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Hi,

Welcome to my blog.

Thank you for visiting me :)

I hope you enjoy seeing what I have been up to
and that you visit again




Friday, January 27, 2012

Sketchbook Challenge - Doodling

More doodling while I was away in Perth, and WAY too hot to do any sewing.
I have added some things for The Sketchbook Challenge as its nearly the end of the January theme..


First I did this in black and white, and then, as my good firend Liz had lots of lovely paints....
like the ones she very kindly gave me for Christmas.....


I got to play with the colours on it......

'Fraid the poor lady bug is about to be eaten    :)

Then.....


I made a quick sketch of one of the bays we have stayed at on Rottnest Island...
This time using some of Liz's water colour pencils, which I have never used before...
that was a bit different...


Then just to finish off my time in Perth... I did another Zentangle/Zendoodle
The whale was the last thing I drew, as it just seemed to pop out at me... and it was a bit of a giggle.
Must have had fish on my mind..

Its still terribly hot here with 42C forecast for Perth tomorrow - mercifully it will  hopefully be a degree or two cooler here.
I am going to go in the main bedroom and set up some hand sewing there- as the refridgerated air con is in there.

Till next time.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Doodling

Too hot here to quilt.
We have forecasts of nearly every day being 40C ( about 104F)  and on Saturday 42C  (107.6F)
Longest hottest run of temperatures for 47 years!  A cyclone is seeming to form off the West Australian coast west of Exmouth....

Definitely NOT sewing weather...and sadly  I have to go to Perth tomorrow with Andrea as she has a Doctors appointment.  We have her younger brother Patrick with us, and will go back to their father's after that for a couple of days - earlier than the 42C I hope.



Because of no sewing, I ran up a quick drawing of some feathers on fabric and hope to get it sewn and maybe painted on later.

Its drawn with a fine permanent black pen. 

Will think about what to do with it when I get back

I am onto the last couple of borders with my WCQ, but it really is way too hot to work on! 

Hopefully I will post some photos when it is near completion - if the weather would get cooler!

Friday, January 20, 2012

FNSI

FNSI with Joanne

Mostly my Friday night comes earlier than most ,
 so my FNSI was Friday morning for Joanne in Canada

As its near midnight for me here, I did some playing with FMQ
feathers...

As I look at this photo now, I can see where I missed a double line in the nestled feathers. 
Was early in the morning at that stage!


There is Joanne in Canada and I am in Western Australia.
Isn't technology amazing?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Whole cloth quilt

I am still working away at my WCQ.
Not good in the heat we have at present! 

Am now well into the borders being filled.


Front


Back

You may be able to see my trade mark lady bug in one of the stippled borders :)

I did small circles in the centre - which took me a week to do...
Micro stippling in the next border.... not so long.

Today I am going to start on some echo quilting, then maybe back to micro stippling on the final filler before the outer border
I think the outer border will be piano keys with a double line - I think... waiting till I get there.

I am sorry not to be able to show you much else, but I need to get this finished.
Its a heavy quilt as it has double batting - one of wool and one of cotton!

Quilted in silk YLI 100 and Aurifil 50 in the bobbin.  I am not having problems with this and it is quilting well with the tension I have.
Using my DSM Nessie - a Bernina 820.  The bobbin is set with the  inside bobbin case dot slightly to the right of the dot on the bobbin...the top tension is on 2.  and  the pressure foot is set on Zero.  Took me a while to get the pressure right but its all working fantastically now.

Now back to my quilt till I get too hot again!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Whole cloth quilt

Slowly a little at a time getting sewn.


The front view - these small circles take a bit of time - especially in the heat we have here at present.



The back view.

Off to have a game of tennis on the Wii with Andrea :)

Then back to some sewing for a bit. I still have a heap of those small circles to do.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Doodling

To have a small break from my WCQ  I have done some doodling .



Long time since I have done any, and I really enjoyed it.
This is for the Sketchbook Challenge - which this month is Doodling!


Now I will get back to my WCQ for a bit and may do some different doodling later :)

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Whole cloth quilt

I have almost completed all the borders of my WCQ but went back to my practise piece to try to work out which filler to do.



It was quite interesting, as the quilting in the lower left hand quarter is the very first practise I did monthe ago when I first started the actual quilting. Most of the rest of this piece of quilting I have done tonight. feathers circles and fillers.


I have still to work out what to do in the centre ( this is just part of 1/4 of the quilt)
I think I may concentrate on the micro stippling for the fillers.

I took the  photo tonight so the exposure isn't the best.
I will take some more photos tomorrow and put up...of the actual quilt ...maybe.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Sketchbook Challenge 2012

I have decided to also go in the Sketchbook Challenge.
Not quite sure how it all works, but it sounds good,  especially as my very good friend Liz of
Lizard of Oz gave me some coloured inks for Christmas.
You can find out about the challenge by checking out the link above.



 had thought I may use these for Mug Rugs...


This one I may use my new paints on to see what happens.


Apparently these are OK on fabric.

Whan I draw on fabric directly - I iron it to freezer paper... it is so much easier to draw on.

Now - back to my whole Cloth quilting.



Some doodling or Zentangling I have done before
Now I have a reson to do some more. 

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Free Motion Quilt Challenge 2012

FIRSTLY - A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

My first post for the New Year is my sample of the new Free Motion Quilt Challenge 2012

Our First Month's challenge is from Frances Moore



The top.
I have used a Silk YLI thread in the top and a varigatedAurifil 50 in the bobbin. 
The needle is a gold Schmetz Stick Nadel
Embroidery neede 75/11
I had no trouble with the thread,


This is the reverse side - and I di however have an incorrect tension - which I should have tried out more than I did
I am using my Nessie - a Bernina 820 DSM



This is some drawings I did of the design in my sketch book I keep all my designs in.
The top desings here was some practise I was doing for my last quilt - the Labyrinth quilt.

Below is a photos of our family Christmas Dinner , which was held at my Younger DD house on the 25th. It was really wonderful to haveus all together :)


I think there were 19 of us.  The only ones missing were our eldest Grandson and his partner. 
It was a very happy time for us all.


Then we went back to our eldest sons house and had another lovely meal.
A great Christmas all round!



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