Mary Thomas and Shadow Work

Yesterday Florestia on   Feeling Stitchy  wrote about an old book called Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches by Mary Thomas which had caught her fancy.  Oh memories, memories, as Mary Thomas also wrote another book, Mary Thomas's Embroidery Book which is how I made my first attempts at embroidery.   I gave this information to Florestia and she has included my e-mail in her blog. 

Now I have to admit that I am positively ancient (but you can keep that information to yourself ) as I bought my copy of Mary Thomas in 1953 and started to teach myself embroidery  This shadow work throwover is the  second thing which I made.  My first effort was a pair of place mats but they have long since disappeared.

A throwover was used after setting up a tea or supper table, or the salads for lunch - something flimsy was thrown over the food to protect it.  This one was done on a square yard of some form of organza with the blue motif in each corner, traced directly from the book.

It's really a simple yet very effective form of embroidery.

I didn't do much embroidery over the years until much later when I found myself with an empty pair of hands .  Then cross sitch re-introduced me to the pleasure of hand-work.

Fifties Dress No 8 at long last

Fifites Dress No 8 of the Dress Me Up from Bobby Socks Quilts is finished at last, in its fashion  Four more to go.  I've heard marathon runners talking about hitting a wall and that's how I'm beginning to feel about these embroideries.  Each one seems to be taking me longer to complete !

Here in the southern hemishpere it's summer time and holiday time.   Most groups take this month off from their regular meetings, and with all the holiday activities as well it's easy for handwork to take a back seat for a while.

But I also finished quilting and binding the floral quilt with cross stitch panels and I am so pleased with it.  The colours  are among my favourites.  Taking a photograph of it lying flat doesn't really do it justice as it drapes beautifully. I used the bamboo batting which is so flexible.

Fifties Dress No 7

Dress No 7 now finished.  This one is a cutie !

Two of this year's quilts  have found a home.  Granddaughter has just finished first year university and has moved into a shared house with three other students.  These will help keep her warm as they try to save on the heatig bills !

I'm looking forward to having more time for sewing again once Christmas is over.,  But in the meantime I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year .

Fifties Dress No 6 and some Little Baskets

At last I've reached the half way mark with Dress No 6 of the Fifties-style dresses for the Dress Me Up quilt.

Reaching a half way mark gives you the urge to start something new - it would be a terrible thing if my stack of UFOs got any smaller.   So with some charm squares from Moda's Buttercup I started on some wee baskets following Brandie's instructions.

Why do my photos never look as good as the real thing.  These should look  really soft and pretty.  The background is the cream from the same range with occasionally a lightly patterned background. I can't say that I'm a great fan of stitching the handles though. I haven't calculated yet how many more I have to do.  At the moment they are 3 1/2" square.

I've just realized that there are less than eight weeks until Christmas.  So it would seem that I'm now working on next year's UFOs.

Versatile Blogging

I usually run a mile from any form of chain letter but this variation giving me an award has slipped under my guard.  It was sent to me by fellow blogger Brandie at abc.  So thank you, Brandie.

There are two things I have to do - to tell people some trivia about myself  (oh dear) and  to pass the award on to some deserving bloggers.

Trivia -useless facts about me.

1.  I grew up in a country town and though I now live in a city I'm still a country girl at heart.

2.  I love Cryptic Crosswords and Su Doku.

3.  I like words.  Don't anyone tell me that the word "girt"  as in "girt by sea" in the Australian National Anthem is out of date or silly.  Would you really prefer "encircled by sea" ?  Girt by sea..  Girt by sea.  It's just perfect. Is there something wrong with people having to learn a new word ? Anyway, my girdle girts my excess avoirdupois. :-)

4.  I've just read One Day by David Nicholls and enjoyed it so I don't think I'll see the film in case it's too much of a let-down.  But Anne Hathaway's face was in my mind all the time I was reading it and visually she would be perfect for the role.

5 The small quilting group I belong to is called Quilting Genies as originally pursuing Genealogy was the common link.

6. Family, in all its forms, is the most important thing in the world.

7. I didn't realize it  until someone pointed out recently that I do have a bit of a thing about gadgets.  If they look useful then I can't resist them, such a pins that are so fine they glide through the fabric as if it was butter, or my nifty little bias maker..  And recently a battery-operated bobbin winder so that I can sit there and wind piles of bobbins without having to unthread the sewing machine.

8.  As a toddler No 2 son brought the nozzle of the hose in to the hall through the back door, went outside and then turned on the tap.  I was in the kitchen ironing and the first I knew of it was when daughter called out, Mum, there's water all round me - she'd been lying on the couch in the living room reading and was now completely marooned !

9. Ambition - to buy out a whole movie theatre for a sad film then sit in splendid isolation and sob to my heart's content as loudly as I like.without having to suppress polite little sniffles.  Wouldn't it be luvverly ?

So now you know some of my secrets.  Tell me yours.

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And then there are the blogs I read every day. One of these days Google Reader is going to throw up its hands in disgust and call me a silly, selfish woman for wanting poor over-worked Google to keep track of such a horribly long list of blogs which I want to read. But they are all so interesting.  And every time I go to  Quilter Blogs the list gets longer.

So who would I choose as my desert island bloggers, those blogs which I would least like to do without.   Well I can hardly send one back to Brandie and make her go through it all again.   It's not only the sewing in the following blogs, or the frequency of the blogging, but the personality of the blogger which made me choose them.

So, in no particular order,

Marina at Maisieandtheboys  - lots of variety including embroidery, beautiful photos, and who could resist that cat in the opening heading.

Pirate at the Dread Pirate Rodgers  - I live in hope that one day she will take her 12 embroideries for Dress Me Up and actually put them into a quilt ! Her travel blog is fun too.

Lizzie at A House in the Country - the title says it all, Australian countryside, Australian garden and a dab hand with the camera.  As well as her sewing.

Melody at the House on the side of the Hill  - a place for picking up interesting ideas and a vibrant sense of colour.

Joanne at  Thread Head  - one of the places where I admire the work of a talented needle-turner and just dream.

Karen at the House of  Wilson - nice everyday chit-chat of a young Mum

Linda at the Quilter's Pineapple  - makes things I would like to make - fond of Schnibbles.

There are lots more, including blogs from stores selling fascinating collections of materials, but this will be enough from me.

I was amazed recently to discover a 7-day a week Post Office outlet at one of our large hardware stores.  Only a few blocks away from home and marvellously convenient with its times for posting off hexie flowers for  the Inchy Hexagon Swap.  So today I sent hexies to two more people and crossed my fingers and my legs and my eyes and hoped that they arrive safely as I've already had two international parcels go missing this year.  One of today's postings were replacements for a missing parcel.

So now I look forward to reading some of the trivia from some of my favorite bloggers.  Thanks again, Brandie.

Fifties Dresses No 4 and 5, and some of the real thing..

Dresses No 4 and 5 means I'm nearly half way through the 12 dresses for the Dress Me Up quilt.

No 4, in blue, must be going somewhere special as her beau has brought her a corsage to wear.

While No 5  is in green with some variegated hail spots.

It's been interesting to look through some old albums with black and white photos of family and friends in the 1950s  to see how fashionable they were when compared to these imaginary creations.

Fresh flower corsages were a regular feature of special occasions.

Spots of various sizes, sleeveless dresses, front button openings,

Waists alway belted - 

All of these dresses were home made.

Another special moment recently was when I opened a parcel from my fabric pen-pal to find this lovely zippered  carry-all.

Just perfect for holding the essential supplies which are common to all projects. I take my embroidery with me to so many places and invariably find I've left something behind.  This solves the problem!

A floral quilt with some help from some cross stitch

These six cross stich flowers, done on a nice fine embroidery linen, have been sitting in my bottom drawer for 3 or 4 years.  I wanted to put them in a quilt but thought the blocks could easily just look like white blobs dumped down on a  quilt.  But when I saw Back Home Again by Wilmington Prints, with its soft rural scenes I started to get enthusiastic, with the following result.

Also included are three fabrics from Luna Notte from Moda and other bits and pieces I already had.

Recently I had seen an image of this square and diamond layout- I think it was a free pattern in one of the newsletters I subscribe to.  But now I can't find it and so can't give my thanks.  The sample was done in  more contrasty fabrics and looked quite different.

I have really enjoyed putting this quilt together.  They really are what I consider "my colours" - nice and soft.  But I have had a hard time as I have been reading  David Nicholls' "One Day", so at times it has been a real struggle trying to decide which one I wanted to do most !  But mostly the quilt won out !