What’s right in front of me as I write my blog!
I think every morning how lucky I am to live in such a spot? Looking down to the river and across to the Kuranda Ranges.
I write the 20 th of Nov and realise there’s only 5 weeks till Christmas morning? I realise that all been well I will be at my Son and DDIL’s home and with luck will walk along the beach if I want to at Noosa one of the most beautiful spots in OZ!
But now I’m sitting on my veranda looking at a beautiful view, and thinking about making leaves for my HOTYH Quilt , this is one of the most enjoyable quilts I have ever made, there’s so much in it, many challenges and oh the joy when you manage to do them LOL.
Today I will share in photos how I meet the challengers of making the tiny bouquets.
Glorious Yellows I dyed during the week. Its so much fun seeing the fabric change?
Spent a couple of days dying greens till I got the colour shades I liked
Glorious colours of soft silk all over dyed silk from the one kimono.
A great mottled green for the light 1/2 of the big leave may be?
Greens and more greens in the foreground is the silk I used for all the colours I made, it’s a very pale pink mushroom colour, it’s from a silk kimono about 1930’s it has a lovely weave pattern so gives lots of texture to the new dyed fabrics.
Made up 3 leaves first to see if they were going to look like what my mind was seeing LOL.
Going to be a perfect foil for this tiny wee flowers!
Now to share how I made those leaves using cut out shapes of washaway freezer paper.
First I traced all the leaf shapes on to the washaway freezer paper, numbered them , T for top of the leaf B for bottom, then added letters telling which one went where on the bouquet on both 1/2s. Last was a mark of 3 dots on each 1/2 where I was going to cut the leaf in 1/2 so I knew at a glance they were the middle join, when you have lots of 1/2 leaves it saves a lot of time?
Starting to iron on those 1/2 leaves I use small pieces of polystyrene to pin my pieces to as I go.
Making up my leaf shapes bit by bit so I can show you how I make them.
Starting bottom right hand side First step is drawing my leaf shape by placing my washaway freezer paper over the leaf shapes, it is clear enough to see the pattern under it. Then cut the leaf shape out and add all the reminder points on the two sides . Step 2 iron all the shapes to the fabric cut out shapes this is where I use those 3 dots along the seam to remind me to leave a good 1/4 inch seam allowance? Step 3 roll back centre line of one side of the leaf where you added the reminder dots. You can use glue I needle baste. Look closely at photo and you will see that the right 1/2 is rolled back. Step 4 place rolled back 1/2 on top of the other seam, it will sit snug make sure you even these parts up perfectly, glue into place or like I do baste it! Top row from right to left first two have been basted together. 3rd one I have stitched the two halve together and removed all basting threads it is now ready to applqiue to my block. Happy sewing!!!!
Leaves slowly been added, I was hoping to have all the leaves finished for my first bouquet but they take longer to make than I thoughtLOL.
On the right are the start of flowers for bouquet 2!
Hope you were able to follow my wee tutorial, if not please drop a comment and ask me questions ?
A walk around the garden now.
Looking at some of the leaves in my garden you can see where the leaves beside the bouquet in Hold On ToYour Heart idea came from specially photo 11 ???
Thanks for dropping by to keep me company.
Cheers Glenda.
Your fabric flowers and leaves are lovely but I especially enjoyed the walk through the real thing! Happy Stitching!
Evening Gretchen, now 9.45 pm and still around 26C all the doors and windows are open, but flyscreens closed. Australia is under extreme temps all ready and terrible fires keep break out. All most Our whole Manaka honey growing area has been whipped out, bees and the trees and it will take years for them to be astablished again. Temps have been in the 40Cs not seen for over 100 years or since records have been kept. But up here in the North we still are so green and have plenty of water and can take a long shower if we want to and can still water our gardens. My garden is full of colour right now as you can see, so glad you enjoyed walking around it with me. Cheers Glenda.
what beautiful applique you show and just love all of your plants that grow outside that here would be house plants only and maybe on the porch for a couple months in summer
Hi Karen and thanks for dropping in. Has been a busy week for me with birthdays, some family away, some just signed up for the airforce, lots of celebrations and me making tiny circles still. LOL Another week at least before I finish those wee flowers but I have so enjoyed the challenge of making them. Yes in NZ these garden plants i have here all year round would also be just hothouse plants or in ones home as pot plants. But I do miss the spring bulbs!!!! and my roses in bloom full of perfume as I only grew roses with perfume!!!!! Cheers Glenda
Dear Glenda
You are a busy bee and very brave. To dye silk fabric just seem so daunting! Your garden is a delight and it lifted my spirits to see so much colour and the beauty of nature.
Dear Maggie, I’ve just made up 2 leaves for my second bouquet arrangement for HOTYH. I made up my first big leaf of that area today, use I a purple and green silk LOL. Sounds pretty radical but that’s the colour they are in my garden, you will understand after the plants in Africa. I realised to day that in 4 weeks to the day we drive down to our sons place for Christmas, it’s roughly 1700ks. We will spend 2 nights on the road as Jon said he’s in no hurry and we might as well enjoy it rather than rush it. Jon and Laure will share the driving Rod and I will enjoy the views LOL. I usually make some thing for Christmas but the year went to quickly, but trying to make up micro wave fabric bowls for the girls and I desperate need them too now as we sit in our lounge chairs more and more eating our meals? They are just so practical and will save them been burnt. Hugs Glenda
I adore the accuracy and beauty of all your applique. Your view is also amazing to me especially now that our forests are snow covered and will remain so for a number of months. Enjoy your renewed vigor in stitching!
Hi Jocelyn and I’m sorry it has taken so long to write back to you from here. My days are not long enough, and since my knee replacement I find I still sleep during the day and in bed early???? I throughly enjoyed visiting your blog the other day. We are so so lucky to be able to look out over a river and then the ranges and not in to some one else’s roof tops or yards???? Every morning I stop and look out and thin how lucky we are to be here.this is why we brought the place , not for the house but the view. Cheers Glenda
Oh such beauty, both in your fabrics and your surroundings! No wonder your quilts are so inspired.
The yellow silk is amazing! And I do not even like yellow, in general, but that yellow is definitely worth while. And the mottled green. I am swooning. The tutorial is great! Thanks.
Hi Lennea, not sure why we don’t have longer days I need them so much LOL I’m up now days at 5 instead of 9 as it is so light but I still don’t have enough hrs ????? I did not even write my blog last week as I had not answered my mail and I told my self no blogs if I have not answered all my mail first!!!!! I will be able to write one this week if i have any thing to share, my house has been full of people every day and some nights. Glad you liked the yellow, such a hard hard colour to get right, ended up using a straight lemon which gave me that stunning yellow but used a lot of the lemon dye LOL I’m making microwave bowls at present and practicing FMQ on them before joining the two halves together, no one will see it or look at it LOL First i for got to put the quilting foot on, then forgot to set my speed at zero, and tried to do free motion on a square 10inches with out using gloves of any kind, but i will learn LOL
Hugs from Down Under.
Thanks for the tutorial! Very easy to understand. I did not recognize a single plant in your garden! It always amazes me how different our two sides of the world are.
Hi Eileen and thanks for dropping by. Ive run out of days this week and have not answered all my mail here, so not writing my blog this week till I answer all my mail!!!! I grew up in NZ s never saw these plants in gardens there either some I saw as house plants or in green houses that were heated during the winter!!!!! I still get surprises when things flower, here LOL Like the spider orchids? and its lovely to see the orchids growing and flowering freely in my garden. thats why my quilts are so bright as I’m surrounded by very very strong bright exotic flowers!!!!!But i do miss the spring bulbs. Cheers Glenda
You are a master at the details! Beautiful work on those tiny flowers.:) Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for dropping in Audrey, I enjoyed popping over to visit you too. Its ages since I did so enjoyed going back through your blogs and catching up. Hard to believe we are coming to the end of another quilting year, I wonder what we have instore for us next year. May be I should just finish some WIP’s LOL Will say Merry Christmas and wish you all the best for 2020 Audrey Cheers Glenda