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Time to meet....my new design....

I love this design, I showed it for the first at the AQM in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and everyone loved it. The pattern is called 'Forest Friends', I made the pillow first which as you can see has some simple piecing, sweet applique with some of my all time favourite stitchery thrown in. I like the little possom with the gum nut blossom sweet, she turned out really well. I bet you have also spotted the printed ribbon I have used in the dragonfly square....its one of my new licensed products from the 'Wildflower Wood' collection.

Forest Friends Email Size

I loved making the pillow but I have also been wanting to make something to go into one of these new frames I have had made....they are so cute, so I adapted the pillow design and added some of my lovely handpainted in Australia buttons.....and I absolutely love the framed version, in fact we have put the picture of the framed version on the front of the pattern and the pillow is pictured on the back.

Framed Y381 email

The button painting girls painted some very special buttons to go with this new design. I cant decide which is my favourite, the toadstool is a mini version of the one we used for Fernhill but the owl and the spotted moon are brand new. The owl would make a nice brooch if you glued a brocch fitting to the back.

YB369 Owl Button

YB371 Toadstool Button

YB370 Moon Button

Did you notice the printed ribbon I have used in the dragonfly square on both the pillow and the framed version....its from one of my new licensed products from the 'Wildflower Wood' collection. There are 2m each of five different ribbons on the mixed printed ribbon pack and its in stock now.

Wildflower wood ribbons

Lots of stores around the world will soon be having stock of my licensed ribbons, braids and papers for papercraft. 

Forest Friends pattern can be bought here

The whitewashed timber frame can be bought here

My handpainted buttons can be bought here 

If you follow me on Facebook...the pumpkin soup we made for dinner tonight was delicious....

Enjoy Lynette 


Hexagon Tutorial...

Traditional English paper piecing (EPP) has grown so much in popularity in the last few years and although I have not made a whole quilt using this technique I have had fun using EPP on or for various projects that I have made. Here is one of the blocks from 'Stitched By Me', notice the little hexagon quilt that the bird cage is on :) its EPP.

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Another favorite of mine is 'Badger Cottage', where I joined hexagons to make the pencil case.

Badger cottage

'Chateau Hexagon', my new mystery button club which is due to start in June has as its name suggests both a chateau (house) and hexagons on it and I have had a few enquires about how to do hexagons not only for this 'coming soon' project but for projects in general. 

Chateau Hexagon Image WEB

So, lets gather our tools.

I am using some lovely milliners needles (they come in this cute container), a superbob of thread in a non descript colour so that it blends with your fabrics, scissors and a glue pen. I use a thimble but I forgot to put it in the photo in any case I was probably wearing it!

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There are two types of papers that you can use for EPP, the traditional paper ones which are reuseable or a new style that are made from water soluble paper. Both are fantatic products, the paper ones are more cost effective as they are reuseable but I am loving the water soluble ones as they make it so much quicker.

Both the paper and the water soluble hexagons come in a variety of sizes

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Today I am using the water soluble hexies...place them shiny (glue) side down on the wrong side of your fabric making sure there is enough room between each hexie for the seam allowance.

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Using a hot iron press in place, take care not too glide the iron too much as I found the little holes for the steam in my iron caught the edges of the hexies when I wasnt paying attention and distorted them...opps!

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Cut out each hexagon with a small seam allowance (scant 1/4" is fine)

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Put a small line of glue stick glue on the edge of the paper, this is the same for paper or water soluble hexagons).

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Fold edge of fabric over paper shape and press lightly with fingers so glue can hold in place.

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Repeat for next edge

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until all edges are in place.

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Prepare a large pile of hexagons and then you are ready to stitch. To begin take two hexagons and place them right sides together.

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Thread your needle and put a double knot in the end of it ...doing a whip stitch and catching only the tiniest amount of fabric stitch across the two hexagons. The long fine Milliners needle will really help you take those tiny stitches and because the needle is one thickness you wont be making gigantic holes in the fabrics.

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Keep stitching, taking tiny stitches, by the time I had got half way along this 1" hexie I had taken approx. 12 stitches. Of course you can do bigger or less stitches but they will probably show when you open it out and look at the right side and you may not like what you see!

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Here is my opened out stitched together hexagons, you can hardly see the stitches and so its worth using the superbob thread and Milliners needles.

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If you are using paper hexagons the papers will need to be removed but the water soluble papers can be left in place which if you are going to applique the hexagons (ie: Chateau Hexagon) onto a background fabric they certainly make life easier!

I hope this has helped, if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

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'Stitch It For Spring'....is here :)

After designing the fabrics there is a long wait first for strike offs (sample pieces) then months later after everything has been approved my advance yardage arrives and its time for me to play :) 

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While I wait for my play fabrics to arrive I do lots of drawing and stitching to prepare for 'the day'...

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I made little hexagons...

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stitchery was stitched for various projects that I planned to be in my new book...

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Vince and I had fun visiting lots of strange and interesting vintage furniture shops looking for just the right piece for the front cover, I found the perfect piece when I saw this old meat safe...the owners kindly said I could borrow the cupboard for the day :) I love its faded paintwork.

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 Special Cat checked it out when we brought it home and she found it comfortable! In fact she loved it so much she managed to get in the final shot that we used for the front cover...she is happy to be a cover girl!

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Felix liked it too...

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with photography day fast approaching I gathered all the samples and had fun collecting props that I hoped would work in the photos

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Fatcat liked the quilt I made, it was a good place to watch me from x

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we started bright and early one morning, here Sandra Faye my photographer is checking if the lighting is right for the sweet bunny tea towel..

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I pulled out my boys childhood rolling pins, some wooden spoons, my gran's whisk and my favourite Nigella egg shaped mixing bowls for this shot..

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we played with suitcases of various shapes and sizes trying to get just the right look for the handbag photo. The cute case on the top contains my mums first sewing machine,  it still works :)

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I knew there was a reason I have been collecting birdhouses for so many years! They were perfect for this picture...can you spy the little birds nest at the bottom of the very tall birdhouse, we popped some sugared almonds into it as they looked like little eggs and were just the right colours for the photo. I found the nest one morning when we were out walking with Hugo, its fragile but so beautiful.

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After we moved most of the furniture out, my whole sitting room was taken up with camera equipment. Its a good job we have such an open plan house! Here we are trying to style the meat safe ready to take the cover shot, as you can see there is alot of discussion going on about what the camera can see compared to what we can see.

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this was almost the way we wanted it...or was it????

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Are you wondering what the cards are that are pegged to the string line in the picture above? Well my very talented neighbour offered to play with the papers, pom pom, printed ribbons, pearl gems, stickers, organza bows and buttons that are part of the accessories collection that goes with Wildflower Wood for all the paper crafters among you. Just look at the cards she made for me...

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I am spoilt, all of them are gorgeous and all made using the Lynette Anderson Designs, Wildflower Wood collection of accessories.

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I could ramble more but I dont want to bore you. The exciting thing is that the books are about to arrive on my doorstep, maybe as early as Wednesday this week. You can pre-order a signed copy of my book here  now or for those of you who have already pre-ordered a signed copy of the book can start checking the mail box soon. If you pre-ordered or would like to pre-order the fabric bundle and a signed copy of the book you will have to be patient a bit longer as the fabrics are not due here until the end of May.

Anyhow here is the final cover of the book, I hope you have enjoyed seeing how we did some of the photogrpahy and a little peek at some of the projects inside.

Cover

  The templates are all full size in this book so you dont have to try to find a place to enlarge them before you can get started with your stitching, hooray....my publishers listened to me and to some of your comments about template needing to be enlarged being very annoying .

happy stitching

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New Button Club...

Chateau Hexagon Image WEB
How exciting!   It's time for me to tell you all about my new mystery button block of the month which I have given a French feel to through the design and also with its name :) I have to say that as I gaze at the quilt on the studio wall it is my favourite so far!

Hexagons
This year you will notice a slight price increase; over the years we have had many ladies request that the pattern be clearer and that the stitchery design not have something printed on the back which made it hard to work from.  To do this we are printing a proper pattern on our pattern quality paper. 

Things I can tell you:

The finsihed quilt size is 26" x 37", I have had fun using lots of yummy fabrics, threads and its all set off so nicely with our handpainted in Australia buttons. Each participating store has a swatch list of the fabrics that I used so they sould be able to help you with fabric selection.

Stores that are participating are listed here with a link to either their websites or their emails so be sure to rush to a store near you to sign up ready for a June 2013 start.

AUSTRALIA

Calico Crossroads  -   TAS

Esmes -  TAS

Hobby Sew Belconnen -  ACT

Little Quilt Store -  QLD

Patchworks Plus -  TAS

The Stitching Post -  NSW

Tranquility Crafts 'n' Supplies - VIC

 

NEW ZEALAND

Grandmother's Garden

Katipatch

The Country Yard

 

USA

Cinnamon's Quilt Shoppe 

Creative Patches and Sewing

Daisy Cottage Quilting

Red Rooster Quilts

The Christmas Shoppe

The Rabbit's Lair

 

CANADA

Traditional Pastimes 

 

UK

Coast and Country Crafts 

Cowslip Workshops 

Cross Patch 

Fobbles 

Quilter's Haven 

The Patched Pumpkin 

 

FRANCE

Brodibuta

La Petite Echelle

L'Atelier du Patchwork 

 

BELGIUM

Atelier Patchwork et Point Compte

Paprika Cotton

 

SWITZERLAND

Cotton & Color 

 

THE NETHERLANDS

De Lapjesgaard

Kwibbels

 

NORWAY

Quiltegaarden

 

SPAIN

Mi Casita De Patch

 

Im stitching chateau hexagon


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Enjoy Lynette