Some more embroidered lovelies for my collection.

These three photos are of recent eBay auction wins all from the U.K. Each pic has its own description, but if you want to know anything else, feel free to ask. I have some simply stunning aprons, but they won't fit on the scanner, so you will have to wait for pics. of them!

The second teacosy - and this one is NOT a rescusitation of something else! Very pretty - sorry about the crease down the middle. I keep forgetting to iron these things before I scan them!
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One of two teacosies from England. I suspect this started out as a cloth or table runner, as when it is turned inside out, it is very poorly finished off, with the edges on each side not meeting properly. If so, it was a clever idea to remake a damaged cloth into something smaller!
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Lagartera cloth from England. This panel is repeated 9 times on the cloth, with the border at the top of this picture around each centre.
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Mail Art blog.

Readers of this blog were very impressed last year when I posted a pic of a mail art envelope I received from Danielle in the USA. Tonight when I was catching up with my favorite blogs, I found a link on Zalita's blog for a friend of hers who does a lot of mail art. Go have a look - you will be blown away if you like this as much as I do! I have put a link on my side bar, but to save time, click HERE.

Some new linen, yet to be photographed.

Love that Paypal, but got a shock when my Mastercard statement arrived today! Just as well I am getting a few more hours a week at work to cover my increased spending!! Seriously, I should be more worried about the cost of living instead of indulging my passion for linen. With petrol now at A$1.40 a litre (between A$5 and A$6 a gallon for you Americans), and our food bill skyrocketing lately, we are living way beyond our means. Eight bananas cost me $16 today, taking my fruit and veg. bill to $33 - almost double what it is usually. And the checkout girl at our local butcher was going to charge me $70 for my weeks supply of meat - until I queried it! When she checked her addition, she found she had overcharged me $10. She was all apologies, but her boss was not happy, and offered me a discount on a piece of pork in my order. I'm a regular customer there, and as he knows, I left my last butcher because of poor service
Goodness, how did I get on to all that waffle? Sorry! Now, as I started out to say, thanks to Paypal, I am able to snap up some sensational stuff overseas on eBay, and one such item arrived today - a beautiful Legartara cloth from England. Stitched in blue on snowy white soft cotton, and I suspect it is fairly old, as the stitching is coming adrift in a few spots, but not to the overall detriment of the cloth. I will try to scan it later tonight. I have had a few items arrive lately but they are too big to scan, so I resurrected my digital camera from the back of a cupboard, and have asked Ken to recharge the batteries for me. Hopefully our photographic expert friend in the next street will be free this weekend to give me some lessons...again! He showed me how to work it a year ago, but that's what happens when you don't use something regularly, isn't it...

Welcome to our Bloggers world Lee-Ann!

Some of my readers may remember my excitement at being selected to attend the Antiques Roadshow when it was in Melbourne. While I was there, I met up with several Ebay buyers and sellers that I had got to know over the Net, and we have since kept in touch. Lee-Ann lives in country Victoria, and has the most fantastic collection of Crinoline Lady china you would see anywhere. She had part of her collection on display at the Melbourne Museum last year, and I think I mentioned here that I went along to have a look.
She phoned me tonight to ask for my address, as she had discovered some vintage linen in an opshop, that she thought I might like. Friends like that are Friends with a capital F!! She also mentioned that she has been lurking on Patra's Place, and decided to start her own blog. As she is a lover of all things vintage, like so many of us, I am putting a link here to Lee-Ann's blog, and hoping that some of you will drop by to say hi. I'm sure she will soon be part of our little vintage blogger community!

HUGE windfall in today's mail!!

Well, that is a slight exaggeration I suppose, but I was certainly excited when I collected three parcels at the post office - two from England and one from Western Australia! All eBay wins of course. The two crinoline lady cloths are from England and the cottage garden cloth from one of my favourite Aussie eBay sellers in W.A. Each picture has a detailed description of the photo. The other picture underneath is two of the eight cards I received from the members of a birthday card exchange group. The other cards are also hand made, but not stitched, so I didn't include them here.

This delightful little supper cloth has the same design in each corner, but the flowers are different colours on each one. A variety of exquisite stitches are used on this; bit difficult to tell from this picture. Lovely hand crocheted edging finishes it off nicely.
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Sadly I couldn't fit quite all of the design on to the scanner, but you get the picture. Each corner of this cloth is the same, and as well as the C/ladies, there is a circle of flowers in the middle of the cloth.
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The Crinoline ladies on each corner of this cloth are embroidered in different colours.
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Two cross stitched cards from members of an MSN Cross stitch group I belong too. Even Ken commented on the one of the children - he couldn't get over the depth of colours and fine work involved in it.
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Happy Easter to all my Blog Friends!
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Monday's mail brought....

...some nice surprises! The two doilies pictured here are from the same eBay seller, and I think I might be one of her regular customers, as her auction items are always quality stuff. Well, many of my favourite sellers only sell top quality stuff - I suppose that's why I keep going back.
The little sheep kit came with a stunning wall hanging/table topper cloth of a map of Australia with various icons stitched in and around the outline of the map. I have several different 'map of Australia' cloths, and I am starting to wonder if we are the only country that has so many different designs on this theme? I know the U.K. have a few, but I've never seen many from anywhere else. As usual, I can't produce a photo of the cloth here because it is too big to scan, so it will have to wait until the digital camera is operative.
The Yorkshire Terrier cross stitch came from a Blog friend who shall remain anonymous here, as she may not want to be identified as giving the kit to me!
I have some fabulous stuff arriving soon, from the U.K. as well as Australia, thanks to PayPal. Four tablecloths, two aprons and a teacosy.

This charming little cross stitch kit came from a Blog Friend, who found she didn't have time to do it, and isn't in to dogs anyway. "Z", you have email!
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This cute little kit came as an 'extra' from an eBay seller from whom I have bought quite a lot of linen. I had won a small cloth from her, which arrived today, and when I opened the parcel, this cross stitch fell out on my lap!
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From the same eBay seller who had the ship doiley, this lovely item also took my fancy. Can't you just see a floral cup and saucer set in similar colours, atop this doiley? Or a vase of marigolds or other orange/gold flowers.
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Like so many people, I have long had a fascination for sailing ships, so when this table centre appeared on eBay, I had to bid for it!
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Another addition to this blog.

I use to be averse to 'busy' blogs; by that I mean those with flashing lights, bells and whistles. But I am finding myself adding things to Patra's Place in order to make it more interesting to those who visit, so please leave a comment if you feel it is getting a bit too much. Tonight I have added a link to my Webshots album, in which is recorded all of my own completed stitching projects - at least, those that I have photographed before they were given away! So on the right hand side here (underneath the lists of the blogs I visit) are some photos from the Webshots album where you can click on a link to see more in that category. I didn't realise it would do that when I inserted the Webshots info. on to my template; I just thought it would give the Webshots icon alone. Oh well...

This will be stitched on to a piece of gingham print fabric and made into a pincushion.
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One corner of the Castles cloth. Can't get it all on the scanner, but you can still get an idea of how lovely it is. I won't be scanning the other corners unless I am requested to do so. One day I'll get my digital camera warmed up and take proper photos of my larger items to put on this blog!
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Thank you! And some more eye candy...

Wow! If I get this many responses to my Blog 'birthday', what comments will arrive on my 'real' birthday, coming up in a couple of weeks?? Maybe I won't even mention it...getting older, y'know. Anyway, thanks to everyone who blogged good wishes to me; I haven't replied to each one individually, as I know all of you already except one lady from "Beautiful Craft" - hello, and thank you for popping in to visit! I perused your blog in return, and loved it - I'll be back!
Now, for today's ebay arrivals. One is a pair of pillowcases from the USA - my only source of peacock embroidery and what a stunner this one is. The other item is a suppercloth, and this also is an extraordinary find. It has four castles embroidered on it - a different one in each corner, and a floral emblem to go with it. Windsor Castle and the Rose for England, Edinburgh Castle and a thistle for Scotland, Carnavon Castle and a daffodil for Wales, and the fourth Castle with a shamrock is obviously of Ireland, but I can't make out the actual castle name.
The third picture is of a small item I have just finished for a friend. It is to be attached to a pincushion before I send it off.

First Anniversary of Patra's Place

One year ago today, I created my first blog - Patra's Place. Since then I have made numerous new friends on the Internet (and lost a few in the process too!). Thank you Sharon, for your help and inspiration, and thank you to everyone who visits me here and on my other blogs. There is now a third blog on my list - it is my life story in the form of a blog novel. I have been documenting my life for some years, and it is not something that will ever be published in book form, but many others have used Blogger.com to record their memories, so I have joined their ranks!