heavens to bettsy

Last Day in January - something finished!

2012-01-31T14:26:00.001+10:00

One of the lovely things about keeping a blog is that you can put dates to events and remember when things happen. However... there is an embarrassing side as well. I found the first post I made about this project back in December 2007. There is another one a little bit later and then a third one in January 2008. In that one I said I wasn't going to put it away because it won't get finished. Well guess what? It didn't ....until today. I put the last stitch in today. And here is my version of Trees on the Table, designed by Marcie of Patchalot Patterns. You can find the pattern and a gallery here. The lovely thing about this pattern is that it has a variety of different borders. It is just lovely and I am cross with myself for leaving it so long.

I also want to issue a warning about leaving things so long as well. I made the top back then and misplaced it for a while. Then I found it, sandwiched it and did a bit of quilting on it, probably about a year ago although it could be longer. When I got it out to finish I found that there must have been some damp and some of the pins I had left in there ( yes, I know we are told not to do that) looked like this.......

They were hard to remove and one or two just broke when I tried to get them out. In most spots it is okay but there is one which is a problem. These holes are not made by the pin but the corrosion from the pin has eaten the fabric.

So I hope this is giving you a little bit of incentive to get things finished. Not only do you prevent bad things happening over time but you also get to actually use them ( I would have loved to have used this last Christmas).

And finishing also gives a sense of achievment - now I feel all fired up to finish some more of my older projects.

My lovely little wallet...

2012-01-15T22:00:00.001+10:00

I apologise to Stacy about the lateness of this blog entry. Before Christmas I won this lovely Little Wallet and pattern (by Valori Wells) from a giveaway on the Circle Retreat Quilter blog. I love that there was not only the pattern but a beautifully made example as well. How lovely is that?

Stacy owns the Circle Retreat in Buderim ( to the north of where I am) and it looks perfect for some time away. Now I just have to find some.... time,that is.......

Camping by the river....

2012-01-08T12:30:00.000+10:00

After packing up our camp in the bush we set off further south to Yamba which is on the mouth of the Clarence River. This time we were at a caravan park where the children could spend hours at the provided water park and giant jumping pillow ( meant to take a photo of that).

We had a view of the Clarence River

And a good space to play cricket.

And a perfect place to go kayaking.

There was still no stitching going on but I did find some places to go shopping. So much for trying to keep the spending down in 2012.

Camping by the creek...( no stitching content at all)

2012-01-08T12:11:00.000+10:00

In the past post I mentioned that we were going camping. For the first two days of the year we were at Stinson Park at Christmas Creek.

It really is a beautiful place and the creek is so much fun for the kids.

The next photo is looking up the creek to the edges of Lamington National Park and the rugged area you can walk to go to find the Stinson Wreck. Some of the family did a tiny bit of the walk ( it certainly isn't a walk for anybody who isn't experienced at bushwalking).

Now doesn't this look fun?

and here's how my daughter chose to spend her time.

Lucky her.... I took stitching and a book ...... and nothing saw the light of day except when we needed a pair of scissors.

Hopefully I can achieve more now that we are home.

SSCS and 2012...

2012-01-01T01:18:00.003+10:00

Happy New Year! Here's a wish that 2012 brings you everything you hope for.

My eyelids are drooping as it is now New Year's Day where I live. I should be in bed but I need to post this because we are going camping for the next four days and I won't really have internet access. (I might try again with my phone though).

The photo below shows what I received from Gracie in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap. The main present was a cushion with a beautifully stitched cactus on it from Arizona. Now I've seen this type of cactus in real life and I don't think I would want to decorate one of them, so this must surely be the next best thing. There were some useful things as well - some needles and cottons, some pretty tissues and a chocolate Santa which of course is very necessary.

At the back of the picture you can see a pretty shopping bag - I think Gracie must have been stalking me as I remember saying that I liked shopping bags a few months ago. Thank you so much, Gracie. I loved everything you sent.

And talking of bags, here is what I sent to Ulla. I fell in love with this bag pattern when I bought it back in March from Anni Downs. When I cut this one out I cut out a second set of strips so I can make one for myself. Ulla likes knitting and I thought it might be a great bag to hold whatever she is working on.

I sent a few extra little goodies as well.

Thank you to Gracie for your gifts and thank you to Chookyblue for running the swap for another year. Check out her blog ( if you haven't already) and see all the wonderful gifts which were travelling around the world.

Summer and Winter...

2011-12-13T14:08:00.000+10:00

My Secret Santa Christmas Swap parcel has arrived over at Ulla's house safely and she has been able to open the decorations I made. ( The pattern is Mini Merry Stockings from The Birdhouse)

Here's the photo I took before I sent them - hanging on a bright green tree in my garden. Very Summery!

And I borrowed this photo from Ulla's blog showing them hanging in a very different tree. Having only seen snow four times in my life I can only imagine what it would be like to have Christmas in Winter.

Tahks you Ulla for putting this on your blog - I have just loved seeing it.

Stitching by the pool...

2011-12-12T08:38:00.002+10:00

For the next week (and maybe more) I will be spending two hours a day at the pool with Colly doing some swimming training.

I've picked a project to work on - it's actually one I was working on waiting at piano lessons. I wonder how far I will progress this week?

I am also trying blogging from my phone. I am not sure how the picture placement will work out. But anything is worth trying.

Edited to add the name of the design. It is Rosalie Quinlan's Christmas Treasures Wreath.

SSCS

2011-12-11T13:38:00.000+10:00

My parcel has arrived from a faraway place but there is no place to put it yet as we haven't done any Christmas decorating yet. The school holidays have just started so I am sure something will happen in the next few days. But until then I will just have to keep my parcel safe.

And here is my ornament which I was allowed to open. As there is no tree yet I went to the garden to photograph it. We've had a bit of rain lately so there are some raindrops in the photo. Isn't it pretty? I can't wait to put it on my tree with the ornaments from past years.

Giveaway Draw

2011-10-31T13:10:00.001+10:00

The draw has been done - I just found it was too hard to fight with the kids for the computer on the weekend to post before today.

Here is my Trusty Helper...all ready to go...

The first name is out....

And the people who will be receiving the giggle buttons are

Debra

and Lois.

I'll be contacting you to let you know and to get your addresses.

I just wish I had enough for everyone who commented. Thanks for visiting.

A little giveaway...

2011-10-22T18:29:00.002+10:00

Have you visited Red Brolly lately and seen the free Christmas sampler she has on offer. There is a bigger photo here of the finished item.

Cute, isn't it?

Did you notice the two Giggle Buttons included in the stitchery?

My plan when I went to the Craft Show was to buy a set of buttons for myself and also one set as a giveaway. I mentioned it to the lovely Kez and she gave me a set to use for the giveaway. How fabulous is that? I decided that I would still buy a set to give away and so now I have two sets to share with two lovely blog readers.

Just leave a comment before next Friday night Australian time and I will announce the results on Saturday next week. It couldn't be easier.

Thanks to the wonderful Kez and Dan from Giggle Buttons for the opportunity to do this.

And here are the buttons. Aren't they sweet ?

Good luck!

I am happy to post worldwide.

Craft show...

2011-10-21T22:41:00.001+10:00

On Wednesday Kayly and I went to the Stitches and craft Show ( Brisbane). We had a long day and when I went to visit Kayly today it seems that she might just be spreading rumours about me being a shopoholic. She says I was still shopping at closing time. Aren't friends supposed to support you and keep your secrets? To be fair, I was still shopping at closing time but that was because I had just found some felted wool pieces I wanted. I actually achieved what I wanted at the show - I got a pet mesh bag kit which I wanted to make for summer. Of course there was the felted wool and a pattern from The Birdhouse for making a pincushion. I did get some small kits which I haven't shown because they are for secret gifties - and that was also something I had planned to look out for.

Interestingly a large pile of fat quarters jumped into my hands near the end of the day as well - I just liked them and they are the sort of fabric I like to use for smaller projects - bags, purses and sewing accessories.
We did go and have a good look at the Queensland Quilters show which was packed with beautiful quilts, giving us lots of ideas. If you have the time check it out - although the photographs don't look nearly as good as the real thing.
The next two pictures ( taken with permission) are of part of the stand from Giggle Buttons. They are working with Red Brolly as well so the display was very impressive. I also had a chat with Joy here - we always seem to find each other at Craft shows.

Come back and visit me tomorrow as I am going to talk about a little something I bought at the show and will be sharing.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap (2)

2011-10-18T19:58:00.000+10:00

I guess I should show the things I made for Lida. I feel a bit silly because when I photographed them before I wrapped them I only took photos of the things I made - but not of everything else. You might have to visit this post of Lida's to see the other things I sent. Lida normally writes in Dutch but she has provided some English as well on this post which is nice.

F = Four Fat Quarters

R= Ribbons

I = Images ( Calendar of Queensland)

E = Embroidery Threads ( some of my favourite Cottage Garden Threads)

N = Needle Book ( and Needles) - a design by Rosalie Quinlan

D= Drawstring Bag

S = Stork Scissors and Scissor case.

The Something Extra parcel contained a Humbug Bag - Lida had admired them on my blog and so I included one for her.

I hope you enjoy everything Lida. It was fun making things for you !

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap

2011-10-18T19:39:00.000+10:00

I am catching up a bit with things I want to post. This post is about the F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap run by Khris of Sew Prim Khris. The idea was to send things which start with the letters in the word FRIENDS.

I had just arrived home from retreat ( that's still another story to come) and the parcel was waiting for me - of course I ripped it open straight away.Well, I did say hello to my family first....

My swap partner was Lida from The Netherlands, which is why this parcel is full of lovely blue and white goodies. The photos aren't the best because I took them at night as soon as I opened them. You might like to look at better ones on Lida's blog at this post.

The card with the clogs had all the items written down so using Lida's words here what I received.

F = for Feathered Friends and Flowers! ( A lovely panel)

R= for Ribbons in Blue and Green ( My favourite colours)

I = for in a book very handy!

E= for Empty but you may fill it yourself ! ( a fabric covered heart box)

N= for Needles and Pins! ( Beautiful!)

D = Dutch Shopping bag! (How did she know I love shopping bags!)

S= for Snowy Cushion Cover! ( I can't wait to use this for Christmas)

Thank you so much Lida for all the lovely beautiful things - I love them all!

Good and bad....

2011-10-16T15:19:00.000+10:00

The good is that my Tis The Season Quilt is finished. I posted the top a few posts ago but now it is quilted and bound, and I am really happy with it. I love the stripey border and binding and the little touch of gold it brings to the colours, as well as pulling all the other colours together.

Here's a close up of one of the corners. I mainly did stitching in the ditch but added two little rows in the outer border.

You can see more finished quilts here

Now for the bad....

Yesterday I was travelling home along one of our major highways and it started hailing. I pulled over to the side of the road and waited it out with my three passengers. The hail stones were the size of golfballs and the noise in the car was loud. But being the true blogger I am ( smile) I took out my camera and took some photos. This is looking out the front of the windscreen with the hail on the wipers.

And this ordinary photo shows the road after the hail had stopped - This is a three lane highway ( in one direction) and it was just covered in ice.

The bad news is that there are dents in the car - we haven't really assessed what we will do about it yet.

It is just one of those things.

Going on retreat...

2011-10-02T22:17:00.000+10:00

I'm going away for a few days on a retreat here. I am not taking my computer so you won't hear from me. However I am taking waaaay too many projects and hopefully I will finish at least one thing.

And what does the photo have to do with this......nothing. I just found it in my photos and is what I found one morning when I opened a new container of margarine. I peeled the paper off the top and obviously there had been some air bubbles.It cheered up my day.

Activity happening...

2011-10-01T12:12:00.000+10:00

Over on the Stitch-A-Long Blog there has been a hive of activity with lots of people finishing their quilt by the deadline of the end of September. ( It was a nice deadline - nobody is getting into trouble. It is just nice to have a goal.) I'm afraid I didn't get my whole quilt finished, as in quilted and bound but I did get my top finished before midnight of the last day. The fabric I used was Moda Adoring by Sandy Gervais and I stitched the blocks using lovely Cottage Garden Threads in the colour Plum Pudding.

I added and extra border to the pattern as I found that the light border I had chosen was too similar to some of the blocks. The simplest solution seemed to be to add the stripe ( which I am hoping will look good for the binding as well). It seems to pull the colours together nicely so I am happy with it.

It has been a lovely project to work on and I send my congratulations to everyone who has been working hard.

The Tis the Season quilt is designed by Natalie Bird from the Birdhouse.

P.S. Yes, Chooky, I will be going back to working on my Gardener's Journal now.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap

2011-09-30T11:13:00.001+10:00

This year I participated for the first time in Khris's F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap.

Here are the packages I sent to my partner in The Netherlands. At first I had trouble thinking of something for each letter ( the idea is to have an item for each letter in the word friends)

In the end I had a lot of fun making things and packaging them up. But one of the nicest ( but maybe silliest) things was the pleasure I had in finding this ribbon which was just right for the tags. How perfect is that ?

As the sun set...

2011-09-23T13:41:00.000+10:00

As the sun set on another day in hazy Queensland I made a decision that I needed to follow advice from Flylady - You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are.

Sounds like good advice for a blog too. So here I am - not worrying about all the posts I should have posted in the past weeks but jumping in right where I am today. Hopefully I can catch up on some of the things I have been doing.

Two weeks ago our school had a fete - so a friend and I made up some Humbug bags for the craft stall.

And my son's class was in charge of the Decorate Your own Cake Stall.

After a morning of cooking patty cakes I don't know if I feel like cooking cakes for a long time. Considering we only have a small school it seems that our fete did reasonably well. And with the added attraction of a circus we had a fun day.

getting back into things....

2011-07-01T18:24:00.000+10:00

I've been away from my blog for a while, as well as having a quick trip from home. Can you guess where I went? There are some clues on other blogs but here's another one.... It's part of the skyline of Sydney with my son's favourite animal at Taronga Park Zoo. ( I think giraffes might be one of my favourites as well)

Our holiday started out just being a trip for me to go to the Craft Fair in Sydney but somehow it ended up being a family holiday as well with general sight seeing.

I had a great time meeting up with lots of friends I have met through blogging and also from my trips to Nundle the past three years. We had a meet up during the day and some of us who were staying overnight went out for dinner. It was such good fun.
Here we are at dinner - Lyn, Maree, Alison, Sandy,Leah, Chookyblue and Anita.( Check our what they got up to at the show.)You can see more bloggy friends on Chookyblue's blog. I didn't have my camera with me at the show itself so I missed photos while I was there.

Keeping in mind that I had to travel home by plane with a luggage allowance I had to be careful with what I bought. ( of course it has nothing to do with the amount of money I spent.) One thing I like to do when I go to a craft show is make a little something at the workshops. This time I went to one by Marg Low where we made the little Birdie Trinket. We got most of it done at the show - I finished the last little bit of stitching when I got home. It's really cute and Marg had done a fantastic job of putting the kits together - there was everything we needed. I also got two other of Marg's patterns/kits and can't wait to make those up. I also got some books and patterns. Of course the books had to be signed. I had fun at Anni Downs' stall - she had a lovely display and I also got some of the felt fabric packs so that I will actually get around to finishing some of the patterns I have previously bought.

And there were othe little things too - some more hexagons for my hexagon quilt, some Japanese purse kits and some socks to make some sock monkeys from. At the time of the bloggers meet up I had only bought two fat quarters - but I made up for it later on.

It was lots of fun. Will I go again next year? I don't know yet but it would be great if I could.

camping...

2011-07-01T18:12:00.001+10:00

About a month ago we went camping at Neurum Creek http://www.ncbr.com.au/ and even though we have only just got back from another trip away we are going away this weekend. Here are some pictures from our last trip.

I am having trouble posting another post about our trip to Sydney but it doesn't seem to be working. So I am trying with this post to see if I can get it to work.

Edit : Got it working so you should see the Sydney as the next post. Yay!

Hexagons...

2011-04-13T15:50:00.004+10:00

I've caught the hexagon bug. I've also joined the Vignette Hexagon Quilt blog which is following the making of the quilt in Leanne Beasley's second issue of her magazine Vignette. I've started using a Moda Scrap Bag of City Weekend. I don't know how many hexagons I'll get but it is fun to just make them. I've done eight since I started last Saturday...

School holidays start here in Queensland on Friday so who knows what I will get done for the rest of the month.

Slow blogging...

2011-04-07T14:36:00.006+10:00

Somehow I make mountains out of molehills when it comes to blogging. Like other areas in my life I think too much about the preparation and end up getting nothing done at all. So this is a quick post to get the ball rolling again, and a resolve not to think too much - and just get on with it. Here's the first three blocks of Tis the Season by Natalie Bird, which I am doing with the others on the Stitch-a-long blog.

And here is this morning's visitor to my garden - a Pheasant Coucal. This one looks a bit scruffier than the one who usually comes - I am wondering if maybe it is a young one.

Girl's Day out in the Country Nundle 2011

2011-03-21T12:53:00.005+10:00

I'm back from Nundle! Kayly and I travelled down again this year - Lots of kilometres travelled, going interstate and even a time change for us. Still it is always worth it.

It was lots of fun as usual. This is my third year attending and it is always lots of fun meeting up with old friends and making new ones. There are a few posts popping up already about this event, but probably the best one for photos is Chookyblue's as she seemed to have the camera working most of the time - we were all too busy talking and laughing to keep taking shots.

Our day is spent in the the Nundle Hall. Here we are all hard at work and you can see the Gardener's Journal quilts hanging in the background. They were stitched through the Stitch Along Blog and brought to show off to each other and of course our guest tutor for the day Anni Downs ( the designer of the quilt).

Here's all the girls from our table - you can see we were having fun!

And I even got some stitching done!

Thanks Kerry and Anni for a great day out.

(more posts about the projects we were making soon)

February...

2011-02-26T11:33:00.005+10:00

It seems that I am have been in a bit of a slump lately - just life in general was getting me down. Crafting was suffering and so was life in a few other areas. Hopefully now things will start picking up now that the weather has cooled a bit. Ah well, my intentions are good.

February also saw another birthday pass me by. It got a bit lost this year as we celebrated my father-in -laws 80th birthday just before. I'm not worried about it - I have lots of nice things coming up in the future month or so. I share my birthday with Valentine's Day - sometimes that can be a problem too - just because everybody seems to be thinking about that.
But I did join the Cookies and Cream Craft Valentine swap and Kerry was my partner. Here's the box which arrived for me

I had a little helper - he wanted to open the parcel because he says no one ever sends him mail. That was okay as I knew that what was inside was for me :).
And this is what was inside that prettily wrapped box - a gorgeous big pincusion with a Valentine's theme and birthday wishes as well. Isn't it fabulous? Thanks Kerry. You should go and see some of the other lovely pincushions she has been making.

Sadly though the postal system seems to have held up the parcel I sent to Kerry so I won't be able to show a picture of that until Kerry receives it.

Thanks again Kerry!

The amazing story of the birds.....

2011-01-16T09:49:00.002+10:00

One of the concerns in these times is for the animals. When my inlaws left their house they could do nothing about the birds ( cockateils) in the aviary outside. My soft hearted daughter worried the whole time about them, as we didn't know what we would find. Then we received a phone call to say bring some bird seed when you come, all the birds have survived. I can tell you there were eight very happy birds ready for that seed. The cage had nearly gone under,which means that the birds must have clung to the top for ages as the water rushed through. It must have been scary for them - I imagine that the current was very strong. The cage was still standing! The wheelie bins from nearby have disappeared, probably never to be found so it is amazing that neither the current or the surrounding debris knocked them about.
The water line is about 8 cm from the top. The red arrows show where it came up to.

So this is just a little flood story with a happy ending.

Cleaning up the mud after the Brisbane floods...

2011-01-16T09:14:00.009+10:00

All over Queensland there are scenes like this. This is about one little house which has been our focus in the past few days but there are so many more all over the state. Thank you to everyone for their help everywhere.

We have started cleaning up the mud at my parents-in-law's house. It has been heartbreaking but everyone is safe.

This is looking across the Brisbane River. The submerged building is a boat club. You can see a yellow boat on the right way up high.

The water here is still way above the banks.

The mud left behind....

This was the lounge room...

And here's my husband and daughter working in one of the bedrooms.

Looking down the street - This was late after everyone had gone home. During the day the street had been full of cars, trucks and people. The next day saw the street even fuller as people cleaned their houses.

I want to thank everyone for their concerns and also all the quilters and bloggers who are rallying around to keep people in this crisis. My inlaws have got a lot of support and although starting over at nearly 80 years old is tough, there are so many other people in very needy circumstances. I can assure you that every bit of help is appreciated.

Brisbane Floods

2011-01-13T09:11:00.002+10:00

We live in a high area of Brisbane and so have had no flooding. We are all safe.

But people will be seeing so many images of the damage over the next few weeks. The heartbreak is not isolated - I think that everyone will know someone who needs help. In our own family my husband's parent's house probably will have to be gutted and perhaps rebuilt. This photo was taken over 24 hours ago on Wednesday morning. By the afternoon the water was apparently covering 3/4 of the height. Now there is more water so it is most likely that it is totally covered by now. At this stage we have no idea of what we will find. Lots of stories like this will emerge.

My husband and his family experienced the 1974 floods as well and know what the clean up is like. They were in a different house then and the water missed them by three houses. But they know all about cleaning up as neighbourhoods all rally to help each other.

Who knows what the next few weeks will bring?

Camping....

2011-01-10T17:17:00.007+10:00

We were supposed to go camping last weekend
But it rained..... and rained.....
And was cancelled at the last minute.

We went camping in the middle of December
And it rained........ and the tent leaked.......
And we came home a day early.

But we did have some curious visitors......

We won't mention how many leeches there were.

December's camping was at O'Reilly's

(although we were roughing it at the National Park campsite)

Christmas ornaments...

2011-01-07T22:53:00.003+10:00

This cute little angel has been living happily on my tree for a little while. I participated in a swap by Quilt Fabric Delights, in a group who joined in the Christmas in July. I received her from Georgette, along with some other sweet goodies. Thank you so much Georgette. This is the ornament I sent my partner. I used to do quite a lot of counted thread work, including hardanger and I really enjoyed making this one. I might just have to do some more for next Christmas.

SSCS

2011-01-01T17:41:00.002+10:00

Remember the one parcel under the tree? Well, it is open now and here is what was inside.

A beautiful Christmassy stitched wall hanging. And just check out the cute peppermint fabric which matches it. Just perfect.

Thank you so much Tracey - it is lovely and I have just the right place for it to hang next Christmas.

And of course, like so many other happy swappers are saying, a big thank you to Elf Chookyblue for holding this swap.

Happy New Year !!!

2011-01-01T17:26:00.005+10:00

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the year.....I hope 2011 brings lots of happy times.

Like a lot of Eastern Australia it is wet here. This is the view I see this afternoon - clearer than a lot we have had but still grey and moist.

We did have one or two clear days and so managed to travel to wish our beautiful Lily (grand daughter) a happy birthday yesterday - 6 years old on New Year's Eve. Her brother always asks why she gets fire works for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Lily!

You can't argue with this....

2010-12-24T13:42:00.008+10:00

My eight year old son did this at school.
Santa and the reindeers exist.

I've heard some people say that Santa is not real. But I know he is real and if you read the following pages I will prove it to you.

When I wake up in the morning and I see Santa's footprints, surely this is evidence that he has been here and left presents.

In the night I hear my dog barking. This clearly shows that Santa is in the neighbourhood.

Santa is real because all the Christmas movies and songs like the Polar Express and songs like jingel bells,makes it s fact, and all would agree that Santa must be real.

Every year the news reporters say that Santa is on his way and we even see the footage.

Hope you learnt a lesson and instead of believing that Santa is not real and believe that he does exist.

Have we convinced you? I believe - do you?

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas season.

Warm Wishes,

Lynda ( bettsylyn)

There's one present under the tree.....

2010-12-13T19:12:00.003+10:00

There's only one present under the tree. It looks a bit lonely doesn't it? Can you guess what it is? Yes, it's my SSCS present from Tracey. There's a Santa pez dispenser there too - I'm surprised that the kids haven't tried to influence me to open that.

And look.... it's the Christmas decoration which came with the swap. It was nice to have something to open when the parcel arrived. Isn't it just the cutest little redwork Santa you have ever seen?

So thank you Tracey - I can't wait until Christmas Day when I can open my gift.

And of course thank you to Chookyblue for organising this wonderful swap again this year.

3-2-1 swap

2010-12-07T20:21:00.004+10:00

A little while ago I signed up for a swap with Paula at Coffee Time Stitches. The plan was to make a tote bag and add 3 things for stitching, 2 Christmas goodies, and one recipe.

My parcel arrived from Tasha but I'm afraid I can't show you what the parcel looked like as it arrived because it was too exciting and I couldn't wait to open it. I love blue and green and look at my bag - even though it is Christmas fabric it is in my favourite colours. Yay!

Inside the bag there was a pattern, some fat quarters, scissors with a cute scissor fob, and sadly I've just noticed that the cute Christmas notepad and gingerbread chap stick were cut from the photo. And did I mention the chocolate - well it had to go straight into the refrigerator, so it's not showing up. The recipe was for peanut butter cups which I know my boys love - so it was a great parcel.

The bag itself is huge and reversible - you can see more cute fabric inside which I could change to if I wish. It is one of those bags which will be perfect to carry all the presents around in when we go visiting.

And even though it is in Christmas fabric I have this earmarked as my new Yoga bag because it will be large enough to carry my mat and cushion, as well as my blanket in winter. It is absolutely perfect for that and now I can take one thing off my "things I want to make" list.

(I won't tell you how many things are left on that list though)

Thank you so much Tasha and also Paula for organising this swap.

Everything old is new again...

2010-11-23T20:43:00.004+10:00

I don't know if everyone remembers the days of tie dyed t-shirts....I certainly do. It seems though that it is all coming back going by what I've seen in the shops this summer.

My son was invited to an 18th birthday party and the theme was....yes, you guessed it....tie dye!

So of course he had to do his own (and some for friends too).Here's his efforts - his is the orange one and he was really pleased with it.

Nice results - but I wasn't too sure about the buckets in my bath tub and the fact that I am still finding rubber bands in my laundry. I think he was thinking about going into business but hopefully I was able to talk him out of that.

Who would have thought that back in the 70's when I was tie dying T-shirts I would use those skills to instruct someone else so many years later. Sometimes I do get to be a 'cool' mother.

Hair........

2010-11-04T21:24:00.003+10:00

Before............

After........

aww, sweet...

2010-11-02T11:43:00.003+10:00

Well, I have to eat my words because he did cross the road (see previous post) and buy me a little present. I got three fat quarters. They are nothing like I would have chosen and he tells me he liked the reproduction quilts, which is an area I haven't even ventured into.

The fabric on the left is actually brown, I have no idea why it looks purple. I think I will keep them together and make a runner for Christmas, and I think I even have the pattern to suit. Actually I am looking forward to the challenge of making something out of this.

I guess he's a keeper.

Email.

2010-10-30T21:39:00.005+10:00

My husband plays in a band and this weekend is interstate at the Maldon Folk Festival, leaving me to hold the fort here with the kids until Monday night. I could say he is having a great time but apparently it is raining heavily so I am not sure about that.

Anyway on the trip to the festival from Melbourne he sent me an email from his phone :-

It was titled Look what we saw in Gisbourne and included this photo

Now I don't know anything about this shop and I am unlikely to either. I asked him if he went in and he replied "Of course not". Which just brings me to wonder why he even bothered to send me the photo. I am not impressed.

I also asked him today if he was going to visit the Maldon patchwork shop for me as well. He says it is raining too hard to cross the road. Hmmmm.

Disclaimer : He isn't so bad, he does let me visit all the patchwork shops I like - he just doesn't go in himself. I just might have to educate him on what to put in emails though. You know the saying if you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all, well, my new saying might be - if you weren't thinking of going in and buying me a little something then don't bother telling me about it.

(He is worth keeping, he does the cooking and the grocery shopping. I guess I'll just have to overlook this.)

A day for sewing...

2010-10-09T15:43:00.007+10:00

Last Tuesday saw four friends get together to explore the possibilities made using x-blocks.

We met at Kayly's house and set about cutting our strips into blocks. ( sorry about the sideways shot).

Here's the plan for my first block.

And here's four different versions - taken at the end of the day. Mine is the first one with the border still being played with.

And also on the day we had a show and tell of a cute baby quilt made by D. Too cute!

Thank you Kayly for a lovely day and lunch - we need to do this more often.

Oh dear....

2010-09-18T20:45:00.003+10:00

It seems that my blog took a holiday for winter, an unplanned hibernation. Sorry about that. But spring has arrived and there have been some reminders to update so here's a quick first post back.

I think my problem is that I think too much - things like who would be interested in that, or who would want to see my little bits and pieces? Then I try writing and it all seems so dull and boring. I have read other blogs where people have asked themselves the same questions so I know that I am not alone. In the end I guess it comes down to the fact that this blog is my record and anyone who wants to come along for the ride is more than welcome.

So in the spirit of making the first step back and not wasting time thinking about how to make it perfect, I am posting.

And just so there is something to look at - there's a picture of my eldest son and myself. It was taken when he graduated from the University of Queensland back in July with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology. He starts his first real grown up job next Monday - which I am sure is going to be a real shock for him as he is actually going to have to have to get out of bed on time in the morning.

'Baseco Mahal Kita' Tote

2010-07-14T16:23:00.003+10:00

I'm a bit behind due to the school holidays and other stuff so I need to write a few catch up posts.

This one is to show you a great bag and also to give a plug for the pattern too.

Back in March Dawn posted about this bag, the reasons it was designed and the aim to raise money for a worthy cause. I bought a pattern and made it up out of a scrap bag of Whimsy.

I just want to say I love this bag! It is the perfect size and the handles are just the right size for me. I might be a bit late in making it but it does mean that I can remind you all that the pattern is available here and I can really recommend it.

Here's another later post Dawn wrote as well.

So if you thought about it at the time but didn't get around to buying a pattern maybe you can do it now. It is worth it.

Early Bird Christmas Crafting

2010-06-10T22:54:00.002+10:00

There's a button over to the right which says Early Bird Christmas Crafting - you may have seen it around on a few blogs. If you are curious you can click over there and see what it is all about.
Every year I say I am going to have presents ready for teachers and friends and every year it is always a mad rush. So I decided to join. But one of the main reasons was the fact that I wanted to be organised enough to donate some things for our school Christmas stall. What better way than to start planning now?
The first thing we needed to do is make a journal. Now I've wanted to try that for a while so using the pattern from Moda Bake Shop I made this. (Giles the 2002 Harrods Christmas Bear is my holder).

I dug out some Debbie Mumm christmas fabric for the cover - I am not so sure about the varigated quilting thread but after all it is the first one I have done. The stitching on the front I had from last year. I bought it as a little kit from one of the craft shows and it was supposed to be made into an an ornament but I just was never happy with the way it was going. So when this project turned up it seemed perfect for the job.

So here I am ready to go.....

A quick baby gift...

2010-05-29T22:29:00.005+10:00

My daughter's teacher left on maternity leave two weeks ago and the children are looking forward to meeting the new arrival after June. I made a little present for my daughter to give her teacher - a little zipper bag. I put some disposable change mats and nappy wipes inside.

(front)

We didn't know whether the baby was a boy or girl so we had to find some fabric which was gender neutral. I had plenty of pink and blue fabric but had to dig a bit deeper to find something in my stash. But Peter Rabbit came to the rescue and I found just what I wanted.

(back)

I just used a variety of strips. Check out the cute Peter Rabbit ribbon I found to use as zipper tabs.

Basically this pattern is from a Lazy Girl Designs pattern, below is the first zipper bag I made using this pattern. They are quick to whip up - I think I will make some more Peter Rabbit ones as there are a few births coming up in the later part of the year.

A day in Ipswich.

2010-05-15T18:32:00.002+10:00

Yesterday a group of us from the Friday Craft Group went to Ipswich to see a display of historical Australian patchwork quilts. What a fabulous visual event! Because I am also interested in history and old things I especially enjoyed it. These quilts tie in with an amazing book called The Fabric of Society by Annette Gero, who is probably Australia's best known quilt historian. If anyone has the chance to see this display before the 25th of July then it is certainly worth the effort.

Another place I really wanted to visit was Handmade Heaven. I've been reading about this shop on a blog I have been following for a while, Selena's Vintage. I just love her bunnies and teddies made from chenille and wanted to see them in person. ( Check out her blog header - who could resist these bunnies?) But even better - I didn't just get to meet the bunnies but I got to meet Selina as well. She came into the shop while we were there with a new beautiful quilt and I worked out who she was. I also got to meet Bubba Chenille as well. One day I am going to get one of those rabbits or maybe a bear - or even both - I just have to decide which colour I want.

Keep up the wonderful work Selina.

And after that we popped into The Country Quilt Co for a quick visit where I came away with a Joypatch pattern I wanted.

So it was a lovely day and worth sharing.

P.S. I'll put in a plug too for The Handmade Expo - which is another Ipswich event to check out some time.

For those who don't know Ipswich is a city just to the west of Brisbane.

Just what was needed....

2010-04-27T15:55:00.004+10:00

Back in March, one of our favourite girls in the family turned two. We couldn't be with her on the day, as she lives a little distance away but we sent a cute 'baby' for her. She has always loved carrying a 'baby' with her and I found a perfect one for her. We heard later that the first thing she did was 'borrow' a tea towel to wrap her baby in.

So what should a good grandmother do? Yes, make D's 'baby' a quilt. I had some cute scraps and quickly made a dolly quilt. Doctor Puppy ( my son's) had to check it out before we wrapped it up.
We received word that the first thing she did when she opened the package was wrap her baby up without even being told what to do.

Front

Back

And here is D with the little quilt - I am not sure why her baby didn't make it into the shot. Still it is nice to see that she likes it.

Success!

ANZAC Day.

2010-04-25T15:39:00.003+10:00

Today, in Australia and New Zealand it is ANZAC Day - a day to remember our service men and women.

Our school held a service earlier in the week and it is always good to see that our future generations are learning about the sacrifices made in times of war.

This is my grandfather, Gilbert Willis. He wasn't at Gallipoli as he was too young to enlist at the time but joined the army in 1916. He was in the 14 LHR [Light Horse Regiment], and later in the 41st Battalion.

These photos were taken in England, the one below is with his cousins. The story I grew up with was that my grandmother was a friend of these girls and he met her while visiting. He returned to Australia after the war and continued to stay in touch with her. He even proposed to her by mail and they were married the day after she arrived in Australia in 1922. They were married 59 years, until the death of my grandfather.

I suppose you could say that I am one of the lucky ones, my grandfather came home. Unfortunately others didn't, including his cousin and uncle. He always proudly marched in Anzac Day parades for as long as he was able, although I never heard him talk about the war.

Lest We Forget.

Another weekend away....

2010-03-29T18:25:00.007+10:00

You would think that after a wonderful weekend away hand stitching I would be content but circumstances occured which meant the next weekend I was up at The Patchwork Angel on the Sunshine Coast doing a two day machine quilting and raw edge applique workshop with Kellie Wolfsohn of Don't Look Now! You can see all her beautiful work on her blog. We started on Saturday doing the raw edge applique on our practice piece and on Sunday we started to quilt it. Here's Kellie showing us how to keep our quilting lines flowing.

And some demonstrations of how to follow her tecnique on a machine.

And at the end of the day here we all are with our practice pieces finished - taken inside the front of The Patchwork Angel. Thanks to Kellie and Penny of The Patchwork Angel for a wonderful time ( and Penny's husband for the yummy lunches.)

And for once I didn't come home and put my work in the UFO pile - I jumped straight in and made a cushion the way Kellie does. (My poor little bird doesn't have an eye yet though)

And here's the back complete with the zip I put in, which is explained in Kellie's patterns. It works well - you can hardly see it.

So now I have lots of new things to try and techniques to experiment with - I had a great time away but now I have to knuckle down and finish a few things.

The Patchwork Angel website - www.patchworkangel.com.au

The Patchwork Angel Blog. - www.patchworkangel.typepad.com/blog/

Girls Day in the Country - Nundle

2010-03-27T10:05:00.013+10:00

There's gold in them there hills. Nundle used to be a gold mining town. I think I'd have better luck finding gold at the end of this rainbow ( faint though it is) than anywere else.

Here's the pub (hotel) where we stayed. (my partner in crime Cheryl did the driving)

Then it was time to settle down to work ( well, fun really) ..... Our tutor for the day was Anni Downs.

Anni and the hard working Kerry had wonderful things waiting for us.

But we had to stop for morning tea...

These were the projects - a little fabric box

and the inside - sorry about the sideways photo

A pincushion made out of beautiful wools

And a fabulous needlecase, which I can't wait to start making. (Oops, another sideways photo)

And of course there are all the blogger girls.

A great time was had by all. Thanks Kerry and the gang. Yep, I'm already planning next year.

Jelly Roll Quilt Along....

2010-03-16T17:06:00.004+10:00

There has been quite a lot of talk on blogs about the wonderful time we had in Nundle at the Girl's Day in the Country. I will post about it next time because I want to get this out of the way first.

I decided to join in on the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along and this is my first block. It had been ironed but I packed it away in the box with all the other fabric and it got a bit squashed. But I needed to photograph it to get it into the Flicker pool before the next one was released so it looks creased. I'll be a little bit more careful next time. The fabric is Fig and Plum and I got the jelly roll in a Moda scrap bag back when they were bigger than they are now. It isn't my favourite but I am sure that it will turn out very pretty when it is done. The other thing was that I had some yardage in my stash so I am shopping from my stash as well for the borders and backing. Perfect!

Lots of people have been joining in and it is fantastic to see the variety of blocks due to different fabrics. I am enjoying this one a lot.

Someone had a birthday...

2010-02-24T22:10:00.006+10:00

There was a birthday in the house and all these parcels kept arriving........ On the big day the envelopes were opened to find much prettier parcels inside.

But best of all was the contents - lots of lovely fat quarters all demanding to be made into something wonderful.

The wrapping looked a little sad afterwards but I got over that thought very quickly.

So thank you to all the wonderful girls in the Nundle Birthday FQ swap - I very much doubt that I will have anything made by the time we meet up again in a few weeks, but I am looking forward to seeing what people have done.

P.S. I have been working on getting through the piles of things - I have found my cottons but I am still looking for my sewing machine feet. And I have made a few small things - I'll show them off soon. I keep telling myself that when it is done I will have a nice organised sewing area, but I'll believe that when I see it.

A change of thinking for 2010...

2010-01-16T12:13:00.004+10:00

Two days before Christmas the family decided they wanted our billiard (pool) room back. Why should that seem like a problem? - well, that room had my sewing and ironing area in it. Pool tables are great for folding washing on, and hiding stash underneath. We won't talk about the ironing. So basically I was evicted........

My 'stuff ' was moved to another area but now I can't find anything at all. I had nothing to do with the move so I didn't have time to grab things which I use all the time. Now I am missing all my sewing machine feet except for the walking foot which just happened to be on the machine at the time, all but two reels of cotton and most of my recent stash. It's all there, the family knows better than to throw anything out but who knows which box,bag or crate everything is in. Yes, I know I could go through it all but at this stage I don't really have anywhere to put it and I still want to sew.

This is a little pincushion I made to add to my advent swap for Marina.

So this is where my change of thinking had to happen. Most of my current works in progress are misplaced so I am forced to go back even further and plan to finish some even older ones. Not really a bad thing. And I have a number of small kits which I have purchased over time and hidden in my wardrobe so I can still start something new.

And this is the final gift Marina got to open at Christmas. A table runner using the pattern from here ( I can recommend this one)

So after the initial shock and being annoyed ( that's an understatement) I decided that it was a waste of emotion to fuss about it. So I decided to be positive. 2010 is now a year to finish off things I can find (with no particular schedule) and making up things I had forgotten I had. I will of course be working on the tower of mysterious items - a bit like a lucky dip.

These are two of the mats I made for the children's teachers. I have been having so much fun working with this design.

So who knows what I will be posting about next - it might just be a surprise for me too. Now that I have come to terms with it all I am quite looking forward to the adventure of discovery.

And this is another one using the fabric I had previously used here, which was for another teacher. It is fun to see how using the stripes in different places makes a unique look.

It's school holiday time here still so progress will be slow but I have my own personal challenge to work on. I don't know where it will lead but I do plan to try to use what I have here. I didn't plan it this way but it is always good to try to turn things to a positive.

My Secret Santa is not a secret any more...

2009-12-28T22:22:00.006+10:00

That secret present I had here is now open and I can tell everyone who my secret santa was. It was May Britt from Abyquilt . She made a lovely bag with a Christmas stichery of snowmen on it and included a Tilda stitchery design which I love and will probably start working on very soon. Here's the snowmen who have come from Norway to cool me down - don't you love their noses? I do!

And here's a better view of the decorations May Britt sent - they are on the tree and looking very festive.

Thank you so much May Britt - I love everything.

And thank you to Chookyblue who organized everything so beautifully again.

More Advent swap...

2009-12-28T21:58:00.005+10:00

Well, all my advent presents are opened and I have to say that I had a lot of fun and surprises. There was lots of pretty things like fabrics, ribbons and lace. And special things for me like tea bags, bath items and a beautiful needlecase.( That's the heart shaped item at the bottom left. ) There were some waffle weave hand towels too. The final present was these lovely cushion covers. I had just the right sized cushions to put them on and so they decorated my couch for Christmas.

And see this little angel from one of the days - her smile matches the one I had from this swap. Thank you Marina - it was a wonderful package and so much fun to open.

Ornaments....

2009-12-22T19:25:00.003+10:00

In the Secret Santa Christmas Swap run by Chookyblue we had to include an ornament, which was to be opened when the parcel arrived. The good news is that my parcel for Shiree finally arrived and this is the ornament I chose to make for her. I thought this little koala was just too cute and couldn't resist making him. And here's the back.......

I used to do lots of cross stitch and counted embroidery but somehow in the last few years I got more involved with fabric. So it was nice to go back to one of my early crafty loves.

And this is the ornament I made for Maria over in Western Australia in the ornament swap run by Robyn. This is the first time I have combined stitchery and felt and I really enjoyed making it up. Maria made the lovely angel I showed in a previous post for this swap.

And some good news is that Marina has received her advent parcel and hopefully is enjoying all the goodies. My next post will show you some more of the lovely things I have been opening every day. Thank you Marina.

So now it is just the countdown to Christmas. Have I finished shopping for everyone ? - no, but I've still got two days, haven't I? That should be plenty of time....... I hope.

Secret Santa Christmas Swap.

2009-12-07T22:19:00.002+10:00

My Secret Santa Christmas Swap has arrived safely here too. This secret Santa wants to stay a secret until Christmas Day when I open my gift. The only clue is that this Santa is from Norway. You can see the special Norwegian ornaments which were included. We haven't quite finished decorating our tree yet but there will be a place for these sweeties there.

Thank you Secret Santa from Norway - this is to let you know that everything has arrived here safely.

And thank you to Chookyblue for running this swap.

Handmade Christmas Ornament Swap.

2009-12-07T22:14:00.003+10:00

My partner for this swap was Maria in Western Australia. Look at this cute little angel she sent me with a beautiful Christmas card.

She is so tiny - I don't know how you turn seams so small. Isn't she sweet?

I won't show a photo of the ornament I sent Maria until she lets me know that it has arrived. I hope that she likes it as much as I like my little angel.

Advent swap!

2009-12-07T21:59:00.006+10:00

I signed up for an advent swap with Fiona of Mothers Cupboard and my partner is Marina in Italy. My parcel arrived in a huge red Christmas bag. Lots of smaller parcels were inside...

and here are the first weeks gifts - lots of smelly girly things and fabrics and lace. Thank you Marina.

Here is a photo of some of the packages I sent Marina. The sad part of this story though is that she has written to me to say that they haven't arrived yet. This is really dissapointing as she hasn't had anything to open. I am hoping that they will still turn up. I have asked at the post office and they say that I probably should have registered the parcel - but they didn't tell me that at the time I posted it.

I am in the process of putting together another parcel becuase I don't want Marina to miss out but I doubt I can get it there before Christmas. And you can be sure that I will register it as well.

I am so sorry Marina - let's hope that it still arrives.

Very Quick Christmas Fabric, Button & Trim Swap 2009!

2009-12-07T21:51:00.003+10:00

A very quick swap was run by Jenny and Vicki. We had to send two fat quarters, some ribbon and some buttons or trim. My partner was Silke in Germany. I was so excited to receive my first card like this that when I photographed it I didn't do a very good job of getting both fat quarters in. And here's what I sent.

It was a simple swap and east to do. Thanks, Silke - I love everything but the card is extra special. And thanks Jenny and Vicki.

A bit of family time needed....

2009-11-19T21:34:00.002+10:00

Meet Ollie - he's our new grandpuppy. ( about 10 weeks old in this photo) He is a groodle - a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. He came visiting last weekend and was just too cute.

There hasn't been much time for anything this week as my 17 year old son is in hospital. He has had to have some surgery on his jaw which has been quite major. He was operated on last Monday and won't come home until Saturday. Then we have to feed him blended food for 6 weeks. It was his choice to have the operation now - but it has meant that he has missed his very last week at high school and also his graduation and school formal. He also gave up going to 'schoolies' at the Gold Coast. ( For anyone overseas Schoolies is a time for students to let their hair down a bit(?) after finishing high school. )

My week has been spent visiting and travelling. The hospital he is in is situated in the city, and parking is a real pain. The good part is that the hospital is air conditioned and with our hot temperatures at the moment it is a good place to be.

So I have taken a bit of a break from things just to support my boy - next week we will be at home a lot so hopefully I can catch up on things.

Finally something to show....

2009-11-02T12:40:00.004+10:00

There's been quite a bit of secret crafty Christmas stuff going on in this household but because it is for swaps and presents I can't show very much.

I made this for a friend's birthday over the weekend. I don't think she even knows about my blog so I think I can safely show this here ( she hasn't been given it yet but her birthday was two days ago). It is a runner made from border fabric, which I have had here for quite a while. I wish I had bought more than a metre because it would have been nice to make it longer - just something I'll need to remember for next time when I see a suitable fabric.

When I first made it I thought it was waaaayyy too busy but really it has turned out quite well and I certainly will do more. I have some ideas of how to adapt the pattern for two fabrics - that should be fun too and I already have something suitable in my stash.

Here is the runner on my dining room table - I hope my friend likes it, she always likes decorating her house for Christmas.

And this is outside in the garden ( I thought the light might be better.)

When I went to the craft show a week or so ago I treated myself to a new 60 degree ruler so I could have a play with one of the new Anka's Treasures patterns. Now I already own at least 2 rulers of this shape but another one (bigger) will always be useful, I'm sure. Then I realised that I could use this runner pattern as well as it is the ruler suggested in the pattern. The pattern is one that used to be on the Timeless Treasures site but it isn't any more which is sad, probably because the fabric it is written for is out of production.

Here you can see the ruler and the pattern and the leftovers from cutting out the runner. I think I can make something else out of the cut offs - that will be great to have as an extra for someone's Christmas stocking.

I really enjoyed this one.

Just a few hours left....A giveaway with a cause.

2009-10-20T19:23:00.006+10:00

I'm always doing things at the last minute. But I figure that maybe I might catch someone with this post. Julie at Bush Baby Jag is supporting a worthy cause and this is just a little bit of support from me. There's still time to help this cause, and there's a nice giveaway too.

If you have a minute click here and read about it.

Two photos of the same thing....

2009-10-11T22:09:00.003+10:00

I have mentioned The BQL (Britsih Quilt List Yahoo group) Challenge before and I realise that I haven't posted my little quilts each month. I must catch up on that but for now here is my quilt for October. The focus is the folded fabric pinwheels. Now, I am not really a pink person but these fabrics just seemed to want to all go together and it was fun and quick to make.
I took this photo on my back deck, I like the rustic look of the boards.

I then walked in the door, put the little quilt down on my dining room table and took this photo.

There in only a minute or so between taking these and really only about two metres between the two spots where the photos were taken. But they both have a very different look due to the light. I like them both - I like the background roses showing in the first one and I like how the quilting shows up in the second. I just couldn't decide which photo to use.....

Dust...

2009-09-23T12:10:00.006+10:00

There have been news reports of dust storms in Sydney which have closed the airport and other places. But here 1000 kilometres away in Queensland we are also having dust storms. So it is my guess that most of the places in between are as well.

These pictures were taken a short while ago (at midday ) from my back deck...

Five minutes later...

It is getting worse. I hope it all blows away soon. We are going camping tomorrow further west for three days, but I certainly don't want to go in this.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

2009-09-22T19:19:00.010+10:00

Our Friday craft group had a challenge - an 'uglies' challenge. The rules were simple and started with all the participating people bringing a piece of 'ugly' fabric. There were no size requirements - just a piece. Then each piece was cut into the number of people joining in. I think we had 18 to start with so there were 18 pieces. The sizes were varied but everyone got one piece of each fabric. These scraps were to be made into something by last Friday. We didn't have to use all the fabric and we could add extra if we liked. ( I told you the rules were simple.) Here's the scraps before I decided to do anything with them. This really is a challenge...

and here are the results...

A flying geese table runner, a pincushion and a hot pad.

A bunny towel and an iris folding card.

This one isn't quite finished but is shaping up to be a collage picture - I think there are still some buttons to be added.

Some little ditty bags.

A pig and a purse. ( This reminds me of that saying about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear - seems like that's what happened here. Isn't that pig cute?)

Here's a bag - both sides shown.

Another purse.

And this was my contribution.

I used every fabric except one - it just wasn't long enough for my strips. It was a little pink and white check - I think it is what the pig's nose is made from and there is a yoyo flower on one of the ditty bags as well.

It certainly was a simple challenge and lots of fun to do, even if I did leave it to the last minute as usual. And now I have new bag - it even went on a picnic with me yesterday. It's not the prettiest bag but somehow I think it might be the one to end up in the car for quick grocery shopping trips. I think everyone rose to the challenge really well. Congratulations, girls!

More photos from Glenharrow

2009-09-20T10:56:00.010+10:00

I just loved this window on one of the buildings.

There were beautiful flowers....

and a warm cosy atmosphere....

Lots of beautiful things to look at....

and lots of inspiration....

and new ideas....

Oops where is everyone? It must be afternoon tea time. ( and I am not responsible for all those empty chocolate wrappers on the plate - how do I know? Because I was responsible for the missing freckles ( chocolate with hundreds and thousands) which you can't see there. )

And here are Rosalie and Leanne at work. The lady in between them is Rosalie's mother Nel who is involved with things as well.

People who attended on other days have also posted about the wonderful day they had - seems it was perfect for everyone.

My day at Glenharrow....

2009-09-14T19:05:00.006+10:00

The way to Glenharrow - or specifically Smuggler's Rest where our special day was held. It wasn't the warmest day... But seeing the projects from Rosalie Quinlan's soon to be released book soon brightened things up...

Here's our projects for the day....

and here's Cheryl, my fellow traveller from Brisbane, working hard on her stitchery.

The projects came in a lovely red bag with everything we need to finish the two projects...

And once again I seem to be showing a project which needs ironing, but I was using a hoop. And up in the left top corner you can see some lovely fat quarters of Rosie's new fabric range which just had to come home with me.

Another lovely aspect of the day is meeting new people - here's a hello to Sylvia and Fiona, who travelled back home to set up their own stitching day. Looks great, girls!

Thanks for a lovely day, Leanne and Rosalie. You can check out Leanne's blog for lovely photos of our day and the following ones.

I'm excited...and looking forward to going to...

2009-09-05T16:55:00.003+10:00

the Spring Stitch-In at GlenHarrow Gardens. This is being hosted by Leanne Beasley and Rosalie Quinlan. Leanne has posted a sneak peak of the kits they have packed, and it all looks wonderful. I am going down with my friend Cheryl on Wednesday and we will be at GlenHarrow on Thursday! If anyone is reading this and will be there Thursday as well, please let me know. We won't be flying back until Saturday evening so if anyone has any suggestions of must visit places then I am very interested in that too. We have a car so who know where we will end up.You might remember that I went to a day with these same two wonderful ladies in March at the Nundle Girls Day out in the Country. And the photos which go with this post - well they are showing my progress of the projects from Nundle. Do they look finished? Not quite - and not ironed yet either. I had plans that if I was going to get new projects at Glenharrow I should finish the ones I already had. The stitching is done for Rosalie's - I just have to make it into a bag. Leanne's project involved stitching and applique - I am getting close but can I finish it before I go? We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Pincushion swap....

2009-09-01T19:04:00.006+10:00

I think that with this post I will have finally caught up on all the swap news. I love being in the swaps but I find that it means that I have much less time to do things for myself. So for a little while ( until the Christmas swaps) I will be trying to catch up on some of the projects I have here which seem to have been here for a while waiting to be done.

I participated in a pincushion swap run by Sandra. Here's what Rose sent - you can see that customs decided to have a peek too - but all the contents were safe.
Here's the cute little bee and its garden (oops the wing got a bit bent) It's such a happy little bee - I hope that it likes the weather over here. Rose chose this theme because she is from Utah which I have learned is called the beehive state. And she also had two broken arms - I hope they are both healed okay now Rose. There were also some sweets to try - Bit-O-Honey, which of course would come with a bee, and some Pixi Stix which my kids enjoyed as well. Thank you so much Rose.

And here's what I sent to Nadine. This Pattern is from Melly and Me called Handbag Addiction.

One bag is the pincushion and one bag is a needle case.

I originally got a kit for these so I made mine first to work out the pattern and then made the ones for Nadine. I have to say I didn't find this the easiest pattern so I am glad that I made mine first because I certainly found it easier the second time.

Thanks for a fun swap, Sandra.

More Christmas...

2009-08-31T11:29:00.006+10:00

I just realized that I hadn't shown what I sent to Nancy in Linda and Stephanie's Christmas Swap - shame on me.

I was really pleased with this topper - it is from one of the Anka's Treasure's books. ( I can check which one if any one is interested) The fabrics were from a charm pack I had - Maison de Noel by Moda I think. I love the extra bit of blue in the range - one of my favourite colours. This is the bag that I made to put everything in - it is quite large and I thought it might make a good Christmas Swag.

I made a needle book with a stitchery taken from the Twelve Red Robins pattern by Cinderberry Stitches but the pattern for the actual needle book was from a project by Rosalie Quinlan. I borrowed some scallop scissors to cut the felt and I just love the effect - just a bit nicer than pinking shears.

And then with a few other things I wrapped them all up and sent them on their way. ( I made a gift tag too from the same Cinderberry Stitches pattern.)

Merry Christmas in July Nancy! ( You can read what Nancy thought here - it's absolutely wonderful to see the things you send in their new house. Don't you love her table and the topper! )

Christmas comes again....

2009-08-19T20:19:00.008+10:00

Hang on, this doesn't look very Christmassy !

But what is inside it certainly does....

It is a new fancy cow hide Christmas stocking from Texas full of goodies from Bonnie ( Calamity Jane's Cottage) Look at this Texan Christmas greeting. I don't think I'd ever be able to say it properly with my Australian accent.

The stocking was filled with lots of goodies....

But the most exciting thing of all was a Christmas checkerboard quilt ( being tested here by Colly)

The back - or is it the front - can just be a hanging or topper ...

And the other side is the checkerboard.

What a great idea! And Bonnie didn't know that I really like that range of fabric ( Cold Winter Noses) and I have some charm squares and fat quarters to match so I think I will have to make up something which goes with this wonderful quilt. Thank you so much Bonnie for everything - it is just perfect.

This was the Christmas in July swap run by Linda and Stephanie - Thanks so much girls for a wonderful swap.

For some reason this parcel took a bit longer - maybe it had to go via the North Pole to get Santa's approval, but it was certainly worth the wait.

Paper Bag Swap...

2009-08-17T18:29:00.005+10:00

I had a wonderful swap experience with the Paper Bag Swap run by Maree. My partner was the talented Robyn from Daisy Quilts. I hadn't done one of these before so it was quite exciting trying to decide what to send to my partner and wondering what she would send for me to make something with. And just look at the wonders she produced. Aren't they just fabulous?
I sent the green fabric and this is what she made. Her name is Blossom and the first thing my children said was "Can I have her?" Can you guess what my answer was - yep, it was a big NO! This little beauty is mine - all mine.

Now Blossom came in her own matching bag which is also just perfect for me. I don't think that Blossom will get to live in her 'pouch' - I hope she is happy to share.

Now Robyn sent me a very different style of fabric - her fabric was from Moda Nell's Flower Shop line. As soon as I saw it I though of a bag pattern I have had for a while. It is called Cheryl's Bag from Leanne's House. Robyn had sent beads and covered buttons so the blank squares were just perfect for this. She had told me that this is one of her favourite fabrics so I just felt that I had to use fabric from the same line to go with it.

There was also a tassle in the things she sent so I had to make a zipper bag to attach to it, didn't I?

This was a lovely swap because we got to choose our fabirc but there was a big surprise to see what our partner did with it.

Thank you Maree, for running this swap and thank you Robyn for the wonderful Blossom and her bag. ( and the sneaky box of chocolates too)

You can see what Robyn wrote on her blog here and here. She takes much better photos than I do.

This has been so much fun.

Mrs. Martin's Quilt Shop Christmas in July...Thank you June.

2009-07-27T20:12:00.008+10:00

Just before I went away I sent off a parcel to my swap partner, June C in Melbourne for the Christmas in July Swap run by Mrs. Martin's Quilt Shop. The plan was to open the gifts on July 1, but unfortunately I was away then and had to wait a few days. There were some specific things which we had to send. We had to include an ornament, something for the sewing kit, an unmounted stitchery, and something beginning with the letter of your partner's name and a bag to put it all in. Also included was a fat quarter, a button to go with it and a recipe. Here's what June sent me...

The "L" items for my name were labels ( quilt), some lace and a lanyard. ( June must have known that I needed one of those for work). Also there was a hand made card - mine was stitched and attached to a wonderful,very useful bag.

Look at all these wonderful examples of stitching. Aren't they great? Thank you so much June - I love them and I have been using the bag lots. A girl can never have too many pincushions either, can she?

Because I was disorganised as usual and we were going away I actually messed up and didn't take a photo of all the things I sent June in one photo. Luckily she did and sent me one. This is the stichery I did for June. It is a Leanne's House pattern which is similar to the ones she has just released. I wonder what June will make from it.

Here's the bag I made from some Winter charm squares - It is a Whistlepig Creek pattern - Charming Totes. ( It isn't numbered because it is the first in the series).

This started out to be a pincushion but I changed it to be a decoration

and then I included this pincushion which I would have loved to have keep myself. I'll just have to make another one.

I did include some other things - because June's name starts with "J" I also sent some Jaffas, and a journal.

I really enjoyed this swap, and I apologise to June for not posting about it earlier. Thank you so much, June. I loved everything and I am looking forward to making your little stitchery up in the pattern you sent.

And thank you to Karen of Mrs. Martin's Quilt Shop for organising this swap.

Holiday snaps...

2009-07-25T15:05:00.006+10:00

Well, it seems that I had a bit longer holiday than I thought, at least from blogging. We did go away for nearly two weeks but we have been back for a little while and I do have to do some swap update posts. All the wonderful people who have sent me things - don't worry there will be news of them soon.

So on the last few days of June and the beginning of July we went up north. ( It's the only way to keep warm.) The destination was Airlie Beach which is the mainland centre which is the doorway to the Whitsunday Islands ( where the best job in the world is).

But we did stop a few times on the way and especially at one of my favourite places - Clairview. This is where the highway and the coastline meet. There's not much there, which is probably why it is so wonderful. It is a great place to look for shells. Most of them are very tiny but still very beautiful. It is a perfect place to stop to stretch legs and get grumpy children out of the car.

And we finally got to our holiday unit at dusk. Who would believe that it was Winter?

A rambling sort of everything post...

2009-06-23T20:14:00.007+10:00

Hasn't been a lot of posting going on here, has there?

We've had two birthdays in the house - one son turned 20 and Colly turned 7.

Here's a quick update for June -

We've all been sick. Poor little Colly has been absent from school for nearly a week and even having his 7th Birthday last Sunday didn't quite do the trick of cheering him up. Everybody in the house has also been sick at some time or another this week so there hasn't anything creative going on. We seemed to run out of bed linen and it was raining too so nothing was drying. I still have two wet doonas...

One thing I did learn is that you shouldn't operate rotary cutters when you are sick. Why? Well for the first time ever ( and I know there is always a first time) I sliced my finger with the rotary cutter. I'll spare you the gory details but it did prove to me that when they say don't operate machinery they don't always mean the big things.

Here's a photo of my partner's paper bag swap items. It isn't a good one because when I got the package I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and started cutting it up. Then I remembered to take the photo so had to do it with the flash which never looks as good. Can't show you what I've done yet though...

It's school holiday time next week here in Queensland.

We're off to the Whitsundays ( Airlie Beach to be precise). I might manage a post before then but if I don't - see you when I get back and am ready to bore everyone with holiday snaps.

This month's BQL challenge....

2009-05-30T16:40:00.003+10:00

This month the challenge involved doing a trapunto piece.It measures about 12" x 12". I'm afraid that I didn't really get a good photo here but as I had just uploaded it to the group site I thought it would be a good idea to post here at the same time. Originally I didn't really feel that I got a good definition around my 'puffy' bunnies so I stem stitched around the outline to help. That brought the design out a bit more. Another part of the challenge is to improve our free motion quilting. I am getting there but would like to get a more even arrangement.

I used one of my favourite fabrics this time - it's a Lakehouse fabric with embossed spots. It's one of those fabrics you just want to use in everything. When it came to the binding I wasn't sure and then I remembered that I had both the pink and blue Lakehouse rabbit fabric which also has embossing as well. I had enough to do the binding in either colour but I decided to do it scrappy. Unfortunately you can't see much of the bunnies in the binding.

The idea each month is to challenge us to try new ideas. While I don't always love the task at hand it certainly is achieving the goal of pushing me outside of my comfort zone.

Do I spend too much time on the computer?

2009-05-26T20:21:00.004+10:00

A little group of four friends get together every fortnight. We share ideas, solve the problems of the world and and do just a little bit of nibbling yummy things. A few weeks ago Robyn had put together a quilt top for her daughter...

And Dianne had finished a quilt for a 21st birthday present...

Cheryl had made a bag for her mother for Mother's Day.

It is reversible. ( and the pattern is from Whistlepig Creek called Six Pack Stack)

And what did I have to show - I think I had one of my signature squares - and no doubt some new and exciting information I had found on the net. I wonder if I am spending too much time on the computer and not enough time sewing. ( no, don't answer that - I think I already know.)

Time flies by..

2009-05-22T21:45:00.006+10:00

Oh dear, it's been a while.....

I've sent in my siggie blocks And made Happy House blocks

and just made it in by the skin of my teeth with the BQL Calendar Challenge.( Each month has a deadline at the end) You can see I used some of the leftovers from the Happy Houses to make the handbags. The colours are just lovely on this range ( Objects of Desire - Moda).

May has been busy so far with secret swap things ( shhh!) and I am working on my BQL Challenge for May at the moment. I don't want it to be rushed at the end.

Another parcel... Spring Swap.

2009-04-17T12:25:00.006+10:00

It's been very exciting here with parcels arriving. This one was from my Spring Swap partner Melinda. Ooh, lots of tissues paper wrapping...

And inside one package was a wonderful note book and cover. ( Melinda must have heard me thinking that I needed to have something like this for beside my laptop to jot down notes.)

And there was a cute tin filled with fat quarters and squares. I've got a few ideas here already but I haven't actually made any final decisions.

And check out this fabulous roomy bag with lots of pizazz. It's one of those mesh bags which I've spotted around and loved.

So if you are going to the Brisbane Stitches and Craft show at the end of this month and you see this bag, no doubt it will have me attached to it. Do you think I can fill it?

Valentine's Swap...

2009-04-15T20:11:00.006+10:00

I have an apology to make to Jill (no Blog) who was my partner in a Valentine's swap run by Dandelionquilts. I promised Jill that I would post photos on my blog and show everyone. Somehow though the photos were deleted from my camera and didn't quite make it to the blog. So I took some more today and have them here to show. I am so sorry, Jill, that this is so late.
Look at all this lovely sewing love...
In the left corner you can see a page of photos. Jill made a photo collage of the area she lives in, her sewing room and some of her projects. What a great idea! I wish my sewing room looked like hers! Jill, I think you need a blog to show all these beautiful things off.

Here's a cute wall hanging...

And some lovely things for the table... Thank you so much Jill. I loved everything.

and on the subject of the Valentine's swap here's what I sent to Maria .

Sorry that this has taken so long...

Variations on an Easter theme...

2009-04-12T22:15:00.004+10:00

2008...
2009...

When you have a good Easter hat design all you need to do is adapt it from

one year to the next.

Easter Swap received...

2009-04-12T21:55:00.007+10:00

Here's the parcel I received in the Easter Swap... It was from Shari on the other side of Australia. Look at those lovely Easter ribbons !

And what a great idea - sweet fabrics hidden inside matching eggs.

And the cutest of all was the little house with bunnies,

and look who is peeking out...

There were cookie cutters too but somehow they didn't get into the photos. Thank you so much Shari. I love it. Happy Easter.

Easter Swap...

2009-04-12T21:37:00.007+10:00

A few months back I signed up for an Easter Swap run by Julie. The person I was to send to was Vanessa. I wasn't quite sure what to send but I found this cute Easter fabric and had to use it. I just love those bunnies. ( The pattern was from Happy Hour by Atkinson Designs and is one I will be using again)

And speaking of cute bunnies...

it can be found on this..

The button is a Giggle Button and is so cute I couldn't resist using it for an Easter bag.

I hope you enjoy everything Vanessa.

Charm Square Bolster Cushion...

2009-04-01T10:45:00.007+10:00

My friend Kathy, who does yoga with me, was having a birthday. I had actually planned this for last year's birthday but didn't get it done ( why isn't that a surprise?) So I decided to get it done for this year.

So to make one here's what I did...

Sew 20 charm squares together ( 4 x 5). This will vary depending on the size of the cushion you want to make, or you can cut them to size later. The insert I used was 51cm X 51cm which would be around 20 inches X 20 inches.

Sew into a tube and hem the ends...

I left a small opening in my seam so I could thread the ribbon through...

Now here's a hint..

I bought a square cushion insert because it was bigger than the bolster insert the shop had. All you have to do is leave it rolled up - But it does help to leave the plastic on at first to help you get the cover on. You can see it is a bit of a tight fit, which is good to make the cushion firm but this helps get the cover on more easily. It still is a bit tricky getting the plastic off but I cut it when I was half way in and pulled it out that way.

Tighten the ribbons at the end and tie up tight.

The end result - one bolster cushion.

In my case the next thing I did was hand it to Kathy as she walked in the door right at the moment of completion, so I couldn't hide it. I suppose you could say it saved me wrapping it.

She took it to yoga the next week and I may have orders - arrgh...

Note : this method really doesn't allow for regular removing and washing as the seams are not ended off inside and I tied the ribbon with knots first. It could be made to do so though with a bit more lining and preparation.

March Challenge...

2009-03-26T18:12:00.002+10:00

This is the little quilt I have made for the March Challenge on the British Quilt List. The method to use this month was printing photos on fabric. I used a photo of my little guy on the beach at Byron Bay in winter and once again I dipped into my scrap bag of batiks. I am really enjoying doing this, although I could do without my daughter complaining about the fact that I didn't use a photo of her. I wonder what next month will be.

660 Kilometres and 8 hours

2009-03-24T14:50:00.009+10:00

That's the distance and time it took each way to get to Nundle ( NSW) from where I live. Was it worth it? You bet it was !!!!! It was a bit scary being a new attendee and going on my own but everyone was so friendly and we had so much fun I didn't need to worry.

Girl's Day Out in the Country is a perfect description of what it is - a day of chatting, sewing and sharing. Run beautifully by Kerry and with Leanne and Rosie to guide us we had a great time.

Here's Leanne showing how to do her applique project....

which looks like this...

And Rosie's projects were also beautiful...

Oops, sorry about the sideways view

I worked on Rosie's punch needle on the day as well as some of the little stitchery for the needlecase.

Here's the hall where we were working...

And this is the early morning view from the cabin where I stayed...

And here is a happy group of bloggers...
Thanks to everyone for a wonderful time.

One of the reasons...

2009-03-10T20:53:00.003+10:00

This is one of the things which kept me busy recently. There were wisdom teeth removed from my 16 year old, a lost filling (mine) and this...

The cast now has a nice blue covering (with green stripes). He is off to the hospital again tomorrow - I don't know if they are going to change the cast or not. He's adapted fairly well which is good and he has loved the attention. I hope that he doesn't think that this is a good way to get attention all the time.

BQL February Challenge

2009-03-10T20:18:00.003+10:00

Okay, so I know it is March but this is one of my February catch up posts. I have been participating in the BQL ( British Quilt List) yahoo group challenge. I have been really enjoying it too. This is the one we did for February which was based on a string piecing design.
I was trying to get a rainforest feel however it seems to have more blue in it that I planned. The fabric was from a scrap bag I bought at a local quilt shop.

To try and get a leafy feel I decided to quilt eucalypt leaves on it. I looked at photos of the type of leaves I wanted and drew a few rough lines on the quilt and then filled in the rest free hand( or rather machine).

I actually am quite happy with it and and am enjoying the challenges presented.

The top for March is done - so when it is quilted I will be able to show you that one too.

Just a quick one...

2009-03-10T10:18:00.003+10:00

I still have heaps to write about but I have a few minutes on the computer. Now I don't usually put these things on my blog but I did this one this morning and this is what came up.

Your rainbow is shaded blue.

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Edit: I have no idea why the colour thing in the box isn't working. However it don't matter - it just makes for a plain old blog post today.
Now, this is just relevent to my life at the moment. Firstly the colours are definately my favourites. I'm not so sure about the tranquil person bit but I'd like to be so that's fine. The next sentence comes very close to home although I'd like to put family in instead of friends ( just an extended family issues that I wish I wasn't involved in and hope it will resolve.) Or maybe it applies to my upcoming trip to Nundle for the Girls Day out in the Country - of course we will all be getting along famously, I'm sure.

And then it says about sharing hobbies with friends - How did they know? Sometimes you wonder how these things like this get something right.

I'm working on my BQL challenge piece at the moment. I haven't even posted about the one for February. It's definately catch up time.

February Apologies...

2009-02-26T14:52:00.002+10:00

I'm sorry. I just didn't get to write this month. I know there are people out there who check often and I have some swap photos I still need to show. It will happen I promise.

Here's hoping that March will be easier to keep up to date.

Warm wishes to everyone.

January finishes...

2009-02-01T13:22:00.003+10:00

I am sure that most people by now and have seen something about the One Project A Month Challenge, being organised by Kris and May Britt. They have a mammoth job ahead of them to keep up with everybody and it probably doesn't help when people like myself don't post about it too much. So for my own benefit I am writing about the things I finished in January . There wasn't a lot of activity here - most of the month was school holidays and everyone was feeling a bit slower than usual. It wasn't a month for finishing too many older projects either but I am going to be working on that over the next few months. ( I'll talk about the things I have been digging out to finish as I do them).

The first finish ( and it was a start too) was the challenge quilt for BQL ( British Quilt List - yahoo group). This is for a monthly small quilt to be used for a calendar. This was my effort. I used all Stargazey fabrics from my stash and I don't mind it at all. I tried and learnt some new things and at times I didn't think my choices were working but in the end it is fine.

There are two other things which I made and finished too but I can't show them here yet as they are for a Valentine Swap. And there is one more little bag but I will post a photo of that next time.
There are lots of lovely new ideas and patterns around which I would like to do too, but I am going to try to include one item which was not started this year in each month. That's just a personal challenge to myself.

Now, how do I list the mending that was completed as well - just to make the sidebar list look more impressive?

Where are you?

2009-01-23T17:09:00.003+10:00

Back in 2007 there are a number of bloggers who participated in a siggie swap. Actually I think it was my first taste of international swapping. Some were efficient and there have been some lovely quilts made - I just can't find any blogs with photos of finished ones at the moment.

After the swap closed I was contacted by Connie who had missed out, and we went on to do an individual swap. Others did the same and you can see the blocks she received on her blog . ( Scroll down a few posts.)

Even though I did say I was going to try and keep the amount of swaps down this year I have signed up again because it was fun last time and a little different.

So here's the point of the title... I have just checked the list of swappers and there are only 2 Australians. In Connie's latest post she says there are only 7 more spaces - how about it Australians... we need a few more of us.

The information is here .

I just thought we needed some more representation - but I think you will have to be quick.

Thank you Connie for doing this.

Fashionably Late...

2009-01-19T11:02:00.003+10:00

The wonderful Chookyblue has posted all the photos of the Secret Santa Chrsitmas Swap but I thought I would put up my personal photos as well. My partner was Sweet P and she sent me this lovely collection. The table runner is just perfect and in my favourite colours. The blue items are placemats and have a great bag to keep them in. ( If you saw my linen cupboard you would realise that that is a big help.) All the fabric shown in the container was what was used to wrap everything in. I'll be thinking of something special I can make with that too. Not shown in the photo was the chocolate and I'm sure you can guess why that isn't there. Yep, it's gone! Thank you so much Sweet P - it was a lovely Christmas surprise.

This is what I made for my partner Debbie. I have to say that this something that was really hard to part with. Luckily though I have enough fabric left to make another one, and I can always use different fabric. I just have to find the time.

And of course Chookyblue did a wonderful job, especially as there were so many more participants than last year. Thanks, Donna !

All is quiet...

2009-01-04T21:17:00.004+10:00

Happy New Year to everyone, even if it is a few days late. I'm afraid that the time since Christmas has been quiet here as I have been fighting some sort of cough and infection for ages now and it all seemed to cause me to crash after the busy family days. Anyway things seem to be looking up and although I still have to post a photo of my Secret santa swap parcel opened I thought I would drop in and start the year off by posting two things I made last year but didn't get to talk about.

This is a photo of a tote bag I made for my Sister-in-Law last June but didn't get to post. In case you didn't realise, she likes frogs. This is a simple pattern with no wadding, just lined. I am working on a smaller version using charm squares - maybe I should make that a January finish.

And this little zipper bag comes from a Lazy Girl pattern - Purse-Nickities - which was fun to do. It started because I wanted to try quilting with a Serpentine Stitch for a little quilt I was making. ( You can see the quilt back underneath the bag - the rest is another story coming soon). These bags are a great way to try out new quilting designs, and there are three different styles in the pattern so I can see some more of these being made soon.

It's summer School holidays here so I don't know how much sewing will be achieved, however I am making a bit of a list of things I want to finish in the next few months. I am working on being prepared and ready to go when I find the time.

I am not really going to make any official resolutions - however I do need to continue to try being more organized and it would be nice to finish a few things I've started in the last few years. Seems like a reasonable plan to continue for 2009. I might even try to keep up to date with my blog posts too. It can't be too hard, can it?

Merry Christmas to All...

2008-12-25T00:14:00.005+10:00

These photos were taken at the Christmas Tree Festival at St. Luke's in Toowoomba. There were so many trees which had all been decorated by groups from around the city. There were lots of ideas and so many things to look at.

If you had been saving those little tags off your bread bags you could have made these interesting wreaths. I know that with the number of these tags that I throw out I could have decorate the tree all on my own. Still I had to look twice to see how they were made.

One of the embroider's groups had made these beautiful ornaments...

And so I wish everyone a peaceful and happy time this holiday season.

P.S. There is an Australian Christmas Carol called The Three Drovers. This picture below shows one interpretation of that. I am a bit worried about Action Man though. It doesn't seem like he is looking after the sheep very well.

I've just realised that it is after midnight and Santa is about to come. I'm off to bed... or he mightn't bring me anything.

Sewing, well yes...

2008-12-20T16:18:00.005+10:00

I've been suffering from a cough which is driving me crazy and as a result I haven't felt like doing anything much. Of course there is a lot I should be doing, but instead I have been doing this...

You might have seen the pattern here

Instead of doing french knots ( which I don't like doing) I used Mill Hill beads.

I am a rather disappointed with the photos I took - but they will have to do for now. The green fabric is not really that dark and I got some strange shadows. I think I need to go and read my camera instruction manual a bit more.

Secret Santa arrived

2008-12-20T16:13:00.002+10:00

I am very happy to announce that my Secret Santa arrived the other day.

The box.....

And this was inside, which is now under my Christmas tree.

Have I peeked? Well maybe that's another part of the secret.....

Look who has come to live at our house...

2008-12-06T16:07:00.007+10:00

It's Digby the Dragon.

One day Colly and I were travelling around the internet and we found a photo of a very cute dragon. Of course what 6 year old boy wouldn't want one ? And it was a giveaway... so we added a comment and didn't really think any more about it as I never win anything. SO you can imagine how excited we were to find that Digby (we named him) was going to come and live at our house. He is just wonderful and Jess (also known as Picklesticks) looks like she is going to make some more. I have to say that they are just beautifully made and would be a great addition to a family. I don't have any more details than that but you can always contact Picklesticks.

Digby was very excited to find that there was already a castle and some knights to go and play with ( otherwise known as my daughter's 2008 Castle Lego advent calendar.) It looked like things might get a little rough there for a while but really they all turned out to be good friends.

He did have to take a little bit of time out to go crusading with Colly.

Thank you so much for the giveaway Jess. We just love him. He is certainly very happy and busy here.

Sunday Surprise...

2008-11-17T18:04:00.004+10:00

We had huge storm here yesterday. It was one of those storms which built up and then just hit with a huge bang. We have a reserve across the road - this tree is one example of what has happened in there ( the reserve is closed today because there are just so many trees like this) This is just across the road....

And our neighbour's fence ended up like this....

And this is three doors down...

We were without electricity for ages. Luckily we have it back now but there are still areas where it hasn't been restored. The school I worked at today had no power which made things interesting. And the school where my neighbour works ( the one whose fence is pictured above) was closed. Further down the street we had a tree fallen right over the road. Today in daylight the full extent of the damage to the city has become more obvious - there is a lot of clean up work to do. I heard that the army has been called in to help as well.

I am sorry the photos aren't all that clear - they were taken in the weird light after the storm.

Seems I wasn't the only one - Toni here has just posted some more photos of her area.

Remembrance Day

2008-11-12T07:17:00.004+10:00

Lest we forget.

A field of poppies on a rainy day....

At the school where my children attend there is a teacher who is passionate about keeping Australia's battle history alive. He was my daughter's teacher last year so we have been part of this passion at close hand.

This year he got the whole school involved in making poppies - I think the plan was to have 1000 poppies - we are only a small school so each child had to make several.

Around the flagpole we have a memorial garden and it is here that all the school gathered to pay respects. One of the students played the Last Post on bugle and it was very moving.

Thanks Mr K. for encouraging the children to keep these important historical memories alive.

Another parcel in the mail...

2008-10-24T20:11:00.008+10:00

I had a surprise parcel in the mail this week, not that I didn't know about it but just that I wasn't expecting it just yet. This is my Another Little Quilt Swap 2 quilt. And what a special one it is. Here's how it looked when I opened the parcel ( for once I remembered to get the camera and take a photo before I unwrapped it.)

The parcel came from Karen in Victoria who sadly doesn't have a blog. When you see the quilt I received you will see why I think she should have one - to show us all the beautiful things she makes.

And here is the photo of the actual quilt. I am sorry it isn't flat... I was trying to be creative outside but I couldn't get it to sit flat. The photos I took on the floor just look uninspiring so I'll stick with this one and give you close ups as well.

The pattern is Butterfly Garden from Leanne's House and it so pretty. It is one of those quilts I look at and love but then think I would never finish. But now I have my very own small version. This is the centre block...

and here are some of the other embroideries...

I have had lots of fun this year with swaps - not only making my own contributions but also seeing photos of other little quilts travelling around the world.

Big thanks to Karen who made this beautiful quilt and also to Kate who organized the swap.