Christmas again!

I think this will be my last post about Christmas 2013 ... Christmas sure stretched out this time, with the final gift-giving just this past week when my local group of sewing soulmates got together.
Secret Santa Swaps are always fun and of course hand-made gifts came to the fore....

I received this beautiful pin-cushion -

It is a Lynette Anderson design, one I've had my eye on but never purchased!

And made this as my gift -

The box itself was from an Australian Country Craft magazine. It had embroidery designs with it but I decided to use [yet again :-)] the gorgeous stitchery patterns by Rag-Tag Designs (Michelle's blog *here*)

I have a few projects in the pipeline but they are secret sewing so I'll just share a peek of one —

Woohoo, I'm up to the quilting on this one :-)

Lately in the evenings when relaxing in front of the telly with the MOML, I've been doing some little stitcheries, they are from Anni Down's book, Simple Pleasures. I have stitched and used these designs over and over again, they are so cute.

 Now it's time to get back to the quilting, so it's time to wish you a great day! Thank you for visiting and happy stitching,

The same but different

I received a sweet comment from my sister-in-law the other day, which has prompted me to pull up my socks and write a post. Her and my brother have just been over to New Zealand for a visit, and our family had a belated Christmas (see *here*) together.
I hadn't finished their present then but when I saw them a few days later I had;  - here is the comment -
You can post a photo of MY Christmas present now too!!!!!!!! Because mine is gorgeous so you should show it off!
(Thank you Sandie).  So here is the picture!

Yes, you may recognise it, I have shown a VERY similar one recently, however, the quilting on this one is different :-)

I was inspired by a book I have called "Quilting Makes the Quilt" where the author, Lee Cleland, makes 5 identical quilts and quilts each one very differently, amazing the differences between them all. (She did this 5 times!). Anyway, I decided to do my two identical quilts sort of differently, a nice little challenge for myself.

Both had pebbles in the white hexagons, and the actual hexie flowers
were mostly untouched .

I went a bit fancy in the corners of this one.

This was the first one, I gave this to my sister and her hubby.

While my sister-in-law was here we were able to compare the applique project we are both working on, the Quiltmania mystery.
It was so cool to see Sandie's - I was going to take photos of them side by side but mine looked quite insipid next to hers!!
We've both only done the first two blocks but it is a nice feeling to be stitching this alongside each other.

Raewyn's block 1

Raewyn's block 2

Sandie's block 1.
Sandie is using Kaffe Fasset fabrics - can you tell :-)

Sandie's block 2

Photo not in focus but I love that she has chosen to use
the little buttons on her boys.

What a difference the fabric makes, huh?!

Our summer is whizzing by, we have had plenty of visitors lately and all the holiday makers have been enjoying the sunshine. While we are worrying that our farm is rapidly drying out, there are diverse and perverse weather situations happening all over the world. In particular, I have been really disturbed to see the severe drought situation in parts of Australia. The world has shrunk due to blogging and it hurts to see fellow bloggers hurting so much. I have had a feeling of helplessness here in New Zealand but I was pleased to see a link on facebook which directed me to Buy A Bale... a donation (easily made through PayPal or Visa) buys feed (bales of hay) for stock, or other needs. Just imagine, even if we all just bought one bale of hay, the difference we could make.

I'm feeling a little caught up now, I wouldn't have thought I would go for 3 weeks between posts but oh well, I made it back :-).
Happy stitching everyone,
Have a Great Day,
Raewyn.

EQ Blog Hop - Red & White Quilts

Hopefully you will have seen this Blog Hop this week. It is the kickoff for a year of Red and White Quilt Challenges SewCalGal is running this year.
The idea of this week's blog hop is to show how much fun it is to use EQ software!!
Even if you don't have the software, take a look at the links, you never know what you will learn. The year of challenges is for anyone, you don't have to have EQ software, if you have an interest in Red and White quilts (or even in quilts full stop) you may find something that tempts you. (There is even a challenge for R&W quilts that are already made!)

When it was suggested I take part in this Blog hop I was pretty concerned - I've seen other clever people do fabulous tutorials and make fabulous quilts using their Electric Quilt software, and while I am a keen user, I'm very much an amateur and a wannabee really.
However, we all know the best way to learn is to play. So what if I just played and saw what happened??! Maybe it would encourage others who are in the same boat to do just the same. A whole lot of playing sounded fun to me!!
(If you don't have the software, just scroll through and see the pretty pictures!)
I decided to take one block and see what I could do with it.

Bear's Paw

A word that I love is 'Serendipity'. It sounds good and opens up a world of possibilities.
So my post today is based around the Serendipity function of EQ7. It is not a function I had really looked at before and I have had a blast.
Choose a block you want to play with and click on the following in your EQ7 software.

Work on Block > Block> Serendipity

The first option is 'frame' - lots of possibilities —

Serendipity>Frame

Serendipity>Frame

Serendipity>Frame

 The second option is Tilt —

Serendipity>Tilt
Select the angle you want it tilited at.
It seems to be in increments of .25'

The third option is Merge. For this you need to import another block to merge with your first block.

Not all blocks can be merged, but a bit of playing finds plenty to choose from :-)

Serendipity>Merge
The block above merged with one of my
'framed' Bears Paw.

The fourth option gets even more tricky. Essentially EQ7 takes your block, chops it up and reorganises it!

Clip and Flip.

Serendipity>Clipand Flip

Serendipity>Clip and Flip
Using one of the 'framed' blocks.

Fifth option - Shrink and Flip - more tricky business going on!

Serendipity>Shrink and Flip
Again, using one of the 'framed' blocks.

 Sixth option - Kaleidoscope

Serendipity>Kaleidoscope
There are different options for this,
based on the different quarters that EQ7
splits your block up into.

Seventh Option - Fancy Star

Serendipity>FancyStar
Original Bears Paw block used.

Whew! You can see that just from one block I have created many new ones!! The options appear endless!! Of course not all of them are pretty and not all of them are practical (but what a challenge to sew some of them!!). If I'd known about this button for my Stars class last year I would have saved myself a lot of redrawing!!!

Of course you can open up each new block you have created and edit it, resize, draw in bits (or take bits away), recolour and so on.

So the next phase of my playing was to see how the blocks would work in quilts.

I chose a simple layout with a simple border and just plonked the blocks on it.

Here are some quilt possibilities —

Simple with the original Bears Paw, centre block colours
swapped over.

Using one of the framed blocks

Framed and flipped

Shrink and flip

Combining the kaleidoscope with shrink and flip
(This photo enlarged as the colours went silly on the smaller size.)

A shrunken one in the middle

As you can see, I had a lot of fun while PLAYING! Now to think a little more and work out which - if any - I want to sew up. Some will have funny measurements which will make piecing difficult, some will be better suited to foundation piecing rather than straight piecing and some will go into the delete bucket.

However some are worth a second look and I could end up with something truly unique! 

It doesn't take a lot of time to play but it can be very rewarding - so, if you are like me and have some underused EQ software - PLAY!!!

The other participants in the Bloghop are —

Behind The Mouse - the Electric Quilt blog  with Heidi

KISSed Quilts with Marlene

Freemotion by the River with Connie

Beaquilter with Bea

I haven't visited them yet as I wanted to write my post without influence (or feelings of inadequacy!!)...I look forward to their wise words - the glimpses I've seen when I did the linkups looked very impressive!!

Don't forget to visit SewCalGal too, for more information on this year's Red and White Challenges as well as more EQ7 tips and techniques. 

Happy playing everyone, thankyou for visiting

Have a great day,