"Around the World Blog Hop."

Hello,

Welcome to my turn in the "Around the World Blog Hop" I was invited to be part of this by Julie who blogs from a lovely blog in New Zealand called My Threadbear Life.

Julie from My Threadbare Life makes lovely tea towels like this.

 Have you read Julie's blog, its divine. The one thing I love about reading a blog from New Zealand is that their gardens are green all year long. Julie has a little cottage full of her home made goodies. Lots of them. I would love to visit and have a cup of tea in Julie's garden.

To be a part of this blog hop I have just 4 questions to answer. The first one being.

How does my creative process work.

I enjoy lots of different crafts, so each week I can be working on something different. It maybe some cross stitch or some sewing or whatever takes my fancy. I don't always follow the pattern, in fact I wonder why everyone does make a designers pattern exactly as it is in the instructions. My first port of call for supplies is the local op shops. I have been able to find some wonderful brand new in the packet crafty goodness. Recently I purchased several patterns and kits from a craft shop that had closed down in South Australia at the local Good Sammy's.

I like to include machine embroidery in some of my work. It is interesting watching a design stitch out to see how it has been made up and what the final picture will look like.

 I sometimes come to a complete standstill with a project. I may not be sure of a colour or if the fabrics look right together. If this happens I first try different layouts etc if this fails I will leave it overnight and come back to it the next day. I have found that lighting at night time can play havoc on colours, what I thought was good was certainly not good!

Why do I create what I do.

I love working with my hands, I could sit and stitch all day. Most of the things I make are for our home or gifts for family.
 This year we have been blessed with our first Grandchild so lots of sewing for Jacob. I recently made up two cloth books for him.

.It is lovely to walk into the different rooms of our home Kainga and see home made goodness in each room. I have been sewing or crafting for as long as I can remember. I was blessed to have a lovely teacher in Year 5 called Mrs Gibson who taught the girls embroidery while the boys played sport. At about this time I remember my girlfriends and I crocheting rugs at playtime and lunchtime. Over the years I have gone to different types of craft classes like Ceramics, Paper Tole, Crochet and Stretch Sewing as well as patchwork and sewing.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I like add my own personal touch to things I make it could be a special button or thread. I have a stash of items that belonged to my Nana and Aunt and using these in something I make adds to the history of the project. I prefer to hand quilt, though I don't hand quilt like everyone else. I do it like cross stitch one stitch at a time. So anyone who gets a hand quilted quilt from me is special.


What I am working on.

Believe it or not I don't really like having lots of projects on the go.

 My main project this year and last is my hexagon quilt.  The original pattern I found in a book called "Everything Flowers, Quilts from the Garden" by Jean and Valori Wells.This has grown from what was supposed to be a 18 by 22 inch hanging into something that will be more like a single bed size. I have based this loosely on our home and garden here at Kainga. I made the hexagons a little larger than in the book. I found a  hexagon shape on line and photocopied pages and pages of them and cut each out. I don't use the modern glue method of making hexagons. I much prefer hand stitching on the fabric.I made some bigger hexagons to go across the top of the quilt on the embroidery machine. At the bottom of the quilt I will be adding the longitude and latitude measurements of Kainga.

The other project I have started recently is the "Tis the Season" Christmas quilt.

 Once again I am doing it a little different. I won't be using Christmas fabric but instead I am using a charm pack from a blogging friend and have cut the charms in half which will be used in a Brickwork pattern with the stitcheries amongst them.

I have found over time that my style of patchwork that I enjoy hasn't changed. I love applique and do it all by hand this is a wall hanging I did back in May 1997.

This was a design by Australian designer Tita Leach.

The fun thing about blog hops is that you get to meet different blogger's. Just google the words "Around the World Blog Hop" and pages of blogs will come up. Now I would like you to meet some new blogger's. Please visit the blogs in my sidebar. Through these blogs I have learnt so much about gardening ,interesting books to read, recipes, fabric dyeing etc.

I will leave you with a photo of one of about 5 different Bobtail Goanna's that I found in different parts of the garden last week. This one was just outside one of our front windows.

Don't worry they are completely harmless and love eating snails so they are most welcome here at Kainga.

We have a public holiday here in Western Australia, the Queen's Birthday. Happy Birthday Elizabeth !

Happy Monday
Bev C

"Cat Cushion."

Hello,

I made up this  cushion with a design of a cat for Lucy.  It was the purrfect thing to make for Lucy as she is such a cat lover. I used some of the cat  fabric she brought back from Melbourne from Lucello's.

There were three sizes of the embroidery design to stitch out. This one on the cushion is the largest size.

When I first saw this design I instantly thought of Marina who blogs at Maisie and the Boys, so I sent this sample to her for Maisie, her cat.

This one is the medium size of the design.The design was a freebie on the Urban Threads site. They have some wonderful designs and offer both machine embroidery and hand sewing patterns. Can't wait to see what Marina makes with this.

What have you been making this week? Anything interesting or is it a secret project. There seems to be lots of that going on.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Tea Party Tablecloth, Healthy Recipe Alphabet Quilt and Spring is here."

Hello,

I finished the Tea Party Tablecloth.

 There are 84 machine embroidery designs between the vases of flowers on the fabric.

Lots of different designs, something to talk about when having the morning cuppa.

 Tuesday morning I was invited to a garden gathering, I needed to take a plate along for morning tea. Planned to make the some of the Lemon Truffles but noticed the packet of what I thought was LSA was actually Linseed Meal (flax seed) I had to go with the Linseed Meal. Luckily they tasted just as good.

 I decided to make a Alphabet Quilt. The blocks come out at two a week, which is very achievable for me. I'm using scraps and the blue floral fabric. If you want to join in please visit Temecula Quilt Company.

 The weather is just so beautiful here this week. The birds are  busy visiting the flowers.. Love the blooms of the Crab apple Tree. Have several of these, they are tough and related to the Rose.

 The white coloured Dutch Iris have been blooming as well. I must remember to give them a feed soon. This makes for a great flowering season the following year. I don't lift any of the bulbs in the garden.

Now I wish it was Spring all year round.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Gardening without Gloves."

Hello.

Hope your week has gone well. Mine has been all about gardening without gloves.

This was supposed to be a quick fill in project between other sewing.  Lots and lots of Machine Embroidery. Nearly finished.

Have a wonderful weekend. Ours will involve real gardening gloves.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Gardening is good for the soul, waistline and hip pocket."

Hello,

Lots and lots of gardening going on here at Kainga. The perfect weather for it. We even saw our first Bob Tail Goanna on Saturday afternoon. I was scattering some snail pellets amongst some Nasturtiums that are growing near some roses and I saw him. I stopped putting out the pellets immediately as Bob would do a good job of eating the snails that are there. I just hope he didn't digest any of the pellets.

 We have several types of flowering prunus. This one is out the back, hard to believe that less than a week ago it was just bare sticks.

Telstar Blue Dutch Iris.

Each year we purchase some new Dutch Iris Bulbs, this variety is called "Telstar Blue" There were supposed to be 26 in the packet, ours only had 25. Which is actually a better number as plants are meant to be planted in odd numbers.

 We have several patches of potatoes planted, I picked this lot last weekend. I can't remember the variety as it is a patch that just seems to come up each year. I leave enough in the ground and plant other plants over the top and next Winter they come up. The everlasting potato patch. Please note" the green part of the potato that you can see will not be eaten. This is poisonous. It went green because it wasn't covered over by dirt or straw and the light got to it.

The Broccoli plants did very well this Winter and continue to do so. One advantage of growing your own is that we know nothing has been sprayed on them. Completely organic plus this year we had rain in July unlike last year.
I love that within 5 minutes from picking veg in the back yard a bowl of soup can be made from the produce.

 Each day I have been making soup in the Vitamix. It only takes 5 minutes and I have piping hot soup. I change the recipe around a little each day. This one contained several stems of Silver beet and a couple of florets of Broccoli plus some Rice Milk, Chicken Stock Powder and some Lemon Pepper. Today I used up some leftover Potato Bake and Cauliflower fresh from the garden, Chicken Stock Powder, Skim Milk and Chinese Five Spice.

I planted one punnet of Parsley in different spots in the garden. Each and every plant has blossomed. Last week I  decided to dry some using our dehydrator. It took two loads two dry this lot. I have enough to last quite a while. I filled up one of those 1 kilo plastic flour containers.

These are the flowers near the kitchen window. Stocks, I can't get enough of their perfume, Lavender that just seems to keep popping up all over the garden. The Mint on the left I purchased as a reduced item at the shops. One of those little packets of herbs that are ridiculously priced but are often reduced because no-one wants to pay that price. I got a packet for 90 cents. Roots are forming on the stems already. A great way to get herbs growing at a reduced price.

I would love to hear how your garden is treating your soul, waistline or hip pocket.

Happy days.
Bev C