"November finishes."

Hello,

It is hard to believe that November is coming to a end. I am currently wearing jeans and a jumper. Tomorrow is the first day of Summer. I am so glad the winds from the past couple of days have finally died down. One day we were having temps of 36 and down to about 20 the following day.

November has meant lots of final year lunches,morning teas etc.

Last night I sewed on the binding for the Hexagon Christmas Runner. I enjoyed the hand quilting on this project. I made up a template of a Christmas tree and hand quilted the trees on the red fabric between each hexagon.

I made up this shirt in some stretch knit fabric I have had in my cupboard for a while.

We had our Garden Club wind-up yesterday and as we have to provide a Secret Santa gift. I made up a Garden Journal. The lady who received it was very pleased with it.

The other week I got a message that a lady had a spinning wheel to give away. Would I like it. "Yes Please" I said. Well she rang to say she was coming around and it wasn't the sort of spinning wheel I was probably thinking of. It certainly got me wondering. I went to her car to expect to see a wheel. She opened the boot and said it was in the box. I brought it down to the house and she opened it up. It certainly wasn't what I was thinking it would be. I decided against taking it as I really wanted one for show. Then I may think about taking lessons, as I have a friend who spins.  I did think for one nano-second about taking it but when she said she gets interested in things and then looses interest a big bell rang in my head!!! The spinning wheel was obviously home made, you used the piece of wood that is on the front of it to make it spin.

I was in Dymocks the other week and saw that Maeve Binchy had published a new book. Maeve recently passed away so I was so happy to see that her book was published. I didn't think there would be any more. So I quickly ordered it through my local library. You can see I picked up a few others too.

Hope you enjoy your weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Blue Cross Stitch Sampler."

Hello,

I now am in possession of my framed cross stitch. The framers I originally planned to take it to was closed on the day so I went up the road to another one. Very very happy with the framing. We had a cricket bat framed by the framers a few years ago so we knew that they did a good job.

I had forgotten how hard it is to photograph cross stitch, even using the "behind glass"setting on my camera. Making sure the light doesn't catch the glass and their are no reflections showing on the photo's.

I want to send a big thank you to the anonymous blogging Angel who sent me the Aida cloth.

Here is a close up of the frame. Another heirloom to add to the wall of Samplers.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Father Christmas arrived at Friday Night Sew In and weekend shopping."

Hello,

I decided to spend Friday Night Sew In doing some applique on a table runner. A few weeks back I picked up some Christmas fat quarters from Spotlight.

I chose this one because I intended to fussy cut the snow globes.

So over the past week I have been cutting out hexagons and pieces using a template kit I picked up about this time last year. I had several different fabrics in my Christmas stash and chose other green's and red's to add to them.

Friday afternoon I cut out the snow globes and in the evening I button holed them on by hand.

So hopefully sometime this week this little cheery fellow will be quilted.

Saturday morning we had lots of Garage Sales to choose from. Our first port of call was one that had a wonderful display of goodies, all from a craft shop that had closed down a few years back. There was also some lovely plates doilies etc. I chose a couple of cross stitch kits, a Klipfast frame that was only $4.00. The brown floral cross stitch is a beautiful cotton/linen blend, there are two of these motifs and you can embellish the material and make it into whatever you want.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Postal Happiness, Blogging Etiquette and FNSI."

Hello,

Happy Friday. I had a wonderful time opening the parcels from the ladies in the Fat Quarter Birthday group. There were lots of lovely cards with the most appropriate pictures on the front. I keep all the cards I get from blogging friends in a floral tin vase in the sewing room.

From left to right, Cherryl, Helen, Maria.

From left to right, Christine, Lisa, Peta.

From left to right,  Fiona, Melody, Pat.

From left to right, Shez ,Sue, Lyn.

So a big hug to you all for your Birthday greetings.

Blogging Etiquette.

Every now and again I do a Google search of my blog name to see what comes up. Several times different posts have been stolen and put on other blogs. Why people seem to think that this is OK is beyond me. Don't they know the 7th Commandment is "You should not steal." Which got me thinking about people using images and the current laws regarding copyright. I came across this post about someone who had done exactly that with there blog.

http://www.roniloren.com/blog/2012/7/20/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog.html

It certainly makes for interesting reading.

Friday Night Sew In is on tonight, I am entrant number 88. Hope you can join us .It will probably be Sunday before I can post again with the results.

Happy days.

Bev C

"The Jacaranda's are flowering and Prince Charles has his Tim Tams."

Hello,

Well I would have to say that this is one of my most unusual post titles. My favourite tree, the Jacaranda is flowering as it does each November. Prince Charles was in Australia the other week. A woman gave him a packet of Tim-Tam biscuits for his Birthday. Prince Charles shares his special day with me.

Some days I feel as if I am still 21.

Other days I feel as if I am 100.

When I am really.

The correct number of buttons are here but I didn't have time to set them out. Now did you really think I would tell you. My lips are sealed buttoned.

I have just opened some presents from a group of amazing woman which belong to the Fat Quarter Birthday Group. Thanks so much ladies, you are amazing. I will do a post about this later on in the week.

Hope you have a wonderful day. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea to attend.

Happy days.
Bev C

"The Eco Owl Cross Stitch."

Hello,

Happy Monday.

The past week I have been cross stitching. A lovely pattern of a owl I found on-line. I used the Aida cloth I had dyed with Eucalyptus leaves. I thought this pattern suited the cloth, both being part of nature.

The pattern said the stitched design was 60 by 60 in actual fact it was 80 by 80. I soon found out the thread I was using was not going to do all the pattern. I only had that one skein of thread, a brand called  MTM which is made in India. It was lovely to stitch with. I used a Semco thread for the remaining dark brown. I was originally going to make the cross stitch into a little pillow ornament until last night when I decided a little wall hanging would be more suitable. I had picked up the hanger at a craft fair that was on in the local parish hall on the weekend. For the backing binding and border I used calico that I had dyed with brown onion skins a while back. The colours don't show up so well in the photo but I can assure you there is a lovely effect achieved by the dyeing of the fabrics.The buttons and other fabric came from the lot Lisa sent me. So all in all a lovely project made with love from bits and pieces from the sewing room.

I did mention the craft fair Ian and I went to on Saturday. It was the best organised fair I have been to. You entered the hall and were able to peruse the stalls. If you wanted to buy something you took it to the person who was collecting the payment at the door. There was a lady doing some spinning. Why is it that when you watch someone spinning it just makes you relax. Imagine how relaxed they are. I have always wanted a spinning wheel. Not to spin with but to "just have".

On the home front, life continues to be rather busy. I thought October was busy with people coming and going but it seems November is much the same. Ainsley and Julian arrived back last night from a couple of weeks in Dubai. They got to see the Formula One racing which I know Julian would have loved. Ainsley would have enjoyed the concerts that were on each night. Lucy spent Saturday volunteering at McHappy Day, dressed as a pirate and helped out on the bouncy castle. We called in and found all the staff bouncing on the castle. It seems bouncy castles were the favourite place to be on the weekend because when we went to the craft fair the lady who was taking the money had just jumped off the bouncy castle too. On Sunday Lucy fulfilled a lifelong dream to attend Telethon. She got to see Molly Meldrum, stars from Home and Away and Winners and Loosers etc. Bonnie is recovering from a virus that knocked her out for the past week. We thought she had Glandular fever so she was pleased when the test came back negative. Her glands in the neck are finally coming down and she is finally able to open her mouth enough to eat. David has taken to blending heaps of fruit and vegetables in the blender. They are rather delicious and I can't believe he is even adding Broccoli which I am sure he doesn't eat otherwise. So I guess you could say a busy family is a happy family.

Happy Monday
Bev C

"A Table Runner and a Owl."

Hello,

Hope the weekend has started well for you. I joined in Friday Night Sew In last night. I had two finishes which was fantastic.

I actually had the top of the runner finished and had been debating about the quilting. I was thinking about hand quilting it but decided I needed a quick finish. Gosh it was quick compared to the hand quilting I have just done. The main part of the runner is a charm pack which features birds snails butterflies and all things garden.  I used the same blue fabric for the backing binding and border.

I also made up another Owl pincushion on the embroidery machine. I used some thick corduroy for the wings, which is just as good as felt. The needles and pins will fit into it nicely.

Thank you Cheryll for hosting the sew-in.

P.S Can you smell the roses?

Happy days.
Bev C