Crinoline Lady duchess set centrepiece, received from the U.K. last week. Incidentally, I have just added some more peacock embroidered items to my Peacocks Blog.
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..and the matching doilies.
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This is part of an apron I received today from Belgium. The eBay seller has a heap of vintage samplers and fascinating stitched items on her blog, but I am not going to be tempted! Well, not much anyway. She says this little half apron was a school project. It is beautifully stitched; makes me wonder why the person who did it would want to part with it..
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Remember the linen I cleaned for a friend while I was on holiday? Well, these are some pictures taken on the day I brought it back home, and Ken thought I had bought it all at an auction!
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M's linen in the back of my car.
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I think this was probably a traycloth or centrepiece. Very unusual design, with the orange flowers stitched in button hole stitch, then neatly trimmed. I've seen some examples of this kind of work that have been very untidily cut, which has put me off buying them, but this is nice.
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Duchess set small doiley
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Duchess set centrepiece
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New links on my sidebar.

I spend a lot of my time online not only reading my favourite blogs, but clicking on their sidebar links to see what they're reading that I might have missed...and of course, as we all share common interests somewhere along the line, some of YOUR favourite blogs eventually get added to my list of favourite blogs! And of course when a new name pops up as a comment on one of my posts, I have to return the visit! One of my new additions is Diana - The Lone Beader, who does the most beautiful things with beads. I have a small collection of beads that I've bought at craft shows, with the intention of using them to embellish some of my cross stitch and other embroidery projects, but I can only remember using them once - to add sparkle to a cross stitch Xmas card!

I won this gorgeous teacosy on eBay from a guy in England who said he was cleaning out an elderly relative's belongings. In the same package were the items below (the blue embroidery and the applique cloth). I couldn't quite believe this cosy was hand stitched when I saw the photo on eBay, but I decided to take a punt, and I am so pleased that I did. The stitching is so detailed, it is difficult to scan a good picture. On the other side of the cosy is a small patch of flowers.
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This is one item in a set of four pieces stitched with the same design. A long table runner, a placemat and two small items, possibly coasters.
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Nice little suppercloth embroidered, with an applique flower in each corner.
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One of four matching appliqued napkins.
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Attention Lovers of embroidered Peacocks.

Just a reminder to anyone who missed my post a few days ago - I have removed all my embroidered peacocks from this blog and relocated them to a separarate blog Patra's Embroidered Peacocks.
And if you are interested in stitching a peacock (or two) for yourself, Pam Kellogg has created some designs based on my linens that you can download and use. Pam is a very talented designer and stitcher, and I think she is very generous to allow her readers to download her creations for free.

Look at these! I received a parcel from NSW yesterday - NOT ebay for a change! No, it was from dear Ms Robyn, who knew I would love these handkies (and another doiley which I hadn't scanned tonight). Robyn, you would not believe how many times I have bid on eBay for crinoline lady handkies, and missed out! So I am truly chuffed that you should have found these and send them to me. Tar muchly!!
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No, I'm not going to take up CQ, but I just couldn't resist this book with stunning colour pictures of absolutely beautiful small projects. Especially at that price! (A$7.99). Have you seen this one, Sharon? If not, you are welcome to borrow this for as long as you like!
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One of a set of five placemats. Can somebody enlighten me - is this type of cutwork embroidery in grey thread also known as Madeira? I should know; I can always ask at the Guild, but I'm sure someone reading this will tell me!
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This is a huckabuck guest towel, with a stunning filet crochet edge at one end. Very unusual; all my other huckabuck towels have hemmed edges or narrow crochet or lace edges.
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A simply gorgeous "good morning" traycloth, with lots of coloured daisies on the left and right hand corners, and the teapot in the centre, featuring a piece of crocheted lace to hold the napkin. Should have been ironed first, I know..sorry.
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This is the centrepiece for a three piece duchess set. The two matching doilies are below.
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These are the two matching small doilies belonging to the Bluebirds duchess set.
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Art deco napkin - just one in the opshop. It's a sure bet I'll never find the others in the set!
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Art deco doiley found at opshop.
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The Embroiderer's Guild of Victoria.

Last Tuesday was my first day as a regular 'Gallery Hostess' at the Guild House in Wattletree Road, Malvern. I wrote on Patra's Other Place that I had a few misgivings, wondering if I'd made the right decision, but I'm happy to say I have. My duties were explained in detail by the other two volunteers, and once they were sure I understood what needed to be done, we all relaxed and enjoyed our day. I did an hour or so of my stitching in between answering the occasional phone call and speaking to the other people who were in and out during the day. The Gallery was being set up for the annual exhibition, so I spent most of my time in the library with the Library and Front Desk hostesses. Normally I will spend my day in the Gallery, as the primary role is to be there to keep an eye on the displays, and talk to anyone who wanders in. We are allowed free reign to the library, which is a mind-blowing collection of books and magazines on all kinds of needlecrafts from knitting to embroidery, and everything in between. The Guild subscribes to a large number of English language needlecraft magazines around the world - Australian, English and American mostly, including to my great delight an American quarterly called "Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly". Danielle has mentioned this several times on her blog and I was tempted to subscribe to it myself as it sounded fascinating. But now I don't have to - I can borrow the Guild copies whenever I like! On Saturday morning, I was back at the Guild for three hours, as one of the exhibition hostesses. More volunteers are needed there during the exhibition, as it is widely publicised and attracts a lot more people than the usual day to day traffic. Again I enjoyed myself, as the long-standing members are getting to know me and include me in more discussions and activities, instead of just being politely friendly, as one tends to do to 'ring-ins' who are not regular attendees of a group. The exhibits are as always, absolutely sensational. Someone asked me if I had my work out there and I exclaimed "You must be joking! I will NEVER be that good!" to which they responded "Rubbish - if you think your own work is worth framing, it would be good enough to be in one of the Guild's exhibitions". Something to think about...

I started this over a year ago, to make a birthday card for someone, but changed my mind. Finally finished it last week, and I'm still deciding whether or not to keep it for myself and make one of Pam Kellogg's door knockers.
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New Blog: Patra's Embroidered Peacocks!

Well, that was fun! I have just created my fifth blog (getting a bit precious, aren't we?), and the more I fiddle around, the more I learn. I have now transferred all my embroidered peacock pictures to the new blog, so Pam and anyone else who wants to play with them - go right ahead!
Another beneficial side effect of achieving this, is that I can now see which items in my collection I have scanned and recorded here. I was getting a tad confused, when they all started arriving from the U.S.A., and didn't feel like scrolling back to see whether or not I had included something. Now I know there are a couple of pieces in my collection that I still haven't scanned, so I will get on to that in the next few days. Incidentally, I won another two peacock doilies on ebay tonight - in Australia this time!
While on the subject of peacocks, I have a few swapcards featuring these lovely birds - would anyone like to see them as well as the linens?