My "Love to Stitch" book has been a real delight to sew. I've tried to use all sorts of stitches in its making and it has become a sample book of some of the sewing that I've enjoyed in the past few months. It was my entry for the Flowerpatch Quilters challenge "Love is in the Air".
Here are all the pages starting with the cover:
Now a little bit about each page:
On the cover I've used Sashiko cotton to stitch the letters and then many colours of embroidery cottons to stitch along the lines of the fabric pattern like Kantha work.
Next the inside cover. When I had made all my pages I realised that there weren't any that actually represented "Love is in the Air". Luckily I was off to a jumble sale and bought some music (the Air) upon which to sew some hearts (Love). I did think that I would simply stitch on the music with a free motion design of hearts, but my sewing machine had other ideas and just made a mess of stitches. I took out the threads and perforated the heart shapes with the needle so that I could tear them out. I placed the dotty red fabric behind and couched red thread between the hearts.
Page 1 is a heart made from cross stitches. When Susan Denton visited Flowerpatch she showed many quilts where the hand quilting included cross stitching so I thought I'd try it. I also like the quilting around this heart which is a combination of machine and hand quilting.
Page 2 is the design that we used when practising reverse applique. I added some embroidery stitches
Page 3 is one of the designs that we used in Flowerpatch's charity quilt. again I added embroidery stitches.
Page 4 is another of the designs in the charity quilt. More embroidery. You can print off a copy of this design here.
Page 5 is a lino printed pear which I have embellished with applied fabric and ...... you guessed it - embroidery.
Page 6 is a sample of a Lynette Anderson design. This was a trial to see how difficult it might be and now my friends and I are making a quilt using this and many other of Lynette's designs.
Inside the back cover is a redwork design that I found online. I realised that I had never actually sewn any redwork and it fitted with the theme of the book perfectly.
The back cover uses the same fabric as the front. I have spiral quilted by both machine and hand.
Each page was made up individually with a thin wadding backing. Then they were sewn together in pairs (right sides together, sew around 3 sides then turn the right way out). Calico was sewn to the open, spine sides of the pages and then they were put together by binding all the open sides with the black, gold and green fabric to make the spine.
What fun!! - Anita x
This year's Chairman's Challenge at Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition was "Love is in the Air". It was set by Liz to compliment the theme of the upstairs room which was "LOVE".
Firstly, here are a few pics from the room:
And these were the entries for the challenge:
Dawn's Woolly White Doves and Dy's Love Cushion
Karen's Airmail Love Letter and Sue's Home Is ......
Liz's Winter Romance and Pauline's Christmas Angel
Marie's Tree of Hearts and Lois' Birds, Rabbits and Butterflies pursuing Love
Mary's Heart Balloons and Chris' Balloons
Nina's Stork and Iris' Hearts
Chrissie's Dandelion Hearts and her Wi-Fi doorstop
My Love to Stitch book
Yet again, I know that somehow I've missed one or two items for which I apologise. It was brilliant to have so many entries.
Happy Sewing
Anita x
When I saw the fabric that we were to use for Sue's Silk Challenge I just knew that I had to try lino printing on such a lovely texture. The final result of this is my apples and pears letter rack.
The apple and pear were cut on two separate lino boards and I have overlapped them in the design to add an extra feature.
After printing and drying I laid the silk fabric on some thin wadding and stitched ....
and stitched ....
and stitched.
I lined the letter rack with some dark red cotton fabric and put stiff cardboard between the silk fabric and the lining to make the curved front and the straight back.
The bottom is a thickish piece of wood, cut to help keep the shape.
I must admit that at first I was going to call my creation a vase, but it looks great on my shelf holding the correspondence that requires attention.
Wishing you a h-apple and pear-fect day
Anita x
At the Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition we always have a sales table of secondhand books and magazines, and members also donate their unwanted fabric - all to be sold for charity. At the end of the 2018 exhibition there was a large quantity of lovely silk, suiting weight fabric, in a natural shade, and Sue decided that every member should have a piece, approximately 16" x 10", to make into something for the 2019 exhibition, which was a couple of weeks ago. What a lovely lot of diverse items were made.
Wall hangings of different shapes and sizes:
Numerous bags and pouches:
Cushions - big and small
More pouches, a box and picture frame:
A scarecrow
and a letter rack.
I know I've missed a couple of lovely items so apologies to the makers, and thank you to Sue for organising this challenge.
Finally, I must tell you "Ellen's Story". -
Ellen had a large quantity of fabric for many years in her cupboard, and every so often she would take it out with the good intention of making something - only to change her mind and back it would go into the cupboard. Last exhibition she decided that enough was enough and she gave it to the fabric sales table to sell for the charity. At the end of the exhibition it hadn't been sold which was when Sue decided upon the challenge. Ellen was horrified to discover that she had to have a piece of the dreaded fabric back!! ...... "Oh no, I thought I'd seen the last of that!!"
Happy stitching
Anita x
We do like to set ourselves challenges at Flowerpatch Quilters and I loved sewing this one, especially as it turned out far better than we ever expected.
I know I'm biased, but I actually like it far more than the original painting. Dy had been to a Picasso exhibition in France and I believe that this picture was used in the advertising poster. We love the vibrant colours.
Jacqueline was divided into 12 rectangles and a different person chose to sew each section.
They were each given a monochrome drawing of their part along with a small piece of blue and/or red to match for the background. The white linen was provided for Jacqueline's skin. When finished Dy did a great job of sewing them together, and I did some quilting and finishing off.
Here's another look - she's stunning!
Happy stitching - Anita
