Incoming...

Handmade goodies wrapped in Christmas have come to live at my house...thank you Mistea...

Cute wallhanging ready for next Christmas...

How's this for a cuppa set...spinning into the night mug rug and matching cup cosy...with it's very own travel mug...no, it is not a sippy cup, it is a Maxwell & Williams double walled china cup with a rubbery flexible lid...how cool (or should that be warm?) is that!...

And here it is with the box of coffee bags and yummy biscuits it came with...yep, that works...

Guess what else is going to Summer School with me! Pefect...though the biscuits aren't going to make it, their days are numbered *LOL*...

Happy Stitching...

Circles...

Another Christmas present made its way to its new home yesterday so now I can add another finish to my OPAM list for December...Circles Tablemat...

The "top" side

The "under" side

Based on a Moda Bakeshop recipe...I say based because as usual I didn't follow the plan exactly...I've decided I'm pathalogically unable to follow a pattern to the letter...ah, they are just guidelines surely...

So, the recipe called for a layer cake and a backing fabric...I used a charm pack instead, City Weekend by Liesel Gibson for Oliver + S for Moda and instead of a constant backing fabric simply used two charm squares for each circle so that the mat is sort of reversible...the recipe had the circles laid out into a kind of rectangular arrangement but I wanted something more circular as the table it is intended for is a round table...

Another pressie delivered and another finish to OPAM 2010...

Happy Stitching...

It's A Hard Life...

But someone has to do it...

Hope your day is as stressful *LOL*...

Jindi

A December Finish for OPAM...

Now that Christmas is done and the presents are distributed (almost) I can reveal finishes for December...the Pure range by Moda table mat...

...(sorry about the totally crappy photo...it was a quick snap with the phone to send a "yay done" MMS and then about 30kms into the 70km trip down to the recipient's house I remembered I had wrapped and not taken a proper photo -phooey! - I didn't have the camera with me to do anything about it either, so this has to do...I also forget to measure it so that I knew the dimensions for future reference...all in all I failed miserably in the follow-up department...oh well...

 

I continually over-thought the quilting portion of the exercise and finally just went simple with a 1" straight line grid and a couple of straight lines around the border...worked just fine...the binding used up the third cut of the charm pack (well, almost, I do have some rectangles left that are joining their friends in the scrap box)...I like scrappy bindings...

So another finish for OPAM....the list just grew a whole lot longer for December as I can now add my presents to Marica in the Chookyblue SCCS swap as well...the month isn't over yet so it may get a little longer yet...

The wind is howling outside and it is non too warm to boot so outside garden work has been once again put on hold, darn shame, may just have to retire to the sewing room for the afternoon...*vbg*

Happy Stitching...

Chookyblue's SCCS 2010 - Surprises Revealed!...

Finally...after staring at the pretty wrapped parcels for SO long yesterday was the day...the day we all got to open our Chookyblue SCCS 2010 presents...YAY!!!!...

My present travelled across the globe from Norway...Anne Heidi sent me the most beautiful presents...and since that is very close to Father Christmas land he insisted on showing you himself...

A lovely handbag...a pincushion...a gorgeous Norwegian button...and a packet of skiing charms (to my mind very Nordic)...

The handbag is the most perfect size and will be going to Summer School with me in a couple of weeks time...

The pincushion is from my favourite Leanne's House pincushion pattern and Anne Heidi has made it in the same fabric as the sample on the pattern packet...

Thank you so much Anne Heidi, I love everything.

And to continue with the Scandanavian theme for the swap I sent to Sweden...

For Marica I made...

...a few sewing items...a pincushion...a needlebook...a rotary cutter pouch...and a scissor keep...of course the scissor keep needed a pair of pretty pink embroidery scissors and the needlebook some needles and the pincushion some pins...and of course, no-one should be expected to sew without chocolate!...

I started with a pincusion pattern from Leanne's House (coincidentally the same pattern packet that Anne Heidi used for my present!) and once that was made the project kind of took on a life of its own...and the butterfly stitchery was repeated on the other items which I made up as I went along...the bucket bag? well, I figured the items needed somewhere to live and a bucket bag just seemed to fit the bill so I made one of those up as well..

And of course...a huge thank you must go to Chookyblue her very self for once again giving us bloggers the opportunity to play along with this swap...

Happy Stitching....

Santa Moon

My Quilt Fabric Delights Christmas In July swap package arrived yesterday from Jane...how cute is Santa Moon!...

Made as a softie then painted, LOVE HIM!...the swap was an ornament and a fat quarter...beautifully wrapped in the fat quarter when I opened it there are two pieces of yummy fabric in my fav blue/yellow combination....Thank you so much Jane...

And thanks to Sarah for hosting a fun swap...

Happy Stitching...

Still Stitching on GJ...

After spending a couple of months in stitchy wilderness A Gardener's Journal has emerged back into the light...

Only the stitcheries...there has been no block construction action going on...Resting in the Garden, the Birdhouse and the Row of Flowers stitcheries belong to Block F which was apparently going to happen in September...it didn't, oh well...the lawnmower to Block B which was slated for October...and Ladybird to Block E, hey! that's December's block, that would be this month! wahoo!!...oh what's that?...September, October and November come Before December...bugger!...thinking I'll just keep on with the stitcheries and worry about the block construction once they are done...

In other stitchy news, last weekend this little top came into being...

It's going to be a table centre...made from a Pure by Moda charm pack...now to actually sandwich it up and quilt it...before Christmas next year!

Happy stitching...

Chookyblue's SCCS 2010....Ornament Sent...

Finally we are able to start to reveal the secrets that were Chookyblue's SCCS 2010.  I sent to Sweden to Marica who has now told me that it has arrived and she has revealed so I can too!

The ornament portion of the exercise was challenge no 1...I misread the directions and didn't register the word "hanging" so my first plan had to be abandoned...I was doing well with a choice until I read the instructions properly...magazines and books were scoured, the internet consulted, nothing was jumping out at me...what to do, what to do??...Then in Homespun's 10th Anniversary issue I came upon the cutest little elf boots...Do you recall at the Ballarat Quilt-In that I Had To Have wool felt and Had To Start a project I saw in the magazine that day...well, the project was...Elf Boots...remember the purple one I made for Mhairi...well...

For Marica I made pink...

and added a trio of freddos because while they are not all that Christmassy, they are Aussie and chocolate was essential...

Now we have to wait until Christmas to open the main presents...

Happy Stitching....

Hearts for Pike Mine...

Healing heart blocks laid out at sewing group ready to be sent across the ditch...

51 blocks...winging their way across the water...

Fabric Friday...

Friday morning I opened the front door to go to lunch with my sewing group at a restaurant in a neighbouring town and kicked a squishy parcel…my order from Sew Unique Creations…

Pinks & browns goodies which have a purpose…they are going to Summer School in Wodonga with me in January…

 

Lunch was yummy and afterwards most of us felt compelled to continue on to play at Quilter's Bazaar…wahoo! Lorraine & Jim were having a 25% off sale and I needed batting, lots of batting, a perfect opportunity…that was my plan, buy batting…look at the other lovelies in the shop but buy batting…I did, I did buy batting, 7 metres of it but…somehow, along the way…some other stuff jumped in the bag as well…oops!

The colours are a bit iffy in the photo but the fat quarters are beige to caramel and will go nicely in the Summer School box with the squishy parcel fabrics...

Then it was down the hill to The Drapers of Mount Macedon…where I found these little beauties to add to the collection…

While generally meadering around the shop I wandered into the area where the notions are located and there…on the floor…in a collection of reduced price bolts my gaze fell upon bolts of the first Rocky Mountain range… 

...the very same range that I am using for A Gardener’s Journal…now I had started roaming around cyberspace in the not very hopeful hope that I might stumble across enough of something from this range for borders…and here, in front of me, were bolts…and greatly reduced if the remainder of the bolt was purchased...I grabbed them with both hands in glee…now I have choices…Mary kindly put the fabric back on the bolt for me so I could pretend I have my own quilt shop *LOL*...if only she had realised just how much fabric was moving into my house that day!!!

A good day of fabric acquisition...and all with a purpose...now that is scary!...

Happy Stitching...

SCCS 2010 Received...

I had an exciting parcel arrive during the week...all the way from Norway...from Anne-Heidi...

Only the ornament parcel could be opened straight away...and inside was this gorgeous hand knitted Christmas ball...

I had been admiring Anne-Heidi's beautiful knitting on her blog...thank you Anne-Heidi I love it...

The rest of the parcel has to be kept until Christmas Day...oooohhhhh so hard...but I've been good and put it aside...can't wait to see what is inside on Dec 25...

I've posted my parcel to ??? in ???, hope the post elves have been good and don't take too long to deliver it...

Happy Stitching...