February Stitching

It is the last day of summer here and, now in the mid afternoon, the sun is just beginning to shine. It has been an overcast, humid day with the promise of some much needed rain tonight.

February has had some days of no stitching at all and other days when I have achieved lots. :)

I made a start on Citrus Sweet Love. The first block, Emma's Puzzle finished using all Cotton & Steel fabrics. I machine pieced this block.

I finished a mini with some fabric from a fat quarter swap our sewing group had just before Christmas.

The fabrics are Yuwa and Cotton & Steel. I was inspired by a table runner I saw posted by @quiltsandwichfabrics on Instagram. The mini is machine pieced and I hand quilted it using DMC 80.
More of the Yuwa fabric was used making the pouch I showed in my February 1st post.

My Lone Star is coming along slowly. I've almost finished the 6th section of the star!

Noah and Matilda has been sitting on the side lines, somewhat. I have made more than 20 little grapes for the border. There is still a long way to go!

This week I managed to complete February's CCCQ, block 29, Maria Criswell. Only 4 more block patterns to come for this quilt.

I have also sewn a little more on the hexagons I showed in the February 1st post.

I'm looking forward to a day of hand stitching with friends tomorrow. :) I hope to get that 6th lone star section finished!

Some recent blooms from my garden:

Remembering Duncan. Ten years today.

Hari-Kuyo Festival of Broken Needles

Today is February 8th, where, in Japan, the Festival of Broken Needles is celebrated. Each year the a ceremony is held to give thanks to the needles that needle workers have used in their stitching over the last 12 months.  Seamstresses and embroiderers take their broken and worn needles to a shrine where  the needles are placed in tofu or jelly. The ceremony is to give gratitude and show respect to the needles and to pray for improved needle working skills. The belief is that inanimate objects also have a soul and as women stitch they pass their burdens onto their needles  The needles are given a soft resting place.

Several years ago I participated in a course held by Susan Elliott to create a needlebook.

My needle book has been well used.

The last page of this book is where broken and worn needles are stored.

I place my needles in a piece of batting and put that in a small container and bury it in my rose garden.

I have made several needle books now and given them as gifts.

Hari-Kuyo is a fascinating tradition that has been celebrated for several hundred years.

To read more about how I made my first needlebook and lots more about this wonderful tradition see here.

Susan has a post about the festival and how to create your own needlebook here .

Have you made a needle book?

New Projects for 2015, finishes and WIPs

Who can resist beginning something new for the new year?  With an enormous choice of new quilts appearing I have chosen 2 that have been around for a little while.

The first is Sweet Citrus Love, a quilt pattern available from Treehouse Textiles and designed by Emma, Sarah and Cathy.  I plan to use mostly Cotton and Steel fabrics for this quilt.

Here I have started auditioning fabrics for the first block.

I am using a mixture of fabrics from both quilting cotton collections from C & S.
Citrus Sweet Love is a great combination of both piecing and applique. I plan to make this quilt by hand.

My 2nd quilt will be La Passacaglia from a Quiltmania book by Willyn Hammerstein. It is the cover quilt in this book.  Again I will be using lots of Cotton & Steel fabrics and stitching by hand. I don't expect to finish this quilt any time soon!!! Lol I have seen lots of versions on blogs and Instagram and the colour choices I have seen are very inspiring!!!  Almost every quilt I have seen has been made using English paper piecing. However, I am going to have a go at making it just piecing.


Now for some things I have been stitching over the last few weeks.

Lots of Noah and Matilda!!

Exotic Flower:

Three Flower Stem:

Four Tulips:

And......

All the blocks completed!!!

This won't be the final arrangement of blocks. I just wanted to see them all together. Next week I will start the border blocks. It is going to take a while; there are something like 200 tiny grapes to make!!!!

I finished block 28 of CCCQ, Mary McDowell. (patterns available here)

Only 5 more blocks to go!!



Mostly I hand stitch at night after dinner. When I have time during the day I stitch on the machine.
At the end of last year one of the stitch groups I am in had a fat quarter swap. I decided to make a mini and a small pouch. I wish I had taken a photo of the original fabric, but you will just have to imagine it! Lol Here is a small peek at the mini. I am still hand quilting...

I appliqued circles from the fabric to use on the pouch:

The exterior fabrics and Cotton and Steel. For the lining I used a piece of fabric by Julie Wallace, and Australian quilter and designer, who passed away late last year.

Another machine project is something I decided to attempt after seeing a quilt on Jacquie's blog, Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Tutorial here. This will be a mini quilt of hexagons entirely pieced by machine. I am about half finished right now, but here is a photo from earlier....

I have used a mixture of Cotton and Steel and Maze and Vale fabrics.  This project has been a huge lesson for me in very accurate cutting and very accurate 1/4 inch seams!! (there has been some unpicking, trimming and re-stitching!)

My Lone Star quilt is still growing. No photos this month, but the next section is more than half done.

You may remember that last year I was lucky enough to win a very generous giveaway on Lynne's blog, Lily's Quilts., where I won 12 fat quarters of Cotton and Steel fabric a month for 12 months from Pink Castle Fabrics.  I really want to again thank Lynne, the ladies at Pink Castle and the ladies at Cotton and Steel. While I still love reproduction fabrics and recreating quilts from the past, in the last few months the direction of my sewing and quilting has been moving to more "modern" sewing. I have been inspired by these new fabrics to take a new look at the types of quilts I make. Now I need twice as many sewing hours every day!! Lol!!!!!

The latest bundle from Pink Castle's Cotton and Steel Club:

Love those butterflies! :)

Lastly, a photo of the flowering gum in our back yard.

Have  a great weekend, everyone! :)