Stitching Therapy!

I really have been trying to get back here and update my blog, but life just seems to be so busy all the time.
My patterns have just gone crazy (thank you so much to everyone who has bought a pattern) and my work at the shop My Patch is so much fun, but even though I only work 2 days a week, I am finding it so hard to stop and take a breather. I'm sure you know what I mean :)

So it was a bit of a forced break for me this past week when I was back in hospital yet again for some more surgery on my knee (this was surgery number 4). Anyway, things went well and hopefully it looks like this is that last one! YEAH!! I'm a bit slowed down being on crutches so I've found some time to do a bit of stitching for therapy :)

When I was at the Sydney Trade Show a month or so back, I spotted this beautiful Block of the Month project, designed by my awesome publisher Helen Stubbings of Hugs and Kisses and Colourque fame. So when I knew I was going to be in hospital for a few days I prepared a heap of blocks to take with me and I actually got a lot of it done!

The project is a Wallhanging designed to be like the samplers of old that our Mums and Mums Mums used to make when they were kids. I thought It would make a really nice heirloom project to leave for my children, to commemorate my love of fabric/stitching/Quilting. :)

 It includes all the important dates in my life, like my birthday and marriage date.

 Some Needleturn which I'm soooo happy with!

And some lovely poetry. There's also lots of 1/2" hexagons which I'm really enjoying doing!

So there we go, I have finally shown you what I've been up to.

Oh I nearly forgot, in my spare time ;) I've started selling some Plus Size Bras on ebay :) I got a bit tired of frumpy and plain and boring bras, so I went searching and found some really gorgeous bras and started importing them.

I think I'm on a winner because they are selling like hotcakes and I just put in another order, so there will be more to list in about a week. So if your interested head over to my ebay shop, Beautiful Big Bras theres nothing under a 16C.

Hugs Paula xxx

Lots of stitching and a giveaway

Last Saturday I took my beautiful Mum in to work and we had a brilliant day finishing off some quilts we were making for the shop. This is one of them, Designed by Zan Taylor this is the Alpha Beezy Quilt lots of applique but this is a really great fun and pretty easy quilt to make!

 I've been telling you about the kids school holiday workshops that we are holding in July, well this is one of the projects that the 7 - 10 year olds will be making. Its a little pincushion that is also a bracelet. The kids can take the pincushion part off if they like and can just wear the bracelet.

 They will also be making this needlebook, they will learn to gather ribbon to make a flower, they'll be sewing on a button, they'll do some hand stitching and will even have a go on a machine! Should be a fun day!

 These are both of the kids projects, perfect for beginners too, they give you a taste of lots of different styles of stitching, we'll be putting kits together soon.

Valerie at My Patch (my work) is having a giveaway on her facebook page. If you'd like to win 4 Fat Quarters of my favourite range, Sunkissed by Moda, (the fabrics I used in the cushion in the picture) head over to the My Patch facebook page and click 'like'. When we get to 65 likers Val will do the draw.
Don't forget to tell her I sent you :)

Hugs Paula

A sneek peak and the kids workshop project

I have been working away and have almost finished my next pattern, YEAH!!!

So I thought I'd give you a little sneek peak.

Huge Thanks goes out to Nan (my mum) for doing the amazing embroidery!! She is so incredibly talented!

I've also been working on the kids workshop projects, this is what the 11 and ups will be working on.

I made this gorgeous little cushion with the amazing Sweetwater range from Moda. I am so addicted to this range and I think I really need to make a quilt for my bed with this range, it is just so stunning.

Anyway if you or your kids are interested in joining in a workshop on the school holidays give Val a call at the shop on 02 4455 4087.

Hugs Paula

PS. I'm looking for some test sewers of my next pattern. If you have young kids (0 - 2) could you please email me or leave a comment on this post with the age and gender of your kids and I will get back to you soon with the details. paula.storm@gmail.com

What should these become?

I gave you a sneek peak the other day of some more of my little tweeters and when I finished stitching them I thought I should give you another look.

My idea was to combine some old fashioned crewel type embroidery with applique in a new funky way. Then I threw in some pencil shading just for fun :)

The original plan was also to make this into the front panel of a bowling type bag to use for toiletries, but having finished the embroidery I'm not so sure.

Now I'm thinking a needle case or a book cover or something similar.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts....

On the baby front,my Blood pressure is still up, but we are trying to make it to 38 weeks so its bed rest for the next week. Ho Hum, lucky I have a comfy bed :)

Till next time,

Hugs Paula

Some questions for you...

Well what a surprise I got the other day when a beautiful email found its way to my inbox. It constantly amazes me that I can sit here in my little house with my comfy little quilt over my knees (yes really :)) and have people from all over the world buy my patterns and then love them so much that they change them to suit themselves!
Jutta from Germany made these awesome Tea Cup Carriers. I just love the way she changed the second one. That African fabric is just stunning! Don't you love it!

What Have I been up to? Well even though I have been really quiet on my blog, I have been tearing my hair out trying to get my to do list done. I have 2 advent swaps to get finished, a pattern to write for my free pattern for the Gum Tree designers blog and I have been commissioned to do lots of projects for Express Publications. They are the makers of Handmade magazine, Patchwork and stitching magazine and Country Threads among many others.

I am so excited and can't wait to see my first project published in the Handmade issue that hits the stands in December. Keep an eye out for it.

What else have I been doing, well I am about to start on the free projects that my sisters from under the Gum trees have offered so far. I think I will make two of each so I can give them in my advent swap, I've also been drawing a few new things for the magazines and wishing my voice would come back :) I lost my voice a few days ago and actually its not been too bad. I haven't got the head cold, just no voice, so I have been able to sit down and get some stitching done. Unfortunately it is all secret at the moment so no pictures just yet. :) sorry hehe

A few questions for you:

What are you up to at the moment?

I'd love to know what you like to receive in your advent swap... do you like all handmade stuff or supplies or chocolate? This is my first advent swap as part of the Australian Yahoo group SCQIS... so I'm a bit nervous and want to get it just right.

till next time, hugs P xxx

I Love Mail! Gumnut Babys and a Canvas work Pincushion

I'm sure by now you have heard of the Gum Tree Designers and the Among the gum trees blog, if you haven't you must have been hiding under a rock! These 8 other women that I have joined are the most generous, genuinely caring beautiful people I have ever met! As an example This is what turned up in the mail for me a little while ago, just because she saw some fabric that she thought I would like!!

I was recently commissioned to do a version of my tea cup carrier for 'Homespun Magazine' Yeah! Super excited! Anyway its for their Going Green issue and so Dawn found some beautiful 'Green' fabric and she thought I'd like it so sent it to me, but not just that, this amazing little tin full of beautiful buttons! I love then they are so cute! Thanks Dawn, I Love You, sis!Other stitching news I drew up and stitched out these 9 cute little gumnut babys, theres a story behind it I'll tell one day, but I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to put it on.... What are your favourite projects that you love to make?

And finally today, I promised Hubby I wouldn't be on the puter this weekend, oops :) You may remember I went to a Sewing day a few weeks ago and this was one of the projects we did, I finished up while I was watching the Rugby League Grand final (trying not to cry ;))
I just love it, thanks for the pattern Fiona. Fiona is my Embroidery groups Leader and a lovely Lovely person. Her blog is here. If you like embroidery, Fionas Blog is so full of inspiration, you will need another cupper!

Today is the day!

Well the day is finally here!

We are so excited to announce the launch of our brand new blog Among the Gumtrees!


In a (gum) nut-shell, this it’s what we’re all about:

We are a group of Australian designers who love to share, so we will regularly offer FREE designs for you to use for your personal use. Aren't we nice :)

Among the Gum Trees is the brainchild of Jenny of ELEFANTZ, who has brought together nine established and emerging designers to offer something new and exciting to the world - their own original designs – free of charge!

Free of charge?! Are we mad?! Well, no we’re not insane, but we do affectionately refer to each other as “the nutters”, and we look forward to sharing our designs, our news, and our ‘nutty’ journey with you through the gum trees!

Starting on Monday 5th October and each Monday for the next eight weeks, there will be a FREE Christmas-themed DESIGN for you to download. (feel free to grab this button for your blog).
Then after Christmas, we will be giving away a free design just for you every month! You will get a free pattern from each designer, in turn. So, one free design every month for you to use for your personal use, but thats just from the 'Among the gum trees blog', become a follower of each of our blogs because we regularly give away free patterns, just because we can. :)

So if you want to check out our new blog you will get a quick run down about each of us, and if you click on our pictures you will find a full profile about each of us, so you have lots of reading to do today, you can also check out our blogs by clicking on the buttons on the 'Among the Gum Trees' blog.

As well as the free designs, you will also receive monthly news from our 'Head Nut" Jenny and notification of all new for-sale pattern launches. The only thing we ask of YOU… is to please spread the word! Let’s see how far those gum nuts can fall from the trees!

Because we are a generous bunch of nuts, we are EACH HAVING A GIVEAWAY to celebrate the launch of Among the Gum Trees. And you can enter them all! But because we have become so good at teasing… we will be launching our giveaways tomorrow!!!

So in the meantime please start spreading the word and add our ‘Among the Gum Trees’ and 'Christmas Freebie' button to your side bar of your blog!

Part 2:

Now onto the other exciting news from me today, I am launching my Block of the Month, 'Life's a Hoot'.

My BOM will work much the same as most others in that my designs will go up for free in the first month and then will be available in my etsy shop if you miss any. The difference with my BOM is that I want you to have time to finish your project in time for Christmas, so the first block will only be up until the end of September, with block 2 coming out on the 1st of October.

'Life's a Hoot' is a 4 part BOM and so you will get the last piece of the puzzle on the 1st of December, so if your a quick worker you can be finished in time for christmas. You will have finished a really cute wallhanging with 4 Owl Stitcherys! Here is what 'part 1' looks like..

I can't wait to see what yours looks like!

Just click on the photo to be taked to my site which is home to all my free patterns. There you will find 3 files, Part 1, is your embroidery instructions and some helpful tips for beginners, you'll also find the pattern and your fabric requirements.

I'd love to know what you think, so leave me a message. If you are interested I will also set up a Flicker page for all the 'hootin good projects' hehe.

So was it worth the wait? Grab a coffee because you've got soooo much to see today! Don't forget to come back tommorow for my giveaway!

Tease, Tease, Tease Its so exciting :)

I actually got out of the house over the weekend, Mum and I went for a drive to my favourite fabric shop to pick out some fabrics for the BOM.

Here's just a little teaser for you:

Hope that wets your appetite, and gets you excited about it.

"Give me a home among the gumtrees" sorry that songs just been going through my head for days :)

Ok so the BOM start date is not too far away now, still a surprise because it will be launched at the same time as..... oops I forgot, it's a secret hehehe.

Free Embroidery Teddy hug pattern Hug Swap

Ok So following on from yesterday, as promised here is the second embroidery pattern for the Hug Swap. I had so much fun designing and stitching these up and they were so quick to do! I had them finished in 1 day each!

And here they are together all finished and ready for me to send off to my swap partner. Oh I forgot to mention yesterday, I have always avoided Metallic threads like the plague because they shread and are generally just a pain in the neck to use, but I wanted the fairy wings and dress and shoes to sparkle so I gave it a go, one little tip I have is to use a massive needle! I used a needle which is about the thickness of a tapestry needle, but it has a sharp point. I don't know what size it is I'm sorry because I got it in a pack, but the pack was a Milliners needle pack sizes 3/9 and it was the second or third biggest. It does make big holes but as long as you don't need to unpick your stitches, you should be good because the holes close up enough to be invisable when your finished. I hope that makes sense and I haven't confused you greatly.

All this giving has put me in the giveaway mood, so I'm thinking about doing a free Mystery BOM. What do you think? Do you want it to be a mystery or would you like to see the whole project first? The other question I have for you today is would you like it to be put into a quilt, a wallhanging, something else or just the Owl designs so you can do what you like with them?

Also on a really happy note, I got an email yesterday from the editor of Handmade Magazine and my Sewing Machine cover that I designed and made for Jenny's August Challenge will be featuring in the Mothers Day issue next year! Yeah!! I'm very excited! I also have my first project coming out in Handmade in December's Kids Special! I'm feeling a bit special *BG*.

Till next time, Hugs P xxx

Hug Swap Free Embroidery Fairy Pattern Giveaway!

I have decided to join Jenny of Elefantz in her Hug Swap!
You can find all the details on Jenny's Blog, just click on this picture!


It's a fantastic idea and so I decided to design my own patterns for it and offer them to you for free. The first of my designs is a little angel, who works in the Hugs Department, which of course is always open. As this design is for Jenny's swap and she loves her roses I decided to put a few of them in too. This design is for the gorgeous little Mug Hug that Jenny and Vicki from Tozz's Corner designed for the swap. Jenny has a full tutorial with photos on how to make it on her blog.

I have another pattern for you tommorow for the Mug Mat, I just have to finish the stitchery. This time some gorgeous litle teddy's, so make sure to hit the 'follow' button so you don't miss out on it. These patterns will only be available until the end of the swap and then will be available from my etsy shop.

I hope you enjoy my freebies!

Hugs Paula xxx

Sewing Machine Cover

I Made it! YEAH!

I hope that I made it in time, but I have finally finished my Sewing Machine cover for the Elefantz competition

I have been trying to get this project finish for sooo long and today I'm sitting here with a big grin on my face, because I finally have that sense of achievement!

I'm especially proud of myself as I had to teach myself how to use my left foot to sew, and my quilting lines are really quite straight! Surprise Surprise! hehehe

I sat at the sewing machine most of the day yesterday, to get it done. It was really uncomfortable as you can imagine with my leg the way it is, but I had to take my mind off things, because both my Mum and my Husband were stuck on the other side of the bushfires on the south coast of NSW in Australia. Thank goodness my hubby got home safe. Mum decided to stay up there until it was safer to drive home. They were stuck in Ulladulla and we live in Batemans Bay.

Anyway, here are my pictures for the competition, just click on them to be taken to Jenny's blog, there are some awesome entry's in the competition to give you some inspiration.

Do you like the whole I made for the handle? I was quite impressed with myself! hehehe I really really really want the win the book!! :)

Thanks Jenny and Cheryl I would never have finished this if it weren't for your competition!

A new Applique Cushion by Bareroots

I have been very slack with posting lately, but it seems like I have a dozen things on the go and just never seem to get anything finished! It is very frustrating, because I love that sense of achievement I get when I finish a project.

I have been trying to turn my Spring Garden pattern into a Sewing Machine cover (I changed my mind) for Jenny of Elefantz' competition and with two days to go, I don't think I'm going to make it unfortunately, I find it very difficult to sit at the machine for any length of time as you can imagine.

Are you like that? Do you get a real buzz when you finish something, but feel down when you don't get anything finished? Maybe I need to spend a day making pincushions so I feel I've acomplished something.

Anyway, here is the cushion I finished yesterday. It's from the Bareroots book Pretty and Cozy. I don't like how the red heart shows through the white heart, next time I will reverse applique the white heart. Also the pattern has a severe lack of photos, making it a challenge to follow the pattern at times.

Wool Felt Kits by Annie Downs

I'm so excited, I've been wanting to mess around with wool felt for ages and so I got onto The Home Patch and ordered these.

Hubby just called and they arrived this morning! Yeah Looks like I'll be making christmas Baubles this afternoon. I also ordered the little pincushions, the lamb one, a ladybug and a chicken, I also got some extra wool felt so I can do some of my own designs (look out for some more freebies soon). I'm so excited, as I mentioned I just love Annie Downs designs.

Free Embroidery Applique Pattern Spring Garden

Ok friends here it is

It is a very rough pattern, but as so many of you wanted it, I didn't want to make you wait for me to draft up a better copy, so it is just a pencil drawing, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

I used 2 embroidery threads throughout and the stems are worked in Stem stitch as is the tail of the bird and the second flower, the swirly one. For this I used an opalesent thread from DMC, while the dragon fly and the running stitch inside the last flower is worked in Rayon. It just gives a bit of shimmer when the sun catches it.

The embroidered flowers at the bottom are just lazy daisy stitches with the pink one having two rows, the first longer than the second and the middle filled with french knots.

So there you go, I hope you all love it and please send me pictures if you do use it, it gives me that warm fuzzy feel to know that people are enjoying my art.

hugs Paula x

Cushion it is!

Wow I am overwhelmed by all your lovely comments!

I will definately be sharing my pattern. I have sent my pencil drawing home with my sister and she will scan it for me, and after she emails it to me I will clean it up for you and then put it up as a PDF.

I'm so gratful to Jenny for sending you all over, I have been a fan of her blog for quite a while, so to feature on her blog makes me feel all funny inside. You know that feeling you get when you feel like a little school girl! hehehe I feel very special, thank you Jenny. After all she was the inspiration for my stitchery. I really love the way she combines applique with embroidery, (Annie Downs does this too, another of my favs) so this was my first attempt.

You all have been so kind that you have inspired me to give it another go, so stay tuned for another pattern soon! all your ideas for projects has my brain swimming with ideas! Lucky I brought my sketch book to hospital.

I really love Judith's comment about it reminding her of 'spring' so thats what it will be called. Coming soon, 'Spring 2' or maybe 'Winter' or 'Summer' or 'Autumn'.

Thank You all, I truly appreciate ever single comment, you have all made my day!

Hugs Paula

Oooh by the way, because I'm in hospital for a little while longer, I have sent 'Spring' home with my Mum, she is going to make it into a cushion for me, so hopefully I will have pictures in the next few days.

Free Sleepy Cat Embroidery Pattern

Yeah I have finally worked out how to put up my PDF patterns for you, so you can download them for free. I blogged a while back about this little pussy cat cushion, it has a secret pocket. I was going to sell the pattern on etsy, but decided that I have received so much help in the way of free tutorials and the like that I need to give a bit back to the blogging community. So if you like this, please feel free to download it from here and of course please let me know what you do with it! I'd love to see pictures!

I might add a tutorial when I get out of hospital. I have the instructions written, but I don't have any photos. Do you want the instuctions without photos for now or would you just rather wait for a proper tutorial? let me know in the comments. :)

Heres a picture of the secret pocket, sorry about the pic, this is from my old camera.

Please leave a comment if you have the time, it really makes my day to find someone has left me a comment, and it lets me know I'm on the right track of what you want from my blog.

Star Chrismas decoration / Ornament mini Tutorial

I had some fun yesterday whipping up this cute little star decoration. I think next time I'll use 2 threads of DMC though, the embroidery is a bit too hard to see.

I forgot to take a picture of the back, it is also a red star, but I left it blank except for the running stitch around the outside. I'm going to embroider the year, or my name, or I'm thinking about using it for an advent swap, so I might put some details of that on it. As you can see, I'm still very undecided.

This is how I made it:

I drew a star on template plastic and cut out my template. I used this to cut out two red felt stars and I just eyeballed cutting out a white star 1/4" bigger, but you could use a second template or even a cookie cutter, your choice.

I embroidered a lazy daisy flower with a swirly stem, two lazy daisy leaves and some french knots in each point of the star.

I attatched seed beads in a rough star pattern in the middle of my star using sewing thread, It is much stronger than embroidery thread!

I took my blank red star (if you want to add a date or name it is easier to do that now) and attatched it using running stitch to the white star. Make sure it is centred! Before stitching down the top point, add a loop of ribbon to hang your star. I added a few quick stitches with my red sewing thread that I still had threaded from the sead beads, before the running stitch went through both the ribbon and white star.

Next I took the embroidered red star and attatched it in the same way, using a running stitch but make sure your needle only goes through the top red star and the white star! You don't want a double row of running stitch to come through onto the back.

And thats it! Easy peasey!

What should I do with this?

So I've been working on this for sometime now and am finally at a stand still. I just don't know what I want to do with this cute little embroidery. Actually its not so little about 12-14" Wide x 10-12"high.
I'd Love some ideas, and I think I will put the embroidery pattern up as a freebie if anyone is interested.
If you want me to put up this and other free patterns, just leave me a comment!

Any ideas would be most appreciated and if I get an idea from you guys that I like I'll make up a tutorial too. Sorry I haven't got an iron here, I'm very embaressed about the state of this...

Hugs P

*UPDATE*
Hi Ladies, Due to poular demand I have put the pattern up here. Please keep commenting, I love to hear suggestions for future projects. Go to the main page for more project ideas!

Hugs Paula x

My Mushrooms, embroidered christmas Decorations

After posting the link for the little mushroom house pin cushion / decorations I thought I should show you my effort. Isn't it cute! and So much fun to make!

I made this one in my hospital bed between physio and all the other that you endure in hospital and it only took me 1 day, so really easy too!

I must admit, Mum did do the machine stitching for me. I have brought up most of my stitching equipment, but I think the nurses would be a bit miffed if I brought in my trusty Janome. :)

Ooh I wanted to mention too , the hexagon I showed you the other day, and again above, was actually designed by Gail Pan, who is amazingly talented! Check out her blog for some free patterns, just beautiful. She's offering a free BOM. Don't miss out it's stunning!
I just checked Gails Blog to get the link for you and I see that she is releasing a book! I'm very excited, I have been a fan of her work for quite sometime, Check out the cover here!

I also forgot to tell you that I gave my sister my credit card yesterday and asked her to go and buy me a decent camera, I'm sick of the quality of photography I've been subjecting you to. This is what she came back with! As you can see from the above photos, I've been having fun playing, but I really should get the manual out and read it. hehe.

I've been going on about being in hospital, so I thought I'd better show you why. This is a picture of my brace that is on my leg. It is worth $26,000 AUD would you believe! It is to support my knee while it heals. You can find the full store here. It will be left on for at least 6 wekks and as long as our prayers work and I don't get an infection will be on for up to 3 months. The surgeon says I will probably never work again, but hopefully my knee will be more stable. All I want is for it to be strong enough for me to be able to take my kids to the beach next summer. Thats my goal! Anyway, this has got to be my longest post ever, but I wanted to show you a picture of my DH and my baby boy, this is one of the first pics I took with my new camera.

Anyway it is getting late, so I best turn off the light before the nurses start giving me funny looks. :) The other night when I was still stitching together my hexagon at midnight I was getting some very interesting looks from the night staff, wondering what on earth I was doing. hehe

Hexagon Embroidery

I have had a little bit of stitching time today between Physio and other things (I made it up and down the two steps in Physio 3 times! Only a few more times and I might be able to go home!).

Anyway, it gave me the chance to start and actually finish a hexagon, it is part of a quilt that my embroidery group is putting together to raise money for cancer research.

Fiona from Peaceful Threads put together the pattern and supplys for us, and we just had to stitch up our hexagons. I hope you like it. I think it came out great, especially for my first hexagon.