WIP Wednesday a day late

I am away from home for 10 days at the moment. My 27 year old son doesn't own a sewing machine here in Melbourne. How rude! And inconvenient. I am here with him till Sunday (I hope) and then will fly to Sydney to see my 92 year old mum. She has owned a number of sewing machines in her life but now that she is in a aged care hostel she doesn't have one of her own. There are a few in the complex apparently but perhaps NOT designed for visiting daughters to do patchwork on.

So I am left with hand work.

This year is the centenary of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, in Turkey on the 25th April 1915

1. Anzac Day is one of Australia's most important national commemorative occasions. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

Our local show in June has a special category in the handwork section for "Handcraft item, any medium with the Anzac theme. Fangirl and I are going to collaborate to make a wall hanging. She is cross stitching 2 pictures on the theme and I am going to do a couple of stitcheries and we will combine them into a quilted wall hanging.

I went looking for some embroideries on the theme and I was surprised that I couldn't find any on the Anzac theme. There were a number of machine embroidery patterns but none for hand embroidery. I did find a couple featuring poppies but  none of some of the other iconic emblems of ANZAC notably the slouch hat or the Rising Sun, the emblem of the Australian Military Forces. I did have one already that was designed by my sister in law Christine of Bluebirds and Bumblebees. She has one in her BOM embroidery collection. Her design for April has an Anzac theme.

This meant I had to design my own. I first searched for images on line of both the slouch hat and the rising sun. When I found ones that were suitable I copied them to a word document and fiddled around with them till I got the size right. I then printed them out and using my light box transferred the design to the fabric. I realised after I had started that I really should have transferred the design to paper to check it was clear enough but I was working to a deadline (I needed them done to bring away with me this week as my hand project) When I get home I plan to redo them on paper and then put them up on the web as a free down load for other hand stitchers who might be looking for iconic Australian emblems to stitch. 

As well as the slouch hat and the rising sun emblem I also wanted to use an Australian flag. I found a lovely picture of one that was flapping in the breeze which appealed to me more than a stagnant one all laid out flat. Trouble was when I blew it up to an appropriate size the stars on the flag were fuzzy and out of shape. I was trying to work out how to fix this and had decided I would combine the two images (I had a flat flag) by... just cutting out the stars, pasting them on the other picture and scanning the image. Fangirl rescued me by combining the two digitally (I think she used Paint but I could be wrong) so I had a clean image to work with.

So I had them all prepped and ready to bring away with me to work on whilst I don't have my sewing machine to get on with other projects.

At this stage it looks like we will have 9 blocks in our wall hanging - the 2 cross stitches Fangirl is doing, the 4 stitchery blocks - flag, slouch hat, Rising Sun and April BOM, 2 photo blocks of my great uncles who were both killed at Gallipoli (aged 20 and 24) one day apart. And then a centre block. Not sure what I will put on that - maybe another stitcher with Anzac Day or something like that on it. I might try to incorporate the New Zealand flag into it too since it is a combined commemoration.

I stitched on the plane flying down - but only just. I forgot to pack a needle. Fortunately I had one of those motel sewing kits in my bag so had a needle after all. Meant I got some sewing in for those hours on the plane.

On the plane I took the opportunity to watch a Craftsy class. I watched Colour Play for Quilters by Joen Wolfrom and it was a very interesting. I hope to do some of the exercises when I get back to my stash. In the meantime I bought some paint and hopefully I'll get I got to some of the painting ones whilst I am away.

On the flight I saw the most glorious sunset out the window and so much of it fitted with what was being said in the video class about colours

Since I've bee here in Melbourne I've finished off the first of the embroideries and am very happy with how its turned out

I've been looking for the special photo fabric to print the photos out on but I've not been able to find any. I will have to look for it online


Before I left home I worked on Judy's Bluebird quilt. I got the blocks put together with sashing and I have made the piano key border for it. 


       
    
I had hoped to get the borders attached but my Saturday disappeared with the embroidery design project. They are all hanging on my design board waiting for my return

I did manage to get this weeks POD (Project of Doom from Fandom in Stitches) block completed before I left Whilst not super tricky it did have almost 50 pieces in it. Of course another one was released today so I am  ehind again.

As if I didn't have enough projects on the go I bought a knitting loom whilst I've been here in Melbourne. Its lots of fun and I'm hoping to make a beanie as my first project.




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