Miss Bunny's Late for the Easter Party!

A big hello to all of you - it's been such a long time since I posted but I've been busy trying to catch up, and keep up, with all your lovely interesting posts and hey, that's not easy once you fall behind! And of course there must be time for crafting too, and I'm finding there just aren't enough hours in the day for all I want to do; I figure most of you are faced with the same dilemma! Right? Anyway, now that I seem to have (perhaps temporarily, for you really are a very productive lot!) caught up with all of your news and makings, here I am to share a little bit of what I've been up to!

But first off I want to take this opportunity to let you know how thrilled, touched, honoured and humbled I have felt by all your beautiful messages in response to my previous post! You are all such delightful thoughtful friends and I value each and every one of you most highly; thank you for being in my life and for being so special to me!

Easter has been and gone of course and here in our little town of Denmark, Easter Saturday heralds the time for another 'Market Day', when people fill their stalls with all sorts of crafts and goodies and hoards of people have a great time buying and selling. This year my younger daughter decided to take on a stall which had been booked by a friend who then had to go away, and I joined her there with a few of my projects - mug cosies, washcloths, babies beanies - that sort of thing, while Melissa, who is an artist, hung her paintings, and had gorgeous bags and all sorts of things. We did make a few sales, which was good, but the main thing was taking part in the excitement of the affair and being with like-minded people! Neither Mel nor I had ever done a market stall before so it was a new experience.

Anyway, let me introduce my new friend - I should have had Miss Bunny ready for such an occasion, but didn't, so she's still here gracing our lives and will probably finish up gifted to a sweet little girl somewhere, sometime!

Oh by the way, Miss Bunny was knit up with some of the gorgeous Rowan wool/cotton yarn that I bought whilst in Perth. It's the softest yarn - really luxurious, and such a pleasure to work with, making this little rabbit so soft and cuddly! Now I want more!

Last weekend, without any plan in mind, I mentioned to daughter Mel that if she had any small scraps of fabric that she wouldn't use herself, to not throw them out for they may be useful for my quilting at some stage. Straightaway she gave me a few very interesting pieces and it wasn't until a few days later, on thinking about her upcoming birthday I suddenly thought that she might like to have a table runner made, incorporating some of her own scraps. To cut a long story short, when it was nearly done my Hubby suggested that it should become a wall hanging, so here it is, ready to surprise her as part of her birthday gift!

And close-ups ….. I have used a couple of my own fabric strips in this piece, as well as that used for the reverse side, which you can see in the very last pic …..

I have made table runners again - please don't get bored - and have been enjoying practicing my free-motion-machine-stitching. It's not an easy thing to perfect, in fact I don't expect to ever 'perfect' it, but it is a lot of fun and such a challenge to keep those stitches to an even length all over; I think it'll take me years, but I will keep on keeping on!

The next one I call the Elephant Runner - you may remember this fabric being included in one of the bags I made recently - and it has sold already, so I feel rather flattered!

I know I have made a couple of comments here and there that perhaps I was over Mandalas but really, once we start with these little beauties do we ever break free again? I came across this one in the 'Molly Makes Crochet Book' and couldn't resist it - in the book it's called a doily, and aren't they all glorified doilies anyway for let's face it, doilies have been around for ever! I'm sure someone, or many 'ones' may have shown this one already although I haven't seen it, and anyway, with our individual colour choices, the same pattern can look so different, I'm sure you agree!

A couple of close-ups?

I'd like to mention that I will be linking up with the lovely Hannapat  for her monthly Mandala post which I expect will appear on 1st May or thereabouts, so do pop on over and take a look at her, and other creative folks', lovely examples.

And now just a wee look at the garden from this morning …..

And a closer look at the chives gone to seed - just because I think it very attractive, especially with its promise of new life - eventually!

We've finally had some lovely rain here, and it's been so welcome, but the light has not been the best for some of my pics this time, so for that I apologise - I've done the best I could with them!

Thanks so much for bearing with me to the end! Take good care of yourselves and no doubt we'll all be talking again soon, and I look forward to it!

With my love,

❤Joy xoxo