29 May 2013

U.F.O. & Black Hole Discoveries

Well it's ALL GO here at Lewis Acres.
Tony and I have decided to sell our farm and retire to Hawkes Bay.
I have oodles of cupboards here packed to the brim with MY *stuff*, and I need to empty them all before we can put the house on the market. 
So this week I have been slowly working my way through ONE cupboard, lol. (I think it's going to be a long job).
Anyway, I have discovered so many *treasures* in just this one cupboard.
It has been so much fun coming across these U.F.O.'s that were relegated to the dark depths of  the black hole that appeared in the cupboard.

As I have't done ANY stitching at all this week (because of sorting and packing) I thought I had better share 'something' with you, so here are some of the treasures from my "black hole".

I can vaguely remember starting this x-stitch for mum and dad about 15 or more years ago. It was supposed to be an anniversary card, but it didn't get finished. Shame on me.


And this stitch sampler  never got past the letter 'L'. 
I think it was meant to be my own name there, and I started in the middle of my name to get the spacing right for the other letters.


And this, rather creased, 4-panel embroidery, was meant to be a cushion.
It seems I was reasonably ok with stitching satin stitch and French Knots all those years ago, but not so good with the other stitches. I've practiced a LOT since then, lol.


The Vintage Crinoline Lady embroidered table cloth was started by my mum and her sister Doris when Aunt Doris was living with us for a few years when I was just a little girl. They never finished it. There is a crinoline lady in each corner, and only this one is stitched (minus her head, arm and flowers).


One of the un-stitched corner designs.


The next pic is my own hand dyed fabric, quilted with a gold metallic thread meandering pattern.


And then, in the cupboard black hole, I found this paper-foundation-pieced mini quilt that I made about 12 years ago. It's good to let it see the light of day again. I may put it to good use now as a bedside table mat or coffee table mat.



Love the backing fabric. Wish I had some more of that.


It was fun to "re-discover" these things.
I wonder what else is hiding in the black hole.





22 May 2013

Stitching and Travelling

Sorry I was missing last week. We were *on the road* again.

Hawkes Bay is a fabulous place. We are actually thinking about buying a property there.
Mountains, forests, wide rivers, seas, beaches, gorges, and scenic views wherever you look.

I will be uploading more pics of our travels on my 'other' blog soon.


Anyway, here are some pics of the stitching I've been doing. Some random, and some not quite so random pieces. Nothing more on my Mandala Quilt though.

This is my Art Quilt Wall Hanging




Can you see the NZ influence?

Here are the random stitching stuff









So that's me for this week.

Happy Stitching







01 May 2013

I Deviate from my Path

I have spent a lot of time this week editing photos and creating my new
Travel & Adventure-Blog.


Tony and I are in our early retirement years and we are having a ball travelling around NZ on days out and holidays vacations
There will be lots more posts to come on Last of the Summer Wine
_____________________________________________________



It has been a bit of a weird week on the stitching front.
I was leaping ahead with my Crazy Mandala Quilt last week, and I was happy that I knew exactly what the next step was going to be........ but..... (there is always a 'but')...

....... I chose to pick up a completely different project to work on.

This is a U.F.O. that I started about eight or nine years ago.
This project sits in a satchel near my front door. It is my QSK, or, Quilter's Survival Kit, and is ready with all the necessary sewing items in the satchel for me to grab on my way out of the door for when I need a quick and easy sewing project to take with me......on appointments etc.

As it has been quite a while since I have needed to grab my QSK, I decided I would like to stitch a bit more on it.

I love the 3-D optical illusion. A whole new dimension.



I have completed 4 of these 'Building Block' shapes this week. 
The Building Blocks are not joined together yet as I wait until I have about 50 or more before sorting out the block placements so that I can get the colour gradations in the right positions.

I am very pleased that I laid these blocks out today for the photos above, because I discovered that I had stitched two blocks together the wrong way round on my last session.
Time to 'un-sew' those trouble-makers.



Happy Stitching