Kate North's Little Quilt Swap

The fourth Little Quilt Swap that Kate North runs has just completed. It was the first time I had anticipated, and I was absolutely delighted with my swap.

This little quilt 'Cornflowers' was my contribution - made with my own hand dyed fabrics and just one commercial one(dark green). I fused the cornflower petals onto the pieces background, and machine quilted it. I sent it to Margeeth in The Netherlands, and her blog can be seen here.
This little quilt was made by Andrea who lives in Flintshire, and is machine appliqued with the finest buttonhole stitch, and hand quilted in the centre with machine quilting in the border. I just love trees and this one is absolutely delightful. Andrea's blog can be reached here.

If you would like to take part in Kate's next Little Quilt Swap you can find her here.

Till next time .........

Swaps for June ...

This ATC is called 'Pink Wisteria' and was made for me by a very talented lady in Ontario called Susan Cuss. Her blogging name is Suztats (cos she does tatting I assume!) and she can be found here. The pic is slightly bigger that real life, so you can imagine the intricate detail - Suz says it was worked with size 40 Yarnplayer's hand-dyed thread in the colour 'peace'. Thanks again Suz - I love it.

This ATC was made for me by me friend Alis - who can be found here. We made dolls together recently, with fabric we had constructed, and this is a piece oeft over from Alis' doll. She calls it Devon Violets - which I think is extremely appropriate. Thankyou again Alis - it is just beautiful.

This one was made for me by Sandy as part of the swap we had at Unlimited Textiles last month using the theme Orange, Purple and any other colour ......

this one was made by Alis.........

and these are the two I made for Sandy and Alis, adding pink!

The Quiltie exchange for June was Here comes Summer, and this gorgeous Sunflower was a gift from Pam in Port Talbot, Wales. The petals are one piece of fabric, but the way she has stitched it, it really looks as if each one is appliqued.

and this is the Quiltie I made for June in Coventry.

I really must get cracking on the Unlimited Textile swap for July

Till next time then ..........

The Garden Journal is finished!

This is the Front Cover ....................

this is the inside of the front cover...........

and this is the inside of the back cover - there is nothing on the outside Back Cover - just fabric!
I've really enjoyed this online Workshop with Carole in New Zealand.

She mentioned doing another Journal Workshop soon - if you are interested pay her a visit, you won't be sorry.

Garden Journal

I am enjoying a brilliant Journal Workshop online with Carol in New Zealand, whose Blog can be found here. Carol has encouraged us from the start to leave threads hanging, and stitch using free machine stitching and black thread! This I find very difficult - not that I am a tidy person naturally, heaven forbid! I am making this Garden Journal as a raffle prize, so there is my dilemma! I need to use matching threads, as I don't know who or what the person will be like, who will ultimately own it (well that's my excuse anyway!). So .......

Here are the three signatures with pages inside - showing various lacy (ragged) edges. All the signatures are watercolour paper painted using teabags......

Here is the front of the first signature (introducing the viewer to the Journal) ...

lots of empty pages to be written on - notes to be made .........

Front page of the second signature .......

turned, to reveal a pocket (for seeds or dried flowers?) ........

more empty pages, decorated with laces, etc. .....

a reminder to make a daisy chain .........

and chase butterflies ........ it says 'chase butterflies' on the reverse of this decorated insert.

Another pocket for pressed flowers? .......

and finally the back page of the third signature.

I will probably embellish one or two of the pages, once I know how to stitch the pages together, and have made the front and back covers and embellished those inside and out. As it is a gift for a stranger, I don't want to go 'over the top'!

I have a smaller one ready to embellish FOR ME! This one I will use black thread on cream lace etc. and try harder to go 'scruffy and ragged'!