Halloween, Beads, Gilligan, Sunshine

So what can I share with you to show evidence of the past 10 months of stitching/crafting and the like.........?
Precious little I'm afraid.
I've only recently taken up stitching again and there is not much to show.  I cannot for the life of me find the dancing penguins, they cannot be too far away... if I remember correctly, I was up to adding beads  and put it down until I could find my box of beads . . ...    found the beads, just don't know where the project is.

Halloween - I don't think I shared with you my decorations....  I was really pleased, because the local kids who did come a'calling, declared me 'Awesome !'  I decorated one room, and left the blinds open, so they could see in, to see my Halloween tree.  All has been carefully packed away, ready to decorate again next year!

Oh I did spend a bit of time on a craft project. I love beads, have many, many beads - one to match just about any colour outfit I wear.  I got sick of them getting jumbled up and knew what sort of project  to do to get them hung up neater than sitting in a big ol' shoebox!

First I found a cheap print on a chipboard picture at the thrift shop.  Then I found this packet of adhesive hooks.  Out came the patchwork rule and I worked out to place them evenly apart and on a 60degree angle so to make the most and to avoid unnecessary tangling.  You can see the pencil lines which I rubbed out at the end - not that it really mattered, because with all my beads (well most of them) you can't really see the picture at the end.....

I celebrated the big 5-0 recently - with friends as I held a Gilligan's Island party - such a whole lot of fun.  I'd been preparing and collecting a lot of vintage and retro dishes & arranged the hairdresser and a trip to a glamour photographer on the day - the whole day was a fun-fest!

Naturally, I selected Ginger as my character... I baked a coconut-cream pie for the evening - and mmmmmmm it was good! I even wore false eyelashes!  All I could think when the makeup artist was working on my eyes - was that I really looked like my big sister!  She's a wee bit older than me, and I vividly remember her with a similar hairstyle and the false eyelashes about 1972!!
 

I've started yet another blog too - see over there on the left sidebar - Retro-Girl in Frankston  - all to do with my love of retro ware and style.   I'll post there my treasures that I find and my search for similar.

Signing off now with an end of Summer Snap!  A casual photo taken by my son last weekend.  The water was so clear, I couldn't resist and paddled out to the sandbar.  Mind you, this week in Melbourne, we've had a blast of heat again..  The bay and the sand and the sky and the sun felt so good!

Something Wicked . . . . . .

Finally, a finish . . . .....
Patient followers will be aware that life has been somewhat disrupted these past 5 months . ... yes it has been that long.
I no longer obsessively stitch to avoid the stresses in my life, rather I stitch when I want to..... so there is no danger of churning out embarrasing amount of sheep or any such other topic as I did last year.

La-D-Da designs have always held that certain sort of fascination for me - especially the Halloween Designs.  

I fancied this one on my current favourite colour - fabric by Picture This Plus - swamp.....  The finished size is smaller than I envisaged, so I have enough left for another project another time. 

My very good friend Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe supplied the very special blue/purple overdyed floss, and I used more of her floss for the lettering and the socks. The spiders however, are good old DMC and kreinick sparkly .

It's too close to Halloween to have this framed in time, but I'll find a way to display it this year.



Watch this space . . . . .



Today's plans include updating all my blogs and then decorating my new office/sewing room space for Halloween

I've missed so many TUSAL and WIP-ocalyspe this year....  sigh... will try to catch up next post.

(I'll also have to find whereabouts I put the dancing penguins . . . .....and finish them off!)



A return to normality - Stitching again.

I think my mojo may have returned.  Late this afternoon, this snowman was a mere head and shoulders.  I started him at the very end of 'The year of the Snowman', on Dec 31, 2010 and he has been languishing, waiting all through the Year of the Sheep.
Today, I really felt the urge to put needle through fabric and dragged this one out of the WIP pile.  Tomorrow, I might feel considerate enough to give him a nose.  I'm using a really coarse linen evenweave - no idea what it is or what the thread count is. (I'm not that much of a purist)
However, I am feeling better for stitching...
I have found my TUSAL Jar and will be adding a few fibres to that before posting a pic of the Jar in it's relocated space.

Oh joy and peace have returned.  My needles love me again!

TUSAL - Final fibre flaunting for 2011



December 2011 T.U.S.A.L

Nearly forgot!!!  How could I not finish off 2011 without the final TUSAL installment - New Moon December 29.

Here it is - my lovely little jar, faithfully being looked after by my sheepie sentries. (the rusty wire thing on the right IS my hubby's Christmas gift - A SHEEPIE !!! )
I can see lots and lots of black and white near the top, some oranges from Halloween and some pink near the bottom (what project had pink?? I'll have to go look)
It's been fun collecting my orts and I'll certainly be joining in again next year with DaffyCat - and TUSAL 2012


(I'll have to find another crystal bowl to store my orts from 2011)

2011 - The Year of the Sheepie - at a close - the final baaaa

9 Sheepies

Here we go, what is probably the last of my sheepies for 2011. (although I might round off the number by stitching one for a fob tomorrow)
The Holstein Sheep/Cow was 100 - Moet, Dry-Clean, Longshanks & Screwball make it a total of 104 for 2011.
It's been a fun year, full of sheepie puns, I won't try to pull the wool over your eyes, the puns sometimes have been ewe-niversally baaa-d.

I'll draw a winner of my giveaway tomorrow morning.

Happy Dancing!


baaaa-ronny

100 Sheepies !!!!

100 sheepies !!!!!!!!


(of course, Holstein is a type of spotted black & white COW  -  just my crazy, warped & twisted sense of humour)

2011 - A year of Sheepies - near completion

Here we are, two weeks before the end of the year and our Christmas tree has yet to make an appearance....  Why???  Because, for our tree to be put up in front of my sewing machine cabinet, I have to stop sewing ...  I have made some gifts for friends, but I really wanted to finish my sheepie stitches into the quilted top that I envisaged way back in February, when I decided to make this a monthly series.

I tried laying them out 2 x 6 and 6 x 2 and 4 x 3, but the best layout for colour placement, was 3 x 4. 

2011 - The Year of the Sheepies

I'm sure you will agree, this just works out well.  I had found some sheep fabric on a side trip to Mount Gambier in October and spent this morning fussy-cutting sheep heads.

Closeup of sheep heads and grass

After piecing them and ironing the strips, I had a near mental breakdown, because one strip of sheep and grass went missing for 2 hours.  I had not left the room, I was ironing them, my family thought me mad, and that I had not cut 20 heads in the first place, but I knew I had lost one solitary strip.  I had a little nanna-nap after moving furniture looking for this strip, (I even removed the ironing-board cover looking for it!), I dreamt of strips of sheep heads, woke up, continued on my search, then found it UNDER a box that I had moved before.  Perhaps it was my body telling me I needed sheepie sleeping.

I've been able to finish it off - now I am happy, although I need to find some suitable backing fabric and binding, but that can wait until the New Year - my family want a Christmas Tree!

Sheepie Greetings everybody - thank you for joining me on my obsession in 2011

TUSAL TIME AND HAPPY DANCING IN THE MAILROOM

Whoa!!!   it's TUSAL TIME!!!!!

Nearly forgot to post - not having my own computer at the moment really stuffs up blog posting.

You can see how full this is getting AND not only is there halloween autumn tones at the top, but you can see WHITE floss - what do you think - Ghosts or Sheepies????  What do you think of my little sheepie - new to my flock?  I found him at an antique shop for a couple of dollars - he's an old ceramic sheepie and now has a new home - at least until the new year, on my sheepie display..... (what AM I going to do, come January, with all these sheep???)

I also get to share a wee bit of happy dancing with you - Pauline sent me a lovely package, and I received it today at work.  There's Voodoo Bob at the back right - a Mill Hill Christmas Sheepie chart, a pattern for a sewn sheep, a lovely scissors bag AND a sweet pair of scissors (hmmm....what sort of fob will land on these???), a lovely mug rug and a really sweet stitched pin pillow.  Thank you Pauline, I don't remember winning something, but this was a sweet surprise in the mail...I don't think Voodoo Bob will make it in time for this year....I love that pillow...so nice to make friends in blog-land.