Yes I am still alive !!!

I must apologise for my absence but the truth is I had nothing to show you.
My muse is still on holidays-heaven knows where-but if you see it please send it home to me I need it.
I think all the rain we have been getting has well and truly dampened my spirits (pardon the pun) but I have not wanted to do any stitching or creating of any kind.
I have been reading blogs but not commenting and I do apologise for that as well I just found it all too hard.
Hopefully I will improve in the future.
So here is a photo--not of me being creative but of the ladies who came to our second craft day at our church-there were 16 ladies who were doing a lot of different crafting and even more talking and the decision was made to run the group twice a month instead of once a month.
They are all so eager to get together and learn from each other it is wonderful.



This next photo is of two of the many magpies that call our back yard home.
Stephen and I were sitting in the kitchen having some morning tea and I noticed something move in the back room.
To our surprise two of the magpies had trotted in through the back door having a sticky beak and I suspect that they would have entered further if we hadn't been in the kitchen.
Would this be classed as a home invasion?
The one closest to the camera was having a chortle at us by this stage.



They then flew out into the back yard and had a bath in our bird bath----ahh what a life.

Well I will try and do something creative----soooon--but please don't put a time on it I would hate to let you down.

Quack Quack Quack !!!!

If this rain keeps up I will need to grow webbed feet.
We have had rain constantly for 5 days now and it is expected to continue for another week.
Our back yard is waterlogged as you can see by the pools of water around the shrubs and the mulch ground cover is about to float away.
The bird bath looks like a water feature at stages during the rain---enough is enough.


We have a group of magpies that come into our back yard to scratch around in the grass for grubs but lately they keep hopping up onto our back doorstep warbling away at us.
Every time we open the back door they run to the step I think they want to come inside out of the rain -they look so bedraggled I feel sorry for them.

I have finished all the stitching on my white embroidery that I did in Karens class and it is now being damp stretched ready to attach the border.

Hopefully I will be able to take some photos if the sun ever decideds to come out again.

On the Homeward Stretch

I can now show you where I am going with my cloth that I have been doing for the last 6 weeks in Karen's class.
I still have to do a lot more stitching to secure some of the things that are pinned on and also the joing seams need some stitching on them.
Karen has added Chinese knots and button balls and Rouleau loops around the edge of her sample cloth but I have decided to put a 2" border around mine and then I will do some embroidery in areas of the borders.
I asked my daughter if she would like the dangly things or a border and she chose the border which pleased me enormously because I had visions of me having to make dozens of those Knots and balls.
Here is a close up of the left side where you can see Susan's name in Cross stitch and I have a Rouleau cord with Knots tied in it that weaves it's way up to the top right corner where my name is.They are both anchored to the cloth through an Eyelet stitch that I made and the cord goes through the holes.

This is the right side that shows all the different techniques that I have used.

This is the top right corner with my name in Cross stitch and a few Hexagons pinned down ready to be stitched.

And the bottom right corner which was the last block that I made.

There are Hexagons.Eyelets,Spiders webs Lazy daisy flowers Hedebo rings,Running stitch,French Knots and on the right hand side there is a short row of Chain stitch then a row of white Chain stitch whipped with pink thread and the last one is Alternating Chain stitch using pink and white thread.

I feel like a surgeon always having to wash my hands every time I want to stitch but it is worth it in the long run.

Back to Blogging and Stitching

I didn't realise that it hads been over a week since I blogged--sorry.
My white cloth had a bit of a set back in-as-much as that I hit a wall--couldn't think of what to do-no inspiration at all.
Well I am glad to say that has passed and I am off again this time making hexagons.
I had made 5 of them in different colours and textures and then I thought that I would make one using French Knots-umm that looks good but now there are 6 of them.
I was always taught that everything is grouped in odd numbers to look good--what to do now.
Well I have started to do something else but you will have to wait and see what that isThe hankie corner in the top right hand corner belonged to my mother and the small section that is showing at the bottom left hand side is one of Stephens that I nicked out of the drawer-so Susan will have a piece of both of them in her cloth.
This section is part of the last block that I have to make and then I will add it to the others that are already joined together.
I can now visualise what it will all look like when it is finished.

The rest of my week has been spent playing with my new camera.

It is hard to get used to all the new technology that goes with something new.

But I am trying as hard as my tiny brain will allow me to.

I have a new toy

Yesterday I got myself a new camera and i am one happy girl.
I wanted a camera that would take good photos which I could put on my blog but I didn't want to have to sell the house to pay for it.
My old camera is an Olympus and I have always been happy with it but I felt that I should be able to take better photos.
We have done a ton of research on the web about different camera and other brands but I always kept coming back to the Olimpus.
Yesterday we received an e-mail from one of our local stores that they were having a one day sale so off we went.
I knew that I wanted a camera that had more zoom power than my older one so I was very happy when the salesman showed me another Olympus that had 10 x the optical zoom.
After he told me all about it I was sold.
Today I have been reading the instructions and clicking away like a kid in a lolly shop.
Anyway I took a photo of a vessel that I made several years ago with my new camera----




and my old camera-----

The true colour is the new camera photo----can you see why I am happy :}}}

Vintage Buttons

Yesterday I lucked upon these vintage buttons at my local op-shop (thrift shop) much to my delight.
They are a type of Dorset Button and they are very small--the tiny ones are 1cm wide and the bigger ones are 1 and 3/4cms wide.
The patterns on them are really beautiful and I hope that you are able to see them clearly.
The plain white one in front of the two apricot ones is all fabric--no stitching.
I remember seeing this type of button on very old nightgowns.

There hasn't been much going on in the embroidery scene around here for a while--things have just got in the way.

Ebony started high school on Monday --year 7 which has left me a bit emotionally drained.

Where did that little girl go-now she doesn't need me like she used to I feel strange.

I never felt like that with my own children when they went to high school and I really must get over it.

Yesterday I started up a craft group at our church for the ladies in the local area.

I wanted them to have a place where they could come and chat and stitch -knit or crochet and have a cupper and make new friends.

The area where our church is situated is not a very affluent area and some of the mums don't get out and about much so I wanted to do something for them.

I thought that I would get about 8 or 10 people along but was I surprised when we ended up with 18 people and what's more is they want to come back again.

Who's a happy girl now?
Oh and I forgot to tell you that I am better now-just an infection or two that really upset the system.

Thanks to everyone who has been worried about me--it is nice to have such caring friends.

More Embellishing

I haven't done much this week on my blocks in the workshop with Karen because I haven't been well-but after some blood tests that I had done on Thursday I hope it can all be sorted out.
This is the first block that I had done and I have added some running stitches across the lace doyley on the left to anchor it down and I worked my name in Cross Stitch across the top section. I have embroidered Susan's name on another block and the two names will be joined by a hand made cord (trailing between the two) which will have a heart button to anchor each end down.

I have added a small Cross Stitch section in the area just below the large daisies.

This block is now finished.

I have struggled to get my head around Cross Stitch mainly because I was working with white thread on white waste canvas on white fabric.

It all seamed a mess when I looked at it-but I persisted and I got there in the end.

My excuse is that I am blaming the needle- it was making all the mistakes not me :))