New vintage doilies addition to the collection.

I can't remember when I last bought linens on eBay - a few years ago - because my collection had reached a ridiculous size.  And the only time I visit Etsy is to see what my cyberspace friends are selling, and I rarely buy anything.  But like many of these things on the internet, once they get hold of you, they don't let go, so I get update emails from Etsy now and then, with stuff they think I might be interested in, so I have a quick look, then delete the email.  But last week one of their messages showed some lovely linens from a lady in Melbourne, from whom I have purchased linens in the past.  One of the doilies had a King Parrot embroidered on it, and as I particularly like Australiana themed embroideries, I really wanted this one, as I'd never seen this particular parrot on a doiley before.  It was one of four nicely stitched doilies, but I only want the bird one for my collection, and will probably use the others in a craft project that I am planning in the far distant future ;-)

Waverley Patchworkers Quilt show.

Today I visited the show with my friend S. and we  had a wonderful time as always, admiring the work of a very talented group of quilters.  At the Merchants hall I restrained myself somewhat and only bought what I really needed....sort of.  I was pleased to find a stall selling inkjet fabric sheets, as I have run out of them after I made the bike quilt for Ken's friend (the quilt is finished, I just haven't had a chance to photograph it yet).  At the same stall, they were selling Sashiko patterns and threads, and although I have some in my stash, I only have the white thread, but after seeing the stunning result of using variegated thread on one of the quilts in the show, I had to buy some for myself!

One lady was demonstrating English paper piecing techniques using a heat sensitive coated template paper (instead of freezer paper), and it looks useful, so I bought a packet of that.  My final purchase was a stitchery pattern by Sally Giblin, called "My Button Garden", it is a cushion with flowers and a tree embellished with buttons - very cute!  I won't make it up as a cushion, it would get wrecked with the cat around, so I'll make it as a wall hanging.

I have now posted my photos of the show on my Needlecraft Shows blog here, so do pop over and have a look.

Vintage unworked linens

I have been given a stack of old linens and knowing how many of my blog readers like to see these, I have cleaned them up and taken photos.  Some of the ladies at the Quilt shop group were keen to take these off my hands! but we'll see.  I'll be keeping the aprons and the crinoline lady doilies of course, but will think about the rest.  Some of them are very faded, so they might be indistinct on the computer, sorry about that.

The cloth below is one of my Peacock collection cloths, and I put it on the kitchen table last week when one of Ken's cousins came over to visit with his wife, who is part Indian, part Malaysian, and she loves anything with peacocks.  She certainly loved this cloth!

Messing around...

Things are tough around my home at the moment.  Ken is not in good health, and I'm "on call" 24/7.  He isn't bedridden, but isn't able to get around much, although he keeps up with our exercise routine 3 days a week when he feels up to it, as it does help his breathing somewhat.  Anyway, you don't need to hear all that, but I mentioned it to explain why I am making some 'silly little projects' instead of getting on with bigger projects that have been started.  Sometimes I just need to fiddle with small things that are a bit of fun - that or bury my nose in a book, which annoys Ken even more :-(
But I have to have my own space sometimes.  So here is what I have done this week:

I borrowed some magazines and books from the library, and because you only have them for a limited time, I am making some of the easy projects now, rather than photocopy the pages and never get around to doing them!  This issue of Homespun magazine

has several cute items in it that I want to make before it goes back to the library.  The cherry pie pincushion that I posted on this blog a few weeks ago was from this issue.  Now I'm working on a cushion cover featuring mushrooms and toadstools.

Not that I am a big fan of fungi, but the little faces on some of them appealed to me!

Here are mine pinned to the background, ready to applique (my first attempt at needleturn)

One of the library books is this one - "Scrappy Bits Applique".

I've seen lots of books on applique, but this one is quite different, and a lot of fun.  I find it so because the author makes the fabric pictures in the style of paper collage, which I have done in the past.

I am doing the project below, but I put my elephant on a plain background rather than make up a patchwork background like hers.

Finally, I've started a small patchwork runner for a friend of Ken's who is into bikes.   I copied photos of bikes from old calendars onto inkjet fabric, used some leftover bike fabric to fill in spaces, and will give this a border in black, then a wider border in another colour.  

Assisi table runner

I found this lovely example of perfect Assisi stitching for $1 at an op shop recently, and decided it must join my collection :-)

A very special birthday for a special person!

I am sure most of you know of Linda Steele, one of Australia's most talented quilters, a patient tutor in the classes and workshops she conducts, and simply a delightful lady.  It was her 60th birthday this week - I know she would get a kick out of hearing from some regular bloggers, to wish her happy birthday :-)    Go here:  Linda Steele

Two quilts finished.

Well, not quite, but as good as finished.  The photo below is of the small opshop UFO quilt with the binding clips holding it in place ready to hand sew.  I completed that this afternoon and am very happy with it, even though I decided not to used the HSTs I'd started making.  They were just too damn fiddly and I figured the quilt looks just as nice without them.  It is now residing on the back of the couch in the lounge room and looks much better than the one it replaced, which was very pretty with bright colours, but didn't really suit our decor. 

This is the handkie quilt which I am delighted with now that it has been professionally quilted!  Jenny of Sunrise Quilting did a fantastic job.  The binding was pinned to the quilt when I took this photo yesterday but I have already hand sewn one side of it and hope to finish it in the next day or so.

Today I went to the Embroiderers Guild for the first time in over a year.  I had resigned from my volunteer role at the office, due to external factors, but I still miss going there, seeing the monthly displays, and the friendly chit chat with the other members.  This exhibition held a particular attraction though, and I was determined to get there.  The exhibits were from the Guild's Asian Collection, and included a wall hanging that Ken's Mum had donated to the Guild a few years ago.  I had it at home for a short while but it was so unique I felt it shouldn't be locked away any more in a private house, and Mum agreed with me.  So I collected Ken's sister Lorraine on the way over there, and we had a lovely time looking at the exhibition as well as admiring "our family wall hanging"!There was a notice stating no photographs allowed, but I had my membership badge on, and when I explained to the lovely gallery hostesses that we had donated that hanging, we were allowed to take a photo of it.  Wish I could have photographed all the other items too; they were all absolutely breathtaking. Sunday was the last day unfortunately.