Bring on the needle and thread

The needle and thread had plenty of work this week!  We have had so much RAIN. On Wednesday we had 189 ml (7½ inches) in one day, with a total of more than 530 ml (21 inches) just this week. That's much more than the total annual rainfall of where we used to live in South Australia!  Needless to say, I had a great excuse not to get out and do any gardening, and it was no use washing my floors, so bring on the needle and thread!  Add to this some very late nights watching the Australian Tennis Open, and you can see it was a good stitching week.  Most of the time was spent on the project I am making for a charity - but more about that another day.

This little pincushion appeared in Handmade magazine recently:

This design combines so many of the things I enjoy. I love working with felt, delight in making pretty yet practical items, and of course I can never make enough bullion roses!

Don't you love the new layout of Handmade magazine? I still get excited about seeing my designs in print, no matter how many times it has happened.

Speaking of felt, this is a reminder that I will be conducting an online Workshop at Patchwork Posse in March. The pattern is a sewing set consisting of needlecase, pincushion and scissorkeep and I'm big on the purple side of the colour wheel this year - it's called "Lilac Love".

It is very reasonably priced, and I'd love to have you in the workshop, so hop over and have a look here.

It's been lovely seeing photos of the first block of "Thoughts in Thread" popping up around blogland.  Here is Melody's:

 and Penny H. sent this (and told me I could share it if I told you not to look too closely!):

Fabulous job, ladies, and I'm amazed that you have already finished them and there are still two weeks to go before block 2 comes out!

Our fruit shop had peaches on sale for a great price again this week (only $1.95 a kg), so, yes, I bought another case and preserved some more.  I have to keep telling myself while I'm on my feet for a couple of hours, peeling skins and slicing peaches,that it's all worth it for the benefits I will gain for the rest of the year!

Hope you have a productive week.

Happy stitching!

Val