Threads

OK, I fess up - I have never been that much into embroidery or applique ;-o, therefor I lack of tools to make them little mini blocks in the Butterfly Garden BOM. Like embroidery floss and a great one for sewing appliques. The few times I have worked with DMC floss, I never really cared for them - snagging, knotting sad excuses they are IMHO. But I've only read great things of Cosmos floss from Lecien, so after much searching I found an online store with a great range at great prices. And ordered some.

I know that the sewing machine dealership down at our very small mall (they sell mostly machines for industries etc.) are selling YLI threads, so I hope they have the silk ones - hopefully I need only one beige spool.

Needles I have and a small bottle of basting glue, but I don't have a really good hoop. I have one inherited from my Grandma, which puts it round 50 years or more and it don't hold the fabric firmly, so you have to re-adjust if ever so often. Then I have a small Clover all plastic one and that don't cinch the fabric tightly either, just make it slither around :-( In the latest issue of Vignette Magazine I read about a new hoop form Lecien, so I set my hope that I will be able to find one. Well I think I have, but there will be one to get closer to home, which will make it arrive here a bit faster.

Time to re-read "Applique, The basics and beyond" by Janet Pittman in bed, hopefully to enhance my knowledge of this art form :-)

Night from Sweden.

Happy yayy

At the same minute I parked my car outside our gate, a postal van drove up alongside and a guy asked if I was living "there" and yeah, I am. So I got me a package and not any old package, but the one from Aztek Rose in Holland containing these goodies:

Issue No 3 and 4 of Vignette Magazine, the full set of Butterfly Garden by Leanne Beasley, one piece of Kona solid fabric and one piece of ironing on muslin (there must be a reason why I did order that.....), two package of embroidery needles (my mistake - I wanted one package of each embroidery and applique needles and one bottle of Roxanne's baste glue.

I have browsed through the magazines and looked at the needles, remembering that I have a package of small appliqués needles in my toolbox. But I have not yet opened up the BOM package.....I want to be of somewhat crisp mind when I do so - bear in mind that I have never done anything like this, so I want to be able to understand the instructions for the first BOM ;-)  Right now I'm not there at all.

I got an email from the sweet Karen at Aztek Rose this morning, telling about an exiting new project that is a joint venture between Australian and European designers called Quilt Aid - check it out, it looks great! Don't you just love the colors of these Moda fabrics? :-)

Persistently I continue with my FMQ samplers and yesterday I used an old leftover block:

It looks a bit better than the others and I find it somewhat interesting that the white parts that on the un quilted block lays flat along with the other bits, but when quilted this way, the look like they have risen above the rest ???

Feathers and mushrooms

Yesterday The DH came home from another mushroom hunt with 5kg :-o  (round 10lbs I think) Autumn chanterelles:

Uncleaned

Cleaned

We sat down on the patio and spent round 2 hrs cleaning it all and got a nice dose of fall sunshine too :-)

After spending round 1hr to parboiling and packaging, I sat down at my Horizon with a glass of wine within easy reach (suggested by quilting people who really know their stuff ;-) and played some more with FMQ and this time I am kind of pleased with the outcome:

because I am in fact, a total noob at this .

Well first put a load in the washer machine, then sewing some unwanted jelly strips (that is strips I will never use cause I simply don't fancy the) together for more  FMQ test sandwiches.

Oh - almost forget to tell the best news of all (well from a quilting perspective that is) - my package with Butterfly Garden and basic stuff for embroidery and the two latest issues of Vignette magazine is on it's way from the shop with the best customer care I have ever encountered - Aztek-Rose in Holland. How exiting is that? :-D Wonder how fast/slow it will take for it to make the journey from Holland to Sweden??

Have a lovely Sunday.