Merry Christmas 2018

I posted a photo of my Christmas Quilt on my Facebook Page and people are always asking for some close-up photos so I thought I might post them again seeing as the posts I did about it were back in 2013.

Christmas Crazy by Linda Steele

I made this quilt, Christmas Crazy back in 2013 and it will probably be the only Christmas quilt I will ever make.

Here are some photos of some of the blocks, if you click on the photos they should enlarge.

This is a photo of the large block at the top.

I actually keep this quilt hanging in my sewing studio all year round, I do love it and don't want to store it away.

Actually, I just remembered that I did a Christmas block for the 2019 Crazy Quilt Calendar earlier this year.

Crazy Quilt Calendar Block 2019

You can read about it here.

Merry Christmas,
Linda

Novelty Pin Cushion

One of my sewing groups got together for our Christmas lunch last week. The weather was lovely and warm and it felt good to relax and slow down a bit. This year our Kris Kringle gift to each other was to be a novelty pin cushion.

It turned out to be a harder challenge than I thought. I didn't think my usual pin cushion that I've made before was novelty enough so I went through a certain amount of angst. I don't usually make fiddly things and I've never been a bag or knick knack type of sewer.

I ended up buying a little cottage pattern on the net. It was called Pincushion Cottage a Gingermelon Design by Michelle Down.

Here is my little cottage that I made.

Pin Cushion Cottage

It wasn't very difficult to make and the instructions were very good. Now I have made one I would be better at it and luckily I already had the felt and threads to make it. Maybe I would put some plastic on the bottom or use walnut shavings to give it more weight if I ever made it again.

We wrapped up our pin cushions and passed it to the person sitting on our left.

Look at the gorgeous one I received.

Log and mushroom Pin cushion

Here is a closer look at the mushrooms.

I was absolutely thrilled with mine and everyone else was delighted with theirs as well, even the person who got my cottage!

Here is a photo of all the novelty pin cushions.

There was only five at our lunch this year because one of our group was not well.

On a sadder note my other sewing group did not have our usual Christmas party as dear Marie Hart passed away and we are going to her funeral instead.

Here is a picture of our Christmas party last year.

We would never have guessed that day that by the same time next year two of our friends would have passed away. I will miss Marie as I miss my friend Sue everyday.

Take care everyone and love those friends and family. xxx

Bye for now,
Linda

An Abstract Year

I started the year trying to work on abstract art with the Waverley Art Quilters and I think I am now better informed and understand it a lot more. In fact I enjoyed it. I know the others in the group were concerned at first but everyone ended up doing some fabulous work and found that it wasn't so scary after all if we took it step by step.

We started the year with the holiday challenge; we were all given a bag with strips of batik fabrics and had to include a stamping or printing technique.

Midnight Blue

I decided that I don't really care for the strips of fabric look.

Next we studied Australian Abstract artist Helen Maudsley.

Finding my Way

It was fun to do but I still don't think it's something I want to do a lot more of.

When our subject was maps I felt a little more comfortable especially as I could make it about Coral Reefs.

Bleaching

I enjoyed painting and stamping the fabrics but it wasn't exactly abstract art.

We all enjoyed studying Marimekko.

Marimekko

Now I felt as if I was really doing something I enjoyed. I loved the black and white background but I really loved those circles.

Transparency was difficult to achieve although I did manage to have some success with it but once again those strips and squares don't excite me much.

Transparency

When we studied Lyubov Popova I felt that I was onto something I enjoyed doing.

Fractured

I have decided that I love black and white, love angles, love circles and love a limited colour palette.

I am so glad that I looked back at what I did in art quilters this year. It's always so busy that I usually don't bother. The advantage with these little studies is that they are only A3 size so I can try out different things without it being too time consuming.

I still haven't done out Art Quilter's program for next year but I will include at least one month of abstract art.

Bye for now,
Linda