New Beginnings

there are parts of 5 different quilts

on my design wall

FIVE quilts people, what am I doing

In random order the quilt parts belong to 

1 Dancing Grandmas

2 Wagon Wheels

3 Bring Me flowers

4 Dresdan Plates

5 Secret Stitching project, which is very close to being 

FINISHED

Wagon Wheels, 5 more of the wheel blocks to make

to be caught up

the epp bits for wagon Wheels, 13 more to be caught up

Bring Me Flowers, this is month 1

month 2 is waiting for me to get time to work on it

still need to appliqué the flower centres though

Yesterday was these girlies first day of High School

they were so excited  and had a fabulous day

The short one started year 5 and got the teacher she wanted

happy days

and Henrycat who is put out because he has lost

his normal sunning spot due to the chaos in my

sewing room

I am still here

Time flies when you are having fun

there has been a lot happening in my neck of the

woods, with Christmas, school holidays,

NSW Cuboree and now we are at

the final day of the school holidays.

Christmas last year was a quiet affair

just the hubster, the girlies and our son

we had a lovely day I was very spoilt

we ate too much and played lots

of board games, ds girlfriend joined

us the day after boxing day and we had

them here for a week, which was

lovely.

I received a gorgeous iPad pouch in

Chookyblues secret santa swap, I must take a photo

and share it here 

New Year was also very quiet

we stayed home, watched the fireworks 

at midnight and went to bed, no hangover for me

Sophie and Imogen went to Appin, for the NSW

Cuboree, they had a fabulous time and it was a very quiet

week while they were gone.

Since then we have spent our days lazing around

going to the beach, sewing and just being

sloths in general.

Its been fabulous

Sophie and Emma start high school on Wednesday

so last week was a rush of getting uniforms,

shoes and books. Both girls are very excited

Imogen will be in year 5 this year, I can't 

believe they are growing up so fast, and it will be so nice

to have a lovely clean house again, and food in the pantry

for longer than 2 days.

What else has been happening, there have been some

not so nice phone calls from my sister, I have

wiped my hands of her at the moment, she has said

and done some terrible things that I will never forgive her

for, worst of all, she went running to my dad and

involved him (she is 46 not 14) but dad and I are ok,

my brother and I are ok and she can go to hell in a 

hand basket for all I care at the moment.

We've had a flea infestation, that was pretty gross and we still

can't work out where they came from. Henrycat is an inside cat

who never goes outside or comes into contact with other cats, 

and the dog is an outside dog who never comes inside....

but we fixed it, we bombed the house, twice and so far

so good.

Australia day saw us wood collecting in preparation for winter

today the hubster split it all and the girlies and I stacked it,

another 3 ute loads and we should make it through without 

to collect more or buy it.

Sewing wise I have been busy making another quilt for

Lynette, it will be postal to her at the end of next week

I am aiming for 5/2 mailing date.

I am slowly catching up on my Wagon Wheels BOM

I was given Amities Bring Me Flowers BOM for Christmas

I have made 1 little flower so far, with its partner cut out

waiting to be sewn.

DH and the girlies gave me another Amitie textiles

Quilt kit for Christmas

'Midnight at the Oasis' 

which I am BUSTING

to start, but after Lynette's quilt is done, I have

a baby quilt to make by March, and a quilt to finish for the 

Holman Clinic (where mum had all her treatment) 

to raffle so hopefully 

by the end of Feb I can get Midnight started.

Thats my plan anyway

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 :)