Beautiful Orchids

Spring is definitely here. The snowdrops have come and gone and the freesias are out-- and one can smell their lovely perfume when in the garden.

I love orchids. We lived in the tropics when I was a child, and my father grew the most beautiful tropical orchids. He had his special ones and he gave me a small part of his orchid house as my little orchid corner-- mainly the ones that were easy to grow and flowered well. We pottered around  in the garden together for hours tending to the orchids and the other flowers and fruit trees that grew in the huge garden. I loved collecting ladybirds etc -- poor ladybirds!

For some unknown reason, I did not take to growing orchids here in Sydney. The most common orchid grown here is the Cymbidium orchid-- and I tried growing them years ago-- with little success. Last year, I decided I would give it another go --I bought a few plants whilst     they were in bloom-- tended them in the garden-- and guess what-- not a single one flowered this year!! What a disappointment.



Also last year, a friend brought in the tiniest little rock orchid flower and I fell in love with them-- her husband then gave me a few plants to put in the garden. My neighbour few doors down the street also had some tiny rock orchids which I admired--a few days later she came around with some in a pot and I planted them in the garden. Well-- spring is here and they have put on a show. They are only tiny flowers-- but stunning in their beauty and I keep walking outside to admire them. Here are a few photos of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also have some rock orchids from my husband's parents' garden.  When these flower, it brings back lovely memories of my mum in law who just loved them. They were planted at the base of an iron bark tree in our garden. The iron bark tree died this year and we had to move them so the tree could be cut down. I did  not think they would flower this year after being disturbed when we moved them. Lo and behold, they have produced the most number of spikes on them ever!

 

 

 

 



 

 











 



This purple flower is called  "The Happy Wanderer". It is a creeper and climbs over everything-- but the flowers are so pretty.

 

 

I recently bought Lynette Anderson's new Christmas fabric range-- I bought a bundle called an Angel Delight-- the pieces of fabric are 10"x11"in size. I am making another Christmas cushion with the fabric and have enough left over to design a second one. The first will have gingerbreadmen-- almost completed, and the second will probably    have some Christmas parcels on them. I took some photos and when   I loaded them onto them  computer-- found them all out of focus! So have no photos to show you today. Will try again another day. There will be another  pattern    give away when I have completed the cushion.

 

Enjoy the rest of the week.

 

 

 

 





Spring is in the Air

I woke up this am to a glorious day. The air had a warmth to it, the sky was a perfect blue. What was even better was that I had the day off as well! Mind you that does not mean a day off from the  household chores though. With the sun shining, even house work was not too bad. The blooms in the garden are just starting to come out. We have the best display of rock orchids that we have ever had-- but they are still in bud and I will post a photo when they are all out. The freesias are just coming out and their perfume is just there in the garden. I went for a walk and the sea was calm and blue-- very peaceful. 

I attended a class at a friend's house on Tuesday. It was to learn to do Japanese meshwork. We learnt the simple version using 2 colours. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hopefully will be able to master the more complicated version at a later date.

Simple Japanese meshwork

I have had a couple of emails enquiring about the Christmas Welcome cushion pattern, so I have decided to trial my pattern on the blog.



A Christmas Welcome pattern includes the 2 handpainted buttons



I am currently stitching the blocks for the SAL-- ie SKOW---am doing the Best Friends block at the moment. I have 2 other blocks to go after that and then will have to put them all together.





The winner of the Cushion Pattern

I am late with picking the winner of the cushion-- it should have been at the end of the Tour de Fibre!  I am a slow coach and taken this long to get to the end of the race!

The names were put in a hat and the winner is MAY BRITT. Please email me your postal address and the pattern with buttons will be on the way to you.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment.

Happy sewing.

Tour de Fibre-- Cushion

I decided to make the patchwork piece I was working on into a cushion cover. This makes me want Christmas to be here soon so I can display it. ( I will be patient as time goes fast enough as it is!)

A Christmas Welcome

We wish for Love, Peace and Joy.



I have enjoyed making this cushion, although I did struggle with the machine work. I prefer to do as much as possible by hand rather than machine. I decided that the only way my machine work will improve is to keep machining.

I am in the process of typing  the pattern and have decided to have one to give away ( which will include the 2 buttons that I have painted). So if you would like to be in the draw, please leave me a comment.

It has been a glorious day here today-- the sky is blue with not a cloud in sight. Although I have already gone for a walk this morning, I think another walk this afternoon will be a great idea.

Enjoy your weekend.



Tour de Fibre 2012 -- more sewing

I could not help but start a new project! It had been raining on the weekend and sewing is a good activity when it rains. Instead of working on my current project-- I started a new one. I was in a Christmas mood, so I started with some Christmas fabrics.

I had bought Anni Down's new Christmas fabric range at the Darling Harbour Show in June and decided to use a few colours from it in combination with some from my stash. I started with an applique centre which will then have 2 of my buttons on it to complete it , and then worked on the piecing around it-- working out the design as I went. Machine work is not my forte, so I dceided I would challenge myself and try it.

 3 Eight pointed star 4"blocks-- they were a challenge alright!

Then I needed 1"blocks for the border.

I was cutting and joining and unpicking ( with lots of muttering under my breath) when my DH walked by. He had this look on his face which implied that I was totally crazy and he could not understand why I had to cut these big pieces of fabric up into small pieces and then join them up again. No wonder I was getting frustrated when the joins weren't right!

I have finally almost finished the top-- I have to decide if it will be a small wall hanging, or a cushion-- that is the decision now. Hopefully, will complete it this weekend and will put a photo on the blog shortly.

I went out into the garden for some fresh air to clear my head after all the unpicking I had to do-- and found this hanging from a branch of a Bottle brush shrub.





A cocoon-- I wonder what will emerge from it?



The pansys and violas have not done too well this year-- I think because it has been too wet for them. But this little plant does look rather nice--- the subtle purple shadeing at the edge is like watercolour.

The sky is blue today. I will have to go outdoors and enjoy the sunshine.
Enjoy your weekend.

Tour de Fibre 2012

I decided to join in with  Hanne's (www.hannequilt.blogspot.com) and May Britt's (www.abyquilt.blogspot.com)  Tour de Fibre 2012 to get me working on my quilts and embroideries and not be distracted by other activities. I have started with the SKOW SAL quilt that I had lagged behind with and have definitely noted some progress!

This is where I have been for awhile.

I had these blocks done but not joined-- so further progress.

I was struggling measuring the long 2 "strips and got a brainwave to join the 3 together and then cut to the correct length! Why had I not thought to do  that before?

This is where I am up to now.

I had been waiting for the weather to improve to photograph these blocks-- I thought if I pegged them on the line I would be able to get the whole lengths in the photos. Even though it is not currently raining, it is windy and no way would these pieces keep still long enough! So the floor is the next best thing.

I must add that I have only seen snippets of the Tour de France on the news, but it is still helping me concentrate on my sewing!

Have a lovely weekend.



    

The Bag Challenge

I was browsing this am and came across May Britts blog,(www.abyquilt.blogspot.com) and she has a bag challenge on. As part of it, one has to have a blog posting about the bags one has made. I have only ONE drawstring bag that I have made-- but thought that 1 is better than none-- so decided to show it on the post. I had made this as a PJ bag to match the cot quilt I had made.

I have also just tried making a makeup purse-- made it in plain fabric as a trial and I must say it was OK---( am carrying my current stitchery that I am working on in it instead)-- so will now spend more time by making another with a patchwork design. Will post it on the blog when I have finally made it.

It is a glorious day in Sydney today-- the sky is a beautiful blue and it is chilly but not windy. So I am off to the shops for groceries for tonight's dinner-- will walk along the beach to the shops. I wonder if the seal will be there today? It has been using that same spot as a resting place for a few weeks but has not been there this last week.

Have a lovely relaxing weekend.