A Beautiful Threadpainting

My latest acquisition from Monika Kinner-Whalen of My Sweet Prairie. Isn't it gorgeous? Just 2 5/8" square, so tiny, tiny and so many little stitches.

I am displaying it with some of my favourite things.

I love it so much - thank you Monika. xx

Fiddling!

Is what I seem to have been doing lately - small, easy projects, a bit here and a bit there. I have three larger projects that seem to be hanging on a bit so I am aiming to get them all finished off this week.

First up was this embroidered bag which I almost finished earlier this year.

I had decided that it needed a tassel on the bottom so I ordered some thread and then it got forgotten.

Anyway, last week, out came these delicious threads

and with the addition of some beads from my stash, made this tassel.

Which I have now added to the bag.

Great. One finish for the week and it looks good hanging from the bottom of my new postcard hangar too.

Hope you manage a finish or two this week.

I like long birthdays!

Especially when presents like this arrive!

I finally met up with a friend for coffee last week and we exchanged birthday gifts. This lovely hanger was made by my friends son - they are used for keys, photographs etc.

Mine however is perfect for displaying some of my lovely collection of postcards and will be going in my workroom soon.

Well, the storm finally came on Saturday evening complete with wind and hail stones. Fortunately no damage this time.
Here are a couple of pictures I took of the sunset after the storm.

Have a good week.

FNSI and some bits and bobs!

Thank you Wendy for hosting FNSI again and for the super easy apple turnover recipe which I did not make but I will do!

Another afternoon and evening of sewing for me. The afternoon was spent sewing with a friend - very pleasant company. The promised rain and storm did not happen but it was very sticky indeed!

I was working on my latest crazy block and it is starting to fill up very nicely I feel. Lots of space for more though - I want to get a couple of butterflys in there next and a dragonfly too.

These little roses and rosebuds were very simple to do. Still some work to do on the seam treatment - I want to put little pearls in the centre of the yellow flowers.

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Jenny of Elephantz shared a simple basket pattern with us this week - a way of using up oddments of bias cut fabric.

Her instructions are here.

Here is the one that I made. I love the simple button flower.

It is now sitting by my sewing machine holding a variety of tools and bits and bobs. It has taken the place of this little container

which has done the same job for the last 12 years! In 2002 a group of us went on a patchwork trip to Rotterdam and each of us was presented with one of these on arrival by our hostesses. OK, so I have changed the ribbon but otherwise it has held up very well. It has now been retired and holds some of my collection of needlework tools and ephemera.

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And last but by no means least this little treasure arrived in the post today.

A beautiful field of poppies ATC from Jeannette - jennypennypoppy! A lovely mixture of hand and machine sewing. The tiny poppies were cut from organza using a soldering iron and are attached with french knots. Thank you very much Jeannette.

I hope you are all having a good weekend. The sun is just starting to come out here - another promised storm has not arrived and so I think I had better go and water my pots!

An Exhibition and a Postcard

I finally received the second of my Canada Day swap cards last week. Unfortunately the sender was given the wrong postcode so it has had a journey round the Dordogne!

Here is my lovely card

It was sent by Heather McArthur who sadly does not have a personal blog. It is the first postcard that Heather has made and she has done a super job - I hope you make lots more Heather.
Heather is the editor of Quilters Connection Magazine the only quilters magazine in Canada. Have a look at the website and blog - there are lots of interesting things there.

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On Friday afternoon I went to a Patchwork, Embroidery and Lace exhibition about an hour north of here at Nontron.
There were lots of lovely things to look at and to buy although I did resist!
Here are some general views of the exhibition.

Here is a picture of my favourite quilt which was made by the president of the association
 Mme de Rauglaude

I also like the way that she is putting this hexagon quilt together

with each of the rosettes lined and finished off separately.

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And finally - at last I have managed to add a signature to the bottom of my blog!! My very grateful thanks to the amazingly patient Erin and her beautify your blog series.

Have a great week.

More lovely post and crazy WIP

In my post box this morning I was amazed to find this huge collection of needles!

I may never need to buy another needle!

They were a prize for renewing my subscription to STITCH magazine

and the value of the prize more than covers the cost of the subscription. My lucky day!!

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I have started another piece of crazy patchwork and am really enjoying it especially as I have reorganised all my threads and can see much more easily what I have.

I thought I would work this one in a frame to see if I liked it better, however I have found that a couple of my fabrics have puckered which is not supposed to happen at all in a frame. Also trying out my new Sharon Boggon crazy quilting templates which I used to draw the swag. Having great fun.

Have a good week everyone.

Lin xx

Storm damage, a lovely postcard and le Grand Depart

It's been a busy week - not sure why but there you are, there always seems such a lot do do!

Last Saturday evening we had a tremendous storm here, short but very harsh. Lashing rain, a strong west wind and large lumps of hail that had me thinking the front door was going to give way.

When we ventured outside into the brilliant sunshine that oftens follows a storm this is what we found.

Our beautiful willow had been destroyed. The really sad thing is that we grew this willow from a branch that was broken off our original willow that was blown over in 'le tempete' at the end of 1999.

Fortunately the falling branch caused no damage but it has taken us a while to clear the debris and we now have a pile of logs drying out to use in our log burner and plenty of kindling.

I also found this in the garden

and sadly nearby two dead baby birds identified by my resident bird expert as baby jays. Casting our eyes around we spotted this

two more baby jays! They were huddled up together in the grass at the base of a tree. Had they got there themselves or had their mother pushed them there? They were not there the next day and we just hope that they fledged.

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In my post box this week was this lovely 'vintage' card from Susan

Super fabric offcuts collaged together. I am displaying it with this ATC that Susan sent me last week

as they go beautifully together.

 Two lovely swaps Susan - thank you very much.

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And finally, this is the weekend of le Grand Depart, this year from Yorkshire. Janice in Caunes also of Hebden Bridge has a lovely blog post here with lots of great photographs of all the preparations and decorations in Yorkshire - do go and have a look.

Hope you all have a great weekend - despite much time wasted spent playing with blogger I still have not managed a signature! Maybe one day.

Lin xx