A Slow Stitched Piece, A Quilt Show & A (mini) Magazine Feature

Greetings lovely friends & readers

For my friend Sally's birthday last month I decided I wanted to make her a slow stitched piece incorporating her favorite things ... Books, Vintage, Flowers & Cats.  She actually loves other things but these were what came to mind when I thought about Sally 💗

It was very much a case of make-it-up-as-you-go-along & I worked on it for a couple of weeks just adding in bits as ideas came to me.  I didn't want it to be too large & in the end decided to sew it into a small wall hanging which Sally could just tuck in anywhere.

 

I pulled out some of my treasured Tilda scraps to make the small hexie flower.

 

 Sally has the cutest little white cat called Georgie so I painted this tiny red wooden button white - while I had the chalk paint out painting the scroll hanger.

I knew Sally loved Tilda fabrics so I used a small floral print to back the piece & typed out a label which I attached with some vintage lace.

As Sally works in a Bookstore selling a huge variety of cards I decided to get something a bit different for her birthday card.

  I have followed Maxine's lovely blog for awhile & always admired the cards she creates so I asked her to please make a card that showed Sally's love of cats & books.  I love what Maxine created & Sally was delighted when she opened both the card AND the gift 💛

 

It was the annual 2024 Quilt Symposium for the first week of October & this year it was held in Cambridge, just 20 minutes down the road from where I live - I had to go!!  This stall above just made me swoon ... filled to the brim with Tilda fabrics & kits & patterns & all the things that I love ................ 

I'll take one of each item Thank You Very Much !!!!  No I was very restrained dear friends, as I remembered the rather large container of Tilda fabrics I already had in the cupboard at home  😔

 

This flour sack quilt above left caught my eye because I have some of these vintage flour sacks myself

Above right was a tree filled with hand sewn pears & apples, all beaded exquisitely - stunning 💙

 

There were some absolutely stunning quilts on display & my photos really do not do justice to the talent that was showcased here.  I only snapped a very few photos as I walked around.

 

These were my only purchases above - as I said, I was very restrained. But I really enjoyed my outing together with my friends Shirley & Bev.  And afterwards we went to a wonderful Garden Centre Cafe for lunch - it was just the change of scenery that I needed. 

 

I had a minuscule feature in a magazine article last week.   No dear friends, it was Not for my fashion & beauty tips!  Remember back in * this post * when I won the Resene Voucher as a Runner Up in the Garden Glow Up Competition?  Well they did a feature in the latest Habitat Magazine which is a free issue that comes out twice yearly.  I was delighted & offered my family members free signed copies but for some reason they did not take me up on my very kind offer 😉

We are getting sunny but chilly days - typical spring weather.  

Miss Pippi is lying in the afternoon sun down in the hospital corner of my lounge, where I put any house-plants that need extra care. How I wish I could lie down here myself & someone would lavish extra care on me!

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week dear friends,

Thank you for your ever-welcome visits here today,

With much love & friendship to you all,

 

Gardening . . . . . . With Vintage China

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Thank you all so very much for your kind & encouraging comments on my last post.  Not one of you told me to get over it & get on with it (like The Mr did) & I do appreciate your kindness with all my heart. You are right dear friends, nature is resourceful & I am sure it will all return to its former glory again given time.

I have been continuing on with my mantra of tackle one small corner at a time ... so it all doesn't feel so overwhelming.

Captured last week - the Magnolia tree in full bloom & look at that wonderful blue sky  💙

 

I pulled this old red cupboard out of the woodshed - I'd not used it for a couple of years & it was looking tatty & unloved.  I gave it a good scrub as I wanted to change the colour. 

You can read a bit about this cupboard in * this post *.

The green block of wood in matching colour is to ensure the enamel sink sits straight, not on a slant

 

I painted it with my (Resene) Green Paddock paint & then gave it the same stencil treatment as before.  I love this soft sage green colour.

The old vintage enamel sink had been languishing behind my garden, overgrown for a number of years - I used to have it planted with succulents.  I hauled it out & scrubbed it thoroughly.  

This whole vintage china idea came about because my friend Joyce had cleaned out her china cabinet & given me a box of china oddments, some of them chipped or cracked, but still beautiful.

I planted the enamel basin with a punnet of blue & white Lobelia & then I tucked some of the chipped china cups & plates into this.

 I also lined the drawer with a black rubbish bag & planted blue Lobelia in this.

I planted a small thrifted soup tureen with succulent cuttings from around my garden, to sit in the middle shelf.

I'd already washed the walls of my house so I changed out the vintage plates I'd previously hung there in pink, green & red colours ...... & instead hung Joyce's blue china plates - I liked the change of colour way & the soft green & blue palette.

 

Once the pansies in my big square planter finish, I'll plant blue & white Lobelia in here too.  

 

I'm really liking the softer colours out here.  Note to self - give the wooden chest of drawers a good wax (!!) 😉

 

I had a couple of Lobelia leftover so I planted an old cast iron kettle & a hanging wall pot that my friend Jane gifted me last year.

 

All the while that I worked out on my deck Blackie slept on an old trunk that I was trying to in the process of carting over to my Cottage for storage.  Though it looks like Little One is sleeping beside him, he is actually down on the deck but is pretending that he is asleep beside "his friend Blackie". 

 

I have been trying to clean up the mess close to the house & trying not to look at the mess further down the section. I filled in a large trench with top soil & sprinkled some grass seed over it.  You can see in the photo top left that it rained heavily & all my grass seed washed down onto the driveway & left big channels.  I found an old piece of downpipe & shoved that up into the guttering pipe & this redirected the water directly onto the driveway.  You can just see my 2nd lot of grass seed coming through in the top right pic.  (this would grow a lot faster if a certain large black cat stopped lying on top of it!!)

 

I cleaned out my worm farm & filled 15 bottles with worm tea, I gifted some to friends & neigbors as this is prime feeding time for plants.  I snapped a photo of a Tui in my maple tree which is yet to get any leaves on it.  I love all the birdlife in my garden. 

 

To say Thank You to Joyce for the china, I made her an apricot & coconut fudge slice as I knew this was her favorite.  It's school holidays here in New Zealand so I made Chocolate Fudge, & Rice Bubble Crisp for my Grandsons last week. 

 

The Mr milked for 4 days last week & when he'd finished he dumped his stinky cow mucky overalls on the deck for the cleaning fairy that lives here to wash & clean again (!!) 😉  Within 5 minutes Madam Pippi had come along ... sniff, sniff, oh yes how wonderful ... rolling round in it & then falling asleep - absolutely no class at all that ginger girl !!! 😲

 

We have computer issues dear friends  - it has taken me 3 days & lots of chocolate to manage to write this post going between my computer & The Mr's laptop.  I am not sure when this will be resolved & I am also having trouble commenting on some of your posts, but I will keep trying & hopefully eldest son can come & fix it for me (tho' it was not sounding positive by his last phone call).

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

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,

With much love & friendship to you all,

 

Nice Things . . . . . . & Definately-NoT-Nice Things

Greetings lovely friends & readers

It has been a challenging week - lets start with the NoT Nice Things.

Our property is 4 acres, rectangular with a large chunk at the end being the depot yard which is tenanted.  The rest is garden which, when I ran my Craft Cottage I used to open to Garden Clubs & Bus Groups. It's only Me that looks after it as The Mr has an entire farm to run, away from our property here.  It's been a challenging year for me health-wise, having been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease earlier this year ... everything around here now takes me 3 (or 4) times longer to accomplish.      All this to say ... I was finally beginning to feel like I was catching up with the garden & it was looking cared for again as spring bursts forth.

Then alas - our toilet blocked, water came up instead of going down.  A Plumber was called, the diagnosis - you need new septic tank fields put in! Oh Dear Me!  The next day 2 diggers & 4 men arrived.

 The large section of deck garden that was filled with assorted flowering spring bulbs, foxgloves just coming up into spikes & sweet little Strawberry Begonias was the first to be dug up.  Out & down the driveway they went . . . . . .

around the corner & across the carport, cobblestones all dug up, lucky I'd moved my car earlier.  

Way down past the pond the digging went - the new rules state it has to be 60 square metres now.  Thankfully The Mr was here when the Boss in charge said he was going to dig out my weeping Cherry Blossom Tree - it stayed!    You seriously would've thought we were installing an olympic sized swimming pool! 

I stopped snapping pics after this lot - I was hiding in the house instead.  Some piles of clay were carted away in a big truck, some got left.  It all got plonked back in again & covered up.  

Later that day when I took Sid home (5 pm) I saw the Vans leaving & thought to myself Oh I can go home, use the Loo & finally do some loads of washing.  

Guess what dear friends ... Toilet still not working !!! I think it was about now I had my first meltdown.  The Mr got on the phone & early next morning a Plumber arrived ... 20 minutes later - Gosh, sorry, toilet pipe was blocked with paper, we've cleared it now - all fixed.  

So all that was for nothing ????  Well you have a nice new septic tank system now (That we didn't need in the first place !!!)  There have been quite a few meltdowns on my part following this debacle I can assure you!

We need to level, roll & regrass but currently it has all turned to mud as we've had so much spring rain.  I had the cutest little curved brick path to my pond lined with lavenders.  Here is my path above left & I think the lavenders might be under the pile of soil above right.  It is rather heartbreaking to this VeRy tired Gardener dear friends.

In the midst of it all I drove to the Dairy & bought myself the above supplies (which I think I consumed in a couple of hours).  Eldest Son assured me it was okay because I could well have driven myself to the Liquor Store for supplies (!!) 😉instead of the Dairy.

Little One & Blackie hid under the house for the entire day & Miss Pip took up residence in my undies drawer & I covered her up with her cuddly rug.   I think if there was room, I would've climbed in with her. 

Nice Things ...

I cried for an entire day & then I told myself to pull my socks up & get on with it!!  I went out & tried to rescue some of the flowers the men had dug out & tossed on the lawn.  I've sifted the bulbs from the soil & will replant them for next spring.  I thought if I could just clean up one corner it all wouldn't look quite so bad so that's what I concentrated on - one little corner.

As some of the decking boards had been lifted I scrubbed everything before shifting things back. I sewed a new curtain from a thrifted curtain for our old dog kennel which I use to hide things under & the top makes a good potting bench.  I scrubbed the oilcloth top & the fresh new curtain looked so pretty.

I repotted the orchid my son gave me last Mother's Day as the roots were coming out the base.  Mums red geranium got a good trim & a fluff up too.

I put a new coconut fibre inner in my thrifted chair planter & popped a punnet of white petunias in it.  I haven't used this for a couple of years so it was good to give it a freshen up.

  I've been washing the outside walls too but I think I might be a bit premature as today the pink blossom petals are blowing everywhere & sticking to all my cleaned walls.

Remember in my last post when I spoke about the wonderful cross-stitches my friend Jane had gifted me?  The one I sent to the Framers was ready so I collected it & hung it on my Sampler wall.  It is the Remember Me one ... all the others are my own handwork.  I LoVe my Sampler wall 💗

My daughter in law has a very sore back & I've been trying to help out.  She mentioned both her wheatbags had holes in them so I made new covers for both & also added a tablespoon of dried lavender to each bag.  She was so grateful & said they smelt heavenly.

Thank you dear friends, for staying through this lengthy post - I hope it wasn't all too negative ... I write this as a record for myself mainly.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, it's cold & wet here but that's typical spring weather & in amongst the cold & the wet ... I can still see things growing & coming back to life.

With much love & friendship to you all,

First Week of Spring

Greetings lovely friends & readers

And Welcome to my favourite season of them all ... 💗 Spring

Although it is raining today, the first few days of September have been beautiful weather & I have spent lots of time working outside - although I have spent many hours out there, there is always much to be done still . . . . . . 
 

A sweet smelling vase of spring bulbs picked before the rains came. 

It was back in May, in *this post* that I planted this pot of Peony Tulips - I'd never grown this variety before but these were gifted & I absolutely adore them with their frilly heads.

In early August my dear friend Jane posted me a belated birthday gift - a set of 3 gorgeous cross-stitches, not Jane's work but some she'd purchased.  I took one in to the Framers & then decided to make this "Dear Friend" one into a long plump cushion for my bed as I felt the colours would go well.  I backed it with a cotton linen fabric, made an inner & stuffed it really tightly.

This took me less than an hours work & I am so delighted with the finished article.  I just LoVe it sitting on my bed.

I've put a lighter weight quilt on the end of my bed now it's warmer & the colours all blend together perfectly (I think).

I'm still deciding what to do with cross-stitch No 3 so I'll keep you posted.

We had our craft get-together last Monday at Joyce's but unfortunately I was unable to attend - I'd still completed my catfood tin challenge from * this post *. 

I took 3 of the remaining catfood tins & painted them with cream chalk paint, then I poured soy candle wax into them & fragranced it with orange/clove oils.  I had this lovely festive serviette so I decided to decoupage some of it onto my tins using mod podge.

I thought they turned out so pretty ... then I decided to make a swing tag using the same serviette offcuts.  

This (thrifted) tray has been in my stash for years a very long time.  I painted it with 2 coats Forrest Green Chalk paint  - Yes I was going for a Christmas theme here.  🎄

As the candle tins sat too low in the tray I glued 3 circles of firm quilt wadding to the underside of each one - this just propped them up nicely to the right height.

The addition of some greenery & berry pips & I thought it turned out rather well. 

 Only one other lady had done her challenge so we are going to show them next month - I shall try & get some photos as it's always interesting seeing what the others come up with.

I have no idea of the name of this houseplant, it has a variegated leaf & pink stems, but I love it.  It was very potbound so I found this old pot of Mums under my house & chalk painted it Vintage White.  I added a leftover transfer & waxed it well.

From the one plant I was able to divide it up into 4 houseplants - some I will gift.  Should you know the name of this plant, please do leave me a comment below as I'd love to know it.   

It is very tricky to get good photos of Little One as he is rarely still.  Last night I clicked this of him on the dining-room couch, the fire is going beside him.   He is improving but still will scratch & bite - more playful than attacking.  He likes his eyes & side of the face gently patted & will be very still when I do this.  This is for all those of you that ask for more photos of him. (Shhh don't tell the other two)

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

Wishing you all a wonderful rest-of-the-week, remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,