Frederick the Literate Cross Stitch Project
Hello friends,
I recently began a new cross stitch project, Frederick the Literate, by Dimensions. This cross stitch kit has been a unicorn project of mine for years, but until recently I haven't been able to get hold of a copy of my own. When I usually try to track it down, it's always out of stock in New Zealand.
Luckily one of my sister's found it available on Spotlight's website, and it was on special, so I bought it immediately before it sold out. After waiting for what felt like forever, and dealing with courier issues (who nearly lost it), I cracked the kit open and got started.
The kit contains two of my favorite things, cats and books, so I was especially excited to start stitching, even though the background aida was black in colour...
As typical with Dimensions kits, the thread was on cards, so I used a hole punch to make space for threads in progress. And since Dimensions often use combined threads, I had to come up with a plan to deal with these mixed threads as well.
And this is my progress with Frederick the Literate cross stitch project so far. The books on the top row, in the middle, are in progress. I never do any back stitching on a project until the end, so right now the books are looking pretty blocky. It won't be too long though before I start cross stitching the cat, which I'm excited about.
Luckily this cross stitch project isn't too big, so it won't take too long to complete over the coming months of autumn and winter.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Some of My Favorite Dahlias This Summer Season
Hello friends,
Today I wanted to share with you some of my favorite old and new dahlias for the 2024/2025 summer season that I didn't get a chance to do a dahlia profile on, because life is always crazy busy in the garden over the summer.
First up is Strawberries and Cream, a decorative dahlia I bought on a whim after a couple of dahlia tubers died last spring, and I needed to replace my Cafe Au Lait dahlia. The shades of white and pink are just so pretty and girly, and the flowers have nice long stems, which make them perfect for cutting.
Next we have one of my favorite old dahlias, Protegee, which is a pretty single dahlia bred by Dr Keith Hammett. This dahlia is a bumblebee magnet all summer long, and really stands out in the garden.
Next we have another old favorite, Penhill Dark Monarch, which is a huge dinner plate dahlia with just wonderful shades of purples, pinks, and apricots.
Next we have another new decorative dahlia, Iced Tea, which I've really fallen in love with over this summer. I am quite happily keeping this dahlia for next year, and can't wait to see it with lots of bright peach flowers.
Next up we have one of my first new anemone dahlias, The Phantom. It's pop of bright purple flowers is a great sight to see in the garden over the summer. Unfortunately I planted it in the wrong place, so I'll move it to a better position in winter.
Fenna Baij is another new anemone dahlia, with very pretty light purple and gold shades.
Pink magic is a floriferous waterlily dahlia which brightens the garden all summer. I've really fallen in love with waterlily dahlias this summer, so I think I'll invest in more next season.
I replaced my Cafe Au Lait dahlia this season, after the old dahlia tuber rotted last spring in October. I replaced it, and this dahlia has the purple-tinged shades my previous dahlia didn't have. I'm very happy about this, and will be moving this dahlia to a better position over the winter.
Next we have Silver Years, which is a mostly white decorative dahlia with pink vein striping, and a cream center. I really like this dahlia as a pop of white in the garden, and am quite happy to keep it for next year.
Dutch Pearl is another new waterlily dahlia, and it really is stunning next to my Little Miss Perfect rose. I can see why this dahlia is very popular in dahlia circles right now.
Next there is my new Cafe Au Lait Royal dahlia, another dinner plate dahlia to add to the Cafe Au Lait dahlia family. The light pink colours and striping are just stunning. I need to find a better way to stake the plant though, the flower heads are huge, and the dahlia has some trouble holding them up.
And finally we have another new dahlia, Pinky Swear, which is another large dinner plate dahlia, and the striped pink shades, along with yellow are just florescent. I'm very happy to have this dahlia in a darker part of my garden.
I'm just so pleased to have so many beautiful old and new dahlias flowering this summer, and hope to have some more new ones next season...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Gotland Fleece Project - Scouring, Washing, and Storing
Hello friends,
Back in April 2023 my husband and I went on a road trip to the Mackenzie country to celebrate our wedding anniversary. On the way home we stopped off at The Oamaru Textile Emporium (TOTE) to do a little crafting shopping. I'd been eyeing up their raw fleeces online, and spent some time in the store when I got there, going through all the raw fleeces they had available until I found the one I'd been looking for.
I've wanted to process and spin a Gotland sheep fleece for a while, and they had this beautiful chocolate grey fleece in the store. It came home with us, making the whole car smell quite sheepy as we traveled back to Dunedin...
When we got it home, I took the fleece out of it's plastic bag, and laid it out to see exactly what I had bought.
Back when I lived in Wellington I belonged to Creative Fibre New Zealand, and was an active member of the Tawa Fibrecrafts group. One of the many benefits of belonging to Creative Fibre NZ is taking part in one of their many courses, including one I attended on choosing raw fleeces, sorting them, and processing them.
I was very happy with the fleece when I laid it out, there were no second cuts, the fleece was in great condition, and all the unspinnable parts of the fleece had already been removed for me.
I invested in two books, The Spinner's Book of Fleece by Beth Smith, and Camaj Fibre Art's The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair, and Alpaca by Mary Egbert. These two books told me everything I needed to know about scouring and washing gotland fleece. Recently, now in 2025, I decided to scour and wash the Gotland fleece using Unicorn Fiber Power Scour, which is a wonderful detergent for scouring and washing unwashed fleeces. It's very gentle, but also removes all the dirt and lanolin from a fleece.
Filling a 6L tub with 60˚C water from out of our laundry room tap, I mixed in the calculated amount of Unicorn Scour Power mentioned on the bottle, and added the Gotland fleece which I'd put into laundry bags, and left each bag one at a time to gently soak in the scouring mix for 15 minutes.
As you can see from the photos, the scouring water turned a very muddy brown during the process, as the dirt and lanolin was removed from the fleece.
At the end of 15 minutes I lifted the laundry bag full of fleece out of the dirty water, and very gently squeezed out all the excess liquid. I then rinsed out the plastic tub to remove all the dirt and liquid, and then filled the tub back up with clean, hot water. I put the laundry bag back into the tub to rinse out the fleece for a minute with gentle swishing, to help remove even more dirt and lanolin from the fleece. At the end of this, I lifted out the laundry bag, removed the clean fleece, and then spun it in a hand-cranked salad spinner until it was as dry as it could be. From there, the fleece was placed in plastic containers which had good ventilation holes, they were laid out in the sun over the next couple of days until the fleece was dry.
Once dried, I placed most of the Gotland fleece into a brown paper shopping bag, and put it away in storage.
I flick carded a small sample of Gotland fleece remaining, so I could check the quality, and as you can see, the resulting clean fleece has a beautiful crimp, and the colour is a dark smoky grey/brown colour.
The handle is very soft, and over the coming months, I'll slowly flick card and then spin up some Gotland fleece singles. From the resulting yarn, I think I'll make a cozy winter jersey.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Floret Zinnias
Hello friends,
I just thought I'd share with you how my Floret zinnia plants have fared over the summer, and all the flowers that have been produced from the various varieties.
This is how the zinnias looked like when I planted them out in the garden in late October 2024. I sowed Floret Dawn Creek blush, Floret Precious Metals, and also Floret Unicorn Mix zinnias that I bought from Emerden Flower Farm back in August 2024. I had 100% sowing success from all the zinnia seeds.
First up we have the Dawn Creek Blush Zinnias:
There's a mix of creams, buttery yellows, and pinky blush tones, they are really beautiful and understated.
Next we have Floret Precious Metals:
The Floret Precious metals, are more pink and purple toned, and when the flowers get older, there is a cool metal sheen on them.
And lastly we have the Floret Unicorn Mix:
The colours for the Unicorn mix are much more bright pinks and yellows and lime greens, and they really stand out in the garden.
All in all, I'm really loving all the varieties that Floret and Dawn Creek have developed. The seeds were super expensive, but the uniqueness of the flowers are worth it in my opinion. I still have some seeds left over for next year, and I plan to seed save from the zinnia varieties when autumn starts in March (on Saturday). If more Floret zinnia seeds become available from Emerden in spring, I plan to pick up a couple more seed packets to increase my seed stash of these beautiful flowers.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Sewing Reusable Birthday Present Gift Bags
Hello friends,
Recently I finally got around to sewing some reusable birthday present gift bags.
A couple of years ago I made a big bunch of reusable bags for wrapping Christmas presents, so that there was no longer a deluge of wrapping paper every Christmas day. I've been meaning to do the same with reusable birthday present gift bags, but I was being lazy, and I hadn't found the perfect fabric for the project.
About two months ago I found this birthday fabric at Spotlight, and brought 1 m to make some bags. I also bought some Homespun white cotton fabric to line the bags on the inside. I have a bunch of ribbons in a box at home, so I just delved into it until I found the perfect ribbon to tie up the bags.
I have a reusable gift bag set pattern I use for work at my online textile store, Hearth & Oak, so I used that to quickly whip up three birthday gift bags.
I'm really pleased with how the birthday gift bags have turned out, they look really pretty, and they will be used for birthdays for years to come. And now I no longer have to scramble around searching for appropriate birthday present wrapping paper to wrap birthday presents for family, when I can just pop them into a bag and be done with it.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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