The Nature of Tea Cosies

There is now an annual event at the bundoora homestead art centre on The Nature of Tea Cosies Exhibition.  Women from around Australia (and the world) send in their lovely tea cosies - knitted, crocheted, felted, patchwork, embroidered for display.  They are sold and all proceeds are donated to Cancer Council Victoria’s Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser.  There are now several hundred tea cosies that are exhibited.

The art centre is located in an old farming homestead - that was built when the area was just farmland.  Now it's out in suburbia - in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Needless to say - on my last visit I couldn't resist purchasing two tea cosies.  One of those that I purchased is the coral and cream tea cosy (called strawberries and cream) in the bottom right of this photo.  Isn't it just gorgeous.

The exhibition space is fantastic.  And being in a large room FULL of tea cosies was pretty special.  All that art and craft - most (if not all) of which is done by amazing women - was very inspiring.

I certainly plan to do a tea cosy for next year's exhibition - as it would be sooooo exciting to be part of a proper art exhibition.

Have you ever exhibited your art/craft? Or maybe you would like to join in and send a tea cosy to next years exhibition.  I will  update the blog early next year once the details are provided on how and when to send in the cosies.

Seaman's scarf

A few weeks ago I finished this lovely scarf.  It has been crocheted from superwash merino 4ply, a lovely and soft yarn that's very easy to use.

The scarf has a ribbed neck, which is done by working sc into the back loop only.  The lace section is done with treble clusters.  The pattern is from this wonderful book which contains lots and lots of crochet scarf patterns, all in wonderful designs using different techniques.

I'm pretty pleased with the result.  The colour is an iced teal (the colour doesn't come up well in the photo).

My current WIP is a another scarf - using fine kid yarn.  More on that later.

What's your current project?

end of winter garden

The last few days the weather has been warming up, with a hint of spring in the air. Our outdoor activities now involve lovely picnics in our backyard, trampoline bouncing and a bit of gardening.  The winter vegie garden is now blooming - with the broadbeans, broccoli and cavolo nero (tuscan kale) doing very well.

I had little success with the lettuces.  It seems the snails and slugs always get to them first.

These have all been grown from heirloom seeds.  The broadbeans are from my Nonno (who is an extraordinary gardiner) and the broccoli and kales are from Diggers Club (an heirloom seed club).

Soon I will be able to plant heirloom tomatoes and zucchini, once the weather becomes more consistently warm.  I always try to plant as many tomatoes as I can fit in my back yard - even taking up some empty flower beds on occasion!  And zucchini - well last year I grew them for the flowers, so I could stuff them and fry them (with ricotta and herbs and dip them in a light batter) - delicious!

When my pantry is empty, I love it when I can pop out to my vegie garden and grab something for dinner without have to rush to the supermarket.

What sort of vegies are you growing?

Vintage crewel embroidery

Last week a package arrived, via ebay, of a vintage crewel embroidery kit.  I haven't done embroidery for a long, long time - maybe the last time was in my late teens?!? So why this sudden passion....well a blog I like, twin fibers, posted some lovely crewel embroidery work. This sent me off on a search of ebay, where there are thousands of vintage embroidery kits to choose from (who would have thought?). I wanted something small with a 3D aspect to it, and the Flower Puff Orange is one of the kits I picked up.

 

 

The colours are very 70s - oranges and browns - but I liked the bright colours and the puffy flowers.  Also its very small - so its suits me as my first project.

In the beginning...

I'm doing this blog to document my creative life, to learn new skills and to connect with people out in blogland. 

There are so many fantastic women who are blogging now....and I really wanted to be a part of that.  Surely everyone has to have a blog once in their life!  Hopefully by doing my own blog I will be better able to tap into my creative side.

I'm not sure who would want to read my blog, but I'm going to use it as a way of documenting my creative life.

I'm certainly enjoying writing it!

:)

Sweet flower granny blanket

I'm so happy to have finally completed my first crochet blanket - a sweet flower granny blanket for my daughter's bed.  The design comes from the lovely Attic24. It took me nearly a year to complete, with many stops and starts along the way.  It is the most beautiful and clever design.  While the little picot flowers were a bit tedious, crocheting the larger granny squares, and perfecting good colour combinations was a joy.

I have yet to determine what my next major crochet project will be.  At the moment, I'm pottering with little jobs here and there....crochet hearts, butterflies and flowers.

Beanie for a bloke

1. This is my first knitting project in a long long time.

2. Crochet is really my first passion. But it would seem that all those hours using a crochet hook has strengthen my hands, or something like that, as the knitting of this beanie was a joy and I did not drop one stitch!

3. The inspiration and pattern came via Foxslane. Many thanks!

4. The pattern is very straightforward. I will definitely be using the circular knitting needles again for my next project.