Stitch it for Spring...my book...

If you want a signed copy of the Book then visit our website, you can of course buy it almost anywhere, including Amazon! But it wont be signed and although I am happy to sign it for you should meet somewhere in the world I will be asking you for a gold coin donation to my favourite charity....guide dogs :)

This is the dreaming tree journal cover for which you will need a Bunny button and some ric rac

Emma's hands look so pretty in this photo :) 

We have the Key charm and the Plastic Domes available for you to make these projects.

I love my birdhouse collection and they came in handy for this photo, we have the Frame, buttons and ribbon available for this project.

Can you see the wonderful old kids rolling pins in the picture below, well they belong to my boys. They loved to help in the kitchen when they were small and the old whisk was my grandmas. This tea towel is simple and quick to make if you stitch it ona pre-made tea towel.

The sweet Wooden Buttons that I used on the tea towel come in a gorgeous packet.

The quilt (pictured below) which is from the book is now the proud possesion of my dear granddaoughter Elsie.

My favourite project is the handbag, I have never been one to want a fabric/patchwork bag but somehow the leather style flap and strap make it look like a 'bought bag', I know it sounds silly but I am sure you can see what I mean.

You can buy the Bag Flap and Straps which come as a set.

If the table centre piece is what you want to make then you will need the Bee buttons

Stitch Zakka

I was very happy to be invited to be a contributor in this new book by C&T publications. Stitch Zakka has 22 projects for your to stitch for some amazing designers around the globe, each project uses the very lovely Cosmo threads. Other designers include some very talented other Australian Designers including Natalie Lymer (Cinderberry Stitches), Leanne Beasley (Leannes House) and Rosalie Quinlan.

Here is my needlecase.....hope you like it, I have used fabrics from 'Hollyhock Cottage' collection but it would look really nice in bright fresh colours too.

Inside the needlecase there are sweet pockets where you can store the essentails....and I did a nice easy tie to keep the needlecase closed so everything doesnt fall out!

The book looks great although I was a bit sad as my little needlecase didnt make the front cover :( 

I have a few copies of the book for sale so if your interested visit here to Buy Stitch Zakka 

Workshop spaces available...be quick...

This time next week I will be teaching at Grandmothers Garden, Hamilton and in Otaki, New Zealand! I had a wonderful time there last August.....so many lovely and very talented ladies.

This gorgeous Candy Cane Angel table centre decoration (picture below) is the workshop project for Saturday 29th June in Hamilton or  Otaki (not sure of the date?). I am going to show two methods of needleturn applique (one of them is using the Apliquick tools) and some simple embrodiery stitches. Follow the link to book and for more information.

The Little House Block Book workshop is on Sunday 30th June and later in Otaki (not sure of date) its 18" square when finished and would make a lovely pillow. We will do some traditional English paper piecing, I will show two methods of needleturn applique and we will hand piece at least one of the Ohio star blocks. Follow the link to book and for more information.

There are a couple of places left in the workshops so if your tempted either register online or call Grandmothers Garden on +64 (0) 7 824 3050 to reserve your place.

Antique Angel also have a couple of places left for my one day workshops at the community centre Gerrards Cross, UK on the 17th and 18th August 2013. I am teaching the Little House Block Book (see picture above) and the sweet 'Dreaming Tree' journal cover (picture below) which is from my newest book 'Stitch It For Spring', I will show you that 1/4" hexagons are not as scarry as you think to make :)

Follow this link to learn more and to book.

If you cant make it to a class come and join me for an fun informative evening with lots of show and tell (my suitcases will be bulging) with my original samples to show and talk about. Learn how I got started in this amazing industry, where my inspiration comes from and for me how the process of designing fabrics 'happens'. If your coming I would love it if you could bring some show and tell of your own, I love to see things that have been made from my patterns or books.

Visit here to see what we got up to with Antique Angel during my visit last year :) 

Looking forward to meeting you for the first time and really looking forward to seeing my friends from previous visits (you know who you are x x )

stitching away...

I am alive and stitching! Its been a bit crazy here this week as we prepare for a photo shoot on Monday.....yikes thats only 2 days away.....

If you follow me on Facebook then you will have seen peeks at what I have been working on...

I love Sunflowers, they make me smile. I remember years ago taking the boys on a road trip, we wnt through a town called  Gilgandra and passed fields of sunflowers growing in the fields. Many years later on a trip in Europe we saw fields of Sunflowers....there were sunflowers as far as the eye could see.

So, the inspiration for these sunflowers in from my memories...yes, that is a sweet horse you can spy...

fabric feathers....they look intriguing dont they.....I am working with my October fabric collection which is called 'Mending Fences'

I love this brown print with the line drawings on it (it will come in other colours too)... my little Ohio stars turned out OK, I ddnt get all the points to match but hey I am looking for a nice look not perfection!

hmm...simple squares I can match the seams (mostly), think I can see a hen or two here as well.

 Well, I had better get back to stitching. I hope there is a good movie to watch, although these days I am not sure what a good movie is does anyone have any good movie suggestions?

Thread Give-away..

Last weekend we had a fabulous time in Sydney for the Australian Quilt market. I was lucky as Charles Parsons the distributor for my fabrics here in Australia let me have a nice display space on their booth.

'Love Letters', my new applique 9 part block of the month....I love this quilt...its a mixture of 'Hollyhock Cottage', 'Follow My Heart' with some greens and creams thrown in. The little hen quilt thats on the back of the bench is proving to be a very popular pattern too, its nice to hear that many people are growing thier own vegetables again and keeping a few hens again :)

Candy Cane Angels....coming to a store near you soon x

Self photography is never easy! I wanted to show you that parts of my hair are the same colour as Candy Cane Angels.

Remember the cruise to New Zealand that I am teaching on in March next year? Bookings are coming in fast and furious which is very exciting, thank you.

This is Michelle Marvig who is one of the other tutors that will be on board with me, Michelle showed me a sneek peek of one of the projects she will be teaching on board......its really nice.

Are you ready for a give away? I have one pack of my 10 favourite Cosmo threads to give away thanks to Lecien. Please leave me a message here on my blog (not on Facebook) for a chance to win.

Congratulations to Laila, please be watching you inbox for my email. Thank you for everyone that left me a comment :)

Time to reveal month 1....

What an exciting month its been, everyone around the world has been emailing me to say they have signed up to join us making 'Chateau Hexagon'... I am happy to show you what month one looks like. 

Isnt this first block adorable. I love how the combination of applqiue, stitchery and handpainted button really make the design stand out. I wonder if your button was painted by Joyce, Lyn or Katie?? (We are actively looking for another button painter so if you are in Australia, having painting skill prefereably done some folk art and are interested email us for more info).

If your not signed up for 'Chateau Hexagon' yet and wish you were then here is a listing of the stores who have told us they have a few places left, be quick so you dont miss out on making this gorgeous little quilt.

AUSTRALIA

Hobbysew Belconnen - ACT

Little Quilt Store -  QLD

USA

Cinnamon's Quilt Shoppe 

The Christmas Shoppe

Creative Patches and Sewing

Daisy Cottage Quilting

The Rabbit's Lair

 UK

Cross Patch 

FRANCE

Brodibuta

La Petite Echelle

 THE NETHERLANDS

De Lapjesgaard

One thing I wanted to talk about to participants about is the fabrics, I keep my supplies list to a minimum (call me mean if you want). So if your the type of person who cuts into the fabric without checking first I suggest you buy more fabric than I suggest. I have used fat eigths for this project (25cm x half width of fabric if your in a metric country smaller if you are in the US) so when you cut your background blocks, stop measure twice and cut once! I promise the two pieces can be cut from this size piece of fabric.

 As you know I love to keep this club a mystery so for all those who have emailed to ask how many hexagons should you make this month???.....I know your eager and excited but please dont try to jump ahead, I will tell you when the time is right!

My original quilt is back from the quilters....its so very pretty. I had to cut the buttons off for the quilter and tonight I am going to do the binding and stitch the buttons back on and then we shall pin it in the studio where everyone who works at Lynette Anderson designs can admire it everyday!

Its raining...so I'm sewing..

Its raining...... perfect for sewing and movie watching. Today I am also looking at my calendar and trying to work on a plan of action for the next few weeks! Its a bit hectic, next weekend we are in Sydney for the Australian Quilt Market (wholesale show), where we will catch up with friends in the industry and lots of lovely store owners. I hope I can make my booth look as nice as this one that I did in the US recently.

 One of the exciting things I am looking forward to in the coming weeks is visiting the Queensland Art Gallery one day to see the exhibition of Quilts 1700-1945 that include the famous Rajah quilt (picture below). The Rajah quilt is only available for viewing once a year so it will be the first time I have ever seen it:) The quilts will be on display from 15th June to 22nd September 2013. 

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The picture shown below is of a section of another famous quilt called " King Geroge Reviewing his Troops' which I think may also be on show (I'm gueessing it will as its picture has been used on the advertising material). Qantas magazine have a nice article of the exhibition in their onboard publication this month.

Wishing I could attend the fabulous weekend of stitching that Karen Styles from Somerset Patchwork is offering on the 29th and 30th June right here in Brisbane to coincide with the exhibition at the art gallery. Imagine going to the gallery with a group of like minded friends and then going back to the venue to stitch the weekend away while being totally inspired from seeing the quilts at the gallery and Karen and Sue's beautiful quilts! To read more about what Somerset Patchwork are offering follow this link.

Well its time for me to get to my stitching :)

Amazing foundation pieced pendants using my fabrics :)

I have been busting to show you the contents of one of the very exciting packages that had been delivered to my hotel in the US ready for me to bring home. 

Using a variety of my fabrics Julie has lovingly made using foundation piecing some more of the sweet pendants. Each pendant is unique, follow the link to go shopping for Handmade pendants

Julie has also made me some scissor fobs which are adorable. I found the funny scissors which dont really cut anything but look nice in the photo at an interesting shop in Portland called Cargo could have spent a fortune in that shop.....I did spend hours looking at all the wonderful 'stuff' they had.

We have some Scissor fobs for sale but not the scissors!

and on to Lethbridge...

What amazing scenery, I managed to take this photo on my phone as we sped along the road from Calgary to Lethbridge which is where my next workshop was.

Loved loved loved the colours of this building and the train carriage...something about the colours combined is very exciting although you are probably not going to see me using these two colours in my fabric collections anytime soon! 

This barn made us smile.....

We stopped and enjoyed a visit at Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump where we learned how the first nation drove the buffalo over the cliff edge as a way to kill them prior to harvesting the skins, meat etc.

We climbed to the top of the cliff where the Buffalo took a plunge, the weather was perfect and there was a marmot sunbathing on the rocks.

Not sure what these flowers are called (Butter and Eggs perhaps???) but they were everywhere.

We arrived at Chicken Feed Quilts where there were wonderful displays everywhere we looked...of my work :) How inticing does this display of my new Christmas fabrics look....

Loved this display showing, Four Seasons quilt and Welcome Home pillow.

Wildflower Wood my new fabric collection had arrived in time for my visit, thanks to the wonderful Gloria who works for my fabric distributors here in Canada. 

Chicken Feed Quilts have fat quarter, fat eight bundles and some kits to make 'Woodland Secrets'.

Jenn had made this cute doll using fabrics from Wildflower Wood and I have to say that I am very spoilt as the little doll came home in my suitcase with me :)

Look how pretty the refreshments room looked...can you spot 'In Full Bloom' on the wall.

we each wrote our names on the tag for our drink bottle...

The class room was spacious and  filled with happy stitchers.

The ladies all enjoyed using the Apliquick tools and loved how easy they make doing perfect applique, 

There is a tutorial here for these tools or perhaps you are joining me in a future workshop somewhere in the world so I can show you how. If you want to see where I am teaching visit here.

I had fun taking a photo of the ladies taking a photo of me!

We had a fantastic day together and Deane and her mum of Chicken Feed Quilts did a great job, thank you x

Road to Calgary..

As we drove from Edmonton to Calgary I fell in love with the barns and although we stopped alot of times for me to take a photo I got quite good at taking photos without us stopping. This one's roof was covered in lichen, it looked old and sadly abandoned.

The red barns were my favourite and I have to say I could have spent the whole day photographing barns, to have done that would have meant knocking on farmhouse doors to ask permission as most of the really gorgoeus barns were next to the farmhouses..next time we visit this area I will plan to go door knocking!

This old red barn was lovely and peeking behind it is a new bright red barn. I wonder how many years it takes for the paint to fade and crack from the new bright to the faded aged?

We also saw lots of these huge grain storage buildings....they are enourmous, we would have loved to have seen inside one to understand what goes on in there! This one was my favourite, as I loved the colour.

Having spotted this litte abandoned home we decided to walk beiskly down the overgrown driveway to take a photo...we ended up running due the the very large mosquitos....then as we got close enough for the photot the door swung open......and.....gave us such a fright as we thought there was someone home! But it was just the wind...or perhpas a ghost!

As we zoomed along the hwy I started noticing little birdhouses nailed to the tops of some fenceposts, we saw birdhouses, in all colurs and all designs but all of them were for a small bird of some sort. We stopped to take a photo of this one and when we got to Calgary I asked which bird they are for and was told they are for the bluebirds.

Just after the famous dinosaur town of Drumheller we visited this area where there are some Hoodoo's. They really were some of the mist interesting weathered rock formations I have ever seen. Just after we had climbed to see them the heavens opened and we got drenched in a very heavy rain shower! Luckily our car seats had heaters in them so we steamed ourselves dry as we continued our journey.

We arrived at Traditional Pastimes in Calgary, such a pretty shop which is filled with wonderful displays.

'Your Home Or Mine' was on the wall above the fireplace.

I absolutely love this colourway of 'Snowball Fun' and if you like it too Bernadette at Traditional Pastimes, Calgary has kits.

This lovely young lady, Ashley made the wonderful food for the ladies who attended my evening presentation. I have to say they were delicious and she had made tiny maccaroons.....mmmm

We had a great workshop the next day in the spacious classroom downstairs.

The ladies the first day were working on 'Little House Block Book' for which the store had made kits.

The ladies the other day started to make the 'Sewing Accessories Case', of course they have homeowrk and I am looking forward to seeing some photos when they are finished.

bye for now