To begin, I thought I’d share some beautiful spring flowers from our garden – I absolutely adore their rich yummy colour!
It’s a grey drizzly day here in the western suburbs of Sydney – perfect whether for a blog update and perhaps a few wonderful hours spent creating with my sewing machine…
I’ve been busily continuing to sew up more Union Jack blocks, in preparation for a new quilt to be made next year.
I’m hoping to make something similar to this quilt- as made by talented quilter Amy Smart @ Diary of a Quilter ~ click here for her blog post about this quilt ~ & click here for the link to the original quilt design by Busy Bee Quilt Designs: Victory Garden.
I’m not sure how many blocks I’ll make – I’ll possibly keep going until I become thoroughly sick of making the same block over and over again! At the moment I’m having too much fun mixing and matching different colours and prints with mixed results…
This week’s embroidery comes from an applique design I found in one of Cath Kidston’s books – Make! – the pattern is called Antique Rose, a classic design of hers and is one of my all time favourites!
An update on my Jacob’s Ladder Quilt: All hand quilting has come to a dramatic stop – it’s been abandoned; sadly crumpled up on an unused armchair on the opposite side of my sewing room.
The reason for this is…well…is mainly because I can’t be bothered to stitch any more of it. There, I said it! It’s a terrible terrible excuse…but the quilt is just so big that I can’t see myself finishing it in the near future. I admit I chose the wrong thing to begin my first attempt at hand quilting – but hey, I still learnt something new; I openly made mistakes and I’ve learnt from them. Remember: always start small when attempting a new technique and work your way up from there!
My impatience is also a driving force to get the quilt finished. I just want to snuggle underneath it and to wrap my nephews up in it when we’re watching a movie as well as to add a burst of welcome colour to rooms it will reside in.
So it’s back to the drawing board for Jacob’s Ladder – I’ll unpick all my handmade stitches (there’s not that many) and I’ll re-baste and iron it all the while figuring out the best way to machine quilt it…
So as I’m currently an unemployed university student, funds are unfortunately low…boohoo! But, this is the perfect excuse to pledge my promise to making this coming Christmas season a handmade one. Everything I give this year will be handmade by yours truly! This includes the presents, wrapping paper and cards/tags. The wonderful ladies at The Makery over in the UK gave this spark of inspiration to me– they’re a great little organisation that offers all types of crafty/sewing classes, providing a wonderful sense of creative inspiration to their community!
I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve of what to make, starting with a sweet little embroidery I’ve designed myself. Here’s sneaky peek…
So with only 40 days until Christmas, I’m pretty confident I can pull it off (don’t quote me on that!) and give out some pretty nifty gifts to my loved ones. Hopefully too, a sense of appreciation and thankfulness will come alive as only a handmade gift can do.
Happy Sewing!! xx
3and3quarters 