Not much happening here....

Things are quiet here at present as it is a long weekend for Anzac Day so I thought I would show you a photo I took today of Ebony and her Mother.
They are both standing barefooted and as you can see Ebony is nearly as tall as her mother.
Ebony's mother comes from Kenya and she is very petite and at the rate Ebony is growing she will be taller than her mum before long---she is already wearing her mums clothes.

Doesn't this colour of pink look great on both of them.

A Very old UFO

Before I got married 48 years ago my mother and I were embroidering a tablecloth together.
I can still remember us sitting at the kitchen table stitching away on opposite corners of the cloth.
I have carted this unfinished treasure to seven different houses in 3 different states of Australia.
Many times I have thought that I would cut it up and make something out of it :- O
Something always stopped me -maybe guilt- maybe fear-maybe my mother was watching me from above-who knows.
Anyway my daughter Susan asked me at the weekend if we could finish it-so I pulled it out of its bag and we inspected it to see what we could do.
I don't have the original threads anymore so matching them could be a problem.
Two of the corners are completely finished and the third one only has white Flannel flowers left to do so that won't be a problem and the fourth one only has a few bits done on it and these can be removed if necessary.
Here is one finished corner--the desighn is Australian Wildflowers.
I can't believe at twenty one I was doing such even stitching.






This is the unfinished corner--------

And in the centre there three different designs and they are all finished.

One---------

Two--------

Three--------

The cloth has not discoloured it was always this dark cream colour but it has a few aged marks on it.

I have a friend who is an antique needledword dealer and she is going to have a look at it for me to see if they can be removed without damaging it.

Now to make it a fourth generation stitching project Ebony wants to stitch on it as well.

A definite family Heirloom---all we have to do is like the Nike ad says-just do it.

Everything Old is New Again

We have had Ebony staying all weekend and yesteday my daughter came down to show her a dress that she wore to a school formal 33 years ago when she was 15.
Ebony asked if she could try it on and believe it or not it fit her perfectly except for the length which was ankle length on her.
I can't believe that it fit Ebony so well seeing as she is only 10.
You can tell by the look on Ebony's face how she feels about it.
It is a beautiful cotton dress with tiny straps and embroidered flowers on one of the ruffled sections.



The back is shirred---

Um --do I detect a modelling career?

A close up of the skirt.

My daughter has carted this dress around with her since she joined the army at the age of 17 --to 6 different army bases and when she left the army and came back to Canberra it still travelled with her.

She has told Ebony if she would like to wear it to her end of the year school social then she can.

She also brought down with her two vests that I had made for her at the same time--and I thought I was a hoarder.

Fibre Fever Round Two.

I have joined the second round of the Fibre Fever 6" fabric page swap that started this month.
We had so many people interested in the swap this year that Ati had to divide us into two groups.
We have some very interesting themes in our group and I am looking forward to interpreting them each month.
My swap partner for April was Kath from Crete and her theme is Ancient Symbols.
I searched the internet to find a symbol that I thought would be appropriate and I decided on this one.
Seeing as April was Easter and that Kath lives in Crete what would be more appropriate than the Christian symbol the Chi Rho which is the first two letters in the word Christ in the Greek alphabet.
The background is purple silk with the X and P in gold and there is a gold cord around the edge.





My theme this year is "The country you live in" which I chose because there are a lot of ladies of different nationalities in my group and I hope to learn something of the country that they live in.

My first page came from Ati who is the group leader and lives in Norway.

Her page is beautiful and is full of Norwegian things.

Firstly the background was knitted by Ati and is the hand section of a mitten-- the section on the right hand side is the palm bit and the left is the top of the hand (does that make sense).

The red/white and blue ribbon is the ribbon that they use to celebrate Norway's national day.

The buttons are from Norwegian cardigans and sweaters and there is a small Norwegian pin in the bottom right hand corner.

But the thing that I really love are the skates and as Ati said when she was designing the page, the winter Olympics were on and what better thing to make than skates.

Her husband made the blades for her and then she croched the boots.

Aren't they so cute.

I am not sure but I think that Ati has croched the edge around the top and right hand side border as well.

What a way to start my new book--thank you so much Ati I absolutely love it.

This year will be very interesting indeed.

The Big Reveal part two

Well today I opened the other 3 bundles that I had hanging from the trees.
As you can see one of them has some strong colours on it.

The first one that I opened was the one that was stained and I was pleased with the results.

The plant life had eroded a bit and the bottle tops had rusted and the papers were moldy as well.

This is another view of the first bundle---

The second bundle was even better--there was plenty of discolouration on everything---

Again another view of the second bundle.

The third bundle was even better as the magazine papers and other text pages had passed their stains right through a lot of the fabrics etc..

You will notice that at the top of the bundle there are a lot of black stains that have come from some of the printed matter and also a teabag.

A second view of bundle 3.

I am swapping one of these bundles with a friend in the UK--she is sending one of hers to me and I will send her one of mine.

I will have to remove the plant life etc from the bundle before I send it or it won't even leave the country because Customs will confiscate it.

Now to create a work of art :-}}

Erosion Bundle Big Day

Today in Australia is the 15th of April-the day I am allowed to undo my Erosion Bundles.
But seeing as the people on the other side of the world to me are still on the 14th April I decided to only undo one of my 4 bundles and leave the other 3 for tomorrow.
Three of them are hanging from trees but this one was buried partially in the garden.
After I had buried it I noticed a lot of ant activity going on in the vicinity of the bundle and I thought that I must have disturbed an ant colony but I decided to leave it there.
Here is the bundle after I had buried it back at the beginning of January

Well I was right because when I dug up the bundle this is what it looked like.

It almost fell to pieces in my hands and I had to unroll it very carefully.

This is the front of it-----

---and the back still covered in mud and dirt.

I am holding it open here so that you can see the start of the inside of it.

--unrolled a bit more--at this stage it is now in two pieces and we are getting into the centre of it-----

--a bit more---

--and the very middle of it.

You can see here a tea bag completely rotted away and some mouldy and rotted papers
with some tree bark.

I am really pleased with what I have ended up with but there is one major problem---the smell.

My husband said "You are not bringing that stinking thing into the house! "
I would love to mount it as is onto a piece of driftwood or something similar but then what?

I suppose I could hang it in the garage but he who calls the garage his will still complain about the smell.

Maybe the smell will go away in time :-(

Rope Stitch Official Sampler

Here is my second version of Rope Stitch worked on my Official sampler.
This stitch is great for stems because you can get plenty of movement with it.
I have added Lazy Daisy flowers with French knots in the centres.

I think it is supposed to be a bit smoother than what I have produced but I rather like the texture that I have ended up with.
Another good one Sharon

TAST Week 7 Rope Stitch

The Stitch for week 7 in the TAST 2 Challenge is Rope Stitch --another new one to me.
To work this stitch it is like doing a twisted chain stitch but on an angle and it ends up looking like a rope--hence the name.
Here is my sample "sample"--now onto my official sampler.

Buttonhole Eyelet Flower Take 2

Here is my second sample of the Buttonhole Eyelet flower for TAST 2.
This is the one in my official sampler worked in Perle 5 thread with a variegated thread as the petals.
The centre one has a double row of petals around it.
I enjoyed this stitch very much and it was not hard to do either.

I wonder what will be next.

TAST Week 6 Buttonhole Eyelet Flower

Week 6 on the TAST challenge is Buttonhole Eyelet Flower which is a combination of a buttonhole wheel and a Bullion stitch.
The Buttonhole wheel is worked first and then the Bullion petals are worked around the outer edge of the wheel.
These are the ones that I have worked on my practise sample first and now I have to work them on the proper sampler.
I like doing Bullion stitch as a flower because I think it always looks lovely with its raised petals.

Sorry about the shadow across the bottom of the photo --that is my boof head getting in the way.

The Last one I Promise

I promise this will be the last one---I used a lace motif for the back petals and then 3 different sized calico ones on top of that.
I have glued the centre coil again but I used a finer fabric this time which was a big improvement.
I hate letting a technique get the better of me so I just persisted until it worked.
I cut out 2 green leaves from felt fabric and have just placed them under the flower for effect.





Here is the flower without the leaves--What do you think?
Which one looks the best?

That's it --no more I promise.

A few more Shabby Chic Roses

I have made a few more of these SC Roses and I am improving with each one.
I haven't been happy with the centre piece--I normally don't have any problems with glue but I haven't like the way the glued section became very hard when it had dried.
I didn't use much glue but it still was very stiff and hard when I had finished.
So I decided to do a different centre piece-which is on the flower on the right side.
I made a fabric covered button and attached that instead.....and I like this idea much better.





Other people have stitched the centre coil instead of glueing it so I will give that a try as well.

Shabby Chic Roses

Every body is making them--Shabby Chic roses.
Last week Ati had them on her blog because she saw them on Anni's blog who saw the Tutorial on Roben-Maries blog
then Patricia had some on her blog as well--it's like a virus-but they are so beautiful and I can see a lot of uses for them.
The one on the left was my first attempt but it was a bit big---so I made the second one.
I'm not 100% happy with them so I will keep trying.

They are supposed to have a couple of green leaves on them but I didn't have any to put on them.

Another Little Quilt Swap

I have decided to join Kate North's "Another Little Quilt Swap" .
If you would like to join in and want to know the rules etc. just click on the badge in the side bar and it will take you to the ALQS blog.
Come on, join in it looks like a lot of fun.

A Special Day Today

Today Wednesday the 31st of March is Ebony's 10th Birthday.
Did she want a big party?--no.
Did she want expensive presents?--no.
So what did she want?
All she wanted was to have her "party"on the lawns of Parliament house with her family.
And what did we have to eat?--Macca's of course.
Here she is with her Dad and her Poppy with the Parliament House building in the background.
As usual I am not in the photo because I am the designated photographer in the family.

Tomorrow Ebony and her Dad are off to Sydney for the Easter weekend so that she can attend the Royal Sydney Easter Show for the first time.
We gave her money for her birthday so she could spend it at the show--that's what she wanted.
If only her Dad had been as easy to please when he was her age.

More Knotted Buttonhole Stitch

Here I have worked the stitch on my official sampler -------------





---and this one is on my new Crazy patchwork piece.

I will be adding more embellishing to this one at a later date.

TAST 2 Week 5 Knotted Buttonhole Stitch

Tast 2 Week 5 with Sharon B is a variation of Buttonhole stitch.
This time it is Knotted Buttonhole stitch.
These are my first attempts done on my sample fabric and then I will work on my official sampler.
The green line is how the original stitch looks.
The yellow line is done by slanting the upright stitches on a backward of forward angle and they are different lengths.
In the third row I have added a bead before I worked the knotted part of the stitch.

Now onto the main sampler.

ATC Birthday swaps

There are 5 people having birthdays in April in the ATC birthday swaps Group.
Two of the ATC's are off to Spain one to Crete one to the US and one to the UK.
I have been using up a lot of sample pieces that I have had in a container waiting to be used.
The pink one on the bottom row is made from a serviette.



It seems strange to be sending off ATC's and not getting any in return but come September I will be rewarded.

TAST Week 4 Portuguese Border Stitch

This week the stitch in Sharons TAST challenge is Portuguese Border Stitch.
Another unknown one to me.
I am beginning to realise that there are many stitches that I do not know.
Well I knew that before really but there are so many that I never would have known if it weren't for the TAST challenges.
If you would like to see how the stitch is worked just follow the link above.
I have used a thick silk thread that I purchased from the Thread Studio a few years ago and I can't remember the name of it--(but it may be Marrakesh by Colourstreams)

This is my practise sheet before I work the stitch on my sampler.

Again I have used a thick silk thread from The Thread Studio which I have had for years-------

This is my sampler so far after 4 weeks I am only doing a row of each stitch on it(except for last week that is) and it is 15 centimeters (6 Inches) wide.

I am early working my stitch this week as I have a few things that I have to get done later in the week and I thought that I would do this one first up as it looked quite interesting.

Tast 2 Week 3

The new stitch for week three in the TAST challenge run by Sharon B over on Pintangle is Beaded Hedebo Edge.
This is another new stitch to me and I really like this one as well.
It is built on a foundation of uneven cross stitches (one cross is even and the second one is elongated) and the scallops are formed over the legs of the elongated crosses.
A bead is added between the scallops on the even crosses.




I decided not to dye my piece of linen because it would have inhibeted my choice of threads--well that's my excuse anyway.
I wonder what awaits us for week four.

My Garden is Confused

We are now into the middle of March and by now my Ornamental Grape Vine (?? Botanical name unknown ) is usually turning a bright red and starting to drop its leaves everywhere.
When I was washing up the breakfast dishes this morning I noticed that said tree had some tiny new green leaves starting to shoot.
No wonder it is confused we are now getting temperatures again up in the high 20's Celcius.
Last week I had to get out a pullover now we are back into shorts.

This little leaf almost appears to be asking "is it safe to pop out".

Ahh this crazy weather.

St.Patrick's Day

Well in Australia it is St.Patrick's day already and I have lots of green to show you.
As you all know we have had a really dry couple of years in Canberra and I have shown you before how dry my back yard was -but recently we have had some good rainfalls and at last I can show you what my back garden should look like.
Lovely green grass and the trees are still green (but not for long as Autumn is upon us) but it is so beautiful at present.
And look at that lovely blue sky.




And if you look in the shrub in the centre of the photo below you can see one of my erosion bundles hanging there in the sunshine.
Not long to go (about 4 weeks) before we open them--I am getting impatient.





Oh and don't take any notice of the weeds in the area to the left of the bundle because I don't.

TAST 2 week 2 Knotted Loop Stitch

I have been doing a lot of dithering this week--shifting stuff around on my work desk--you know what I mean -unable to decide on what I was going to do and then I discover it is Sunday and I still hadn't done this weeks Tast stitch sample.
So at the time when I should have been going to bed I started stitching just in case I started dithering again tomorrow.
Anyway the stitch for week 2 is Knotted Loop stitch.
Another one that I hadn't heard of before but when I looked in several of my books there it was waiting to be discovered.
I rather like this stitch-simple to do and it can be varied so easily.
Eventually I intend to make a proper sampler like Sharon's--well not like Sharon's but using hers as an example but I still have to dye some fabric to use and that will be done on Tuesday I hope-weather permitting.



If you would like to check out Sharon's blog go here and discover a treasure trove of wonderful stitching.

What have I been doing?

I was given a huge amount of cotton patchwork fabrics late last year for the guild to either sell on the recycle table or use to make items for sale.
I decided to use it in the beginning to make things and have been busy making samples of small items that we can sell on the sales table at the annual exhibition in September.
The small bag can be used to put potpouri in or it can be a gift bag or even a bag to place jewelry in when you go on holidays.
The larger bag is a shoe bag(or as my daughter calls it a "shoe sleeper".
Both bags are lined in cotton--the embroidery is worked on a cotton/linen blend cream fabric and then stitched onto the check fabric by hand in running stitch.
I have to run these past the sub committee on Monday to see if they like them and then we need someone to step forward and make a few.
We are going to provide the fabrics needed to make each bag plus the threads etc.

The other ladies on the sub committee are making thing as well for us to use.

We have to design all the things ourselves so that we don't infringe copyright.

My daughter showed me one shoe bag that came with her fancy smansy expensive shoes that she has and I did measure the bag to get the right size and then I drew the S on the cream fabric and proceeded to embroider it.

I had made some lavender bags several years ago so I just continued to use the same shape as before.

I embroidered some simple flowers- mainly because I was too lazy to do too much work on them.

What do you think?

Will people buy them?