Sew, Sew Busy

I am looking forward to the school year finishing

just to get a break from the frantic end of

year school happenings

Miss Sophie received 3 awards at the last

school assembly.

The Acc Reader Champion award, which was a certificate

and a book (The Diary of Anne frank), she read

2407198 words during the school year, and received a 

certificate for her effort, and she also received a

certificate for completing the Premiers Reading Challenge

Then last Wednesday was Presentation Day,

Sophie received the

Dr Peter Hendy MP Literacy Award 

(a medal and certificate)

Emma received a Quality Achievement award

Imogen also received a 

Quality Achievement award

We are very proud of our girls

this is the photo we MMS to Grandpa

I haven't been doing very much sewing,

but I am doing a Cross Stitch

its been 13 years since my last

foray into the world of Cross Stitch and I am much further 

along with it than this photo shows.

I also made 90 mini christmas puddings

for the girls to take into school for their class

partys

and these balls were part of their teachers gifts

fiddly but oh so sweet

Wednesday is the bigger girls last day EVER of primary 

school, they are having a Leavers Luncheon

then a disco on Wednesday night, both requested

dresses for their disco, so we bought new dresses,

shoes and hair thingies.....

Our son arrives in the early hours of Monday morning

all the Christmas shopping is done (yay)

well except for me :(

and the girls and I are off to Bairnsdale on the 28th

to drop our boy off at the train station and possibly

do some shopping.

I for one will be so happy once 2013 is done and dusted

its been a shit year!

FNWF

For the first time in ages I joined in with the FNWF. It was rather productive but due to a cub/scout activity today this is the first chance I have had to blog about it

First up is the beginnings of a '12 days of Christmas' sampler, I'm not in a rush to get it done, as long as finished by Christmas 2014 all will be good

Next I worked on a wagon wheel block, only 2 more to make for this month

Tomorrow I have a feeling I am not going to be able to move without wincing in agony, we rode our bikes about 2 kms, then hiked up giant hills another 2kms, before hiking back down the giant hills and biking back to the cars. My feet are so sore and I have muscles I didn't realise I had 😉 

So I am hoping to get some more wagon wheel blocks made and some more cross stitch done.

Iam off blog hoping to see what everyone else achieved.

Slow Down 2013

I can't believe it is Christmas in 19 days, where has the year gone.

I for one wish 2013 never came.

We have had good times and very sad times.

If 2013 never came my mama would still be with us.

So as the end of the year approaches its time to wind

down the school year.

this week the twosome have had

high school orientation

Next week is the end of year presentations for the girls

each year group has around 4 prizes to hand out,

and school notifies the parents whose children are receiving

awards.

Last year Sophie received the Citizenship award for her year

this year, ALL 3 of my girls are receiving awards.

I cannot wait to find out what they have been awarded.

Today Sophie is receiving some library awards!

1 for the most words read this year, well over 3000000

yes, 3 million + words my girl has read.

She is also receiving a year 6 champion something award

so dh and I are off the assembly at noon.

Chookyblues SSCS sleigh has landed

I have opened my ornament

with a gorgeous embroidered angel mouse on the back

and you can just see my christmas day present

peeking out from under the tree 

A HUGE thank you to 

Tonje in Norway and to Chooky and Googy Girl

Yesterday dh and I spent the day Christmas shopping

we are nearly done, just a couple of little things left to 

collect 

Our son (24) is joining us this year, if there was one good thing

to come out of losing my mama is my boy now knows how important

family is.

This year for christmas I wanted to get an iPhone 5 on a contract

I mentioned it to dh who said NO WAY, I didn't need 1

ha guess who got a new pink phone yesterday and it was

in fact his idea, to go into Telstra and look.......

Bless him he really needs to learn to say NO and mean it

So if you had my mobile number you will have to email me to 

get my new number!

Busy as a Beaver

I have been very productive at my sewing machine lately. Managing to finish

2 quilt tops with substantial progress on a third

1st top is a trip around the world, made completely

out of my stash, I surprised myself with

just how many brights I actually had

Burgoyne Surrounded and now that its

finished bar the quilting I can see 2 spots which will 

involve time with the unpicker and a bit of 

re sewing........ its HUGE but should look 

fabulous on my bed, once its quilted

and I caught the dresden plate bug, I had a fat 1/8th

bundle of Vintage Modern which gave me 16 plates,

and I have added a layer cake of scrumptious which is giving me

another 5 plates and I will have 4 plates which will be a mix of

vintage modern and scrumptious, for a total of 25 plates.

Then I will need to make the itty bitty plates to have

were the blocks join, that little plate is smaller than a 

DVD disc

the plates on the design wall

plates to go onto the design wall

centre fabric for all plates, its a bit of Ruby

blades to be sewn into plates tomorrow

and the remaining 4 stacks to be ironed into blades 

tomorrow

I have the hubster home for 2 weeks....... lots of golf on

his agenda, this weekend will see us hosting

the annual Christmas Soiree for his work and friends

will be a fabulous night.

3 weeks until the girlies finish school and 2 of them finish

primary school........

Too Many Pie's

I think I have my fingers planted in too many pies 

this is what has been going on over the last week

On my design floor (its too big for the wall)

a UFO from last year.

Burgoyne Surrounded

finished size 85"x107"

I have 6 more blocks to make, plus the sashing between

each block, row then I can start on the border.

On the quilting frame was this garish, give me nightmares

quilt, its one that my mummy made and was in her

quilting things, and because Em needs to have a

queen size of king size bed to be able to use the quilt I made on 

mums behalf, its now Emma's quilt. Its in the binding line

I started off stippling it

then moved onto loops

For Sophie, a very funky little wall hanging

(its in the binding line too)

I had a fat 1/8th bundle of 

Vintage Modern staring at me for yonks

now I have Dresden canoes

and Dresden blades

and 1 finished Dresden plate

the plan is to make a Dresden quilt for me, with the plates appliquéd

onto white background squares and then to have smaller dresden

plates appliqued where the blocks join, but as we all know

plans can change.

So I possibly have my fingers in to many pies but as I keep telling my

dh, I am stash busting, I ONLY need to buy background fabric 

for the Dresdans, the Burgoyne Surrounded, needs nothing as I

had already started it....

I am SAVING him money :)

Life Is Better with Friends

Life is Better with Friends, a free tutorial.

Originally I was making it to include in a birthday gift as my twinnies were both invited to the birthday sleepover, unfortunately only 1 is now going, long story there, but as a result I don't think the intended recipient is worthy of this little wall hanging, instead it will be given to 1 of my girlies with another 2 in the pipe line! Really when did 11&12 year olds become so nasty?

Sheesh, it's no wonder I am going grey

Mum's Legacy & Reg Mombasa

for my girlies.

Emma's quilt is 100% finished

Mind you we had to go visiting friends to get the photo,

luckily our friends were more than willing to let us

use their deck :)

Sophie had a drawing in the SCLC art exhibition on the weekend

its in the style of

Reg Mombasa

and today is the great quilt box opening

my dearest friend Jenni has been away for 2 months

and I told her when she returned we would open the

remaining quilts together, Jen arrived home on 

Saturday, so today is the day.

I am very excited to see them. They are

the  last quilts mum ever made.

Sneak Peeks & a Secret Revealed

Can you have to much furniture??

My husband thinks so, BUT, he needs to remember that

we own a much larger house interstate and ALL our furniture

fits in that house perfectly.

This is the reason why he thinks we have to much furniture

I found this divine little cupboard on a 

buy, sell and sway page for our area.

for the HUGE sum of $20. Its old, its very me

and even if it was purchased to be used in my sewing room

(it didn't fit), I still say it was $20 well spent!

I called into Mitre 10 to buy some casters to level the little

cupboard and found these stools for the kitchen bench

I did ask his opinion before I handed over money, in fact

he took me to get them lol. I love that the blend in with my kitchen 

accessories perfectly and the girlies love them

Sewing wise I have been quite productive

this stitchery will become a Project Caddy

and this is the main gift in Chookyblues SSCS

by next week my gifts for the SSCS will be complete

I have signed up for a new BOM, I haven't participated in one

for a while. So while wandering around Facebook, I discovered

Sue Daley has a new BOM design

so I signed up.

Its called Wagon Wheels 

I plan on pulling Lancaster out of its hiding spot and

finishing the vine border, add another diamond border then I think 

it will be done.

All those clamshells are stopping me from

finishing it as the pattern says.

Remember my big secret stitching project

I spent 17 frantic days making. Well I can give you some sneak peaks

of the finished project

The quilt is Love Letters, and I stitched it

for 

Lynette Anderson of 'Lynette Anderson Designs'

Its currently in Houston at Quilt market,

I can't wait to see photos of Lynette's booth

with 'my' quilt hanging in it

I was blessed to have been given the task and 

its made with her GORGEOUS new fabric range

'Quilters Garden' which will be available in stores

March 2014.

I am still pinching myself.

It's Been a While

Since my last post, but I have been uber uber busy

we have had school holidays

tall ships visiting

lots of whales distracting me out the window

and birthday girl who turned 10

and 

a big big

secret squirrel stitching project!

School Holidays were a bit quiet, the girls had lots

of sleepovers here and at their friends houses,

trips to the beach, late nights and sleep ins, 

we worked in the garden planting out vegies for

summer, filling baskets with flower

seedlings.  

We had Tall Ships call into port on their way to Sydney 

for the International Fleet Review

the Soren Larsen

Lord and Lady Nelson leaving for Sydney

we also had visit

The Young Endeavour

Windward Bound

Whale Season, 2013 has been far to distracting for me,

most of these photos have been taken from our deck

the girls were trying so hard to get photos of the whales

breaching.....they didn't get any lol

this is taken from our deck, it was so close

Mother and calf breaching, taken on Imogens birthday

this one was taken from where the girls were standing

when they were trying to get photos.

Mums Quilts, 2 are still in their boxes, I just can't open them

I did open the quilt I made on her behalf for Emma and its gorgeous, the 

quilting is amazing, and it looks pretty good on my bed.

Em doesn't like it, but we did find a quilt top mum made in

amongst  her quilting stash that dad gave to me which

Emma loves, so I will quilt that for her and she will

have that quilt.

'Emma's Quilt'

the backing

the quilting pattern. I think its called

'Featheration'

I will start sewing the binding onto this next week at sewing day.

My secret squirrel project, lets just say getting a quilt top that is

needle-turn appliquéd and embroidered in 17 days is a 

MAMMOTH task.

I haven't been so sleep deprived since I had newborn twins.

It was posted to the quilter on Monday, she received it

Tuesday and I am just waiting to hear that the designer

has received it for binding and then its off to Quilt Market

in Houston next week.

As soon as I see photos of it finished I will share.

They're Here

Mum's final quilts that is

but I haven't been able to open them, once I got them home

from the post office the tears started flowing,

so I have put the boxes on top of the quilting frame

and there they will sit until I can open them.

Then it dawned on my WHY I couldn't open them

its 4 weeks since Mum left us today.

and I really miss her.

I'll open those boxes soon, I'm sure

Congratulations To

Carol from The Patch Craft

My small child picked number 26.

Thank you to everyone who answered my question

and picked a number

Carol please email me your postal address

and

and your new pins will be on the way

I wonder

am I crazy for thinking that my mama sent me a little

sign from above to let me know she is 

still with me??

my mama's family nickname was 'Ting'

it came about when her brother started to talk

and he couldn't say Christina, so he called

her Ting, it stuck and everyone

called her Ting

My little quilting sign broke while I was tidying up my

sewing room the other night. It broke into 3 pieces

Qu, il & Ting

I like to think it is a sign from her, crazy I know

but makes me smile. 

I talked to my dad this afternoon, and shared some

potentially exciting news and his reply was

'that's good isn't it'

mum would have been as excited as I am 

and would have wanted to know everything.

I will share as soon as it becomes much more

than a very good possibility.

and I am very excited. 

but 

I miss her so very much

Don't forget about my little giveaway
you can find it
HERE

A Giveaway, Photos and a Question

As promised here is the centre block of 

Dancing Grandma's

does it need the berries on all four big leaf thingies

my amazingly clean and sorted out cutting table

I tidied up my little magnet boards

even the computer desk was tackled 

(just don't open the drawers, hehehe)

beside my chair was tackled too

alas there was a tragedy, my little Quilting sign

took a tumble and broke, luckily I have a rather

handy husband who WILL FIX IT TODAY

onto the Giveaway,

I use Clover Glass Head pins, I ONLY use these pins, 

this morning I found some Clover Flower Head pins, brand new

never touched a piece of fabric or anyones hand

so I have 2 little boxes of these to give away

all you need to do to have these pins is pick a number between

1 and 50, and on Monday I will ask a small

child (lucky I have 1 of those) to pick a winning number.

and the Question

are you a quilting brand snob like me? I love clover products

I use their glass head pins, their appliqué pins, their blue

wash away pens, I use their needles for hand sewing,

I have 2 of their mini irons......

I use Olfa cutting mats, cutters and blades

My reasoning is that you get what you pay for, I like

my tools to last, whether that be cutters, mats, pins

& markers, 

What is your Go To quilting brand and why??