Aahhh.......SPRING!

Spring is beginning to snail it's way slowly and steadily around the bend in our country road. There is a slightly warmer feel in the air as the warm breath of Spring begins to thaw Ole Man Winter's chill. The chill in 'dem old bones' is lessening and there is a spring in my step. The bare, winter earth is ever so slowly beginning to flourish; beginning to make room for the weaving of the glorious scents and vibrantly coloured, floral tapestry which is beginning to caress the landscape. Each blossom, magnificently 'embroidered' in the richest, intricate and most splendid design. Impressions of Spring are beginning to delight everywhere.

This week we have been out and about quite a few days. We set off early in the mornings with the backdrop of gorgeous sunrises and returned home to evenings where high above transcendent canvases painted with brushstrokes from God's masterful palette, abound.

I never tire of driving through the countryside. Every day I pinch myself, feeling blessed to live in this glorious part of the world, a land so rich in natural beauty. Each drive is filled with delight with an ever changing vignette before us. As we drive along the winding road, with the mellifluous sounds of movie sound track orchestrations reverberating around the confines of our car, each bend in the road reveals another surprise, another view of yet another beautiful vista. Crazy patchwork paddocks, both velvety green, and fertile, red soil ripe for the planting of Summer crops. 

There is nothing quite like the blossoming of cherry trees in early Spring. Each tiny bud cannot sit enclosed within its confines any longer. Blossom after blossom joyously bursting out, unfolding each perfect tiny petal, sometimes cascading down, waterfall-like, in a truly magical way.

Then there are the Magnolias!! Wish oh wish our garden had decades' old Magnolia trees blossoming high, wide and handsome. I discovered this beauty in town. After me screeching "STOP".......my startled husband found a park, I jumped out of the car and entered the gate and proceeded to take some happy snaps. This beauty was in the grounds of an old rectory, so not a soul minded that I clicked happily away.

Each amazing flower was the size of a dinner plate!

Driving through this heaven in which I live, I have been knitting at intervals, whilst drinking in the beauty before me. Remember this blanket which I am fashioning out of vintage Scottish scarves? Well.....I found some more pretty scarves which I wanted to add to my blanket.

I wanted to make the blanket a little larger and sprinkle a little more pretty colour to it. Serendipitously, I happened upon these pretty scarves which would blend perfectly with my blanket.

I have finished joining the patches of scarves together, and now I am knitting the very, very long cable strip which is going to hug my blanket all the way around, as a border. The knitting of the cable strip is perfect for long country drives as there really is no thought required, enabling me to ooh and aah at constant intervals at the vista which unfolds before me.

Whilst in town, we visited our new favourite bric-a-brac shop. One always has to stop because one never knows what is waiting.....pleading, imploring.....to take it home with you. My husband, (yes he found some treasure yet again) espied this dinner set. Oh....glory be; a dinner set which just happens to be my favourite hue blue, and is such a funky shape. It is a Poole Pottery set and it really spoke to our hearts. I am in love with the quirky shape of the coffee pots and the tea pot and I love the happy juxtaposition of the grey and blue colours.

You surmised correctly.......this funky dinner set came home to live with me.

There are two coffee pots, one teapot, one sugar bowl, one milk jug and a dinner setting for six people.

The only problem with this gorgeous crockery set is that when I arrived home I turned my house upside down to find the perfect place for it. I have a sneaky suspicion there just might be a few of you understand my predicament.....I put it here and I put it there, but nowhere seemed quite right. I then entered the man's cave, unearthed an old bookcase from mounds of dust and cobwebs, gave it a couple of coats of paint of a pretty, grey shade called Marina Pearl and placed it at one end of the kitchen bench, with the pretty crockery sitting atop it. Voila!! It is the perfect spot! Though I do confess, the finding and preparation of the perfect place for my dinner set and then tidying up and replacing everything took two days. Why oh why do I do such things!! =)

I also have been enjoying a little hand quilting this past week. I have spent many moments, sitting in my favourite chair with the sun peeping over my shoulder. I sensed the sun's smile, warming me as I slowly stitched. I am hand quilting around each strip of fabric.

Very simple I know but I thought I might leave the dense perfect quilting to the experts. I want this quilt to be a simple one, both in design and quilting. As there are doilies interspersed here and there in this quilt, I didn't want an all over quilting design.

Alas, my quilting is a little rusty; it doesn't always run in straight-as-straight lines. I am afraid that my stitches are a little wonky in places, but that is okay with me. I am not overly fussed with wearing my perfectionism hat for this quilt. That hat has been placed in the closet away from sight for this quilt........just for a little while, though I have no doubt my quibbling and fault finding little hat will find it's way out of the closet and perch itself atop my cranium, yet again! =)

A couple more weeks and this quilt should be sitting, ever so prettily, atop my bed......well that's the plan anyway. There are more appointments in town this week, so perhaps, just perhaps there will be some more knitting of my very long, cable strip, which could mean my patchwork, woolly blanket will be warming my tippy toes very soon!! More glorious country drives drinking in the beauty of the fresh and awakening Spring. Aahh....Spring....'tis a wonderful sight to behold!!

Hope you are all enjoying the most wonderful weekend. Until the next time.......

Something Vintage.....Something Blue

Oh I do love to sit my gluteous maximus on an old comfy chair. Which is just as well as our li'l ole humble abode is filled with many a vintage chair. Some that have been recovered by moi (many a bona fide upholsterer would raise their eyebrows heavenwards as to the manner in which I have recovered my chairs); and some rather woebegone 'upholsterer's delights' that are sitting waiting rather patiently to be transformed into a new object on which one can lounge, in a rather relaxed manner.

We are in the middle of a very frosty and chilly winter, where I am greeted every morning with a new day of shivers. Old Man Winter has slowly crept up our country road and covered everything and everyone in his path with deep frosts, biting winds and at times horizontal rains. Indeed, there are days when I rather feel like the legendary Snow Queen sitting in her icy castle where stalactitic and stalagmitic encrustations abound!

The upside of this wintertide is that our home has several fireplaces that are ablazing with wonderful heat 24/7 to melt away all signs of Old Man Winter. Open fires are truly one of the magical things of Winter. They invite you to sit in a comfy chair with a cuppa, to stare into the hypnotising dancing flames and flickering embers, slowly being warmed from the tip of one's toes slowing travelling upwards until one is warm and cosy. The downside is that sometimes these fires spit out hot embers  that unfortunately, on one occasion, found it's target on one of my favourite vintage rocking chairs and left a very noticeable black hole in the upholstery. (I am afraid that I don't have any photographic evidence of this mishap.....this tragic event happened before I started my recent journey into blogland.

Oh no........what to do.............??

My 'dowry of cloth', (of which I have waxed lyrical in an earlier post)...those piles of glorious hand embroidered doilies that I have collected for years, have come to the rescue.....yet again. I covered the seat of my chair with a selection of embroidered pretties and an assortment of blue fabrics from my stash, hand stitching them carefully in a visually pleasing arrangement.

 

And.....I must admit I love my old and  "oh so comfy" chair even more.

 

Now........in my 'parlour' where an assemblage of  vintage chairs sit each day, there happens to be a chair, which I have christened 'The Throne'. This beautiful artefact of bygone times was on display in my favourite vintage shop in Sydney, 'Frou Frou Old and New'. As I looked in the window it beckoned me, enticing me to take it home with me. Of course it was not as it appears below, it was covered in olive green upholstery and the wood frame was ostentatious gold!

 

Me being me, saw beyond its tacky exterior and carted my treasure home. With my trusty staple gun and paint brush in hand I immedialely set about to transform my 'throne''. I covered the beautifully carved wood in white paint quickly wiping it off  before it dried, to give a limed effect with just a hint of gold peeping through. I then covered the less than desireable olive green upholstery with part of a vintage Italian coverlet, also a find from the lovely Parisa, from Frou Frou Old and New. The coverlet is a lovely white damask with lovely raised cartouches and touches of lemon, apricot, blue and pink flowers. Of course every chair needs a cushion, so I stitched a cushion, using the same vintage coverlet and fashioning a garland of ribbon flowers weaving in and out of a bowed ribbon.

 

So these days as I sit in my  parlour, enjoying the ambience and warmth of a fire, I have a choice on where to place my gluteous maximus. Will it be the 'queen-like'  throne, the new doily-covered rocking chair or.... perhaps my chaise lounge which is next in line for my amateur upholsterer treatment!

 

 

Linking up to Karen at  Quilty Creations  where for the month of July she is holding a Something Old Something New challenge? Have a 'bo peep', it's all about turning something pre-loved, something which has seen better days, or in my case something vintage, into something new, into an object which will give many more years of pleasure.