Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

Well it is so good to be home again for a little while, and have my little abode to myself again.  Himself is well, and able to take care of himself so my job is done. 

I managed to have a finish of a page, and have two works in progress which I will post about later.  Now this can wait until it is stitched to its backing page.

 I have just realised I have a line on the bottom right that I need to get rid of....oops.

My plants have survived my absence after all, except for the sage plant which turned up its toes in the extreme heat we have been having. The first time I came home everything looked very bad. I took my son's advice and gave everything a feed with "seasol" and it is a miracle.  The mint is flourishing again, and my precious miniature fuschia has all new leaves.  I did lose some of the new coriander, but with the ones that have survived I will get new seedlings.

You can see the difference in the plants from before and after the seasol treatment, and how good they were to come back to.

I dont think I am going to revive the sage or the strawberries.

While I was at the farm, my lovely cactus was in flower.  There are two different colours and they are stunning. Unfortunately they only last   a short while.

The jacaranda trees on the property are all in flower and make a stunning display.

Next to the steps I discovered the tiny snapdragon plant, with one normal sized flower. It was only about 3 inches high.  There was a time a few years ago when I did have snapdragons in that spot so it must have been a lonely little seed that germinated after all that time. When we were children we called them "puppy dog flowers".

we have been experiencing very high temperatures for the last couple of weeks, but today seems a bit milder.  I do feel so sorry though for all those people experiencing the extreme cold weather in the northern hemisphere.

Until next time, happy stitching

Busy Week and More Pages

I have been home a week now, and during that time I have ruthlessly de-cluttered my clothes and paperwork.  Out of all the "ideas" we tear out of magazines, how many do we actually use........when we find we have them 10 years later then the answer has to be not many.    I cant believe I paid to have so much useless paperwork moved.  But it is a good feeling to get rid of it. 

The clothes did fit me in those days.  But now I have gone from 83kg to 69kg everything was just falling down.

So I packed all the clothes that no longer fit me into  large plastic tubs.......just in case my willpower ever leaves me and I outgrow my "skinny" clothes. . I now have 3 tubs of clothes that dont fit.

I can hardly ever bring myself to throw clothes into the bin.....on a property there is always a need for old things for round the yard and with red soil they soon get grimey and then thrown away.

 Anyway, if I hadn't worn it for 4 years, out it went.  Unfortunately I still seem to have a full wardrobe, but not a crushingly full one. So I am pleased.

Does anyone else find they tend to wear the same things all the time because they are favourites.

While at the shops I found this little gadget that I can use to pick out the letters on the tiny keyboard on my phone.   My fat fingers just dont cope very well as anyone who has ever got a confusing txt from me knows.   It has a little rubber pad on one end and on the other a soft screw to push into a hole in the end of the phone.  I am very excited about this.

 Managed to get a little bit of sewing done this week as well.  I now have 16 pages completed, 10 to finish embellishing and 6 to find background fabrics for. Hopefully will find just what I want on one of the traders stalls at the quilt show.

 Here are som pics of the latest completed.

This is the verson I had at first looked at it for ages before deciding a big NO!

Here is flotsom and jetsom version that I prefer.  I feel the neutral cords dont take anything away from the embroidery. The background is also a neutral print cotton.

Chevron stitch round the duck embroidery.  Chevron is used in smocking and fits well into sircles. The ratstail cord is couched on

Triangular feather stitch.  The lovely tatting pieces are from my friend Sue from Suztats. The orange buttons were just perfect to match the tatting.   There are also some woven chain leaves

Since I came back I have also been able to complete the leaf sampler of stitches that have come up in Tast, and a couple of others that I like.

The outside edge of the leaf is buttonhole herringbone in a variegared stef francis thread.  Inside the leaf from left is chained cross stitch, wrapped coral, scroll, buttonhole bullion, scroll st, up and down buttonhole, twisted chain, breton stitch, knotted chain, sailors edge, portuguese stem stitch.

On the right side of the leaf starting from the bottom are buttonhole triangle, barred chain, spanish knotted feather, zig zag chain, crested chain, coral stitch, chained cross, top knotted buttonhole.

In the centre vein french knots lead to long legged bullion.  To the left is a spray of up and down feather, with bullion and buttonhole bars for the flowers.

The background fabric is a cotton which I coloured using acrylic paints and fabric medium.   The leaf is sitting on some dyed crepe.

I am going to use the leaf idea to show a new set of stitches to some of the ladies at quilting in November.

Sunday today, and since I have had lunch, it could be time for a nice nana nap.

 

Tast 2013 to Stitch 57

At last I have been able to catch up with the Tast Stitches from December.   I have put them onto the one sampler.  They include Berry Stitch, Knotted Cable Chain,  and Arrowhead stitch from 2012.

For 2013 I have now completed the knotted feather stitch, inverted feather stitch, triangular feather stitch, herringbone stitch.. square and laced, buttonhole herringbone, sailors stitch and sailors edge stitch.....phew! that's a lot.    Not a very exciting sampler, but at least I have caught up.

Some of the other stitches which I haven't posted are those completed in 2010 and which are on my  Flicker page.

Sharon Boggon  is amazing how she can find all these new stitches for us to use.  I have not heard of the sailor stitch or sailors edge stitch they are both new to me.   I would love to own a copy of the Batsford Encyclopedia of Stitches, but when I checked out the cost it is way beyond my budget......over $300 au. I saw it for.

If you wish to see Sharon's work, and  the tast stitches go to http://pintangle.com/