The Great Plate Wall - Onwards and Upwards

We have been away from Shoestring Cottage for the last couple of weekends for family parties and a flying visit to Sydney.  (Sydney wasvery exciting, and surprisingly good op shops, you will be pleased to learn.  I found three hats to wear to next Art Deco weekend at a fabulous Vinnies, and a duvet cover to use to back a quilt.  The harbour and museum, botanic garden, Hyde Park, all were beautiful.  I think the fact that the weather was brilliantly warm and sunny made a big difference.) But it was wonderful to be back again this weekend and see definite signs of spring.  Today was a perfect day for a spot of spring cleaning, but of course good to get out into the garden for a bit too.  

 The spring bulbs are all putting on a good show and the violets, white purple and pink ones, are finally playing their part and rewarding us with a good crop of flowers. 

While roaming around poking at things I was pleased to find an old bird's nest which was entirely composed of the coconut fibres from my hanging baskets.  I used to be very cross when I saw the birds pulling the basket liners to pieces but now I'm happy to see that they put them to a constructive use at least, and weren't just ripping them apart for the pleasure of it.  

I was so fired up with enthusiasm following the completion of the last "quilt as you go" quilt that I decided to finish this one also, which uses the same technique and which I also foolishly decided at the last minute to make into a reversible one, pink and yellow on one side and pink and blue on the other.  Originally it was going to be only pink and blue but it seemed like a good way of using up a lot of left over yellow fabrics.  These things always seem like a good idea at the time, but then as the project drags on and you would like to be turning your attention to other things, you tend to wonder what possessed you to embrace that idea.  Anyway, I am enjoying making this one and it is taking shape quickly.  It's a bit of a pleasant change after the more sombre terra cotta and green shades of the last one.  

Also I am determined to finish this grandmother's garden type of quilt which I must have started a good 15 years ago.  I took it to Australia with me but of course was stopped by customs, who for some reason always take exception to my scissors.  Last time I went away they found an enormous pair of kitchen scissors in the side pocket of my suitcase which I had forgotten were there.  This time I though I had outfoxed them by packing only a pair of blunt nosed children's scissors, but somehow I had left two small sharp bladded embroidery scissors in there also.  One day I will get it right.  I think I am in their books as a repeat offender because sometimes when they get to my luggage they go off somewhere else for a few minutes, probably to confer as to whether I really have terrorist intentions or are just a bit dim.  Not the sharpest pair of scissors in the embroidery shop.  Anyway, once we got past the difficulties with border control I made huge progress on this one, so it was well worth the angst, even though Customs may not agree.

While scratching through my sewing room looking for the bits and pieces I needed to carry on with these quilts I was pleased to unearth this  rather odd looking piece of grey felt which I was covering with spidery embroideries, to use up old cottons.  Whenever I come across it, it makes me smile with its cheerful random jumble of colours and I really must get past the quilts one day soon and move onto finishing off some of the embroideries I have kicking about.  I think it would make a useful bag, perhaps to carry other embroidery projects about in.  I tend to leave them lying in the bottom of Mr Shoestrings car and they would be a lot better if they were contained tidily; then I wouldn't spend the first five minutes of each journey cursing and muttering to myself while I try to locate yet another pair of scissors.  (Where do they all go, I wonder?  I hate to think how many I have bought in my life so far.  Sometimes they turn up at the bottom of sofas but more often they just seem to dematerialise.  I am particularly partial to the ones which look like a stork bird, and I probably keep the people who make those ones gainfully employed, single handedly.)

 After a drought on the flower front it was good to finally be able to have a well filled vase instead of the rather paltry arrangements of recent months.  I am liking this jug because of its cheerful mix of colour and of course the fact that the flower pattern is made up from a cross stitch design makes it all the more fetching. I have to confess though that I have resorted to using that horrible veiny leaf to flesh things out because flowers still aren't that abundant.  So funny that I always try to eradicate it from the garden but in the end I have had to just give in and try to think of a use for it. 

Mr Shoestring has been very obliging this weekend and put up another 15 plates on the back wall.  He stood back in satisfaction and told me there must be 15 new ones up there, because he had counted out 15 hooks before he started.  I think he was crestfallen when he realised that there were a whole lot he had overlooked, and that his task is not yet complete.  I am still having a lot of difficulty in finding larger, dinner sized plates to put up, because they are always more expensive, but  the thrill of the chase is as wonderful as ever and my dear friends and sister have been very generous with donations too.