Vintage Cars cross stitched wall hanging.

Dear Lee-Ann is forever finding wonderful stuff in opshops in the country towns where she lives and shops. We paid a quick visit to Lee-Ann and Rob on Monday, and she presented me with a little parcel, nicely wrapped in tissue and blue ribbon. She found this item in a church opshop, and decided it was far too good to languish there indefinitely. So for $3, she bought this for me.
A cross stitched wall hanging (or bell pull) of vintage cars. It is worked on linen, and is finished off with a padded backing. This photo doesn't do it justice of course - I should have taken a couple of closeup shots as well, but you will just have to imagine the work that has gone into this. And to end up in the opshop for $3...criminal. I do hope whoever stitched this will somehow sense that her work is very much appreciated, even though we'll probably never meet.

My Christmas is not quite over!

I still have a couple of Christmas exchanges to be completed. I'm still working on a cross stitched card for Annie B, which is from a book called "Two Hour Cross Stitch" - ha ha...this one has taken me nearly 3 weeks so far, and the backstitching alone took two hours! Annie, I have nearly finished, and it should be in the mail before next year (grin).
I have one more ornie to come from Jan in England, for our Stitchin Fingers ornie round robin. I know that Joy has received my ornie, but I've yet to hear from the other ladies if theirs has arrived. Last week I received this stunning fabric postcard from Liz in Kansas. She has used a kind of braid to make the Xmas tree shape, and embellished it with beads, stitching and a little plastic 'NOEL'. Gorgeous!

*****Happy Christmas*****

To anyone and everyone who reads this blog - my best wishes for a very Happy Christmas, and a safe and peaceful New Year. Gina

Scrap fabrics.

LeeAnn included these in her parcel of goodies for me. The parcel was actually tied up with ribbon and finished off with this tassell!
Unusual Japanese style design. Aww - paper dolls! Remember them? I'm planning a patchwork block with that theme, so this fabric will certainly find a spot on it.
I wish I'd had this scrap when I was working on those Autumn fabric postcards!
Some nice little scraps for small projects like FPCs and ATCs.

LeeAnn's doilies continued

Two lots of sandwich tray doilies. Click on the top photo for a closeup view of the beautiful crocheted edge on the unembroidered doiley on the right. Cute Duchess set! Grrrr.. doesn't it make you cross when a photo turns out like this - colour all wrong compared to the previous shots....sorry.

1001 posts!

I just noticed on the Dashboard thing that I've posted 1000 items to this blog! My school teachers would not be surprised. All my reports said I talked too much in class. Anyway, on with the business at hand of showing you more the linens that dear LeeAnn gave me. I won't put comments with this group of photos; they are self explanatory. Floral centrepieces. .

Odds and sods

Here is a variety of items from Lee-Ann's parcel. I've got a dozen more photos to post here, but I'm getting tired, so they'll have to wait for a day or two. Enjoying them? Some round doilies: An old teddy bear, clad in a dress with an embroidered flower on it. A very old pack of transfers - the ones in the pack are alphabet letters for monograms, but there is an extra sheet here with floral emblems. This Myart centrepiece is almost finished. It needs a small amount of stitching in black thread, and the edge to be crocheted. A job for someone else - not me! Dear little cross stitch sampler. I'm not certain this is as old at it would appear at first glance. These have been reproduced by the millions in recent years.

Embroidery done on Damask napkins

At first glance, I thought these four items were made from an old Damask tablecloth that someone had cut up. Then I saw the Target label on them and realised that they'd been purchased as napkins, and embroidered at a later stage. Lovely work with a variety of stitches.

Doileys or Centrepieces.

People call these items by different names. Centrepieces are just larger doilies in my opinion. Doilies come in all shapes and sizes! I won't be putting comments after each photo, unless there is something I want to point out. This looks just like an ordinary doiley until you have a closer look at the stitching - see the next photo.

More of LeeAnn's goodies.

Are you ready for some more eye candy of the vintage variety? Today I finished taking photos of the rest of the linens etc. that LeeAnn brought over for me last week. Keeping in mind that some people are still on dial-up and it takes ages for photos to download, I'm not going to post them all at once - five photos per post shouldn't be too much for most computers. Enjoy! Embroiderered handkie, with two brooches attached as a little extra! Handkerchief bag for dressing table drawer. My MIL gave me a couple of these that she'd made herself. Think of all the trees that need not be cut down if we went back to this way of life... LeeAnn told me this framed embroidery was on its way to the tip...OMG! Think of the work that has gone into stitching on black fabric - she was right to save it - don't you agree? Now this is very interesting. A kit for making Brussels Lace/tape lace? with everything including tape and cottons. I think I'll be passing this one on to our Guild. I'll never do it, and it would be a shame to leave it in a cupboard unseen. LeeAnn didn't say whether she came across all these buttons and bling in one lot, or if she collected them separately for me. There are some cute items here - they will eventually find a permanent home on a CQ block or fabric postcard.

My last FPC for 2009!

I started this FPC a while ago, but only got around to finishing it this week. It's now on its way to Liz in Kansas. I'm not happy with this photo. The fabric used for the trees looks kind of muddy, but the actual card looks much brighter. I used gold thread to do chain stitch on the small tree, and bright red rayon thread on the other tree.

Vintage linens and other stuff.

Scone warmer-thingy. Looks old, but I suspect it is a recent machine made production. Nice cross stitch sampler. Tea cosy with kookaburra on one side, and a sprig of wattle on the other. Not too many of you would remember these sauce bottle covers, I'll bet! I don't even remember them being used at home when I was a child, but Mum did have one in her drawer of table linenss. Unfinished cushion cover. I'd have a go if I thought I could match the threads, but it might be difficult, given its age.

Cute fabric postcard!

Cindy over at Cindy's Stitches In Time has made a series of these postcards with dolls clothes on them. I begged her to swap with me so I could add one to my collection, and it arrived yesterday. Isn't that the sweetest thing?

Making a start on LeeAnn's gift of linens.

This is the first lot I have washed and pressed. These photos are not real good, but I didn't have time to do it all again, so just use your imagination to visualise how pretty these are! I'll do better with the next lot.