Welcome to Shiralee Stitches. I live on a cattle farm in Australia with my family.
I am passionate about all things fabric so much so I started my own online and mobile store. Link is on the sidebar to my store. I teach patchwork classes and take my shop to quilting and patchwork groups and also attend various craft markets.
I love English Paper Piecing, applique, machine quilting, working with woven wools. I have started making my own designs which I love.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Some "Wonderful" Progress.....

Oh Gee, if you've been following the Stitch-a-long quilts in progress, you'll know that Chooky, our 'supervisor' has been cracking her whip!!!!.........and I have felt the blows as I was way behind........so I have been working flat-out, but it's hard to speed up needleturn!!!!........lol...........

So here it is all layed out, my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt in progress, by Anni Downs.........
Not all the appliques are complete.........



...............notice the tree!!!......boy those flowers are fiddly to needleturn, so I seem to have left them for now and moved onto something speedier!!!!........lol........

I have a purse for shopping instead of chocolates, and wine bottle and glass instead of a chair, oh and shells for the beach in the foreground instead of a cat!!!!.....just a few altered blocks to make it more personal...........I'll take some close-ups soon, but need to move them to a better light for that.........

Visitors this weekend so must move it all shortly.......

Saturday 15 September 2012

Quilting with Gold thread........

For the first time, I am using a metallic thread in my machine to give my William Morris wallhanging a very rich appeal to it..........

 I had to buy one of these stands for the thread so it feeds off the spool properly.
I anticipated loads of problems, but having bought a good quality thread it's been a breeze and I'm very happy with the look on this project. I had a few breaks with the thread, but not many..........

I plan to sit and sew some more of my Some Kind of Wonderful blocks tonight, so hopefully there'll be a photo shoot tomorrow!!........I can hear Chooky's whip and it's making me move!!!....lol........anyone else finding the needleturn never-ending??????................enjoyable, but never-ending!!!


Oh, and one last bit of news from me........I have been having trouble keeping 'connected' with all my blogging and emails as life gets busy so have asked my friends how to overcome the issue........buy a phone that can help,or a laptop for portability???..... and from their advice, I now have a laptop on it's way to a local store for me (and I mean only me, no kids allowed!!....lol......as that's half the trouble, finding the computer free!!!!).....so soon I'll be joining the ranks of the multi-taskers.....cooking dinner as I check emails etc........can't wait to make better use of my time.......at present the computer is in a verandah room away from the central living area, so soon I'll have one close at hand..............

Hope you're having a great weekend.......

Sunday 9 September 2012

Out with the winter blues.......hello SPRING..........

The second half of winter has been one full of illness for myself and family, so bring on this lovely spring season, I say!!!!

Getting to the computer has obviously fallen by the wayside, so I hope to catch up with all the blogging news very soon. 

I have been busy working on a project I started ages ago........I had wanted to master applique on the sewing machine and didn't get off to a good start so it ended up in a drawer........well I have had a go......not sure if you could say that I've mastered the machining but I'm pretty happy with the results.

 The design is a William Morris inspired applique wallhanging from one of Michelle Hill's amazing books.
 .....a closer look at the blocks.........

 ........I have hand worked the flowers to add depth, and a touch of metallic if you look closely.......



..............I love the Morris designs, and have wanted to try one of these projects since meeting and watching Michelle in Sydney last year.......

............I intend to cross hatch the quilting in a metallic thread on the machine, fingers crossed!!!!!.........

Oh and along with lots of other bloggy friends I have just joined Chookyblues Secret Santa Swap for Christmas.....my second year.......I am so excited, I have been given a blogging lady from an overseas country to create a gift for, and somewhere out there in bloggy space, someone will have been given my name to make for me!!!!............hmm, now to visit the blog of my recipient to find out as much about them as possible so I can make something they will like.............see ya..........I'm off to 'lurk'....hehe.........