"East cross stitch, Christmas shop,from garden to plate and looking for Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion.

Hello,

I have completed the" East" Weather vane on the cross stitch.

 There are some French Knots and Lazy Daisies still to be done on this one. Will do them right at the end so the hoop doesn't flatten them.

 Wednesday saw us with no power for the day. So in the afternoon Lucy and I took a drive across to Toodyay. A Christmas shop had recently opened. We had a look around. We both felt, why? I guess if it was closer to Christmas it would be OK but to me it felt over the top. It would be a lovely place to take children closer to Christmas.

 This homegrown organic Broccoli was part of our meal last night. It was just perfect, picked about an hour before it went into the pot.

 This is one of the beds of Baby Cauliflowers which are just starting to form. The blue flowers are from the Chia which has re seeded from last year. Two corns have come up in the bed as well. I was throwing out some seeds that were old and these were amongst them.  They have Corn forming so hopefully I may get one or two from them. Not really the right time of the year for them, if nothing much comes from them at least I can feed them to the chooks.

I have a blog reader who collects these old magazines. Madame Weigel's. If you are willing to sell your copies or have seen some please leave a message in the comments.

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Pigs might fly."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

"Pigs might fly." We have all heard that saying. I am currently working on a cross stitch that includes a pig.

Weather vane cross stitch- North.

 There is a lot of back stitching involved in this pattern. I didn't realise this when I chose the pattern. The plan is to do the main stitching then do the back stitching. I got carried away one evening while stitching the blue edge on the right and forgot to leave some gaps for another star. Oh well, didn't really make that much difference to the pattern.

Falling in love with Geraniums and Pelargoniums at the moment. They have such pretty flowers and I have found that if you put a few cuttings into a pot it fills the pot with flowers in a short time.

Very happy to say that Lucy has successfully completed her Certificate she was studying. David has started back at Uni this month, studying a new degree. Something completely different this time. He will be working with human body parts this week. Not my cup of tea at all. I hope he doesn't give us too many details.

My days seem to get filled up very quickly, how about you. What are your plans for this week?

Happy Monday.
Bev C

"Sewing Door Hangers and Cord Holders and some paperwork."

Hello,

Sewing small things has been on my agenda the past few days. I started with the idea of making a hanger for my sewing room door. I down loaded a template from the Internet  and found the shape I was after. I then had to add the 1/4 inch seam allowance to the pattern.

I machine embroidered the design onto the fabric added some lightweight pellon then sewed the two pieces together. A press-stud joins the loop part to the bottom of the project. If you make something like this leave the right side as the side to turn through. I sewed up this side first of and had a huge task of trying to turn that loop at the top through. The light-bulb moment came when I realised that if I left the gap for turning on the right hand side things would be so much easier.

You can never make one of these sort of things. I decided seeing as I needed a small gift for a up-coming Birthday for a friend this week I would make some more but in a different style.
I then searched on-line for a free machine embroidery design for a door hanger. I found one and used designs that I have.

I am sure my friend who shares the same name as me will love her hanger.

Then I made several of the Cord Holder's that Melody has the instructions for on her blog. I made one a bit longer and one wider because that was how the fabric was and I didn't really want to waste the fabric. So Bev will be getting one with her hanger and the rest have been put to good use. One is on the sewing machine and Over locker as well as the iron.

Paperwork, don;t you hate the stuff. Apparently I have to claim my blog in case someone else does.

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Happy days.
Bev C

"Playing with paper and cloth, and the Day lily is blooming."

Hello,

I haven't forgotten about the hexagon garden that I started in March. I have been chopping and changing my mind about this pattern. I have decided to go as I want to. Three times I cut out different houses, the first one had such tiny pieces my hands versus my mind just couldn't get it done. So I then cut out a more basic house and have since changed my mind. Hopefully my plan to do something completely different house wise to the pattern will eventuate.

 I have joined the bottom left hand side of the hexagons. I added single flowers every now and again to use up the leftover hexagons.  While making this, I was reminded of a gardening rule that yellow and red will show up in a garden. I can't quite get over that yellow flower centre. After the papers have been removed that may just get a little embroidery make over.

 I had a bit of fun again with Picasa and made the photo into "1960's style"

Adding my take to this pattern means that I am putting parts of Kainga into the pattern. Today I made the front pathway from scraps of cream fabrics. A veggie patch ,chook yard and clothesline are in the making.

Tough plants are a priority here at Kainga. I purchased this Day lily last year at the local markets and it has been flowering the past week. Rather pleased with the colour as I only had  Yellow ones in the garden.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Sunflower Fabric Basket."

Hello,

Tonight is Friday Night with Friends, kindly hosted by Cheryll. I decided to start sewing just afterLunch as I don't like sewing at night. I decided a fabric basket was going to be the project for the afternoon.

 I wanted to use the new Embroidery Cards I recently bought. I chose the one with lots of beautiful Sunflowers. I had this green fabric that suited the project perfectly. The design took about 45 minutes to stitch out.

 The green piece of fabric was 11 inches in height so I used this as my main measurement. I cut it 11 by 11. I chose a co-ordinating Sunflower fabric which I added some light weight pellon and some Calico. This piece was then quilted to add some stiffness to the project.

 I then pinned and sewed on the ribbons 2.5 inches in from each corner. The two pieces were then sewn right sides together leaving a gap for turning. I pinned the ribbons so they wouldn't be caught up in the sewing. The corners were trimmed and the gap was hand sewn. Press, then sew a row of top stitching around the edge.

Sunflower Fabric Basket.

 So there is my Sunflower Fabric Basket.

David returned from New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and Sydney last weekend and he had a special delivery for me. Two bags of goodies from Lisa for me. Thanks Lisa, I delved into the bag with trims etc and used some of the ribbons for this project.

I hope everyone had a successful night/day of sewing.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Crochet Golliwog Tea Cosy Tutorial"

Hello,

Now you may have been wondering about the "Licorice cover I was going to make" in my last post. You see I was being a bit cheeky. Licorice is the name/colour of my Maxwell and Williams Teapot. I bought it because of the name Licorice plus it has the strainer for tea leaves. So it was time to make a Tea Cosy for Licorice.

Mr Golliwog the Tea Cosy.

Introducing Licorice and his new tea cosy Mr Golliwog.

 I used the pattern for the Tea Cosy from Leah's blog. After working out how many chains I would need for the base row the pattern was very easy to follow. The only change I would add to it is to leave a length of wool when you start as one side you need to do several chain stitches for the button loop. Instead of using a new piece of wool you could use this length of wool. Leah's pattern states the stitches are half double crochets. If you follow patterns like I do this is a half treble stitch. I used a size 4 mm hook.

 Then the fun part started with making this into a Golliwog Tea Cosy. I used a smaller size 3 mm hook and used 8 ply yarn as in the Tea Cosy.

For the Head which you need to make 2 the pattern is as follows;

Make 3 chain, and form into a ring.

1st round. 3 chain, 11 treble, slip stitch to top of 3 chain.

2nd round. 3 chain, 1 treble into same place, 2 treble into each treble in previous round, slip stitch to top of 3 chain.

3 rd round. 3 chain, 1 treble into same place, 1 treble into next treble, then *2 treble into next treble, 1 treble into next treble, repeat from * to end,slip stitch into top of 3 chain to join.

4th round. 3 chain, 1 treble into same place, 1 treble into each of the next 2 treble, * 2 treble into next treble, 1 treble into each of the next 2 treble, repeat from * to end, slip stitch to join.

5th round. 3 chain, 1 treble into same place, 1 treble into each of the next 3 treble, * 2 treble into next treble, 1 treble into each of the next 3 treble, repeat from * to end, slip stitch to join. Fasten off.

Bow Strap.

With the blue wool, work 9 chain.

Next row: Miss 1 chain, 8 double crochet, 1 chain, turn.
Work as many rows of 8 double crochet using the 1 chain as you turn as you want to make the size you like for the bow.

Bow Strap.

With the Blue wool, work 3 chain.
Next row. Miss 1 chain, 2 double crochet, 1 chain, turn.
Work 11 rows of 2 double crochet, turning with 1 chain.
Sew the 2 short ends of the Bow together. Fold with the join at the back centre. Place strap around the Bow at the centre and join at the back

You then need to stuff the head lightly with toy full and join together with matching black wool. You can see in the photo I left a tail on the wool. I used this to then sew it onto the Tea Cosy. First though you need to give Golly some hair. I used a book marker that was 2 inches wide and wound the Black wool around this and cut along one side. I then used two pieces of wool at a time to make the hair. The crochet hook is perfect to pull this through, you then knot the hair. If the hair needs a cut this is the time to give him a trim. You then add his facial features. I used some buttons and as I didn't have any red felt I used the red wool to chain stitch his mouth. I followed the line of double crochets. Then you join him to the Tea Cosy with the left over black thread. I sewed along the half treble line again at the front and from the back as well for added support. His Bow Tie and Buttons were then sewn on.

Here is a photo of Mr Golliwog and his friend Jo the Golliwog which belongs to David. I also have crocheted a facecloth in blue 4 ply knitting yard which Mr Golliwog is sitting on.

Now I must have a cup of tea and introduce Mr Golliwog to the delights of  Afternoon Tea.

Happy days.
Bev C