Honnicraft

Baby Francesca

2012-02-14T17:59:00.001+11:00

This month we have had our granddaughter come to visit. Oh, her mum and dad came too. Since she has been here she has cut her first tooth and she has grown some hair. we are not sure if the hair is blonde or red, it is just fine peach fuzz at the moment. She is now 6 months old and learning to eat solids. Last week we had the Australian half of her naming day. Speeches were made and small gifts were given to go into a time capsule for opening when she is older. The English half of her naming day will happen some time after she returns home. They all leave us on saturday and we will miss them terribly. It has been a wonderful time getting to know and bonding with little Frankie. She has such a beautiful little smile when she sees you, but I suppose all grannies say that.

Baby 0047 Honnicraft 2012

2012-02-14T11:29:00.000+11:00

Included in this zip file is the year 2008, as requested by Rita from Designs by Cuties.

I realised I forgot to do a 4x4 version. So I have now added that as well. Enjoy.

Baby 0047 Baby-0047-4x4-hoop-jef

Baby 0003

2012-02-03T18:14:00.002+11:00

Click to Download .jef file

This design is for grandmasieg from Designs by Cuties.

Angels 0001

2012-02-02T10:16:00.001+11:00

Click to download

Penguin

2012-02-01T22:13:00.001+11:00

Click to download this .jef file

click to download this .jef file

Design Digitised by Honnicraft

Welcome to Francesca

2011-08-17T23:19:00.000+10:00

Joanna and Dom wish to announce the arrival of their beautiful daughter Francesca. born 12.54am, 12th august 2011. Seven pound nine ounces.

First grandchild to Leah and Phillip (maternal) and Felicity and Peter (paternal) .

Gus's new walking aid.

2011-04-10T11:00:00.000+10:00

Gus has hip and leg problems and can only walk for about 10 mins before collapsing. We have come up with a solution that works for all of us. Gus was very happy to use it when we tried it out ,,, and so was Billy.

Roly has gone home.

2010-12-01T13:13:00.000+11:00

I posted pics a few weeks ago of the new additions to our home. Well, the previous owner of Roly the poodle X rang to say her little boy wouldn't eat or sleep. She has had him to the doctor and they found out that he was missing his puppy. She was very upset but did ask if she could buy Roly back from us. Well, what do you do? They came to pick up Roly and he jumped straight into the arms of the little boy.
Soooo, Phillip bought me a new puppy. I have a 4 month toy poodle, Black with a silver snout. the vet said he is classed as a silver poodle and his colour should fade. He has no name at the moment.

Happy endings all round.

Full House

2010-11-16T10:15:00.017+11:00

Latest pictures of our animals.
Gus our standard poodle will be 11 in january.

Minnie the tabby cat, our 4 week old foundling is now 1 year old.

Sookie adopted six months ago will be 1 year old next in December.
Our newest baby which we adopted a fortnight ago is Roly an 8 month poodle X.

Quilt 25 Summer Time

2010-08-18T00:10:00.001+10:00

This quilt was made for Phillip's cousin's first grandchild. Her name is Summer Rose. I hope she it gives her many years of fun.

Basil 1996 - 2010

2010-07-28T16:21:00.001+10:00

Yesterday Phillip and I decided we could put it off no longer. Basil's poor little body could take no more, he was blind, diabetic, becoming senile and going bald. We took Basil to the vet and had him put down. He is now resting under a lemon tree in the back yard. My heart is breaking as we have had him for 14 years. He has always been such a funny little character, every morning of his life he greeted us with "rroooo rroooo". It was so quiet this morning without him nagging for his breakfast. I will miss my little shadow, he followed me everywhere

Jack's Story Time Blankie

2010-07-18T13:44:00.003+10:00

This is my latest quilt. I made it for my great nephew Jack, who was born on the 9th of may 2010. Welcome to the family Jack.

A New Addition

2009-11-03T00:30:00.002+11:00

We have a new baby. Her name is Minnie. One of the men from Phillip's work found her stuck in the mag wheel of a car and Phillip brought her home to me. We have had her checked out at the vet and he says she is in good health. He also says she is only 4 weeks old, fortunately she is eating solids so we don't have to hand rear her. Gus is very excited and just want to eat her. We are keeping her in the main shower alcove until she is a little bigger.

I saw this tree fall into the River

2009-03-08T10:09:00.002+11:00

Phillip and I were riding our bikes next to the Werribee River and heard a noise. In the space of a few seconds I thought "gunfire, no firecrackers" and turned my head to see what was happening. As I did, I saw this tree not 20 feet away from me, slowly fall into the river. It was quite sad to see this grand old tree now lying on it's side in the river. The attaced pictures are an indication of how bad the drought is here in Victoria.

Time Flies

2009-01-10T11:42:00.003+11:00

I am sorry I have been away from my blog for so long. Life gets in the way sometimes. Not a great deal to report, I did start a Yahoo group, but that is not working out the way I wanted so I think I might close it down. I have met a womon who makes quilts for people with cancer and I have made a few quilts for her. We took them to the hospital the other week and I found it a very emotional experience. I have also started aqua aerobic classes and am enjoying it very much. I went out and bought a bike last week so that I can ride to the gym instead of driving in the car. We don't live very far from the gym and I think the extra exercise will do me good. I gave up smoking in july and I have put on almost all of the weight I lost last year, so I need to lose it again and then some. Phillip and I joined the Colac Yacht Club last year and have spent quite a few weekends sailing with them at Lake Bullen Merri. It can be quite rough out there and I am not keen on it, but I will keep trying to overcome my nerves and learn to be a good sailor.
Attached is a picture of a table topper I made using Sue Box Designs.

Bargello Quilt

2008-05-15T10:43:00.009+10:00

I got the idea for this quilt from this site
http://www.quiltville.com/scrapbargello.shtml.
I also looked at the Amish Coutry quilt site
http://www.amishcountrylanes.com/Pages/hs608.shtml
for inspiration. I took a close look at the way the pieced their quilt and started from there using the scrappy bargello method buy adjusting the size of the strips to give an extra dimension to the quilt. I started my quilt early 2007, but puy it away for a while. A few months ago I purchased a quilting frame, so I had to get it finished so I could have a play on the frame. I made a miscalculation and it is a short king size quilt. It fits quite well on my bed but is a little short in length. I will be making some cushions to cover up the small gap at the top of the bed. It looks great and really brightens up the room. Gus, my official quilt tester loves it too.

Long Lil Doggie

2008-02-23T19:38:00.002+11:00

I made this table runner from designs that I digitized. I thought it was so cute. I am thinking of making some cushions with the doggie designs. I can just imagine the fun my friends childrens would have mixing up the dogs body.

Knight of the Dragons

2008-02-23T19:29:00.002+11:00

The designs for this quilt are from The Quiltery, an embroidery site with many different styles. I am a member of their embroidery club and the dragons are from the Ultimate Dragon collection. I have stitched all of the dragons from this collection but too many for one quilt so I will be making another one soon (I hope). Again this was finished just before the end of last year. I did free motion stippling in the sashes so as not to detract from the dragons.

All Dressed Up

2008-02-23T19:19:00.002+11:00

All the embroidery designs on this quilt were manually digitized by me using the Janome DigitzerPro software. I have it hanging in my sewing room and the colours are very striking. I am really pleased with the way the designs have turned out. I finished quilting it just before the end of last year.

Moonlight Bay Guest House, Ulverston Tasmania

2008-02-23T18:35:00.005+11:00

This is a great place to stay. The owners are a wonderful couple who go all out to make your stay comfortable. The room we stayed in was beautiful, well it wasnt a room it was like a one bedroom unit. There are three suites for rent as well as a communal living and breakfast area. There is also a spa room. The breakfast is silver service and Jeff and Christine wait on you hand and foot. The presentation of the breakfast room makes you want to eat everything in sight. All food is fresh and cooked by Jeff and Christine in the adjoining kitchen. If you are ever in the north west of Tasmania, Ulverston to be exact then a stay at Jeff and Christine's guest house is a must. Phillip and I give it 5 stars and will definitely be going there again. the photos are of the suite we stayed in and a view from the balcony.
Here is a link to the site where we found this wonderful retreat. http://www.moonlightbay.worldstays.com/photogallery.php?auth=
There are more pictures there.

The Steppes Stones

2008-02-23T18:23:00.003+11:00

We found this place by accident. It is like a mini stonehenge. Only takes a few minutes of your time to see but well worth the look.

Tasmania Day 2

2007-11-28T16:57:00.000+11:00

We passed through a town called Ledgerwood where they had a great memorial to their fallen soldiers of WW1. They had planted an avenue of trees as a memorial and a few years ago the council wanted to remove the trees as they were dying (I think). The community rallied around and arranged for the trees to be carved by a Mr Freeman a well know woodcutter. He gathered knowledge from families of each soldier and carved their particular tree to represent part of their lives. The pictures dont do the work justice, but it is a story I had to pass on.
We then went on to Lilydale falls, and it was absolutely beautiful.
At the end of the day we stayed at Saltwater Villas in Falmouth. We stayed ina beautiful secluded villa, simply and tastfully decorated. We had long walks along the coastline and went to bed completly relaxed.

Tasmania Day 1

2007-11-28T16:40:00.000+11:00

We have had a rough year and Phillip decided we should get away for a break. We went to Tasmania for just under a week. We decided to go across on the Spirit of Tasmanian ferry and take the car. We have been to Tas. before so we decided we did not need a cabin this time, we would sit in the luxury recliners at the back of the ship. BIG MISTAKE! The vibrations of the ship went right through me and I could not sleep. I tossed and turned all night and my legs felt like they had "restless leg syndrome". I could not get comfortable. I fell asleep about 3.30 and woke about 6am. Phillip and I were both exhausted and the whole day was a washout. We did some sightseeing and walking but we were so tired that all we wanted to do was go to the hotel and sleep. We arrived at the hotel early but they would not let us book in until after 2.30pm. After walking around Launceston (in a daze), we eventually booked in and I had a nanna nap. We went to a pub for dinner and had an enormous meal and then retired to the hotel to watch a dvd and bed. Phillip fell asleep half way through the movie. We woke up refreshed and after a big breakfast we were on our way to our next destination.
The first photo is of Brady's lookout and photo number two is of Cataract Gorge

Snowman Table Topper

2007-09-26T22:26:00.000+10:00

I have been absent from my blog for a while and that is because I have a new hobby. Maybe I should say that I have another hobby. A few months ago I purchased the Janome Digitizer Pro embroidery software. I have been spending that time teaching myself how to digitize machine embroidery designs from clip art. I did have one intense lesson with Lisa the local guru on this software, but since then I have been practising and experimenting. I think I am finally starting to get the hang of it. I still have a long way to go, but, hey, you have to start somewhere, don't you? Professional digitizers say they practice for hours everyday and even if they have been doing it for years they are still learning. I have digitized many designs but these are the first ones that I am game enough to show off. The earlier ones were not very good and I have actually deleted them from my files and intend to redo them another day. One of the things on my list of projects to do this year was a Christmas quilt. Well there has not been a lot of quilting going on lately and so I decided to do a Christmas table topper. The clip art is from www.designstitch.com. I love redwork and this collection appealed to me the instant I saw it. I decided to add some fills instead of leaving it all redwork. I think it adds that little bit of individuality.

Lots of photos, I know, maybe one day I will learn how to put them all together to save space.

This one is for you Jo

2007-06-01T09:53:00.000+10:00

Attached is a picture of a quilt that I made for my daughter Joanna. It was paper pieced and I used my EQ6 software to design it. Jo is living in London at the moment and I wanted her to have something special from me for those times when a girl just wants her mother. I gave it to her when she came home for a holiday last year and she promptly rugged up in dad's chair and fell asleep (jet lagged). This was the 7th quilt that I had made and my first paper pieced effort. I finished it in 2005. It is called "Slip on a Hug". It now resides in London with Joanna.

I love you Jo.

Glenn Harris Trunk Show

2007-06-01T09:17:00.000+10:00

On the 22nd of last month I was lucky enough to go to the Glenn Harris trunk show in Melbourne. Glenn had asked that we bring along items we had made using his designs. I decided to make up some coasters with his designs and while I doing this I thought I needed to do something more. I then began working on a quilt with his flower designs. The flowers stitched out beautifully and everytime I watched a new flower appear I was amazed at how Glenn had constructed his design. This man is an artist and if you ever get the oppurtunity to go along to one of his trunk shows you too will be amazed at the quality of his work. I find when I am making a quilt that I have the name going around in my head the whole time I am working on it. I tried to think of other names for my quilt but as is usually the case I used the name that had been in my head for the last week, Floral Glenn. I met Glenn and he kindly consented to having his photo taken with the quilt. Floral Glenn now hangs in my sewing/comp room.
If you are interested in Glenn Harris' designs, check out his website at www.glennharris.com.au

How many Apples in the Bowl

2007-05-14T09:13:00.000+10:00

I have an apple tree in my back yard that my sister gave me 14 years ago. It was a sucker from her very large Red Delicious apple tree. She told me that it probably would never grow fruit. I didn't mind I thought that maybe I would get some apple blossom on it. That was all I wanted. Her apple tree gives apples the size of coffee mugs. At 14 years old my apple tree is about 7 feet tall. Not very big at all. It gives me apples every year and they are tiny sweet tasting apples. There are 68 apples in the fruit bowl. As you can see from the pictures they are very small. The comparison photo with the champagne cork is of the largest and smallest apples.

Sebastian's Blankie

2007-04-28T14:46:00.000+10:00

My Brother and his wife came to visit this week and they brought their little Maltese/Shitzu cross with them. His name is Sebastian and he is so cute. He got along quite well with my dog Basil, but didn't care for our big dog Gus. I was cleaning out some cupboards and was going to take the blue blanket and put it in the spare room until I had time to take it to the op-shop. My sister in law Judi said it would make a good dogs blanket. So I said she could have it and I embroiderd Sebastian's name on it in the form of bouncing tennis balls.
I hope it keeps you warm for many years to come Sebastian.

The Tennis Ball embroideries come courtesy of Mountain Threadart http://www.mountainthreadart.com/

Quilting Sampler

2007-04-23T21:55:00.000+10:00

I have been asked, on occasion, if my Janome Memory Craft 300E is able to do the actual quilting or stippling on my quilts (those of you that quilt will know what I am talking about). A while ago I experimented with a quilting sampler and took pictures. I have already posted a pic on here (it's the pink quilt a few entries ago). I will now post some pics of how I did it so that anyone who is interested may want to try it this way. I know there are various ways of doing this, but this was my first attempt and it turned out quite well. I made a sandwich of the quilt block with some batting and an inexpensive stabiliser and placed it in the A hoop. After I had quilted each sandwhich I cut it to the required size and sewed it together (and left if for about 6 mnths) I then simply added the backing and used the stitch in the ditch technique to hold it all together.
I hope this helps someone who is new to quilting and their Janome 300E.

Another photo posted below is of 12 Days of Christmas. I used the 300E to quilt it after I had finished putting it all together. I found this very tiring as I had to hold it the whole time it was embroidering so as not to let the weight of the quilt pull on the machine. As it was some of the designs were a little distorted. I will use the quilt as you go technique if I decide to do it again.

My Sewing Room

2007-04-21T17:07:00.000+10:00

I had to take pictures to prove I did tidy it up once in a while.

While I am here,,

2007-04-17T23:09:00.001+10:00

I might as well include some old photos.
The "Land of Nuff" is made with Sue box Embroidery designs. I love this quilt and hope to make another one as I gave this away to a very special friend of mine.

"Tipsy Tarts" is one of my earlier quilts, I made this before I had any computer software to help me design or embroider. It was a great learning curve for me and will always hold a special place in my heart. It no longer lives with me as it has gone on to the home of a friend who inspired the name "Tipsy Tarts"

"Kaleidescope Kitty and Starbusrt", now belong to my two neices, Rebekah and Meaghan (if you are reading this girls, i hope they haven't fallen apart yet).

Wish List for 2007

2007-04-17T22:54:00.001+10:00

This is what is left from last years list;
5. Make a Christmas table runner.
8. Sew labels 1 and 2 onto respective quilts.
(Lable 2 completed November 2006)

This years list is;
1. Make a Christmas table runner. (Done 26th September 2007)
2. Sew label 1 onto first quilt.
3. Make quilt out of the great African style material my husband chose for me. (Used as backing for the Bargello Quilt I finshed in May 2008).
4. Finish the Castle wall hanging I started late last year.
5. Make a dog themed quilt.
6. Make a Halloween quilt.
7. Make and Australian themed quilt.
8. Make a quilt out of the bright cat material my husband chose for me.
9. Put the backing on a quilting sampler I started last year.(Completed April 16 2007)

Christmas Quilt 2006

2007-04-17T22:44:00.000+10:00

I have decided to make a quilt every year for christmas. Here is a photo of last years quilt. "12 Days" is machine embroidered and patch quilted. The embroidery designs are from Rose Cottage Embroidery. They sell their designs thru Oregon Patchworks, here is a link to their site http://www.oregonpatchworks.com/collections.php?id=RC.
I have no idea what I am going to do this year.

Tablerunner

2007-04-17T22:16:00.000+10:00

This is my latest project. It is a machine embroidered tablerunner. The embroidery designs are by "Kachi", unfortunately I cannot find a link to their site. I think it may have been disabled. As this runner is for personal use I do not think there will be a problem with posting a picture.

Quilt # 3

2007-02-14T10:37:00.000+11:00

It was time to master curves. the pattern is called "Drunkards Path". I found a similar quilt on the net and adapted my pattern from it. I thoroughly enjoyed making this and curves are not as hard to do as I thought. I gave this quilt to my son's fiance Lauren for her 22nd birthday. The quilt was finished in April 2005.

Quilting

2007-02-11T09:32:00.000+11:00

Quilt#1 I can do Squares.
I made my first quilt in 2000. I thought, "how hard can it be? Just cut up some squares of fabric and sew them together". Big mistake. I know it is not hard to make a quilt, but I did not realise the preparation that goes into it. I cut up heaps of squares and when I started to piece it together I realised that I would have to place them in a way that looked like there was some organisation to it. I didn't have enough of one fabric or too much of another to create a definite design. It took a while but I eventually got it too look OK. I quite like it now and it has become my husband's favourite quilt to put on his knees when he is cold or to sit under when he is not feeling well. I know most quilters will tell you to only use 100% cotton fabrics, (something else I didn't know), but this one is made up with polyester/cotton fabrics. It does the job.

Quilt #2 "I can do Triangles".

This quilt was originally started in 2000 but put away because I was having trouble lining everything up. I got it out again early 2005 and perservered until it was finished. Again there was no original design, just an urge to master the art of triangles. I used a mixture of cotton and polyester materials as I had not as yet accquired a stash of quilters cotton material. I have since accumulated a large stash of material that I don't need to go shopping for a while.

Why Honnicraft

2007-02-08T00:15:00.000+11:00

Honni is the nickname my family called me when I was little. I like the name and use it when making labels for any craftwork I do. Hence the name of this blog

My mother taught me the basics of crochet when I was about 11 years old. I made a pair of pot holders and never attempted anything else until I was about thirty.

The first picture is an antimacasser I made for my father about 1996/97. My father has since passed away and it now lives on a chair in my lounge room. One day I should make a matching one for the other chair.

The 2nd picture is the tablecloth that never was.

I started to make a tablecloth, but the bigger it got the longer it took. Each medalion took 45 mins to make and the last row I did took over 1 hour. In the end, after spending over 100 hours of work on it, I decided it was a centrepiece. I think I started work about 1988 and finished about 1990. Obviously I wasn't working on it constantly.

That is all for tonight. I will try and transfer some more info over tomorrow. By the time I have finished doing that I might have some new work to show you.

Honni