I signed myself up for swapping two blocks in the CQAW this year and In February I sent this Winter block to Hideko.

and this is the second, a floral block for Emiko. I have never before embroidered a CQ block without the normal seams. Well I did manage one here, which has bullion roses on it.

I enjoyed doing both blocks and wish now I had been in more swaps.

It has been a while since I have posted any work as I had some projects to swap out and also have been travelling for a few weeks. WordPress has altered in my absence too. Oh no!

Since Friday I have managed to catch up with my April TIF block and have also completed the May one. Actually I did the May one first as the colours are those I find easy to work with.

I used many of the TAST stitches on the April block. On the smaller set of circles I have Rosette chain, Bonnet, Buttonhole, Cross and Fly stitches. On the larger set are Chevron, Up/down buttonhole, Ermine, Wheatear, Chain, double placing of Lazy daisy, Cretan, Long/short Buttonhole, Lazy daisy /pistil st, French knots and Whipped spider wheel.

Once I decided the theme for this month it was easy to work with the colours.  My printer gave out such weird tones this time  that I had to cross check my fabrics against Sharon’s sample.  Now the camera has changed them.  :-(   Thank goodness for digital cameras as I must have taken at least 15 shots and this is the best.

 

The barrow is almost chocolate brown, the greens  a mid-green  and the yellow is a Mokuba ribbon which is a deep buttery yellow with a brownish edging and the purple is more wine in colour.  The stones at the base are , surprisingly, correct.  The backgroundcloth-and 5th colour-  is black velvet.

I used cloth for the barrow bowl, leather for handle and foot and a matching button for the wheel.

My inherited computer chair was sadly coming adrift as you see here

so I found some good fabric and set about re-covering it. Now I have recovered chairs and settees before this but never where it included foam backing sewn to the material. I thought about cheating and just making a slip cover but decided to bite the bullet and go for the right way.

I am pleased I did as it turned out very well, although I would never have been able to put it on the chair without the strength of my DH who, strong and all as he is, had a struggle.

I was so happy with the appearance of the chair that I decided to use the last of the fabric and re-cover Graeme’s chair too. I added an extra thick foam padding to the seat and it was easy to make. We now have two comfortable chairs to relax in. Mine is so comfy I could easily fall asleep in it.

Without more ado, here are the chairs.

 

I can admit to removing quite a bit of fabric from the stash 

My effort for this week in reducing stash are hearts for swapping and some practical items.

I padded my ironing board, properly, with old blankets and made a cover for this.

I also made up 6 small towels for our camping equipment

and 8 hearts.

I know I will not reduce very much as I am swapping these but the offcuts going in the bin will all add up.  The received ones will go into my UFO heart quilt.

This is the cover of Pat’s new book

and here is the URL to view it

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/98728/66d4f0e5e84558cedc7d9897031c4167

Congratulations Pat.

I wasn’t sure I had the colours right and so made two blocks.

I used for the tree, a very thick wool - possibly 14 ply -and couched it with a variegated DMC perle thread. The biscuit shade is just DMC cotton and the other stems and leaves are in blue wools. The buttons seemed to work better than flowers.

This is much nicer in real life and is not well defined here. I think the time of day for photographing has a lot to do with the quality. It Couldn’t Possibly be me at fault. LOL

It is much clearer if you click on it.

When Sharon first challenged us to stash bust our craftroom, I didn’t feel up to the weighing of everything but did try to organize instead. Here are the pictures taken in September ‘07.  All but the first photo will expand by double clicking.

Messy huh?

I found the recycle plastic bags explode after 2 months.

and this is how it stayed as I was aiming to collect sweet boxes (empty and not my doing either), which has taken me until now to get most of what I need. It didn’t stop me gathering more stash though.

All this week I have done no stitching, just weighing (material only) and tidying and found to my surprise that I had 137.6kg of materials. All sizes, all types. CQ and Sane.

Then I remembered I had 5 quilt tops in another wardrobe in the next room.

Oh holy heck. I now own 167.4kg of material. Where has it all come from. Has it given birth and multiplied out of all belief?

My DH is not cross in the least to hear this, but laughing his head off.

Each day I have laboured, yes, laboured for at least 8 hours, sometimes much more, only taking a few breaks for fluid and food.

I did not weigh any polyester filling -of which I still have about 10kg from the 100kg bale I bought in the 80’s to make cloth dolls. Nor have I included beads, lace, ribbons, buttons, threads etc.,

Once I could see the light through the forest I decided to do the cupboards as well. Not that there is much there, some are used for extra household items, the GKs use one and I have dyes, paints, doll making things, which all have been tidied up and I am wondering if I’m in the wrong house.

Okay, if you are still with me these photos are the end result of this week’s work.

Like Topsy..it grew

On the right hand side of this pic is the Caneite board my DH framed and hung for me yesterday. (Thanks Sharon for that good idea. We have about 8 left from the ceiling of our other house that DH renovated) It holds Other People’s artwork.

More OP art

Top and left are from RRs

My insect stumpwork and landscape

and DH’s framework

My craftroom was our original garage, but DH made over 7000 bricks and built a huuuuge one, 4 metres tall and L shaped being 50ft long in each direction, so I asked very nicely for this one. and got it.

There is no floor covering still as he planned a carpet cover and I insist on lino as I am the very devil at dropping needles and beads, which are a nightmare in carpet.

I still have some materials to cut and sort but hardly worth the mention.

One pleasant surprise is that I found an unopened queen sized quiltbatting in the wardrobe. I de-stashed my paper collection(not weighed) and chopped up my cartons filling 2 recycle bins (240Lt each) and also 2 household bins with material rubbish (160Lt each).

At year’s end I look forward to knowing how much I have lowered my stash and as I actually finish articles will post them to the blog.

Thank you Sharon, I owe you big time.

I have been tagged again for the You make my day Award, by Wilma.

Thank you Wilma.

I chose colour for this month’s block.  I’d intended posting as I worked but found I kept going and was surprised to find it finished.

 I used many of the TAST stitches and started with threads of exact shades.  Then I felt it needed a lift so added similar colours.

I used Whipped Chain, Pistil, Cross, Buttonhole, Detached Buttonhole, Up and Down Buttonhole ,Seed, French knot, Fly, Half Chevron, Feather, Cretan/Straight, Bullion, Stem, Chain. Whipped Wheel, Shisha, Pekenese, Drizzle for flower centres, Satin and Couching stitches

The colours are not as they are in real life and I think it’s probably more to do with camera and time of day the photo is taken.