Hello again

I have been busy crocheting, designing cross stitch and mountmellick embroidery patterns and trying to finish a large cross stitch design. There just isn't enough time in the days.......

These two little bunnies will find a home with two of my friends. They are both expecting baby girls soon.

I crocheted them with Vinnis Colours, Nikkim, 100% Cotton Yarn and a size 3.5 Crochet hook. 

I had such a good time making them. I really enjoy crocheting.

I just adore them and wish I had small children of my own so I could decorate their room........sigh.......dream.....

Ah, but I had my time of that and now I'll just have to wait to become a granny, right?

Hope you still have a lovely Sunday....

I know I will, with friends coming for lunch, homemade pizzas, red wine, blueberry tart..... ahhh, what bliss!!

My surroundings

A lot of you have asked me what my surroundings look like.

So, this afternoon I took some photos:

It is summer here at the moment. Every other day is a scorcher with the thermometer climbing up to

 39deg Celsius on a regular basis. Recently we have had a lot of rain ( we are so grateful for that), and all around us the bush is green and lush.

It is Marula season, (the fruit that is used to make Amarula Liquor), and the trees are shedding their fruit by the thousands. The fruit is about the size of a small apricot. We have one tree that produces golf ball size fruit.

The fruit fall to the ground constantly and one has to be careful not to get hit by falling fruit.

One tree behind the house is about 15 meters high, the one next to my Studio about 20 meters high.

As the fruit lies on the ground for a day or two it ripens completely and turns yellow. It quickly starts to ferment and gives of a pungent, sweet and strong odour, attracting buck, warthogs and monkeys and of course, gazillions of insects.

We gather up all the fruit on a daily basis and dump truckloads full in the game camp.

The fruit is edible, and the locals make a delicious jelly  as well as a kind of alcoholic beer out of it. There is a very large pip in every fruit and the flesh clings tightly to it and cannot be removed, only squeezed for its juice.

I personally much prefer the Amarula liqueur :)

This is part of the chicken yard. My lovelies are entertained with hanging fruit and seeded pine cones.

......feeding time.......

----Just some pretty plants---

This is what I see when I sit on my Veranda.

  

Above is the Main Entrance to our farm.

Main entrance path.....

Path to the barbecue area.....

One of the guest huts....

Sorry about the aircon in this photo. I wanted to show you a close up of these prickly plants. They are called Halfmense ( Afrikaans) , which means Half Humans in English. 

And finally----- Philip the tame Impala enjoying a good cuppa------ 

No, not really coffee but maize kernels in the cup!!

So, that's all from me today. Stitching wise I can tell you what I am busy with, namely, 

as per usual, several projects. 

1.   Mountmellick embroidery guest towel

2.   Hardanger victorian bag project

3. My own Cross stitch design of....... (surprise)

4. A crochet bunny, too sweet for words....

Goodbye for now, keep stitching....

It's been a while

since my last post. At the beginning of the month I decided to finish off as many of my work in progress projects as possible. Some of them just need framing, or finishing off.

 So, here is a cross stitch project  that was lurking around my studio.

I received the cardboard box as a gift from a dear friend. I use it a lot when embroidering and knitting or crocheting. All the little cut off floss and wool bits are saved in there.

 (Don't ask me why......., just because ......, otherwise they would cling to the carpet and furniture?  Maybe I'll find a use for them in future, like stuffing a pincushion, and only I know what the pincushion is stuffed with? lol That's a good idea.......) 

This is one of my own designs, stitched on tea dyed 18ct Aida fabric. I used DMC threads.

And here is a little project I have been wanting to make for a while now.

It's a little cell phone pouch for my touch screen cellphone. Here in the bundus, (90km) from the nearest town), it is difficult to obtain a cover for the make of my phone. So I thought why not try and make my own?

It's working fine, preventing the screen from getting scratched. And I made it snug enough to stay on the phone, even in the depths of my huge handbag. (Tried and tested)

I embroidered the top layer of felt with embroidery wool and then added a very thin felt for a lining. The two layers were cut to shape and then stitched together using blanket stitch. It was finished in one afternoon.  

Blackwork Bird

Today I want to show you one of my Blackwork designs.

I never got round to having it framed properly, maybe that should be one of my New Years resolutions.

I found the picture of the bird in an old stained glass design book and traced it onto 28ct evenweave fabric.

I first worked all the outlines in stem stitch.

Then I filled each area with a different blackwork pattern.

I used all sorts of different threads, Silk, DMC, Varigated, Goldwork etc.

The outer ring was worked under a magnifying lamp, over one thread. 

That's it for today, keep stitching..... :)

I have been crocheting again

I have so many ideas in my head.... I don't know where they come from....

It must be the yarn I bought, it is really beautiful to work with.... aahhh and the colours.....

I made some funky chicken hanging thingies...

Mom

and Dad

and

three

sisters?

I think they would look so lovely in a child's room, don't you?

The above picture depicts " Organised Chaos".

 I had a lot fun decorating the little chickens, getting out all my goodies and making good use of them,  eating the last of the Christmas cookies, listening to an audio book - oh what bliss!!

I also finished the crochet hexagons and made a little blanket out of them.

The blanket measures about 70cm x 70cm.

I don't know what to do with it now. It will probably be saved for the future grandchild.....

In case you are wondering, I am already working on a pink one :)

Remember the Lampshade?

I have been busy finishing off the lampshade and thought you might want to see how it turned out.

Covering the lampshade was actually easier than I thought.

I used double sided tape and fabric glue. Wash pegs held everything in place until dry....

I am pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it turned out. When I first saw this lamp in that old magazine, it was love at first sight.

And now it is all mine..., and, best of all....... it is too big to put into a drawer.... so it will actually get used...

LOL.....