P is for Pinterest...

Hello stitchers!

How many of you are pinners? Do you love to fall down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest and ooh and aah over hundreds of gorgeous quilts and stitchy projects you might one day like to try? I know I do. You can take a look at my pins over here if you like, but be warned... those of you who have yet to succumb to the delights of Pinterest, it's incredibly addictive. Also, while I do pin lots about quilting and in particular embroidery, I also pin other items. It's my personal account, so if anything doesn't suit your taste, just don't keep looking at it. ;)

source: whipup.net

I thought it might be fun to start a Pinterest account for the group that you can access through our blog. We can use it as the wonderful resource it is for ideas and inspiration for us, not to mention a great way to showcase some of the lovely work done by our members.

So there is no bias and everyone's taste is covered off, I suggest we take turns being guest pinners on the group's boards. For those those of us who use Pinterest it's easy peasy, and for those who would like to try it out, let me know by commenting below or catching me at sit and sew and I can give you a demonstration...and for anyone who would like to be the guest pinner of the month, comment below and your wish is my command!

Lastly, I'd like to finish by saying please don't be alarmed anyone...just like our blog, no surnames will be used and if anyone would rather not have their work on our boards, we can remove it - easy as pie.

source: the tiptoe fairy

So...take a look at the sampling I've pinned and remember to comment below to have a go!

Bye for now!

Kylie x

four: friday favourites

Howdy Stitchers...so here is the fourth instalment of Friday Favourites for you. I mentioned last week that I've recently had some fantastic member contributions, so thank you for sending things my way. Please keep it up as I have so much fun looking through these sites.

source: Shiny Happy World - Chirp

This week Lyn is introducing us all to a super cute site called Shiny Happy World. As the tag line mentions, what you'll find there are "simple, fun patterns that anyone can make!" The site comes to us from North Carolina in the US and the wonderfully, shiny Wendi Gratz. Reading about Wendi and her background made me smile like a cheshire cat and that was before I even looked at the amazing array of projects available. She has a lovely little piece on her about page that I wanted to share with you all as it really resonated with me (as a fellow bookworm, hugger, doodler and hairdo chamaeleon) although I would change line nine to red... {wink, wink}.

Shiny Happy Creed, by Wendi Gratz
I believe color and whimsy are not just for little people.
I believe your hair should be any color you want it to be.
I believe in eating dessert every day. No exceptions.
I believe toys made for babies should be machine washable.
I believe in hammocks.
I believe you can make it yourself.
I believe you can never have too many books.
I believe in playing with your food. Also your clothes, your toys. your jewelry, and your friends.
I believe that purple goes with everything.
I believe children’s books aren’t just for children.
I believe we all need hugs. . . lots of hugs.
I believe in doodling.
I believe in a Shiny Happy World.

What a fabulous creed! I love it.

Now... freebie patterns and lessons/tutorials. Oh my giddy aunt! There are so many...where do I start? Embroidery, sewing, felt, quilts. The very original part of Wendi's site is that the how-to's are all videos rather than of the traditional words and picture variety. How clever is that? I know lots of very visual people who use YouTube to self-teach themselves skills, so it seems only natural to extend that idea to stitching and craft.

After reading about hugs, seeing this beautiful heart garland made in felt and all that pink, I couldn't help thinking about my Nanna Val who loved pink and hugs too. It's one of the many free, pretty projects you'll find here.

source: Shiny Happy World

Wendi also has a shop section of her site where you can pick up some lovely crafty projects and kits at very reasonable prices. There are sewing patterns, quilt and applique patterns, felt patterns, embroidery patterns, diy kits, tools and supplies, books and some very sweet softies, including a group collectively known as the dress up bunch. This cheeky, little gal is one of them and is called Poppy! The patterns for Poppy and her play clothes (which are interchangeable with the other dollies in the dress up bunch) are all included when you buy her and for $7.50, she's a bargain any little girl would love!

source: Shiny Happy World - Poppy

Have fun swooning over all the shiny, happy loveliness on Wendi's site and just a quick note that if you subscribe to her email newsletter, you get an exclusive free pattern every month. That's pretty shiny if I do say so! Thank you again to Lyn for sharing this fun site with us this week.

So... That's it from me. Remember, keep sending me your wonderful finds so I can post them here and share with the group. There's a link to my email address in this post, if you don't know it. Don't be shy. Share with us...

Happy stitching!

Kylie x

How cute are these quilts?

Here are two more quilts which were on display at the recent Quilt Show.

Lyn's "Ruby's Dolls house".  This quilt was a part of a Chinese Whispers challenge where thirteen members contributed a block each, based on a rule from the owner of the blocks.... so cute! I'm sure Ruby loves it!

Joy's "Owls in a tree". I love how each of these owls have their own personality. Such talented members in our group.

three: friday favourites

Howdy Stitchers...so here is the next instalment of Friday Favourites for you. I've had a couple of lovely emails this week from our members, which is great to see. Thank you ladies!

Annie has put us on to this lovely blog run by Khristina, Anita and Diana called Freebies for Crafters. This blog is basically a wonderful collection of free patterns and tutorials from around the internet, all in the one place for you to enjoy. There are quilt patterns, softies, bags, blocks, pincushions, pillows, interesting techniques, aprons... gosh, just so much that you really do need to see it to believe it. Down the right-hand side of the blog is a list of subjects you can search through. You can also click on the related items at the end of each post to find more lovely things.

I know some of our members have been swooning over cathedral windows lately and I came across a couple of sweet projects using this technique in no time at all. Here is one for those of you who like very quick projects... the faux cathedral windows pincushion!

source: Diary of a Quilt Maven

Annie also mentioned there were a lot of owls on this site (73 listings) and I have to say she was right! Admittedly, I only looked through three pages of owls, but here is my favourite little guy...

source: Love the Blue Bird

And lastly, although you're all going to think I'm a little obsessed with floss holders, you have to admit these little guys from Wild Olive (also found through Freebies for Crafters) do make you smile! If you like modern, cute stitching designs or just want to smile a whole lot more, take a look around Mollie's blog too. It's one of my favourites!

source: Wild Olive

Infact... I think Mollie appeals to my inner geek as well as my love for all things stitchy, which makes her blog just my cup of tea. I'm not sure how many of you are Star Wars fans (or have males in your life who are) but there is a day every year which sci-fi geeks refer to as Star Wars Day... it's May the fourth (may the force). Hmmm... anyhow, Mollie posted some mini Star Wars stitching patterns just prior to May which I think are super cute. Just look at that little face!

source: Wild Olive

Well, thanks again to Annie for letting us in on this little secret. I've had lots of fun looking through Freebies for Crafters, as I'm sure you all will too! Remember, there's a link to my email address in this post, if you've got something to share with us all. Don't be shy!

Happy stitching!

Kylie x

Who won the raffles?

A few people have been very curious about the winners of the raffles which were drawn late on Sunday afternoon. Judy's face was priceless when she realised she had won the charity quilt.  I hope someone has a picture of her delight as she cuddled her new possession!

Charity Quilt - winner: Judy!

Andrea had prepared four terrific hampers that we all would love to win but they were snapped up by these four lucky winners:

Sewing Raffles

First Prize – Keiron
Second Prize – Di who is a friend of Heather P ?????

Fabulous raffle prizes!

Gourmet Raffle

First Prize – Betty
Second Prize – Jan

And finally Marianne was surprised with her own lap quilt made from her donated hexies. That was fitting for the lady who started it  all.

Marianne's lap quilt.

*Please note that surnames are not provided to protect the privacy of individuals.

Great Show Had by All!

Congratulations to Lyn and her planning group who have delivered a great show that ran like clockwork! There will be lots of posts with pictures of the quilts in the next few weeks so enjoy the visual feast. The winners are well deserved but everyone who entered was also a winner. We can be very critical of our own efforts but we are all on the same journey, just at different places along the road.  The best part of belonging to a group is the inspiration and encouragement from other members.

If any of us 'posters' misrepresent, mislead, mislabel and misbehave in any way please let us know and we will edit the post!

Hope the hard workers are having a good day of rest.

Cheers Glo x

This impressive group of pictures show the entries into the hexagon challenge using the fabric bits from the old quilt stash.

Old Days, New Ways

Just a snippet of some of the beautiful quilts on display at our Quilt Show.  If you missed today it is on again tomorrow between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm so come along and be inspired by the many talented ladies who have much to offer.

There is a wonderful hexagon quilt being raffled along with some amazing hampers, so you could even be a lucky winner!

Stay tuned for more pictures.......

Heather

two: friday favourites

Howdy Stitchers...so here is the second instalment of Friday Favourites for you. I think everyone has been so busy getting the quilt show up and running for this weekend that they haven't had time to email me any of their favourites to share. I've managed to find a few bits and pieces for you that I hope you'll like.

First up is the Classic Blocks series by Caroline on the Sew Can She website. If you've never taken a peek at the Sew Can She site, you really should. Caroline has lots of fantastic tutorials you can follow along with, from quilts, softies, pillows, bags, clothing and much, much more.

source: Sew Can She

The Classic Blocks series is a very interesting concept, where Caroline is making one quilt block each month, using "classic" patterns and fresh, modern fabrics. In March there was a Friendship Star block, in April a Churn Dash block and in May the Dutchman's Puzzle block. There are two blocks for June, a Nine Patch and a Snowball block.

Everyone who makes at least one of that month's block in the two weeks following the blog post has a chance to win a bundle of 10 fat quarters, yay! All you have to do is join their facebook group the SewCanShe Sewcialites and put a picture of your block in their Classic Blocks: Fresh Fabrics photo album to enter. You'd can check the actual posts for more specifics, but for June, you have until the 16th, at 10pm Eastern Standard Time to enter.

Next up are just a big pile of cuteness...

source: Little White Whale

For the cat lovers among you... Gloria of Little White Whale made these floss holders from business card sized pieces of cardboard. She has a tutorial over here that you can take a look at if you want to try making some for yourself. I know I'll be making one tomorrow, because my five year old spotted me looking at this site!

Although Gloria doesn't appear to use her floss for embroidery, she does some other very interesting things like a modern twist on the traditional friendship bracelets some of us made in high school.

And lastly, more stitching and embroidery fun with a lovely lady named Sonia over at Dandelyne. Sonia stitches custom portraits in floss, from her customer's photographs. The portraits are tiny, wee things that are framed by equally tiny embroidery hoops custom made by Sonia and her husband. They can also be made into pendants or brooches.

source: Dandelyne

Sonia not only stitches up portraits, but also sells DIY kits in her etsy store here. A woman after my own heart, Sonia enthuses, "embroidery is the new black!"

So... That's it from me. Remember, I'd LOVE some input from the group to post here, so please send some things my way. There's a link to my email address in this post, if you don't know it. Don't be shy. Share with us...

Happy stitching!

Kylie x

one: friday favourites

Hi Sunbury Stitchers!

I mentioned the other day that I would start a regular post on Fridays called Friday Favourites, where I'd post some of my {and your} favourite things, stories, tips, blogs, sites, products, recipes or what evers from around the web.

Evelyn and I were chatting last Tuesday night about those "magical" Frixion pens...you know the ones that you can write with on your fabric and then when you iron the fabric, the marks magically disappear?? Well, after that conversation, Evelyn sent me through this very interesting link from a quilter called Lee on her blog Freshly Pieced. It's a great post, particularly if you use these pens to mark your quilts for quilting. Well worth a read and the results might shock you a little! Don't miss the link early on in the post to another blogger, Angela who tests the pens and shows you some interesting tidbits. On the upside though, Lee's blog has a lot of other, very lovely posts to read and lots of quilty eye-candy.

source: got the knack

Here's a little something from me. I've been a bit of a long time fan of the work of Australian quilter Sarah Fielke and her book with Amy Lobsiger, Little Quilts is no exception. I have some of Sarah's other quilt books and this one looks like it would be a very sweet addition to any quilter's library, particularly for those of you who like adorable, little projects. You can pre-order this one from Amazon here.

source: the last piece

Lastly, something super girly...and also one of my favourite things when I have nothing else to do and just want to spend some time pampering myself. I love nailpolish and was stunned to find... over at the Soak website, some lovely fabric designers {who have their own ranges of fabric} also have ranges of nailpolish! You may have heard of Soak via their lovely quilt washing and pressing products, Soak and Flatter, but did you know about their nailpolish? Well, now you do.

You might have seen the Pearl Bracelet fabric by designer Lizzy House around and about in quilt stores? See here...

source: Red Pepper Quilts

It's super pretty, comes in loads of colours with cute names like cosmonaut, verbena and cotton candy... and if you have a look around the aforementioned Lee's blog, you might come across a quilt-along project she did using this range. It was called Bloom, Bloom, Pow and is pretty gorgeous. I digress however... here is Lizzy House's nailpolish range from Soak... {sigh}

source: Soak

Anyhoo! That's enough from me. Remember, I'd LOVE some input from the group to post here, so please send some things my way. There's a link to my email address in this post, if you don't know it. Don't be shy. Share with us... otherwise you'll have to put up with all of my favourite drivel every week. :)

Tootaloo.

Kylie x

The Quilt Show 2014 is Almost Here!!

The Quilt show planning group have been very busy getting ready for the great event at the Memorial Hall, Sunbury, on the weekend of June 14-15.  So much work is involved but it will all fall into place especially if as many members as possible share the tasks involved.  The planning group have been meticulous in their preparation.

Our raffle quilt has been very popular and we are pleased with ticket sales but you still have the chance to buy one!  Debbie and others did a great job honing their sales pitch at  Gisborne and Target, Sunbury.

There will be several shops displaying their wares each day - Patch 'n' Quilt from Gisborne, A Piece of Cloth from Geelong and Joy's Fabric Warehouse from Geelong. The ladies from St Mary's Church are doing the catering with morning and afternoon tea and a light lunch  available. I am aware of some of the marvellous quilts that are going on display so the public won't be disappointed.  It is not only quilts on display but various projects and challenges the group has completed over the past two years.

Encourage friends and family to come along and join us!  There will be lots of news to post after the show!

Glo x

A few of our favourite things...

Hello again, Sunbury Stitchers! So, I know you're all very talented, crafty ladies, but do any of you have your own blog? Do any of you like to write and share your wonderful stitched up exploits with the rest of the patchwork and quilting world? Don't be shy! We'd love to hear from you.

source: CraftBlogUK

We do have several members who write and post for our group blog here, but I thought it might be nice to include a link to anyone's personal blog if they're interested in sharing with us. It's fun to read the blogs of all the wonderful quilters out there...and there are so many. If you have any ideas you'd like to write about yourself, but aren't interested in the technical stuff, please email them to us and we'll post them up for you...you could be our next guest blogger! Alternately, if you would like us to investigate a particular topic of interest {preferably quilt related} and write a post about it, please comment below, email us or mention it to either Glo, Evelyn, Heather or myself in person at sit and sew. We'll be happy to oblige...won't we ladies? ;)

source: Class Teaching

Contributing to a blog is also a way to extend your own resource bank of tips, hints, tutorials, patterns and fabulous ideas. Sometimes it's the blogs of everyday people like you and I {not just the quilt and fabric designers} where you might come across interesting and different ways of doing things or new techniques being shared. So even if you don't have a blog of your own, but have found something you think would be great to share with the group, I'd like to hear from you. I'm going to post a regular list every Friday of favourite things found on the web and I'd LOVE some input from the group. It might be a photo or a link, a blog, a product, a recipe, a shop, whatever you want to share, please send it through to me kylielindstrom@gmail.com. Look out for Friday Favourites in upcoming posts!

source: Edudemic

I thought it might also be fun to post some tips on how to set up and look after your own blog or tips on blogging in general if you feel like you might want to contribute with us, here on in stitches, so if anyone has any suggestions on things they might like to know...ask away and I'll do my best to answer your technical questions.


Happy stitching, Kylie x

Book review: Patchwork Loves Embroidery

Hello quilty peeps! It's been an age since I posted on this lovely blog, so when I came across this new embroidery book by Gail Pan, I thought it must be time for another book review.

source: Martingale

Gail's newest book, Patchwork Loves Embroidery is absolutely gorgeous and if you love stitchery/embroidery projects like I do, you'll love it too. Packed with 15 little patchwork and hand-embroidery projects to suit all levels of stitchers among us, you're sure to find something to appeal. There are table runners, bags (my fave), books covers and pincushions (ok I love these too) just to name a few.

source: Martingale

For the beginners among us, there is a fabulous section at the front of the book that walks you through the basics of transferring designs, choosing the right needle for the job as well as general stitching advice and instructions.

Gail includes full-sized instruction sheets with this book, which make everyone's life easier and I have to say, that if you like stitcheries even half as much as I do, you'll find lots of ways to use the ones in this book for other projects. I can just see that little house on some linen in a washi tape covered hoop, hanging on my wall with a little phrase like, "There's no place like it!"

Ooh...and for those of you who enjoy a twist on the more traditional or subdued colours, take a look at the following image of the little birdy pincushion created from Gail's book, I found on Pinterest.

Sameliasmum on Pinterest

To finish off, I will mention that while the link on the book title at the top of this post takes you to the Book Depository, I thought it might be nice to know that in this case you can also buy directly from the publisher, Martingale who offer both a physical and eBook option, for those of you who are tech savvy and prefer this format.

By the way, if you need some embroidery inspiration and these images aren't quite enough for you, take a look at my little collection of pins over here... You'll find lots of links to stitching tutorials too!

Happy stitching,

Kylie x