A couple of finishes, another carnival and a pumpkin

Its reveal day for the Monthly Challenge again. This time it was this Christmas design from Gazette 94. I knew I wouldn't get the whole thing finished so I cheated and just used the four letter squares. Just as well when I realised how many beads it used! I had a white organza ribbon with red edges that I ruffled to make the trimming.

This one is by Gentle Pursuit from this years JSC Ornament edition. I used a bundle of precut threads I found that I think must have been left over from a kit, so I don't know what they were. I have remembered now how much I love Bargello.

Finished with a shisha mirror and a bow that came off last years Christmas crackers

Yesterday was Camelford Carnival. This time I managed to get a (not very good) picture of the float all lit up. As you can see from the way the girls are huddled in their shawls it was rather cold and wet!

Naomi got "Best Queen", here she is recieving her trophy from the Camelford Fairy Queen.

I'll leave you with the girls' pumpkin for this years village pumpkin contest. They call this one "They eat their own young".

I really can't imagine where they get it from can you????

A finish, a lovely gift and a spooky book

So I finally finished the September Monthly Challenge from Stitch and Stash. Only 4 weeks late. And can I just say here and now that even though I love how it looks now its finished, I have hated very last stinking rotten stitch of it! The chart gave me migraines, two symbols were so close I couldn't distinguish them and there were so many colour changes I felt like I was stopping and starting more than I was stitching. Still its done now.
I used it to cover the lid of a small box, bravely resisting the urge to make it up into a pincushion, even though I really, really wanted to stick pins in it.

Big pins.
Big sharp pins.

Anway, enough of that. I got this lovely gift in the post from Dusty

I'd sent Dusty some overdyed thread to finish one of my designs because she'd had trouble finding it where she lived, and she sent me this in return. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you Dusty!
(Editted 26/10/10 to include address for Dusty's blog, thanks Clare)

I got some other great post this week as well, I bought myself this wonderfully weird book from Amazon Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead I just love this! The little felties are so gross yet so utterly adorable, there is a classic zombie, a zombie pirate, a zombie bride, zombie vampires, bunnies, kitties and puppies and even a teeny tiny zombie undertaker with bony fingers and a top hat on top of his exposed brains (made from pink sequins). Watch this space for macabre makes from this book, the girls (ghouls?) have already given me a wish list!

Another Carnival and Vintage Pretties

Fun and games for all the family on Saturday, rigging up the float with a generator and lights for Launceston Carnival.
(Eagle eyed readers may notice that this picture was not taken in the dark and the lights aren't on, - it was before the parade - but you can see the disco ball and crystal prisms).
It was a lovely Carnival, and the girls got a 2nd place (you can see the blue certificate on the float).

In the 2nd picture you can see a, well actually I'm not sure what to call it,  picture? embroidery? a something anyway that I made.

I downloaded the wonderful French Haberdashers' receipt image from The Graphics Fairy (if you aren't familiar with this wonderful blog you really need to check it out), printed it out onto cotton photo fabric, then I appliqued it to a piece of linen, embellished it with ric rac, ribbon, and vintage lace and buttons and stretched the whole thing over a frame canvas style. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Huckleberries

According to the seed packet "Huckleberries are delicious in pies, ice cream, jam, jellies and pies". According to the recipes I tracked down on the internet huckleberries are interchangeable for blueberries in recipes.
so....
Naomi lovingly made a batch of Blueberry Huckleberry Muffins and

Huckleberries.
Taste.
Like.
Earwax.

They are absolutely revolting! Beelzebub himself could not have devised a more repulsive fruit.
Its a good job we tried them in the conservatory, which has a stone floor, or I'd be cleaning spat-out-huckleberry stains off my carpet right now.
We fed the rest of the muffins to the birds.
I'm not sure they were too impressed either.

I have since discovered that the garden huckleberry (Solanum melanocerasum), is a completely different species to the wild huckleberry, to which, presumably, the internet recipes refer. Shame they didn't mention that handy little snippet of information on the seed packet.
The Garden Huckleberry is apparently "very sour" and not to be eaten raw. No kidding!
I've got pounds of the evil little beggars in the garden. I am assured that they will indeed make excellent jam, however I seriously doubt my ability to persuade my family to ever try it, or any other new fruit or vegetable for that matter.

On a less sour note I finished my monthly ornament SAL :-

Not so much an early finish for October as a late one for September but a finish is a finish!