Blue House Sampler Completed

This is a project that I have had a lot of fun with.

It all started with me very quickly tracing off a few stitcheries to take with me to the Isle of Man back in late May and early June.  I made a start while sitting in a church yard beside the race course.  I didn’t get a great deal stitched while over there and then gradually added a few stitches now and then once we returned home.

I finally completed the stitching earlier this month and initially planned to simply add a two inch border of blue fabric, as per the original pattern by Gail Pan.

However, for some reason I can’t remember, I decided that it would be a bit boring and started to wonder what else I could do with the stitchery.  Maybe a bag, or what about a more detailed mini quilt to hang in my sewing room?  That’s when I made a huge mess on the dining table, pulling out vintage trims, laces, various fabrics and had a general play.

At the end of that day I had this vague idea.

The size would be determined by the vintage coat hanger I wished to use as the hanger.  This has been waiting for the right project for many years.

Over the next few days I gradually added bits and pieces, just making it up as I went along. 

Let’s have a bit of a look to see what I used. Firstly, I added the fabric borders.  The floral fabric on the left is one I have had for many years, probably since the 90s, and I just use little bits every now and then.  Initially, I was going keep everything blue, except for the front door, but once I added this fabric it seemed to set the colour scheme for the project.  The stripe at the top is a scrap from my Blue Quilt.  It is actually joined from two pieces and I didn’t do the best stripe match, but decided to leave it.   The large blue piece of fabric is from and end of bolt I purchased for next to nothing at Spotlight shortly after I started quilting, so in the early 2000s.  It has been included in many of my projects over the years and has been so very versatile.

The linen that the sampler is worked on is an offcut from the Vintage Linens Quilt that I made a few years ago.  It even had a hand stitched hem at the bottom, which I left in place.  The pale green huckaback with the white crochet lace edging is the offcut from a hand towel, also used in that quilt.  The final offcut from the vintage linens quilt is the narrow crochet lace across the bottom of the sampler.  It only had about an eighth of an inch beyond the crochet, so I carefully hand stitched it to the linen hem and then did a stitch in the ditch by machine to secure it to the huckaback.  The ric rac is blue and white, which is rather unusual and was found in my stash of bits and pieces.

Decisions, decisions.  At this point I did add the two lace flowers to hide the ends of the narrow lace,  There were just the two flowers and a bit of a stem joining them, so they were perfect.  You can also see that I had added some decorative blanket stitch to the right of the flowers.

I had two pieces of this sweet lace edging and wanted to use one.  I thought it would go OK here, but that tape at the top didn’t look too good.

Maybe cover it with some little hexies?  Nah, it still doesn’t really cover it.

Then I remembered some trims made with a very fine silk ribbon.  There was a green one that may work.  It didn’t, the colour was too grassy green, but there was a very narrow trim with pink flowers.  That did work.  

I kept fiddling and decided that this would be my final layout. 

I thought I would attache the little fabric scraps at the top with decorative stitching, but it didn’t look very good at all, so was removed.  Simple running stitch was all that was required.

Once I had all the trims attached, other than the buttons, it was time to think about quilting it.  I knew I didn’t want a binding, as I wanted to have the lace edging on the bottom.  What to use for a backing?  I have a few vintage damask serviettes, so I selected one of those, opting for the one with the least distinct pattern and the thinnest fabric, as I was going to hand quilt it.  For the batting, I joined a couple of little off cuts.  Here it is, stitched on three sides, ready to trim and turn right side out.

Now it’s starting to take shape.  Thread basted and ready to turn under the bottom hem and then do the quilting and add the buttons.

This really has been a project of using whatever bits and pieces I had to hand, even down to some sewing cotton that has been hanging around for years to thread baste and using scraps of crochet cotton to do the quilting.  The blue was used around the stitchery and the cream for everything else.  The cream one came to me from one of my stitching friends when she was sorting out her mother’s craft supplies.  It’s nice to use it.

Not quite “Ta Da”, but nearly there.  That top right hand corner neeeded something, both to fill the space and to anchor it more for hanging.  But what?  Some boro quilting,  more buttons?  I needed to think on it for a day or so.  I thought about adding a small quote, but everything I came across was too long or I wasn’t fussed.  I didn’t want “Home sweet home” or “Home is where the heart is”.  

In the end I just stitched “Home” and a couple of hearts, taking elements from the sampler and added a border.  It is probably a bit larger than I would have liked, but I wasn’t going to redo it.  If I come up with something better, it won’t take much to remove it.  I also found a little pink bejewelled heart charm, so added that as well.

So, here it is.  Ta Da!

And the back.

Let’s have a little closer look at some of it.  You can kind of see the sweet little floral trim I added to the lace. The tiny hexies were made a year or so ago from scraps from my Splendid Sampler 2 quilt and have just been loose in a little baggie.  I still have a few more and plenty of more scraps.  The hexy flower was made at the same time.  The buttons are just ones I found in my button stash.  The two little blue buttons were just the right colour, so had to be included.

In addition to what I have already shown in the bottom section, the floral braid came from Mum’s stash.  She has some lovely laces and trims.  The buckle was in my bits and bobs.  I seem to collect old buckles.  The “JM” is French laundry tape.  A lady in France used to blog and she was selling it, so I treated myself.  

So, there you have it.  My little stitchery, traced off with no plan, just something to stitch, has ended up having a life of its own and giving me a lot of fun along the way. Added to that, it has even ended up being a sustainable sewing project.  

Fortunately, there was still one spot where I could hang it in my sewing room.  It suits the room rather well.

Cania Gorge - Part 2

It transpired that our first day at Cania Gorge had been the best day for Mick to take the kayak out. Overnight we had a shower of rain, followed by a nice clear morning, so there wasn't any moody mist. 

The weather was forecast to be slightly cooler as well, which boded well for our plan to do a couple of short bush walks.

Firstly, we would do the Dripping rock and The Overhang track.  We left fairly early and had the track all to ourselves on the way out, which was nice.  The walk is on the shaded southern side of the gorge, so has a lush landscape.  This is the most westerly rainforest area in Queensland.

The best thing was that once you plunged into the rainforest area it was all nice and wet, following the previous night’s rain.

Such a lovely walk.

The path was well defined, but I was thankful that I took the walking pole, as some of the steps were rather high for my short legs.

There were some huge trees along the way.  This one towered over Mick.

This is Dripping Rock, and yes it was dripping.  The ferns were so delicate.  We spoke to a couple of locals later and apparently we were fortunate to see it actually dripping.

We continued on our way and came to some hand prints on the sandstone rocks.  Aboriginals are believed to have lived in this area for about 19,000 years and there are sacred sites throughout the gorge.  However, these are not sacred aboriginal prints, or they would be fenced off for protection.  These are actually graffiti, particularly when they have someone’s initials written above the hands.  Such a pity.

You can see the towering sandstone cliffs on the opposite side of the gorge.  The track to the furthest lookout runs along that ridge.  No, we didn’t go on the 22km return walk.

I loved the natural colours in the sandstone on this overhang.

Finally we reached The Overhang.  Such a beautiful spot.  When we arrived a family was enjoying their morning snack, and once they left we had it all to ourselves for just a little while. The perfect spot for us to have our morning snack.  

We realised how special it was to walk out in the peace and quiet, as we met quite a few groups of people chatting away on our return walk. We still marvelled at the beauty of the place.

Next, we did the Dragon Cave and Bloodwood Cave walks.  These were on the western side of the gorge, so a much drier landscape.

The dragon is seen in the black markings at the back of the cave.  I suppose I could sort of see it.

And looking out from the cave.

We continued on our way to the Bloodwood Cave.

The cave is so named as there is a Bloodwood tree growing next to the entrance.

The entrance is quite low, but opens up inside.

And looking out.

For context, these are Bloodwood trees, so named because of their red sap.

Mick being silly.

I loved the huge silver elk horns growing on the rock faces.

How interesting.

There were also some colourful lichens growing on the rocks.

You are always learning something.

Check out this tangled vine.

After our walks it was time to return to the caravan for some lunch and a lazy afternoon.

Chooky just happened to be having a Zoom session for the day, so I sat out in the sun, watching the tame kangaroos, with a rainbow lorikeet for company and stitched some more hexies, while chatting with the girls.  You couldn’t get a nicer way to spend the afternoon.

The day was completed by another evening sitting around the campfire with fellow travellers.  Can you see the wolf in the flames?

Thus, our time at Cania Gorge came to an end.  It really was a beautiful place to visit and we have come away with some lovely memories.  We were back on the road the next day, travelling further north.