Hello! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. I am feeling very pleased with myself as this last week I managed to finish two of the little bonus projects from Gail Pan's wonderful i-stitch-club BOM 'Send my Love'. I still haven't finished any more blocks but the two bonus projects completed were this little needle case which was March's bonus project. Such a cute little design and a useful size to carry round with you to classes!
I also finished the May bonus project, which was this sweet little pincushion. Another lovely design and I made mine to match the needle case, so I now have a matching set to take with me when I am travelling.
I am hoping to get some more blocks completed this week too. I would love to get caught up before June's blocks are released!!
There is nothing I like more than to join in a sew-a-long and last week a lovely sew-a-long s started in a Facebook group I follow. It is being run by a lovely lady whose acquaintance I made through taking part in the Splendid Sampler. She is very talented and made the most beautiful Splendid Sampler blocks and now she is about to have her first book published called 'Small Wonders'. Her name is Serena Boffa Soda and you can follow her Facebook page at La Casetta Nel Bosco.
In anticipation of the release of her new book, she is running the sew-a-long to teach some basic embroidery stitches. Although I am familiar with the basic stitches, I loved the little design that Serena has drawn for this sew-a-long and I couldn't resist joining in!
I transferred the pattern to some prepared fabric and stitched the first stitch which is the blanket stitch. Isn't it cute? I'm looking forward to the next stitch being released on Wednesday of this week.
Thank you for visiting! xx
NB. I have no affiliation to any of the blogs, websites, books, classes, etc that I link to here. The views expressed are just my own humble opinions.
Hello, I'm getting better..... the gap between this post and the last is not too huge and I am excited to share with you what I have been doing!!
Firstly, although I haven't done any more stitching on my February blocks of Gail Pan's wonderful i-stitch-club BOM, I have now cut, traced and prepared all of the blocks for March, April and May. I have even cut out the fabrics and traced the stitcheries for the bonus projects too. As you can see, there are some very cute designs!!
I was also very excited to receive a copy of Gail's wonderful new book 'Patchwork Loves Embroidery Too' which, I have had on order for some time and have been eagerly awaiting. There are some seriously lovely projects inside!!
There were also a couple of other books that I had on order which arrived this week too. For some little while now I have been thinking about trying to make a miniature landscape quilt. I think I may have been enticed by the beautiful miniature landscape projects I have seen produced by my friend Sheila who blogs at 'Sheila's Quilt World'. I have always loved them but, I also recently discovered a miniature landscape tutorial on YouTube by quilt designer 'Karen Eckmeier'. The tutorial looked so straightforward I was determined to have a go but, not before I also ordered two books written by Karen. 'Happy Villages' and 'Accidental Landscapes'. They arrived this week and they are lovely!
With all this new inspiration to hand, how could I not try a miniature landscape? So, I had a go. Here is my first attempt. I didn't have my normal selection of fabrics available as I wasn't at home (where my stash is) so my fabric choices may well be a little different the next time round.
Overall though, I am pleased with the result. I have added one border and, I will be adding another outer border as well as some machine quilting to add a bit more texture to it. I am really looking forward to seeing it develop.
I know it has been an age since I last wrote and, I am sorry but, I do have a very good excuse..... I moved house.... again!! It has taken a while to get everything sorted and to get my sewing room straightened out. For a while it looked like this.....
But at least now it looks like this.....
We are now quite well settled back in Switzerland but, I haven't been in my sewing room very much, as we have been away for a few days too. We visited another part of Switzerland, close to the border with Germany and visited some very pretty towns on the Rhein.
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| Sachseln |
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| Stein am Rhein |
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| Stein am Rhein |
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| Schaffhausen |
We also took a boat trip to visit the Rhein Falls which, I believe are some of the highest falls in Europe.
Now I am back home again and I am trying to get into a better routine. Moving and travelling are fun but they are a big upheaval too!! I have managed to embroider the February blocks of Gail Pan's wonderful
i-stitch-club BOM. All of the stitcheries are complete and I have finished the needleturned applique on the first of the three blocks.
The stitcheries are so pretty and a lot of fun to work. Hopefully, now that things are settling down, I will get the other two blocks completed and can move on to March and April's blocks. My challenge is to get those finished before May's blocks are released! We will see!!
You may have noticed that I have also stem-stitched around the needleturned applique on the first of these blocks. I did that to hide any 'wobbly' applique stitches and I have done the same for January's blocks which I shared with you last time.
I did also get the second little 'bonus' project finished. It was this pretty little mug rug and I had a lot of pleasure making it and then machine quilting the background. It has been the only free motion quilting I have done for some time and I was making sure I hadn't forgotten what to do!!
That's all for now but, now that I have more time on my hands again, I do hope it will not be so long before posting again! Thank you for taking the time to visit! 💞
