Thimble No. 2 for the Olympic Challenge

Melanie, (www.houseelf-doings.blogspot.com) is hosting the Olympic Challenge and this is my attempt for the No. 2 Thimble.
Australian animals are quite unique and I have a few laser cuts that I have painted as brooches and buttons. The Australian flowers are also different and I have attempted the bottlebrush ( on the Australia brooch), Flannel flowers ( on the kangaroo and possum) and a small amount of wattle ( on the possum).

 

 

Kangaroo, possum,Australia, wombat, platypus,and echidna

 

 

Life is a little hectic at the moment-- painting these have been rather relaxing-- as it gets me into another space.

 

 

Thank you for visiting my blog and will aim for  a longer post soon.

Take care,

Yvonne



Sheep, a tiny treasure chest and an overseas parcel

My daughter and I had a few days in the country, visiting my son. The country side was looking very pretty. The canola flowers had past their peak colours, but still looked pretty.  I just loved taking a drive and looking at the patchwork of colours around me, and of course, the cute little lambs next to their mothers--- some feeding and their little tails whirling around as they fed.

 

Lamb having a feed

 

 

This ram was standing in the shade

 

 

Ruins of an old corrugated iron chapel

 

Wildflowers growing on the side of the road

 

 

Pretty yellow ones

 

 

This tiny flower was growing in the dirt

Tha canola when I was there in September 2011

 

 

The scenery reminded me of the patchwork cot quilt and wallhanging I had made. It was difficult getting the yellow fabric to match the canola.

 

 

One of the panels of my wallhanging

 

Tatyana, (www.tatkis-mousehouse.blogspot.com)  a friend I have made  through blogging, makes lovely bead work. I bought these stitch markers that she had made from her etsy shop. But I also had a lovely surprise when they arrived, as they were accompanied by this gorgeous treasure chest. It is only 4cm x 3cm and painted in a similar style to the Zhostovo folk art. I had attempted painting this style many years ago, but found that I preferred other styles of painting instead. Tatyana had a recent trip to Russia to visit her family and bought this as a gift. Thank you very much, Tatyana.

 

 



4 little stitch markers and the tiny chest

 

 

 

 

 Recently, I received an email all the way from Norway. Asne, the owner of Quiltefryd in Tonsberg, Norway ( www.quiltefryd.no) contacted me to see if she could have some of my patterns for her shop. Of course she could! So I have taken a parcel to the post office and my patterns are winging their way to Norway.

 

 

The weather is warm and sunny today. Great day to air the house and dry the washing. I guess it is back to the household chores now.



Cushion pattern winner and Craft Olympics

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment.

The winner of the Gingerbread man Cushion is Margaret who lives in Spain. I have decided that we should also have an Australian winner, and that is Dzintra.

However, Melanie, Shez, Hanne, Tatyana and Mama Bear  will receive a little gift. I am part of the Craft Olympics, hosted by Melanie.  And I have made something new as part of that.  I have written up a pattern for it and painted some buttons, so each of you will receive one of these instead.



Please email me your addresses. I will be away for a couple of days, so will not be able to post out the patterns until the end of the week.

 

 

 

 

These are 5 " in size and there are a few different ones and they have different buttons as well.-- eg pudding, stocking, tree etc.

 

 

If anyone is interested in joining the Craft Olympics, have a look at Melanie's blog  for details. It is  www.houseelf-doings.blogspot.com.au

 

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend ( here in Australia).



Gingerbreadmen Cushion

I have enjoyed making this cushion using Lynette Anderson's Christmas Fun fabric, and I am very pleased with the way it has turned out.

I have written up the pattern, and if you would like a chance to win a pattern (which includes the 2 gingerbreadman buttons) please leave me a comment.

Life has been rather complicated these last few weeks. Hopefully,things will settle back to the old routine again.

Spring is well and truly here. I saw a family of  wild ducks-- mother, father and 9 newly hatched ducklings walking down the street, in the middle of suburbia. The male magpie has been eating lots in the garden, the female is probably sitting on her eggs. The koel has arrived. It is a cuckoo ( one that lays her eggs in another bird's nest) and it migrates from Asia. It usually arrives by the long weekend in October, and this year we heard it's call on Thursday, so it is a little early.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Gingerbreadmen

I am using Lynette Anderson's new Christmas fabric to make my new patchwork piece. I had bought one of her Angel Delight bundles ( fabrics are only 10"x 11" in size)  and added a couple of pieces from my stash ( as I needed longer pieces for the borders) and have made this pattern up. The frustrating thing is that I do not have enough backing fabric to complete it today! My intention was to make it into a cushion, but now am not sure if I should make it into a wallhanging instead-- What do you think I should do?

I have 2 of my little handpainted gingerbreadmen buttons attached to the piece.

 



 



 I have to wait until I can go to my local patchwork shop to buy the backing fabric-- which  may be the weekend or next week.

I have enough fabric to start on a second design-- thinking of Christmas parcel buttons to use on it, perhaps.

The weather has been beautiful here today-- it is warming up and spring is definitely here-- Hurray!

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.