12 days of Xmas

I finished the 12 days of Christmas stitchery this afternoon. It was rather hard to take a photo of as it is so long and thin.
Lucas had his end of year exhibition of work last week and was allowed to take his finished work home as it had been marked and moderated. He made this bread box at the beginning of the year.
Below is the TV cabinet he made as his final piece of work for furniture construction. Lucas had to design the piece of furniture, draft a plan, work out the materials needed then build it, sand it and stain it then organize handles , hinges etc that would go with the style of the cabinet. We organized the stained glass windows for it. I apologize for the photograph as he put it in his room as soon as it got home so I could not get a great front on photo.I am extremely proud of Lucas he has always struggled at school because of his dyslexia but has done really well. We have not helped him at all this year - he got himself organized and did his work and these are the end results. He has had some great teachers throughout his secondary schooling who have helped and encouraged him.

Treetop Angel & Schoolies

I finished off a Treetop Angel through the week it is a Rosalie Quinlan pattern. She is ever so cute and easy to make, I intend to make another one as a Xmas gift for my boss.

This weekend in South Australia is schoolies week(the end of their final year exams) Lucas and his mates are off to Victor Harbour for the weekend. Tony and I drove Lucas and 2 mates down to Victor Harbour and the others went with another father. Two of the group have a religion exam this afternoon so will travel down after that. This was the boys trying to get all their gear into 2 cars. It was a struggle but they managed it.
When we arrived in Victor Harbour after a funny trip down as they had to have luggage in the back with them so they were a little cramped. They unpacked the boot .
They had a chat to some other boys from school who are on the next site to them. I must say they had a very nice tent. They are on an unpowered site in the caravan park.
This is how we left them notice how far they had got with putting the tent up. Hopefully they will survive we will drive down and pick them up on Monday. Our weather this weekend is not going to be really hot which is good I had imagined sunburn, dehydrated boys however that may still happen.

Bowls

A bit of weather news for my blog friends in the northern hemisphere it was 37.8 degrees C here in Adelaide yesterday.
I have been making bowls this week. I saw one on a blog a few weeks ago and thought they looked interesting. I wish I could remember which blog I saw them on but when I tried to get back there I had wandered too far and couldn't retrace my steps. I hate it when I can not give recognition to someone who has inspired me. Pat from Bit & Pieces has just jogged my memory with her comment - this is where I first saw fabric bowls thanks Pat.
This was my first attempt when I bought the material I had imagined it to turn out more blue than it did. I took me about 2 hours from start to finish.
This was my second attempt and I did well with the fabric as it turned out blue, I couldn't really go wrong it was basically blue fabric. I made this as a gift for a friend. I even managed to make them different shapes.
I stitched a label for the bottom.
This is the book they come from I bought it from here. I find it amazing that in Australia I can buy a book from Amazon for less than I would pay here order it and get it in about 5 days. Post from one side of Australia to the other takes longer than that. I did ring a few local shops and they said they would have to order it and it would take 6 weeks.

Great Post

Last week I went to the letter box expecting only bills and look what was waiting for me a lovely surprise from Gail. She did this stitchery at Glenharrow Stitching Day and as she is a lover of blue did it again in blue so I was lucky enough to get the red one. It is really lovely to receive a stitchery done by someone else. I will now have to do some serious consideration on what I will make of it. She also sent me a needle punch pattern which is something that I haven't tried.

It is REMEMBRANCE DAY in Australia so at 11 am let us all give a thought to all those who have fought and died for our country.

I have also been tagged by May Britt.

The rules are: Answer the following on your blog and then let five other bloggers know that you have tagged them to complete the meme.

1. When did you start to create and make craft?

I expect I started sewing when I was around 16 I did it as a subject in my final year of school. I had always liked making things I spent many hours of my childhood with my father who was really handy making things in the shed. I still have a little hammer my father gave me.

2. Why did you start creating?

I love the feeling when you have made something from start to finish I think it is the feeling of accomplishing something.

3. Why do you create?

Once again that great feeling of starting and finishing something.

4. What do you create?

I mainly sew but I do love making other things I made a wooden bird cage you can see the edge if it in the photo I took in my post of 27/10/2007. I am really happy that my son is good with his hands we have made several things together e.g. a stand for his aquarium. I made the lead light windows for our old house - mind you it was only 4 windows and they were quite simple.

5. Has this changed since you began crafting?

Not really if I see something and think I can make it I will have a go. I am not very good at drawing so if I see something I like I very rarely change a pattern or it's colours.

I am supposed to tag 5 people which I find really hard as most of the people I would have tagged have already been tagged - I am leaving this open for anyone to join in.

365 Day Challenge

I am more than 1/2 way through my 365 day challenge quilt . Nicky emailed me
this morning and asked how it was going so I thought I'd post some pictures.Here are some tracings of embroideries I intend to stitch I think I had better sit down and do them. I feel as it grows it will become harder to work with.

Back from Port Victoria

It is quite amazing how much stitching you can get done when there are no children and no house work. Tony & I have had a few days away in Port Victoria it was a lovely break however the weather was terrible it rained every day, but one does not complain about rain in Australia. I started this stitchery while I was away it is the 12 Days of Christmas from Anni Downs book A Christmas Story.
I am not quite sure about the French hens and the Swans as they are stitched in white and do not show up very well - I will think about it and perhaps change them to black swans and brown hens.
I took Clarice and had a great time we went to Port Vincent on Saturday and in between the showers I took some photos. It was really windy but I ventured out onto the beach where a flock of pelicans where huddled with there heads down against the wind. I just love the way they peak out over their wings.
As I got close to them they put there heads up in the air then stretched and made sure I wasn't getting too close and them and then -
they all went back to sheltering against the wind.
The Turns where not as trustful and flew away when I got close. I got very wet feet doing this, when I walked out I thought the seaweed on the beach was dry sadly it was not and as I stepped on it my shoe filled up with water.
This is the view from the cabin we stayed in. Sunset over Port Victoria.

This morning before we left I had to walk to the end of the jetty - here are some of the locals - like all jetties around the world seagulls love to check out what is being caught by the fishermen.

Post from Norway

Look what the postie delivered to me yesterday. A lovely parcel from Norway. I sent a magazine to May Britt and in return I received this lovely parcel.
The sad thing is I posted May Britt's nearly 3 weeks ago and when I went to post it, it was more economical to post it in 2 parcels - she has received only half of it so far. As is always the way the parcel that hasn't arrived is the magazine she wanted. May Britt thinks that somewhere there is a postman sitting stitching instead of delivering the mail. I have just realized that I haven't taken a photo of all that she sent me. I did get some lovely Norwegian chocolate but some of that has been eaten. It was yummy Nordic countries have great chocolate I remember them well from my travels.

This is what I am working on at the moment it is for a friend it will be a wall quilt I hope. The funny brown blob is not what you think it is Pooh's honey pot!!!!!

Tony and I are off on a few days away so see you when we return.