1 a MONTH CLUB -JULY

My  "1  a Month Club "decorations are finished ready for collection .  This is my snowy Owl.    I bought the Owl pattern from  Whimsylandia on Etsy. She has several owls brooches patterns and they were the right size for my project, yes I would like to make more. The white leaves are glitter felt the photo does not show their sparkle and the wreath is made from the Chocolate plant vines  Do you know it ?

At present I am working a set of weather folk, using  wooden, peg dolls here is the first one- Sunshine. This  one would be the right one for today, its a bright sunny winters day here, the mountain got a good blanket of snow this week  so looks like the photo on my header, it has meant that it has been very cold, but guess that's what we expect in winter. The ski field is now open so there will be people up there enjoying the lovely day which is a change from all the stormy weather we have had.

We have also been given the challenge from guild to dress a peg doll, the completed item must have some embroidery on the outfit. and they will be judged by popular vote at our November Christmas dinner.  As always I have too many ideas so will do a couple of outfits to decide which I like best. Have seen some lovely ones on Pinterest, there are some very clever craft people.

I am not sure if I blame lockdown for upsetting my calendar plans or maybe I should admit to being a little absent minded in my old age, but my blog anniversary slipped by last month, and I have not even thought about it! 
I now have to go away and think about what I can make for the special person I will honour from my blog friends to commemorate my 11th Anniversary. Thank you all who read and follow my ramblings,
I have decided to select the person who has commented the most times during the past year.....  and that is...       Vickie from a Stitcher's Story . 
Vickie has also been following my blog for the past 8 years, joining in about the time I share making the little hearts, Did you ever get one made Vickie or should I make one to include in the parcel? 

Hope everyone is staying safe and if in lockdown still able to get plenty of stitching time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

BECAUSE I COULD....

I  made a unicorn cake topper.... because I could ! 

I wanted to have a play with the left over fondant from doing Ronan's cake  and after watching a video  this is the result. Would love an excuse to make another one as I think I could do better, with the head.

What has Kaytu's attention ?  I am taking photos of my latest work in progress, and I know what she is thinking.... which one shall I grab first. This cat is a thief and my stitching is never safe and often pieces are rescued from her mouth. I am making a game for Finn and Eve, match the birds to their houses, it will be an easy game for Finn but will take Eve a while I think. I plan to make another harder one for Finn next.

My little thief keeps bringing items home, not sure where she goes as there are only two houses on this block the rest is parkland, and she never seems to be away for long.  To add to the game last night she kept bringing wetas in quite large ones and as fast as I rescued and put them outside she would find another one. 

Hope everyone is keeping well and safe in this worrying times.

A CAKE FOR RONAN

This is the first birthday cake for Ronan made by his grandmother and his great grandmother, we had lots of fun planning the cake and I worked on the decorations , then on Friday Jan came over and put the fondant on the cake and we put it all together.

 Birthday tea on the Saturday afternoon, he was too little to enjoy how the cake looked but think he thought it tasted great. His mum, Caitlin loved it, we had not told her what we had planned so she could have a surprise.

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1 a MONTH CLUB for JUNE

The decorations for April and May have finally been collected now that we have moved to Level 2 here in NZ, and here is June's decoration ready for collection. I made some similar decorations a few years ago and was pleased with how they looked so decided the shape was worth repeating.             

Of the previous three shown here the dove was my favourite however I did a new design using glitter felt for the background behind the bird. Had planned red beads for the berries but hen the time came I had none the right size or colour  and of course all the shops were shut owing to Covid-19 so French knots it was. 

My two small boys both have birthdays this month, first great grandson Ronan will be 1 yrs  old on the 6th, and grandson Finn will be turning 4 on the 11th. I was asked to paint some letters to make a name plate for Ronan's gift. We were able to buy wooden letters and they came already painted white, Caitlin asked for jungle animals to be the theme and I must admit it is a few years since I had my paint brushes in action, it was fun although I must admit more practice first would have helped.

Jan and I will be icing the birthday cake and we are doing a Winnie the Pooh theme, I have started modelling some of the pieces, will share with you after the weekend. Finn's gift is being stitched and is work in progress.

Hope everyone is keeping well and keeping safe in this very topsy turvey world.

1 a MONTH CLUB MAY

The decoration for May is a golden pear, this one went together just as planned and as I liked it so much I made an extra one for myself.  One side of the front of the pear is glitter felt and the other wool felt with beading.'Sadly because of lockdown they are still here along with the April ones and hopefully  they can be collected now restrictions have been eased..

New Zealand has been fortunate in not being hit hard by the covid 19, but it has meant weeks of life within one's bubble. Seniors over 70 years of age were first asked to restrict themselves to staying home and staying safe and as our church congregation are mostly  elderly  services stopped before the country went into lockdown. Our minister organised a phone roster so that no one was left with out a contact and someone to check on them and I with the help of contributions from him and another church member have been able to email a weekly newsletter, last Sundays was number 8, now we have two weeks wait and hopefully we can meet again.

The Easter tree did not last long, Kaytu took the decorations from the lower parts of the tree and I managed to rescue them before any damage was done, not to be put off she then decided to climb the tree to get the rest, at that stage I took them all down. now i am wondering how I can train a very determine cat to let me have something on my little tree. Just think the fun she could have with the big tree at Christmas  time!!

 Shopped for groceries this week, life is slowly going back to normal.

Keep well and keep safe

Under attack

I am not sure how long my Easter tree will remain, as it is under attack from Kaytu, she has already removed several decorations which fortunately were rescued before any damage was done, then last night there was an attempt to climb the tree, she was behind it and thought I could not see what she was doing. A very mischievous young cat but makes up for it being the one who also likes to cuddle up on my lap and purr. 

So different from her sister, after leaving home and being away for some time Tuppence has come back she is a very pretty tabby and smaller, very quiet and shy by nature and likes to settle to sleep on the other chair beside me... and we are enjoying the quiet life that being isolate brings.

Have been keeping up the stitching on the 1. a month club decorations and am a couple of months ahead. Peppermint Purple's SAL is up to date, but no photo. and my Wednesday piece is making good progress, think Fiona is about a row ahead of me.  I an several rows further on than this photo shows.   This is the third time I have stitched this mat, an easy piece to work on as once started no pattern is needed, just needle thread and scissors.

Hope everyone is keeping well in this very worrying time.

1 a MONTH CLUB- APRIL

April's decorations are all sitting here, who knows when they will be collected, I've been house bound for a couple of weeks now. I planned this one to be an egg shape to commemorate the link between Christmas and Easter.... however Covid 19 has meant no one got their decoration before Easter.
Today has been very enjoyable, stated with a church service on line, followed by the Royal New Zealand Ballet... Midsummer Night Dream on line... it was wonderful.   A long phone call from a cousin and time to catch up ...that sent me on a family tree search to answer one of her questions.
Then tonight on TV I will watch the film , Good Christopher Robin.
My planned photo of my Easter posy and my Easter tree will have to be on tomorrow’s things to do and I will share later in the week
 Hope you are all enjoying  the holiday break and  keeping well

MORE FELT LETTERS

When I did felt letters for the girls at Christmas I followed it up with a letter for Jan as she felt missed out! She also commented it would be nice to have the other letters to make up her name and be able to have them hanging above her desk. It was her birthday this week so I stitched the A and the N  with grey bunnies for her, they are all made from the same shade of felt even though these later photos look different.

 I hope everyone is staying sake and well in these difficult times.being in shut down is not a problem here there is so much I want to get stitched. This afternoons project will be owls.

1 a MONTH CLUB MARCH

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

This reference to Christmas stockings is from 1823  And was written by Clement Clarke Moore in his poem  The Night Before Christmas.

I don’t know if it was a Christmas stocking or sack but my earliest memory was my third Christmas and what ever was hanging on the back of one of the dining room chairs for me had a doll sticking out, I was fortunate it was before the war and I got a sleeping doll. Other memories are that there was always an orange in the bottom of the sack (pillow case) Do you have special memories of Christmases past ?

I had some Christmas fabric that said to me mini Christmas stockings, and I wanted a toy sticking out the top I tried some of the animals I had made for Caitlin and Ronan's tree  and loved the way the elephant's trunk hung over the edge of the stocking, so toy elephants it was.  The decorations on the stocking are very tiny jingle bells these are taken off Christmas earrings from the $2 shop.

 Meet latest love of my life thinks she should have all the attention……..meet Kaytu  5 months old, one of three kittens born to a stray cat under my house , the other two have since moved off and she has moved in. Originally name Katy the second after my big grey cat that we had for many years her name became K2 .. Kaytu. Like her namesake she loves being on ones lap and has a loud purr. I am enjoying having a cat again. To get my attention at the start, she was a little thief! First a skein of embroidery thread, that did not surprise me and the thread was rescued as needed for my Peppermint purple SAL , next I found a wooden embroidery frame outside on the back porch, and then  caught in the act of trying to take  small piece of linen from the stash basket she came back and took a piece of green silk fabric., which was later  rescued from the back garden.  Now she is happy to leave the stitching things to me and curl up on my lap and purr while I stitch.

Another joint project for Caitlin and I was making these felt Bunnies to share with the other members of the play group she and   Ronan go to, as part of  an activity letting the littlies feel different textures. ‘                                                                                 

Next up will be deciding what to make for the three littlies for Easter. I will keep you posted, off now to get some stitching time. 

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS..........

I decide to do a valentine’s posting of some of the hearts I have stitched since I started blogging I have however there is , a problem as the photos wont stay were I want them, so I invite you to enjoy them as they are.

This blackwork heart has a pocket on the back to hold a pair of scissors, a favourite design i have stitched several times in different colours, some of the others are further down!!!!!! ( and wont come up as much as I try!)

The pulled thread heart on the needle book was stitched then added to the cross stitch background.  The little scissor fob hearts on the right are on hand died linen using raspberry tea bags. Different variations of these have been stitched over the years some with bullion stitch roses like the ones below below. 

This one is a Reticello stitched rose on a hardanger heart.

and here are the rebels that wont sit and stay were I want them , background stitching is black work

I have enjoyed stitching different blackwork designs over the years, it all started with a blackwork Owl way back in 1982 and today I am stitching Peppermint purple's blackwork SAL with Caitlin on Sunday afternoons. here is the first week completed.

Hope your week is going well with lots of stitching time.

1 a MONTH CLUB -FEBRUARY

This month's decoration is a heart, it could be hung up and enjoyed for Valentines Day then put away till Christmas or given as a Valentine gift to a friend. One I know is going to be given away attached to a wedding present.

I have been able to get some extra stitching done during January and have a couple of months decoration already done.

February start with a guild work day,  the project for the day was felt letters, Caitlin and I worked together on one for Ronan,I had stitched the Winnie the Pooh ready  and so she managed to finish her letter on the day,

and this one is Heather's work in progress I expect we will have several finished and on the show and tell table at the guild meeting later in the month.

Thanks to Rhona's sharing on her blog Tangled Threads I learnt about Peppermint Purples free blackwork SAL and yes I have started almost caught up the first month in two nights stitching. no photo yet but will share later, Now several of the guild members who saw my stitching at the work day have joined too.

Lots of stitching planned for this month, however this morning the weeds in the garden call.