Rhododendron Trail and More Tags

This week I finished the main part of Bonnie Hunters Rhododendron Trail Mystery Quilt and the borders, and even managed to sew them on.

Today I spent the day sandwiching the three layers and tomorrow I will start the quilting.

I also did a few more tag in the 52 tags challenge. I decided tatting was too hard, and after three attempts I decided to make tag 24 the title tag.

Tags 31 to 40 are now almost complete, only 4 more tags to go.

32 is still to be made

And as leaders and enders I made these two blogs, and I've restitched the loose row.

Happy Link up Parties:

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday 

A Pageant of Finishes 

Peacock Party 

For the Love of Geese - Put Your Foot Down

Messy House: this week......

 

Yes, I finished the Destination quilt top - this photo reminds me I must start sewing the green themed Moda Blockheads blocks together. This will sit on my design board now until the New Year.

I completed part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt. 

I still needed the constant turquoise for the mystery so into Spotlight I went (before school holidays, and before the borders were opened) and not only did I find the turquoise, but a fat quarter I never expected to find. I'm making a baby quilt, and I have been since about March 2020. I ran out of the bike fabric, so needed to substitute eight sections with another fabric. It was all cut out ready to sew, and what do I find in Spotlight - the bike fabric I needed. What a wonderful surprise - and only $1!! Bikes are better than elephants, don't you think?

I also got stuck into catching up on the the 52 tags challenge. I learnt from doing Bonnie's quilts that one should do the most recent and catch up on what needed finishing later. I try to do that where I can, so here are the next lot of tags. 

21 - using bullion stitch. A new stitch for me, well a lot of the embroidery stitches are new to me.

22 layers of lace - using only what I had on hand.

23 Vase of flowers. I used a scrap of Tula Pink fabric as the vase. I think it looks good.

24 is tatting. Well...... I've tried it a few times and it just doesn't work for me - so this tag is STILL not done. I will keep trying though.

25 was weaving with threads. A fun tag but in hindsight I probably should not pull so tight.

 26 was halfway, and the prompt was medal. All of the bits used in this tag were given to me by an Instagram friend while we were travelling in WA. So very needed for this challenge.

 27 using beads. Who travels with beads???? I did pack a few sequins and seed beads but not enough to do a whole tag, so we visited some op shops. I did get a couple of bracelets in one shop, then a few days later found this necklace in another op shop in another town. Perfect.

28 was spider stitch. Another stitch I really liked. I also used felt as the background.

29 I didn't like at all, and I didn't have any 'ort' threads so had to use new embroidery floss. Ort = scrap of leftover. Who keeps leftover threads.....they go in the bin LOL.

30 was a brooch and I made two, one for me and one for my friend. Being November I thought it would be good to have a poppy brooch.

I have a few more, but will leave that for another post.

The plan next week is to continue to play catch up on the 52 tags challenge and focus-cutting sew-along. Also Part 3 of the mystery.

Link up Parties: 

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday 

A Pageant of Finishes 

Peacock Party 

Put Your Foot Down

Small Quilts and Dolls

52 Tags - 10 to 20.

Creating the tags for 52 tags Hannemade has been great during this trip. They have taken me out of my comfort zone in some cases and taught me some new stitches and techniques. Tag 10 was suffolk puff, a funny little gathered decoration.

11 was all about rings. Peter had some rings in his thingamajig tool thing, and I had a broken bracelet that I didn't want to throw out, so I created this. Could be a bear or an owl....

12 is blanket stitch - yay something I sort of know how to do. I thought the button fabric was perfect to make this tag.

Tag 13 was golden layers. I don't travel with much golden fabric, in fact I don't have a lot of golden fabric in general. I think I might have to add to this one when I get home, or to a fabric shop.

A place we have been, was tag 14. The first two months of our trip we travelled past many burnt landscapes. The colours were perfect blue sky and red soil, with the charred black trees.

This was followed by a tiny scape. I have been wanting to do a post card like this for some time, and a tag is just as good. Our van is no red with pink daisies, although someone said it could be LOL.

16 was seed stitch. I really liked this stitch and I really liked the effect of outlining the guitar button. I will be using this more often with different shapes.

Couching was tag 17. Not sure about this one. Couching is a decoration, but I'm not sure I would ever use it. Well, maybe one day.

Tag 18 was easy. I travel with paper pieced hexies, and make them out of left over fabric while travelling. These were out of my stash.

Words, tag 19, well I could have written any number of words, or phrases. I'm still working on doing even stitches.

Tag 20 was a stitch one, and it was pekinese stitch. Never heard of it, but it reminded me of waves, so I made this scene.

I still have a few catch up tags to do and as we will be home in the next week or so I should be able to catch up quickly. Well, I hope so.

Tags

Before we left home in March, I started #52tagshannemade sew along, or maybe it is a challenge ..... anyway I am really enjoying it. It is hosted by Anne Brooke, and she posts a YouTube tutorial each week. I had seen so many posts on Instagram and really liked what these clever creators were making. I was already about 10 weeks behind, and I wasn't worried as starting a road trip I thought I would have time to catch up. LOL!!! I haven't been too bad, but still have a few to catch up on. I did pack a box of bits and pieces before we left, -above - and a box of material, that I have used on other trips, and I'm sure will get added to.

I have enjoyed the stitches tags that are a feature every four weeks, as I don't know a lot about embroidery stitches. The last embroidery stitches I made were on a baby's dress for my cousin's baby, Emma - that was over 50 years ago - gosh I feel old!! I remember using pink polyester cotton fabric and embroidering the bodice. Any way I have enjoyed doing the embroidery weeks. I'm also not to sure what I will do with the tags, maybe use them as bunting in my sewing room. On the back of each tag I am writing where we are on our travels and any other info I think needs to be there.

I always have my quilting journal, and sewing kit, whether at home or on our travels.

I am only going to post the tags in order, so here is the first lot. Tag 1 was all about white .... well I didn't bring a lot of white with me so I embellished it with white buttons.

Tag 2 was heart. I love this fabric, it is one of my favourites. I bought it in the USA in 2010 and I'm getting to the last of it now. It has featured in many quilts and projects. The silver hearts are costume jewellery I got in a bulk lot a few years ago - glad to be able to use them.

Tag 3 took me a long time to make as I needed strips of fabric, and I wasn't prepared to cut fabric unnecessarily, so I started it and kept adding to it with scraps until it was finished. It took me over two months to complete.

Each 4th week is a stitch week. Tag 4 was fly stitch, and easy to do.

Tag 5 was all about kisses, and what better to do than X   X   X.

Tag 6 - buttons. How lucky was I to have button fabric? I will add more buttons as we travel and when we get home.

Tag 7 was hexagons. I really liked this one and will make some more, perhaps as poppies for Remembrance Day.

Tag 8 was french knots and this took me a while to think about. I had scraps of fabric in the caravan from two years ago and thought I would add apples to the trees and some flowers.

Tag 9 was bits and pieces, and I certainly have that. The tag was to include a gift and the the lovely 'you are loved' tag and heart was given to us at the 2019 Jumpers and Jazz festival in Warwick.

I have done many more, and we are up to tag 33, so a few more posts to go. Tag 10 is Suffolk puffs - no idea what that is, so off to You Tube I go.