~ 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

~ Things Sometimes Just Don't Go Right ~

Since I am almost ready to assemble my Autumn Song sewing box, over the weekend I attempted the painting and crackle technique I need to do. After following the instructions carefully , I waited with baited breath for the crackle to happen.....zilch, zero, nothing!! So off to Spotlight I went to complain about the crackle medium, buy a different brand and a new box. I also attempted the antiquing of the fabric also without too much success. Oh dear!! It just wasn't happening. The antiquing required me to remove some of the colour from the fabric and then to over-dye it with a tan dye but it was a bit 'hit and miss' as to how long I needed to leave the fabric in the dye remover before I removed it and did the over-dyeing. I was afraid I might have ended up with no pattern left on my fabric so I think I removed it too early. Actually, the colour looked pretty nice when it was still wet but after it dried, it seemed a bit too orange.

Here are the 'before and after' photos.

Hhhmmmm, I have yet to decide what plan B will be!! I think the acorns which were in the before photos, quite obviously look like acorns, now tend to look a bit more like Christmas lights :-/ I still have half of the dye remover and tan dye left so might try again on another piece of fabric. I guess it is all a learning curve.

On a more positive note, my shadow continues to be well and really enjoyed his trip to the beach on Saturday.

These photos show that he does do more than just lie around the house which is what he always seems to be doing in the photos I show of him. LOL!! He loves the beach and gets so excited when he knows he is going.

We are on Cyclone alert here in Queensland at present with 'Tropical Cyclone Hamish' making his way south east. It has been downgraded to a category 4 which is still very strong and could potentially cause a lot of damage. We really hope it will blow out or head off out to sea before it reaches us here.

As always, thank you for visiting my blog. It is really special to receive your comments.

If a mistake is not a stepping stone, it is a mistake.

~Eli Siegel

~ 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

~ Bush Fires In Victoria ~

Our nation grieves today for the people of Victoria and the tragic loss of lives, homes and animals the bushfires have caused. So far 106 lives and 750 homes. It is beyond belief and our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has said 'hell's fury has been unleashed on Victoria'. I am just at a loss for words to convey the devastation these fires have caused. Our nation grieves for Victoria and please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

~ Autumn Song ~

Here is our progress to date on our current SAL ~ Blackbird Designs Autumn Song. Sandra and I are stitching for three hours a week on this one and have just finished week 6.

Here is mine

and here is Sandra's

You can see Sandra has completed a little more in her time than what I have but that is fine. As we both agree, we are supposed to be 'enjoying the journey'.

We are both really enjoying this project and once the stitching is finished we then have the assembling to do which consists of painting the box and applying a crackle finish and lining it which could prove to be quite a challenge. I am also going to attempt to 'antique' my lining fabric which consists of removing the colour and then over-dyeing with tan fabric dye. Sounds interesting!! Watch this space LOL!!

Sandra has some beautiful photos in her album of recent snowfalls at her place on the other side of the world whilst here in Australia, some parts of the country are sweltering in temperatures in the 40's and other parts are having horrific floods. Isn't the weather crazy!!

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. "

~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

~ My Shadow, My Faithful Friend, My Ben ~

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive. "
~Gilda Radner