Lots of eye candy to look forward to...

This past week, I've had an avalanche of embroidery land on me! Our friends LeeAnn and Rob came to visit on Sunday, and LeeAnn presented me with an enormous parcel. She works in an opshop and has been saving bits and pieces for me since we last met up, over a year ago! It took two photos to show everything spread out on the bed in our spare room, and it is going to take a lot more photos to show each individual piece! Some of them are already soaking in Napisan to bring them up to scratch, and in the next few days, I'll start photographing the rest.
As well as all that, I've had two lots of embroidered peacocks arrive in the mail, and you can see them on my Peacock blog.
AND... these small but lovely little treasures arrived in the mail today! Stitchin Fingers Christmas ornie exchange from Joy:
One-to-one Christmas card swap from AnnieB:
Autumn textile postcard from Mary Lou Davis (Stitchin Fingers exchange)

Busy and productive day!

I always used to think that when I retired, I would spend most of my days stitching or reading. Well, that's what I WANTED to do, but it hasn't worked out quite like that! However, today I decided I had to finish the Christmas ornies etc. I'd started, otherwise they'd never get to their destinations before the end of December. So I set up my trusty old (45 years) Singer sewing machine on the kitchen table, and spent most of the afternoon getting them finished. They are all for Stitchin Fingers Christmas exchanges: Fabric Postcard
Textile ATC
Cross Stitch ornaments

Another pink napkin and patchwork Xmas card.

I've been busy today working on these to get them finished. LeeAnn and her hubby are visiting us on Sunday, and the pink napkin is one of the gifts I have for her. I knew these pink napkins would come in handy when I found them at Savers. There were six of them, and I found four plain yellow napkins at the same time. They are great for applique work, as well as embroidery, and you don't have to think about binding the edges! With this one, I "fussy-cut" cupcakes etc. from various fabrics I had in my stash, attached them to the napkin with Applifix iron-on fusible web, then machine stitched around each one to secure it. I would usually hand stitch them, but they were small and fiddly, so I decided to cheat on this one!

This Xmas card is the fifth one I've done, and is destined for another 'crafty' friend next week.

Patchwork Christmas cards.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you might remember these patchwork cards that I made in August. I'd decided to make some more of them, using Christmas quilting fabrics, and this week I made four for a special group of friends. We've known each other for more than 20 years, and we try to get together at least twice a year to catch up. This week we met at a local pub for dinner, and I finished my patchwork cards in time to hand one to each of my friends. They all loved them!
They look very effective, for something that is so easy to do. Three of them are made of one fabric that has been printed to look like a patchwork of different fabrics, and one is two scraps stitched together; all of them have red ric rac sewn on to embellish the fabric. I wanted to embellish them even more with sequins and beads, but I ran out of time. I don't think my friends cared!

Appliqued napkin

Some time ago, I posted a photo of a WIP - a pink napkin appliqued with a teacup in one corner, and a cupcake in the other. I finished it about a month ago, but didn't get around to posting another pic, because I'd put it aside and forgotten about it. But when I had to think of something to give a friend for her birthday today, I remembered that she had admired the first two napkins I did with the teacup and cupcake theme, so I decided to give her the pink one I'd just finished. She loved it! The colour of these photos look as if they are two different napkins, but they are one and the same.

Another fabric postcard finished.

This is for a one-to-one swap with Cindy in the USA. Hope she likes it!

My very first crazy patchwork block is complete!

Yesterday and today I put the finishing touches to this block, which I started - oh, about a year ago? Sharon was my inspiration for this; she'd shown me her first efforts, and we had both been admiring other CQ work on the web, and when I expressed interest in doing something myself, Sharon started me off, and continued to encourage me - thanks Possum!

Autumn FPC from the U.K.

My good friend Jane in the U.K. made this beautiful postcard for me, for the Stitchin Fingers Autumn FPC exchange. This photo does not it justice; there are several layers of fabric, appliqued on to the base, and two buttons to finish it off. Thanks Jane!

Bits and pieces.

An ATC from Germany - Anne sent me this for the Autumn theme Stitchin Fingers ATC exchange. For such a small item (2.5" x 3.5") I think it is quite perfect!
Tansy in the USA made this Xmas ornie for me - isn't it sweet? I'm still working on hers, but hope to have it finished next week.
I was looking for something else in my linen room and re-discovered this lovely crocheted item, buried under a pile of linens. I don't think I've put it on the blog previously, as it was in a pile of stuff waiting to be sorted out.

There were two other crocheted items, but they were peacocks, so I've posted them here.

Vintage stuff from Mother-in-law's house.

Here are the bits and pieces I rescued from MIL's laundry earlier this week. Machine embroidered small cloth.
Two cotton pillowcases with lace ruffles, and one larger item which may be a pillow sham, although it is rather big.
I can't wait to find out what SIL knows about these pillow-slips! I don't think they would have been for her or Ken, as they don't look sixty years old. Perhaps they were for SIL's daughter, who used to sleep over at Nanna's when she was a toddler...30 years ago.
The last of the doilies that have been spread around MIL's house. The sandwich tray doiley has the most gorgeous edge worked in tatting. If SIL doesn't want it, I'll be keeping it!
This is damask, with a crocheted edge on each end. Very nice piece. It was rather badly stained, but after soaking overnight, it has come up well, and would look lovely as a dining table centre.

Three more finished smalls.

I feel like I've been fiddling around with ATCs and FPCs all this month, so I was pleased to finish these off today. I should have been more careful with the sizing when I was scanning these - they all look to be the same size, but they're not. The first one is an ATC measuring 2.5 x 3.5 inches, and the others are postcards, which are 6 x 4 inches. Stitchin Fingers ATC swap, for Catherine in the USA.
Yahoo FPC swap, going to Mary Lou in Canada. The last of the nine Stitchin Fingers Autumn FPCs I had to do - this is for Allyson in South Africa.

Teapot Round Robin table runner finished.

With the help of Jude - my patchwork class teacher, I did the finishing touches to my table runner - the backing and border. Here it is on the coffee table, where it will now stay (covered by glass) for an indefinite period (until I get tired of it and want something else there!). In this closer shot, you can see the pattern of teacups on the surrounding fabric. I used that to complement the theme of teapots in the stitched part.

Christmas ornies started.

I found these patterns ages ago, in an old Better Homes & Gardens magazine, and cut the article out to keep in my cuttings file. All that I need to do now is stitch the ric rac on, add the backing fabric, fill it, and I'll have two cute little cushions to send to my Stitchin Fingers swap mates!

Two more Autumn postcards.

Aren't these lovely? The top one is from Marja in the Netherlands, and the other is from Allyson in South Africa. "Stitchin' Fingers" is truly an international friendship group!
On another subject, I finished stitching the borders around my Teapots round robin today, but it needs pressing before I photograph it for the blog. I also have some more old linens to photograph once they are ironed. I went back to MIL's house today to retrieve a framed picture from the lounge room wall, to take in to hang in her room at the hostel. While I was in the house, I looked in the laundry to see if there was any more cloths tucked away in cupboards, and I found some very old pillowcases and a few other bits and pieces, so I brought them home, soaked them for a while, then hung them out in the sunshine to bleach them (they are all white cotton or linen, no coloured items). I just need to iron them ready to show S.I.L., and will take some pics for the blog then.

Another fabric postcard.

This pretty FPC is from Dakotah in the USA. All the cards I've received so far have been completely different, and this one is no exception - lovely!
BTW, I have an addition to my embroidered peacock collection. You can find it here.

Radical Cross Stitch

I am still chuckling over a website I've just discovered while visiting a blog of a lady who is new to cross stitch. I'm not going to give her details here, but the cause of my amusement is what she wrote after doing her very first cross stitch - a simple kit from a shop. She says that the next projects she wants to do are Radical Cross Stitch patterns. I've seen some of these books at craft fairs, and I almost wet myself laughing standing at the bookshelves! Before you click on the links I should warn you that some people will find the patterns offensive, so if you are not VERY broadminded, don't go there! This is a quote from the website: For those of you who don’t know what cross stitch is the best place to start is the wiki page. You could try places like crossstitch.com but there’s way too many fluffy bunnies and home sweet homes over there you’ll probably start retching like I did..

Autumn/Fall fabric postcards.

Two more textile postcards arrived today - these are from the Stitchin Fingers Group who are exchanging FPCS with an Autumn/Fall theme. This one is from Robbie, here in Melbourne:
And this is from Leslie in the U.K.:
I've been working frantically on mine to get them done this month, and I finally got eight finished last night. The only reason I haven't done the ninth one required is because I ran out of all the fabrics I was using! So the last one will be completely different from these. I'm a bit disappointed in my cards when I see the glorious autumn colours on the cards I've received so far, but I didn't want to have to buy fabrics just for these cards, so I had to use whatever I had on hand, which were mostly in shades of green, brown, red, and orange. I started stitching a leaf on each one, but changed over to an applique leaf when I saw what Barbara had done on the first one I received. I showed mine to a friend today, and she was very impressed, so I just hope the recipients will be happy with them too!

Fabric postcard from Canada.

I have just received the most beautiful fabric postcard from Mary Lou in Canada - this is for the November exchange in the Yahoo Group we belong to. I don't know if this picture can convey the work put into this, but the card is padded, with two autumn leaves stitched on with beads and sequins. Thank you very much, Mary Lou!

Retro Tablecloths

I accompanied Ken and his sister to their family home last weekend, to start cleaning out the house in order to put it on the market. I've written a post about it on my other blog, but decided post these photos here, as they might appeal to the people who read this blog instead of Patra's Other Place. We found all these tablecloths and doilies in the kitchen drawers, badly stained and in some cases torn. SIL was going to throw them out, saying nobody would want them. They aren't embroidered, but they are very 'retro' (I don't use that word as a rule, but apparently it is the 'in' word to describe anything from the forties and fifties), and I have seen them sell well at auctions etc. Printed tablecloths used to be found by the dozen at Savers and other opshops years ago, but they rarely turn up there now. I spent a couple of days soaking, washing and ironing these cloths, and I'm very happy with the way they've come up. I don't know if I'll keep any of them; I'll ask SIL if she wants them, and if she doesn't, I'll probably sell them. If I keep any, this is the one I would choose. Love the cups and saucers design!