Sometimes projects are just an angels breath from completion.  These little pegs had been sitting painted for a while, waiting for wings, skirts and faces.  I imagined skirts made from slices of lightly coloured vintage embroidery and paper doily wings.  Consulting my drawers of damaged, vintage embroidery, I found other ideas. 

A hand embroidered table cloth, too long in the napisan was waiting for me.  It had been so long bleached that the thread work and hems were dissolving, but still not long enough to remove whatever the tenacious stain had been.  The white on white details remind me of feathers and so wings they were.  The tattered edges became an underskirt for each modest angel, with just the smallest whisper of cotton lace over the top.  My very own mini host of mini angels.

My favourite part of a blanket would have to be the satin along the edges. These cushions celebrate blanket ribbon in all it's hues and leave the satin edge free for little hands to explore.

Growing up, we only slept with blankets when were at my grandparents. There is a certain security in going to sleep with the satin edges clutched between fingers.  For me, it means that, even though I'm away from home, I've been tucked in by someone who cares.

These cushions are made out of a collection of blanket samples for Onehunga Woollen Mills.  Each came with its name written on a small adhesive label.  In stops and starts I have been sewing the name of each colour onto it's respective sample since 2010.  We have everything from the blues of  seascape and navy, to the very pale whites of natural and eggshell.

And as an added bonus, they are nice to snuggle up with too.

 Before...

A beautiful basket of threads from the church garage sale.  I carefully took it home and wound up the threads, trying to imagine a world where you would need so many reels of orange, coral or variegated pink threads.  There were even the sweetest little reels holding only 12 yards of thread, dearly marked "Nora". The basket is now nestled next to the couch awaiting it's next adventure. It looks like I have a little bit of sewing ahead of me..

If you've met my Dad, you would swear these old fisherman paintings are all of him, from the sun reddened cheeks to the blue eyes*.

When I saw this forlorn tapestry at the back of local bazaar,** I knew exactly where it needed to go. I asked Mum for some off-cuts from a recently upholstered chair.  She was little confused when I promised to give them back.  I did give them back, eventually, just in a slightly different form.  The cushion now takes pride of place at my parents home by the beach.

This image has been a part of my family for a long time.  Nana used to have a faded re-production print of it in her lounge.  She swore it was really a painting of a distant relative. There might have been some truth in it but I never could get to the bottom of it.  I tried goggle searching the image but coudn't come up with any original.  It seams the old fisherman is has become folklore.  These little fisher-babys, on the other hand, certainly look like something I might be related to.


*Fortunately the pipe and smoking has only ever been a prop.  Though, a bubble pipe could be a pretty cool Fathers day gift at some point.

**Come to think of it, Graham, the Bazaar shop keeper would make a great fisherman too.

I'm getting wrapped up in organising a High Tea.  I'm loving the combination of gorgeous embroidered linen, beloved china and sumptuous baking. I felt we needed a logo and came up with this bit of stitching.

Before I wander off to dream about little cakes, what would your perfect High Tea include? Is it club sandwiches and macaroons, or scones and cream.  Tea cosies on the table or silver teapots? What would tempt you? Let me know. as the menu is still in the making.

For a while our house was swimming with fishes, dolphins and sharks.  Little E had marvelled at the sharks at Kelly Tarlton's.  We saw stingrays, moray eels and baby carpet sharks.  She was drawing them for weeks afterwards.

I snatched aside one of her sketches in January, to turn it into this embroidery.  I kept the sketch close as I copied it, but now cannot find it for the life of me.  I adored the various textures of a 4 year old's rapid felt pen colouring.  With two slightly mismatched blues and sketchy stitches, you can get some idea of the pen running out as she drew the picture.

The only thing left to do was to turn it into a  teacosy to be sent to Nana.  She wraps her tea pot with a knitted cosy and then pops another over the top. Of course, we had to give this a try before posting the new cosy.  I'm pleased to report the cosy works and the super hot tea went really well with stroopwafels.  These are a new treat in our house, where the steam from a super hot cup of tea is used to soften the syrupy filling, before the stroopwafels are eaten, hot and syrupy.