More Finishes for April (Jelly Bean and Christmas!!)

Having a longarm quilting machine

Is the best thing for my unfinished projects!!!

I have just finished putting the binding on my

'Jelly Beans' Quilt....

(the binding was leftover from my rose hexagon quilt)

Here's a view of the back...

I quilted a feather meander pattern,

in a varigated thread, which I thought suited the top,

which is very scrappy and bright.

It means the quilting is very visible on the back,

but actually looks quite cute.

This quilt started when I saw Sio's Carnival Corn.

I just can't believe I've finished it!

And now I'd like to do another one in Sio's colours!!!

*****

And here's another finish,

this one was quilted on my regular sewing machine
and bound in leftover binding from my 1980's star quilt...

Started when Kate came to visit in November (I think)....

So, you can see, I'm getting a bit better at finishing things

in under 20 years now LOL

Christmas Wreath

My first ever home-made Christmas wreath!

 

 

I dried the oranges in the oven

and made the wreath using branches

(with cones growing on them)

from some trees on the farm.

 

It has no oasis, no frame, no wire....

It's being held together by ribbons,

love and hope :)

 

Tomorrow I'll hang it out,

in the meantime I'm off to sew!

Closing the Stable Door...

... After the horse has bolted!

I like that saying.

It means that even though Christmas is over

I am still blogging Christmas stuff

and doing Christmas crafting LOL.

I was sent these beautiful snowmen for our tree:

They were beautifully hand-crafted

by Kandy.

Thank you Kandy!!

DS1 complained that Santa wouldn't be able to read

his name on the old name tag that hung on his stocking,

so last night I embroidered the boy's names on their stockings...

I just found a font in 'Word' that I liked...

and tried my best to embroider it.

This year I joined the BQL Sewing Santa Swap

again and received a cushion

with my name machine-embroidered on it.

When DH saw it he said,

'Wow, someone's got a fancy embroiderery machine'.

They sure have!

Thanks Mary!

And my little poppet is 10 weeks old today!

The time is flying by far too fast!!!!!!

Let's hope 2012 goes much more slowly!

Belated Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas!

Our stockings were up and filled by Santa!!

(I have made most of these stockings over the years,

but I did buy the one on the right with the heart

(and the small pink felt one for baby) ) -

I am just waiting for my 'main' Christmas present to arrive -

DH has bought me a camera

and as soon as I get my grubby paws on it,

I'll blog my super SSCS gifts -

believe me, the pictures will be worth waiting for...

In the meantime, here's a shot of what the old camera does:

i.e. the flash doesn't always work,

but I guess that's good for hiding all our

country cottage clutter ;o)

And a parting shot from a week ago...:

It's only taken him 8 and a half weeks to hold his sister,

but at last we are there!

Goodbye the old...

Here's a quick roundup of December:

I made it to my last screenprinting night class for the term and managed to print a few tea-towels for Christmas...

I really enjoyed the class and hope to sign up again.

There were some very talented people on the course and it was so enjoyable to get out of the house for a few hours once a week to be creative with like minded spirits.

At the end of the session we had to wash our screens and wash away our designs *sob* (until next time I hope!)


Christmas entailed, home-picked holly from our neighbour,...

a P.Y.O. (pick your own) tree. And I mean literally pick your own. The lady selling them told me where the saw was and off the boys and I trotted (well I hobbled LOL), found a tree we liked and I had to saw it off!


It got it's fair share of decorations (I think next year we will need a bigger tree!)

I also did the odd Christmas market...

The boys both had Nativity plays. One was a sheep...

The other a king...

We had a pre-Christmas trip to friends near Cambridge. Dh gave us a little tour of the land of arches and bicycles...

And the bashing accomplished a new window/door on the homefront...

Happy New Year!

Bring it on, I'm almost ready!!!!

Sew Many Thanks!

Wow! What a wonderful quilty Christmas it has been this year!

Jenny of Elefantz made me a beautiful cushion cover and pincushion (both almost too nice to use) and included a Melly & Me pattern for the Chookyblue Secret Santa Christmas swap.


Such exquisite stitches!!


Jenny's gift was wrapped in awesome Christmas fabric. Thanks Jenny (and Thanks Donna for hosting this great swap again!)

From the BQL 'made' Christmas gift swap, I got this great bag!



Thanks to my Secret Santa and to Kandy for hosting this swap again!

My BQL 'purchased' present was this cute vintage-style tin with threads and some mini-charms...


Thanks Secret Santa and thanks again Kandy!!

This is a gift I made for my DSIL's dog. He seems to need a lot of stuff with him when he gets taken out so I made him a big bag :-)



My dear friend Vicky gave me this for Christmas...



A Robin bag filled with polka dot delights! Love them!!! Thanks Vicky!



Some unexpected fabric arrived from another dear friend...


Thanks Josie!

And from the Advent swap, my 'big gift' from Ailsa...


Thanks Ailsa, and thanks Jo for organising the swap!

A White Christmas!?!

This is what it looked like on Thursday morning when I set off to fetch my youngest from Nursery....


That afternoon after doing the shopping and (thankfully) fetching DH (who did the rest of the driving for the day) we were stuck in the snow on the A65 for 2 hours trying to get home on tretcherous ungritted roads! We are very thankful of our neighbours and some local farmers who helped us get home. Maybe all I want for Christmas is actually a 4x4 and some snow driving lessons ;-)

DS1 had been on a coach trip to a panto and only got home after 7 pm as the bus also encountered many delays with the snow. He was starving and very tired, but had a great time seeing his first panto. Thanks to our neighbour once again for rescuing him from school. My little car doesn't 'do' snow and I was so worried about getting the little chap home!

The next morning, we woke up to this...




If as they forecast, we get more snow, we may even have a white Christmas!


Merry Christmas everybody!!

Hello again

There I was last Monday, minding my own business when WHAM! I got struck down with the most nasty flu. Today was the first day I have been up and feeling ok pretty much all day. A whole week of coughing, nose-blowing, sick children and definitely no sewing. I managed a very few stitches on my hexagons one evening, but it was too much like hard work LOL

As the whole family was finally well enough to go out today, we braved the masses so that DH could make a start on his Christmas shopping (Men!).

And tonight I made a start (and a finish) on 3 quick adult stockings to go with the boy's Christmas stockings...



And I also photographed the packaging of my BQL Secret Santa...



What a cheek! As if I would open it before the 25th!!! :-)