I have been asked to teach a young girl how to crochet. So I gave her her first lesson last week, beginning with chain stitch, and practicing handling the hook & pulling the loops through. G progressed quite quickly and was making double crochets, trebles, double trebles & slip stitches by the end of our time together. G wants to make hearts, so my brain started ticking over how to create the shape. I suggested that she look on the net for patterns before our next session. I had a look myself, and there are heaps of patterns out there, all different. So I picked one & tried to sort out the pattern. Of course, it was written by an American, therefore I had to substitute stitches for it to make sense. At the end, the pattern was what I had in mind anyway. The finished heart was supposed to be decorated with a flower, flowers that my Mum used to crochet nearly every day. So these little flowers are not new to me, they are in heaps of old crochet books of my Mum's, all of which I still have. I think I can do much better than this thread though. I'll have to go on a seach in my stash to look for something better.
The second one is something on the slightly creative side to find out how things would look if I changed the numbers of the threads that I cut. Mmmmm............. possibilities are going through my brain. All four designs are still not cut from fabric. They are all waiting patiently to be made into something.
Look what arrived in this morning's post. I have been participating in a counted thread band round robin and Mandy's sampler has found it's way to Australia. It's been over 6 months since I had a sampler to work on, but that is OK as I had plenty of other stitching to keep me busy. 
At my local lace group some months back, one of our members asked me if I could teach her how to do "that". "That" being a corner in a beautiful drawn thread tablecloth, pictured in a magazine that someone had brought for show & tell. No, not the whole piece, just the corner, as a brooch. Of couse I could. So with some thinking, we organized what had to be brought for the following meeting so that we could make a start. Come the next meeting, both of us forgot things, and of course we did not have the magazine anymore, so I rummaged in my bag & found pencil & graph paper & quickly sketched up a design. There were scraps of fabric in my bag, as was some thread, so we went to work. So the above little square is the result, really too big to be a brooch, but that really depends on taste. It is yet to be cut from fabric, & I think it will still become a brooch or bag clip or some such item. As far as a design for a corner, it really is not strong enough to be a corner design in a table cloth. Worked on even weave linen with my own hand dyed threads.
I did have plans for doing three of these little squares, all in differnt colours, but by the time I did the pink one, I wanted a different design. The problem that I had was that the border stitching had already been done on the others, so I was left with a limited space with wich to work. So I just filled in the spaces with laid threads, coral knots & woven wheels. I quite like the effect, and feel it could be a very interesting filler on something.
The third colour is yet to be worked. The ouside border is done but I have to think of something to put on the inside yet. That's tonight's plan.
Over in my side bar I have a list of blogs that I visit every day to see what people have been up to. This morning I noticed over on Carol's blog that I had been given this award. So big thanks go out. I feel really chuffed at recieving it, so to continue the spirit, here are the five people that I would like to pass this award on to.
Each year at this time of year I like to set myself some new challenges for the following year. Sometimes I achieve them & sometimes I don't, but at least it gives me something to aim for. Usually I give myself too many challenges & that would be the main reason why I do not achieve what I set out to do. The list that I set myself for this year was a perfect example of that, way too many large projects. So my list for 2009 reads like this.
I just had to share this gorgeous piece of work with you all. Recently I have been away, and as I always do, I went looking through antique & bric-a-brack stores. I never know just what I might find. I just love to go through the piles of doileys that these shops seem to have, & on one particular day I could not believe my luck to find this for a bargain. It is all buttonhole stitch & wrapping in what I believe to be the Aemilia Arys style. Just beautiful! I have no idea as to the origins of this piece, or who has made it, but it is now mine & I will treasure it while ever I walk this earth. I take it that some very talented lady has passed on, & her family have been left to sort through her things. Such a shame that they have not appreciated the time & effort that has gone into making this piece. I am such a lucky little vegimite!
It certainly has been a while since I have posted anything here. It's not that I haven't been stitching, because as you all know I stitch just about every day. I have just been busy with real life stuff and playing with my garden. 
