Kainga, where Roses bloom, life is lived at a gentler pace.Living Simply, doing all those good things like stitching, gardening, cooking and reading.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

"Gardening Panel, Cross Stitch, Patchwork Balls, Sheets and Roses."

Hello,

Do you remember the garden panel that Cheryll sent me?


I did some basic quilting around some of the design with clear thread.


Added a good bug in the bottom corner.


I had to add a rabbit, we seem to have them visiting quite often making their presence felt in the front yard. A few extra gardening tools come in handy and the bees are always welcome here at Kainga.


Scarecrows, birdhouses chickens and flowers are scattered around the garden.


Come Spring time we will welcome the ladybugs and dragon fly's that buzz around. Extra blooms amongst the garden make the bee's very happy.
Thanks so much for this panel Cheryll, I had a lot of fun adding to the panel. I chose the same fabric for the backing,border and binding.


I made a few more of the hexagon balls that I made previously for Jacob. I also super sized the pattern and made a bigger one. These are very addictive and I have made a promise to the family not to make anymore. Last week I made one each night! The pattern is available in the February Homespun Magazine from this year.


A friend purchased this fabric from Bali years ago and wondered if I wanted to make something for Jacob from it. I gratefully took it. I machine embroidered some Teddy's and now Jacob has two more cot sheets


Not the clearest of photo's but I did get the cross stitch back from the framers and had it up on the wall straight away. I chose a brown frame with a bit of a distressed look about it.


I made up this little cushion , filled with some Lavender of course. The brown thread that is holding the ric-rac down is very old, it either belonged to my Nanna or Auntie. I used up strips of pink toned fabrics for the backing.


 The roses are blooming so well this year. These are some of them in the back yard, in this bed is Saint Cecelia in the back, the yellow ones in the middle are Happy Child and the front bright pink ones are Charles Rennie MacKintosh. These are all David Austin bread roses.


This is one of the beds in the front garden, once again mostly Austin roses. I have decided to not prune them this year, just a decent dead heading. They are so healthy at the moment it seems a shame to cut them back.

Happy days.
Bev C


Monday, August 11, 2014

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

 Hello,

Seen in the garden at Kainga today...















 

The bonus is they all have a beautiful perfume.

Happy days.
Bev C

Saturday, August 2, 2014

"Hand Quilting at Friday Night with Friends, Strawberry Ice cream and 2 Cross Stitch finishes."

Hello,

Joining in with all the ladies who decided to spend Friday night or day sewing was the perfect time to get out a quilt that had been waiting to be hand quilted.


 The reason I had taken a while to get the quilting done was finding a suitable way to mark the top without using a marker pen that could possibly leave  marks on the quilt. After reading about Hera Markers I thought this would be the way to go.  I went to a couple of shops looking for them but to no avail. I then thought as this marker leaves a line after pushing it along the fabric a hard spatula would do the same thing. The Vitamix spatula was perfect.


Speaking of our Vitamix it  makes some lovely meals, this Strawberry Ice cream was made in less than a minute. Lucy made this one with frozen Banana's, frozen Strawberries and some Almond Milk.


This week I finished two cross stitch designs.

The rose design is a freebie which I changed around a bit. The "A" was originally charted amongst the rose. As I had changed some of the thread colours it didn't really show up

 The Quaker Medallion  was a pattern that I won from Clare earlier on in the year.

Both these designs are stitched on 28 count Cashel Linen.

Thanks to Cheryll who kindly hosts Friday Night with Friends.

Happy days.
Bev C