Welcome Guest Blogger Marcel Parums!

 It's a pleasure to introduce Marcel Parums, my ten year old nephew who has made this wonderful felt elephant and taken the photographs himself. Over to you Marcel:

 "I made this elephant at school when we were studying India. Our craft teacher gave us a 2D pattern, then she showed us how to make the gussets to make the elephant 3 dimensional."

 "I chose purple for his rug, and sewed on the ears and his tail. The stitching that we used was blanket stitch."

"Finally after we'd finished sewing it all, we left a space for stuffing. We put a wire pattern inside the four legs to help him stand. We bent the ends of the wire so it didn't stick through the felt. And finally stitched up the hole."

Thank you, Marcel, for your blog contribution and for sharing with us your beautiful elephant!

More Happy Birthdays and future projects

I have lots of birthdays in June and July, and here are some more presents I've made. We have a cashmere beanie for Aniela, and a lavender bag for Lavinia.

And a very special doll quilt for a very special one year old - Happy Birthday little Sienna! The quilt is inspired by the gorgeous work of Kathleen Tracy.

I have recently become a Kathleen Tracy fan, to the point of purchasing all her books! - including a print-on-demand copy of her out of print 'American Doll Quilts'. I am looking forward to that one arriving in the mail, and then I will have the complete quartet.

I have lately developed a love of a more traditional style of quilting, and Civil War and reproduction fabrics. To me the colours and designs are classic and timeless, and make me feel more connected to the women in the past who quilted and crafted. The close up above shows my first attempt at needle-turn applique and hand quilting. I really loved doing this: siting on the couch with needle and thread and meditatively stitching.

I also made Sienna a doll. The knitted body is an old Jo Sharp pattern, and the clothes are from Hop Skip Jump's Poppy Doll pattern.

Here is a full length shot showing her sweet floral bloomers.

And here is the backing.

This is my next cross-stitch project and I am really enjoying stitching it so far. The linen is a 20 count, so the stitches are nice and large and easy on my eyes! And it is growing very quickly. The pattern is 'Hedgerow Birds' by Blackbird Designs, and I am using the recommended linen and DMC threads - all bar one DMC colour - we'll see how successful the substitution is in the fullness of time! The recommended linen looks a lot more yellow than the photo on the pattern, but I think it will turn out ok. You can see the colour difference in my pics.

This is on the to-do pile. A Quilted Crow designs table runner, using felted wool felt from their beautiful shop.

And another future project - pattern and fabric bundle both bought from the Quilted Crow. The ladies at the Quilted Crow are having their first book published soon by Martingale and are very excited! Such wonderful news! Please go and visit their New Town shop and support these wonderful local talents!

There is a whole world of beautiful things out there - and not nearly enough hours in the day to make them all!

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on Tuesday, and to celebrate I have bought myself two new Bower Beads: a kookaburra and thylacine stripes. These are designed by Tasmanian jeweller Ruth Waterhouse. I love Ruth's designs and have a few of her pieces. I purchased the beads at Sargisons in Hobart.

This photo shows the detail on the back of the kookaburra. So beautiful! I am loving these beads: the detail, the weight of them and how they feel on my wrist. Delicious.

Lavender bags and some knitting for the cold

June and July are big birthday months for me, and here are a few gifts I've made. They are all cross stitched and filled with lavender. My new cross stitch obsession was inspired by this beauty. The piece above is actually tiny and the picture below gives you a sense of the scale. I loved stitching this, though the small stitches were right on the edge of my capabilities without any magnification to give me a hand! I used a cream Semco 25ct evenweave, with one strand of DMC over one stitch.

The scale of these two is much larger and a lot more rustic with coarser linen and two strands of floss over two stitches. The floral pattern is from this lovely book, and the bird is from a vintage knitting graph I found on the web a couple of years ago. Happy birthday Kate, Anne and Lou!

Last, but not least, here is a balaclava in 8 ply New Zealand merino. I've been wanting to knit one for the past two winters, but have only just got around to it. We have had some cold mornings here in Hobart, and a couple of weeks ago I decided it was easier to walk to work than defrost the car. I really wanted to wear the balaclava, but I look quite scary in it, so decided on a beanie instead. This will have to wait for an appropriately chilly bush walk. The streets of Hobart aren't ready for it!

I've been home from work the past three days with a bout of labyrinthitis, but am starting to feel a bit better. I'm off out to dinner tonight with a couple of friends. We will try and get a table at Garagistes - this is our second attempt. Wish us luck!

A Bevy of Cushions

I have been making new cushions for my couch: getting rid of the old hippy style green florals and replacing them with blues and reds and woolen checks. I found the embroidered tree at an op shop years ago - so much work and someone gave it away! This is an old beloved cushion and the linen is starting to wear. I will need to unpick it, mend the linen and then resew it.

The largest cushions are wool - from second hand kilts and op-shop fabric. I unpicked the kilts and gave all the pieces a hot machine wash to slightly felt them. I particularly like the blue and beige check. The needlepoint floral is a piece I stitched thirty or more years ago. My grandmother taught me how to do needlepoint and bought me the kit. The piece sat unfinished in the cupboard, to be discovered and finished many years later. I backed it in velvet and filled it with feathers. I finished the red check cushion this afternoon. It's just two squares sewed together without a fancy closing - I just sewed the opening up with an invisible seam. Because the wool fabric has been pre-washed in hot water, I can throw the whole cushion in the washing machine and know it will come out ok.

This gorgeous piece of fabric is Kristen Doran's 'Winter Nest' panel. It has been waiting patiently in my old oak filing cabinet. I had thought to incorporate it into a smock, but think the cushion does it better justice - it is on permanent display rather than hiding in the wardrobe.

The back is red and cream cotton ticking, bought from Spotlight a few years ago - such a pity I can't get this anymore.

There is something quite uplifting and energising about changing things around the house. Sometimes I go around re-appraising all my stuff and getting rid of anything I wouldn't buy now - looking with fresh eyes and ruthlessly giving things away instead of hanging on to things 'just in case'. The op-shops benefit from my donations and I end up feeling lighter and relieved of the past.

I can't believe the weekend is almost over. Where does the time go? Time now for some soup for dinner and then I'll settle in front of the tv for the next installment of 'Downton Abbey' - an addiction after only one episode!