Doilies and Damask - Drowning in a Sea of Sweetness

These must surely be the last of the roses - together with some autumn anemones.  You can see the sweet theme which was happening at Shoestring Cottage this weekend!

Perhaps influenced by my recent craving for a white garden, this weekend I disobeyed all my own rules and had to just make one sample block using my stash of damaged doilies and old damask napkins, as an experiment you understand, just to see whether it would be viable to make a whole quilt.  Because they were calling to me, because time is fleeting and we have to follow our urges where using up our stash of treasures is concerned, because they were so pale and pretty.  No, really because it was too tempting and seemed like more fun than dealing to the autumn detritus outdoors.

Four blocks later I had to take myself in hand and stop this indulgent behaviour and get back into the garden.    But there are still plenty of treasures to be put into the Doilies and Damask quilt and my fingers are itching to use them all and get started on the embellishing and embroidery.

I realised at the end of the session that I was saving my favourites and not using them, next time I shall force myself to take the scissors to them and put them to good use in the quilt blocks.  

Of course there was the usual search for the right kind of materials and embellishments.  For starters it seemed some of these ribbons would be useful, not the bright red ones but the pale ricracs and also

some of the pearl and glass buttons which have been hoarded for a rainy day.

By a happy chance the plant given to me by my mum for my birthday is a very unusual white hibiscus with a small but luminous flower.  It has been planted in a suitably luxurious hole with lots of fertiliser. There was also a white form of the "yesterday, today, tomorrow" plant but no flowers to photograph as yet.  

On ripping open the bags of leaves left to compost at the end of last summer there was a rich loam to spread about, though it was interesting to see how much difference it made if they had been in the sun and heat or not.  The bags which had been shaded hadn't yielded such good results.  I will be sure to put them all in a warm sunny spot this time, though it is a bit difficult to find a place where they get lots of sun but aren't too conspicuous in such a small garden.

As an antidote to the sugary sweetness of the doilies I had a bit of a play with the wool block with applique, a completely different feel and look.  But that's another story.