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Marathon Australia Pty Ltd, 7a Ford Crescent, Thornbury (2026)

15/06/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

Embroidering designs featuring Zentangles

In May 2024, I wrote an article describing the Zentangle technique, here on my blog page. I have had an interest in Zentangles for many years. My local patchwork and quilting group held a workshop, inviting a local tutor to partake of a Zentangle
design class. The designs we experimented with could be free motioned quilted onto fabric.

Since that workshop, I have ventured into machine embroidery and have been thrilled to find digitized designs featuring Zentangle shapes.
I purchased a set of Zodiac Zentangle designs from The Accidental Embroiderer store on the Secrets of Embroidery website.
Over the past year, I have produced a number of birthday cards using the zodiac signs, but more recently I decided to make a couch quilt to add extra comfort on cold winter nights.

The sizes of the designs are only 6½” x 6½”, but I was able to enlarge each one by 20% on my embroidery machine without causing any distortion, making my embroidered blocks 10” x 10” which allowed an inch around the embroidery.
I combined 12 zodiac blocks with 13 machine quilted blocks - all using cream linen fabric.
The alternate quilted blocks were 10” x 10”. Cutting each square 10½”, I joined the blocks with a ¼” seam.
I intend to quilt the three layers of the quilt with ‘in the ditch’ sewn lines around all the joined blocks.

I have the blocks sewn together, but I believe a narrow and darker border needs to be added before a final cream border of around 2 inches in width.
This is where I am at this point in time. I hope to be able to share my completed quilt in my next posting

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

27/05/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

Muddling Along

I have come to the realization that machine embroidery and entertaining house guests cannot happen together! Something has to give and in my case the embroidery had to take second place. Very little has been achieved.

The quilt I discussed in my last blog has actually been completed and I am very satisfied with my work. It will be delivered to its recipient within the week, and I know she will be both surprised and thrilled.

Two May birthdays of close friends living in New Zealand inspired me to embroider two cards to send to them. One featured a beautiful Lady Slipper orchid and the second showed a nautical scene. I posted them off in my hand- made envelopes, in the hope that delivery will be before their birthdays.

Over the past couple of months, I have been attempting to replace my tatty old tea towels that I embroidered years ago with sassy kitchen sayings, with some new tea-towels using similar designs. So far, I have finished two. There are more to come.

Currently, I am seriously searching for Australian designs to embroider on something that will make a beautiful birthday gift for a very special American friend. I have searched the internet for appropriate designs and have considered Sweet Pea Machinery Embroidery Designs as well as BFC Creations. Sweet Pea have Australian birds and flowers that can be made into
table runners, and BFC have a “Windows of the World - Australia” wall hanging featuring the Sydney Opera House (without the Harbour Bridge), surrounded by Australian native flowers. The picture is impressive, but with a finished measurement of 18” x 24”, the wall hanging is too small to justify all the embroidery involved.
I think the Australian bird table runner has more impact and additional add-on bird designs will make the runner even more impressive.
This project is still in the thought phase of its development. Will I embroider all the birds? And what type of background fabric and colour will suit each bird? Also will I enlarge the designs slightly to produce a larger table runner?
I will come to a decision during the next couple of weeks and then will share my progress with you.

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

09/05/2026

Barb`s Embroidery Blog
A Simple Quilt Idea

Many commitments over the past two weeks have resulted in very little sewing time in my lovely sewing space.
I have however, started sewing a quilt for a very dear friend in appreciation of her services over the years. Having suggested my wish to make her a quilt, she requested simplicity with colour choices of mustard and grey tones. She would love a couch quilt that could double as a caravan bed quilt.

I have made similar quilts using ITH quilted blocks that I sewed together, placing binding strips between each block.
The upper fabric, wadding and backing fabric are quilted together and trimmed to size after the block is removed from the hoop.
Each block is then joined (backs together) and a binding strip is stitched at the same time as the blocks. The binding strip is then folded over the second block and stitched down to cover the seams.
Each horizontal row is joined in this manner. The rows are joined together with longer lengths of binding. Finally, the joined blocks are bound around the outer edges.

The quilt size is determined by the number of blocks and the size of each block.
My friend’s quilt has been made with 36 blocks each 10 inches finished - making it a 60 inch square.

Initially, I cut my fabrics and wadding 11 inches square, and binding strips 2½ inches wide which I pressed in half lengthways. Backing and binding used 4½ metres of fabric.
The quilting designs were from Kreations by Kara - Feather Quilt Blocks 10 x 10 inches.
In my large square hoop I placed the top fabric and wadding above no-show mesh stabilizer and the square of backing fabric under the hoop, securing it with a thin line of quick drying glue to hold it in place.
I trimmed each block down to 10½ inches square and used a ¼ inch seam to join the blocks. I did trim the wadding back before joining to reduce the seam bulk.

I regret to say I cannot show you the completed quilt yet, but I will in my next post.

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

19/04/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

Miracles do Happen

I have made some simple embroidered gifts to give to friends I am visiting next week.
My first project has been some embroidered glasses cases and I have been impressed with the professional looking finish of these. They were simple to make, using very little fabric and could be done quickly.

I also decided to gift some of my embroidered cards as they are always well received and appreciated. The recipient then passes them on to people who are celebrating special events.
This lead to my thinking how nice it would be to present the cards in their own pouch, something that could be stitched ‘in the hoop’ and hold around 6 cards and their hand-made envelopes.

I checked my ‘zipless’ ITH bag and pouch designs and could not find one that was the size to hold six cards and envelopes. The pocket dimensions had to fit roughly 8 inches square.

Looking through internet designs, I found what I thought was the ideal pouch design that was listed as a “Pouch Project 8 x 10” . . . . . Perfect!
Having purchased the design, I found the actual pouch only measured 5” x 7½”.
Nowhere did the design literature say this. The hoop they used measured 8” x 10”! Frustrating for sure. Oh well, I thought. I would try to enlarge the design at the embroidery machine, but that only enlarged up to 20%, not enough to slide in the 6 cards and envelopes.

Last resort - Use my digitizing program to attempt to enlarge the design before sending it to the machine. This was not quite as simple as I thought as the design had to be reduced to less than 50% to fit it all into the hoop frame on the program screen.
That’s fine if the whole design could be enlarged together, but
no, each thread change had to be enlarged. This proved inaccurate by 1 – 2mm, which meant the embroidery stitch-out did not follow the extreme edges of the design. The completing satin stitch edging showed frayed fabric around the outer edge!

I was not satisfied with the pouch finish to hold my lovely cards and decided the only solution was to wrap the cards with ribbon and tie a bow - really disappointing! I felt I had wasted many sewing hours over the past week.

Then bingo!
Heather from Kreative Kiwi, with no prompting from me, posted her latest design last Friday evening - an ITH Easy Pouch. It is a gem with 5 different quilting designs and a variety of different sizes.
It holds 6 cards and envelopes perfectly, with only one hooping and less than 10 minutes to stitch.
This proves that Miracles do Happen.

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

03/04/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog
Easter Greetings

I intended that my Easter blog would be posted a few days before Easter, but as we know, projects take time and sometimes time is in short supply.
My first Easter project was to make my usual Fabergé Easter cards and this year’s design is from the Anita Goodesign Online Set-Faberge Eggs.
I have mentioned in a previous article how much they are appreciated and saved by the recipients.
This year’s response was very positive.

I made some extra Easter cards using a few very special Easter designs, and these I will give to some young people with their egg gift.
I did use some really cute Easter designs to decorate hand towels as well.

Heather at Kreative Kiwi added an ITH reusable gift box to her extensive designs list, and I made a few of these boxes to present the eggs in. The base has a ‘box fold’ type closure, but I found it required something firmer, so I added Kam Snaps which made it perfect. A perfect box to hold an Easter Egg gift.
Using another beautiful Easter design of Kreative Kiwi, I made an ITH Stacked Easter Peekers wall hanging for a special little one. It is really cute and very easy to make, using the detailed instructions included with the pattern.

Some of the free Easter designs offered this year have been very innovative.
Sher’s Creative Space offered a ITH Chocolate Bunny Key Fob. I made three of these but found the double layer of leather used prevented me from using Kam Snaps to secure the tab, so I gently machine-stitched the key ring attachment
to the bunny fob.

I wish all the Marathon Australia embroidery enthusiasts a very Happy Easter, and if time allows, a productive embroidery and sewing experience.

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

21/03/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

More Cards

The past two weeks have again had their challenges, resulting in reduced sewing room time.
In a perfect sewer’s world there would be a lot more time for crafting, a fabric store nearby and regular, healthy sustenance appearing as if by magic! We all know this is an absolute myth, and so must manage our time and resources in the best way possible.

I have completed the embroidered lounge chair cushion, and I am thrilled with its impact in the room. I have also embroidered further single block designs from the Anita Goodesign Quarter Turn set, making them into greeting cards.
You will notice from the photos, I challenged myself to select different colour- ways for each block.

I am sure I am not alone, receiving daily embroidery company emails, urging me to buy new designs. I did respond to one of these sites recently - it offered sale priced dog machine embroidery designs. I was ‘bowled over’ by two designs, one a Dachshund and the other an Airedale Terrier. Of course, I purchased both and made them into cards. You will appreciate my purchase weakness when you see the photos.

With Easter closing in on us, I have been occupied digitizing and embroidering Faberge egg designs for the special Easter cards I give to family and friends. I started this tradition during our Covid lockdown period when contact with others was very restricted. I know the cards are very much appreciated still.

I plan to share with you my Easter projects in my next blog.

Until then,
Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

03/03/2026

Something Different

The past two weeks have been a little challenging at times, but I have still been able to complete some sewing and embroidery projects, but not as much as I intended.

In my last posting I mentioned that I was contemplating a project that was quite unique, more time consuming than difficult and sensational when completed.
I bought, years ago, an Anita Goodesign embroidery pattern called the Quarter Turn Quilt. Until very recently I had never really studied it.
A few weeks ago, I decided to stitch out a block. The pattern has 15 different block designs, all pieced and embroidered in ‘the hoop’. The instructions will tell you to stitch 4 identical blocks, then join them into one large block, turning each addition a quarter turn (90°) before joining them.
The amazing feature of this technique is that two totally different looking patterns emerge, depending on whether the block is turned clockwise or anti- clockwise.
I have included photos to illustrate this.
I believe there are many ITH quilt blocks that could be used to achieve this technique. Any block pieced in the hoop and then embroidered could be adapted - especially some of the crazy patchwork blocks.

Producing enough blocks to fill a quilt would be rather time consuming, however the quilt would be stunning. I decided four repeats was enough to make one block that would be a 20” cushion cover, and I wanted to try a different colour-way.
I am thrilled with the result, so much so I have decided to embroider sets
of greeting cards using a single stitch-out of the remaining 14 blocks.
Hopefully, I will have some photos to show in my next blog.

Another much simpler project I have completed last week was an embroidered Memory Quilt block for a special friend.
I am sharing the block construction with you all, as I think this is a fantastic and simple way to produce a perfect embroidered block.
-I was given a piece of border fabric that was to be cut into a 10” square.
-Background fabric also was provided for the embroidery and cut back after embroidery to a 5” square.
-The embroidered 5” square is to be placed in the centre of the 10” piece of fabric.
-The outer vertical edges of the large piece are to be pressed together through the centre of the embroidered square and each fold is sewn with a ¼” seam.
-The same technique is used on the horizontal edges.
The ¼” seams cover the edges of the 5”embroidered block and achieve perfect joins within the bordered block.
The block size can be any measurement so long as the embroidered centre block is trimmed to half the large square measurement.
This is a fabulous idea for a group quilt block.

I hope I have given you some ideas and inspiration to try these techniques.
Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

16/02/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

William Morris Inspired Cards

I mentioned in my last blog that I was very impressed with some of the USD$1.00 design sets on offer in the February Treasure Hunt on the Secrets of Embroidery website. I actually purchased some of the William Morris inspired sets for sale from the Accidental Embroiderer Store.

My plan was to use some of her designs to produce some gifting cards. To each selected design I added a quilted background and a satin stitch frame, so producing a “patch” that could be adhered to card stock.
I have made thirteen cards using these designs and I have also made my own envelopes from printed papers that are sold in 12” x 12” pads. The printed side of each sheet is folded inwards, and the plain white back forms the outer part of the envelope.
Using these cards, I have made bundles of 6 to 10 cards that I tie with ribbon and present to friends for birthday gifts or even as small appreciation gifts. They are always well received.

My next embroidery adventure will be to produce some appliqued and embroidered blocks that are turned 90º before joining to give a kaleidoscopic effect.
I plan to produce only four blocks that will be joined to make a cushion cover, instead of mass producing a much larger number of blocks to make a quilt.
The amazing element to this technique is the finished design of each four block union. It is totally different, depending on which direction the 90º turn is made.

An update on the Woodlands design baby quilt. . . . . . . . The baby
girl arrived a few days late, but she’s very healthy and well settled. The new parents were presented with the quilt and absolutely loved the designs used and the colours chosen. They were unaware the grandparents gifting the quilt had given me photos of the prepared nursery. From the photos, I was able to plan the quilt design.
I was sent a thankyou video from the grandparents and photos of the new parents accepting the quilt.
All together, a very moving event.
Until next time, happy stitching,
Barbara Rae.

04/02/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog

The Big Tidy Up

Isn’t it the most wonderful feeling to realize you have some “my time” following the completion of a large project. I have been dreaming of finding the time to act on my “big tidy up”, and I have achieved that over the past two weeks.
My storage space is organized and I know where everything can be located easily, and even embroidery threads have been restocked and extra colours added to my selection of spools.
I was also able to reorganize and back-up my purchased and free downloaded designs, deleting excess file formats and filing designs into folders that will make design choice very simple.

If you think my week was devoid of any sewing and embroidery, you have been mistaken. I can’t manage without some project already on the go, regardless of size. I felt this was the perfect opportunity to try out some of the freebie gifts we are offered.
I looked through the hundreds of file projects, “embroidered in
the hoop” on the Kreative Kiwi site, and with some simple digitizing efforts, adding words and already purchased designs, I was able to produce some small keepsake offerings.
I also had a couple of birthdays to acknowledge this
month, which resulted in two birthdays cards being produced as well as a couple of Valentine`s Day cards.

I would like to remind my followers that the Treasure Hunt is on again this month on the embroidery design site, “Secrets of Embroidery”. There are many digitizing stores that sell their designs on this site and they partake of the Treasure Hunt. There are hundreds of quality design sets being offered for
$1.00 (gold coin), $2.00 (silver coin) and $5.00 (diamonds). Take a look - you really will be tempted to add some to your design stash.

Happy Stitching
Barbara Rae

21/01/2026

Barb’s Embroidery Blog
Completing the Baby Quilt

I was delighted and relieved to tell you all that I have completed the baby quilt and have delivered it to the person who requested it.

I decided the quilt measurements would be 30 inches wide and 40 inches long, as the internal dimensions of the cot are 30 inches x 50 inches.
Intending to have a feature inner panel of 6 embroidered blocks, I changed my idea to 3 horizontal panels 9” x 18” with 1” border strips separating them and a final border 4½” wide consisting of mixed fabrics pieced like piano keys.

Deciding the inner border colour was challenging. Do I choose pink, because the baby is a girl, or green to blend with the nursery colour choice? I decided to use the green fabric - it enhanced the embroidery designs.

Despite the use of heavier stabilizer and batting felt to support the
embroideries, there was noticeable background fabric puckering due to the intensity of the stitching. Careful iron pressing did flatten the panels, but I decided to use a freehand small stipple quilting to cover the panel backgrounds. This worked superbly, eliminating all puckers and highlighting every embroidery design. The final border of piano keys was quilted with a freehand continuous feather design.

The piecing of the quilt was very easy, and I completed it with a binding, cut to a 2½” strip in the same green fabric as the inner borders.
I found applying the binding was easier on my hands to use the sewing machine. I used my ¼” foot, first sewing the binding to the back of the trimmed quilt, then folding it over and carefully sewing it down on the front of the quilt.
Hand sewing and resulting aches were avoided.

Now the quilt is completed, I am ready to start another project, but first I must do some New Year tidy-ups in my sewing room and restock some threads.
Happy Stitching, Barbara Rae.

Marathon Australia Pty Ltd

15/06/2026

27/05/2026

09/05/2026

19/04/2026

03/04/2026

21/03/2026

03/03/2026

16/02/2026

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21/01/2026

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