More Giftees...Spoilt or What!...

How gorgeous is this fabric…a gift bought back from the fabulous building that is Liberty…

A friend went to Britain/Ireland and bought me back this lovely pack of fabric from her visit to Liberty (she is not a stitcher which makes it all the more thoughtful - her cousin who was travelling with her helped her choose and I don't know her at all so I am touched by her taking the time to input into the decision making)...it is soooooo absolutely pattable...what to make from it I don't yet know but definitely not just to be chucked in the stash...

We've had our final 6-12 in Castlemaine for the year so of course it was our Christmas meet...spoilt or what!..."just a card" actually had a teeny quilt block charm inside - mine is a half dresdan - thank you J!...mints and handcream - thank you M...a pretty cup and German chocolate (the German part of the chocolate is significant in this context) - thank you A...a pretty box which held a handmade Angel decoration, she has the teeniest french knots for hair! - thank you R...fat eighths, chocolates and a wooden Christmas decoration and the fabrics just happen to be in the perfect colour to go in my Summer School quilt fabrics for January - thank you C...a hand made rotary cutter/scissor keep which held a personalised thimble pincushion, the pincushion is attached to beads which spell out our name so we won't get them mixed up, clever girl - thank you S...very pretty smelling soap and a keyring retractable tape measure, always handy - thank you B...and a pretty monogram embroidery pincushion made by our friend's sister who she commissions to make us the prettiest embroidered presents, too pretty to stick pins in! - thank you W. (One of our number couldn't make it at the last minute and now I've seen she has her presents I can reveal, wouldn't have been fair to show her what was in her Christmas present sack and spoil the surprise - yes, she reads the blog).

And what did I give my friends - um, my company? I actually managed to go after missing the last two due to work but now I don't have to accommodate work on the weekends on a weekly basis I was able to shout yes I'll be there and happy dance...I did think of what to make a couple of weeks leading in to the meet and then remembered that again at 7:00 am on the morning of, that gave me 30 seconds of free time in the day to do something about it so I failed miserably.  I'm thinking if I start now I might be ready for next Christmas *sigh*...

Happy Stitching...

SSCS Sleigh Flew By…

...and dropped off a box all the way from….Germany!!  How excitement…

Opening the lid revealed Kerstin had mailed me…a crochet flower garden!...

So pretty…so happy :)

The lovely handmade Christmas card told me that the two small presents were "open now"! So, of course, I happily obliged…

The first unwrapping revealed the wee zippered pouch and while admiring the perfection of the creating of the wee zippered pouch, oh what's this? squishiness??...now a wee zippered pouch of itself is not squishy did it hold a surprise? It did, it did hold a surprise…the wee doggie cushion decoration…so cute…

The second unwrapping revealed that "open now" parcel was housing...the owl clippy hanging cushiony decoration…more creating perfection…so cute…

I'm hiding the Christmas Eve/Day parcel from myself in the posting box because the pokey proddy slight squeeze that I allowed myself was a little too tempting…but I will be good and I will resist…

Thank you Kerstin…I am looking forward to being able to find out just what is hiding in that big present…

I think the sleigh has taken my SSCS offering sight seeing, no word yet that it has finished its journey...

Happy Stitching….

An Incomplete Tale…

Another tale that started long ago kiddies…

Back in the mists of time, three friends went for a lovely weekend to Beechworth* and a great time was had by all…out and about during the weekend, while one friend wandered the antique shops, two popped into the then local patchwork/quilting shop for a quick look…and emerged hours later…one of the friends clutching amongst her purchases a small plastic box containing a square of cream fabric with small squares of 1930's reproduction fabrics and a dog shape template (well with a combination of dog and '30's fabrics what hope did she have really).  Back home and the little dog shapes were blanket stitch appliquéd to the background square…and...

small - about 15" square

...all ideas of what to do next escaped the maker (except the quilting involving bone shapes but the bit in between was a mystery)...so it languished…forgotten and waiting…until one day it was found once again and the idea came to frame the square with apple core shapes…and so the square was pinned to the design wall, shapes were cut, arranged around the square, carefully stitched together in rows…and...oh bugger, two shapes short for the square…so it sat, or rather hung, on the wall…and was there so long, becoming such a part of the wall, acceptance was that it should be there (sad really)…until finally the maker stopped being so darn lazy, cutting and stitching the final two shapes to finish the square of shapes…

...which of course didn't fit the background square without encroaching over the dog shapes *sigh*…so it hung some more…and some more...waiting for inspiration…until finally came the knowing of what to do but not being able to settle on a fabric to do it with (the maker going all seriously Libran with the decision making on this one!)…then with a whoosh came the spark of light to see which fabric to use (and after all that, the maker used another cream fabric - how hard was it really!) and the motivation (and time/headspace) to do it…

still small - 23" square now

…a strip added around the square to provide a background on which to appliqué the apple core frame…and tah dah! finally out of the mists of time comes a finished top…

Which leads the maker to the next obstacle to overcome in her quest…which perle thread to use for the quilting bit...

strutting their stuff...

…potentials have been selected…auditions have taken place…

nervous line up…silent prayers of pick me...

And now they wait for the maker's nod…don't they look pretty all lined up…which one will get the part, oh the tension that is the in air…

Oh that and finding a bit of fabric for the backing…because when the maker went to get out the piece in mind it couldn't be found…because it was used it on something else and there is none left…so typically, the maker moved on to something else…

And there the tale rests for now…the ending still being written…

Happy stitching...

* Beechworth - historical gold rush town in the north east of Victoria, Australia

At The Sleigh Loading Dock...

…my SSCS parcel has begun its journey to ???…will it cross oceans, seas, deserts, plains, forests, tropical rainforests, mountains, valleys, rivers, streams, fjords, glaciers??? who knows what vistas it will see as it travels on the sleigh…

Crappy photo courtesy of trying to hide names on tags - wrote tags then remembered photo shoot! - and needing to get to post office

 

I'm a bit very jealous of its journey as it is heading off to a place in an area that I have always wanted to go, wish I could have hand delivered it, now wouldn't that be fun!

Happy Stitching...

Zebras and Giraffes...

...romping across fields of yellow and grey…

(Totally crappy weather not conducive to any kind of decent photo taking.)  A couple of days after baby arrived I casually asked the daddy what colours they had used for bubba's room and I was sooo happy when he said yellow and grey with animals wall art!!!! They went gender neutral not knowing in advance and I had bought the yellow feature fabric weeks ago which included grey zebra's and giraffes so their colour scheme played right into my hands...it looks blue in the photo but it is dark grey around the centre square and a white/dark grey-black pattern in the second border which will also be the binding.  When I first drew it up I was going to do a 6" centre square with one border but the fabric worked better with a 4" square so I added the second round…having an idea of how big it would be but not being entirely sure (the perils of making things up as you go along and also why I had to amend the outer border to be a bit narrower than originally planned - not enough fabric left but you get that, just redo the maths) I now know how much fabric I need and also what sort of fabric I want to use so it just has to wait now until I can get to a shop…but considering I started it Cup Day (Tuesday) afternoon and now it is a top I'm feeling a bit like I've achieved something this week…

OK, what else can capture my attention now that is done…

Hope you're having a stitchy weekend…

Happy Stitching...

Time Flies....

...and I'm not even having fun! The boring stuff taking up too much time and not much of a look in for the fun stuff…so what has happened since August?…August!! and now it's November, seriously! would the person with the calendar remote control please please take the finger off the fast forward button!!!

I did get to go play at Crafty Hijinks in Ballarat in September...Jodie & Gilly put on a fabulous inaugural event and I got to hang for the day with Merrilyn, Christine, Melody and a whole bunch of other crafty peeps for a lovely day out…for pics that convey to me the feeling of the day go to the second half of this post on Nicole's blog…she has captured the day perfectly (and I don't have pics)...

I won pretty bag handles from Katherine back in August, thank you Katherine...I bought a skirt pattern from Nicole Mallieu at Crafty Hijinks which revived my want for her book "You Sew Girl" so I gave it to myself for my birthday…

I have been to Spotty (because it is 500 metres up the road from a work site and I gave myself a 10 minute window of opportunity while running around doing that day's out and about stuff) and purchased some cheapish $6/metre fabric for the test run at the skirt pattern (a combo "toile/but something that can be worn" to get the fit right), but it's still a cut length and has yet to make it further than being brought home and tossed in the sewing room...

Early October I wandered back to the Home Country and met Mistea for an afternoon at the NOTY quilt show followed by a yummy late lunch at the Tea Pot Cafe…lots of lovely quilts to look at and be inspired by, a chat or two with people not often seen, some "who is that person, she looks so familiar" and, for me, a giftee for my birthday…

Crochet squares craft bag with flower fabric lining…pretty…

the chocolate it held at the time of giving didn't last, he he he...

A project a year in the making finally reached a conclusion including actually putting in the post and sending to intended destination…a team project that came about when Kerry had a clean up and, while discussing who would benefit from excess fabric for charity projects, we thought it would be a plan if she sent me some of the fabric and I sewed up laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts…I was expecting enough fabric for maybe, oh, say 5 bags…nope, 17! 17 pieces cut to size...the owner of a business I was doing some work for, Broadford Curtains and Blinds, helped me out with some remnant fabric to add to the linings pile and also donated the thick piping cord for the drawstrings…thank you Cherille…worked on in definite fits and starts in production line method…but eventually...

I've had a lovely email from Jan-Maree to say they arrived and were suitable…whew!!!…Jan-Maree also conveyed her thanks to the other members of the "team".

"Anna" is spread all over the kitchen table, has been for weeks, resulting in some progress…

The top border is actually stitched on, the sides are just modelling, the bottom border is semi-put-together and didn't want to appear in it's state of unstitched nakedness.  I've been so tired that it's just too hard to concentrate or see properly to hand-piece so progress is very very slow although it has been interspersed with hexie preparation for the large borders...

Apart from that it's been work, study, head wobbling exhaustion, rinse and repeat...steps have been taken to rectify the imbalance (the indicator needle during the year moved from moderate, to high, to very high to reaching catastrophic and threatening to tip me off the edge completely) and compress the working part into the days between Monday and Friday with only the occasional Saturday/Sunday thrown in rather than one or both every week...yay!!!!...looking forward to getting some sewing time back into the roster...especially I need to get back to the priority of finishing my SSCS main present...

Hope you get to have crafty time in your day...

Happy Stitching...

A Finish to Welcome Spring...

Further work took place on uncovering the "started in 1988 still not finished" tapestry on the floor frame that seems to have become the dumping ground hanging storage space for hand quilting projects with the next in size now a done deal...coincidentally 30's repros again (as far as I'm aware the only two 30's repros tops in that pile), the top put together using left over units from Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush mystery quilt project in 200?...hey, at least it's from this Century!...the binding finished Friday afternoon while waiting for new tyres to be fitted on the car, have to take advantage of all opportunities as they are still few and far between...

This one is 24 1/4" squarish (give or take an 1/8" or 1/16th here and there, which when it is given a bath and crinkles up won't be a big deal).  Quilted in big stitch using white perle 8 with circles, lines and scallops...in the light Friday night I couldn't get the quilting to show up...had another go this yesterday morning (yeah yeah hitting publish makes it work on the blog I know, missed that bit didn't I)...

Same quilt, same position, different light and it goes from flat looking to quilty crinkly...and it still hasn't hadn't been bathed yet (it has now and has crinkled up all nice and quilty)...(Mmmm, photos slightly out of focus, must look into that when I've more time - sorry)...

I have no idea what is going to put it's hand up to be worked on next...by the time I get to that point I may have my partner in this year's SSCS swap and new projects may be on the table, oh where will I send to this year, I love this swap - so glad Chookyblue found time in her life gone nuts to let us play along again...thanks Chooky and also Googy Girl for putting on your Elf hat to help her out and make it possible this year, so looking forward to finding out who I send to, stalk her blog, plan the parcel contents...

Happy stitching...