My exchange item has arrived!

Look what arrived in the mail this morning. I have to say that I think I may have scared the parcel delivery man by showing up to the door in my bedtime finery. Anyway, when I opened the parcel this is what was inside. Joan has stitched me the most adorable little scissor fob I have ever seen. I have shown a picture of the front and back. How lovely of her to personalise it for me!

I can't forget that she also sent me a whole lot of goodies. Joan has obviously been reading my blog and found that The Prairie Schooler "Pumpkin Patch" was on my wishlist. Joan also sent all the threads to complete the design. There was a pair of scissors, chocolates, a calender, a little chicken pincushion Joan stitched, sticky notes in the shape of the letter 'S' and some hand cream.

Thank you so much Joan, your stitching is fabulous and your generosity has really touched me.

Australia Day Long Weekend!

I am very pleased that Heather received my Scissor Fob Exchange. So now I am able to show you a few pictures.

Design: From "My Little Book Of Stitches"

(Gift Of Stitching Magazine, Issue 19 August 2007)

Designer: Debbie Draper

Thread: Dinky Dyes Cotton "Yallingup"

Fabric: 28ct Antique White linen

Finish: Scissor Fob

We had an excellent weekend this Australia Day long weekend. On Saturday, we took Aurelia down to a farm and she really enjoyed herself. She was happily patting the horses and was even happy to feed the chickens. As she stood in the pen, she was surrounded by about two dozen, chickens, roosters, turkeys and guinea fowl. They were pecking the food out of her hands and off her feet and it didn't concern her at all. If they were a little to close she just pushed them out of the way. Silly me forgot the camera, so I have no pictures to show for that day.

Sunday was spent in the garden, we finally have the garden looking clean and tidy. I re-potted my orchids and moved them to a new location. I am hoping the change in location and pots may help them flower this year. Last year they looked terrible, didn't flower and lost most of their leaves. On Monday we visited my aunt who had a hip replacement surgery last week. She is doing well and I think was pleased with our visit. We spent the afternoon going for a very long drive so that Aurelia could have a sleep.

With all that busy activity, I did find time to stitch. My Fair and Square pieces are almost completed and I have started on my Angel of Winter for the SAL. There doesn't seem to be a lot done, but I have been working hard. I am finding working on such a dark blue fabric, I am having to count the stitches twice as they can be really difficult to see. My stitching light is really coming in handy.

Tomorrow I am going to start the stitching for my RR. As we are stitching using DMC threads only, I don't have to wait for any other materials. The first batch of designs have come in today, so I am all ready to start. The daunting part is that I hope that I have counted the stitches out correctly when I cut the fabric to size.

Stitching...

Well, I have been very busy with the needle and thread. I have been able to complete more of Victorian Blooms. As you can see the centre is completed and the border is well on it's way to completion.

I have started on Black Willow Farm by Carriage House Samplings. It's being worked with one strand of Thread Gatherer Silk N' Colours on 40ct antique white linen. I thought the 40ct might be really difficult, but with appropriate lighting, I have been finding it quite enjoyable.

I have also started on my squares for the Fair and Square Exchange. Here are a sample of the colours, but you will have to wait until my exchange person receives it before I can post any more.

Finally I have my layout for the LHN Round Robin finalised. All the measurements have been completed, I just need to purchase the designs and start stitching. Here is a photo of the beautiful linen I have chosen. It's a 32ct Belfast linen, it's hard to describe the colour, but the vertical threads are a light creamy colour and the horizontal threads are more of a pale brown colour. If anyone knows what this colour actually is, please let me know.

Finally, there does not seem to be any improvement with Aurelia's sleeping habits, although I am able to get her in her bed for a short time most nights. Lately we have been resorting to warm baths, massage and reading lots of books, only time will tell if it works. In the meantime, DH has been banished to the guestroom. At least he is able to get a good nights rest as he starts very early in the morning.

Some Stitching Progress Finally!!

Thank you to everyone who showed their concern after our storm. All is well, except the holes in the pergola are right over where I hang my washing when it rains and it's raining and all wet under the pergola!

After the week of visitors and then a week of DH at home, we are finally getting back into our daily routine. Aurelia is back to having her normal daily sleeps, but unfortunately won't go to sleep on her own in her bed at night. I am still having to feed her asleep, but then she cries if I just move. If I do get her to her own bed, she stays there for about half and hour and then cries again and ends up in our bed. I am very dissapointed as she was in an excellent routine before Christmas, sleeping in her own bed, having daily naps and not needing a feed every moment of the day. Since our visitors, she has completely changed and does not want to go back to her routine. Maybe I just need a little patience for a little while longer.

As a result of this behaviour, I have not been getting any stitching done in the evenings, although I am getting in 2 hours everyday while she is asleep. I am very pleased to show the first of the 12 Blessings of Christmas. I have completed 'Peace' for January and a third of the whole border. I could just keep stitching this one, but I am only doing one blessing each month till Christmas.

I have also completed my scissor fob for the exchange and it has been posted. It turned out beautifully, especially since it was the first one I ever made. I will be posting a picture as soon as my exchange person receives it.

I have also joined a Little House Needlework RR. Maybe I am crazy, but I just could not pass this opportunity up, so in the next two weeks, I am going to make a trip to the LNS to stock up on some LHN designs. I am really excited as this is one of my favorite designers. I have a couple of questions for you stitchers out there.

1. Does anyone know the conversion from Crescent Colours to DMC, I don't think Crescent Colours are colourfast?
   
2. Does anyone have any LHN freebies that they are willing to share?

Finally, here is an update of Victorian Blooms, I have the back stitching of the flower stems and then the border to get done. I see a finish for this year coming on.

Blown away....

Yesterday was the hottest day throughout this whole summer, 37C and it's not really that hot compared to previous years. We spent the morning up in the Blue Mountains at a lookout in Blackheath. As you can see from the photo it was a gorgeous day. We had a lovely lunch and headed to my Mum and Dad's place so Aurelia could spend some time with her grandparents. As the afternoon wore on, the sky grew darker and darker and DH speculated whether we would see rain that afternoon. Well, what did arrive was something I had never seen before. The hail started and then the wind blew. The hail, although not large, pelted down with a 100km wind behind it. The tree in front of my Mum's place split in two and came crashing down, hail and rain was horizontal so that it was forced under the roof tiles and wind so strong it tore the fly screen of the window.

Now, I have lived in the same suburb for over 30 years and I have never seen this kind of destruction to our beautiful little town. Along every street, the roads were littered with leaves and branches, large trees had come down and very large branches had been torn from trees. We had lost our power as large trees had taken down the power lines nearby. When we arrived home, we surveyed the front garden and were surprised that there were only a few small branches and plenty of leaves around. However, when we looked in our back garden, we were shocked at the mess. We lost one tree which had broken at ground level and some very large branches had fallen down. The paved area was littered with leaves and two branches had punched holes in our pergola roof. All in all though, I think we were pretty lucky as nobody was injured and our house remained undamaged. After we had made a quick cleanup of the branches and tree, DH packed the chainsaw into the car and drove around the neighbourhood offering help to anyone who needed it. I am not surprised that he did this, DH is a very kind and generous man, who is always looking out for others.

The good news is that we had rain for another few hours, so the garden received the water that it has so desperately needed. Today, with the help of Mum and Dad, we swept up the paved area and pruned and trimmed any broken branches and thankfully the weather was much cooler. Excellent stitching weather, but alas, no time to stitch.....

A new year has started

What a few weeks we have had, it turns out that Aurelia had roseola, so after the three days of really high fever, she broke out into this spotty rash all over her body. She is much better now, so thank you for all your wishes. I think these weeks have been particularly difficult on her with her whole routine thrown out with our visitors, but they have gone home now, so I hope that all will go back to normal. I don't mind visitors, but it's can be just so difficult and straining and everyone seems to be on edge the whole time. After this whole experience, we have decided to scrap the guest room and turn it into a study/rumpus room that we can all use effectively. It also means that the room will get used more than once or twice a year.

On my last post, I forgot to show you a picture of my latest little piece of work, so here it is. It's called Victoria Blooms.

I have also cut all my fabric to size for the Angel of Winter and put all the materials together into my stitching bag ready to go at the end of this month. I have also begun my 12 Blessings of Christmas. I am doing the border first and then will stitch each of the blessings a month at a time. Unfortunately I have not been able to source all the threads I require, so I might fall a little behind with this project.

Now, I have to admit I have been weak, so very, very weak and I couldn't resist joining another SAL. This one is the Bent Creek SAL and we are stitching The Red Thread. Again, I think I may fall behind on this one as I have to order all the materials for it, but as there is only one block a month, I suppose it shouldn't take too long to catch up.

I have also been stitching my scissor fob for the exchange, but I obviously can't share that yet, but I will once my exchange partner has received it. I am very happy with, although I am not really sure how small I am supposed to make it. Currently it looks like it's going to be about 5.5cm, maybe for a bigger set of scissors?