Greetings lovely friends & readers
I try to find things to enjoy no matter what season we are in. It's still wintery here but the Daphne is in full bloom & I have a garden full of Green Dragon Broccoli ready for picking, as well as the citrus trees being laden.
This was last Thursday's pickings & I also gave away 2 large heads of broccoli. The oranges are small, but are sweet & tasty - these ones were picked for dehydrating. I also picked a bunch of Camellia flowers before the rain bashed them & turned them brown.
Last year during our Lockdown, my friend Gail dug up a corner garden on her property & removed everything - she wanted to plant it in succulents. She filled a rubbish bag full of winter roses (hellebores) & clivias. When our Lockdown went to the next level & we were allowed to see people again, she asked me to burn the rubbish bag on my burning heap.
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(The variegated one is the third photo)
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Instead I removed all the plants from the bag, cut them back (they looked rather sick for awhile) & planted them in my garden. I am delighted this winter that the hellebores are flowering away happily & there are a wonderful mix of pinks & creams, & even a variegated one which I have not photographed particularly well.
This morning I picked a vaseful of the hellebore flowers to enjoy on my kitchen bench. The vase was a $1 Op Shop find & is perfect for sweet little bunches of flowers like this.
Before I went away to Mum's last month, I started work on one of the Tilda Cats - a free pattern off their website - go
* here * & scroll down about half way. I had the dark grey fleck fabric in my stash which I used for the body, & the dress is made from Tilda Woodland fabric.
Upon my return from Mum's I finished her - I thought I would give her to Juno (my stepgrandaughter) for Christmas, as Juno loves cats & they have a real life grey cat.
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Click on the picture to enlarge & get a better view |
The bag is included in the pattern - some of the Woodland range have the sweetest selvedge edges, including this with the coloured squirrels along it. I cut it out & sewed it to my bag strap as I thought it was delightful. The Tilda pattern doesn't have whiskers but I decided my cat needed some so I used a thin waxed leather thonging that I had in my stash.
I had barely put the finishing touches to Juno's Cat when my lovely friend Jane called out & commissioned me to make her a Tilda Cat. Jane had her own pattern & wanted hers made in a pretty pale grey linen & the dress from a vintage floral sheet. When it came time to cut the dress pattern out, I didn't need to iron the sheet as Pippi very kindly did it for me !!! 😉
I LoVe how Jane's cat turned out - in fact I love it better than the one I made for Juno 💚. Jane's only request was that she have a green nose to match the green in the dress fabric.
And that she have a hanging loop on the back as Jane planned to hang her up.
My other finish this week was an Order for 20 mothball sachets for my friend Maria. I haven't made these in awhile & the house smelt fresh & lovely with the dried mint inside them.
You can find the recipe for these at the bottom at the bottom of this post Here.
As I sit typing this today, the furry two are sound asleep on my bed (Yes on my good bedspread that I said they were Never Ever getting on !!!)
Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week dear friends,
Thanks so much for your visits here today,
With much love & friendship to You All,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x
Awww it's snuggling up weather at the moment. Love the pussy cats you are making- very sweet Julie.
ReplyDeleteGreat post always so interesting , Love the cats and flowers .
ReplyDeleteOh! No! All those poor flowers, cut, and put
ReplyDeletein vases..and..the poor Broccoli, left out
of water..HeHe! Are'nt l wicked..! :).
The Tilda cats look lovely, did Blackie
model the top one, if he did, you certainly
removed a bit of weight from his tummy! :).
Bless him..!x
The bottom photo is just lovely to..that's
going into my Miss Pippi/Blackie folder....
Nothing like a nice bedspread to spend a
few hours on...ALL..cuddled up..!xx
Well..l must get on..coffee morning, this
morning with the ladies, and it's my turn
to~day, suns out, and it's getting quite
warm..be nice out on the patio..! :o).
☕ 🍰 ☕ 🍰 ☕ 🍰 ☕ 🍰 ☕ 🍰 ☕
Those Tilda cats are gorgeous Julie and I'm sure Juno will love hers.
ReplyDeleteThank You so much Pam ... I am hoping Juno will enjoy hers & will make sure there are no bits she can pull off on it. xx
DeleteAlways such lovely sewing, I rathe like the pale grey cat but would put her in the Tilda dress from the other cat. Thank you for the mothball recipe, going to have a look now. x
ReplyDeleteOf course, the cats look lovely on your beautiful crochet spread. It shows them off perfectly. I'm thinking Miss Pip
ReplyDeletewas helping make the cute cats just so she could make sure they did not come to life and add to the family. They certainly
turned out cute. And what a plant "find" from your friend's toss aways. Love the flowers. Fun to share one way or
another. I do look at your instagram, but always late! I'm "seneyriley" follower. Have a wonderful week ahead. Lynn and Precious XX
Thanks so much Lynn & Precious. Yes they are back on the bedspread today as its raining again here 😒 I did find you on Instagram Lynn & am now following you.
DeleteJulie, I don't actually post instagram, just have a door into it so I can see a few other folks.
DeleteThanks for being a friend so far away.
I'm not sure if you will see this Lynn but I wondered if you would like to email me so I have your email address & can reply to your comments personally - I would love to do this rather than always reply on here but understand if you would rather not. If you feel so inclined - my email address is stitchedbyjulie@hotmail.com 😊
DeleteDeja Vu Last year I dug up the tired flower bed in front of my house (in the August heat). My neighbors thought I had lost my mind. Replanted with limelight hydrangea, blue salvia, Russian sage and hostas. This year it is beautiful. Am about ready to dig up another section of lawn and reseed (because it is ugly) Am sure this will once again have the neighbors scratching their heads thinking I am nuts.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy seeing the bounties from your garden. So clever of you (and not wholly unexpected) to plant the throw-aways from Gail.
ReplyDeleteI think each Tilda cat is delightful--just different personalities. So fun to use the cute selvedge as the bag strap. And that vintage sheet made a lovely kitty dress.
Speaking of two cats, they appear very comfortable on the forbidden bedspread. Right at home. :)
How many beautiful things have you done. Your harvest is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteLady Samy
Thank You so much Lady Samy for your sweet kind comment. xx
DeleteYou know I might just make a couple of those tilda cats for my sister and her husband.
ReplyDeleteI definately think you should Kim - maybe when you come back from your trip ?
DeleteYour cats are just lovely... so clever to get the faces and legs just right ....
ReplyDeleteHugz
Love your Tilda cats Julie, your so clever with those plants, gee I would of burnt them all😂 Chris xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteHey! I love your blog! The tilda kittens were beautiful! and your cat is beautiful too! A kiss from Eliane
ReplyDeleteThe Tilda cats are lovely, the green nose is quite fetching.
ReplyDeleteI went and copied out your herbal moth ball recipe and that is definitely something I am going to try, probably next year as my rosemary did not come back this year.
God bless.
those mothballs look pretty and practical, I haven't tried drying mint and I have loads of it growing, I am definitely doing this one! The cats are pretty, I particularly like the Tilda woodland fabric. I can't imagine citrus and broccoli growing in the same garden in the same Season!
ReplyDeleteSome lovely things in your garden. I do like the two cats (by the way I am still looking out for fabric for the Easter rabbit!) and personally prefer the first one! I recently made up some lavender bags but I am off to look at your recipe now. Lin xx
ReplyDeleteYou did well with the hellebores in the garden Julie, I have some clivias here just sending up flower stems, which is pretty exciting!! The cats both look amazing, the Tilda ones, that is a gorgeous photo of Miss Pippi and Blackie together. Off to look up your mothball sachets.
ReplyDeleteBoth cats are gorgeous. I love how you used the selvage for the bag strap. All those flowers are lovely. I love Daphne. There are two large Daphne plants in Mum's new unit so I've picked some and put it in a vase for here. Smells devine! Have a lovely weekend Julie. xx
ReplyDeleteTilda cat is a beautiful pattern, I have saved it to sew for my little girl. Your flowers are utterly delightful!
ReplyDeletexx
Thanks for your sweet comment Emma - I think it would make such a beautiful gift for your gorgeous wee girl !! ❤
DeleteOh the lovely kitties!
ReplyDeleteThe two cats are gorgeous Julie - the fabric set and the 'real' set. It's always neat to see how different fabrics change things up so much. Lovely winter garden colour too - that was a great save of the hellebores, well done on the rescue!
ReplyDeleteJulie, your home is lovely with the bouquets of flowers from your garden. Our daphne is thriving as well, though ours is white. Hellebores are a welcome sight in the midst of dark winter. =) They grow easily and make excellent flowers in a vase. Your camellias are pretty, too. Your two Tilda cats are adorable. Why, I love Juno's. Is there such a thing as a 'bad' Tilda collection?? Each time there is a new collection, I fall in love with it. The Woodland collection is so pretty and sweet with all the little critters. I have just bought a lot of the new collection, Garden Life.....it is so, so pretty. As always a visit to your lovely place has left me oohing and aahing. Such a delightful place in which you live♡
ReplyDeleteI love the perfume of the Daphne flowers. My Hellebores never last long in a vase but they do look pretty on the first day. Goes without saying how much I love those cats, fabric and real ones!xxx
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Kitty Cat post. The fabric cats in dresses are gorgeous....are you tempted to make your furry friends some outfits?
ReplyDeleteP.S sorry I missed this post. xx
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