winter (no longer "Christmas") wall hanging

Yes, I have finished it; there was no excuse, I had so much time this past week (just eating, drinking and watching too much of TV).

Like so many others, our Christmas was very quiet, in fact Christmas felt just like any other weekend.....

We popped out early this morning to get little food shopping, sliding all over the place - the first time this winter the roads were icy in our part of the world. It was also the first time in a week I had to put my face mask on - it was quite liberating not having to wear it for the past week, which we spent indoors, only going out for our daily walk. 

"Christmas" wall hanging has been renamed "Winter", so it can hang in the hall little longer, and not having to be taken down with other Christmas decorations.

It is a mixture of various applique methods, needleturn, raw edge and reverse.

Terrible light for taking pictures today, this is the best I could do.

As I mentioned in my last post, this was really last minute, somewhat rushed project, with next to no preparation, so it is little wonky (not my best work), but still - it looks OK in our hall.

I take this opportunity to wish you all 

very Happy New Year,

mainly Covid free 2021, and hopefully a return to what we remember as "normal" life.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

finished,

my Broderie Perse wallhanging. 

In my last post I just started to play with some of my stash fabrics, but once I started I could not finish, 

I was enjoying it too much!

It is different from my usual applique; 

at first I could not find enough of the right pictures to cut out, but he who looks, finds 😀

And when the binding is being stitched on, 

you know you are nearly there!....

And here it is, hanging on our hall wall.

I like it, it feels quite 3 dimensional, it is very tactile, I can feel the shapes under my fingers.

                                ----------------------------------------------

  At last we are having some sunny days and a break from all that rain.

Autumn has arrived in our garden......

We have moved the bougainvillea to the front porch, 

so we can enjoy the show little longer.

 I am enjoying being in my sewing room; 

the news from outside are not so good again,

so keep safe out there!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

and now - relax.............

Yes, it is all over! 

Thank you very much for all your Christmas wishes; it was a bit hectic there for a while, but I will get around to thanking you personally.

I hope you had a lovely time, what ever you were up to; we certainly did, time spent entirely with the family, at ours, our daughter's and son's houses, we covered it all!

Now it is time to breathe out.....

I love Christmas, but I also always look forward to that quiet time after, to relax and unwind.

That is exactly what I am doing right now, just taking it easy, "clearing the decks" and thinking about new projects. No "New Year resolutions" here, I don't do that, I prefer to take it as it comes and start new projects as the mood takes me.

So last night I finished the top for Little Patchwork Village wall quilt; it will now have to wait for a while to be finished completely.

All the fabrics used here came from my stash, which I am very pleased about.

However much I like redwork, I am done with it for some time; 

I need to get away from reds!

Tomorrow will be another busy time for us, so just in case I'll don't get the chance -

I wish you very Happy New Year !!!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2018

what happened to two mad hares?

Having finished the main part of the "mad hares" reverse applique,

(started at the workshop with Dawn Cameron-Dick ),

I decided to make a border and change it into a wall hanging.  

I appliqued trees (using the normal needle turn applique), and embroidered some grasses, to match the design of the main fabric.

And here it is - hand quilted with Aurifil threads.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

green hexies became a wall hanging

It all started with an idea from a book by Clare Kingslake, a quilt with center panel of hexies.

But I felt it needed something more, and so eventually I got the idea of vase with flowers.

 It became a bit of an obsession, I just needed to see it finished.  

The area around the flowers is embroidered with french knots 

(this idea is from the original design in the book)

and buttons along two sides of the central panel 

(applique in the original design, but I prefer buttons).

Both french knots and buttons are worked with the wadding attached, but before the backing is stitched on, so it doesn't show on the back of the finished quilt.

I embellished the side borders with a cotton lace (which is more pink then it shows in the picture), as well as the bow on the vase. Unfortunately the shop did not have any more of the lace, so in the end I had enough only for 3 sides, but I think it looks OK.

And here it is on my bedroom wall.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017 

Anna's wall hanging

My granddaughter (age 11) has been working on a present for her other grandmother (with a little help from this one). 

She designed it herself and we shopped together for the fabrics.

And this is it!
(It is actually more straight then it looks on the picture.) 

It has a little pocket for those small treasures.

The background fabric for Les Fleurs du Mardi quilt has now arrived and I have started to plan the layout of the blocks. 

Quiltmania has used a dark fabric for their quilt, which I think is a very good idea. There are so many colours in my blocks; it would be difficult to find the right one.

I think this fabric is the right solution.

And a little cheer at the local garden centre - they really do move, play and sing 😉

Take it easy this week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016 

catching up

It seems like ages since I blogged about any stitching!

First of all - my granddaughter (age 11) also finished her wall hanging, her first one; 

you might remember - we started making the same project at the end of the summer holiday - same pattern, different ideas about fabrics and colours.

both together

Being away for a couple of weeks, we seem to had missed the best of the autumn colour;

a quick visit to Stourhead last week just proved the point - a sharp frost few days earlier brought down many of the beautifully coloured leaves.

But I did take several nice pictures, despite it being a very dull day.

We never go home without a quick visit to the farm shop.

At home it is a busy time in our small garden - new long bed of roses is being planted in the front of the house. 

At the back we changed alpine garden, which wasn't doing very well here; we planted an olive tree and grasses instead. There is also a "re-shuffle" going on in the rest of the garden -

we will have to wait until next summer to see if it all worked.

Our quince tree produced its second harvest, a big improvement on last year, but unfortunately we lost some fruit to the brown rot.  Never mind, we are learning.

Still, there is enough fruit to process,

quince jam,

cake,

and there is still quite a few in the fridge waiting for me to do something with them.

Today I finished block no 18 for Quiltmania's BOM "Les Fleurs du Mardi".

The end is near, only 2 more!

Do you remember my holiday project? 

It was a kit by Nancy Nicholson and I embroidered the nice bag the kit came in, before we went away. 

This is what was in the bag, "Cuckoo", a cushion cover embroidery kit, very easy stitching, with the design printed on the fabric, just the thing to take on holiday.
You can see more of Nancy's kits, if you click here .

But the weather was much warmer then expected, and even sitting outside on the terrace of our hotel, my hands were getting too warm, so this is all I managed!

It's OK, it is a nice project to have around when I don't feel like doing anything demanding!

I hope to see you back here soon!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk  2016