Something about my crafts...

As a Kiwi living in New Zealand, a major wool producing nation, I was taught to knit and crochet from the age of 4 years and was soon creating my own patterns, later developing a serious interest in advanced and ethnic techniques in both crafts. I learnt to card, spin and ply my own yarn from the raw fleece, then to weave on the rigid heddle loom. A variety of embroidery techniques captured my interest for a time, but then I discovered quilting. More recently I added an interest in beading as well.

These days, with my interests spread over more things, I spend less time with the knitting needles and crochet hook. It has become a trade-off now, and less time for those hobbies has meant that when I do knit or crochet, it is now just the natural fibres and more luxury yarns with which I work. Pure wool, mohair, alpaca, and various mixes of fine merino wool with silk, possum fur or angora. My favourite would have to be possum, a wonderful way of recycling an imported Australian pest that must be culled to prevent the devastation that it causes to our native forests and thus our native bird life as well. Possum fur is a hollow fibre, therefore light and particularly warm. It must be harvested by hand so that the fibres do not break in the process, and combined with wool for greater strength. That makes it expensive, but it is well worth the effort for a special handknitted garment.

It is said... "When life gives you scraps, make a quilt with them."
It is also said... "A blanket warms the body, but a quilt stitched with love warms both body and soul."

I was shown the first quilt I had ever seen back in 1990, and suddenly recognized who I was... a passionate quilter! There was no separation anxiety for me when my young son started kindergarten. Within minutes I was down at the local quilt shop absorbing one technique afer another, returning home with bundles of delicious fabrics to build my own quilter's stash. After learning traditional piecing, I discovered the creativity of needle-turn appliqué, and my quilting took a new direction.

The four appliquéd quilt blocks on this page show what can be done with a palette of wonderful fabrics. These are Jacobean fantasy creations, inspired by quilt book authors Patricia Campbell and Mimi Ayars. At the time the photos were taken, two of the blocks were basted but not finished. They are destined, with complementary appliquéd borders, to be assembled and hand quilted by me... er, in the fullness of time.

For needle-turn appliqué I find a toothpick is handy to turn under the raw edge while stitching each piece down with the tiniest invisible stitches and the finest silk thread. That perhaps explains what I am doing with a toothpick holder here on the same page.

My toothpick holder has been beaded with tiny glass beads using "One-drop Peyote Stitch" directly on to the item which was first covered with felt. The two tins (standing 2¾ and 5 inches tall respectively) in another photo help show the variety of patterns that can be created by this particular stitch. The little pincushion was made from an old wooden cotton reel for the base, finished with a dupion silk cushion on top. The little strip of beadwork at bottom left is a different form of Peyote Stitch as done by Native Americans, and also called Gourd Stitch.

For those who share my interests in quilting and beading, you may like to follow this link to where a number of book reviews have been posted on these topics. There is plenty of interesting reading available for these particular hobbies. And follow this link to where several tutorials have been posted. They will have you making your very own beaded pincushion, if you feel so inclined, even if you have never beaded before.