A bit of variety - knitting

To add a bit of variety to life I got this baby shawl out of the cupboard where it has been sitting unfinished for four years. The border on one side and the centre panel both needed finishing.  As I have a habit of putting together bits and pieces from  different patterns it took me a whole evening (with one eye on the TV of course) to work out exactly what I had been doing.

It's knitted in Te Awa 2 ply Baby Merino pure wool, a favourite of mine and measure 54 " square. It will come in handy as a gift but I'm beginning to wonder if young mums these days are so keen or appreciative of something which is hand-made and which just can't be thrown in the washing machine but needs a bit of TLC.

Apart from the knitting I could call it possum week.  What do you think of this little ringtail possum. They are far less common within town boundaries than the brushtail possum

He was found, at midday, sitting in the centre of a suburban side street, sometime with his eyes closed, sometimes with them open.  He just did not want to be encouraged to move off the road. So it was a case of help needed.

 Here you can see the distinctive white tip to its tail at the top of the photo.

We tried to encourage him to climb up a tree. No luck.  So we put in him a front garden and he promptly crawled in under some dense foliage.  Hopefully when it became dark he was able to find his way to suitable territory.

We don't know what he was doing in the middle of the road. He didn't appear to have been hit by a car and we can't work out why he would be out on the road in daylight.

Fifties Dress No 12

Fifties No 12 Dress for "Dress Me Up" is  now finished, for better or worse.  She should keep warm travelling to and fro in her little cape.  Now the problem is  of how to put them together.

I'm trying to decide if I can combine some of the illustrations in this  Paris fabric with the twelve embroideries. The ladies in the fabric are just over half the height of the ones in the embroidery so I'm thinking that  at that size perhaps twelve of these ladies wouldn't dominate the embroideries.

Slow Progress

Marion asked me why I haven't been writing on my blog.  But I don't seem to have been making much progress lately and  it hardly seemed worth writing about.  I have started on  quilting my Pretty in Purple but it's the same old story - I start off with thimbles and other quilting aids but it's not long before I discard them - I like to feel the needle with my fingers. Next thing the quilting has to be put aside while the holes made in my fingers by the needle get a chance to heal !  The front of the quilt is quite patterned so I have used an inexpensive lavender poplin for the backing which will show up the quilting . After all my efforts the seam down the middle is not quite straight !

Then there's the Dress Me Up embroideries.  Here is No 11- a very plain dress with a silver and pearl brooch.

And No 12 turned out to be very plain too. The little cape was supposed to be embroidered to look Christmassy but I decided I didn't want it that way.  So I wondered why couldn't I just applique little capes onto the embroidery to take away the plain look.  After all Marina appliques these wonderful butterflies onto her embroidery and they look fantastic. So I tried  lots of different fabrics .

A little fur cape would be appropriate for the fifties but I think I might make a mess of sewing it on.  And it wouldn't be really practical.  The belt hasn't been embroidered yet.

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Another fabric I was given - the colours match the dress nicely  but it's a bit heavy looking and doesn't exactly look like the fifties.

So I suppose I'll go back to embroidery and perhaps fill in the cape with an embroidered pattern but what stitch would I use.  I am a copier and am not good at creating and at the moment my few creative juices are all dried up.

Of course I might just be prevaricating as when No 12 is finished I am going to have to decide how I am going to put them together into a quilt and I am not looking forward to that decision.

Then just recently there's been the matter of visitors.  I follow my hobbies in the living room, not in a room where I can shut the door on my muddle.  Here  I can pick something up and sew a few stitches while the vegies cook or while having a coffee or at any odd time of the day or night. And for my usual visitors I don't worry about my clutter.  BUT when you know out-of-towners are going to be welcomed in that front door several times in the next few days then everything, and I mean everything, gets shoved away in any old spot where it will fit.  Now I am going to have to try and find things again.

So sorry Marion, hopefully now I can again have a clear creative mind, sensitive healed fingers and my lovely clutter around me again and perhaps do  some craft work  worth writing about !