back at his other build next week and our place will take second place once again.
DH tells me I should be in my new sewing room by the end of next week. There will be no carpet on the floor but I need to move out of my now very dusty and cramped sewing room for his work to continue over the next week or so.

Window in and looking out. New sewing room faces NE so by early morning sun is streaming in and in summer it is going to be hot, have already mentioned I will need an awning for next summer.

My Current sewing room.

A new window added as this room will become our office, a passage to the new room and a 3m storage cupboard on the other wall.. Doorway in place to new room
Quilts with no where to live at present sit on my sewing table and I have to work around them

Looking back from the new room you can see what I have to work in at present

DH does cover everything while I am at work, thank goodness!!!

Around the house work continues as well.

Our new ensuite is finally gibbed and the window has been changed to double glazed etched glass.

From the exterior. Made to fit our brick cladding 

All bricks removed from the new spare room / ensuite front wall.

New spare room window and cladding in place.

From inside, this smaller room in now light and airy, private with the bottlebrush and tree in front

but full of more excess everything that we need to find a home for!!!!

Cladding also across the front with our smaller ranchslider which was the first to be in stalled

You can see the size of the trunk of the bottlebrush and how big a tree it would be if it had not been cut back many years ago. it is not the prettiest from the road, but it's new growth is perfect for privacy so I keep saying it stays. 

And finally to my sewing. Before work started on the house I managed to stitch the last poppies on to the background. They do pop off the fabric once they are stitched down.

This photo I still had the right side petals to stitch.
Because they are padded I stitch with them only pinned into place.
I could add bonding web to the back of my padding but I like the extra "puff" I get by not using it.

Now pinned over the current wallhanging in our lounge, one of the least dusty rooms!!!
 I need another couple of leaves on the right hand stems but this along with the final trimming and a
2 inch dark border have to wait until my sewing room is moved and I have space again.

In the meantime I have started Esther's 12 Days of Christmas wallhanging, I can just manage it on the space I have left on my sewing table. Have made six of the 12 foundation pieced blocks for the tree so far.

The true colour is deeper greens but it did not photograph well.

Still not sure the fabric with writing was the best choice but the more blocks I make the better it works,

it was also the only fabric I could find to make the other's work together.

This morning I made the first of the baubles - A Partridge in a pear tree

These baubles celebrating the song are going to be so much fun to make.

I  padded the bauble before doing my applique stitching as for me this gives a more 3D effect.

If you would like make this wall hanging the pattern is available for purchase from Esther's on line shop and she has all her blog posts about it on her blog site. They are great to read along with all the comments of those that made it along with her. 

I am no good at adding links so just go to the post links at the top of Esther's blog. 

I am either making another bauble now or adding the backing to this one.

Cheers's Jenny