Raggedy days

Good afternoon dear friends & readers & welcome to my new followers

It is so lovely to have you stop by for a visit  . . .  thanks so very much  :-)

When my friend Claire owned her gorgeous little patchwork Shop in Hawera one of the very first patterns I purchased from her was a Sun Valley Primitives design called "Raggedy Angel"

Claire also sold the rather large corrugated iron wings that were used in the pattern

I eventually made the angel up & she used to hang just outside my entry door greeting people & generally hanging away there quite happily - I found an old grainy photo of her back then ...

The entry door to the left is no longer there as we removed it when we altered our kitchen

As you can imagine, being dressed in red, after hanging out there for a few summers, the red fabric had faded to a shabby pink & she was most tatty & neglected looking.  

She was relegated to the back of a cupboard for a year or two ...

Recently I found her body & the wings & decided to give her a new lease of life

I mixed up a spray bottle containing 3 teaspoons parisian essence & 200 ml white vinegar & liberally sprayed over all the faded calico parts that would show

She got to lie out in the sun on a large fluffy towel to dry, & I can assure you, she was not mistreated in any way.

Oh yes this is the life .... lying here in the warm sunshine ... starkers !!!!!

I showed you a sneaky peek last post of the new dress under construction ... the design is quite like stitching a penny rug with all the felt pieces making up the "tree" design

Today I completed her & hung her on my dining room wall although she is not going to stay here - I just havent found quite the "right home" for her yet

I had planned to redo her hair (which is thick jute string that I originally hand dyed) but my good friend Leeanne suggested I leave it as it is - all sort of scraggy looking

I just love the mottled effect on the corrugated iron wings

I kept the original star that she is clutching, but covered the centre felt stars with masking tape & gave the calico a good spray with my parisian essence mixture 

I like to hang my dolls on the wall for a few days & walk past them to decide if I need to embellish them any more or change anything ... already I have decided she needs some brown cheek blusher & some red berries tucked into her star, hmmm ... perhaps a rusty button at her neck .... ??? . . .

This past week I had my last group booking - a Rural Womens Group bought their lunch to the garden & ate in the shade of the trees & had their meeting 

The doves very much enjoyed the additional company to the garden but made the meeting a little difficult with their loud noises & deciding to swoop in & out every now & then - they are becoming very settled & at home now

My friend Jan thought they were ornaments when she walked up the steps last week & got such a shock when one turned its head !!!!!!

As they tend to stand either in their food dish or on the edge & kept tipping the dish over ...  I notice The Mr has given them one of my vintage enamel plates to eat out of ...

just about to climb into the food bowl !!!   notice how the bits we dont like get tossed out !!!

Along with my last group booking I also completed my very last order this past week . . .  Sandra had ordered 3 large sized cushions from me to go on the back of a sofa bed in her sleepout - she requested that they be approx 25 x 25 inches, in wool blanketing & a pale blue colour scheme

I decided to make up a patchwork effect using a variety of blue blankets I had in my stash - these cushions turned out huge & took a mountain of stuffing ... but Sandra was delighted with them

Her main concern was how to sneak them in without her husband noticing ... I couldn't offer any suggestions but I wished her lots of luck  :-)

Having no more group bookings or orders is actually a first for me ... I have never been in this position before & thought I would feel rather concerned ... but I actually feel quite calm about it ... perhaps this will give me some time to really enjoy being creative for a change ??

I made up a few more sets of scented Spice Mats from my kiwiana fabrics as there were no more left in the Cottage ... these always tick along as they are a great gift for sending overseas.


You may recall two posts back when I mentioned my vintage cane shopping trundler ... a trademe purchase ... how I hadn't yet decided what to do with it   :-)
Well it was a post comment from dear  Shane that got me thinking ...
 & so I filled it with my dried hydrangeas & sat it on a sheltered area of my outside deck - I love the combination of blues & the different pastel shades
 

Thanks so much Shane for the inspiration

Although things here are rapidly turning brown & crisp I took some snaps of my wheelbarrow which is still flowering away happily - I water it each night & the begonias & lobellia are still thriving

Thanks so much to you all dear friends & readers for stopping by 
 I shall be back at the end of the week with the draw for my angel - best of luck to all those that have already entered - there is still time if anyone else would like to pop their name in the giveaway -
here are the post details for you to enter

Hoping you have a lovely week ahead,
much love & friendship to you all,
Julie x0x0x0x