My cup runneth over.........

.....with loving kindnesses from dear friends. Each day I find there are thousands of fibres that connect us to our friends, discovering fragments of yourself in others..........even friends that we have never met.

One such friendship; (a friend whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting face to face), started just a li'l while ago in 'The Land of Blog'. I met Vicki of A Quilters Mission  perchance, whilst wandering (as you do) through cyberspace. You click on one blog, which leads you to another blog and another, and another; until you find yourself  wandering with amazement and awe through a maze of delightful blogs written by clever stitchers; showcasing their glorious handiwork and writing about their creative lives. 'Tis a wonderful world filled with colourful inspiration!

I happened upon Vicki's lovely blog and discovered that a lot of quilts that she stitches are for charity. Vicki (together with other ladies) stitches beautiful quilts transforming them from 'lemons' into 'lemonade' and raises money for local and worldwide relief, thus giving many a warm hug to those who are finding travelling along the road of life rather tough! The work that Vicki does is such a blessing to many........indeed the work that Vicki does (I think) is eternal!!

Anyway...........why am I telling you about my friend, Vicki? Well.....after a particularly sad day (I had just received some very sad news), my friendly postman delivered a rather substantial parcel, all the way from the USofA!! Imagine my surprise when upon looking as to whom the sender might be, I discovered 'Miss Vicki's' name printed thereon. When I opened my present, gorgeously stitched items by the clever Miss Vicki spilled out.

There were 2 scrumptious polka dotted strawberry pin cushions, a needle ring, a needle book, a thread catcher (I had never heard of these before entering the Land of Blog....I know, I know...I don't get out much), a zipper pouch, an armchair pin cushion and 4 gorgeous mug rugs!! All of these items are made of gorgeous fabrics from hues that I love!! There is even a Laura Ashley, cornflower blue, fabric design from which I had fashioned curtains, long ago in my humble abode in Sydney!

 

The two buttons on the strawberry pin cushions are some of Vicki's mother.

Though I love every fabric that Vicki has chosen, I particularly love the cheery aqua and pink/reds of the armchair pin cushion! I love the lemon backing on the mug rugs to remind me of the 'lemonade' quilts that Vicki so tirelessly stitches for charity! She's a treasure, is Miss Vicki!! I am so very thankful that I have 'met' her and so very thankful that she has travelled through cyberspace and happened upon my life!! 'Tis a blessed gal that I am!!

 

 Now........my cup runneth over with yet another token of thoughtful friendship. Anne, another dear friend, said to me the other day......."Miss Kim, I have a surprise for you!! I have bought a 'few' buttons for you!"

Mmmmmmmmm................just a few!!!!

  

 I might add that this is just one jar filled with these pretties. There is enough to fill ten more and then some!!

Thousands and thousands of glorious buttons spilling out in rainbow-filled hues.

 

 Those of you who follow my li'l blog, will know that every afternoon after school I teach children (prodigies....well I think they are) the art of stitching. And.......as so many of the projects they stitch demand oodles and oodles of buttons, I am slowly running out of these fastening doodads! And......of course these children who attend "The Kim Sharman School of Stitching Excellence" seem to have developed a sophisticated and expensive taste in pretty buttons.........mmmmmmm......I wonder from whom they have developed such cultivated taste!!!

I predict many a contented hour sorting through these buttons over the next couple of weeks. There is something soothing about running your fingers through a plethora of buttons!! I know, I know...I am a tragic.....but I LURVE buttons!!

 

Both these expressions of friendship, in their own way, have warmed my heart this week. They have been perfect illustrations of how daily miracles appear in the most ordinary of circumstances.

 

As I sit and indulge in a cuppa and home-baked treat (a favourite pastime of mine); with my mug resting on one of my gorgeous mug rugs, I can't help but be reminded of how "my cup runneth over" with warm friendships! Yes indeedy.....'tis a blessed gal that I am!!

Spring is bustin out all over......

....well perhaps not exactly 'bustin'........but ever so slowly, the flowers are awakening from their deep winter sleep, to pop their pretty little heads from their wintry cold and damp beds and greet Old Man Sun (that is of course, when He decides to grace us with his presence and shine his radiant beams on my li'l corner of the world); with their smiley faces. Yes indeedy, the stage production of the flower kingdom, 'The Dance of the Blossoms', has well and truly begun down here at the bottom of the world. Each flower is waiting in the wings, until it is their turn to take centre stage and sway merrily across the stage, act by act, when, with the final crescendo, all of Spring's performers take their cue, burst onto the stage and join in the merry dance of Spring.

In our garden, the 'First Act' of Spring is abloom with daffodils, jonquils and tulips. The long and bitterly cold Tassie winter is just bearable, because there is always the promise of the most brilliant display of these bulbs. The William Wordsworth poem comes to mind, because wherever one goes in Tassie, one sees "a host of golden daffodils" (and every variation of the same theme) everywhere; not only in gardens but also along the roads, in paddocks; indeed in every nook and cranny. Funnily enough, in Tassie, tulips even grow by the seaside.

Oh....pardon me.....let me introduce y'all to Maisie, my ever present, faithful companion.  'Crazy' Maisie loves to 'garden'!! As a matter of fact, Maisie's favourite pastime seems to be digging in the garden....a pastime I might add, that her master, the gardener of the house, does not approve!! Maisie is always planting a new specimen of the plant kingdom.....a doggy, skeletal, animal substance; which try as she might, just doesn't seem to sprout and multiply!!

Sharing the stage simultaneously with these bulbs are the beautiful Camellias.

 

 

 

The 'Second Act'......introduces a wide variety of Irises; Dutch and Bearded; for their moment in the spotlight. The bare wintry branches of the Wisteria transforms into a visual delight of showy, pendulent clusters of blue-violet flowers, sharing the stage with the Irises; forming a spectacular troupe of colour.

 

 

Joining the Irises and Wisteria for the Second Act are the Azaleas, Granny Bonnets (one of my favourites) and the lovely Clematis. The Granny Bonnets (Aquilegias) are abloom in the prettiest of colours, blue, mauve, purple, pink, cream, crimson.....all providing a show of riotous colour.

 

  

 

.

Next, it is the Lilacs and Foxgloves time to shine with the Rhododendrons waiting impatiently for their chance to take centre stage.

 

The 'Third Act'  of the Dance of the Blossoms is well and truly under way spiriting along in spectacular fashion. Every flower is contributing to a magnificent show, every one adding their own beauty providing a breathtaking show  of colour explosion and fragrance.

 

I might add that the Forget-me-nots, Peonies, Poppies, Zinnias, Hollyhocks, Asters, Roses, Nigellas, Liliums, Hydrangeas, Cosmos, Canterbury Bells and so many more 'dancers' of the botanical world are all waiting for their turn to amaze with their vibrancy and colour. Yes indeedy, over the next six months gardens here in Tassie are quite simply breathtaking

 

Not only is Spring bustin out all over with colour and pattern in the garden........there is an explosion of colour and pattern of the fabric kind in my bright and cheery sewing room. The School fair is just over a week away and I have been busily whipping up oodles and oodles of fabric flowers, flower fairies and other pretties for my li'l stall. My fabric flowers have taken on a life of their own. It seems that  the folk in this rural outpost are wanting to take an everlasting bouquet of prettiness home with them. Mmmmmm......when I grow up I want to be a florist!

 

 Every colour of the rainbow is represented.

 

Pinks........

 

Blues, Greens.........

 

Purples.......

 

Oranges and yellows........

 

En masse, an overspilling yummy bouquet of floral prettiness.

I have hot glued the fabric flowers to both knitting needles and lengths of wire to make single stem flowers. The flowers look so pretty bunched in overspilling bouquets of floral extravagance!

 

 

Overspilling vases of my fabric flowers in situ, in front of patchwork curtains which I stitched from the Designer Guild sample swatches that my lovely friend, Margaret, bestowed upon me. Yes indeedy.....it is springtime every day in my sewing room!!

 

 

 And last but certainly not least, Li'l Miss Dahlia has been joined by many other flower fairies, all waiting with great excitement to make their appearance at the School Fair. The more the merrier is Miss Dahlia's philosophy.....she just has more friends to play with!

  

So all in all, outside and inside, 'Spring is bustin out all over'. Me thinks that I might just sit in my garden swing, read a book, drink a cup of tea or two (in a fine bone china tea cup of course), chat with my faithful companion, Maisie; and drink in all that Spring loveliness.

 

 

 

Afterall.......as 'Spring is bustin out all over' everywhere in this li'l ole neck of the woods, one should take an hour or two or three and make the most of it....don't you think!!

 

 

The Tale of the Dolly Peg

Far, far away in a land at the bottom of the world lived a dolly peg, whose name was Dahlia. Dahlia's tiny world was a sewing room in which the lady of the house spent her days stitching fanciful creations. Although Dahlia loved sitting in her beautiful tea cup which was delicately placed on a shelf, surrounded by fanciful and dazzling pretties; her dream was to one day be transformed into a beautiful flower fairy.

Dahlia had watched her friends one by one become beautiful flower fairies, under the spell of the magic fingers of the lady of the house. Dahlia had espied one of her friends, Sugar Plum, be transformed into a beauteous dancing flower fairy. Sugar Plum would have a famous ballet named after her, as she glided ever so softly across grand stages all over the world.

Dahlia quietly watched  her friends, Daisy, Blue-Belle, Rosie, Magnolia, Hyacinth, Cleomacaea, Violetta, Rosebud, Pansy, Sunshine, Florentina, Petal, Autumn and Fleur.............fairy after fairy; have stunning outfits created for them.  Couture gowns of diaphanous and delicate flower petals..... daisies, roses, zinnias, orchids, lilies et cetera; gossamer wings made of a smattering of leaves that helped her friends float ethereally into the air and to top it all off; sitting ever so pertly atop their mop of curly hair, oh so elegant and splendiforous millinery concoctions as their crowning glory.

 

The lady of the house gained inspiration for the luscious fairy gowns, from her brightly coloured botanical hallway, as each day she strolled down the passage way to her sewing room. She loved flowers. Her garden was filled with bouquet after bouquet of the most deliciously fragrant and  rainbow-painted flowers.

Dahlia waited ever so patiently for the day when the lady of the house would make her long-held dream of becoming a flower fairy, come true. Day after day Dahlia watched the lady stitch creation after creation. She loved to see what the lady would dream up next. Dahlia particularly loved the chatter and giggles of the children who visited the sewing room every afternoon as they happily stitched away.

One day there was a sense of excitement in the lady's sewing room. The children were excitedly chatting about a school fair that was to take place in  a couple of weeks time. There was an edict from the King (the school principal) that a fair was to be held where there would be lots of stalls, yummy food, fun games and exciting things to see and do.

The lady of the house decided that she would have a stall and fill it with her handmade pretties to sell....(lure the throngs into her creative web and flog her wares to the unsuspecting public). The lady thought what a wonderful idea it would be, if she would make oodles and oodles of  enchantingly, delightful flower fairies so that the children could take them home to live;  playing with them. Dahlia was so excited that she nearly fell out of her tea cup. Perhaps, just perhaps her long held dream would come true.

So.....the lady gathered a slew of pink (Dahlia's favourite colour) petals, leaves and whatever else she needed to make flower fairies. She ever so carefully took Dahlia from her tea cup home and began to make Dahlia's dream a reality.

The lady painted small slippers onto Dahlia's tiny feet; after all, every self-respecting fairy needed pretty little slippers to adorn their tiny feet.

Now for the most beautiful frock ever to have adorned the mythical folk. A frock with a petticoat of layer upon layer of fuchsia pink, dahlia-like wispy thin petals, gradually adding white, mauve and creamy pink petals carefully plucked from an assortment of flowers. The lady snipped petal after petal so that they would fit Dahlia's tiny waist.

A single petal for the bodice was needed to be fastened to the skirt and a string of pearls for Dahlia's elegant neck.

Of course every fairy needs arms so the lady of the house formed some wire into the shape of arms and hands and glued them onto the body.

A mop of curly brown hair was affixed to Dahlia's pretty little head; upon which a pert little concoction of a hat, fashioned from varying petals was placed.

Last of all, what is a fairy to do if she has no wings with which to fly? After all there was much fun to be had fluttering and darting through the trees, playing hide and go seek with her friends. So........some wispy and delicate, fern-like wings were added so that Dahlia could become the fairy that she had always dreamt she would be.

 

Dahlia was ecstatic with her beautiful ensemble. She thought it was the prettiest ever. She couldn't wait until the day of the fair. Although she would miss her pretty little tea cup and of course the toing and froing each day in the lady's sewing room; she wondered who would take her home with them. Would it be Holly, Akasha, Sophie, Pip.....or perhaps Alli??

It didn't matter which little girl would take her home......Dahlia was as happy as could be that her dream of being a flower fairy had come true. She would live happily ever after in some little girl's home, where they would play together forevermore in the land of make believe.

Linking up to Stephanie's gorgeous 'The Enchanting Rose'.