Family weddings and bloggy friends

My last Christmas sewing this year was some cushions for one of my daughters.

When I bought the fabric I hadnt realised that the spacing between the wire or branch the birds are sitting on was not even across the fabric.  I needed to buy a bit more to be able to cut from the same section so they would be better positioned.  Even so my daughter loves them and said she has a few places where they would go nicely in her house.  So that is the main thing.  I found this lovely stripe , to use for the piping.
At the weekend we were privileged to be able to go to my Niece’s wedding.  On Friday there had been some quite heavy rain, but Saturday was a beautifully sunny day, with such a clear blue sky.

The wedding was in a park, beside a waterfall, a beautiful setting.

  Definitely one of the advantages of weddings is the opportunity to catch up with people we rarely see, so it was great to see my brother,, as well as a great opportunity for a photo of him with his daughter.. 

The other wonderful opportunity of travelling to other towns is to sometimes be able to meet up with bloggy friends.  I had just that chance on Friday to meet up with Fiona of Bubz Rugz once again.  We had a lovely couple of hours chatting over a cuppa, talking Family, projects, sewing, and life in general.  It is still hard to believe we have met only once before, but we do email frequently so it seems we have known each other for simply ages. (This was on the rainy day, and the cloud is still hanging heavily).

I had made a project pouch to give to Fiona.  I made it large enough that an A4 pattern sheet would fit in the pouch along with the fabric and threads for a stitchery or small project.  These panels are “New Quilts Old Friends” by Sandy Gervais (Moda). . 


I have had them for some years, but was unsure just what I would do with them. Looking at them recently it came to me that they would be good for small “sewing” items  I have another 6 panels, so will make them up into similar projects I think.
Fiona gave me a cute little needlecase..  The fabric is so beautiful.  It will go into my project pouch I think, so I will always have my needles ready for use. Fiona has not only written a tutorial here to make your own needlecase, but also has a very generous giveaway of  kits to make one in beautiful Rural Jardin fabrics.  Do go visit her blog and make a comment.  
I also have a lovely selvedge bookmark, gorgeous tag, and there WERE some yummy chocs in the bottom of the  gorgeous little Christmas bonbon.

We were back from the wedding with time to spend a few hours with our 2 daughters, S-I-L and 4 of our Grandies.

 

Christmas Angel Swap gifts

I was such a lucky duck. I had Jeanette as my swap partner in the Christmas Angel Swap, organised by Karen of Mrs Martin’s Quilt Shop.
My gifts – this gorgeous Christmas Gift Bag.  (Thanks Gertie Giraffe for displaying it for me over the Christmas time)

My Wall hanging, which was immediately hung above my Christmas Tree.  It is gorgeous.

And the remaining gifts – Christmas decoration (I received 2), hand stitched Christmas Card, framed stitchery, candle mat, yummy chocolate, fabric, ribbon and button, gorgeous little scissors and tape measure, and in the middle a mug rug.  This is the absolute first mug rug I have – I have made them but always for gifts for others, and not for myself.  Yay, now I have one of my own.  We had decided to do a bigger “postcard” in mug rug size instead of postcard size.

Yesterday I received a belated birthday gift, this beautiful hand crafted lamp – my sister had been waiting for the opportunity to give it to me ever since my birthday in April.   It is absolutely stunning, and the perfect colour for me.  She chose well.  The lamp was made by a woman in Bundaberg, Queensland.  The framed stitchery Jeanette gave me goes perfectly alongside it.  (though the stitchery doesnt show up well in the photo).

My daughter’s comment on seeing Jeanettes beautiful stitching was, that the stitches are so tiny and even that she didnt realise it was hand done.   But then, it is far better than any machine stitching anyway.
Oops, I almost forgot to show the gorgeous gift tag Jeanette made. 

Thank you so much Jeanette for these gorgeous swap gifts.
Here is what I sent to Jeanette.

The bag is from this tutorial.  When I took these pics I didnt have the something yummy to eat.  But it did get added to the parcel.

Thank you Karen for organising such a fun swap.

I am so excited !!! tomorrow we are travelling to the city where Bubz Rugz lives, and we are meeting up for coffee tomorrow afternoon.  If you hear a persistent buzzing you will know we are having a wonderful catchup.

Christmas greetings

Last Christmas gift made – for my daughter to give to one of her friends.
A very simply made cushion with invisible zipper closure and red piping. 

Two Grandies came for a sleepover last night and this morning we headed off to buy their Mum a Christmas gift.  They decided to buy some tools as they said she had nothing to fix broken things with at home. , Well, it was a good opportunity for them to check out the tools.  We came away with a hammer, screwdrivers, pliers and a wrench. 
While at Bunnings (Hardware store) they spotted the craft table where children could make Christmas decorations.  They jumped right in, They glued, glittered, coloured, stickered (and made a mess – what a patient staff member, she didnt make any comment about the puddle of glue one of them left on the table.)
When I showed appreciation for her patience she said it was because she had two young children at home.  She is definitely the right person for running craft activities,.

We managed to get them home and hang them to let the glue dry.

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May Joy be your gift at Christmas
and may Faith, Hope and Love
be your treasures in the New Year.

To all blogging friends, Have a wonderful day with Family and Friends

Purses galore, and Christmas scene with a difference

Christmas gifts I have made this week


2 purses using frames I purchased from Fee.  I used Fee’s tutorial but altered it just a little.
My daughter asked me to make these next items.



I made the heart shaped pouch using this tutorial by Erin Erickson.  I made 2 of these but one has been given away already.
For the zippered pouches, I was searching for a tutorial that showed how to make them without raw seams showing on the inside.  I am sure there will be tutorials showing how to do this, but not one I could find .  So I used this tutorial for the strippy look, put the zipper part way down the front instead of at the top, boxed the bottom corners, and then worked out how to hide the seams. It took a bit of experimentation but it worked in the end. If I had left the zipper at the top it would have been easy enough, it was having the zippers down a bit that made it more difficult. After Christmas I am going to make another and write a tutorial of how I did it so it is available for if I want to make more in future.
 

Finally I made a “Dear Diary”, a JoyPatch pattern.  She is giving this one to her friend who loves music, and is heading off to Bible College next year. 
When visiting South Bank (Brisbane) last week we checked out the Sand Sculpture, “Holly Jolly Sandcastle”.  It was a work in progress, but what had been done is absolutely amazing.

I wonder if I can go back and see the finished sculpture?

Decorating the tree and a birthday

These 2 Grandies always come to decorate our Christmas Tree for us. 

This year they were much more interested in the older decorations which their Mum had made or those she remembered from when she was young.

My poor Christmas Tree is showing its age and kept leaning precariously whenever they touched it.  It caused lots of laughs.  In the end we had to push it into the corner where the walls are holding it upright.  I think a replacement is called for before long – like maybe next year.
We also took them into Brisbane City to show them the decorated Myer window.

Dont you just love their little quilts.

The sleigh crashed, and the reindeer thought Christmas was ruined.

But the sheep dug out and blinged up this old car, and converted it into a new super duper sleigh

making Santa a very jolly fellow once again.
Our oldest Grandie is about to turn 8 years old.  He had a party at the weekend.

His Mum made that incredible cake.  Zac is in the black shirt, in the middle, with his little sister standing beside him – just checking out the chocolates on the cake.

It’s kind of like back at school

We started off with a piece of quilter’s muslin, and these paints to prepare our backgrounds.

After tracing on the design we quilted the flowers, leaves, vines etc. 
Then came the fun part.  Using these – Inktense pencils and water soluble crayons, with fabric medium to colour the flowers and leaves.

Following that was more quilting to the background.
The finished result

This was started at a class taught by Michelle from Kiel Mountain Colours, in 2010.  

I so enjoyed all the processes for this wallhanging.