Tales of baby birds and bunnies!

My Oxford dictionary tells me that a "tale" is a 'narrative or story, report of alleged fact' and Mr Google tells me it is "a fictitious or true narrative story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted"....I think I prefer the latter! The problem is I am telling the story second-hand and if only you could have heard it first-hand from Roslyn and it is not fictitious! It all started when I posted (yes I am trusting the postal system once again for the moment!). Anyway I needed to send some of my work interstate to promote some workshops that I will be doing for Illawarra Quilters in March this year. Said pieces of work were taken from Roslyn's home to a committee member where they could discuss how the pieces would be displayed. Well one little baby bird decided it wanted to flee the nest and have an adventure seeing it was so far from home.......

When Roslyn got home after the meeting she discovered one of those little chicks was missing from the nest....so she was on the phone immediately to check if the owner's cat might be suffering from an extra large fur ball! This appeared to not be the case and it wasn't until 2 weeks later after heavy rainfalls, joy rides in the gutter, muddy leaves, cats and dogs sniffing etc, etc that this dear little chick was discovered.......he/she is now back in the nest all fluffy and dry and maybe just one shade paler than his sibling......

Moral to the story is that I should have stitched said bird in its nest but what a lovely "tale" it was! So while we are talking of tales this brings me to the bunny tale and several different bunny tails........

 Yes I have been at it again!! After some prompting Larry did suggest that perhaps version five of Peter Rabbit looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a mouse....and he said it so nicely too! So back to the drawing board and this time making a head with a gusset. I take my hat off to soft toy designers.....I could have designed at least five new quilts for the amount of time I have spent on these jolly rabbits! I am still not brave enough to embroider a nose or mouth or even attach whiskers.......but this is now version seven!!

 I also spent hours knitting three little jackets in different ply wool and they were all binned! I even bought a couple of vintage PDF patterns online but one didn't make any sense to me. Even darling Dot in Victoria had a go and was also despairing with her result.......the problem of being a 4 inch bunny I suspect!...

So it was back to the wool felt (and I think this might be some of your beautiful hand dyed wool Penny??). The rabbits have certainly come a long way from the original versions.........

 And now I can definitely see a kangaroo or maybe a mouse with very big ears....now there's another tale I could tell!.......

 So the past versions are all in bag where they can tell each other a 'tale' or two including the tragedy of witnessing one of their brothers having his head cut off!.........

 So back to being serious. Tonight I've prepared the appliqué for the Potter wedding quilt which will one day be living on Beatrix's bed at Hill Top. I am still so thrilled that it will be cared for there for future generations - so much better than on a shelf in my walk in wardrobe!. As soon as I had attached the initials and date I immediately felt that the quilt was no longer mine........so the wedding dates and initials of Beatrix's parents are all ready to be stitched....... 

 And this is my version beside the original quilt image belonging to the National Trust.......

It has been good weather to be inside stitching under the air-conditioning as outside Adelaide recorded 40C yesterday and 41C today (about 104-105F). It was a few degrees cooler where we live and before the heat hit us the garden was showing the second flush of roses.......

 Larry and I are continually amazed at how well the garden we planted has thrived from looking like this 3 years ago when we moved in.........

 to this today..........well a few days ago as some of the roses are now scorched from the heat.........

I wanted to share some photos I received today from Sherryn in New Zealand with two of my quilt designs that she has completed all ready and waiting to be quilted. I love her choice of colours and I know this would have been many months of stitching. well done Sherryn and thanks for letting me share your lovely work........

 On a final note; there are now 89 expression of interest email addresses in the data base for the Morris events in Adelaide (and some of those addresses are for groups coming!!). So in the next few weeks you will receive a request to compete an online survey. Sophie our younger daughter is developing all this for us and we thought it a good idea to find out exactly what people would like to see, apart from the mandatory William and May Morris sights of course! So till next time take good care x