Redwork angel stitchery

I'm hiding inside because supposedly its 40 degrees outside. the air conditioner is blasting away and so a  little sewing is in order. I finally have the time to stitch up my Christmas Stitchery -Angels heralding in Christmas.  If you want to make your own go here.

Wreath - same but different!

 Whilst having a messy table I figured I might as well continue my mess and make up a second wreath. This wreath has a slightly triangular shape and I was running out of seed pods and ribbon. I improvised by picking poppy seed heads out of the garden and using some old chandelier crystal and pearls to fill the  gaps.

 Not enough ribbon to make a tie, so some wire and pearls will suffice. Personally I think this is a waste of pearls but when you don't have a car to jump into you make do - far more environmentally friendly as well. I must admit to jumping into the car on occasion when I have to have a certain item for my craft making and I just can't wait

Better go clean up my mess before picking up my car from the mechanics - my brother, always handy to have a mechanic in the family.
For more wreath ideas go here and here and here

Wreath it is!

I decided that the weed come wreath really is a wreath!

I've grabbed some of my clay snowflakes and wired them onto the wreath. Some time ago (something like a year ago) I collected some seed pods from  a tree at the side of the road. My original intention was to utilize them in flower arranging but they were a little awkward  so since then they have been stashed in the cupboard for whom knows when. That would be now! I gave them a quick brush over with some white paint and hot glued them to my wreath. A roll of silver ribbon and some star anise and voilà you have a wreath !

 Must remove the excess glue! Photographs really highlight all those little things you miss!

More Christmas wreath ideas found here and here and here

All wrapped up and ready to go

Christmas ornament swap items have finally been packaged. I had a hard time finding a suitable box, especially for the spoon. I seems everybody has been out buying rectangular boxes and left only square ones on the shelves. Any ho.. I managed to squeeze it in and have now wrapped the presents ready for mail on Monday. I printed off my own paper utilizing my first lino print that I made years ago, a copy of Margaret Preston's flowers.

Fabric Flowers

A start on the fabric flowers to go with naturally dyed scarves. I think they would go well on hair ties as well in a smaller version and brighter colours.

Whilst I was making flowers my daughter spent the afternoon creating cookie monsters.

Just a quick post today, have to get ready for work.

Gelati Flowers

The recent photographs of the roses in the garden that my daughter took got me thinking about producing something mystical with flowers to go with the gelati coloured scarves I have already naturally dyed.

Her photographs are soft and fuzzy

I grabbed the first scarf I could lay my hands on - pomegranate dyed to a warm yellow and raided my fabric stash for flower type materials

Cut out large petal shapes, a pearl bed for the center of the flower and yellow cotton for the stamen

gather the leaves individually with a tacking stitch and secure ends off.

the eye of the pearl bead was large enough to allow my yellow thread to pass through a strand about 15cm long. Make a card about 6 cm wide and wrap the remainding yellow cotton around it about 15 times (like you would for a pompom) cut thread both end and secure in the middle with a tight knot with the threads from the pearl bead - this will form the center of you flower. Keep the two longs strands that you used to knot with - they will help anchor the center of the flower. 

Start working the centre of the flower  wrapping the petal around the bead and stamen and working in place with securing stitches as you go. Build up the layer of petals as you go until you are happy with the size.
Run some securing stitches the whole way through the flower and give a couple of tight twists the whole way around the flower to hep prop the flower up.

I attached leaves to see if it would make the back tidier (not really) a snip across the bottom making sure not to cut off any stitching would have been just as good. Sew on a safety pin so the you can wear the flower or sew in place.

 I'm lucky to have such a beautiful model and one whom is willing to try things on for me.

Now to make a few different colours

Vintage Style Gift Tags

I've just spent the entire evening cutting and pasting to make 50 gift tags - mammoth effort but lots of fun too!

You need some old children's picture books, preferably ones that are torn and tired.

A glue stick, scissors, pen and a rounded object - a cotton reel spool is ideal or a suture material casing is what I used,  a hole punch and some card stock. I cheated and bought pre cut artist trading cards which are slightly bigger than business cards

 some of the 50 card ready made to go

card stock, hole punch and template

Select picture

glue card and place carefully on picture

It handy if you can use a roller to help the picture stick smoothly to your card stock

cut out around card

the make a curved edge at the top of your card and round off the edges at the bottom

punch a hole for the string to pass through

Repeat 50 times!

Mondocherry make vintage style gift tags for sale if you cant be bothered making them, find them here

Almost Finished

A while ago I decided I wanted to try to dye with eucalyptus leaves and try to iron infuse my material with a leaf imprint.

My grey material below was originally a dusky pink from berries but when I utilized my eucalyptus leaves infused with iron I used the whole bath not realizing that everything would go grey.

Not to worry I threw the material aside and thought that perhaps maybe it might do for something later on

My husband recently had his birthday and requested a pair of shorts .

I wandered into the surf shops and was appalled by the cost of a relatively plain pair of shorts, it got me thinking that perhaps maybe I could make the boys some shorts.

This is an idea of what I was thinking about and I could utilize my own dyed fabrics. Finding the pattern was really hard. Once upon a time you could buy numerous styles of mens short patterns in every pattern book you looked at. I found maybe three short patterns and none of them came near what I wanted

I trolled the op shops a came up with nought for many days, then yahoo I found 2 mens patterns and one child's  short pattern. I really wanted to utilize a pattern to get the sizing right because I hate unpicking.
I left off the back pockets and chopped the legs in half to give a two tone effect. This pattern had also a lot of extra material utilized for facings and I was short on material so they went too.

blurry photo but you get the idea of matching seams!

 I am really lazy and did not wash the material so it still has plant debris on it and smells of eucalyptus.
But I did manage to match up all my seams..amazing

 I still have to add a button hole, but a little practice is in demand before I do that, my machine is not so good with button hole - nothing to do with the user!!!

back view

Also been working on the crochet cushion for the back room, have to sew in the ends and sew it together

And last but not least Matilda and I want to send a big warm welcome to everybody whom has joined. Makes me feel like not such an idiot for talking to myself for the last year. So thank you, thank you.

 See you next time..
PS .. so far the reaction to the shorts from my boys has been less that luke warm. Not a very appreciative lot   are they.

Giveaway - follow the link

want to join in a really fabulous giveaway visit http://cheandfidel.blogspot.com/ and get excited!~!! lovely stuff to glean over

Swing and Whiskers

My little lady mouse now is the  proud owner of her own mouse sized swing

I picked up a couple of silver spoons at a school fete and this one had a bent lip so wouldn't be very utilitarian any more despite being silver and a lovely deep spoon.

My dad and brother were both shocked to know that I wanted to drill holes in a silver spoon  let alone utilize it for Christmas ornament. My response was  that I paid nothing for it and it now was being put to good use, in my eyes at least.

My brother kindly bent the spoon for me as I didn't have enough strength to do so my self. My pearl beads got pulled out again (lucky I found another stash at an op shop) and wired up over head

Silk thread whiskers added. I tried knotting them but it didn't look right so be warned they are not held in

 Two little festive critters ready to travel the world. They just need the appropriate packing to ferry them safely to their new homes - Tomorrows job.

And lovely pottery jug I found on the way home tonight for a bargain price $4 

Eeek Another Mouse! - Christmas Ornament Swap (2)

 Whom is peering over my Christmas Hipestrium?

An inquisitive Christmas mouse gathering flowers 

Sparkly and sweet in her Christmas best

She looks a rather angelic (She has come a long way since last night) She too still requires a tale and whiskers.

Her limbs are a little awkward (luckily most of them are hidden)

She'll be needing a pair of pantaloons as well (we cant show you a ladies undercarriage) and maybe we might be able to fit her with a pair of ballet slippers - i'm not too sure how well I'll manage that)

I also plan to give her a swing made of spoons of course!
Nothing like letting you imagination run wild
I know that the photos are overkill but I couldn't resist and I really was having a lot of fun.
Show the end product soon I hope....
Wow two post in one day!!.