Stitchery by Gail

This gorgeous bag belongs to my gorgeous friend Gail. I am yet to convince her to start her own blog, but she would have no end of beautiful work to share with you. She stitches the most tiny & perfect backstitches I have ever seen.

Until she joins blogland, I will just have to sneak photos of her work to show you when I can!

Nice spice

This is a favorite meal with our family at the moment. It is from Whipped, a really excellent food blog.

A yummy tandoori chicken, recipe here.

Tilda goodness

I have had so many beautiful things arrive in the mail lately, it really has felt like Christmas has come early! A little while ago, Marit from Norway (no blog) asked me to send her something, and this is what arrived in my mailbox in return: 

I have swapped twice now with Norwegian girls, and my request has remained the same: "Please send me a little Tilda"! It is as rare as hen's teeth in Australia. Thank you Marit for the beautiful fabric, buttons & angel sweetness. Just beautiful!

A meagre offering!

So little time for stitching right now, but I sneak a few stitches on this every now and then:

The pattern is 'Baby Love' by Anni Downs of Hatched & Patched.

A little fabric love

I have been enjoying Sew Mama Sew's wonderful tutorial links all through November - such a treasure trove of ideas. For each day of November, they ran giveaways, & I was the very thankful recipient of a $20 voucher at their shop. Ooooh, what fun, and a special treat considering the bottom has fallen out of the Australian dollar. I've not bought fabric from the States for ages.

  Here is my little, summer-y stash of 1/4 yard cuts. Lots of Heather Bailey (Pop Garden & Bijou), a couple of Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom, a little Park Slope by Erin McMorris and one beautiful Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric.

Special treats indeed - I can't find any of these fabrics locally.

The sous-chef is home on school holidays!

FUNKY MORNING TEAS RULE!

Jan, the Rose Genius!

You may remember from a few posts ago that I put out a request for anyone to identify this lovely rose:

No sooner was the challenge issued, than I received a lovely email from Jan, complete with beautiful photos of her own garden:

Jan has identified my beautiful unknown rose as 'Albertine', a stunning, large climber, bred in France in 1921. She says it is a real show-stopper, with passers-by always asking her about it. No wonder - what a beautiful archway!

Thank you so much Jan for your help. 'Albertine' will certainly be finding a place in my garden. Jan does not, as yet, have a blog, but I am sure she would have wonderful things to share with all mad-gardener bloggers if these photos of her garden are anything to go by!

Another deadline met ...

... with only minutes to spare!

Teacher gift completed & delivered.

More pictures on this post from last year as I made them exactly the same - and I had no spare time to take photos!

Rainbow-making?

Sewing to a deadline ... again!! Last day of school for us today, so busily stitching up a teacher present, hopefully to be finished by the end of school! I am making the same gift as I did last year, as they were so well received & something different to the usual coffee cups or chocolates.

Pulling up stumps

Mum & I have been called back to the farm tomorrow for what remains of the wheat harvest after some very wet & damaging weather. So no more stitching for a bit. This is how far the 'Seeds of Love' quilt has come today (after the unpicking of the last post!): There is a little 1/4 inch blue peeper around the centre block, a la Peg at Happy in Quilting.  There are more borders to be added yet, and lots of machine blanket stitching around those tiny applique pieces. But it is a whole lot further ahead than this morning!