Colour Fast

In the past I have tested my home dyed threads by wetting them and ironing them onto white cloth. They appeared to be colour fast. Now I am pretty sure they are, because unloading the dishwasher just now, I found a hank swinging from the top rack, its colours just as bright and fresh as when I first dyed them. Don't ask me how it got in there; all I know is that it was thread I was using until quite late last night because Bossman was watching Man U, and I can only think that it was on my person somewhere, and fell into the dishwasher as I went to put my nightcap mug in before going to bed.

Tea for Two

My friend KR and I had a little fabric ATC swap with a tea theme. She sent me an elegant stamped greetings card enclosing two pretty QTCs of fused teapots set on an oriental fabric background, with added beads and gold stamping. I sent her a cross stitch teapot and cups. As quite often happens, I was in such a hurry to send it on its way that I forgot to scan it before posting, but to give you an idea, here is the pattern I used, from 50 tiny Tea Motifs by Jorja Hernandez.

Caught in the Act

A seed pod on this anenome plant was just starting to split as I passed it on my way out this morning. When I returned, I caught it at the point when the next gust of wind would send the seeds flying...

Violas in the shade

The deck chairs up on the balcony get a lot of sun, and because it is not in my nature to remove the cushions and bring them inside when they are not use, they soon fade and rot. The chairs themselves were bought back in the late '70's, and originally had good quality 4" foam rubber mattresses, but these eventually gave up the ghost about four years ago, and were replaced with some bought off the market, and made of polyester wadding wrapped around a 2" synthetic foam core. The covers on these rotted pretty quickly, but the worst was covered up with beach towels and Charlie cat found them quite comfortable, thank you. Sun loving Winter visitors don't get much sun downstairs because the rubber tree has grown so big, and the state of the chairs didn't do much for my reputation as a seamstress when they came up in search of a bronzing spot, so here is my reputation restored. A good strong piece of furnishing linen, 3 metres by 4, bought on the fleamarket for 12€. It had a printing fault down the centre line, but this was easily avoided, and will make cushions at some point, and I have enough left over to cover more chairs or even make curtains...


I just had to show you this pot of violas as well. My friend Elsie bought them for my birthday back in December, and they haven't stopped growing and flowering since. I do dead-head them regularly, and give them a feed now and then, but haven't they done well?