Summer is fading

Each day tells me Summer is slowly fading. The sunlight bathing the countryside is softer, less vibrant. On my early morning walks Old Man Sun is showing his face a little later. As he is resting lower in the sky, throughout the day beams of sunshine ever so slowly creep across the rooms of my humble abode like tentacles, touching here and there, casting a warm glow everywhere. One thing I do love about Winter is the sunshine that fills each room. There is a crispness to the air......aah yes, Summer is fading.

I love early morning walks. Each morning I am a witness to nature slowly arising and greeting the new day. It is a beautiful time of the morning. It is a time where it is just me, Maisie and my Heavenly Father. It is a time when I pray to Him and silently chat about so, so many things. Each morning is different. Each day's sky is different. Some days are filled with lovely blue skies suffused with light casting a milky glow, some days filled with amazing cloud formations................LOVE clouds; or some mornings the landscape is veiled in the lightest of mists. Those misty mornings add a luminosity and ethereal quality to the countryside.  No morning is the same. Each morning is a perfect beginning to a new day.

The garden too, tells me that perhaps Summer is beginning to think about leaving my little corner of the world, to visit all you lovelies way up there and stay for a season. Yes indeedy, Summer is making way for Autumn. The flowers are showing signs that it is time to rest awhile. That is okay because each and every flower has performed the most lyrical of colourful dances for  me to enjoy. They warrant a long slumber. The leaves of trees will soon don their autumnal, crisp, taffeta-like frocks in the most glorious of shades and after a while, will slowly and delicately float to the ground. In a month or two the trees will be bare of their verdant canopy.

The Hydrangeas are changing into softer, autumnal hues, the roses are all but gone and other Summer flowers have finished. Though I must say, the Cosmos are still awash in an exuberant palette of pinks. They will continue to smile and sashay in rhythm until that cranky old fellow, Jack Frost arrives. Wish oh wish he wouldn't visit me; he is not welcome.

We haven't planted Cosmos seeds for years now. At the end of their flowering season the Cosmos drop seeds and gift us with gazillion of flowers the next season. They are truly like weeds, but oh-so-beautiful weeds. Though Hydrangeas are my favourite flowers, Cosmos are way up there on my list. I cannot but smile when I see their pretty faces and besides, they do not need any care or looking after, they just bloom where they fall and contribute to our rather disobedient garden. Though manicured gardens are beautiful, I rather love wild, disobedient gardens. I rather love  flowers invading the garden and popping up wherever they will.

The Dahlias are in their last flush and though they are still gifting me with beautiful flowers, it won't be long till the cooler weather will burn the leaves and flowers, precipitating them to scurry deep into the ground away from you know who's, icy fingers.

Isn't this wall hanging cool?? I acquired it from a friend who asked if I wanted it. It belonged to my friend's mother-in-law who had recently passed away. As my friend was clearing the house out in readiness for selling, she asked me if there was anything I would like. I said "you know the wall hanging on the hall wall........I wouldn't mind that.....it would make for an excellent prop for photo shoots". My friend looked at me quizzically and said, "what wall hanging??????" My friend had never noticed it!!!!! This wall hanging is about one and a half metres in length and one metre in height and was the only object on the rather drab, hall walls. It was rather like a beacon of colour and pictorial interest. My friend had never noticed it in all the time she had visited her mother-in-law. Incredible! My beady little eyes spotted it the very first time I entered the home. 'Tis funny, isn't it, what we do and do not see. When I enter a room my eyes ricochet from wall to floor taking in all that is to see. 'Tis a visual kinda gal, that I am.

It was probably fashioned in Italy and is a beautiful, tactile velvet. I have a few rugs of the same ilk.....they always come in handy when I need a prop to gussy up a photo or two.

Love the peacock strutting in all his glory. He's totally aware what a pretty fellow he is, posing proudly in front of the gorgeous backdrop of trees, the swans gliding on a pond, the flowers and an Indian building in the aesthetics of the Taj Mahal. It really is a most striking hanging. I won't labour the point.....but truly....how did my friend not notice this pretty!!

With the cooler days I have picked up my aqua, woolly pretty once again. It is my intention to finish this woolly this year, sooner rather than later.

With the back and sleeves finished, all I have to knit now is the front. If all goes well and my needles clickety clack faster than fast, perhaps I will be stepping out in this warm woolly this winter. Though, I have to confess, since picking this woolly up yet again I have had the most bothersome of times. The saga of knitting this woolly,  began way back in January 2016, which if you want to read my frustrations with the pattern, you can so do here. What can I say, I am not the world's fastest knitter. =) I think I have unravelled the bask of the front about ten times this week. Each time I have made a teeny tiny mistake, continued knitting without noticing the glitch and when an inch or two has been knitted the snafu (love that word) has hit me smack in the face!! I don't know why I have made so many boo boos with the bask as it isn't difficult. If I didn't love this jumper so much, I think I would throw the whole blasted thing out the window!! BUT.......I will persevere....and I know I have said it before.....I will not fall on my sword  knitting needle and end it all......well at least......not yet!!

Love all that cable loveliness. As you can see, I have finally completed the bask and am well on the way to knitting the aran pattern. Amazingly, I have fallen  into a groove and it is knitting up rather quickly. Not far to go now, only....I do hope I have not spoken a little too soon. I do hope I have not "put the mocker " on finishing my woolly, before Jack Frost arrives.

A little hand quilting has also been in progress as well. I have picked up my Spring Blossoms quilt top and am happily quilting away. I am loving quilting this quilt. The hexie flowers and all the bright and happy, scrappy fabrics make me smile. A lot of things in life make me smile, don't they. =)

I toed and froed about how to quilt. I deliberated long and hard over perhaps quilting in a rainbow of bright and happy colours but decided against this thought. I want the flowers to be the star of this quilt so I am only outlining around the flowers and leaves and then quilting around the border of each fabric.

One of these days I will throw caution to the wind and quilt in brightly coloured thread but that day is not today. Besides, if I quilted in bright colours my persnickety, beady li'l eyes would seek out each of those imperfect stitches and it would bother me endlessly. 'Tis funny how my eyes always go straight to the less than perfect stitches.

The backing I chose is an all over pattern of pink and blue chrysanthemums linen. Originally I was going to have a scrappy backing but I changed my mind. This fabric is a wider width, which meant I needed less fabric, therefore being less expensive. Besides I love the sumptuousness of the print; love the big blousy chrysanthemums.

Summer may soon depart this far rural outpost for those shores further north, but with Old Man Sun beaming his rays of warmth and sunniness into my home and indeed, casting a happy glow on my flower-filled, boudoir wall each day, the colour, brightness and ambience will always give a feeling of summery cheeriness.

This weekend, there may just be time for a little knitting, a little quilting and a cup of tea.....or two.

There's my gardener photo bombing my photo shoot.....again!

Until the next time..........

A Beautiful New Year to You!

A beautiful new year to you. 'Tis a beautiful new year down here at the bottom of the world. I am little tardy with my new year greeting I know, but here in my little part of the world, I have been chilling out enjoying beautiful and warm, summery days as they roll on and on. Down here, in my little part of the universe, there has been a rather relaxed kinda feeling. Nothing but a snail's pace is the order of my day; going for early morning walks watching the sun rise as it smiles in the sky, enjoying many hours by the pond and in the garden.....YAY OH YAY.....'tis Hydrangea time), reading a book or two or three, and among many other pleasant activities, stitching and finishing my Japanese silk, quilt top.......but more about my Japanese pretty later on.

Just because our garden is blooming in a concoction of gorgeous colours, I thought I would zoom some happy snaps to those of you, way up there who have been bombarded by snow cyclones, dark, dreary days and other such travesties that Ol' Man Winter is throwing at you. My goodness he has been nasty, hasn't he. I hope you are all okay. I suppose it will be my time to experience his wintry, frigid breath in a while, but I won't entertain that thought at all for the moment.

There is a profusion of beautiful flowers in the garden; Hydrangeas, Roses, Dahlias, Cosmos, just to name a few.

Some pretty pink roses, beautiful blue Hydrangeas and a swan or two or three. I love my latest bric-a-brac find, a gorgeous swan vase. I love the graceful, flowing form of it.

A friend gifted me this pretty tablecloth for Christmas......so very pretty.

Now to that finished quilt top. I am very excited....my beautiful (well I think it is)  quilt top, where scrumptious Japanese silks abound and a scattering of origami flowers flourishing here and there, is finished.

When the idea of a quilt fashioned out of Japanese kimono fabrics with origami flowers thrown into the mix, began to formulate in my brain pan, I confess I did wonder what was I thinking. My daughter had gifted me some of these beautiful Japanese silks so I decided I wanted to fashion a quilt showcasing these amazing designs. When 'we' first arrived in Tassie, I happened upon a stall at my favourite markets, where a lady sold Japanese fabrics that she had cut from vintage kimonos. I purchased quite a few and added them to the mix. A match made in heaven if you ask me.

As I have intimated on a few occasions, I have always found origami.....the art of folding paper into amazing creations, a tad puzzling. Indeed I found it impossible. BUT.....as I scratched my pea brain and discombobulated and puzzled over the "how to" I began to figure it out......well in any case, the simpler designs. I am so happy the last stitch of this quilt top has been stitched. AND.....I must admit I am happy with this pretty.....thus far.

Every morning, whilst on my walk I walk past a most beautiful lavender field. The fragrance emanating from this field is intoxicating. It belongs to a neighbouring farmer............the perfect backdrop to showcase my Japanese pretty.

This quilt is a rather large one. It is a queen bed size, with both sides touching the floor. Fortuitously, I had just enough Japanese fabrics to fashion this pretty.

I am happy to have grabbed my origami inadequacies with both hands with the stitching of this quilt. I am so happy that I gave fabric origami a burl, as I rather love this quilt top. The slow hand stitching of this quilt has put a smile in many a day. When I quilt this pretty, I am thinking I will use different coloured threads, following the design in each panel in a go-with-the-flow fashion. But for now........there are some more warm summer days to enjoy.

Until the next time.........