Latest treasures from the Antique Centre

One of the things I enjoy so much is when my daughter comes to visit and we head off to the Antique Centre at Paddington, Brisbane.

We usually come away with some new treasure or other, sometimes both of us, sometimes just one of us, but it always seems to be a successful trip.

My daughter is visiting now for a few weeks, so we have had 2 trips to check out the treasures.  My finds have been

This set of shelves to display my spool collection.  And also the large spool on the bottom shelf.

The other one rather took my fancy, and it has potential for storage in my sewing room.  Any suggestions of what I can store in it?    It is a bit difficult to open (the bottom comes out but takes some effort to do so without damaging anything) so I dont want to put in anything that I need to access frequently.   I am thinking of painting it but havent decided for sure about that yet.  It is made of wood, I think the tag said bamboo, and wooden bars.  It is 25 cm square and 30 cm high.

There are beautiful little carved decorations on the sides as well, and it has a fancy top and hook for hanging. (but I didnt get them in the photo.)

We are hoping to go back again sometime in these next couple of weeks.  I wonder what we will find then.

Gorgeous goodies and a finish

Our fabulous local patchwork shop, Sew This and That in Morayfield held a Super Sunday Kick Off Sale.  From now on they will be trading on Sundays, so what a great way to celebrate.  As always the girls outdid themselves in putting on a very successful event, which saw lots of bargains, many people, demonstrations and fun.

Who could resist bringing home a few goodies - certainly not me.  It was a good time to shop for some coming projects.

These will make a machine cover for my new Janome.  At our sewing club at the shop this week we are doing sashiko - using the printed fabric on the right - the design doesnt show too well here - wait till after Thursday to see it with its stitching. 

These ones are for projects later in the year, though I havent decided whether to use them for the table runner class, or for Joy's Doctor Bag class - will wait and see how the mood takes me.

Although there has been very little time for sewing in the last couple of weeks, I did manage to finish off my butterfly quilt.  It is now in use on  the daybed, making a bright and showy presence.  (though after looking at my blog, I have to say the pink in the border is not nearly as bright as it seems to be in the photo.  It does blend in much better.  May have to try an outside photo to see if it looks better.)

Farewell, Kristian

My young nephew,  shown here with his Mum, looking so happy

for some reason, took his own life on Monday.

It seems it is not for us to know why, but merely to say

Rest in Peace, Kristian. 

Another enjoyable week

Embroidery progress slowed down once the knitting project came along, but it didnt stop completely.

Lots of progress on my Snow Hearts blocks - all stitched out  except the last one, which became available last week.  These have been so relaxing to work on, and I love them.  I wonder how they will
be assembled.

I have done some more of the mini quilts for Give Thanks, the BOM from Jenny of Elefantz

Also last week was Sewing Club day at Sew This and That.  We were making a wine bottle carrier.  Now that was so convenient for me.  At Christmas when I gave my sisters these sleepover bags

one of them asked for a matching wine carrier for her birthday, which is this month.  Thanks to this month's club project I didnt need to go hunting for a design, or make one up. It was there for me.

Made to fit !

The knitting has not progressed too far.  I think there is some more reverse knitting waiting to be done.  It has been relegated to the "think about it later" category.  Sewing is much more satisfying.



What have they talked me into ?????????

I guess it is peer pressure.

I thought I  could make up my own mind about what I would like to do.

I guess I was wrong.

It didn't take too much arm twisting.

After all, they are my friends, and the people I like to hang out with to indulge in my favourite activities.

"We'll do this when we meet up on Monday.  You can do it too."

Yes, I gave in. (Eventually).

So this is what I am doing, and (sob sob) it has taken over my life !!!

It's not that I dislike knitting, its just that I enjoy quilting and embroidery more. 

It's not that I havent done much knitting in the past, I did heaps when I was younger and lived in cooler climates.

It's not that I have nothing else to fill my time, its  just that I have enough projects on the go already.

Anyway, I am working away at it.  Talk about reverse knitting.  I think I could have done twice as much if I didnt do so much reversing. 

It is one of those free patterns from the store, hanging there to encourage you to pick it up and then go buy the requirements. 

But the instructions are very sparse.  There are odd mistakes in it - not a lot but you need to keep your wits about you and work around them.

Anyway we will see in a while just how this project goes. 

I HAD been firing through some embroidery in the evenings, now that is put aside and this knitting thing has taken over.

Still, I can sit HERE and work away comfortably.  (our lounge chairs have higher armrests and it is awkward trying to knit while sitting in them, so what a good thing I now have my marshmallow cane chair.)