Material galore!

The cheerful birds their airy carols sing,

And the whole year is one eternal spring.

-Ovid, Metamorphoses

I have been having fun this week looking through the stash of material given to me by Ruth. I have known Ruth for many years and it is her fault I'm wild on patchwork and sewing. Have to blame

someone! lol. Here are some of the treasures I have found and will use.

These little beauties will be stitched up and used as a wall hanging in the library.

I can't wait.

Hmm Lovely blocks aren't they? There are quite alot of these blocks and some just have to

be stitched up and away I go. I'm not sure what I will do with this yet.

The bag below is one of the bags Ruth gave to me and this one holds all

the different assortments of material. Another bag of equal size has the wadding, material and blocks

for the quilt. I am really excited, I always find lots of great stuff in these bags.

My chooks have been busy girls too and yesterday when I went to collect the

eggs I found the strangest looking egg I ever did see. I have been told the chooks

could be lacking in calcium that is why the egg is all creased. They do get shell grit everyday, so I will

have to look into that one. The shell was not soft it was hard!

It tasted nice!

Today is a slack day even though it shouldn't be! I have been nursing a niggling headache so I have watched my ironing pile up and the washing continues. I'm trying to will it to go away. I have teenagers cruising around the

house, that may have something to do with the head ache. Ha Ha. They are precious really.

I have been busily working away on some tea cosies, and will show them next time, knitting a bag too, will

show that next time as well. Hope you're enjoying this lovely weekend and all the best for the week ahead.

Kind regards, Anita.

Been sewing and knitting

A sensitive plant in a garden grew,

And the young winds fed it with silver dew.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant".

I have finally finished my dolls. The material I purchased from Collingully

was certainly put to good use. I love making these dolls.

My friend Heather and I have decided that next year's annual show is going to

be flooded with knitted items. I know Heather has made a start on her collection

and I certainly have made a start on mine. Below are a few things I have been

knitting, all baby gear to start with and then I will make a start on things like

tea cosies, bags, toys and other items that might take my fancy.

This little beauty below with the hood was a knitted item that was an entry in the show. I

fell in love with the pattern and asked the kind lady if I could have the pattern. Lovely Lorraine,

who is my neighbour kindly let me have the pattern and away I went. The jacket is

actually knitted in 8 ply, not 3 or 4 ply. So it knitted up very fast.

Pretty in mauve, a lovely dress, mattinee jacket and bonnet set. This is knitted in 4 ply

and lovely wool to knit with.

Another pretty knitted dress and another pattern I just had to knit up is this cute

vintage pattern. On one of my visits to the Op shop I found this old knitting/crochet book and

spotted the pattern.

I have also found the time to sew as well! Yesterday a friend of mine dropped off a bag of

goodies and in the bag was a piece of material I had to make into something straight away. In my

next posting I will tell you about this friend of mine.

This lovely fabric is going on the front door, to add some privacy to the house. I have always had a thing
about birdhouses, so this material was a treat to receive. Today I am ahead with housework and have even taken up the legs on a pair of work trousers for Pixie, and replaced a broken zip in Cory's school shorts. I now plan to do some knitting, keep an ear out for the chooks laying eggs as I have an egg stealer in the brood and generally have a relaxing day. I hope you are all having a relaxing day as well. Kind regards, Anita.

Oh how did that wool get here?

I don't need a certain number of friends,

just a number of friends I can be certain of.

-Alice Walker.

My first week back at work was wonderful! It is so great

to be back there. I was given a fabulous baby jacket

pattern to knit, so I went to the craft shop and

purchased 2 balls of a lovely green 4 ply baby wool.

As I was about to start knitting I realised that I was

meant to be knitting in 8ply!! So naturally I had to

find another pattern and knit up the green wool first.

Then I went down town and purchased these 2 balls

of 8ply.

I am almost finished the green baby jacket....

The pattern is actually a basketweave design, but it doesn't

show up that way in this photo. I have made the back, fronts, sleeves, bands, collar and just need to sew it all up. I will show

it when it is stitched together.

I am almost finished with my Space banner as well, just a few bits

to go there and it's ready for displaying at the library.

I need to still add some shapes where all the empty bits are.

A nice visit to the local library and I found some terrific books, so they came home with me.

The knitted dog coats book has some wonderful patterns

for dogs. Our Max is 10 years old this November, so I think

next winter he might feel the weather more, I noticed this year

he wasn't as comfortable as usual.

The other knitting book has some great dress-ups designs in it.

Ancient Egyptian dress and head band, a mermaid costume, pirates, cushions and lots of other interesting things. So I will be busy.

I went to the Op shop and found some toy stuffing again and these

wooden handles to go with a bag I will make.

Hope you all are enjoying the Commonwealth games, we have enjoyed them. Lovely weather this weekend, just right for gardening, knitting and sewing.

Catch you all again.

Kind regards, Anita.

End of holidays

A buoyant heart

spreads joy to grow

new relationships.

Our holidays are just about at the end and what a great break we all had. Days of sewing, knitting, creating, gokarting, relaxing and enjoying our time together, has been fun. I managed to get lots of projects started and completed, very pleased with myself of course. And guess what......I have made a good start on my cloth dolls.

These girls still need faces, wings, a dress for one of them and painted shoes. I will tuck these two away for next year's show. I love these girls, they are a pattern from the very first edition of Homespun and a favourite of mine. Also over these holidays we painted Cory's bedroom and he chose the colour himself!!! We all had a go at painting, so it didn't take long to get through with the painting. The colour is bold.

We also changed the room around so there is more space for teenage stuff. We will be buying some new furniture for the room and in the meantime just have to do with what we have.

I have since wiped the mirrors in Cory's room and they're nice and clean. Do you love the hat collection?

Today Heather and I drove over to a little country town called Toodyay and went to check out their Annual show. Someone had told me about the community spirit and it is true to what people say. At the show there were 30 quilt entries! And the knitting and crocheting...well there was a whole swag of entries. There is a nice country feel to that show. An interesting story one of the ladies there told us...these doilies were made by a 94 year old woman and the front of the work and the back of the work is identical. How amazing is that? On the sad side of things however, the lady has just in the last few days passed away suddenly. Her doilies came 1st and 2nd.

Another interesting feature at the show was a display of old baby carriages. Here is Heather near some of them.

 Imagine the exercise you would've had from just pushing these big girls up the road. They are all decked out in fantastic embroidered pram covers and hoods. Just look at the size of those wheels.

I reckon I would have enough room to stick my two teenagers in these prams. Just a couple of photo's I thought you would like to see.

After visiting the show Heather and I had to stop at a lovely tearoom and treat ourselves to a nice cup of tea and a dreadfully nice cheesecake. Yum yum. We eventually got home and said cheerio to each other. Now back in the real world, I have taken all the washing in, folded, put away and am considering doing the ironing. Hope you are all having a great weekend and will catch up with you all soon. Kind regards, Anita.

Still no dolls!

The world turns softly

Not to spill it's lakes and rivers.

-Hilda Conkling, Poems by a Little Girl.

Well my attempts at making these two lovely dolls have come unstuck.

In all fairness I have almost finished one of them, but still no clothes or face

for the second one. I have been so wrapped up in making these

banners for the library, and also taking advantage of the space I have while

two of my darlings have been away gokarting.

On Sunday morning I finished the Under the Sea banner and thought I would

share with you.

 I really have alot of materials that I would not use for any craft work as such, and found this was a good way to actually use the materials up instead of.....heaven forbid......give them away!! The yellow and red materials are stretch material and I cut the sides of it to make a curly sea plant. I also used many buttons, but I still might have more buttons than Heather. lol. The lettering was made with white felt and the fish on the right (the dark ones) were made from a curtain material that I couldn't part with.

The backing is a demin curtain material so it's nice and strong. Hmmm now I can feel a Space banner happening. Glad to have my boys home from gokarting. It was a State Title race, and Cory did very

well in his field. He raced in 2 classes and in a field of 33 racers he came 13th. Well done Cory and

thanks Pixie for all the hard work you put in to getting him there.

Have a great week everyone. Kind regards, Anita.