MARYNAN'S CRAFT ROOM

12 MONTHS SINCE OUR SEA CHANGE MOVE

2011-10-15T20:40:00.000+11:00

10 months since my last BLOG, 12 months since we moved!!!!! You might ask why the long time span between blogs? We have both been soooooo busy. I have only just got my sewing room sort of set up, still a lot of tidying up to do, but YES HOORAY, I have started a new quilt with Nancy Halvorsen's latest range of fabrics called BITTERSWEET. I also am using her GARDEN SONG machine embroidery designs as alternate blocks. I do not have any of her GARDEN SONG fabric range even though I just love it. The new BITTERSWEET range is more along the lines of some of her earlier ranges with dark colours. Here are a couple of photos of what I have been doing.

Over the winter months I have been knitting, nearly finished a lacey 8 ply long line cardigan/jacket, only one front to go. That is knitted in a new yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. You will never guess the colour I chose!!!!! I am ready to start on a 2ply Haapsalu Shawl. It is Estonian lace knitting I will do the rectangular form with sewn borders, instead of grafted borders. Check out Haapsalu shawls on GOOGLE if you want to find out what they look like.

Our grandchildren are growing so fast. Bianka is now 3 and Korban just turned two last week. I mind them two days a week, but with volunteer work as well, I am kept very, very busy!!!

Kerry, if you read this, I am sorry it rained on your quilt airing day. Some of my old favourties went into the Arts and Crafts Quilt show here on OCT long weekend. Terrible weekend here as well. I put in 4 quilts, 3 vests and my favourite handbag. The craft Centre has grown so much during my 8 year absence. They still only have a quilt show every two years. They made over $1500 in entry fees and a quilt raffle.

Anyway I need to fly away to dream land soon!!!!

God Bless you all

Maryanne

PS A special hello to you Tuesday Girls at Nundle, I miss you all!!!

ANOTHER HOME AT LAST & CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

2010-12-01T20:59:00.000+11:00

Hello once again to my personal friends and to my Blog Followers as well. We should be able to start moving in to our home this weekend coming. It has been just about 2 months since we finally sold our little farmlet in the country and returned to a small coastal village on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. We have not been very settled during this time, but we found the lovely house pictured and it will suit us quite well. Enough room and more for the two of us with a little bit extra room for visitors and more importantly room for our little grandchildren to stay over night.

It has been raining here on and off since we came back to the coast. It seems like the Eastern States are now out of drought and into the flooding part of our weather pattern. I do feel sorry for those farmers who are trying to harvest their crops at the moment.

Not much crafting has been accomplished over the past 3 or 4 months, just some knitting and some hand embroidery. Will set the machines up after the move. We will take a couple of weeks to move all our stuff from the rented house to our permanent home, but we should be reasonably settled by Christmas. Apart from the house I have no other photos to share with you.

I wish you all a Happy Christmas season with your families and God's richest Blessings for 2011.

I have a very significant birthday and wedding anniversary coming up in January. Where have all those years gone????

MARYANNE

FAREWELL LUNCH

2010-10-06T21:14:00.000+11:00

About seven of the Tuesday girls got together on Tuesday 5th October for my last Tuesday with them. Thanks girls, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope you all did too. Two weeks' ago they presented me with some gorgeous stitcheries that they had done for me as a parting gift. I just love them all girls and when I get settled again will make a wall hanging to remember you all with.

Today the removalists came and took all of our furniture etc. etc. That will be delivered to our new rented address on Friday. DH will be heading off on Friday morning for the 3 hour trip to our destination, but I will still be here for a few days, cleaning etc. We have a little fridge, the microwave and a couple of foam mattresses to bed down on too, the computer is still with us, minus the printer, and a little TV to watch the Comm. Games with.

Last Friday my 10 year old Tenterfield Terrier Tess bit me on my right wrist. She had her little head in an empty dog food tin, and I went to take it off her. Well what a shock to my system; my first ever dog bite, and by my own dog. I had a tetanus booster 12 months ago, included in our Whooping Cough vaccine but went to the doctor anyway where they cleansed, dressed the punctures and gave me a double whammy script for antibiotics just in case, because it was the long weekend. Well on Saturday night with much pain, swelling, redness etc., DH went and had the script filled on Sunday morning. It has improved quite a lot but my whole wrist is still sore, I think from the grip she had on it. I would hate to be bitten by a larger dog. I only have narrow wrists!!!

I have not used my sewing machines for over 2 months, a consolation to me is my knitting. Another 2 ply lace shawl (magenta in colour) is on the way. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, so sorry, no photos this time!!!

Bye for now and God's richest blessings to you all!!!

Maryanne

GOODBYE MOLLIE

2010-09-20T22:53:00.001+10:00

DH and I said goodbye to one of our three lovely Tenterfield Terriers today. She has gone to a new home in Werris Creek. We are moving away from the area and we will be restricted by a much smaller yard, so only two dogs could come with us. The lovely young woman who took Mollie phoned us about an hour later to let us know that they had made it safely to Mollie's new home, where she was settling in with her new family.

I think she rang us because DH was quite upset as Mollie was going. Mollie is 2 1/2 years old and in the background you can just see her mum, Tess who was 10 in August. Mollie is a gift for the 8 year old daughter in the new family. Mollie is very energetic, Miss Personality Plus, very affectionate and I am sure her new little owner will love Mollie to bits.

Tears are coming to my eyes as I look at her photo now. We will remember her with much affection.

Now it is back to the big slog of packing.

This will probably be the last blog before we move, but I will keep in touch.

God Bless, until next time

Maryanne

DAFFODILS

2010-08-21T16:18:00.001+10:00

Hello everyone again.

This is my third Blog in 10 DAYS, an all time record. Spring is finally in the air. Just wanted to show you my Tete a Tete Daffodils. Check the size of each Daffi. I have put one of DH's beer bottle tops in the top photo as a comparison. The Daffodils are just soooooo cute. My elder son gave me the top pot last year and in late Autumn I planted my own, some in an old pot that used to live under someone's bed once. (Please excuse the spilt coffee mark on the table near the pot.)

More rain this week; and our little property is lovely and green with a full dam down the front. I think it will be the best summer season we have experienced in the past 8 years.

No more news this time. For our overseas bloggers, we have a Federal Election when we are all voting to see whether we return a Labor Government or a change to a Coalition Government of the Liberal/National Party. Two hours to go until polling closes at 6 pm. We have heard nothing but ads. for voting for weeks now. We have been told to expect a cliff-hanger of a result - let's see what happens. DH and I voted about lunch time, so it's over and done with.

Cheerio until next time!

MARYANNE

HEXAGONS

2010-08-19T00:32:00.000+10:00

Back of quilt

HELLO ALL,

This week I have read quite a few Blogs and they have included the wonderful hexagon, and the many ways to use them.

I started this quilt more than 10 years ago and I am still not finished. Each hexagon's finished size is 6" across the centre, point to point. The cream centres are machine embroidered with 2 different Janome designs, and then hand quilted with either a heart or a circle to match the shapes of the machine embroidery. I used a wool batting in between the backing fabric and the top fabrics, so each hexagon is done in the quilt as you go method (easy to take some to make whilst travelling or visiting family.)

Please take a closer look at the photos to see what I did!!

We are moving within the next 3 months and I am in the process of sorting out my craft room. What will go into storage??? What will I take to have something to do whilst renting, before we buy another property??? What can I do without for 6 months??? NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING.

DH showed me an OBITUARY in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald. it reads in precis:- "The domestic arts were (woman's name) passion. She was a prolific knitter, crocheter and seamstress and would spend hours in wool and pattern shops going through patterns and buying wool or fabric.........Only too aware of the true retail price, she bought loads, especially expensive angoras, alpacas and mohair......When she died she had about 100 kilos of wool stockpiled and it has been donated to Wrap With Love......Buttons were another weakness. She died with probably 50,000 neatly put away in all manner of toffee, chocolate and biscuit tins. Some were still on their hand-sewn cards with the price in shillings and pence. She also gathered knitting patterns. Some 2000 have found their way to the Knitters' Guild Library and a few hundred to the Powerhouse Museum". This obit. was written, lovingly, by one of her four sons. Her husband gets a mention too, he predeceased her and here is a bit about his collection. "He had at least one of every timber, steel, plumbing, electrical, automotive or bicycle tool known to man. He had screws, bolts, nails, washers, nuts, wire, rivets, cable, glues and string, all neatly categorised." "But the house is empty now, for the first time in 55 years."

This brought tears to my eyes and I wonder if one of my children will write lovingly about my collection of fabrics, yarns etc. one day after I have left this earth!!!

I will close now on that note. May God bless you and keep you safe until next time.

MARYANNE

KNITTING AGAIN

2010-08-11T14:55:00.001+10:00

Hello again,

I have been cleaning out my craft room and found some unfinished knitting. I finished off the magenta coloured lace knitting scarf, embroidered the mauve beret that I had previously knitted and started something new, the multi pastel coloured shawl. The yarn for the shawl is Colinette Tagaletti, a merino wool and nylon tape yarn. I haven't knitted with a tape yarn before, it twists a lot. I have included a lace pattern, but that is very hard to see, a bit like a feather and fan pattern. I just love the colour. I am knitting it on a size 8 mm circular knitting needle. I am also continuing to knit my 10ply cardigan or jacket out of Colinette Iona yarn. The combination of this yarn is mainly wool, little bit of mohair and little bit of silk. It is in Florentina colourway which is a rich variegated jewell colurs. These Colinette yarns are made in Wales UK and imported by Sarah Durant of Victoria. They are quite expensive but I think they are just so luxurious. Check out both the Colinette yarn website and Sarah Durant website. Only trouble is both of these yarns have been discontinued, but Sarah Durant still has some supplies of both. If you love knitting socks, check out the Jitterbug range as well. All of Colinette yarns are hand-dyed.

It is very difficult deciding what fabric and yarn I will need over the next 6 months.
We think we have sold our property, and are looking forward to living closer to our children and grandchildren. Our granddaughter will be two in September and our grandson will be 1 in October. Gee time seems to fly by.

Will finish off now, so until next time, may God bless you all!!!

Maryanne

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

2010-07-07T18:15:00.000+10:00

My favourite fabric designer is Nancy Halvorsen and as I love her designs, books etc., I was thrilled to find OESD digitized some of her design series and had them out on Machine Embroidery CDs. I bought Garden Song which is one of her most recent series

and an older set of Christmas designs called STAR OF WONDER. I particularly like these ones because they focus on the good reason for the Season

Below are some stitched out examples of the Christmas designs

I have heaps of Nancy Halvorsen Christmas fabrics so I should be able to make a lovely Christmas wall

hanging with my new designs.

I also have quite a large stash of NH Charms, Angels Among Us, Winsome but none of the new Garden Song range. At least these all go together. I will show you the results later.

You can see that this really has been CHRISTMAS IN JULY for me in more ways than one.

Until next time

Maryanne

Warm Feet this Winter

2010-05-05T21:20:00.002+10:00

I think I am going to have warm feet this winter as I have already made three pairs of socks for myself and one pair for my little sister who turned 50 in March. Do you like the colours I have chosen? I also bought myself a pair of pink Ugg boots just to wear around the house as slippers, (for Mothers' Day). These will keep my feet warm whilst I am inside but the socks will help keep my tootsies warm when I am out and about and have to wear shoes

I am in the middle of making a few little printed cord. pinnafore dresses for my darling 20 month old granddaughter as well. I will blog about them next time. My local patchwork shop had the fabric on special for $12/metre so I bought dusky pink, pale green and pale blue with little roses on it, sooooo cute...................

I would like to wish all readers a very happy MOTHERS' DAY for Sunday 9th. I find this time a wee bit sad as I still find myself looking at Mothers Day cards, but my mum and mother-in-law have left this world for a better place.
Still, I should receive three telephone calls from my three adult children and maybe a card might arrive on Friday or maybe early next week.

MARYANNE

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU

2010-04-04T13:33:00.001+10:00

Happy Easter day to you all. I hope this blog finds you well! I have finished my quilt started in November and have added it to my Blog Heading. Here is a photo of it again above: Please click on it if you would like to see a larger view. I have named it Angels' Hearts and Bows remembering that the fabric range is called Angels among us. I have been knitting some more socks too but will show you later. Last Monday night about 20 women gathered together at Dungowan Hotel for dinner and to show off our Round Robin quilt tops. We all seemed to enjoy ourselves and we were excited to see our finished tops.

That's all I have time for today so God Bless you and I hope to talk with you again soon.

MARYANNE

BACK, ONCE AGAIN

2010-03-25T19:50:00.001+11:00

Long time no see! What's been happening since my last blog post? Oh well Christmas came and went, with the arrival back from Perth WA of my daughter and her fiance. DH and I spent Christmas Day with both of them and our elder son. Second son and family went to Sydney to spend the day with D-I-L's family. That was fair enough as she has spent Christmas with us for four or five years now.

This Blog is so slow at the moment!!! I hope I get through it.

I have some pics to show you on what I have been working on lately.+

Here is my gift for a new baby, ALEX.

And this lovely DUO is for Matilda, our brand new craft baby.

Well I am getting really peeved with this lot so will sign off now, bye

MARYANNE

CHRISTMAS PARTY AT NUNDLE

2009-12-08T19:46:00.002+11:00

Well today was the day of our Christmas Lunceon, held at Mt. Misery Mine Cafe in the heart of the old gold rush town at Nundle. We started the morning at Cottage on the Hill, and the lovely Kerry had organised for us to make Snowmen. We had a morning tea of lovely rich chocolate assorted items. White chocolate with crushed mint candy canes, yummy, and a lovely Rocky Road Christmas Tree, now that was good!!! (Thanks to Sharon for the Christmas Tree and Kerry for the other goodies.) We then drove to the Cafe where the most popular lunch seemed to be the Chicken Schnitzel, potato gems and salad. Other lunches included, Salt and Pepper Squid, Flathead Fillets, Ham, cheese and pineapple melts, tempura battered prawns. It was such a hot day that we drank litres of water, yes water, no alcohol. Here are a few photos of the day. The temperature reached nearly 40 degrees Celcius today which is about 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

Vicki is getting married on Saturday so we all made a 12-1/2" block in mainly whites, creams, gold and Kerry joined them all. Thanks Kerry!!

Here are some ladies with their gifts

Betty (our oldest sewer) with her gift

a sheep.

This mum to be (1st), received a lovely Teddy

Here is a photo of me with my lovely cushion made by Trish, thanks, I just love it

Finally here is a photo of Ros and the gift I made her

Well ladies I hope your day was as good as mine. Maybe we should do this again at a Christmas in July. We missed you TRUDI!!!! Hope the back is feeling better.

'til next time

MARYANNE

NEW QUILT STARTED

2009-11-23T13:44:00.000+11:00

What's the weather been doing in your neck of the woods? Well here in New South Wales we have been absolutely sweltering in heat above 40C, it is going to be a cooler 35C today, maybe it will be under 30C tomorrow, but then more heat for the weekend!! Lucky we have a swimming pool to COOL OFF in. The temperature in the pool is up to 26C, don't want it any warmer than that. We have shade cloth about 2 1/2 metres above the pool, so that keeps the hot sun off us. We still get sunburnt a wee bit. For you girls freezing in the Northern Hemisphere, 38C is about 100F

I have started a new quilt with Nancy Halverson's Angels Among Us fabrics. It is coming along rather nicely, with a machine embroidered medallion centre. I don't know what size it will end up being. Depends on how long my fabric range lasts. Martha Pullen is the designer of the machine embroidery.

Have you checked out Studio Mio's website here in Australia yet? I bought some lovely lilac and pale pink, leather bag handles. I need to find a fabulous bag pattern so I can use them now. Check these out!! and they smell delicious too.

Well , one month and a few days left until Christmas GIRLS. I have just about got all my pressies organised. I am making a little embroidered Oriental doll, compliments of Melly and Me, thanks for the pattern girls, for my granddaughter Bianka. Hope she likes it!! This is her second Christmas!!

Our daughter Suj should be back from WA within a month. We have really missed her and her fiance Pete. Please pray for their safe return, they are driving back with their two large dogs. I will try and do one more post before Christmas, so CYA next time!!

MARYANNE

TWO NEW BAGS

2009-10-26T20:27:00.000+11:00

Hello all, on this lovely cool evening after about 10 mils of much needed rain!!!!! I made two little bags in as many days and I'm very pleased with the results. I had some silk dupion at home and made up the purple one first. I then went into Spotlight Tamworth, where they still have some of this silk, and bought 40 cm of four new colours, including the green, which I made up today. This green one is for one of my old friends who has a birthday next week, and her favourite colour is (yes you guessed it) green. I machine embroidered both the front and back, lined the bags with matching cottons; nice green with white dots, and a mauve Liberty fabric for the purple one. The finished measurement of the bags is about 8" x 10". They were very easy to make!!!!

I will be making some more for Christmas gifts too. Hope you like them. Here are a couple of photos!!

DH is in the sewing room now, watching an old Monty Python movie I bought him for his birthday. I won't go in and disturb him as he hardly ever watches movies. Speaking of movies, I want to go and see the Young Victoria this week, hope it is still on. I enjoy Historical novels and movies!!

Must go and check out some more blogs before I go to bed!!

God bless, until next time

MARYNAN

ANOTHER SNEAK PEEK OF MY CHRISTMAS SWAP

2009-10-22T17:03:00.000+11:00

I have now finished my gift for ??? who is my Christmas Swap Partner. Can't show you all of it until after Dec. 8, which is our break up day. So this is the second sneak peek of the gift. I have incorporated 2 buttons, quite a few beads, blanket stitch, a bow and some braid. In this photo you can see all of the above minus the buttons. I am pleased with how it turned out, and I hope ??? likes it as much as I do. A lot of time was invested into the embroidery. I don't usually participate in swaps because I am afraid I won't be able to live up to my side of the bargain. But this year I have had extra time on my hands, my grandson's quilt was finished, plus some cotton voile wraps were done as well! Here is the photo

Now I can wrap the pressie up and keep it until the 8th December, when I can show it to the WORLD!!!!!

Keep well, God Bless and see ya soon.

MARYNAN

PS HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE GUM TREE DESIGNERS BLOG - GO TO AND CLICK THEIR GREEN LOGO ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF MY BLOG. THEY ARE GENEROUSLY GIVING FREE CHRISTMAS DESIGNS EVERY MONDAY FOR 9 WEEKS. SO FAR THERE ARE THREE GREAT ITEMS TO DOWNLOAD FREE OF CHARGE.

A UFO FINISHED - AT LAST

2009-10-18T00:58:00.001+11:00

How long has this bag been sitting in amongst my ufos??? - a few years at least. This is one of Kerry Swain's patterns and all it needed was quite a lot of of hand sewing. It is made out of a double sided quilted fabric and because it didn't need to be lined, it had unsightly raw seams inside it. They needed to be covered with some bias fabric or wide bias binding, I chose the latter. Mind you it was awkward to pin and sew and with many pin pricks to my hands I finished it all tonight. I can't wait to use it now!! Don't you think it looks pretty?

I have another of Kerry's patterns to finish this week. A sewing machine mat. I might finish it on Tuesday, our craft day!!!!! Will show you when I finish it.

Good night everyone, I hope you are all asleep and not an insomniac, like me!! GOD BLESS

MARYNAN

SNEAK PEEK

2009-10-15T18:59:00.000+11:00

We have now been given our swap partner's name for our annual Christmas Swap at our Craft Group. For once I got straight into it and I am so pleased with how it is turning out. We had to incorporate, blanket stitch, beads, button, bow and braid (ric rac can be used). I have managed to do three items so far. Here is a little SNEAK PEEK:-

Will show you the finished gift after I have given it to my SPECIAL FRIEND. Until next time,

May God bless you with his abundant LOVE.

MARYNAN

PS Our grandson is just beautiful, of course, and we had plenty of kisses and cuddles last weekend.

NEW GRANDSON

2009-10-08T21:07:00.004+11:00

I am proud and happy to announce the birth of our first grandson, who was born on 7th October 2009. He weighed in at 9 lb 1 oz. I have seen a photo of him but we will not meet him until the weekend. I have finished a machine appliqued baby animals quilt and I am now sewing the label on the back. It is cot sized, so should come in handy, when he is a little older.

That's it for now, short and very very sweet. Until next time,

MARYNAN

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

2009-09-28T13:13:00.004+10:00

I finished my Christmas table square to go over my round gold Christmas tablecloth and wanted to share it with you. The Christmas stitcheries I used are from Gail Pan's BOM and are free on her blog site. Thank you Gail for your kindness with the free designs. The fabrics I used are Nancy Halverson's Christmas range of fabric from a couple of years' ago. I can't believe it is just 3 months to Christmas now! I started my Christmas shopping with a purchase for my granddaughter. Her brother or sister will be born within the next couple of weeks. I hope and pray that all will go well for the family.

I have also been adding a few more rows to my 2ply triangular lace SHAWL. I am knitting it on a long circular needle and it takes me more than 10 minutes to achieve one row. It started off as a point with 5 stitches and now has hundreds of stitches up the top. Will give you a sneek peek too!! It is knitted in lilac 50/50 merino/silk yarn in Jaggerspun yarn (USA made yarn). It is so lovely and soft to touch, a luxury yarn.

That's all the crafty news I have for you now. God bless you all and see ya soon!!

MARYNAN

SPRING TIME AND A POCKET FULL OF SUNSHINE BAG

2009-09-03T00:38:00.004+10:00

Hello ALL, I would like to show you my latest creation, my version of Natalie Ross' pattern called "A Pocketful of Sunshine". It is hanging from one of our 3 mandarin trees. My thanks go to Natalie for wonderful, accurate, easy to follow instructions. I loved every minute it took to make the bag and I am very happy with the finished result.

We had to snip the fruit off one of the mandarin trees as we have a dove sitting on 2 eggs in her very fragile looking nest, and everytime we picked a piece of fruit, she would fly out of the nest and sit in a nearby gum tree until we moved away. DH saw another dove calling today as it was obviously time to change shifts, sitting on the nest. So I don't know who is sitting there now, is it mum or is it dad? We had so many mandarins, DH cooked up a batch of mandarin and lime marmalade. We have a little citrus orchard where we have a kaffir lime (fragrant leaves for Thai cooking), a Tahitian Lime which has two crops a year of lovely juicy thin skinned limes, two Imperial mandarins, one other mandarin (with lots of seeds, Hickson I think), a Navel orange, two grapefruit and a Meyer lemon tree. With our fairly dry warm mediteranean climate, the citrus trees flourish. Olive trees would probably grow well too but they take too long to bear fruit and we don't like them.

I think I had better sign off now, as it is way past my bedtime!!! Thanks for dropping by. Until Next Time bye for now, take care, God Bless and give someone you love a hug and kiss, and tell them you love them!!

Maryanne

PS Strawberries were very cheap this week so I made 2 batches of yummy strawberry jam. Picked 4 recipes from the net and chose a recipe that was cooked in the micro wave oven. All finished and cleaned up within 30 minutes. It looks and tastes terrific.

GIVEAWAY

2009-07-12T16:10:00.002+10:00

Just a quick blog to let you know that there is a boy's jacket pattern giveaway at make it perfect. Go there and have a look

BABY GIRL QUILT BLOCKS

2009-07-03T20:18:00.005+10:00

Hello all on this cold, windy night!!! I hope you have your fires, reverse cycle ACs or gas heaters on full bore. I have been very slack in the blogging department this past month. I am finally giving you a sneak peek at my lastest flannel quilt as I had mentioned in previous blogs!! The little Sunbonnet Babies are soooooooooooo cute!!

Trudi, from Trudi's Craft Room won my giveaway of four fat 1/4's, congratulations Trudi.

What have I been doing???? It seems I have nothing much to report. I am sick of knitting socks. I sent Dad his lovely warm bed socks and that was the last pair I knitted. I did get one of the Tuesday girls at Cottage on the Hill to start knitting socks too. I even sent her the sock pattern. I think she has knitted 3 pairs so far. Well done Ros. and she says she is getting addicted too!!!! I suppose we could be addicted to worse things!!

Our son and his family are moving to a place on the coast, about three hours drive away. We will miss them, especially our 10 month old granddaughter. I guess it is not too far away, they could live overseas or in another State I suppose.

I having been tidying up my craft room, I can't see much difference yet!! The next project I want to make is a segmented wool embroidered, woollen pincushion. I haven't done any wool embroidery for years. I have heaps of Gumnut "Blossoms" threads that I should use. I am now trying to use only fabric and threads I already own or the family will have to have a huge jumble sale after I "Fall Off the Perch".

Well that's about all for now girls until next time!!!!

MARYNAN

PASHMINAS

2009-05-18T12:24:00.003+10:00

As the season is rapidly changing and cooling I thought I would show you one of my lovely warm pashminas I have been working on. Oh how I wish I had the time for luxurious hand embroidery, but I don't, so I decided to do some machine embroidery and this is one of the ends with Jacobean inspired, embroidered flowers and a couple of dragon flies and lady beetle designs by Rowena Charlton. I have another photo of the centre back design, which features a butterfly. I am very happy with the result. These designs were sewn directly on to the lovely soft pashmina which I bought through eBay. They are 4ply pashminas, which are heaps thicker than the normal 2ply ones, and come in a wide range of colours. I will now have to find a special place to wear it!

NEW SHOES FOR MOTHERS' DAY

2009-05-15T16:09:00.005+10:00

After receiving a generous gift of $100 from my beautiful daughter, I decided to put it towards my lovely "PURPLE' shoes that I ordered through Easy Living Shoes in Tamworth. I picked them up today and I can't wait to start wearing them. The gift of money was a lovely surprise from her. I have emailed her the same photo as above, so she can see what I bought. Nov/Dec can't come quick enough, until we will be able to see her and her fiance again. She will be meeting a new niece, and the baby's brother or sister as well, when they come back from WA.

Until next time,

MARYNAN, the purple freak

A Belated Happy Mothers' Day Greeting

2009-05-14T11:45:00.006+10:00

I'm back again!! For the knitters out there, Bendigo Woollen Mills have some wonderful new knitting patterns. I love the shawl colllar on the red cardigan. This is in 5ply yarn. What colour am I doing it in? Purple of course.

There is also a lovely vest with rounded lower fronts I want to knit as well. Here is a photo! The vest will be knitted in 8 ply, in the same colour as the photo, in a new yarn called Luxury, which is lovely and soft.

Because the weather has changed to Autumn here in Australia, I find it comforting to knit. I have done a little more of my baby girl quilt, I am pleased with it's progress.

My granddaughter is now 8 months old and has started crawling, commando style. She grunts as she moves towards her toys. I have taken some lovely photos of her.

Our number 1 son (first born) came to visit and did some gardening for me for Mother's Day. DH got into it as well. The garden was starting to look like a jungle !

I have decided to have a give away of four fat quarters of fabric. I know it isn't much!! but if you like to leave a comment before next weekend 23rd May, I would love to hear from you.

I hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day last Sunday.

MARYNAN

SOCKS, SOCKS, SOCKS

2009-04-17T11:24:00.007+10:00

You may be asking, what has Marynan been up to so far this year? Well I have been busy knitting socks. I am on to my 9th pair for this year. I will have lovely warm feet this winter. I have sought out sock yarn from everywhere. I have used hand dyed yarns from the Knittery, Opal Sock Yarn from Germany and Jigsaw Sock Yarn from Italy. They were all knitted in a lacey pattern. They have been fun to knit. I seem to be addicted to knitting socks. The next pair will be knitted for my dad who lives in Orange. I will knit them in a dark self striping yarn that I bought last year from Spotlight. 85% wool, 15% nylon, plain knitting. This yarn was on SPECIAL at $5 per 100g ball. Considering that you can pay up to $25 per 100g for 4ply sock yarn, that was a bargain, don't you think? 100g is enough to knit an adult pair of socks. Most of the pictured socks are made with 85% wool, the pale pastel sock, mauve and yellow, has some cotton in it. And the Knittery yarns, have cashmere in them. They are soooooo soft!!!

Sorry I am not showing you the little Baby Sunbonnets as promised yesterday.
I am going away for a week to be with Dad after his cataract operation. I will knit his socks whilst I am away.

See ya in a week or so! Come back soon as I will think of a giveaway while I am away. Tell your friends in Blogland about this site. UUUUUMMMMM!! I will put my thinking cap on!! What would I like to receive???????

MARYNAN

FIRST BLOG

2009-04-16T10:57:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone in Blogland. As I am brand new and this is my first posting, I hope all goes well. I have a rotten head cold this week. Where did I pick it up from, you may ask. From the kids at school no doubt. This is the third year in a row that I have managed to catch the virus just in time for a school holiday period.

On a cheerier note, I have started making a baby girl quilt. I am machine embroidering some lovely little baby sunbonnet designs from Julie at JUJU designs and they are coming up beautifully. DIL is expecting her third child in October. I already have a baby boy quilt so I should have this new quilt completed on time. Here is a photo of the baby boy quilt. This quilt has machine appliqued animals on it. In my next blog I will give you a preview of the baby sunbonnet designs.

My little Tenterfield Terriers killed a large snake last month and dropped their gift at the front door. Thank heavens DH was on hand and managed to throw the dead serpent over the fence. The snake was a blue bellied black. It is related to the red bellied black and is quite common around Tamworth. Let's hope they don't tangle with a brown snake as these are deadly, deadly. The weather is cooling down now so snakes should be going into hibernation soon. Thank goodness!!

Well that's enough news for this Blog. See ya soon!!!

Marynan