Snow Globe Tree Decoration

The Sew Seasonal Blog Hop is FINISHED, however the project challenge  is OPEN until November 30th. The patterns are HALF PRICE on Craftsy until the end of Novemeber. It's hard to gauge how many folks will submit a project but with great prizes on offer, I have put together something small. Yougottabeinittowinit, right?

My last block was rotary cut using the 'Ornamental' patterns by Alyce so I thought I might give one of Kristy's Paper Pieced patterns a go. It was hard choosing but I wanted it to tie with the 'Snowglobe' embroidery I had finished using Aneela Hooey's 'Little Stitches' book. So I chose the Christmas Tree. (I simplified the base to make it a 'growing' tree). 

I am a bit rusty with my paper piecing I must say. I made many mistakes and unpicked more than half the time. I used regular A4 copy paper instead of tracing onto baking paper and that made ripping it all off at the end WAY more tedious and messy!

I used the same method, as with the previous 3, to make the circular tree decoration. I was able to sew the kid's names on over the weekend.

Linking up with TGIFF and A Bowl Full of Lemons

Sew Seasonal Tree Decoration

I love this button created by Alyce - look at that hanging star!

Welcome to my little stop on the Sew Seasonal Blog Hop. I am sharing it with Beth from Plum and June today.  (She is the sociable mind behind the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop - now it in its last 2 weeks!)

If you've missed any others here is the schedule:

1st November: Kristy from Quiet Play & Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

2nd November: TBA & Jane from Where Jane Creates

3rd November: Susan from Patchwork N Play & Kelsey from Kelsey Sews

4th November: Janice from Better Off Thread & Erin from Missy Mac Creations

5th November: Lucy from Charm About You & Rebecca from Making Rebecca Lynn

6th November: Charlotte from Lawson and Lotti & Amy from Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

7th November: Jess from the Elven Garden & Cindy from Live a Colorful Life

8th November: Elaine from Dashasel Sews & Kelly from Jeliquilts

9th November: Beth from Plum and June & Fiona from Finding Fifth

10th November: Juliet from Tartan Kiwi & Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches

11th November: Taryn from Pixels to Patchwork & Anorina from Samelia's Mum

12th November: Megan from Jaffa Quilts & Jane from QuiltJane 

13th November: Gemma from Pretty Bobbins

This hop comes from the productive minds of Kristy from Quiet Play and Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts. Some of my favourite bloggers are in that list above. Their fabulous 13 paper pieced and 12 rotary cut blocks by the girls are FREE on Craftsy but only for another 7 days.

You can use them to join in the fun to create something Sew Seasonally fabulous, by the end of the month, and be in the running for some generous prizes. Some of the judges are famous! 

It would not be hard to whip something up. My little project took less than an hour to sew up on the machine (apart from the embroidery detail). So here it is...

Embroidered Tree Decoration

I used Block 1 from the Ornamental designs by Alyce.

It is the simplest of the 12 blocks. Here's a visual of assembly.

My son, Duncan, did the hand embroidery of the gingerbread men last month. It is his first ever finish so I wanted to make it special. This pattern comes from Aneela Hooey's NEW book 'Little Stitches'.

Visual Tutorial - NB the embroidery block already had fusible wadding attached to the back.

Duncan's tree ornament sits nicely with these two that I repurposed from the Zakka Style book. (No use for Happy Couple Handwarmers when it can hit 40 degrees celcius on Christmas Day in Australia!)

I'd like to embroider the kid's names and '2012' onto each one.

Also linking up to....

'To Do First' November

This month I hope to get 2 quilts finished and a new one started. I am also hoping to borrow my mum's Janome embroidery machine because it has a longer arm which makes quilting so much easier.

Quilts to do


'Mystery Quilt' - make back, baste and quilt
'Katie Jump Kites' - baste and quilt
 'Sherbert Dreams' quilt - start

Blog Hop

I am on in early December.

Blocks to do

Sew Seasonal 'Ornamental' blocks
QCA November block
Wombat Stew November block

Sewing to do

Embroidery tree ornaments
Needle case

Home Organising 101 - with A Bowl Full of Lemons

Master Bedroom
Master Closet
2 Children's bedrooms
2 Children's closets
Garage continued
Office
Family room
Dining room
Lounge room


Purging

Garage
closets

Packing - We are moving in mid-December to our first non-rental home.

Books
dvds
cds
office
Garage
linen
clothing
LEGO
toys
games and puzzles
kitchen appliances, plasticware, recipe books


OK now I feel overwhelmed.

The Empire Strikes

My son Duncan loves tall buildings - Burj Khalifa, WTCs, Sears Tower, CN Tower, Eiffel tower, Tokyo Sky Tree, The Great Pyramid

He loves engineering shows - Mega Structures, Big Bigger Biggest, Pricing the Priceless

He loves cities - Sydney, London, New York, Paris, Toronto

He loves shows about cities - 'Megacities', 'Greatest Cities of the World' 

'Greatest Cities of the World' with Gryff Rhys Jones

He is learning to embroider.

This is what he picked for his 2nd project. He chose to use the red linen. He sewed the outline of the building. I have sewn the teeny windows and the filling stitches to create the shadow.

It is a needle case pattern by Aneela Hooey from her book 'Little Stitches'. Perfect for a new hobby. Perfect for a boy who loves The Empire State Building. Perfect.

He also loves to draw and won a competition recently to design a mug celebrating the London Olympics. The teacher had his design made into a t-shirt for him to wear. Can you pick the London icons? He knew them all. I didn't. Isn't Aspeger's a fabulous super power?

Balloons Aloft

It's been a slow kind of machine sewing month for me. Conversely Duncan and I have been enjoying doing some hand embroidery using Aneela Hooey's 'Little Stitches' patterns.

Duncan finished his Gingerbread men. I have made it into a little project that will be revealed early next month in the Sew Seasonal Blog Hop to be run by Blossom Heart Quilts and Quiet Play.

I have yet to make my snow globe into something similar but I have started on a new design.  For this I am learning to use a long satin stitch and also a couching stitch.

This Week's Stats

Completed projects  -  Sew Seasonal Mystery Project

                                           - QCA Bee block for October

                                           - 'Say Cheese' polaroid mini blocks - 10 more to do

Currently in progress - embroidery balloon

                                               - embroidery snowglobe

                                                                             

Yet to start  - 4 Liberty Pillowcases 

                         - Wombat Stew House Block for Jane

                        - Mystery Quilt back 

                        - Katie Jump Kites - ready to baste

                      

On Hold projects   - Sherbert Dreams Quilt

                                      - Craftsy BOMs from June, August and September

       

I am linking up with...

Gingerbread anyone?

Embroidery is new to me this year - through the Zakka Style Happy Handwarmers and I kind of like it. It is transportable and relaxing.On our recent holiday I packed Aneela Hooey's NEW embroidery book called 'Little Stitches'.  Aneela has a very sweet and humorous blog called Comfort Stitching and I like to read about her designing process, but I have also taken to her embroidery as well.

'Little Stitches' is a great book for beginners like me because it not only has explanations of equipment, thread types, fabric and stitches in the front, but then it has projects to make (with 2 different embroidery pattern options) in the middle.  For each pattern design she lists what colour and how many strands of thread will be needed. Very helpful. The patterns are at the back along with the clever extra bonus iron-on transfers in the very back.

So I packed the book, some floss, some linen, two hoops and my cute needle book. (I never knew that embroidery needles had longer eyes until I read the 'Embroidery Basics' section in the book).

I chose to do the snow globe on some pale blue linen. I had a bit of trouble with my french knot snowflakes but not much else. 

Then my eldest son wanted to learn and so I set him up with the largest hoop and he chose the gingerbread design. Apart from a few knots and de-threaded needles, he's not too bad at all.

I think we are going to turn them into Christmas tree decorations. Next Duncan wants to do the Empire State Building needle book. 

Things have really slowed down since Friday. I have been tweaking the house instead.

This Week's Stats

Completed projects  -  6 Halloween Pillowcases 

Currently in progress -

                                               - embroidery snowglobe

                                              - 'Say Cheese' polaroid mini blocks - 10 more to do

                                             

Yet to start  - 4 Liberty Pillowcases

                        - QCA Bee block for October

                         - Wombat Stew House Block for Jane

                        - Mystery Quilt back 

                        - Katie Jump Kites - ready to baste

                      

On Hold projects   - Sherbert Dreams Quilt

                                      - Craftsy BOMs from June, August and September

       

I am linking up with...

The Post, the Nest and SAS

It is a rather busy week.

Many donations to post out to the winning bidders from two auctions recently. 

Some white homespun posted out to Gemma at Pretty Bobbins so that she can complete her amazing I-Spy quilt.

Some pattern reading and hand embroidery for the Zakka Style 'Nesting Boxes'.

Two psychology appointments, with each son, to update the information needed for specialist school-based funding in 2013.

A final 3 month follow up session with Duncan with Aspect's 'Secret Agent Society' social skills group.

Drop off 3 bikes to be serviced at the bicycle shop and order roof racks to fit our new car.

But a lovely dinner, sans kids, to celebrate 10 years of marriage to my best friend and love of my life, Dean.

This Week's Stats

Completed projects  - ZSSA Patchwork Ribbon

                                          - QCA September 'Stripey Lone Star' Bee Block

Currently in progress  - Katie Jump Kites - back finished ready to baste

                                               - ZSSA Nesting Boxes

                                              - 'Say Cheese' polaroid mini blocks - 10 more to do

Yet to start - Craftsy BOMs from June, August and September

                         - Sherbert Dreams Quilt              

                        - Zakka Style Little Pocket Pillowcase

                         - ZSSA Water Bottle Holder

                        - ZSSA Sweet Memories Photo frame

On Hold projects   1 - Mystery Quilt back

I am linking up with...

Sunday Stash #30

Wow...I can't believe that this is post #30! 

Arriving at the post office this week was Aneela Hooey's first book called 'Little Stitches'. It is my first embroidery pattern book purchase and I have been keeping my eye out for its release since she blogged about it earlier this year.

I did the maths with both The Book Depository and Amazon simultaneously and found that the best deal was with The Book Depository's FREE postage. For just $4 more than the Amazon total I could get another book from TBD.

I also purchased a couple of larger embroidery hoops, a purse frame (for the Zakka coin purse) and a ribbon to fix a fraying princess skirt from Spotlight on Thursday. Their cotton batting was 20% off and so I bought 3m as I have run out of yardage.

Also I had been pricing Aneela Hooey's 'Cherry Christmas' on a couple of overseas stores and Etsy but with postage sitting at $17 from the US, I had not hit the 'pay' button.

Thankfully my call, put out on QCA, yielded fruit when Jane of 'Want it! Need it! Quilt! let me know that she had some pre-cuts just in. So I ordered a Fat Eighth Bundle and few charm packs of this delightful line. Postage was a lot cheaper but also the fabric was cheaper too! I love Australian fabric businesses.

I also ordered a couple of other charm packs of Sweetwater Designs' 'Lucy's Crab Shack' and Lily Ashbury 's 'Gypsy Girl' for a future charm pack Travelling Stash called Drover. It's our first male travelling stash - wit woo!

And if we can get 10 of you to link up for Sunday Stash today, or any Sunday, I will put you in the draw for one charm pack of Kate Spain's 'Serendade'. The prize will lay over until we get 10 linkys. I have been suggesting to a few nice ladies on Flickr that they should link up some of their photos or posts. Please pass the word on to your bloggy or Flickr friends.

Oh and don't forget that I have an almost give-away of some Kaffe Fasset charms if I can get 15 more people to 'like' Grandma Macs Quilts (my mum and I) on Facebook. Don't forget to make a comment on this post to be in the running. I really want to complete this give-away soon...been outstanding for far too long.

So what is new in your stash this week? Please link up below.

Sugar Cookie Sack

Out of the entire Zakka Style book this was the project I was MOST looking forward to making. It is sooooo sweet and being a lover of felt decorations I was so excited that it was on the 'to do' list this month.

Now that I can embroider, I found the label easy to do with stem, straight and back stitch. I was able to do about 3/4 of it whilst ill in bed for 5 days. 

My Version

I reversed the fabrics and had a plain label because I had the sweetest vintage sheet fat quarter all picked out for it. 

My cookies had icing and buttons.

I sewed the ribbon onto the back of the sack after I had decorated it with one of the only fancy stitches on my Janome 2101DC.

It is now being enjoyed by my 4 year old daughter with her tea set. "I'll have a cuppa and a cookie please Frances."

Linking up with...

Zakka Style Happy Couple Handwarmers

Even though it is winter here in Australia right now, the temperatures will hardly justify this cute little pair of hand-warmers unless I travel to the Snowy Mountains.


Thankfully my mum is a bit of a gun embroiderer and so she was the one that I talked to when I needed some help with this project. So two weekends ago, when she and my father visited on the Queen's Birthday long weekend, we snuggled up on the couch with our embroidery hoops. 

 I learned four stitches:

1. Back Stitch
2. Satin Stitch
3. Stem Stitch
4. Colonial Knot

I pretty much followed the Zakka pattern for the embroidery - cute enough and challenging enough for me anyway. I opted for just one coloured thread though - red for the girl and green for the boy.

My background text colour keeps defaulting to white for some reason.

Each of the calico heat bags has wheat inside rather than rice. I actually won the backing fabric from Tracey at 'The Peony Teacup' about a month ago and it was just so appropriate for this project. It is 'Colourful Christmas' by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake Designs and in flannelette. And it the fat quarters came in both the red and the green colour-ways of the hand mittens. So thank you Tracey for the great prize.

Yes this photo keeps uploading sideways for some reason.

Hopefully I can put this pair into the Zakka Style Sew-Along draw this week. Might just scrape in before the deadline.


I am linking up with...