Birthday gift

It was a friends 70th birthday yesterday.  She said no presents, but of course I had to make her something. 

This is the mandala notebook by Kreative Kiwi.

Janis is a very busy lady doing a lot of volunteer work for the amputee society and she has lots of appointments which she records in a diary which she carries everywhere with her.  I got a 2020 calendar to put in the notebook cover so she can put her appointments in it.

Xmas 2019 crafty gift giving

I had a lovely Christmas day with family.  Weather was perfect, sunny skies but not too hot.

As usual I made everyone a gift as well as buying something.

10 reversible bucket hats with initials or embroidery on one side.

Bag from Sweet Pea designs.  The background fabric is sparkly with little planets.  I also made a little coin purse out of the background fabric but didn't take a photo.

Monster bag and purse from SweetPea

Peek a Boo book

Tuxedo Dress pattern from Love Notions.  I love this dress, unfortunately it was too small.  I made a dress for a 1 year old, as she is 12 months, but she is the size of a 2 year old!  I've asked her Mum to regift it to a friends baby.

x stitch project bags, new needlekeepers and stitching journal

I've been watching a bit of flosstube recently and seen a lot of people keeping their WIPS in project bags and also found a couple of tutorials.

I thought this was a good idea so made myself a couple.

Those that know me will be aware that daffodils are my favourite flower.  So the daffodil fabric was perfect for me.  I used the same fabric to make some clear vinyl fronted bags for holding floss skeins. So much prettier than the ziploc plastic lunch bags I've been using.

The second bag features some machine embroidery from a designer I haven't bought from before,  ohmycs.com.  They have some nice designs and are a good price.

Tutorials I followed were from avery claire project bag tutorial, kindred stitcher youtube tutorial and
Calico flosstube #40
 I had 2 Fat Quarters of the Daffodil fabric and the dimensions I used for the large project bag were 12.5" x 12.5" for the front and 15" x 12.5" for the back. For the vinyl bag I had to use what was left over from one of the fat quarters and it worked out around 9x8", using 4, 2" strips for the zipper piece.  The 9x8 piece is folded over to the front to create the binding around the bag so the actual finished size is smaller.

I also made and bought some more needlekeepers

In the top photo, the blue gem is the one I made.  I bought the gem from Geoffs emporium for just 40c and glued a magnet to the back.  I'd bought a set of craft magnets a couple of years ago from a $2 shop.
The bottom 2 photos are actually souvenir fridge magnets bought from a $2 shop.  These are like small trays and attach perfectly to my lowery stand which is magnetic and they are ideal for storing my working needles.  When I'm working on one colour I have 6 needles threaded at a time, so one tray keeps my threaded needles and when I've finished with that needle it goes into the second tray.

I also needed a new stitching journal.

I found this lovely VanGogh journal at PaperPlus. It was a bit more than I intended to pay, but I love it and it will last me for years.
My last journal was started in 2001 and is now full.  I enjoy looking back on what I was doing.  Below is my old journal.

I'm hoping to keep my new journal a bit more organised that the old one.

3 t shirts for the gym and week 2 x stitch update,machine embroidery from Roman blind remnants

I have a few store bought  sports knit tshirts but they are all a but shorter than I'd  like. With stretching  overhead I may be showing some midriff and wearing with leggings I'd like a bit more bum coverage.

The solution - make my own of course.

I bought some sports knit from Morelands in 3 different colors. The orange fabric was a bit narrower so I had to use some of the blue to be able to make the top. I like  the contrasting  fabrics. 

I embroidered the blue with a workout lady from secrets of.

The pattern is my go to laundry day t from love notions. As the sports knit doesn't have quite as much stretch as a cotton knife I went up a size to large and added a bit to the length to ensure good bottom coverage!

I got some Roman blinds custom made for the dining and kitchen areas and had a lot of left over fabric. So far I've  made a table topper for dining table, draft excluder and curtain tiebacks  for the living room. There is still a lot of fabric left.

Table topper, swirly placemat by creative kiwis

Draft excluder by front door

Curtain tiebacks in living room

The new Roman Blinds

Another  weeks progress on my cross stitch QS Old Friends.  I'm  still on the second  coloured on this page. More than  halfway through the page and halfway through the 10k stitch challenge.

Had a lovely trip to Auckland zoo yesterday for a friends birthday. 

Mystery Garden BOM, cross stitch ponderings and how things change in 2 years

The penultimate block in the Mystery Garden quilt was released on Monday and I made it the same day.

I was able to start sewing some of the blocks together.

Looking forward to next months release and being able to finish it.

I've had a few changed with my cross stitch project.  After starting Mini Minerva's Melody I was worrying the mini version would lose too much detail, plus the confetti in a mini is greater than a normal version and constantly changing colours isn't something I particularly enjoy.
So I decided to switch.  Heaven and Earth Designs had another sale for 4th July so I bought another 3 charts.

QS Old Friends 275x368 = 101,200 stitches

At the steps 450x544=244,800 stitches

QS the magic of books

250x262=65,500 stitches

I've made  (a few) starts on Old Friends.  I had thought I'd try tent stitch on 25 count.  I've never done tent stitch before but a lot of people on the HeavenandEarth Facebook are doing this and it stitches up quicker.  I also decided to try extreme cross-country stitching.  This is something new to me, after an absence of just 2 years I'm finding a lot has changed.  I've always been a cross country stitcher - which is stitching with one thread until it runs out or there is too much space to cross, then starting another colour.  However extreme cross country involves stitching with just one colour until all of that colour has been used on the page or indeed the entire project.  I will do it per page.  So you start with the colour that has the highest count which Heaven and Earth helpfully provide with their charts.  The advantage of this is you aren't constantly changing colour and don't have to go searching for which colour matches which symbol.

So first of all I tried tent stitch on 25 count fabric.  I didn't like it.  After 30 plus years of cross stitching it just felt wrong and I found it harder to count.  Plus the 25 count was just too hard to see.  So I switched to 22 count and still found it too hard to see.

So I have restarted Old Friends again, this time on 16count Aida full cross, 2 over 1 and extreme cross country.  So far this seems to be the best for me and I'm enjoying doing the extreme cross country.

I've also made a grime guard (another thing that is new to me) and bought some 11"x17" q snaps.  I'm finding these easier to hold than a hoop and the grime guard keeps the fabric out of the way (and clean).

I'm also stitching using my tablet and a programme called EZPDF reader ( again new to me).  This allows me to search for the symbol I am stitching and then highlight completed stitches.  It tells me how many stitches are highlighted so I can keep track of my progress.

And another new thing, is to pre-grid my fabric.  I gridded up a page before starting.  Previously I've gridded as I've gone, but I'm finding having it already gridded makes for faster stitching time.

Of course I'll be sure to post future updates on Old Friends here.

Kiwi coasters and block 8 of the Mystery Garden

I've been busy the last few days with machine embroidery.
First up was to make a set of Kiwi coasters, a free set from Kreative Kiwi

These are made of  denim and gold lycra.  The denim was bought with the intention of making a jacket, however when I got it home I realised it has a plasticy sheen to it, not what I wanted in a jacket.  I made the curtain tie-backs, posted earlier, from the same denim.  The plasticy surface means they can wipe clean easily. 

This month saw the release of Block 8 of the Mystery Garden from SweetPea.  Another pretty block

The block consists of 4 smaller blocks that are then sewn together.  I ended up remaking the block with the flowers in a basket.  My first fabric choices weren't good. The background fabric I had was too loud and busy and the leaves, vines and flowers got lost in it.

New floor in sewing room, curtain tiebacks and table topper

The last couple of weeks have been very busy and I haven't had much time to get into my craft room.  I've been getting new carpet, curtains and dining table.  In my sewing room I got vinyl wood-look planks.  I've wanted a hard floor in my sewing room for a long time.  Trying to vacuum up those pesky tiny bits of thread and fibre is impossible from carpet.  So much easier to just get out a brush and dustpan and sweep it up.

I love how much cleaner the room looks with the planks down.

I also got new curtains and decided to make my own embroidered tie-backs.  Making my own tie-backs has been in the back of my mind for a long time.  In my imagination I was going to make something sophisticated, maybe a swirling design or fleur-de-lis type design.  Instead I went for a design of pukeko's from Kreative Kiwi.

If you don't know pukeko's are a quirky bird and live around wetlands.  We have some in our street and you can hear them screaming at night.  When driving you have to be careful to avoid them, they look very funny running across the road.

These are photos of pukekos that I took at a park a couple of years ago.

I also made a table topper for my coffee table.  The design is from SweetPea