Australian Homespun — February 2018

RACHEL

ROXBURGH

THE HISTORY

OF MY CRAFTING

My earliest memories of craft in our

house was Mum at the pottery wheel.

She then moved onto weaving.

I remember thinking they were big

brown furry things but now I realise

they were works of art! The ’80s were

filled with Mum’s quilting and appliqué

and finally her embroidery. We were

surrounded! So how could we not

do something creative???

| 8-15 years old, I cross stitched –

loved going to the embroidery shop

with Mum and choosing my pattern

and buying all of the supplies.

| At school, I remember being

incredibly frustrated as I made a very

crooked pair of shorts. The sewing

machine was immediately put into

the too-hard box.

|I also did a little Bargello embroidery

and loved discovering new colour

combinations along the way.

|I studied at Sydney University.

Nothing creative there, but I did discover

a love of history and anything old when

I was travelling after uni. When I met my

husband, in Florence, I did a two-year

course studying antique trade and

marketing at Istituto Spinelli. I loved it

so much I cried when it finished. At this

point, no sewing was done. Too much

fun was being had living in Florence.

|One Christmas, when I was visiting

Australia from Florence, we decided

to paint a large canvas wallhanging (or

was it a tablecloth? Can’t remember.).

Anyway, of course, in a crazy yuletide

frenzy, we decided to set about doing

this one or two days before Christmas

and, therefore, had to paint well into the

night. I think we had to enlist my

brothers, as well.

| When my daughter was six months

old, I visited Sydney. Mum, Sas [Sarah]

and I made some softie rabbits. We were

supposed to make a couple each, but

ended up making 50! I wasn’t too crash

hot on the sewing machine – Mum and

Sas did most of that. This is a recurring

problem for us – we often decide to

make something, usually at the last

minute, and in large quantities.

| I really started sewing with the

machine in 2008. I bought lots of books

and patterns and figured out how things

were constructed.

| From there, I never looked back,

slowly developing my own style.

A tip from me:

Before embarking on any stitching

project, make sure that all your

fabrics are clean and ironed.

place the shapes on your block. Use

appliqué pins or a tiny spot of glue

to hold them in place.

17

Once you’re happy with

the arrangement of shapes,

needleturn appliqué them in place,

starting with the shapes that are

overlapped by others and working

towards the upper layers.

EMBROIDERY

Flowers

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Use an erasable fabric-marking

pen to copy the embroidery

lines (indicated by dotted lines) from

the Pattern Sheet on to your block.

19

Stitch the stems for the flowers

and berries in split stitch

worked in two strands of Ultra Dark

Beaver Grey (844). Work backstitch to

add veins to the leaves: use Medium

Forest Green (988) on the Fabric T

leaves; Bright Chartreuse (704) on the

Fabric CC leaves; and Dark Moss

Green (580) on the Fabric DD leaves.

fabric. The fabrics that Sarah and

Rachel used are indicated on the

Pattern Sheet. If you’re cutting more

than one shape from a particular

fabric, leave at least^11 ⁄ 2 in between

them. Cut the shapes out^1 ⁄ 4 in by

eye outside the lines.

16

Referring to the Pattern Sheet

and the photo of the block,

20

On the Fabric B fl owers, add a

series of colonial knots worked

in Very Light Aquamarine (993).

21

Add stamens to the Fabric C

flowers by working backstitch

and French knots in Cyclamen Pink

(3805). Add stamens to the Fabric E

flowers in the same way using Light

Apricot (3824).

Flower and berry detail

Butterfly detail

Homespun 33

HSP1902_p026-034 BOM My Butterfly Patch PART1 PROJECT.indd 33 12/11/2017 12:11:38 PM