The night before

Well... the afternoon before really...

I took these photos yesterday afternoon before the quilting group Christmas doo.

Here is the Christmas Cookie bag with the gift I bought for my K.K. I chose Civil War Dressing Gown fabrics for Gill as she has just finished hand-quilting her Dear Jane. It took her 10 years to hand-piece and hand-quilt her masterpiece. So, I knew she would like these fabrics.

I've gone a bit crazy on the book covers.

I am loving the fabrics!!

I bought more ric-rac yesterday! LOL!!

Suffolk Puffs or Yo-Yos?

Whatever you like to call them (Suffolk Puffs or Yo-Yos), I have finished the Christmas Cookie bag. That's the only thing I finished off my weekend list!! ... the list I shared with my quilting diary anyway...

On the quilting side of things I dug out my box of "Oriental" fabrics. It's amazing what I had stuck in there. You know, not many of the fabrics actually go together. Some are like this:

and others are bright purple with Japanese ladies on them. I must have bought the bright ones cheap sometime and forgot about them!!!

Here's what I was doing with them:

Can you guess what it is?

I knew you would work it out!!

This is fun, I love small projects for fast finishes!!

I am having fun picking out co-ordinating fabrics!!

Luxembourg in Down Under Quilts

Down Under Quilts have a completely new look on the cover and new formatting inside.

Doesn't it look great?

You can see my project "Luxembourg"published in the December edition!!! Find out how to make it in the mag!!!

Click here for a free digital 6-month subscription to the magazine.

Three things to finish...

I've got three things to finish this weekend. I've been slack with the finishing and too fluid with the starting right?

Thanks to this blog I have finished 28 items this year so far!! I am going to keep that list showing for a little while next year, then move on to 2009.

Okay, here is the monkey I have nearly finished. The felt eyes are pinned on, they just need to be sewn on.

Here is the peg bag. The binding is sewn on (I bet you recognise the binding from the monkey's shorts - clever you!), it needs the coat hanger in, fabric cover for the metal hook, and a bow with buttons to hide the opening where the hook comes out.

This bag needs to be finished by Tuesday. I did frog it all and re-sewed it. When the gusset bent it needed more space within the fabric envelope. Basically, I left one end open until I had sewn the lage suffolks onto both sides. It just needs the handle, and I want to glue some braid along the joins of the gusset and suffolks.

Then, it's Christmas presents full on! Some to start, and some to finish! I will show what I can, when I can. One can't really know who is reading their blog posts!!!

Grassy Christmas to you...

Guess what Annette brought to quilting last night for me? A child's wooden coat hanger! Thanks Annette! She reckons it must be leftover from her childhood. (How precious!!).

We don't have our Christmas tree up yet.... but... I can't wait!! We will put it up on the weekend.

We have to get all our grass mowed and whipper-snipped before Friday or the council will send someone to do it and make us pay for the service. It's a fire prevention thing, but it's such a big job! (2.5 acres of "garden"). It looks like our Tree will go up after that.

Here is a start to our decorations. This isn't going to stay here - I just have a book and camera weighting it down at the ends. LOL!!

This decoration is made from raffle blocks I won a couple of years ago at our local group. I turned each one into a mini-quilt with ribbon sticking out of the binding, and joined them into a swag. I think I will hang it in the hallway.

Consumption of fabric

No eating quilt fabric! At least not on your own. That's what it says on the selvedge of this fabric!! I am definitely going to start saving selvedges for a natty project sometime.

I stitched this picture for a peg bag. It's a pattern from Willow Valley Store. Cathy is an Australian designer.


This is the first time I have used ric-rac as an edging. Can you see it along the top of the pocket?

The stitchery is the front pocket, then there is an oval opening I have edged with ric-rac too.

The pegs are accessed through the oval opening.
How cute is this ric-rac?

Next I need put a child-sized wooden coat hanger across the top and shape the bag to the curve before I add a binding to hold the layers together.

I don't have any child-sized wooden hangers that aren't already decorated. Isn't this bananas in pyjamas one cute? Mum gave it to me about 5 years ago.

Where am I going to find these coat hangers in my town???

A little bird told me...

It's Summer!! YAY!!

Time to put up the Christmas tree tonight! Last year I was soo busy preparing the garden for our outdoor wedding reception at home in January - I didn't even get a Christmas tree up. That was sad. Even when I lived on campus I had some sort of decorations up -I would put up Christmas lights on the wall, even though I didn't have a tree. LOL!!

Here are the bird stitcheries I have been working on. They are designed by fellow Australian Barb Smith (she goes under the name Woodcutter's Daughter).

These will become cushions very soon.

I can't put everything I am working on at the moment - it will have to wait until the recipients receive their presents!!

Have a great day. I've got my Christmas tree hair clip on and a Santa brooch.