MOJO BACK

For a while now I seem to have mislayed my stitching mojo and have just been enjoying doing some rythmic crochet.  Now that my crochet project is nearly complete I thought it may be time to get back to some stitching . A few years ago I decided not to buy any more patchwork magazines as I rarely found more than 1 or 2 projects I wanted to do in each issue and sometimes they even reused projects from older issues. I figured I would rather invest in books which were my genre so I could make several projects from the one book. I was paying around $10 for a magazine when I could buy a book for around $30 with heaps of projects I liked. I sometimes buy a more expensive mag called Simply Vintage but I particularly love many things in it when I do buy one. So, I recently revitalised my mojo from this lovely book .

That got me going!  This little quilt jumped out at me.

Ofcourse, I don't make life easy by following the instructions to rotary cut and machine piece. No, no no.  I made a template , selected fabrics from my stash and cut each individual piece by hand. You all know that I much prefer hand piecing but many would question my sanity.  I am making this little beauty slightly larger and have made a start on setting out the first 2 rows ready to stitch.

This took some concentration because the half square triangles are placed in different ways. This will be a check and double check as I go project for sure.

Now back to finishing my crocheted throw and cushion.

Angel Blessings.

COLOUR

This week's topic for The Gentle Art of Domesticity is "Colour" . For some unknown reason I cannot locate the image to attach here even though i went to the usual place to find it. Bah humbug, computers lol.


So, what is my favourite colour? Purple!  I have a purple camera, purple sunglasses, purple specs, a purple phone cover,  and I always carry a purple pen with purple ink in it. I recently bought a black sun hat and couldn't resist personalising it with some purple fabric. However, like all colours, there are so many various shades. Even black and white come in vatious shades. This became very apparent to me when searching for black or white fabrics.

Over the years I have come to realise that I love all the colours of the rainbow yet my clothing is mainly black, and my home is predominately varoius types of blue. I have blue bedroom and bathroom walls and the  main living area and kitchen is a light aqua' ish blue. Our home is weatherboard and guess what colour???? Aha, BLUE.  I have never been shy of coloured walls but I have found it limiting when it comes to hanging quilts. However, I just hang them regardless.

Our furnishings were mainly pine as I love natural woodgrain. We never painted our pine door frames and architraves because we love the timber. We have pine floorboards too. Recently we were able to change some of our furniture to white with wooden tops and grey sofas which creates more harmony for me.  Not so higgildy piggildy.  I find that one can always express themselves with the colour of soft furnshings like cushions and throws.

I have my great grandmothers's cane chair which my dear dad lovingly repaired and painted white for me. I love displaying my little civil war quilts on it. Note mainly blues hehehe. And yes, I collect owls.

Other colours are displayed. Not blue.

Here is blue again.

So what  table runner is on my table right now..hmmmm an aqua blue lol.

I think there is a theme here. 

I hadn't realised how much blue is in my home probably because I have green bench tops and so many bits and pieces which are all different colours. Colour can affect our moods and I guess I have chosen blue because it isa peaceful colour, a restful colour unless it is a really dark deep blue. Food for thought.

Angel Bless

BLOOMING COLOUR

 

I haven't done any stitching for quite a while but I have been enjoying crocheting a cushion. The unfolding colours made this project rather delightful to do and, dare I say , I am quite pleased thus far. The front and back are both complete and I just need to crochet the sides together once I have found a round cushion insert. I am not sure I have ever actually seen any round cushion inserts anywhere but I have a backup plan to buy a cheap round cushion and use the insert from it or even the entire cushion.

Angel Blessings

DAYS OF OLD

Despite having to deal with the aftermath of the horrendous floods, Jenny has still managed to link us up this week with the book study. I, for one, appreciate Jenny's effort considering everything she has endured. Thankyou Jenny.

This week we ponder the tv series and movies we have loved and still do love. Wow! So many.

TV series.... As a child I loved Hazel, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Petticoat Junction. Creeping into my teenage years came The Brady Bunch and my heart just went ca thump ca thump watching gorgeous David Cassidy in The Partridge Family. It saddens me that he has now gone to the big music festival in the sky. Later on came The Waltons and The Sullivans and my fav of all time series Little House on the Praire. A bit further on I always got a laugh watching The Gilmore Girls.

Now, movies... hmmmm I loved all the Shirley Temple movies, and the classics such as Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre.  Then there was the very funny Ma and Pa Kettle fims, and Doris Day with Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk. I still have a laugh watching Lucille Ball in The Long Long Trailer and I love Fried Green Tomatoes, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, and To Kill A Mockingbird. Needless to say, I have few DVDs of the above mentioned movies and TV series.

No pics today and I hope I haven't bored you. I would love to know your favourites.

                                                            Angel Blessings

BLOOMING

While my flowers are wilting and dying off outside my crocheted cushion is blooming.

It is such a pleasure seeing it grow .

But that is all I have done.

Angel Blessings.

TOPSY TURVY

Oh me oh my, what topsy turvy weather we are having! Yesterday was a very pleasant warm day that didn't see me reaching for the air con remote , the day before was quite hot and we had the air con on in the afternoon so our little munchkin wouldn't get too hot and today the weather is rather cool. Can you believe it? I have the heating on! My FMS is acting up with the change of weather and I am not only aching all over but I am feeling very fatigued. I haven't been doing any stitching and I am still waiting for week 7 of the CAL to crochet the borders on my throw/ knee rug. Itching to do some more crochet I pondered whether to extend my blanket to make it rectangular rather than square but then I saw a matching crocheted cushion on Lucy's blog which captured my mojo. So, what's a girl to do.....

I must say that I am quite happy with my progress so far but I am also hoping I don't jinx myself by saying that.

The Gentle Art of Domesticity link on Jenny's blog had to be postponed this past week due to the awful floods up in Townsville which have greatly affected the population including Jenny and her family. With the relentless downpour of rain, humidity, heat and mold growing on everything it must be physically and emotionally draining. 

I have been waiting since 11th January for my book to arrive and it finally came last week. I have had a quick flip through it and look forward to taking time to just sit and read it chapter by chapter.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend .

Angel Blessings.

DOMESTIC LIFE IN BOOKS

This week Jenny's link up is about books we love and have loved through the years depicting domestic life. As a child I absolutely adored the Little House On the Praire books written by Laura Ingalls about her family 's life and later, as an adult, I became even more fascinated with Laura's life experiences as a wife and mother.

Her inner strength, and physical strength despite being a petite woman truly inspired me . She and her husband were never afraid of hard work, nor were her parents. Infact , one of the quotes on the back of A Little House Sampler by Publishers Weekly said "Laura's writings promote the virtues and happiness to be found in hard work and simple things". I particularly love her writings from the Ozarks and on the inner front sleeve of the book  it says ".......Laura lends her advice to women of her generation on such timeless issues as how to be an equal partner with their husbands, how to support new freedoms they'd won with the right to vote, and how to maintain important family values in their changing world." The essays in this book appeared in the Missouri Ruralist between 1911 and 1924, so WOW! How relevent these issues still are today! 

Ofcourse, I loved" Anne of Green Gables", and "Little Women" but Laura's biographical and journalist writings are foremost in my mind.

So, what domestic things have I been up to? Well, I fiinished hand quilting those coasters.

Being on a partly restricted diet( I say partly because I can now tolerate some things if I don't eat them too often) I don't and never really have baked cakes, desserts or biscuits much. I was always into alternative  healthier foods. However, I sometimes get the urge to bake and there are some nice recipes out there which are Ondrea friendly.  Jenny www.elefantz.com has some lovely suitable recipes and I have baked her rock cakes a few times although I substitute a couple of ingredients if I haven't got them in my pantry. I baked these last week.

Well, I think that is all I have to contribute to this link up. Please have a thought for our dear Jenny and her family during this stressful time up North with the floods. Many have already been evacuated and lost homes . Australia has always been a country of fires, floods and droughts. Down south we currently have bushfires and although they are thankfully  quite a distance from where I live we could still smell smoke all night and I awoke with a husky voice and slight upper respiratory irritation.  

Angel Blessings and hugs to all.