Churn dash perhaps?

About a fortnight ago on one of my 'discover my new city' drives I visited Calico and Ivy, a lovely quilting and knitting shop in Mosman Park that has some beautiful fabrics including Liberty.  I told myself I was visiting to try to find just a little fabric for more of my hand pieced hexagons.  But despite my best efforts, (actually let's be honest no resistance was shown at all) a bundle of gorgeous brown, pink and cream found its way home with me.

While back in NZ I remembered I had a fat quarter bundle of English Garden Grey Abbey fabrics, so put this altogether with some natural linen from my stash and this is what you get....

One of the things I have been challenging myself to do for awhile is make more use of the pile of quilting books I have.  I am a big Denyse Schmidt fan and have spent much time pouring over 'Modern quilts: Traditional inspiration'.  I have adapted one pattern from this book already, the rail fence quilt I made for my Dad and blogged about previously.  And I have been thinking about making a churn dash quilt for some time....so I am thinking....

The final critical ingredient is my beloved sewing machine.  It is finally in Perth.  I bought it back with me this last week.  With the help of a very accommodating work mate, it was transferred on and off three separate flights.  Today I face up to checking whether it has come through undamaged.  Wish me luck.......

Liberty smocked childs dress 1968

My mother and my grandmother made every effort to dress us beautifully.

This blue and white liberty smocked dress was made in 1968 for my sister, for her second birthday party.  It is size 18mths - 2years and very tight fitting through the bodice.

I think this is where my personal love affair with Liberty began.  The fabric is so pretty with its blue flowers (I think they might be violets?) and so soft, yet extremly hard wearing as this dress has been worn a number of times, first by my sister, and later by other young cousins.

This is my sister at our combined birthday party, looking beautiful but slightly disconcerted, with her matching blue dolly cake...(check out the wonderful Mum's with their great 1960's dresses behind).

 

And here we are together.  I love the short hemlines that were standard for small girls in the 1960's.

My grandmother worked the embroidery on white organza across the front of the dress.  I adore this embroidery. It is worked in a single strand of DMC cotton so is very fine.  Five colours have been used; a soft green, mid blue, soft pink, bright pink and a soft yellow.

The pattern was her own and while it is repeated, the repetition is not exact so I suspect she repeated the second side by eye rather than working over a traced pattern.

My mother worked the beautiful smocking, which is repeated front and back in five different shades of blue.  The smocking is worked in three strands of DMC cotton and includes stem and cable stitch in various combinations.  There are 25 rows of smocking, with the back identical to the front.

 

 

 

The dress is front bottoning, although the buttons are simply for show.  It does up with a series of tiny hooks and handworked eyes.

The neckline and sleeve cuffs are trimmed with a purchased organza trim, edged in blue.

 

 

The back is reasonably simple, just the repeated smocking - no embroidery. 

 

 

 

 

 

The dress was made with a deep hem that has been let down in the intervening years, so it now appears much longer than in the photos above.

 

It comes with matching knickers, in the same blue Liberty, in case your wee poppet is active and wishes to spin around in her pretty dress.

 

WIP Latest set of hand pieced hexagons

It has been very quiet on the stitching front as I commute between Perth and Wellington, get settled into my new role and try to spend a little time with my family.  Oh and pack up my fabrics and sewing machine!

But I have managed a few more hand pieced hexagons...

My favourite in this group is the wee hedgehogs wandering in a circle round the brown gingham. 

Hedgehogs are one (of the many) things I am overly enthusiastic about!  They were introduced to New Zealand by the British in the 1800's.  However they were either not introduced to Australia, or did not survive, so they are one of the things I'll miss as we make our home in Perth.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the blue daises too, I was very careul to try and get the pattern perfectly lined up and I think it has been worth the effort!

 

 





 

 

It will be great to have my sewing machine with me in Perth, from now on, but with the ability to machine sew restored to me, this quilt might remain in the 'go slow' pile for awhile longer.