week 27 ~ week 30 TAST and the 15 minute challenge

a few weeks ago i put together a basket of preserves and home baked scones for a local fundraiser/silent auction.

the preserves were some that my daughter put up and without them the basket wouldn't have been nearly as tempting.

i had a great time making  and adding tags, napkins and fancy jar lids with that bunny fabric that i love so much~!

i was unable to attend but word has it that the basket went for a very nice amount/donation for the cause (my local family resource center) which makes me happy.

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and now for some TAST stitch sharing.


week 27 ~ bonnet stitch: 
i had trouble with this stitch but i'm not sure just why. once i thought that i had a handle on it i decided to place it on a postcard seam using an aqua pearl cotton (size 8). i added a fly stitch to the "top" part of the stitch and a colonial knot settled nicely between these stitches. both the fly stitch and the colonial knot are worked in a raspberry colored floss (one strand for the fly stitch and three strands for the colonial knot.


week 28 ~ up and down buttonhole: i really liked this stitch and have worked it into my stocking in a double row along the top of a piece of lacy vintage cuff. the row on top is worked with a shallower stitch length than the row on the bottom. i've used pearl cotton 12 in red. 

week 29 ~ basque stitch:

i used two strands of metallic thread (one in red and one in a brass color) for this stitch and added a small pearly bead to the catch part of each one. metallic thread can be a bear to work with but i ran both of these threads through some bees wax which helped enormously. the bees wax also gave the threads a bit more body which made the curves within this stitch stand out nicely.

i also worked this one into a section of my own stocking.


week 30 ~ oyster stitch:
this is another stitch that i really liked.
i worked it into a different section of the lacy vintage cuff that is on my own stocking and once again used pearl cotton 12 in red.

the really nice thing about stitching around lace bits is that it's possible to use the various lace elements to naturally dictate and control the spacing of stitches.





there are more stitches that have been worked but i'm going to save those for another post.

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i've been able to meet my goals with Kate for the fifteen minute challenge on all but two days this summer which makes me feel good. some days i would like to be able to do more than that but winter's coming and those days won't be filled with the gardening/outdoors work so i can snuggle in and stitch for hours if i want to (i hope).

 

 

 

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recent gifts include:

• the comfort that my blog readers have made me feel in regards to my irregular posts ~THANK YOU ALL~!
• a visit from my daughter and a friend of hers that helped catch me up on a few things as well as gave us some time to share a few pleasant meals and some good conversation
• the smell of the freshly cut lawn

my apologies for not being very attentive to my blog and it's readers over the last few days. i've had an out of town doctor visit and since it's a 3 hour drive (one way) it knocks me off of my feet/schedule for a few days after. i'll get back on track very soon i hope. while out of town to see the doctor i also got to go and see the new Alice In Wonderland movie. in 3-D. at an IMAX theatre~!~ and it was TOTALLY ENCHANTING in every possible way~!!~ it's rare that i go to a movie with such high hopes and not only have those expectations met but actually exceeded. i am head over heels in love with this production~!!!!!~!

Tim Burton is one of my very favorite directors and he did not disappoint~!~! the characters and cast were beautiful and the story itself captured my heart completely. Alice returns to the strangeness of the rabbit hole and learns she is more than she imagined herself to be and full of "muchness"; not just in her dreams but in her "real" world as well. this is a beautiful movie and in my opinion a rare gem when it comes to young strong female characters with heart. Alice certainly won mine~!!!~ GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE~!!!~! and tell me what you think.
in the meantime i'm going to be re-visiting the original Alice In Wonderland story . . .

we still have snow outside of our windows but it is quickly melting away. the sun has been brightly out and i see more of the lawn by the hour i think. the indoor plants are convinced that spring is already actually here and they are all spurting out new growth of all kinds. i have a zebra aloe that is sending out blossoms on loooooong stems heading right for the lightest and brightest spots. i sympathize; i too want to seek the full on spring sunshine and find myself moving around the house in search of the sunniest, warmest, and brightest (happiest) places to perch myself.

i've also begun to move things about within the house . . . spring fever, spring cleaning and just plain spring seeking . . .

this season holds so many promises . . .

on monday spring was making promises in my neighborhood: the snow was almost completely melted off of the grass (which i swear was starting to get a greenish blush to it), the pond was losing it's ice caps and i even found some crocus and daffodil buds just beginning to push there way up out of the muddy earth (without using a magnifying glass). i've lived in the high desert all of my life and i know that "spring", in the way that most other people understand it, isn't really going to get serious around here until mid to late April. BUT i also know that there will be teensy tiny little signs showing way before then if one is paying attention and who isn't paying attention by this point in the year~!?!~ as i said, on monday, there were some promising signs. and then on monday night it began to snow. it snowed ALL night long. we ended up with an accumulation of 14" and some drifts that were quite a bit deeper than that. the school declared it's first snow day (which around here takes a HUGE amount of snow to make happen) of the year and even my dh was unable to get to work. within the space of 10 hours we were suddenly plummeted back into winter. sigh. not just any old sigh but a BIG heavy sigh with tears welling up in my eyes . . . i should be completely used to this but apparently i'm not . . . so i've gone to my indoor plants for solace.

this little fern that i have growing within the sheltered walls of home sweet home still thinks spring must be coming. after all the daylight hours are getting longer and it resides safely within a temperature controlled environment . . .
i accepted what gifts that it had to offer with gratitude and didn't breathe a word to it about the harsh realities that are just on the other side of that big pane of glass . . .

i've recently received a package in the mail from Cathie at http://www.clevelandgirlie.blogspot.com/ and wanted to share the wonder and whimsy of her sweet art with you.

these three pieces are art squares that she created and upon seeing them i fell head over heels in love with them. i happened to be visiting her blog and stumbled upon them on one of her posts. i was excited to see that she had them up for sale but this post had been written a while back and i did not think it possible that these would still be available but decided to link over to her etsy shop just to make sure . . .

you cannot imagine the noisy glee with which i discovered that they could still be mine~!!~

and with a couple of clicks they were exactly that: ALL MINE~!!!!~ yyyiiiipppeeeeee~!!~

the joys of the internet know no bounds~!~

i encourage you to visit her charming blogspace. she is a talented mixed media artist with a wealth of creativity to share as well as lots of delightful daily blogginess~!~
a bit of remedy for the late winter blues . . . enjoy yourself.

i received my giveaway package from Eileen of Keeping it Rural in Wisconsin (http://ruralwisconsin.blogspot.com/ )

and it is truly fabulous~!!!!~

i love the way that she bundled up these vintage linens into such a charming presentation~!!~

but that was only the tip of the iceberg . . . (and who doesn't love an iceberg arriving in the mail on a hot sunny day~!?!)

this package was stuffed FULL of all sorts of beautiful things vintage and i can hardly wait to do some clever fun stuff with my incredibly varied and wonderful treasures~!!!~ but for now, i just want to look at it all and admire, aka fondle every single bit of it~!~

i'm not exactly sure why but the flickr mosaic that i created and pasted into this post has decided that it is going to stay HUGE. so if you click on it you should be better able to see all of these charming details and hopefully enjoy them almost as much as i am~!!!~


don't you just love the way a person's handwriting is almost as revealing as their photos/portraits~!?!~ some of the antique/vintage postcards had lovely old handwriting on them which i think makes them as fascinating to look at on the back as the front . . .

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH EILEEN~!!~

i couldn't be any happier with this incredibly generous giveaway goodness that came in my mail~!!!~ you are an angel~!~





and now, regretfully, back to the more mundane in my life:
i've managed to sew up five Christmas postcards for my daughter's collection.
she chose some fabrics before she left that she thought might work up nicely into holiday cards and i think that they are working out very well. i will spend the next week or two embroidering/embellishing and binding/finishing them up for her and of course i will post them here as they are finished.

the other bit that i worked on this past week was a child/crib sized quilt top from some nine patches that i had made up from my scrap management project. they were re-cut into a disappearing nine patch setting that i found on flickr. it is currently too small and i will need to add some borders to bring it up to size but i expect that to go quickly and then it will be on it's way to the machine quilter's house. when it is finished and bound i will put it into my "gift and/or charity stash". it's always nice to have a few things on hand for those purposes as there seems to be no end to the need for those quilts.

btw: i'm considering a skinny yellow border followed by a fatter red border followed by another skinny yellow border . . . what do you think?

progress on this quilt will be duly reported in future blog posts.

in amongst the rocks by the pond i have planted elfin thyme. it is doing very well there and i'm always fascinated by how such a tiny flower can draw so many pollinators~!!~ this macro shot of them shows how they look just like teensie tiny orchid flowers and highlights their furry green leaves. clicking on the photo should enlarge it so that you can really get a good look at them.what i can't show you is the fry (baby goldfish) that were discovered in the pond this past weekend. so far there have been only a small handful of them spotted as they are quite good at hiding. there are a number of other bigger fish in the pond so chances are pretty good that most of them will not survive. i had baby's born last year and can only count approximately 14 of those as survivors into this summer. when they were born there were 9 large fish to wait around and pick them off as they got the chance. i think that there are probably hundreds of them born at a time so the odds really aren't in their favor. in addition to the 14 survivors from last summer's brood i have 4 of the larger original fish so this year's baby's are going to have an even tougher time . . .
it's very interesting to watch the the pond and it's various life cycles. there are dragon and damsel flys that frequent the pond and i have seen there strange life cycle within it as time goes on . . . as well as many other pond bugs/critters. one of my favorite things about summer is observing all of this pond life happen.

my rudebeckia also grows near the pond in front of a tall urn full of red petunias. this year the rudebeckia have grown so dense and tall that i can't even see the urn. the red petunias however peek out just above and provide an extra splash of color.

i can't remember what these are called but i do like them. i have many shades of pink, purple and white growing all together. they were actually planted several years ago from seed and have continued up year after year. they stand about a foot tall and this is a photo of just the flower, which grows as a ball of tiny florets.

the next sunday postcard art challenge is "nursery rhymes". i found an old book from my childhood that i still have and leafed through it in an attempt to get inspired. on the inside cover there is a handwritten inscription by my great grandparents. it is dated 1966 and there is a price of $1.95 up in one corner. i was two years old in 1966 and i can remember enjoying this book a lot throughout my childhood. despite that, it is still in remarkeably great shape.
there are many charming illustrations throughout this book but i chose the humpty dumpty and the cat and the fiddle to show here. it is a reminder of my childhood and one of my favorite childhood pasttimes; reading.

unfortunately, i'm still not feeling like building a postcard . . .

get ready Jay as a package will be coming your way soon. i didn't feel like writing a letter or a note to go with the enclosed goodies but had no problem sitting still with the prisma pencils and coloring in this fun rubber stamped image on the outside of the envelope . . . go figure~!~

my daughter is home from school for the Easter weekend and we decided that we would take a trip down memory lane and dye some eggs. it was a simple fun time and we both enjoyed it and love the look of those bright pastel eggs~!!~ i tucked in a stem of Jasmine and snapped this shot. Happy Easter Eve~!!~

Woven With Love

it occurs to me while setting up this still life that all of these things were hand "woven" with love; the basket, the antique lace and the tablecloth (which a very good friend made for me for my birthday a few years back).

i like the basket because it has a bunch of different little viney bits poking out randomly all over the place.

and the lace which is crocheted, was a piece i picked up at a yard sale partially finished . . . still had the pattern and the crochet hook with it. every time that i see it i wonder about it's "her"story.

i hope the collection makes you feel as warm, comforted and happy inside as it makes me~!~

A Love Affair~!!~

i simply couldn't resist the packaging. the chocolate is good but the packaging is sublime. there was the postage stamp with it's cancellation mark and the "love poem inside" stamp and the gold "wax" seal and i just could hear it whispering my name . . . even blowing in my ear . . . and softly on the back of my neck . . . and by the way there really is a love poem inside~!~ so yes, i was weak and succumbed. and i'll probably buy more.