March Xmas project completed. Small addition to linen collection.

For the March Xmas project, I made a little felt gift pouch. I am determined to keep on track with this monthly commitment, as I know when November arrives I will be so pleased to have a box of hand made Xmas goodies to either give away or decorate our house! But this past month has been busy, so to keep this project achievable I had to keep it small.


I was passing through Ashburton this week, and couldn't resist stopping at one of the opshops on High Street. I found this gorgeous set of two doilies for $6. Mermaids and fish are uncommon subjects for embroidery, so I was delighted to find these.

Back to my sewing!

There is too much waiting to be done for me to waste any more time reading or sketching! So yesterday and today, I got busy.
A few years ago, I was given a freebie kit by a stall holder at one of the craft shows, when I bought something else at her stand. It was very simple - the outline of a rooster with numbered sections, and a selection of scrap fabrics. All that needed to be done was transfer the sections on to fusible webbing along with the relevant numbers, iron them on to the bits of fabric, and place the bits on to background material. So when I rediscovered the kit the other day, it was the perfect excuse to restart my sewing mojo! I am still doing some decorative stitching, and have a way to go, but I'm rather pleased with it!

The Embroiderer's Guild of Vic. have invited members to participate in a quilt to commemorate the ANZAC Centenary next year. The participants are supplied with green and red fabric, and are required to make a block, then stitch the name and serial number of any serviceman/woman who served in World War 1.
After asking everyone in our respective families, we found that neither of us had ancestors who served in that war. But one of our friends told us about his Great Uncle, who enlisted when he was 15, and was shot in the leg in France less than a year later. He died in hospital when he was 26. I asked Mark for his permission to use his Uncle's name and he was happy for me to do so.

My second apron for the Ballarat Apron Festival is nearly done. All I had to do was embellish the gingham apron that I found at our opshop! so it wasn't too difficult to attach some chook patchwork fabric. I'll add some ric rac and buttons to dress it up a bit more.

Off topic.

I haven't been doing any stitching for a week or so because other things around here have taken priority.  If you are curious, have a look at my day to day blog here.
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First apron finished for Ballarat Apron Festival.

The pattern for this child's apron was in Handmade magazine.  My version is a bit different; I used calico instead of pink fabric for the apron, and pink icecream instead of the the colour in the pattern.  It only took me two nights, so I'm thinking of making two more, for Ken's niece's little girls.  They would look so cute in these!  I still have to embroider words on this ("Sweet Tooth") but I would stitch their names on if I made them for the kids.



Today I found this gingham hand made apron at our opshop, and as the next apron I'm planning to make has a gingham base, this turned up at the right time - it will save me making one! All I have to do is applique the pattern items on the front.

Apron Festival in Ballarat on May 10 and 11.

I was at the Embroiderers Guild today, and as one of my volunteer jobs is to tidy up the members' notice board, I was doing that, when I found a postcard advertising the Ballarat Apron Festival. I took a copy of it, and looked it up online when I got home. The organisers have a website with all the details, and application form if people wish to make an apron for the festival. They have to be in by April 11, so it gives me a bit over one month to make an apron. Am I going to do it? You bet - everything else is on hold until I've done it - lol!
Here is the link to the Festival website.

Tea Cosy Festival at Bundoora Homestead.

I know it isn't quite stitching and vintage linens, but the Tea Cosy festival is still a form of hand craft, so I feel justified in posting about it here. I took photos last week, and have posted them on my Needlecraft Shows blog here.

Cheryl's PNG quilts finished, and two more quilts received.

I had a dozen other things to do yesterday, but was determined to get those baby quilts finished, and I did. You can see them on the PNG Quilt collective blog, along with two quilts donated by Steph H. in NSW.

Two projects finished tonight.

So far I'm sticking to my list, and have finished off one of Cheryl's PNG quilts.  The two are quilted, but need to have the binding, and I think I should be able to finish those tomorrow.

I also completed my February Xmas project - you can see it here.

Are you a "LISTS" person?

Last week I had two crafty friends visit for a few hours.  They wanted me to show them how to use gold leaf to embellish calligraphy or other paper crafts.  I brought a folding table into the kitchen and set it up next to our round kitchen table, and I put a pile of calligraphy books, inks,brushes, pens, etc. on it so we could use the kitchen table to work on without all the other stuff taking up work space.   I left everything there until last Friday night  when Ken asked if I was going to leave it there.  (Meaning 'when are you going to move all that stuff?')   I left it there to motivate myself to do some more calligraphy and I did actually mess around a bit on Thursday night, but didn't achieve anything much.

I get frustrated because there are so many things I want to try, and I get myself in a tizz and end up just making a mess.  So I moved everything back into my study, and in doing so got into a worse tizz about the mess in there.   I spent an hour putting everything back where it is supposed to be, and while I was in the process, I found some UFOs that I'd forgotten about,  tucked away in a corner, which made me even more depressed! 

I decided to get from the cupboard one of my many blank journals, and list all the things I have to do (not all the things I WANT to do, that's in another journal).  When finding the blank journal, I re-discovered the pile of blank journals in the cupboard along with a list of suggestions on what they can be used for.  So I spent another half hour deciding what I might do with each journal, and made a list...can you see where this is going?  Anyway, I finally got back to my original plan, and used one of my blank books to list the projects I really need to do before starting anything else.

The first thing is to finish quilting and binding the unfinished baby quilts that were given to me by a friend when her sewing machine died.  Then I have to make a Xmas themed item by 25th February, for the One Xmas Item a Month Project.  Without consulting my new List journal, I can't remember what the third most important item is, but it doesn't matter - I must concentrate on the first one if I'm to get anywhere.  So I quilted the quilts today, and tomorrow I'll cut the binding, and hopefully have them bound by tomorrow night. Which leaves me two days to do my Xmas project....I'm only making a stocking from a printed panel this time, as it is quick to do, but hopefully by late March, I'll be more organised and have something a bit more worthwhile to show!

Bits and bobs

I am like a dog chasing its tail.  I still haven't made any more quilts for the PNG quilt collective, and I haven't done any more on the cross stitch Peacock sampler.  I've finally finished washing and ironing all the linens and lace I received last month, but haven't started photographing it yet.  But I looked at my previous posts, and I think I've just about covered them all with the first lot of photos I posted.  I'll take some more better photos eventually, but it won't be any time soon.

A month ago, I joined a blog group committed to making one Xmas project a month, and mentioned that I'd made my first item.  I forgot to post a photo here, but it was just a little tree ornie, so I'm not even going to bother doing it now.  Tonight I was getting the fabric ready for my February Xmas project, and had second thoughts about how I'm going to use it.  It is a panel with four Xmas stockings to be cut out and made up, but I've been making stockings from other panels for years and I'm tired of them!  So what else can one do?   I decided to cut out each section and lay them on the table in different configurations.  I was thinking of appliquing the sections to a piece of other fabric and making a runner.  But it just didn't look right, so I set them out differently and thought this set out might look nice as a small table cloth.  .

  

 The first two are of four different 'boots' in different layouts, but the third is two pairs of boots laid out end to end.  I like them both, What do you think?   Even if I use these to make cloths, there will still be plenty to make more Xmas boots!                                                           

 

PNG baby quilts delivered.

I have just updated the blog for the PNG Quilt collective, with some photos of PNG natives with their babies all wrapped up in the donated quilts!  Go here to see.

Opshop tablecloths

I was over at Savers in Greensborough yesterday, looking for a microwave dish to replace one that got broken a while ago.  While I was there I had to check their manchester racks, didn't I, although I didn't expect to find anything of interest, as Savers don't seem to get much in the way of vintage linens these days.
But I was in luck this time:  I found a lovely embroidered linen cloth and a chicken scratch gingham.   These photos were taken before they've been washed and ironed, so the cloths aren't looking their best, but good enough for a pic.

I received an email from my cousin Yaso this morning, with two photos she'd taken of the natives in PNG with some of the quilts we sent over.  I'll be posting them on the PNG blog shortly, after I've got her permission to use them.

Quilters Companion magazine

Melody, Christine and Julia - you were all correct in your comments on my blog in November last year when I said the proposed article about the PNG Collective hadn't been published in Quilters Companion yet.    You said that it can take a few months after an interview, for the item to be published.   In today's mail I received a complimentary copy of Quilters Companion Issue No.65 - with a full page article on me with the PNG quilts on Page 107.  Yaaay!  Yaso will be delighted when she sees it, as I was.  I've already had one email from a lady in Western Australia who read the article and contacted me to say she would like to make a quilt for us.

I emailed Yaso a few days ago to ask if she had distributed any quilts yet, but I haven't had a reply, so the chances are she is in some remote area of PNG and unable to send or receive emails.  As soon as I hear anything from her, I will post an update here.
Next day...
I received a reply today from Yaso; she arrived home a few days ago, exhausted and with a sick tummy.  But she tells me that the quilts were well received, and she got some good photos, so when she is feeling better she will send them to me.

Australia Day - 26th January.

No stitching today - just celebrating being an Aussie!  Go here to see what we did to celebrate our National Day.

Lace and crochet washed.

I had washed sheets and towels today, so there was no room on my clothesline for these last lacy items.   I've also got a little mini clothesline which is designed for travelling or people who live in flats I suppose, but I find it handy for rainy days when I can hang out smalls under the shelter of the patio where they will still get wind and any sunshine that might be around.  It is is also useful for the overflow from the regular clothesline!  So that is where I pegged all the delicate items that I'd hand washed.  I did wonder if I was doing the right thing by hanging them in the sun, but I decided it was the perfect way to bleach them back to their pristine whiteness.  The ecru and other non white items weren't damaged at all.

But OMG, look at all the ironing I have to do now...I usually enjoy ironing my linens, but this lot will take a few days, I think!

Thanks for your comments!

Thank you all for your congrats on my good news! In response to two of the comments left on my previous post, I have some quick replies:
 Sharon, I'm shocked to hear your news, will call you this week.
Linda, I don't think any of the linens were embroidered by my late friend; in the years that I knew her, I don't recall her being involved in crafts.  From what her hubby said I think all these were inherited, or given to them during their married life.

I soaked all the whitework overnight and hung it out this morning.  I also did a load of normal clothes washing and was dismayed to find that once I'd pegged out the linens, there was no more room for the clothes!  So I had to re-peg all the linens to squeeze them up closer, leaving two lines for the clothes.  I forgot to take a photo of them on the line before I brought them inside, so you'll have to wait until I've pressed them and can take a pic of them on the clothes horse.

The last lot of linens to wash are the lace and crochet items.  I don't think I'll be soaking them overnight in Napisan; instead I may soak them for about 10 minutes in Softly, then peg them out to dry for a short while, but bring them in while they are still damp, otherwise they might stretch out of shape.  I guess I shouldn't even peg them out, but I don't have the room to lay them all out on towels to dry, so I'll just have to be careful.

More linens done. And good results!

I've already emailed some friends who read this blog, but for the rest of you who have expressed concern, my colonoscopy showed nothing to be worried about - not even one polyp!  All clear and no need for any further colonoscopies. 
I was feeling so good about that, I came home and put some more linens in to soak, got them out on the line long enough to dry..

..brought them inside and had them all ironed by 9 pm!

Linens.

The table cloths are washed and ironed, and ready to be photographed.   This is the second lot to be washed - aprons and guest towels at the back, and all the small doilies on the front lines.  Don't they look sweet blowing dry in the Aussie sunshine!   I took this photo in the mid afternoon, and they were dry within an hour.  They are all ironed, ready to be photographed, and the third lot (large doilies) will be put in to soak tomorrow.  Not sure when, as I will be having a colonoscopy in the morning, and don't know how I'll be feeling when I get home!

Cross stitch Tiger.

In addition to the linens in the previous post, I had another surprise today.  I received a packet in the mail from my friend Jan in Canada.  She collects scarves, and if I find something in the opshop that I think she might like, I post it over to her.  In turn, when she finds something that I might like (or in this case that I saw on her online shop) she sends it to me. 
This is a tiger worked in cross stitch on black 14ct aida.  It is too big to frame and hang on a wall (we have no more space on our walls anyway!), so I don't know what I'll do with it yet.  Perhaps a cushion, but I wouldn't want our little tigers (cats) to start kneading and clawing it, so I'll have to think about it a bit more.  Any suggestions?

HUGE addition to my vintage collection!

I got up this morning expecting to spend yet another day lolling around the house trying to get up enough energy to do something...anything!  in the heat wave we've been having.  Even with a very efficient air conditioner and the new roof, the temperature of 44 deg.C outside was so severe, the house felt hot inside even though the air con. indicated it was 24 deg.  But the day turned out much better than I thought!

We had a phone call yesterday from an old friend whose wife was a very close friend of mine until she died 8 years ago.  Her husband has just sold their old house near us and is in the process of clearing out the house in order to move to a new home.  He said he remembered his wife and I discussing linens and lace, and he wanted to know if I'd like to have her collection before he sent it to the tip.  Of course I jumped at the offer, and so he arrived this morning with two baskets:

He stayed for a cuppa and we caught up with all his news, and he admired Ken's new t.v.   I started to look through the baskets, and asked him if he'd offered it to his kids (two sons and a daughter) and he said yes, but apart from two family heirloom table cloths that he gave his sons' wives, they weren't interested in the rest of it.   As soon as he left, I emptied the baskets on to the floor.

And soon realised that it was going to take me quite a while to sort it all out into categories of embroidered table cloths, doilies, crocheted work, other lace, etc.  Once I got that done, I pulled out the table cloths and put them in Napisan to soak for an hour.  Once on the line, it only took an hour for them to dry, and they are ready to be ironed tomorrow...or when the weather is a bit cooler!
Here is a sneak preview - you will have to wait until everything is washed and pressed before I post photos of individual pieces here!

 Two aprons.

 Beaded jug covers - these are VERY old.

  Smaller doilies.

Guest hand towels.

 Larger doilies, centrepieces and traycloths.

Serviettes.

Unsorted crochet, lace and tatting.

I took a couple of photos of the table cloths before washing them, and I can't wait to show you!

Watch this space....er, blog - for more linens!