Catherine’s completed DYB6 block

Here is the completed block for Catherine’s DYB6 swap. Because Catherine included lots of 3D ruched and gathered fabrics in her blocks, I’ve tried to make most of my additions also 3D. Catherine liked the waterlily and dragonfly charm so I’ve left them in the centre of the smocked “pond”, then added a pink blossom [...]

Randomly smocked patch on Catherine’s DYB6 block

Catherine sent her six blocks for her DBY swap with 3 dimensional gathered, pleated and ruched patches included among the flat ones. This piece was a fairly large expanse of sheer green organza type material, gathered at both the top and the bottom. I used Anchor variegated green stranded cotton to randomly smock the gathers [...]

Flowering Cherry Trees in Anlaby Road, Hull, Yorkshire

We called our house “Anlaby” because my husband originally comes from Hull in Yorkshire, England and spent his childhood in a house just off Anlaby Road which runs from the centre of Hull to the village of Anlaby which sadly has now been swallowed up by suburbia, although it still keeps it’s village characteristics. Anlaby [...]

Blanket Stitched Flowers

This is another page from my Visual Journal where I have drawn different flowers all using Blanket or Buttonhole stitch. I’ve taken care to draw the direction of the stitches so that they best represent each flower or leaf. These drawings are to remind me of simple, quick and easy, floral designs to include on [...]

Old fashioned Motifs using Bullion stitch Roses

This a new page from my Visual Journal where I have drawn various sized motifs all using Bullion stitch Roses along with other simple stitches such as Stem stitch, satin stitch and French or Colonial knots. The drawings are designed to be a reference for when I am doing crazy quilt blocks, especially for other [...]

Antique Glass German Beaded Fringing.

Sometimes it pays to be cheeky!! A local antique shop had some gorgeous beaded fringing about 3 metres long decorating one of the cabinets. I always admired it but it was not for sale, however, I told the man who owned the shop that if he ever wanted to sell it, to let me know [...]

Centre of my crazy quilted Ningaloo Reef picture.

This is the very centre of my underwater coral reef picture showing the embroidered coral surrounded by lighter sea green fabrics at the top and darker sea green fabrics at the bottom. I am trying to keep the stitchery embellishing the same colour as the fabric pieces so that the coral in the middle is [...]