I finished ‘Stitching Round the Block’

Yay, all done & Julie’s little stitchery is back with her.

I added the last round to this panel.

Thank you Fiona, Julie & Vicky for playing along. & I’m so glad we all agreed to stretch our deadline. :-)))

Treasures

Emma came down on Sunday so we took a drive down to check out the Baxter Country Fair. We arrived mid afternoon but still had some lucky finds. There was a huge fruit & vegie stall where we bought some yummy stuff.

Next a used book stall where I found this!!

All 7 novels in 1. 1336 pages of sheer pleasure. I only had 3 novels as I’d only just discovered the attraction of Jane Austen last year.

Rowan picked up a couple of old LP’s & was very pleased with himself. I suggested we check out a nearby Antique store where he might find more. Rowan’s not keen on Antique shops, & I love them, so it was nice he actually wanted to go. He found a few more LP’s & I found this stunning tablecloth. It’s huge as you can see.
With drawn thread work & insertion lace.Beautiful appliqué sprays of roses. This spray of roses & insertion lace is on each corner near the hem.

Plus a soft pink appliqué border. All hand made!!!! Oh & in case you’re wondering how much it cost, I know I would be if it was on someone else’s blog, it was $24. Can you believe it!!!!!

Thank You

I followed your suggestions to enhance my Autumn mantle & here is the result.

I’d completely forgotten I had the perfect tealight holders in the cupboard & I bought a pumpkin to add.

The candles really add the warmth of Autumn colours & the pumpkin means chicken & pumpkin risotto will be on the menu soon. YUM. :-)

Autumn

Well I’m a little slow sometimes & I’d had in my mind my next ‘mantle’ would be for St Pat’s Day, then it dawned on me Autumn!!! Luckily I worked it out a few days ago, so I had some thinking & making time.

I wrote that paragraph before I checked the pictures. I’m afraid my thinking, & some of my making time, was wasted because the mantle looked, bad, lol. It may have been popular with young children but wasn’t the look I was going for, so back to the drawing board. Mark 2 is an improvement but I’m not wrapt. I do like the Autumn leaf garland I made this afternoon, but it just needs………. something. I asked dh to get me some sticks, I thought a vase of bare sticks might look good. Yeah only the sticks he brought back were 4’ long & more like small trees. Even after trimming we gave up on them. So I’m treating it as a work in progress. I’m thinking some pine cones would look nice & I’ve seen some on the side of the road so I’ll get some tomorrow. I had a gorgeous big basketful but some things just couldn’t be brought as we tried to cut down from 3 truckloads to 2 when we moved down here.

The lovely owl dh gave me for our 31st anniversary last year. Dd Emma painted the cute chook.

 I hate waste so I cut all the felt scraps into leaves to scatter.

The picture at the back is a quilt I’d love to make. I have the pattern, so maybe one day.

I enjoy Autumn for all the beautiful changing leaves but I’ve never enjoyed the fact that it’s leading to Winter. However, having already spent our first Winter in Melbourne, & finding that although it’s a lot colder than the Central Coast, having central heating makes it a lot more comfortable. Not sitting in one room huddled over a heater for months is great!!! So no more Autumn blues, I’m looking forward to lot’s of knitting & crocheting over the coming months.

If you have any suggestions to improve the mantle please let me know!!! :-)))

All Ready to Go!!!

I joined the Stitch-A-Long blog in time to join in with the Tis the Season project.

http://stitch-a-long.blogspot.com/

We start stitching March 1st so I’ve slowly been gathering things & making choices so I would be ready.

I’ve chosen my fabrics & threads & I’ve traced off my blocks for March. Of course it was a little tricky with Zaphod wanting to sit on the fabric & play with the pen as I traced. But we got there. :-)

I’ve gone quite colourful with my choices, both fabrics & threads. I’ll probably also make a red & white version. Bright reds.

I’ve enlarged the blocks to 5” rather than 4”. I’m now deciding whether to back the blocks with lightweight pellon or lightweight interfacing.

Looking forward to getting started. :-)

Colourful Friday – Black & White

Well ok I have to admit I have a distinct advantage here with both a black & white kitten, & a black & white dog. :-)))

Bookends, rather hard to see Molly against the black hearth.

Zaphod recuperating after his little ‘op.’ Molly kindly lent him the toy Santa brought her. He actually spent a few days in a large cage in our lounge room while he recovered. Wrestling with Molly was definitely off the agenda. They spent a lot of time playing through the wire & Molly laid on the floor next to the cage. Nights Zaphod sleeps in my sewing room so he had plenty of time & space to stretch his legs.

Now as my sewing room is black & white & aqua there were a few bits & bobs to photograph.

My gorgeous sewing room curtains!!!

  Boxes of ufo’s, there are tons more………

My passion for all things French shows through.

Mum sent me money for my 50th last year & what better than this great little sound system to keep me entertained. The little owl is my ‘stick’ with all my fave songs on it.

Molly ‘relaxing.’ :-) This was the day after she joined our family, I think she she felt ‘at home’ pretty quickly.

Byee from Molly & me!!

Please pop over to Daisy Quilts, the home of ‘Colourful Friday’ to see who else is playing this time.

http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/

Thanks Robyn!!!

Solved It!!

What to do with odd sox that are too good to throw out.

My feet are just as warm as if the sox matched.