Mad March

 Good morning friends. Well it's been a wild and wooly old time here in South East Queensland of late. We've all had to batten down the hatches with Cyclone Alfred threatening our coastal areas. It's apparently the first time in 5 decades that a cyclone has threatened Brisbane. It caused much erosion and lots of flooding. I live just south of Brisbane. 

I and my family's homes suffered no damage thankfully but lost power for 24 hours. Being a camper that wasn't that terrible. Books were read and a little stitching accompanied by my favourite music playlist on my MP3 player. I have to be honest and say that even though the category was downgraded I was pretty frightened being alone with those howling winds. But nothing compared to others. Shout out to all our Energex and SES workers who risked life and limb in horrendous conditions to get our lights back on and rendering assistance. Champions one and all.

Now to stitching. 2nd prompt for Roxy's Journal of Stitchery was another vase only small.

I made a small jar from orange peel EPPs and appliqued matching flowers from the big vase.

We have received prompt 3 which is "fruit" I fancied a fancy pear. I stitched on a felt base and embellished it with lace, beads and embroidery. I think perhaps I will wait for the next prompt before stitching it on to my piece as I want to place it on a stack of books so we will see.

My March wip block for Sunday Stitchers was completed on time. 

So 6 blocks completed now for Caswell Quilt. Block 7 is underway.

My drawing mojo seems to have returned from vacation or whomsoever she was visiting...thank goodness!

I added a little Mama and Baby to my sketchbook last week. Fell in love with this gorgeous pair. I am not an artist who can quickly rough up a sketch in my sketchbook. I have to take my time.....wishing I was able to has never made it so. I just accept that now and be grateful. 

My Gardenia is also slowly progressing. Working on the leaves before anything else on the flower. It will stand out once the background is put in.

Yesterday I spent a lovely day with friends and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Thank you Bev. We caught up on friends exciting holidays and the ups and downs of this thing we call life.....And stitches were done on my "Dragonfly Meeting" sashiko. We don't always manage stitches....chat is more important. Lol!

Well that is me caught up for now. It's a showery old day here today and I am feeling in a " can't be bothered " mood,  so I am going to find something to watch and stitch some more of my Sashiko and let the dust bunnies chase each other uninterrupted. 

Before I go....

My Blue Ginger is in flower and excited to have several flower spikes. I took these snaps in between showers.

I love the individual little flowers....so perfect! Oh and the tiny raindrops *sigh. The colour is so gorgeous. 

Be kind to one another friends in this time when kindness seems a rare commodity. 

Namaste and Blessings Michelle xxx 

P.S.

I am still trying to work out the new blogger settings to answer your lovely comments so thank you in advance xx

 Hello folks. February has arrived with crazy weather for my Northern Queensland friends with torrential and flooding rains and a savage cyclone in the North West. Not a grand start to the year for many Aussies. Bring on Autumn!

We celebrated my eldest Grandson's birthday and cake is always on the menu lol!

He was also chuffed to get his first official Baseball photo...I love it!

We are a bit unsettled at present as this lovely bloke has had a serious health scare and we are waiting for further results. It's always hard doing the watch and wait!

Sunday Stitchers February meeting happened. We celebrated National Tim Tam Day....I for one definitely think it deserves it's own day....thanks Maria xx

I met my WIP deadline....2 more blocks done for Caswell.

I am sharing some gorgeous show and tell from Susan, De and Sue.....

I am sure the enabling influence of these girls has led me to start another Sashiko project....eye roll here.

Consequently I decided that I needed a dedicated needle book for my Sashiko needles....because they ain't cheap! I loved this dragonfly fabric.

I thought it was cute enough to make two!

Progress has been made on the Roxy's Journal of Stitchery project. I eventually fussy cut the embroidered flowers from my friends fabric and needle turn appliqued them in place. Have to say was NOT easy on my fingers. I have ditched the bottom Suffolk Puff.

I added Suffolk Puffs and then used some lovely woollen yarn to embroider some flowers to add to the vase. I tried to place them so the quilt binding was still visible on the top of the vase.

I am pleased with the result and I am not going to work on the background until I know a few more of the prompts. 

This week I went back to art and completed my sweet little Rufous Fantail Mumma....friends and a great coffee made for a lovely day.

You all know that my family are everything to me and so indulge me a little boast and giggle. My son is a tradie and works for the government. When he began with them he was part of a recruitment drive advertisement( because I have good looking children lol) and hilariously he keeps showing up in advertisements several years later.....

He has really been copping it from his mates and his sister with lots of doctored pictures sent to him...haha! At least his sister's wasn't naughty!

But you get the idea lol!

OK lovely people that's it from me.

Take care all.

Namaste and Blessings Michelle xxx 

Stumped and Procrastinating

 Hello friends. Thank you all for your lovely comments in my last post. Some folks I could not respond to in person...but thank you.

Now I have been very diligent with my Caswell blocks and have completed Block 4.

Block 5 is now underway. My procrastination? Well!

We received the first table prompt of our Still Life for Roxy's Journal of Stitchery Vol 7 which is Vase of Flowers. Now I am a little flummoxed by this....not the prompt itself but how I wanted to proceed. I stitched my background to resemble tongue and groove timber for the wall and I have a piece of an old quilt that I wanted to use for my vase. I was going for a Vintage and faded look.

I then had the dilemma because the other side of the quilt piece was pretty too.....hmmm!

I decided on the patterned side because I liked the edge of pink binding at the top.

OK next was a pretty vintage doiley for under the vase.....

And then came my next dilemma. Yes there's a few! My beautiful friend Gaye who is no longer with us, gifted me from her brother's antique shop in Baltimore,  USA a gorgeous piece of fabric that is hand embroidered. I really wanted to use elements from it.

You can see from the reverse side that it is definitely hand embroidered. 

I assembled all my elements on my background and now have no clue how to stitch it all down. I am a needleturner and can't quite get my head around it except that I really WANT to use Gayes piece * sigh

So a whole lot of walking past it and sighing is happening at present! Frustrating!

Speaking of frustration....when you lose your person you get to deal with small annoying things that they used to deal with.....recent annoyance.....my old coffee table had the wobbly boot on. I was so sick of it wobbling that I surprised it and me by flinging it on its back to examine it's underneath regions.....turns out the joints on one leg had come out of its hole....actually several holes. 

Now I am not handy AT all. But I was determined. 

Soooooo I glued and hammered and swore it back into place!

She is now standing back on 4 solid legs...not a wobble in sight and we are both happy!

I have treated myself recently....a lovely new book....Christmas money from the FIL.

And I took myself on a date to the movies to see this one. Set in the early years of Bob Dylan....the cast...simply amazing as all music was filmed live. So many favourites to enjoy.

It was wonderful and so interesting. Music and motorbikes was something Hubby and I loved as gorgeous young things so bought back lots of lovely memories watching Dylan on his lovely bike. He would have loved it and also been so interested. These are the things you miss...talking about things you've enjoyed.

Over the weekend the wind was so strong that it blew one of my tree dwelling orchids on to the ground. So I harvested the flowers to enjoy whilst the plant recovered.....so pretty!

Last but not least, my beautiful young women started high school this week....astonishing!

Both had great days which was lovely. 

Well I guess I shall go back to pondering this vase of flowers once more and then get myself to bed. I have the Termite man coming at "stupid o'clock" in the morning for our annual check up.

Take care all.

Namaste and Blessings Michelle xxx