It all started with this.

This piece decorates my home every Christmas. It is special to me because it brings back such lovely memories of times spent in a far off land with special friends.

It is also the piece that set me off on the path I now find myself on.
We were a group of Mum's who started meeting without the babies in tow in order to cross stitch or  do something similar, although really it was just an excuse to sit and natter without having to jump up every five seconds to deal with a toddler.

One day I was approached by Michelle, an Australian, who was new to ex-pat life, who asked if she could join our group.
" But I don't cross stitch," she said, "I do Patchwork and Quilting. Is that okay?"

Eventually with the help of her Mum , who sent all the fabric over from Australia, we each produced one of these panels. It is a Debbie Mumm design. The applique was fused but all of the rest was hand stitched.
By the time I had finished it I was hooked and I haven't done any cross stitch since!

To all of you that kindly take the time to visit here and follow my creative pursuits, I thank you and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

fabric friday

The beady eyed among you will notice that these pieces have already been stitched together once.
I decided it needed a bit more painted detail before it becomes a table runner for a friend.

Christmas Crafting

I have been making quilts for Christmas.

I have made about nine of them in a couple of days!

Okay, they only measure 2 x 3 inches.

I printed the design out from the computer (using my EQ7 programme) and got to work with some red paint.
After making each one into a mini quilt sandwich, I stitched with a variety of red, black or white thread. One was done by hand before turning to the machine to speed up the process.

It is interesting to see how many combinations I could come up with from the one basic design.
Have you made your own card this year?

And the Winner is......

...Okay, I give up. I always have a problem trying to get the random.org thingy to appear here!!!!

So after spending too much time on it already, you will just have to take my word for it that the winner is...

 No 117. Congratulations to Libby who requested a Pebble Stack kit.

Thank you to all who took part and left such lovely comments, and a special thank you to all of  you who decided to stick around :)

fabric friday...playing

Still some time to enter the giveaway.

Linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Come and join in!

A Big Hello....

....and welcome if you have come here from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

I hope that you will take the time to look around to see what I get up to over here, and also leave me a comment so that you can be in with a chance of winning one of my kits.
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Each kit contains everything you need to create a Art Quilt mini using my unique hand painted fabrics.
Stitch yourself or give as a gift to a crafty friend!
More details of what each kit contains can be found in either my Etsy or Folksy shops.
(Giveaway details at end of post!)

In other news, a copy of Laurie Wisbrun's latest book arrived this morning, and she has again included a photo of some of my hand painted fabric.

This is the U.K. version which has a different cover to the U.S. version

It is a thrill to see my name in print.

Giveaway details.
Leave a comment telling me which of my kits is your favourite, and if you are lucky to be chosen I will send that kit to you, wherever in the world you might be.
Giveaway is open until December 7th 5 p.m. PST, which by my calculations is about 1 a.m. in the morning here in the U.K. so I will chose and announce the winner on December 8th.
Good Luck everyone and Big Thank You to Sew Mama Sew and all who have entered.
Please make sure you add an e-mail address if you are a no reply blogger.

Bird House

Carrying from my last post, when I began designing a bird house I ended up with all these different parts which was really far too complicated.

First step, Simplify it to just the one piece.

Next, mark out the design in pencil.

Paint in the shadows to give a dimensional effect.

For this I used neat paint, mixed with textile medium (or in this case Aloe Vera gel, because at that time I did not possess any textile medium).

The colour was obtained by mixing a small bit of black with the bird house colour.

Adding the medium/gel allows you to work slowly and accurately with the paint and to build up the layers of colour.

To quote a famous Meerkat "Simples"......apologies to non U.K. readers who won't know what I am referring to....but if you are curious look here.