Anyone feel like sharing what I have?

Because I don't want it......don't know what it is, could be a cold, could be something else that makes me feel crook and saps my energy......but I really don't want it.

Never mind.  This too shall pass.

This week's weather hasn't been quite so fiercely hot, thank goodness.  January.....the less said the better, apparently it was the hottest January ever recorded.  Daytime maximum temperatures were 5.4 deg C over the long term average, and night time temps were 4.4 deg C over the average.  No wonder it was so nasty.  Actually, knowing that it really was hot makes me feel better, because then I know it wasn't just me being a grumpy old woman having a whinge - there was something to complain about.

Moving right along.

The large pin cushion mentioned last week is finished, done, but not photographed.  One more ticked off the list.  The charity challenge quilt is pinned ready to be quilted, for which I need orange thread - don't think one small spool will be enough, so that means a trip to Spotties.   Once that is done and out of my sewing room - with much relief - I can get back to my own projects.

Selfish as it may sound I have decided that I don't care about making charity quilts, I would much rather work on my projects.  The local quilt group has one or two members who churn out huge numbers of quilts for Ronald McDonald House as if there is no tomorrow, and a few members who make a (much) smaller number.  At my age not knowing how many years I have left to me.....not being morbid, just curious, after all I am on the downhill side of 70.....I would rather spend that time on my own Stuff.  The churners justify it by saying "I don't need any more quilts myself but I like to make them" - well, darling, that's fine.  You can do that.  Just don't force me the guilts on me to do the same because it won't work.

These are the embroidered Aussie flowers on the hanging made to go to Canada.

 All embroidered with one strand of DMC floss, the first was started with two strands but it was much too chunky.

 When these pics were taken they had not been trimmed down and pressed.....they looked more finished afterwards!

 The original pattern was for redwork but I like the look of old botanical etchings, that was the look I was going for.

 Or old sepia-toned photographs.

Back in the late 1990s-early 2000s two Queensland women started Oz Dye-Art to sell their own patterns and their own hand-dyed and printed fabrics.  The company lasted for several years until one moved interstate; however those of us who have those patterns still treasure them and use them, because they are Australian flora and fauna.  Not pretty flowers from overseas, not cute little animals which don't live here....they are all Australian, something which was quite difficult to find at the time.

My 1886 etiquette devotes a whole chapter to "The Language of Flowers" but even though it's revised for the Australasian colonies (of, I suspect, an American original) no Aussie flowers make the list.  Pity.....I would love to know what emotions the waratah and red flowering gum stood for!

"Bring one of the commonest field flowers into a room, place it on a table, or chimney piece, and you seem to have brought a ray of sunshine into the place.  There is a cheerfulness about flowers.  What a delight are they to the drooping invalid!  They are a sweet enjoyment, coming as messengers from the country, and seeming to say "Come and see the place where we grow, and let your heart be glad in our presence."

Indeed.

Enjoy your days!