Matryoskas placemat no.2

Here is the second Matryoska placemat. I again used a mix of cottons and linens, applique and embroidery to complete this placemat.

Matryoskas placemat

Babushka or Matryoska? This is the million dollar question! In fact, my sister and I often call them Babushka but I believe that is wrong. My friend Tatiana from Russia tells me a Babushka is an old hag. I think it's best we call these girls 'Matryoska' not old hags!!!!

Anyway back on track, I have designed 3 Christmassy placemats with 'Matryoska' and have finished one! Bit of a vagabond lately, doing a lot of procrastinating! Here I used linen and cotton fabrics, hand appliqued, hand quilted and embroidered the whole placemat. It was really fun to make. I was thinking a matching bread/danish/nut/candy basket might work out well too (if I ever stop procrastinating)!

Heart Christmas ornaments

My first Christmas tree decorations are complete. These hearts are made with a mix of antique linen and regular linen. Parts are appliqued and embroidered and then I place a thing batting on the back and hand quilted them. I really enjoyed making these hearts!

Christmas stocking pink linen stripe

Another new stocking! This one is a little more girlie than the last and I did different embroideries on it. I used a lot of my new fabrics which I just love, so inspirational!

Christmas stocking embroidered blue spot top

Finished another stocking for Christmas. It's really lovely, with a combination of patchwork and embroidery. I used a lot of my new fabrics, some of which are Japanese linen/cotton blends.

Another Block

I tried to make some Japanese x and + blocks from the tutorial by Badskirt Amy. It didn't turn out too bad but don't look too closely as not everything is lined up perfectly. I am still a quilting novice and need more practice. This will be another block for the sampler quilt that I am making for my bed. It's quite fun as I can use lots of my fabrics- some that I have had for years, and I can also use scraps. I have a huge container of scraps.

The Second Block of My Sampler Quilt

I bought the templates for a Dresden Star a while ago and have been wanting to make one for a while. I though it would fit perfectly into my sampler quilt. It was a very simple block to make! I am enjoying using some of my new Japanese Fabrics that I bought recently. I especially like the French cheese label in the centre. It comes from some Japanese Yuwa Fabric.

Quilted vintage embroidered cushion

This cushion is so pretty. Inspiration came from some of my Japanese craft books and the book my sister gave me for Christmas 'Embroidery Craft : Stitching through the seasons' by Vicki Haninger. It's a great book with lots of vintage inspired embroideries to do. For this cushion I found many vintage embroideries on the internet which I found to be so cute I just had to start stitching some. Two squares are hand embroidered and two are patchwork. To finish it off I hand quilted it. I used a mix of cotton and Japanese linen blend fabrics and just love the way the colours turned out.

A Sampler Quilt for Myself

I have decided to make a quilt for my bed. It will be based on the idea of a sampler quilt so that my teacher, Grace from Material Obsession, can help me with some of the different techniques. She always has great ideas and hints for short cuts. I am going to get ideas from some of my Japanese Quilt books. I want to do some of the tiny blocks and piece them together at the end so I am sort of designing my own original quilt. This is my first block- 3/4 inch hexes. I love them and couldn't stop making them as they are so fun. The idea is to use the many fabrics in this first block in the others, along with lots of linen. I love linen and colour!!

Fun birthday gift!

We're off to a birthday party this afternoon. The little boy is turning 2 so of course at the last minute I decided to make a gift. I made a little playmat and toy bag to keep it in. I had the vision of little wooden cars and houses being used on it. I went to the toy store and found a wooden toy set with houses and cars so my vision is complete! The toys in the photograph are Lucy's, she has a girl version of the boy set I bought.

The playmat has been made with a linen base. For the roads I used beautiful Japanese textural fabrics. Then I used a mix of linen and cotton fabrics, many Japanese, for the applique. I also made a draw string bag to keep the whole set in. it was great fun to make so I hope I have the occassion to make more!

Magnolia Quilt Block 4

This is my fourth block in my Magnolia Quilt. It takes a bit of time to complete each block due to the embroidery. Whilst it is simple stitching, it does take time to decide what to do and also decide when to stop. You need to be a bit controlled or you can probably take it a little too far. I really enjoy using a variety of threads. My collection is building and range from cotton, perle, silk, wool, chenille e.t.c. I have a lot of plain colours as well as an increasing range of variegated and hand-dyed threads. I can't believe that I recently went to the Quilt and Craft fair and did not buy one piece of cotton fabric.... instead I bought felted wools and threads.
The crossed pattern on the flowers are silk threads that are hand-dyed. I might add some beading later. I have some beads but need to increase my range for this type of quilt.

Here is the full block (un-ironed). I am excited to start block 5. I will do that tonight. I have also started a Flickr group for work inspired by Sue Spargo. If you do make some of her work or are inspired by her, add some photos.

I also wanted to let people know a few great places to source wool as it can be hard to find especially in Australia. A recent website that I bought from and found very cheap was Ram in the Thicket. Wool can be very expensive and her prices are great. She also have a huge range of colours to select from which can be a little overwhelming at first but will you will probably find just what you need. We also buy from a couple of different people on Etsy- Quilting Acres here colours are fantastic and she has come great textured/patterned wools. Three Sheep Studio also has some great colours and textures/patterns. Finally an Australian artist who has some nice wools is Anni from Hatched and Patched.

A Day In The Country- Block of the Month

I recently saw this quilt by Sue Ross in Homespun magazine and on the Cottage Quiltworks website and thought that I might like to do this block-of-the-month. So I went out to the shop on Saturday and signed up. I got my first block which is the house block in the center and next month they are going to send me the next two. I am looking forward to making it. I really like the colours and think that I will add my own touch to the quilt by adding extra embellishments. It looks like lots of fun! Stay tuned as I will blog each block as I get them done. It might take a while as I am still in the progress of doing my Sue Spargo Magnolia quilt.

Animals on Safari cot quilt

I made this quilt this week. It's my own design and I really enjoyed making it. It combines applique, hand embroidery and hand quilting techniques all in one. I also wrote a pattern for it which I will be selling in my shop. It was fun and easy to make and could easily be made in girlie colours too. I am now thinking Cushions so that may be my next task. Really it's amazing from this one item I am now thinking of all the things that could go along with it! I find there's really not a lot out there for the boys so it's fun to create for them too!

Wall organiser linen pink and yellow

I finished this wall organiser the other day. I used a lovely linen for the background, the pockets are made with different antique linen/hemps and cotton fabrics. Here and there I appliqued some pretty fabrics and trim and did some simple embroidery. The wall organiser has been padded and then I have quilted it here and there. For a final touch I appliqued simple felt flowers.


The wall organiser can be used for anything whether it be for newborn items, like nappies, creams, wipes, cotton wool etc, or it can be used for toys, stationery, hair accessories and so on.


Do you want to stay in the loop? If so sign up here to receive discounts, first dibs on new products and sales, freebies and tutorials.

Cool growth chart

I just finished this growth chart. I never made one before but have been wanting to do do for a long time. It was fun to do but took quite a while. I machine appliqued the figures, hand embroidered many parts especially the measuring tape down the right hand side. I combined lovely Italian linen with fun cotton fabrics. It was hard to photograph so I apologise for the photos. Hopefully they give an idea of what it like. More images on flickr

Sue Spargo Magnolia Quilt- Block 3

This is my third block of my version of Sue Spargo's Magnolia Quilt. It is turning out to be an extremely bright quilt but I really like it. I have been collecting a lot of different threads and fabrics lately with this quilt in mind. Sue's who philosophy is that you can combine any fabrics especially felted wool and layer the fabric to give it texture. She then embellishes her work to give it even more dimension. She used perle cottons, silk threads, wool threads, chenille threads, beads and a whole lot of different embroidery stitches to make her work so interesting. I am trying to make mine interesting as well. It's fun doing the embellishments as you can keep going and going and going!! I have started to cut out my fourth block and will continue working on it tonight. Stay tuned for more! If you are interested to see some of Sue's work, check out her blog.

Red blue and green cot quilt

Recently I've been working on this largish cot quilt. I made traditional blocks with some cute combinations of fabric. The quilt has been hand quilted with pale blue and pale green embroidery floss. I always like the effect of hand quilting more than machine quilting. These quilts are also great as playymates as they can be thrown in the washing machine and improve with age! Lucy has long since grown out of her cot but she still uses her cot quilts when she's watching tv in spring autumn and winter. She also finds great use for them when she and her teddies are having a pretend picnic on the floor! More images on flickr

Yoko Saito in Florence

I was very honoured to participate in a 2 day course held by Yoko Saito in Florence, Italy, last Thursday and Friday. I was amazed and thankful she made it over here from Japan depite the terrible earthquake and tsunami they suffered the Friday before.

Yoko is a truly an amazing artist her work is impeccable. We learnt so many wonderful techniques including Un sin. I now have a different type of thimble for nearly every finger! Yoko uses a different combination of these thimbles for each technique. I had to write it all down as I can't remember what to use when!

Below are some images of work completed by students at Agomago in Florence the shop which hosted the workshop.More images of Yoko Saito's work are on flickr.

Pouch pencil case heart bird bee applique

This purse/pouch/pencilcase is the perfect size to keep things orderly. This little pouch can be used for makeup, business cards, bills to be paid, receipts, jewellery, hair clips, pens, pencils and the list goes on. They also make the perfect gift. This could also be a lovely baby shower gift, the perfect pouch to carry wipes, creams and so on.

It has been made with beautiful antique linen and embellished with a sweet applique. The pouch is hand quilted and embroderied. It is lined with a the same pink spot as the binding and has a zip closure.

Hand quilted pouches

These pretty pouches are hand quilted and embroidered. I used antique linen for these, some vintage fabric and pretty applique.