My Owl in Primke colours

We had a great time in Melbourne and met a lot of stitchers.  I had taken my Schwalm mat with me which I managed to do some stitching on and got lots of comments on, many women said they had not seen the pulled thread boarders since they were young.  I then had to tell them that that was just the beginning and there was much more to come in the middle.

There was also much interest in our Slate frames and on the Friday morning before the show got busy, I started stitching the branch for the Owl to sit on, I thought he was sick of floating in air.  I then managed  to loose my thread and did not find it again until the end of the show, so I could work no more on him until I came back.

I have worked the branch and leaves in Primke stranded and the Owl's tail in DMC.

Schwalm matt and Owl

Well here we are just 2 days away from going to Melbourne for the Quilt and Craft Fair,  but though we have been busy getting ready I did manage to do some stitching.

First here is the update on my Schwalm matt, I am on the last leg of the boarder doing the Double Pea hole hem stitch as you can see.  Then finally I can get on to the middle.

I also thought you might like to see my little Owl, I designed him to show how our Slate frames work, but I quite like him.  Only his tale is done at the moment, but I will post more pictures as He grows.


If you happen to be at the Quilt and Craft Fair in Melbourne, please come and see us at stand C24  Christina's Craft and Primke Threads, and say hello to us and the Owl.

Sasiko Quilting on my quilt

Well here we are Easter is just about over and finally we have had some rain and the cooler weather seems to have finally arrived, fingers crossed.  Of course the rain and cooler weather means that I have been out in the garden and not stitching, but soon the ground will be to cold and I like to get my plants started now so that they will survive the hot weather next summer better.

I have also started hand quilting  a quilt which I made to go on my bed as a bed spread.  I am putting shasiko quilting in the plain squares, I am using our Primke over dyed perle 8 cotton.  I got the idea from the Quilted Kimono a quilt designer in Queensland, she uses our threads on some of her designs and I thought it looked really good.  Well decide for your selves I have included some photos of my quilting (don't judge the quilting to harshly this is my first attempt).

 Oh and because I was short of a fabric I stenciled this one, and then quilted the outline of the dragonfly.  I am still deciding if I am going to do the butterflies as well, this could be an ongoing project for a while.

Well hopefully next time I can show you some progress on my schwalm.

Oh and I nearly forgot we have started doing a mock up layout for out stall at the Quilt and Craft show in Melbourne in July.  So if you are going we hope to see you at stall C24 to catch up.

Up date on Schwalm project

We have a large Pine tree opposite our house and the other day some Cockatoos came to feast on the pine nuts.  They looked like exotic flowers, one year a whole flock came and almost turned the tree white.  I took some photos, this time there were only 4 or 5 but you can see they are enjoying themselves.

As promised here is the first of my progress pictures of my Schwalm center.  I have withdrawn the threads for the hem, mitred the corners and cut and cut and pulled back the threads for the decorative hem (corners only so they can be tucked under the hem.)  I have also hemmed 2 sides.  Does not look like much, but as you all know it takes quite some time.

Hope to show you more next time and also the quilt that I am working on.

New Schwalm project

This year we have all three decided to work on a Schwalm Whitework table center each.  Schwalm white work or Hessen stickerei as it is know in Germany, where this lovely style of embroidery comes from is a form of both surface and counted embroidery.  So far I have just mitred the corners, remembering to take lots of photos for the notes (not very interesting ones).  I will post some of the work in progress as I go along.

My bell pull

I do have a few photos of the bell pull and goldwork that Monika and I finished late 2012

Monika's Goldwork bycicle

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote to say she was working on it for the Tour Downunder and here we are they are racing again next week.  Hope the weather stays not to hot for them.

If you have not looked at our web site lately, I have slowly been adding some colour cards.  I have just finished Colour Streams, have added buttons and am in the middle of adding Mill Hill beads.  I hope to this year finally finishing them all, but by saying so have perhaps just ill wished my self.

Hi I am back

Well here I am again finally, my but the last 6 months have just flown by.  The last time I was taking pictures of the cyclamen in our garden just coming into bloom, I was going to post the photos to show you how they had inspired me, well maybe later.

 We then got very busy with our stand at the Adelaide Craft and Quilt fair, getting ready for it, deciding what to take, setting up and then putting everything back to more time than you would think.









Us setting up at the Craft and Quilt Fair

Gunter at the stand on the first day for the fair.



Well we hope to get better at it as we will be going to the Melbourne Craft and Quilt fair in July, we hope to see you there.  And if there is anything you would like to see on our stand either our kits or other threads, beads etc let us know and we will see what we can do.