Day 4 Let's get Stitched; The stitching day!

When we entered the big room on Sunday, we saw all these beautifully decorated bags on the tables...how exciting! We were given a little bit of time to look through the bags...

And it was announced that in one of the 50 or so bags there was a voucher from Dawn Hay for a quilting service (by Dawn) for a quilt up to 80 inches.
Look what I found at the very bottom of my gift bag...what a surprise!!

Then it was time for our wonderful organisers/designers to speak to us about the day and show us the samples of the items we could make with the patterns etc in our bags.

Dawn, Joy, Vicki and Fiona...

Now those 4 designers are joined by Jenny, Marilyn, Vikki and a big surprise guest on the end...Rosalie Quinlan!

The tables along the side of the room were groaning with samples and also supplies we could purchase...

Now where to start...many of us chose Rosalie's design that she had drawn up especially for LGS...
How many designers stand at the ironing area and offer to iron on the design? ...not many I reckon, but the lovely Rosalie did...

We had been told to bring certain coloured cottons and I started stitching Rosie's design...but I didn't like what I had done. When I had a peep at Sharon's stitching next to me, I decided to use variegated thread like she was. I was happier with that!

Ladies busy stitching away at the table behind us...

Our table stopped for a photo...

So now for a closer look at the goodies in our bags...
Patterns from Jennifer Reynolds aka Jenny Elefantz

 A pattern for a retreat bag from Fiona (Designs by Fee) and a kit to make sweet little pin cushions...

The bag also contained a pack of charm squares...

A beautiful pattern for a project bag designed by Dawn Hay...

 A magnificent table runner/centre pattern designed by Vicki

Next is a pattern for a beautiful projects' book cover designed by Vikki Collumbine

 Blogger wants this lovely pattern designed by Joy to be on its side!

 And this lovely pattern by Marilyn is also on its side too! lol

 We also got a lovely vintage look tin for our pins

 Some how I got 2 snail tape measures!

 And this sweet keyring was attached to my gift bag...

 This little bag was attached to the front of our bags and had some sweets and some raffle tickets...

We thought that these were also lollies but on closer inspection we found that they are actually each a charm square wrapped up...how clever!

We each received a copy of homespun which features a quilt design by Dawn...

So you can see why we were quite overwhelmed by the generosity of those 4 ladies who did the organising and also those other wonderful designers.
No event like this is complete without the obligatory photos of the group...Narelle took on the role of organising us for the first group photo of those who went on the Friday bus trip...

Then when Narelle was satisfied with the composition of the group photo she quickly joined us...

heh  heh!! Love it!

Then there was the group photo of those 50 or so of us who were there for the Stitching Day...many locals joined us that day...

It was a wonderful day; the organisation was excellent and the catering was scrumptious. A very fitting finale to what had been such a great weekend of friendship and fun with like-minded people and the outcome of many months of planning and working by our 4 organisers.
Let's get Stitched 2015 was announced at the end of the day...and it will be in Brisbane. Start saving girls! lol

Mrs Martin's Celebrations Swap; Spring!

A little while back in a FNSI post I showed glimpses of this project. To celebrate the coming of Spring we each had to make a garden stitchery for our swap buddy. We didn't have to make this piece into anything...that's up to the recipient to decide whether it is framed, made into a cushion, runner or some other larger project. We were asked to use at least 5 different embroidery stitches.
My partner in this yearlong swap is lynne, and because Lynne has now received my parcel, I can unveil the project that I stitched.
I used a Jenny Elefantz design, called 'Do Daisies Grow in Your Garden?', which is filled with lots of cute little details, such as snails with blue shells, an orange and blue butterfly and some lady bugs.

 
I couldn't seem to find the  blue/cream large print that was recommended for the background, so I used a 'sky' print in the palest I could get. I couldn't find variegated green ric rac so decided to improvise.

I wasn't sure how wide the ric rac should be and ended up buying 2 different colour greens in 2 widths. The wider light green didn't look very effective so I used the narrow ric rac. Using a technique that my mum's friend used to use, I used herringbone stitch to sew the ric rac to the background. So I've got a sort of a variegated effect there. So the stitches that I used in the project were, backstitch, satin stitch, straight stitch, french knots, blanket stitch and herringbone!
 Then of course a few more 'bibs and bobs' went in the parcel, to celebrate Spring.
Some flower fabric...

 A pretty tea towel...

Both rolled up and tied...

And lastly a fragrant sachet which is just so spring-like!

Thank you once again to Karen for organising this swap!

FNSI...

So what did I do for Friday Night Sew In?
I did some tracing...

I looked through my stash for 3 different yellow fabrics...

I did some fusing with Applifix ...

From the 3 yellow fabrics, I had to fuse and cut out 5 larger circles and 3 smaller ones...

I did some other fusing with some pellon...and finally my new project had had all that preparation done...I just have to sort out the embroidery threads I will use...

The design comes from Jenny Elefantz online magazine Issue 4

And yes, I also did some knitting...boring knitting I have to say, but important to say the least, for the completion of a project that was at a stand still (PASS) from 2011!!!...Val Laird used this term in her blog recently :-) I'm working on some border strips at the moment...in double moss stitch (known as seed stitch in some countries).

The project is a throw knitted in strips out of oddments/scraps of mohair yarns. The strips have been tacked at the 'intersections' and just needs the borders to stop the stocking stitch 'parts' from rolling up...but a border is great for framing something made with oddments. I've discovered that an old friend has been doing things tough in the last few years and has a health crisis at present...so suddenly this UFO needed to be finished.
Here are a few glimpses of some of the 'squares' in the strips...these are all slipstitch designs...

The 'square' below is one I tried for the first time. it is a type of slipstitch but the yarn is carried horizontally...it was fun and I will certainly use this one again.

Hopefully at the end of this coming week, I will be able to post a photo of a throw with all seams sewn up the borders finished and sewn on and then everything blocked. And then it will be off to its new home.

Many thanks to Wendy for once again organising FNSI. Why not visit her blog here, and use the links there to visit other blogs to see what wonderfully creative things were done last night. :-) There were 59 FNSI ers last night!