Welcome to September ~ (& Spring 🌻)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Welcome to the arrival of Spring down here at the bottom of the world  💗

Last Monday, the very last day of August, marked 3 years since my dear Mum left this world..  I picked flowers, burnt a candle & played her favorite Topp Twins songs all day long.  Hard to believe it is 3 years.

 The arrival of spring has not seen any improvement in our temperatures & it is still chilly here.  These two have                                        started tucking up together again after a period of hissing & spitting at each other.

Last Friday Alec (Taupo Grandson) had a teacher-only-day & as his parents both had appointments in Hamilton, he got dropped off here for the day.  He had texted me & asked if he could bring his friend Jaxon for the day.  Yes of course.  We went into town briefly as I had some things to collect & then bought pizzas on the way home & had a movie-&-pizza-lunch.  

In an attempt to get them off their devices I told them We are going to make candles (!!) Gail had given me a box of glassware that was being thrown out from the Op-shop where she volunteers.  I got them to choose a glass each, insert the wick, heat the soy wax in the microwave, choose a fragrance (this was interesting - Alec chose lemon, Jaxon chose rose) & then pour the wax in.  Once it began to set we pressed some lavender flowers into the tops.  Here they are removing the wick holders.  I've forgotten to get a photo of them both with their finished articles but they were chuffed to be able to take home a gift for their Mums.  

When I went away to my sewing retreat last June, I wrote about my thrifted finds in * this post *  

I'd done nothing with the wooden mirror (blue arrow) as I couldn't find a space for it in my entire home, being that it was a freestanding mirror & not a wall mirror. 

 I decided to bring in a bow-front china cabinet that I had out in my cottage ... I'd been tossing up this idea for awhile & thought it would look great with the mirror as it was the same wood.  

While Alec & Jaxon were here I got them to help me carry it over (to be honest they were no help whatsoever but we did try)

I removed a half round table from this space & the cabinet fit perfectly.  I soon filled it with china from my home.  I'd also removed a ladder that displayed some quilts on it awhile ago, washed the quilts & I folded some & stacked in the bottom shelf - I thought they looked good.  

The Oak mirror fit perfectly on the top along with the velvet chatelaine I made in * this post *.  I tied some matching velvet ribbons around my candles & was so happy with the end result.

Candle holders thrifted back in this post.  I'm pleased I didn't give them the rust treatment like I'd intended.

This bow-front cabinet came from my sister in law - she no longer wanted it & I got it not long before I closed my craft cottage.

  It is wonderful to finally be enjoying it & I am so glad I bought it into the house.  

There has not been a lot of crafting going on but I do enjoy my dishcloth knitting & the pile continues to grow, which will be handy leading up to Christmas as I love to tuck these into gift packages.

It's nice to have some handwork in the evenings & I fussy cut these Tilda fabrics from last Christmas & made into some felt decorations.  These are nice tucked into a Christmas card.  I absolutely loved this Tilda Christmas fabric range.

A couple of years ago I purchased some pre-painted panels from Barb Smith of Theodora Cleave.  This one I made into a stocking, backed with some gorgeous Tilda & I sewed one of the painted birds into a label for my stocking.  I enjoy these simple projects.

I have a wee tale about a cat named Mittens.   Two years ago in * this post * Alec's parents rescued a tiny kitten from a roadside & gave her a home - Alec named her Lexie.  Lexie has grown but has remained quite skitterish & a very nervous cat so Sarah thought she would get another cat/kitten for Lexie to have a friend.   The family went to the local SPCA & chose this cat named Allie, bought her home with all her paperwork & settled her in.   A week later the SPCA rang them & said we've given you the wrong paperwork - that cat you have is called Mittens & was found abandoned in Taumaranui.   Goodness me!!  Of course they kept her as they'd fallen in love with her but its been quite a long road to settle her & finally - Lexie has accepted her & they've become "mostly friends." 

Sarah sent me through this photo two nights ago of them both on the chair by the fire.  That is Lexie in front & Mittens in the back.  How wonderful - hopefully as time goes by, they will become very-good-friends.

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

I am off next week on a short trip across the pond so I will catch up with all your posts upon my return,

Remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Scrappy Sewing ~ Part Two ~

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Yesterday was a beautiful almost-spring-day here so my friend Shirley & I went on a little Outing to this gorgeous Patchwork Shop out by the airport.  After that we drove to The Daffodil Farm & each purchased some bunches of daffs.  This certainly made us feel very spring-like 🎕💛

When we went to Retreat last June, one of the ladies there - Mary Anne, taught Leeanne & I a new scrappy patchwork technique.  I was fascinated & keen to give it a try using up some of my treasured vintage Tilda scraps.

 

This is the technique above that Mary Anne uses. 

 I had purchased a length of steam-a-seam from my local store as I only had vliesofix.  I cut a length of soft-&-stable & lay my steam-a-seam on top, peeling off both layers.

I tipped out my bag of scraps & chose the pieces I wanted to use, deciding on shapes, ironing them & cutting the edges with my pinking shears.  You don't have to do this but I chose to.  It took awhile before I was happy with my layout.  Then I carefully ironed the entire piece.  Then you lay your tulle over the top.  

MaryAnne, through trial & error, has found the pale blue tulle is the one that blends in the best.  She has tried all colours including white, cream & pale grey but says pale blue is the softest.  Thankfully my local store had pale blue tulle in stock.

Using a friction pen I drew quilting lines down my piece ready for sewing.  

(apologies for the poor photos - it was a dull rainy day)

Sewn down & ready to trim the edges.  I just chose to do a simple vertical quilting line .. I would've quite liked to do free motion swirly quilting but wasn't confident enough. 

Edges trimmed.  

By this stage I'd decided it was a good size to make a simple wrap pouch.  Although I've seen them with raw or pinked edges I chose to bind mine & happened to have a nice soft pink binding in my stash already.  

Sewing the binding on - machined first, then folded over & hand sewn.

I forgot to mention I used a vintage cotton sheet for my lining as I didn't have any contrasting fabric that was large enough.  My lining looks quite puckered here but nothing that a good steam iron didn't fix.  
Can you spy the little label I attached ?? 🐾

Front View                                         Back View

Once I was happy with it I added a leather Handmade label & handstitched a lace heart/bow to the corner.  I am hoping this doesn't make it look too much like a Pyjama Bag (!!)

My pouch measures 27 cms x 22 cms when closed, so a good medium size.

My first attempt at this scrappy sewing technique & now I am keen to do more  💗

I absolutely adore the Vintage Tilda ranges & the newly released ranges don't make my heart sing in any similar way. 

 I should mention, this scrappy technique using the Tulle is the same technique that Janice used to embellish her denim jacket with an eyecatching scrappy panel back in this post.

After I mentioned to Maureen about the cushion I had made from her cross-stitch in my last post, she tossed me a bag of aida cloth scraps - in the bottom were a couple of partially finished cross-stitches.  She informs me these are not her work but have been gathered over the years.  I decided to cut this large one down & make a lavender pouch, which turned out really lovely.  

I wasn't sure about this "A" but then remembered my step daughter-in-law's name Ainsley,  so I sewed it into another lavender pouch backed with some Tilda.  My sewing room smelled so nice when I walked past the door with all the lavender in there.  I will tuck this in with her Christmas parcel. 

When Shirley & I arrived home from our Outing yesterday a large box was waiting for me.  Pam had offered me some patterns as she was having a destash in her sewing room.  She'd tucked in so many other crafty treasures - it was like Christmas opening the box.  When I messaged Pam to thank her I told her the gift was a double whammy as look who else got pleasure from it .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

A nice clean new box - how wonderful (!!) 😻

And No, she didn't wait for me to tuck a blanky in there first.

Thank you so very much Pam - from both Pippi & myself 💛

Last months photo                                            Yesterdays photo

Finally, the pansies that I transplanted in this post last month were large enough to pot on into containers.  It has felt like a long growing season for them & I've now moved them from my hospital corner out to the hothouse. Hopefully they flower before too long as pansies succumb to mildew here in our climate, once the warmer weather comes.  

Thank you as always dear friends, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Scrappy Sewing ~ Part One

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

I have been outside weeding & decided to pick myself a small bunch of spring flowers to sit on my bench  💗 (Sorry Willie) 😉

I've quite a bit of scrappy sewing to share with you & have decided to split it into 2 parts as I don't want this post to be too long winded.

Scrappy Project No 1 :

In * this recent post * I mentioned that I wanted to make some Christmas Stockings for a charity that I sew for, using up some of my wool blanket scraps.  Once I got my prototype right I was able to  sew up a dozen of them, lining them all with Christmas fabric scraps of which I have many.  

When I am batch sewing, to keep it interesting for myself, I try to make them all different & I enjoyed matching the wool blanket to the fabric scraps - having a good variety. 

Once I'd finished a dozen I thought I'd try some larger Adult sized stockings - you can see by my pic that I just enlarged my pattern to make it bigger.  I made 4 of these & I plan to make more small & large sized ones as I have lots of lovely wool blanket oddments.

I noticed the large Variety Store in my town had big signs on their windows saying 50 % Off Storewide so I took the opportunity to purchase some bubbles & balloons for the children's stockings.   I plan to add a candy cane & a chocolate Santa which will fit nicely.  For the adult sized ones I am thinking one of my knitted washcloths, a soap & a chocolate ???  Still not sure ...... 

Scrappy Project No 2 :

My friend Gail volunteers in our local St Johns Op-Shop & decided to rescue some of the many pairs of Jeans that get tossed in the bin.  She tore the pockets off them & at our last craft group meeting we got to choose a pocket to "do something creative with". Here is the one I chose top left.  It sat in my sewing room for many weeks & finally I decided to revamp/upcycle it.  I found this red truck amongst my transfers so I applied this to the pocket & then filled it with some festive florals. I added 3 rusty heart studs to the pocket & lightly frayed the edges.

My original plan was to mount the pocket in an old frame but then I found this thin dowel amongst my oddments so I thought I'd paint it a Christmas green.  I only had bright green paint but I was able to tone it down by mixing some black with it.  You don't have to go out & buy supplies dear friends - there is often a way around it.  😉

I threaded my dowel through the Jean tabs & then tied some torn fabric & some bells to each end.  I strung a length of rusty wire as a hanger.  

Here is the back view. 

Here is the finished Pocket.  

This is one project that I was absolutely happy with once I'd finished.  (I've been going through a stage, which is lasting about a year, of not being happy with my finished items.) 

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

We had our August meeting last Monday & 2 of the other ladies had finished their pockets.   Sharlaine had made a gorgeous denim feather from hers as well as begun some Sashiko work to be made into a project ... Gail had embellished her pocket & then made it into a zippered pouch.  I love seeing all the different ideas.

Scrappy Project No 3:

One of our craft group ladies - Maureen, bought along a bag of items she'd decluttered from her sewing room to be donated.  I found this cross stitch screwed up at the bottom & asked if I might have it.  I bought it home & went to iron it, then realised it was very marked with what I call age spots.  I soaked it in a gentle mix of Napisan which thankfully removed the age spots without the thread colours running. I wanted to make it into a cushion as I loved it so.

I also wanted to use fabrics I already had & not purchase anything.  This dark burgundy tonal fabric went well with it along with a forest green I had just enough of.  I decided to use the burgundy to make a peeper around the edge.  

Again I am thrilled with how this turned out & love the colours in it.  I backed it with the burgundy & did have to purchase a zipper as I only had white.  In hindsight I should have backed the cross stitch with something as it was very flimsy to work with ... but it's fine as a decorative cushion.  

Last Saturday I met my friend Sue at a cafe at Ohaupo for a catch-up & she presented me with the most wonderful gift.  Sue finds the most amazing treasures in her Op-shop travels & gifted me these 2 Cath Kidston mugs along with the sweet little patchwork hen.  Love, love love ...........  Thank You So Much Sue!!  😻

Thank you, as always dear friends, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

I shall be back soon with Part two which is real scrappy sewing (!!)

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Sewing for a Very Special Baby Girl

Greetings lovely friends & readers

 I found an old can of spray paint in the sleepout over the weekend called Mulled Wine, so I sprayed the jugful of hydrangeas that I picked for my bedroom in * this post *.    

Though I've not taken a before photo, they had faded & gone brown.  I'm really happy with how they've turned out.

There is to be a new baby girl welcomed into our family next month when The Mr becomes a Great Grandfather !!  

His eldest daughter has 4 children & her only son Joseph is to become a father.  

The Mr's eldest children are just under 10 years younger than myself so when these Grandchildren first came along I was only 35 & still parenting my own sons.  The Grandchildren called me Aunty Julie, & I was more than happy to play this role in their lives.  

I've always had a special affinity for Joseph so when I learned he & his fiancee' are to become parents I wanted to create a handmade package to send to them.

The first gifts I made were the 2 bibs above right, backed with towelling, & then I purchased a metre of double-sided muslin & sewed a pair of wraps.  I knitted 2 washcloths in soft organic cotton.  

I had a metreage of soft flannelette in my stash so I hemmed it all to make a cot sheet, or a wrap.  I washed it first as it felt like it had dressing in it.  

It's true colour is not showing up today, it is the softest pale grey with yellow moons & stars on it.  I did Not knit the booties, purchasing these from my local baby shop instead.

I'd had this leftover length of pure wool blanket in my stash for awhile now - I always loved the muted tones of brown & pink in it. 

 I cut out a large cot size & hand blanket stitched the raw edges, keeping the machine sewn edges where I could.  I unpicked the blanket label from the remnants, & attached this to one corner.

You can see where my 3 pins are that there were 3 tiny holes I needed to cover.  I sewed the heart from some Doctors Flannel fabric that I had on hand, machine sewing the words & then making a tucked frill around the edge using a pale pink cotton with teddy bears on it.  

I machine stitched 3 crochet motifs to the lower edge after I'd sewn the heart over the tiny holes.  On the back I hand embroidered lazy daisies to cover the holes (I've forgotten to take a pic)

The heart did a great job of covering the holes.  I also handstitched a crochet butterfly to this.  To be honest this was very much a make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of project.

Here it is spread out on my bed in the afternoon sun.  I thought this would be a great blanket even for putting on the floor when the baby is lying there, having a kick.  I'd handwashed the blanket first so it felt very soft & snuggly.

I knitted a top-knot baby hat using * this free pattern * & some pure merino wool already in my stash.   Finally to use up the last of the blanket scraps I made a bunny & put a tiny rattle in its tummy which was so gentle The Mr could not even hear it (!!)

I purchased 2 merino singlets & then I packaged it all up in a white box, ready to post.  It all fit perfectly with the pink blanket on top.

The baby shower was last Sunday & although invited, I was unable to attend.  But my package arrived in time & I received the loveliest message from the couple thanking me & saying how toasty warm their new baby girl will be with all the cosy items I sent them.  

On my trip south to visit my friend Sandy last month my only purchase were these Cath Kidston coasters, as I just had hand luggage so very limited space.  

A friend was listing some items on Facebook Marketplace last week & I asked her if I could buy the tray before she listed it.  I was thrilled as this was also Cath Kidston.

My daughter-in-law Sarah gifted me a box of 4 coffee mugs for my birthday so I decided to clean out my mug cupboard as it was getting rather full.  

These 3 handle-less mugs were pushed in the back of the cupboard, they are GreenGate ware - but I prefer a mug with a handle, so I decided to make some candles up into them as they were so pretty.  The fragrance is Black Raspberry & Vanilla - VeRy lovely ❤️

 This table scape is giving me all the spring vibes. 

 The potted cyclamen was gifted by a young Moto X rider after I did some mending for her.  And the felt daisies were a birthday gift from my friend Carolyn 🌼🤍💚 Roll on Spring !!

Another book recommendation dear readers - a lovely light read but very enjoyable.  I'd seen a lady recommend it on Instagram & was able to get it from my local Library. 

Thank you as always dear friends, for your ever welcome visits here today,

And thank you for your sweet, kind comments on my furry family in my last post - I am pleased to report they are all doing much better.

Sending much love & friendship to you all,