Lynette Anderson Designs

My dog Hugo...

He is my best friend, if he is not at my side then he is following me either on foot or with his eyes...

His sewing skills are improving...

He loves the feel of fabric....

A few years ago I designed a special handpainted Hugo button of which I packed lots today!

I have had fun using the Hugo button on a few designs.

Daisy Cottage Bag

Nora's Horses Pillow

He was the inspiration for this block from 'Stitched By Me', of course Hugo really wanted to be carrying a string of sausages not daisies!

His friendship with Felix the cat was imortalised in this block from 'A Kittens Tale'.

He is in long distace realtionship with Miss Lizzie a brown Labrador who lives in France, oh la la!

Here he is seen with a few of his doggie friends gathered in a button pack, 'Four Paws'

Seen here at the winter olympics sledding with Felix the cat on one of the blocks from 'Crazy Christmas'

If you love the fabrics used in this block they are from my first ever fabric range 'Christmas Magic' which is now 'out of print', however having dug around in my very large store room I have managed to find a very small quantity of it and have had fun today making some little bundles in two sizes.

I think I can honestly say my life without my best doggy friend would be very boring x x

My Secret Garden...

I know I have shown you a peek already of these fabrics but I wanted to show you that I have been having fun working with them, the fabric line 'Secret Garden' is not due out until October when we will release it at Fall Market in Houston, USA. Meanwhile I am being a busy girl working on some lovely new projects to go with the fabrics, at the moment I only have a 10" square or less of each print so I am doing the stitchery parts. 

I love the colours and the little prints all look so sweet together, my advance yardage will arrive in approx. two weeks and then its 'all systems go' to get  a quilt or two started before I go to Europe. 

 

Quiltmania...

I was so excited yesterday when I picked up the post and saw a large brown envelope from France... inside was the latest edition of Quiltmania and its in English!

I am terrible, my first look through any magazine is a speedy flip the pages to get an idea of whats inside. Are you the same? Then I like to make a cup of tea and allow myself time to enjoy every page and this magazine is filled with great articles and projects, although nothing of mine :(

However there is a big article on 'Pour L'amour du Fil' the show in Nantes, France where I taught earlier this year. There is a picture of me with one of my students in the magazine, we were looking at some of my quilts and at the top of this pile is 'Stitched By Me'

I was lucky enough to meet the very lovely Michéle that this article is all about when I was in France and I was very excited when I spotted that she has one of my patterns on her sewing table in the picture...look closely and you will see she is doing 'Christmas Fun'... 

How do you look thorugh magazines, fron to back, back to front, quickly the first time then slowly with a cup of tea/coffee or are you always controlled and work from front to back slowly??

Bonus coin purse pattern..

For those of you who have'nt already signed up for the LAPC (Lynette Anderson Pattern Club) and got your bonus pattern and 10% discount code for use in the online store, I thought you might like to see the little coin purse that is the bonus pattern.... this is the one I made for me...soft, sludgy colours...

This is the one I made for Emma, bright and fun with a cute little sheep zipper pull (coming to the store soon)

This is the most exciting coin purse as its the first finished one from a LAPC member that we have seen and I adore the fabrics that Dominique has used. Dominique has made the purse slightly larger to fit the zip she had and has cleverly added a little pocket inside.

Rather than machine quilt, she has handquilted hers.

why not visit  Dominique to congratulate her on her finished coin purse.

 

Mongolian Yurt...

As you know from my trip last year my brother and his family live in the Bahamas, however they regularly visit the UK and on their most recent trip they hired a yurt which was delivered and assembled on the small farm that the family own.

How exotic is it inside, it makes me think of Arabian Knights or Alibaba....it even has a little pot belly stove to keep them warm and I love the bed linen that my sister in law has chosen. My bother hired his yurt from here, where they make the yurts.

My brother has been busy planting a new wood, the wood will not be mature in his lifetime but it will be there for his sons to enjoy. These are the trees he has chosen. 215 Walnut trees, 330 Sweet chestnut, 60 crab apple, 45 wild cherry, 45 bird cherry, 45 blackthorn, 105 hawthorne, 45 English oak, 30 Holly. 75 hazel, 15 wild pear and 15 wild service.

Mushroom for French knitting..

I have been busy looking for something...which I have still not found when I came across this treasure. How I loved to do French knitting when I was little, did you? I think it was my first encounter with knitting and I loved those round tubes of knitting, not sure that we ever made anything with it but....we may have! 

I bought this wonderful string of mushrooms from a gorgeous shop in Oslo a few years ago. Did you notice my mushroom fabric which is from my new collection 'Scandinavian Christmas' which is in a store near you now.

I have been a little in love with toadstools/mushrooms since I visited Norway and consequently when I came home I designed the five part BOM 'Scandinavian Christmas' incorporating some mushrooms into the design, you can see them in this block.

So if you feel the urge to get back in touch with your childhood and do some French knitting but cant remember how, there is a great tutorial here.

Better still if your into baking, take a look at these wonderful cup cakes and other toadstool inspired table decorations.

Fun new things...

How exciting do all these things look! I have decided to put some of my favourite things into my online store, some of the items you see below are things which I get asked about all the time. Some of the items are just because I think they are lovely!

May I present the needles that I love to use for my embroidery, Clover Embroidery No 9 its the perfect length, very smooth and the gold eye makes them so easy to thread ( please note, if you like to use Perle thread they are not suitable). My other favourite product for applique is Roxannes Glue, its a temporary glue which I use to fix my applique pieces in place rather than using pins. I have also got a few of my favourite Cosmos Seasons variegated thread... every colour is delicious! 

Have fun in My online shop

Whats for dinner tonight?

Sound familiar....I know that for me anyway once I have decided what I am going to cook and got the ingredients I like cooking. I thought I would share what I cooked the other evening.. Pork Parcel..

Out of habit and for some reason even though I have cooked this meal enough times that I dont need the recipe book out, I still get it out! Habit I guess..poor recipe book has seen better days and one of theses days I am going to put all my family favourite recipes in a personalised TasteBook  and get one printed for each of the boys for Christmas (not sure which Christmas..but one)

Too lazy to type the 'what you need' list out and in any case I thought you may all enjoy seeing my handwriting from....hmm... a few years ago 30+ years ago, yes its that long ago I can tell because the measurements are still in Ilbs and ounces. The UK went metric in '76 and here in Australia I think it was earlier!

Ta da, step by step photos.. hope your impressed...

Here I am, putting some egg around the edges to make the pastry stick together...

Wrap pastry around pork fillet...(apologise for using ready made pastry, I like making pastry just never find the time to do it any more)

Looks neat doesnt it.

Pop on tray ready for the oven and brush the tops, (I'm using my fingers) with egg.

Pop in oven and ta da...I made two parcels as there was rather alot of us for dinner. Serve with mashed potato, fresh vegetables and gravy. Can you see my lovely blue and white gravy jug, well its mums, she bought it when she first got married and I borrowed it years ago, guess I should return it sometime but I love it.

Let me know how you got on if you had a go at making this for dinner  x x picture please :)

Cotton Floss book...

I was so surprised when I picked up the mail yesterday to discover a present....thank you Natlaie from Cinderberry Stitches for the gift of your lovely 'first' book. Its absolutely gorgeous and the projects inside are so sweet, hard to know which one to start with. 

I love how the stitchery/embroidery section has mini pictures of each stitchery to make it easy to reference the part you are currently working on.

Well, its time for Hugo's afternoon walk (too cold to go in the mornings) and since he is giving me his funny look...

I had better take him soon...

Month 4...

We are already half way through Christmas Fun... this year is going so fast. Here is what the Mystery quilt looks like so far...

If you have any pictures of your finished Christmas Fun blocks and you would like to share them with everyone please email them to emma@lynetteandersondesigns.com.au and we will put them in our 'I designed it, you stitched it' photo album on my blog.

These stores still have places left for Christmas Fun

Button Tree Quilts - Australia, QLD

Calico Crossroads  -  Australia, TAS

Cotton and Color - Switzerland

Esmes - Australia, TAS

Europe Quilt -  Belgium

Fobbles - UK (also have fabric packs of the BOM)

Hettie's Patch - Australia, SA

Marcelle's Patchwork Cottage - Australia, NSW

Mi Casita de Patch - Spain

Paprika Cotton - Belgium

Quilt Fabric Delights - Australia, SA

Sew Bright Alpine Quilting - Australia, VIC

Simply Stitches - Australia, NSW

The Christmas Shoppe - USA

The Stitching Post - Australia, NSW

Quilt Fabric Delights - Australia, SA

Tranquility Crafts 'n' Supplies - Australia, VIC