Meeting a Legend !

Last Saturday I had the opportunity of meeting the delightful Bronwyn Hayes from Red Brolly. Bronwyn is one of the few Designers, who pioneered the combination of stitchery work and patchwork in Australia; creating her memorable quilts which we all know and love.

The softly spoken Bronwyn is as charming as her design work and it was such a joy to meet her.

The girls from 'A Quilters Hive' made this possible by inviting Bronwyn to be in attendance at their stand at the Newcastle Craft Expo; thank you girls.....

Candy also thrilled me with this gorgeous floral trim on this pretty cushion. Alas it was completly sold out by the time I got to the stand, but I'm assured that as soon as it comes in, it will be on the Quilters Hive Website for us to grab a few metres....can't wait!

this was another gorgeous trim that made my heart stand still........Candy sent me home with a piece to experiment with...thankyou sweetheart;

The girls also told me that they will be hosting a Quilters Retreat, commencing Friday 20th August, 2010 at the EcoPoint Myall Shores Resort, which is in the Great Lakes/Forster area
of NSW. The fabulous Libby Richardson will be the Guest Tutor, so if you have seen any of Libby's quilts i.e. 'Girls Day Out', Teddies Garden Treasurers' or 'Remember When', you will be drooling at the thought of a retreat with this wonderful Designer. Visit the Quilters Hive Website to make enquiries.....bookings are being taken now; so don't miss it;

The Craft Expo was an amazing event; isle after isle of stalls brimming with fabrics, papercrafts, beading, stamping etc, etc. Photographs are not encouraged so I am limited to the ones the girls from A Quilters Hive allowed me to take but.......one young girls was more than happy for me to take a pic of her cash register........isn't this gorgeous......talk about bling, every inch was covered with sparkling stickers!!!

Although I've been to Newcastle and back; I am still busy with my usual "secret sewing" for publication. So; when I was making a fabric frill this morning; I thought you might like to see how I make mine....here's a sneak peak of the project;

This is a single frill, so I have turned under both edges and stitched them down. Then; I placed a length of crochet cotton down the middle and sew a zig zag stitch, so that it steps over the crochet cotton all the way to the end.

This is how it looked when I finished sewing;

I secure one end of the crochet cotton then; pull the cotton and the frill gathers up;

It's an easy peasy way to make a frill....!

Romancing 'Rouenneries'

Have you seen it yet ??? The beautiful range of fabric called 'Rouenneires' by Moda! My friends from The Gum Tree Designers and I have........and.......we've not only been stroking and coooing over this wonderful bundle of fabrics; we've all been working on a special project with them as well.

Now you know how we love to tease you....well......I'm sorry but we are going to do it again !!! Here is a sneak peak of my work for the project;

got you wondering ?? That's good....lol ! All will be revealed very soon so keep visiting our blogs because you won't want to miss out on this exciting project.

Now....while I was stitching away on my part of the project, I got to thinking that you might like to know a couple of my stitching secrets.....well, not secrets really, but I don't think to tell anyone......so this time I have thought to share it with you.

A lot of people tell me that their embroidery threads knot and tangle all the time when they are stitching. Well......the problem is not with the thread itself...it is with the way we wrap them around our little bobbins to keep them nice and tidy. If you roll out thread from your bobbin, you will see kinks at every turn the thread made around the bobbin. The kinks are the problem!!!!

Your embroidery thread MUST BE smoothed out in one nice length before you commence splitting threads for stitching.......so......the answer is to IRON IT......yes; roll out the threads you are going to use on your ironing board and gently iron the kinks out....try it, I think you will be surprised at the difference it makes.

The other thing I would like to share with you; is how I start and stop my stitching, at the back of my work. This is when I am stitching with two threads on light fabric and I want to ensure that only the design line threads are visible.

Now; this is difficult for me as I am a knot it, knot it, knot it girl.......lol.....but; I do discipline myself to work like this when the stitching is for a special projects. It does use more thread and is slower...........and there are other methods that may work better in those areas; but I still like to know that my work is "blindly knotted" at the back....never to come undone.

This is how the back of my work looks;

The first step is to pull one thread from a length of thread that is twice the size of your arm up to the elbow (approx); and....as I have just said....the thread must be very straight...no kinks!

Step two is to thread the embroidery needle (I use Size 9) with the two ends of the thread together, thus creating a loop at the bottom;

Then; commence a stitch as normal...I am using a backstitch in the examples; so am bringing the needle up from the underneath side of the work but I do not pull the loop through to the front instead I catch it with my finger underneath and hold it;

then; I insert the needle from the front and come through to the underneath side. It will look like this;

now to complete the stitch; I put the needle through the loop and pull firmly to lock the threads together.

I always rock the stitch backwards then forwards to sit the stitch down nicely. Then continue stitching as normal;

At the end of your stitching line; I slip the needle through the previous stitch and create a loop;

then; I pass the needle through the loop and once again, rock back and forward to settle the knot into the stitching line;

finally......I run the needle and thread through the previous stitches; then cut the end off.

to continue stitching.....I separate the cut off thread then use one length at a time as before; to stitch smaller sections of the design.

Have I wet your appetite for stitching in red? Hope so; because we've got something beautiful for you to work on and it will be available very soon!