Another Finish

I managed a second finish this week, just in time for Fangirl to enter it in the local show.

Each year our local show (Agricultural Show) has a special category in the craft section based on a particular theme. Entries can be in any medium. This year the theme was the Centenary of ANZAC. (Look here if you want to learn more about what Anzac is all about.)

Fangirl had found a really cute cross stitch pattern that she was keen to use. I have started to make some of her cross stitches into little wall hangings (something different to getting them framed which can get rather expensive) So I said I would make it into a wallhanging for her, and then suggested we add the photos of her great great great uncles and maybe the embroidery designed by her aunt and..... it grew a bit. I also suggested we add some other embroideries to it - perhaps the slouch hat or the Rising Sun badge, the badge worn on the hats...and it grew a bit more.

I went on line to find designs to add to it but couldn't find any patterns for hand embroidery - only machine ones. Instead I found some photos which I copied and then fiddled around with to make the right sized and then traced off more simply onto fabric. Later I realised it would have been better if I had done them onto paper first - then I would have had a copy but at the time I was in too much of a hurry. (I was going away for 10 days and wanted to have some handwork to take with me)

This is me stitching on the plane - the steward asked me to put the needle away for takeoff and landing so I didn't hurt myself or others in case of an incident. 

I found a picture of an Australian flag - not a flag all laid out stiff and unnatural but curling a bit around the flag pole. When I printed it out the right size the stars weren't clear enough for me to trace so Fangirl was able to put it into another program and muck around with it and redrew the stars so they were appropriately placed and shaped for the way the flag was folding.  

So - she did the cross stitches (there are two - the new one she stitched of the child wearing the slouch hat 

and wrapped in the Australian Flag, plus one about the Red Cross 

which she had stitched last year when it was the special category at the show) and I did 4 embroideries plus printed out photos of my 2 great uncles. Finding the special printer fabric was a job and half as well. 

 

I cut into my stash of Australian Native flower fabric to frame each of the blocks - each one a different fabric, except for the photos which I used the same fabric for.

Wesley James Ethersey Putland and George Arthur Temple Putland were my maternal grandmother's 2 younger brothers who enlisted one day after the other on the 27th and 28th August 1914. They embarked for the Middle East on different ships but both ended up on Gallipoli together and were killed one day apart at the same place. They were 24 and 20 at the time.

Anzac Day is on 25th April and there are services and street marches in every Australian community as well as services at Anzac Cove in Turkey itself. The Dawn service is always well attended and holds special significance as that is the time the troops actually landed. The service at Gallipoli is a joint one with New Zealand and Turkey. This year there was massive interest and the crowd there was huge. There were  speeches by dignitaries but it is the one by the New Zealand Prime Minister John Keys which stuck with me. 

I will not say lest we forget because after 100 years we can say on this day April 25, 2015, we remember. (John Keys, prime minister New Zealand)

I called this quilt "Anzac - We Remember"

WIP Wednesday

This week I have been delighted to have my sister Joy visiting with me. We went to Carnarvon Gorge for 2 days at the end of last week and out to Longreach for one night this week. Its been rather disruptive as far as blogging goes BUT I have been able to get a bit of quilting done. My sister goes to bed early (8 pm) so that has left me plenty of time to work on things plus she is a crafter herself so happy to give me time to work on a couple of "must do" projects.

I was able to complete my part of Judy's Bluebird Quilt. I got it pieced, quilt and the machine part of the binding done. Joy is doing the hand stitching on the binding and will take it back home with her when she leaves on Saturday to give to her daughter for whom I have made it. I still haven't made the label for it... whoops. Must get that done in the next couple of days.

My other project has been assembling the Anzac quilt that I am making in conjunction with my daughter Fangirl to enter into our local agricultural show. There is a special section this year for a craft project reflecting the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli. Fangirl has contributed two lovely cross stitches and I made 4 embroideries and we printed off 2 photos of my 2 great uncles who died there one day apart. They were 19 and 24 at the time. Such a tragedy.

Finding the fabric sheets to go in the printer was an undertaking in itself. I was sure I could get some in Melbourne but the couple of shops I went to there didn't have what I was after. They had the sheets that you could iron onto t'shirts but I didn't want those. Eventually I found them at a shop whilst I was in Sydney but they only had a packet of 5 A3 sheets, which I ended up buying but its cost me $40 and I needed half a sheet!! They will come in handy for other projects I know - I hope!

Then they wouldn't go through my printer, they kept getting stuck. Fortunately the sheet went through Fangirl's printer so I was able to get the photos done... whew.

I had great delight using my Australian wildflower fabrics in the quilt to sash the various blocks. My only disappointment with the quilt is that I didn't print the labels for the photos but hand wrote them instead. My writing went crooked. I was in too much of a hurry to wait for Fangirl to print them out. I was working on a tight timeline, getting the quilt top made during the space between when we got back from Carnarvon on Saturday afternoon and when we left for Longreach on Monday morning. (As well as piecing the top we had unpacking, washing, church, a lunch out with friends to celebrate a birthday and dinner out at Fangirl's, which is also when I finally got the photos printed) 

I got the top finished Sunday night late. I went to bed at midnight and we left for Longreach the next morning at 6AM!

I was able to get the quilt top pinned today when Joy and I went to Patchwork group. Joy worked on the binding of Judy's Bluebird Quilt whilst I pieced the batting then pinned the quilt. We only stayed till midday as there was more things we wanted to see and I preferred to quilt at home. I got the quilting done this afternoon and tonight have machined on the binding, made the label and the hanging sleeve. All I have to do now is finish hand stitching the binding and the label and tidy the threads off the quilt. 

I have been working on my knitting looms whilst we have been driving in the car. Fangirl requested and received a beanie in Ravenclaw colours. I made another one in those colours (blue and white) and will send it home with Joy as her husband's football team, his beloved Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldog's colours are also blue and white. 

I finally sent off the beanie I had made to Gamer Girl - I'd made her a long green one like Link's,a character in her favourite game. After she had let me know it had arrived I sent her a text asking for a photo of her in it which she immediately obliged with... and she was at uni at the time so I was tickled to know that she was wearing it that day.

My gorgeous Gamer Girl

I also made one for my son in Melbourne's girl friend (Haven't got a nick name for her yet... maybe Beauty, as she is a beautician. My Melbourne son was known as Massage Man but since he has ceased to pursue his study in that direction I need a new name for him. He suggested Toothless since he had 4 wisdom teeth out... but really? No. Maybe I will call him The Beast that way its Beauty and the Beast. He is particularly hairy atm... he has a beard and is growing his hair which is very thick and curly!

Anyway Beauty liked her beanie too... well at least she says she did... she sent me a picture of her in it and she did look cute in it.

Funny thing is that my boys are protesting that their girlfriend's or brother's girlfriends are getting beanies and not them. I shall have to get busy :) The Beast posted the above photo to facebook with the tag

 

That awkward moment when your own mother makes a beanie for your girlfriend and not for you...

 — feeling rejected 

Boyo stole Gamer Girl's hat and sent me this photo saying "It's mine now"

 

WIP Wednesday

Having been away from home for 10 days, and whats more away from my sewing machine, I haven't done any patchwork this week. No surprise there

I have been busy with some handwork though.

I took 4 embroidery squares away with me to work on and I am very pleased to say that I got them all done. Yay me. Now I have to sash each block and then work them into the wall hanging that they are going to be part of. Fangirl and I are working on a joint project for the local show.

 As well as these 4 embroideries I have to print out a couple of photos to include in the quilt. These will be pictures of my great uncles who were both killed in action at Gallipoli. Tracking down the special fabric that you can feed through the ink jet printer proved harder than I thought it would be. I got some in Sydney on the second stage of my trip away but had to get A3 sheets (and a pack of 10 at that) which I can cut in half to go through my printer. I can now do lots of photos for quilting projects!!

Whilst in Melbourne I bought myself some knitting looms and got rather hooked on making beanies. I got 3 finished whilst I was away and there is another on the loom. I made 2 from regular knitting yarn and one from recycled t'shirt yarn (t shirts cut into continuous strips, then the strips are stretched which makes them curl over on the edges to make a thick yarn type stuff) The one I am working on is also from the tshirt yarn. 

I modelled 2 of the beanies on social media. I don't think they are a particularly good look on me. The red and white one (made from the recycled yarn) is really rather ugly. Not sure what I am going to do with it. It was fun to make but... butt ugly best describes it. I am teasing my sister with whom I stayed in Sydney that I am going to give it to her but if I do that I might not ever be allowed to come back and visit her.

 

I got home tonight and was too tired to get stuck into sewing straight away but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get busy working on the Bluebird Quilt. My hope is to get it finished in time for my sister (who did the embroideries and who is coming to visit me next week for a week) to take home with her.

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