Sunday night

She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth but.......

this little darling can create a lot of havoc.  She was leading the dog on a merry chase through the house, leaping off chairs, over cupboards, and across tabletops when in her mad dash, she knocked my camera to the floor, the lense popped out and is now jammed.  This is the second time it's hit the ground with a thud in recent days, so it might not recover......fingers crossed it'll be ok.  But until I can get it seen to, there'll be no linking with pictures to Peg of my OPAM finish for February, or Anthea for Piece Yourself Together to show my few hexies I made (first hexies!), or Angela for Scraphappy Saturday with my pink blocks, as all those pictures are on the camera still.

I put the borders on Walter's quilt last week sometime, and I've since sandwiched and basted it, and most of the quilting is now done. I'm pleased with it this far. The colours are not quite true, the yellow is not as bright as this.  I'm still deciding on binding, maybe a blue....any suggestions?

Time to do a bit more quilting before bed......

'til next time

A lot of work....

 ........and still not quite finished.  Not even half way through and I was wondering why was I doing this. 

  Plenty of books still to be shelved.....maybe some culling first?

  

This being swapping rooms.......my bedroom into what was the sewing room.  Behind a huge cupboard that was in the room when I moved here was quite a few years worth of dust and cobwebs!   So there was heavy duty cleaning to be done as well.  Moving the bedroom , not so bad.....the packing up of the sewing room......oh dear!  It all took me the better part of two weeks, and felt quite overwhelming at times.  The sewing room is still not shipshape, I promised myself there'll be no shoving things in a cupboard out of the way, I want it all to be organised and everything where I can easily find it all....ha ha, famous last words?  We shall see. 

 

Overall though, now that my bedroom is organised, I'm glad I did it.  My 'new' bedroom is now at the front of the house in the larger room.....feeling quite grown up about that!....and away from the noise of one of my neighbours who goes out at 4.30 most mornings to do triathlon training.  Her car is parked quite close to my old bedroom, and I was woken by the click of their back door closing or the sound of the car starting up.  I know she tries hard to be quiet, but in the stillness of the early morning sound travels clearly.  So no more being woken too early, I'm cranky all day when that happens.  And my sewing machine is in place, as is my worktable, so at least I can step around the waiting assortment of who-knows-what and have a little fun in between the sorting and organising

 

Some of the fun included sewing for  Jewell's  Easter swap, which I joined. This involved finding gifts for your partner beginning with the letters of Easter Time. A lot of fun, and a bit of a brain stretcher to come up with interesting items.  I was very creative with some of mine!!  I can't show you the gifts as it's a secret swap, but here they all are wrapped up ready to go. They were posted last week.   I hope my partner likes them! 

 

 

 a sneak peek at one of the items I made for the swap 

 

I managed to find some time to sit and relax and do some kantha stitching on the little patched piece I showed in a previous post.  It was very tempting to just sit and work on this rather than sort out my moving mess, but I resisted. I'll get back to it tomorrow at sewing group.

  

 And during the move, before I took my work table down and packed up the sewing machine, I quickly put together this bunting for my neighbour's little girl (yes, the same one who's noisy in the mornings)  She's just had a cubby (play) house built, so this will look pretty strung across the front. 

 

 

 I'll leave you with this sweet kitty face, the last thing I see at night as I turn out the bedside lamp, this is Neesa,  stretching across to give me a kiss ..... she was treated very cruelly as a tiny kitten, poor love, and sadly, isn't keen on being held or sleeping with me, so the bedside table is as close as she gets.  

 

 

 

 Until next time............

Back again, sewing and knitting

The technical team did a great job searching high and low for the camera lead....how it got into a sewing basket is anyone's guess!

I haven't spent all that time searching, there's been other work of the hands as well. I made a needlefelted fabric postcard for a Stitchinfingers birthday swap, this handsome fellow went to Liz in Kansas who loves fantasy fiction and in particular, dragons. It was a bit of a headache for a while, I just couldn't seem to get him looking right. When I realised his head was too big for his neck, I took to him with the scissors and cut his head down, and re-needled him to a new piece of fabric, and with a fatter neck.  He seems none the worse for the emergency surgery.

These little 'isolette gowns' went off to the Miracle Babies' Foundation, to be worn by tiny premmie babies.

I made this sewing set as a gift for a friend who had bought her first sewing machine, and I thought she'd enjoy having some new tools, and somewhere pretty to keep them. She did!

Inside the basket, with needlebook and pincushion

Pocket in the needlebook to keep ...whatever?

 A baby beanie knitted last night while I watched the first of the new series of Spooks, a British spy show.  It's in Indigenous colours, and will go to Wilcannia, an Aboriginal community out west, when I visit next month. I hope to make a few more before then.

And in the garden, I had a eucalyptus tree trimmed and since it seemed a shame to bin all the clippings, I boiled some up to dye with.  The smell as they cooked was delightful, and the water turned an interesting mustardy yellow.

........as did the fabrics.  I popped in a couple of pieces of wool batting, some linen, and a nice piece of muslin that used to be a sling from when I broke my arm.  Some of the colours are interesting, but I think I a) had too many pieces in the pot for them all to get good coverage and b) I'll overdye some pieces again, maybe adding some rusty nails and a copper tap.

a good start

We've had some odd weather lately...very hot and wet and very hot and dry. What better place to be when you  need a cool dry spot for a nap.........

than in the washing machine of course!

I hope you all find the perfect spot to spend your Sunday.

Edited to add that once again the country is experiencing extremes of weather, and way to the south, as the rain continues to fall and the waters rise, people are waiting nervously in evac centres for word that they can return home, others are returning with trepidation to see what the water has done to their homes, and still others are waiting for that knock on the door from the SES....evacuate now! Some are isolated and inconvenienced by the waters, but are quite safe.  My thoughts are with all of them.