"Quaker Cross Stitch Pouch, Aster Doily and some stunning blooms."

Hello,

Hasn't this month just flown by. I finally decided what I wanted to do with the Quaker Cross Stitch. I turned it into a stitching Pouch.

 I added lots of buttons around the stitching and some lovely cotton lace.

The other side of the pouch...

 I tea dyed a doily added some buttons which matched the doily. It is all finished off with ribbon that was dyed with Parisian Essence threaded through the doily.

 I was given some Crochet Monthly books last week to look through for patterns. Decided to make this one called "Aster" in DMC Cebelia in size 20 using a 1.25 hook. The roses in the vase are "Charles Rennie Macintosh."

Pierre de Ronsard Standard Rose

 This is the rose I see when I look out the back door at the moment. I love pink roses.

Surprise, surprise the Hippieastrum has decided to bloom this year. It has been asleep for the past two years at least. Lots of lovely blooms on it. These come in a great range of colours.

Yesterday I soaked some evenweave in a bath of tea leaves. The design called for a more grungy look rather than the cream evenweave. It is a design that only uses black thread but I may add a bit of silver.

What have you been up to, starting another project like me. I would love to hear.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Soap making for Christmas and adding that third bathroom."

Hello,

I keep on seeing and hearing that Christmas is coming. We can't stop it can we. I decided to make lots of soap over the past few weeks. Personalising them a little makes them a great addition to Christmas presents.  I have used plants from the garden to flavour the olive oil that is used in the making of soap.

Calendula Soap

I wanted to use up some of the items from the re-cycling bin to make the soap in. I found the long life milk that is for coffee machines that is a square shape to be perfect for holding the soap. I have used the rectangular shaped cartons as well but they seem to splay at the top. I also used a tray that a prepared Indian meal came in.  I have a set of scrap booking letters that stamped out people's names perfectly.

Rosemary Soap

 These ones had Rosemary in them, everything from the plant gets blended together at the final stage. Of course you could take the plant out if you wanted a clearer soap.

Rose Scented Geranium

 Rose scented Geranium would have to be one of the most lovely of the scented Geraniums. I can't help sniffing and squishing this plant as I walk past. Once again I left all of the plant in the mix. I just cut up this lot of soap this morning so I am breathing in the perfume as I type.

We recently added a third bathroom of sorts.

 We moved this bath from another part of the garden to create a little oasis under the Graham Thomas rose bush. It is now in a rather private, well more private than before spot in the garden. It is a old bath, lovely to sit in to keep cool. Not that comfortable though for sitting too long.

There is a purpose to moving the bath to this part of the garden. With all the garden re-modelling we moved one of our smaller water tanks and wanted to have something to catch the overflow. With all the rain on the weekend it is nearly full. Of course there was a rush to find a plug. Ian found a sprinkler fitted perfectly. It hasn't leaked at all yet.Yes that is dirt in the bottom of the bath, we previously used it to grow potato's.

Thanks to Anthea  for hosting Christmas through the year. I will be linking this post. Make sure you check out what everyone else has done.You will get some wonderful ideas.
How is your present stash coming along?



Happy days.
Bev C

"Tending the Garden and Spring Chickens."

Hello,

Spring is certainly here, lovely one day and the next it is cold and windy. Glad to have the rain that we received on the weekend. The state had a once in a year storm. It is sad though listening to the radio this morning hearing of the farmers who have lost crops due to the hail damage.Yesterday we measured 36 mls of rain and this morning there was another 19.5 mls. These sort of falls are very rare around here. Lucky to measure about 10 mls as a good rainfall. We have been doing lots of gardening and alterations to parts of the garden this month.

Lots of plants in bloom at the moment. I wasn't able to prune the roses this year, it certainly hasn't affected them at all.

Tough plants are the order of the day here or ones that self seed. Salvia's are great plants for our Mediterranean climate. I have been adding lots of them amongst the roses.

The other things that have taken up our time is some little chickens.

We purchased these three little ones a fortnight ago. The first day or so they stayed inside in there box, the weather was just too cold for them to be outside. After a couple of days they spent time out in there new home. We decided to purchase a coop for them. This way they are more protected from Mr Fox. Over the weekend we let them stay in the coop during the night. There is a compartment which we can shut up so they were cosy and warm. We have given them names. Unusual ones considering they are females. The white one is named Woody because she pecked the cardboard box when she arrived here. Plus we love Woody from the Toy Story movie. The yellow headed one in the middle  is called Mrs Potato Head, once again from the Toy Story Movie and the other one is called Dougal because we love watching Million Dollar Minute and Dougal was the contestant that was winning the show every day when we first got them Dougal went onto win over $500 000 so we think it is a lucky name.

Sewing on the hexie quilt has come to a standstill. I ran out of the YLI Silk thread I am using to join the hexies and blocks together. I ordered some more from the Thimblelady last week. Hopefully it won't take long for them to come.

Happy Monday.
Bev C

"How to make a Ladies Tea/Sewing Tray."

Hello,

Want to make a ladies tray, they are so useful.
First you need some of Nana's doilies and lace.

 Everyone has a photo frame that holds a picture that you have tired of. Turn the print over to put the doilies and lace on. You could also use up an orphan patchwork block, cross stitch or stitchery. The op shops have heaps of photo frames for only a dollar or two if you haven't got any around the home.

 Purchase some kitchen drawer handles from a hardware store.Just make sure you can fit your fingers underneath the handles.

 While at the hardware store pick up a packet or two of small round wooden handles for the underside of the tray. These come with screws, discard the screws. You need to glue the handles on, we used Tarzan's Grip.

A quick easy project and perfect for a tray for your morning tea or to rest your scissors and threads on whilst stitching. Please let me know if you make one.

Happy days.

Bev C