~ Another SAL Finish ~

Do you know what a griffin is? I didn't!! Well it is a fictional character with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion and he is winged as well!

So here is our sixth finish for the year.

" Whitman's Griffin Tin"

I didn't add much 'creativity' to my version this time and stitched and finished fairly much as the pattern suggested but Sandra added her own touches and made hers just a little different.

Here is Sandra's...

The fabric we have used to line our tins is once again a piece that Sandra has chosen and it is just the most perfect match for the tin and don't you just love those fat little scissors!!

We are now working on our seventh project and here is a preview of my fabric and threads.

Can you guess what it is? It is a very long skinny piece of linen and lovely autumn coloured threads....hhhhhhmmmmmm, wonder what it might be :))))

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."

~Emma Goldman

~ Remember this?? ~

In an earlier post I showed you this tiny oil can that Sandra had sent me and mentioned that we had a purpose in mind for it.

Well here is how it ended up. This is the fifth project in our SAL this year

With thy Needle and Thread ~ ABC Pinkeep.

Sandra and I both found this tiny project to be rather fiddly. Mine is stitched on 27ct linen which being quite a large weave is prone to fraying so when it came to turning him inside out that became a bit of a problem. However, he survived and is happily sitting on his perch now with his strawberry in his mouth after a 'cook' on the microwave after I sprayed some Parisienne essence on him to age him a bit. I also added a rusty pin.

Here is Sandra's version.......

I recently was able to spend a day with my friend Mary (Melbourne) who I have often spoken about and shown some of the beautiful gifts and cards she has made for me. We enjoyed a day visiting my LNS and had a lovely lunch although silly me forgot to take a photo. Thanks for taking time out to spend the day with me Mary :) Now I am counting down the days until I get to meet my other Internet stitching friend Sandra (UK). How wonderful it will be to finally meet the person face to face with whom I have become such good friends. We will have so much to talk about.

I will remember the camera this time.

I recently came across this sweet video on YouTube so if you have a chance take a look. You may need to pause my Playlist so you can hear it. Thankfully, my canine buddy continues to be well with no more 'brain tinkles' which is so good.

"Being in a good frame of mind helps keep one in the picture of health."

~ Author Unknown

~ A New Finish ~

I have just completed my latest project in my SAL with Sandra and here is how this finally ended up.

Here are our two different finished versions of....

Tricia Wilson Nguyen -
"Victorian Card Case".

I added the tassel as I thought it added a bit of Victorian elegance and also made some little cards just because :))

Sandra made a beautiful button for her version and used slightly different colours. I always love to see how the two different versions turn out.

So another addition to my 'cake stand' and in Sandra's case...her beautiful sewing treasures cabinet. I must ask her if she will allow me to show you some photos of that one day. I have to say if she agrees, you will be in for a treat!!

"Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are."
~Author Unknown

~ Spot the Difference ~

For our third stitch~along for 2009, Sandra and I have just completed "Fancy Work - Whitman's Wynnewood Tin sewing set".

This is mine..... the pincushion has different patterns on each side....

Sandra sent me this perfect match piece of fabric which lines the bottom and sides of the tins and for a little bit of individuality I had enough fabric left to make the thimble pouch to which I added the tiny thimble charm and enclosed a little thimble inside.

This is Sandra's.....

As her little piece of individuality, Sandra made a tiny thread keeper using the same design that is used on one side of the pin cushion.

I really enjoyed this as it was a quick stitch and the assembly was quite simple. Now, I am quite keen to do this type of finishing on my other Whitman's tins but have a few more projects that are more urgent at this point so that won't be in the immediate future.

Number four project is about to be started and here are the threads with the fabric I have chosen to use as a lining.

That could in fact change though as I have found in the past that although a fabric seems to suit a project well when you lay the threads you are planning to use on it, once it has been stitched, the fabric sometimes just doesn't seem so perfect any more. So with that in mind, I will need to get it all stitched before that final decision is made. I am really quite looking forward to this project as it is quite a bright cheery one but I am not going to tell you what it is yet :))))

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you left about my La D Da Hearts.:))))

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies".
~Author Unknown

~ Beautiful One Day ~

Beautiful one day, Perfect the next...that is a saying that you will hear often here in Queensland but the imagination has to be stretched just a tad at present as the following photos show. We have had rain and I mean 'serious rain'... I took these photos yesterday.

These photos were taken just near my house where the Creek had flooded. At least our water tank is full to over-flowing.

I don't have any finishes to show in the stitching department but I am plugging away quietly on three WIP. I can show you two but the other I can't show you for a while yet as it is a birthday gift for a special friend (wink, wink, say no more)!!
Here is a progress photo of my current SAL, Flowers for Lily, week four. Sandra and I only stitch three hours per week on this, allowing us to stitch on other projects as well.

And this is Sandra's...

Progress on my 'Sweet Baby' sampler has been quite slow since I am trying to change all the colours and finding I need to go very carefully with this as I want to be sure to get the colours just right.

Oops....that is a very bad photo!! It is actually antique white, not grey as it looks and it IS straight!!
Thank you for visiting my blog :)

"Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains."

~Henry Ward Beecher

~ Ta Da ~

It's finally finished!! My first SAL with Sandra for 2009 is finally finished .... yay!!!!

I stitched, I dyed, I crackled , I tore my hair out, I re-dyed, I re-crackled, I tore my hair out some more but then I resigned myself to the fact that I had tried my best and even although it isn't perfect, I did it and it is kind of OK!!

Sooooooo here is Blackbird Designs Autumn Song!!!!!

I made the tiny pouch for a cute little acorn waxer that Sandra sent me.

Now, here is Sandra's beauty....

Don't you just love that lining fabric and those little acorn accessories.

Thanks Sandra for doing this SAL with me . Autumn Song has been on my 'to-do list' for a long while and now, with your support and encouragement, it is done. We are now onto week two of our second SAL project for the year ~ With My Needle ~ Flowers For Lily which is a pretty little needlecase and shouldn't be quite as tricky to assemble as the box LOL!!

Thank you for your concern for us over the cyclone threat we had. Fortunately, the cyclone didn't cause us any problems personally but it did cause major environmental issues locally when a shipping container lost 31 containers overboard and up to 30 tonnes of heavy fuel oil leaked into the sea when the containers came loose and tumbled overboard piercing the hull of the MV Pacific Adventurer. It has been disastrous for the wildlife and required a huge clean up to our beautiful coast beaches.

I am also very cross with our local council at present who decided to cut down 50 beautiful trees which lined the street that our house backs onto. The beautiful weeping fig trees have gone!! We have been informed they will be replaced with 'more suitable species' but all I could think of was the poor little birds, who had nests in them, flying off when they were frightened by the noise and later coming back to find their trees, homes, nests and babies gone!!! I am thinking of putting up a sign in my garden..... what do you think??

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, 1914

~ Autumn, Beautiful Autumn ~

You probably get the picture - Autumn along with Spring, are my two most favourite seasons. Not that here in the sub-tropics, we get a lot of the beautiful Autumnal colour changes that the cooler climates get, but it will eventually bring a reprieve from the high humidity and very hot temperatures that can be rather exhausting.

My current SAL project seems very appropriate ~ Blackbird Designs ~ Autumn Song. Sandra and I have both finished the box top stitching and Sandra has also finished the box band and has started on the pin cushion, while I am still lagging a little behind and still finishing the alphabet box band.

It is interesting seeing the subtle but noticeable differences in our two projects ~ Sandra's (bottom picture) is stitched on 32 ct even weave fabric with GAST threads and mine (top) is on 30ct Korty's Special Blend linen with WDW threads.

Although I have read over the instructions for assembling the sewing box several times, it is still not really becoming clear to me yet so I can see that being quite a challenge.

On a trip to Brisbane to see my two darling grand-daughters last week, I managed to finally stop off at a little Patchwork shop I had passed by on the way many times before, so this time I stopped off for a look. I picked up these three fat quarters and a pair of cute little floral scissors.

The fabrics are Blackbird Designs from the Harvest Home series and the other Cottage Charm is a sweet sampler design alphabet.

Ben, hasn't made an appearance for a while so here he is enjoying a treat the other day and sporting a little shaved patch on his arm after a trip to the vet for a check over and blood tests. Sadly, he recently gave us another scare when he had a second seizure. The first was last October, and it seems the diagnosis is epilepsy. This apparently, is quite a common thing in dogs and often occurs around Ben's age. (He turns four next month) For the present moment we have made the decision , with the approval from our vet, to watch and wait before making the very serious decision to put him on medication, which will be every twelve hours for his lifetime.

Ben also reminded me that I needed to say thank you to all who take the time to visit our blog and for leaving us comments which we love to receive.

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.
~ Emily Bronte

~ 'Lellow's' and Other Things ~

What is a 'Lellow', I hear you ask?
Well let me tell you another little bird story about 'The Lellow's'.

We have been recently been entertained by Eastern Yellow Robins around the garden and we named them 'The Lellow's'. This name stems from our little 2 year 9 month granddaughter, darling little Miss Milly, who can talk like a book and can say words of four syllables, but can't yet get her tongue around the word 'yellow'. Well the 'Lellow's' became part of our daily life and we got huge joy from seeing them (a little couple) flying around our garden every day for must have been almost a month or more. We would always be saying to each other' there is 'Mr or Mrs Lellow' as we would watch them looking for insects and grubs. We had got used to their song and in the evenings would sometimes go out and call to them and sit and watch them in the garden. When we called them they would come up and cock their heads to one side to 'size us up' We knew they must have had a nest either in our garden or somewhere nearby but had never found it, however on Saturday, I heard them singing a beautiful chorus and flying around and around the garden but there were now four of them so I think it must have been the parents and their babies and time for them to leave and they were giving us their victory fly over to say their goodbyes. I don't know for sure if that was the case or not but they seem to have left the garden now and I am happy that another generation of birds has enjoyed the use of our garden and given us the pleasure of sharing in a small part of their lives.

You know the old saying ~ 'Good things come in small packages' well, this week proved that when a tiny package arrived in the mail for me from my DF Shirley. Let me show you what she sent me and it isn't even my birthday. How lucky am I!!!!!

This gorgeous stumpwork pansy fob measures only 2 inches square and the pansy is surrounded by delicate gold work and tiny amethyst crystal beads with a deeper purple bead in the centre.
Thank you very much Shirley, I will treasure my fob.

I have not been making a great deal of progress on the stitching front myself over the last week and am even a bit behind in my SAL with Sandra. I need to catch up soon so we can work on the assembly of the box together. Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing how it can bring us together through the enjoyment of our hobby, even although we are on opposite sides of the world.

"And there is pansies, that's for thoughts."

~ William Shakespeare

~ A Magic Carpet ride ?? ~

I think my shadow thought so when not seconds after I had put the mat outside to air, he had found it and was looking at me as if to say...

'Thanks Mum, nice of you to put this here for me!!'

Gotta love it!!

We went to the movie 'Marley and Me' the other night. I have to say, I was apprehensive about going after having read the book and knowing how it ended. You could have heard a pin drop in the theatre and I don't think there would have been a dry eye in the place. I cried my eyes out just as I had done when reading the book. I was so glad to come home and be able to give my shadow an extra big cuddle.

I found this photo of him which captures him in full flight and shows his absolute love, enthusiasm and delight in going to the beach.

Yes, there has been a finish this week. Here is 'French Country Dog ', a chart Sandra gave me at Christmas.

I made it into a cushion for the little cane chair I have for my grand daughters. Now, I have two grand daughters, I will try and get another chair and I have another doggy chart in mind to stitch another cushion.
It is already SAL time again, my goodness the weeks are going fast already. better get onto my three hours stitching.

“A dog doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, big or small, young or old. He doesn’t care if you’re not smart, not popular, not a good joke-teller, not the best athlete, nor the best-looking person. To your dog, you are the greatest, the smartest, the nicest human being who was ever born. You are his friend and protector.”

-Louis Sabin

~ Needleroll TLC ~

Anyone who knows anything about Labradors, will know how they love to greet visitors with a 'gift'. For my shadow, the gift is usually a needleroll carefully plucked from the basket of needlerolls which I have on display. It is his way of saying 'welcome, here is something my mum has made for you'. Darling Ben, I am sorry to have to tell you this but no matter how glad we are to see our visitors, I really don't want you to give away my needlerolls. Anyway, after quite sometime of having to retrieve my needlerolls from my beloved shadow's mouth, I noticed some of 'our gifts' where becoming quite.....how shall I put it......grubby!!
I needed to take action and I guess since some of them had been in the basket for several years, a little TLC wasn't going to go astray.

Here are the de-stuffed, washed and out to dry needdlerolls.

A few days later, after being re-stuffed with all new stuffing, attention to their ribbons, and a basket make-over, here are the spruced up freshly smelling needlerolls posing nicely for a photo shoot.

Now to try and teach Ben to 'LEAVE'!!!

Sandra and I are into week 2 of our new SAL and are dedicating three hours stitching a week to it. These are our results so far.

Chrissie's

Sandra's

It is interesting seeing these too different versions, stitched on different fabrics with different threads, taking shape.

"No matter how little money and how few possessions, you own, having a dog makes you rich."

~Louis Sabin