Christmas is just around the corner

Here in Adelaide , we just had our Credit Union Christmas Pageant .It started 1933 with only 8 floats and 4 bands .  It has grown 63 floats, 17 bands, 10 dance groups, over 250 clowns . The length of this years pageant was 3.3km.  People come from all over South Australia to see it. Most retail shops hang their Christmas decorations to give  you that festive feeling .

Here at home we have been busy cleaning the house for Christmas, with washing windows and curtains.Plus
baking for Christmas such as Christmas biscuits and Christmas Stole. Here is one of the recipes that we baked.

Vanilla Heidesand biscuits
1/2 vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
100g raw almond kernels
250g plain flour
20g caster sugar
10g vanilla sugar
Split vanilla bean and use the tip of a knife to scrape seeds into a medium bowl. Add butter and sugar and beat with electric beater until pale and creamy in colour.
Finely grind almonds in a spice grinder. Add to the bowl and beat on low speed to combine. Add flour  and mix with a large spoon until mixture comes together to form a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll into a log about 35cm long. Roll up tightly in kitchen backing paper, then in foil and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 large baking trays with kitchen baking paper . Combine extra sugar and vanilla sugar in a small bowl set aside.
Cut log into 5mm thick slices  and place 3cm apart onto trays . Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool for 2 minutes and sprinkle with vanilla sugar while hot. Cool on trays, then line baking trays again with new kitchen baking paper and cook as above.
Repeat process with remaining dough as required.

Here is the Owl, Rosemarie has finished it. But know she is thinking  of stitching him again as a Goldwork Owl  or a Schwalm Owl.  She will be writing the notes for him soon
.

It is October already

How time has flown, one minute it is the end of summer and now we are in spring. Just to think that 3 weeks ago we where at the Market day for Beating around the Bush. It was great to meet up with so many of our stitching friends and talk about what we all have been doing. I finaly finished the Owl,while the Schwalm requires still a lot of work.

Needlepoint canvas

Well here as promised is the picture of my canvas (fingers crossed)

Well it took a couple of tries but it seems to have worked. Must get on to the help desk because it will only let me work in HTML which is a pain.

By the way, I know it is a bit to warm to think of working in wool at the moment, here any way. But the good news is Paterna Persian yarn is now available again. All but Black, the last time I tried to order, my wholesaler said she did not recieved any in her last shipment and had been advised they had not yet dyed black yet.

Well only a short one this time, will post a picture of my schwalm next.

Update on Owl and New Needlepoint project

Well I haven't dropped of the planet, I have just been very busy and slack. I really got a shock when I checked the date on the last blogg and saw how many months it has been.
It has just taken lots of HOT weather to get me back stitching and blogging. Since Christmas we have had 3 weeks of very HOT weather, one week we had 40c, 41c, 43c, and then 2 day of 46c, then we had a cooler week in the mid 30's then another hot one it only got to 44c that time. Then another cooler week and we have just finished another high 30's finishing with 44c. But that's Summer here, but we still complaine and wait for Autumn.
The good thing is there is not much you can do but sit infront of the airconditioner and stitch. I have finially work some more on my Owl, he is nearly finished as you can see.

And I have been putting off designing a jewellery box lid for one of my students, I just could not get motivated. But during the first really hot week I just sat down, and it just seemed to come together. It is just the beginning but I have worked out most of it, now I just need to finish stitching it. As it is for a jewellery box I decided to work on a gold canvas and add even more sparkle with beads and metallic threads. I will show you the progress as I go along. I was going to put a picture here but it just does not want to give me 2 pictures today.
Have also finished the hem on my schwalm piece and have started the coral knots, will post a picture next time. Well thats it for today, more soon.

My Owl in Primke colours

We had a great time in Melbourne and met a lot of stitchers.  I had taken my Schwalm mat with me which I managed to do some stitching on and got lots of comments on, many women said they had not seen the pulled thread boarders since they were young.  I then had to tell them that that was just the beginning and there was much more to come in the middle.

There was also much interest in our Slate frames and on the Friday morning before the show got busy, I started stitching the branch for the Owl to sit on, I thought he was sick of floating in air.  I then managed  to loose my thread and did not find it again until the end of the show, so I could work no more on him until I came back.

I have worked the branch and leaves in Primke stranded and the Owl's tail in DMC.

Schwalm matt and Owl

Well here we are just 2 days away from going to Melbourne for the Quilt and Craft Fair,  but though we have been busy getting ready I did manage to do some stitching.

First here is the update on my Schwalm matt, I am on the last leg of the boarder doing the Double Pea hole hem stitch as you can see.  Then finally I can get on to the middle.

I also thought you might like to see my little Owl, I designed him to show how our Slate frames work, but I quite like him.  Only his tale is done at the moment, but I will post more pictures as He grows.


If you happen to be at the Quilt and Craft Fair in Melbourne, please come and see us at stand C24  Christina's Craft and Primke Threads, and say hello to us and the Owl.

Sasiko Quilting on my quilt

Well here we are Easter is just about over and finally we have had some rain and the cooler weather seems to have finally arrived, fingers crossed.  Of course the rain and cooler weather means that I have been out in the garden and not stitching, but soon the ground will be to cold and I like to get my plants started now so that they will survive the hot weather next summer better.

I have also started hand quilting  a quilt which I made to go on my bed as a bed spread.  I am putting shasiko quilting in the plain squares, I am using our Primke over dyed perle 8 cotton.  I got the idea from the Quilted Kimono a quilt designer in Queensland, she uses our threads on some of her designs and I thought it looked really good.  Well decide for your selves I have included some photos of my quilting (don't judge the quilting to harshly this is my first attempt).

 Oh and because I was short of a fabric I stenciled this one, and then quilted the outline of the dragonfly.  I am still deciding if I am going to do the butterflies as well, this could be an ongoing project for a while.

Well hopefully next time I can show you some progress on my schwalm.

Oh and I nearly forgot we have started doing a mock up layout for out stall at the Quilt and Craft show in Melbourne in July.  So if you are going we hope to see you at stall C24 to catch up.