Baby Pepper

My niece just had a baby girl. She is as sweet as can be. Her name is Pepper! I have been working on an embroidered, wool, baby blanket for many months now. It's not as babyish as I would like it to be. The colours of the wool felt was a bit too sombre but there are lots of little animals to look at.
I used some of my Ikea fabric for the back because it brightened the whole thing up.
Putting satin binding on cashmere wool and the cotton backing is always a nightmare. In the days before I learned how to quilt, it was worse and I used to unpick and re do continuously. Now I stretch the cotton backing and pin the whole thing, just like a quilt. The binding is hand sewn on first and then machine zigzagged. It's still laborious but at least I didn't have to unpick it even once!

Too Pooped to Pop

Usually my weekend is filled with the clacking and vibrations of my sewing machine. The table top is buried by scraps of fabric in all shapes and sizes. The carpet is strewn with fibres and threads and I am happy.
This weekend was devoted to cleaning, tidying, rearranging furniture and preparing for 30 plus eighty year olds and a few of us 'young ones.'
My nephew and his wife, who live in Adelaide, have a new baby boy and my 86 year old father in law decided he just had to have a party to show of the baby to his buddies. The baby and Mum are here for a visit while dad plays cricket in South Africa. We ate, drank and ate some more and everyone had a great time before going to their respective homes for their Nana naps.
It's now 3pm. The house is clean, although another load has to go in the dishwasher, and it's all quiet.
But I just can't move. My mind is saying 'Get your gear out and start making,' but my body is saying that it's not going anywhere. Maybe later....
Anyway just because you can't post without a photo, I will show you what I have been working on for the last couple of months. It's another baby blanket but I am not really that happy with it. I'm just going to show you bits in case it doesn't work out.

SMS Giveaway Update: We all Won at Embroidery-Methods.com

You Won... If you entered Embroidery-Methods.com's Embroidery Poetry Contest for the SMS Giveaway!!! Cool Huh! All 12 of us poets won! WOOHOO! Thank you AMY!!

Amy said, "Wow, the 12 poems submitted are fabulous! Some are touching, some make me smile -- They're all all great! I'm feeling generous, so guess what? You're all winners!"

Isn't that great! I tell my sewing friends, "if you don't Play, you can't Win!" So very true!

Check out her ALC Unlimited Designs and her Embroidery Blog

I chose this one for my prize! Yeah!!!

Quilt Show, Footy and Sewing

This has been a very busy weekend of sewing. Yesterday I spent the day putting together my yucky blocks.

I have been so worried about matching colours and ranges of fabric in the many quilts I have made that I would order my fabrics from specific designers and ranges to ensure everything 'went together'. Well this weekend I decided to step outside my comfort zone and put colours that I would not normally use together. So yellow and orange was mixed with blue. The photos still look yuk but in real life they look really amazing so onward march. 18 blocks were finished and I have cut most of the next 12.
Also in the morning I went to Amitie to use up some vouchers I received for my birthday. I bought these packets of 16ths which are a mixture of linens, oddments and Kokka prints. Really cute and really different to my usual colour palettes.
Sunday was Melbourne Quilt Show day. I went with a friend and we had great fun. There was lots to see and lots to buy. My latest love is for the wool blanketing colours I have been using for the baby blankets. There were a couple of suppliers so I went a bit silly and bought 10 different pieces.

We were home in time for me to snuggle up on the couch, turn on the football and work on the baby blanket. 

And I even finished my work program for school next week.

Still Sewing

100's of web pages and re reading all my books has still not solved the problem of what to do with all my new fabric. So I stuck to working on my baby blanket.

I'm enjoying the quiet from my sewing machine but I am still

missing the chaos of colours and surprises that

patchworking can bring. 

Bits and Pieces

I have been neglecting my blog since school has gone back. I have been neglecting my making of things a little bit too. I have started a baby blanket for my nephew whose wife is having a baby.
The blanket is a cashmere wool and the wool fabric pieces are from Amitie and Creswick.

I like to embroider so I think that I will have fun adding the details.  The only problem is, that with babies there is a finite time to complete the task.

I have also been reading lots of blogs rather than writing my own and it seems that lots of you have this idea for using old scraps of fabrics and just adding them on to each other, so I pulled out all my old Amy Butlers and the gorgeous yellow strips that I cut too many of from the wedding quilt and made these.

I really was quite happy with myself when I had finished this lot and I ended up making a stack of others, all shapes and sizes.  Fabrics that have been lying around in boxes for years have been quickly sewn together to make rather interesting shapes and combinations. 

So now can someone please tell me what to do with these guys? 

Sam the Dog

First off, thanks so much all of you who left happy birthday wishes for me in my last post. Each one was a gift in itself and they all put a smile on my face!


Since Mo had her stroke, (she's still doing good, but the med she was on caused her blood to thin which caused her sinus tumor to start to bleed a bit...) I have moved my sewing from my normal work space into the living room, so as to be close to her while she continues to recuperate. This small move totally shifted my creative energy. While I still have some unfinished Mod Squares to complete, my head rebelled against them, and insisted I do something just for fun. And that is how Sam the Dog came to be.


SAM The DOG:

Well read.
Good sense of humor.
Friendly.
Enjoys organic gardening and an occasional good smoke.
Loyal.

Sam began his life when I free-hand cut into a piece of cloth which I had earlier quilted and washed, (to bring outs it's cuddly texture). His features were cut from more of my quilted cloth and securely hand sewn down and embellished with embroidery floss. Because he's hip he insisted on two turquoise colored earrings. To be kind, I obliged.


10.5" tall from toe to tip of ear. He can't wear his heart on his sleeve because he has no arms... so he wears his heart on his hip.

Sam is soft, lovable and sewn with great care. Suitable for young and old.


He hates baths, so if you adopt him, please be kind and promise to only spot clean him.

I am working on Sam's friend, "Bebe the Bunny" and will introduce you to her soon. xo

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NOTE: Sam has now been adopted to a good home!

The Redwork of Bascom Hogue

The first time I ever saw the redwork embroidery of Bascom Hogue on Flicker, I was truly blown away. I still am with each new piece that Bascom posts, and I am betting that you will be blown away, too.


His work has both a strength and a delicacy to it.



It is as if he is deftly sketching the images as opposed to stitching them by hand.


The subject matter is untypical and intriguing. Whole stories could be imagined and written based on any one of his pieces!


To see more of Bascoms works, please visit his flicker site here. Bascom has also recently started a blog that you can visit, the Cottonwood Diner. Please stop by, say "Hi" and welcome him to blogland!

Pretty Pretty Pincushion

I decided to skip my usual Friday "Everyday Pleasures" post today so that I could share with you the exquisitely pretty, pretty pincushion that I recently purchased from Karen, of Etsy's Contemporary Stitches and of the lovely blog Contemporary Embroidery.


I have been enamored of Karen's work for sometime now, and am thrilled to have a piece of it! This beautiful hand stitched silk pincushion features cutaway areas with bits of vintage embroidered textile peeking through!


I love the attention to detail!


And it's just as pretty on the reverse side!

And look at the beautiful gift that Karen included for me!

Darling handmade silk and vintage embroidered buttons!! I am in heaven! Thank you Karen, I will treasure your work forever!

In keeping with the vintage textile feel of today's post, here is today's "BooDilly Daily Dilly"...

A vintage cloth tape measure!



Purchase this "BooDilly's Daily Dilly" featured item, from my BooDilly's Shop from July 25th to July 27, 2008, and I will refund you via PayPal, 10% of your purchase price for this item, plus 10% of your shipping price for this item! All you have to do, is after your purchase, leave a message either in the comment section here or through Etsy, to let me know you saw it here! This offer is only good for the days listed, and only as long as the item is available! Check back on Monday for the next featured Dilly!

Good News, Bad News

The good news is my flower quilt was one of the featured items in yesterday's "Best of the Week" Etsy Finds Yippee!!


You can view each day's Etsy Finds on the Storque, or you can subscribe, (which I do) and receive them via email each day!

The bad news is I am still having residual effects from the reaction to the awful antibiotics that I had been prescribed last week. I was starting to think it was my imagination, and kept trying to psych myself out of feeling like crap, but the abdominal cramping, nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite and extreme fatigue keep on hitting me. After doing some more research on my own, I find that I fit the classic symptoms of lingering "secondary" side effects one can get from taking this particular medicine. I just have to wait it out for now, until it leaves my system. (Did you know that a just a dose of over the counter pain medicine stays in your system for 10 days!? ) This has been a huge wake up call to me. From now on I promise to be a stronger advocate for myself, and diligently question, (and educate myself) on the need for any prescribed medicine, and dosage of said medicine. I have always liked my doctor, and actually still do, but any blind faith I had, has been replaced with healthy questioning.

Spell Check My Brain

This is a little art quilt I did. I thought it would be clever to take a remnant from an old kitchen dish towel that had once belonged to my mother, and machine doodle stitch the needed ingredients to make a chocolate chip cookie.

The problem is I am a horrible speller. I know this, and use, on a regular basis, my trusty Webster's Dictionary. It is the exact one that was given to me in the 4th grade and is now totally falling apart, but it has been with me for such a long time, I don't want to replace it.

However, there were no tricky words for this little project, so no need to worry about looking up the spelling of anything in a dictionary!


So have you noticed? I spelled "sugar" incorrectly! (And you know what, I always do!) Ugh!

By the way, I really do use an old fashioned SunBeam mixer! I actually have two, both from the 1930's, each belonging to one of my Grandmothers. Someday I will pass them on to my girls, so they can make there families chocolate chip cookies, too.

Prehistoric Space Spores

Who isn't fascinated with cave paintings? The earliest evidence of human artistic expression! What could be more exciting!?

Well I thought it would be fun to imagine finding a cave with little prehistoric space spores drawn all over it!


I spritzed some bright pink fabric with walnut ink, water and fabric paint, then with a combination of free motion machine stitching, (the dark brown stitching) and hand embroidery, I created my little cave spores.


I was just having fun, but I like how they turned out and I think I will be exploring these more at a later date.

Candy Button Space Spores

I finished making my four "Candy Button Space Spore" mini embroidered art quilts this weekend! They may be little, (4" x 4" each) but there is a lot of embroidery packed into each one! (I counted 104 french knots in one of them!)


Above is a picture of one little spore displayed on a table top. Because I back each of my quilts with a piece of fabric covered Timtex, ( a stiff, heavyweight interfacing) they won't droop or flop and they sit wonderfully on a table top easel frame. I also sew a flat cord hanger the back of each quilt so they can be hung on the wall.

Below are close up views of each little spore! To see them in their entirety please visit my shop!

Fun With Color

Well I survived the eye doctors! Spent the whole day on the couch wearing those cool plastic sun shades that wrap around your whole face. I was a true vision of loveliness.

Now on to important things like these cool paint chips!


They have little windows cut out so you can really see how they interact with other colors. Great idea!

And new mini Space Spores!


The colors were inspired by those fun little candy buttons that come on the long sheets of paper. They were one of my sister's favorite candies when we were kids. I hope to finish these in the next few days, and post them in my shop!

I would also very much like to thank Kelly, the winner of my first giveaway, for her lovely blog post about me and her new little flower quilt! Thanks Kelly!

What's New

A new banner. It's not the best, as I find these things very challenging. However I will appreciate the results of my efforts, the same way that a mother appreciates the efforts of her child, doing it's best to navigate the big wide world, for when it comes to computers I am but a babe in the woods. In other news......

Two new little flowers have grown in my etsy shop!

This little flower...

and this one, too!

And don't forget about the Little Pink Posie below that I will be sending off to one of you very soon! If you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you can do so now by just leaving a comment here. I will be picking the winner on Sunday. Good Luck!

102 Whoop-Dee-Do! It's a Giveaway and an Award, too!

Welcome to post #102! Whoop-Dee-Do!
In honor of this momentous occasion I am having my first giveaway! (Yes, I know it has become tradition to do so on your 100th post, but I wanted to wait until I reached 102 just because it rhymed with Whoop-Dee-Do. It's the really small insignificant things such as this that keep me amused.)


I am giving away this "Little Pink Posie" Mini Embroidered Art Quilt, which is a part of a new flower series that I am currently working on! Like all of my other art quilts, I have backed it with a fabric covered piece of stiff, heavyweight interfacing to give it great durability, and super flat hanging ability! It is also titled and signed on the back and has a flat cord loop for instant hanging gratification! If you would like a chance to win this, simply leave a comment and make sure I have a way of getting in touch with you. I will be randomly selecting a winner next Sunday!

In other news, I was recently given the Excellent blog award from the amazingly talented Karen of Contemporary Embroidery. Thanks Karen! Karen's work is original, innovative and totally fascinating in my opinion, so please check her out!


I believe I am now suppose to pass this award on to several more people, and this is where I always break out into a cold sweat! By now some of you may have gathered from a few previous posts, that when faced with having to pick and choose, especially in these cases, I tend to chicken out. To many good choices. (This is why my husband does the grocery shopping, for I can spend a full 45 minutes just in the tooth paste aisle, unable to choose with such a vast selection. Yes, I am weird. But there is one blog that I am so in love with, it surpassed my fears!
I am passing this award onto Elsa Mora of Elsita. I am simply a gah-gah for her work! Head over heels! My keyboard gets all wet from my drool when I look at her delightfully creative art. My heart goes a pitter-patter. I think I may need some counseling! Anyway, if you are unfamiliar with her magic, you must go check her out, you will fall in love, too!

Happy Colors

I really like the colors in my newest mini embroidered art quilt, which is a part of my ongoing abstract series that I have been working on and posting in my Etsy shop. (This one is "Abstract no.8") The colors make me feel all happy, and remind me of early morning sunshine, green fields, pretty flowers, and blue skies!

A Little Bit of Vintage

Here's the 7th mini embroidered art quilt in my abstract series. My youngest daughter, who shares my love of sewing, declared this one to be her favorite. And at least one other person felt the same way, because it sold lickity-split! The black flower print is vintage, I believe from the 1930's.


I tend to hoard my vintage fabric, and only use it when I feel it is truly needed, (it's not like I can run to the store and buy more!) Below you can see that I used a strip of the same fabric in this illustration quilt I did 2 years ago. It may be hard to tell from the photo, but this quilt is completely covered in embroidery stitches, and is one of my personal favorites.


It's called "Walking to School in the Garden of Eden". It is semi autobiographical, and deals with the loss of innocence. The only part I have never been satisfied with is how I drew the snake in the grass, in the lower left panel. A bit to cartoonish, I just could not get it right. I used Tsukineko all purpose inks to color in the girl, the bird and the snake. They are wonderful as you have a lot of control over their application, and it is very easy to build up the color just so.


Other vintage elements in this piece include The red flowered fabric along the sides, the green fabric used for the flower petals, and the background is done on a vintage piece of feedsack. If you look closely you can see the printed text of the feedsack, but the embroidery stitches have somewhat obscured it. The button that represents the sun is also vintage, along with the crocheted buttons in the center of each flower.