A delivery, an update, and a finish......

You may have gathered that I love food..... and sewing ......

So I was triple happy when I won this lovely gadget on a giveaway on Samelia's Mum ....

a soup maker which was delivered quick smart

I was very excited to give it a try

So.... chop chop - with the vegetables (not even 5 minutes)

pour in some stock

turn on the button (smooth or chunky) - I wanted smooth .... 

15 minutes later.... all done....
I'm serious
.... ALL done ....
fresh hot soup

A quick tasty meal and limited washing up = means more time for stitching

I'm looking for tried and tested yummy soup recipes now

~ another amazing tea towel of mine.... grandieboy Kiegan is our artist in this one ~
(I love it)

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Anorina @ Samelia's Mum has a lovely blog... there are always lots of tutorials, fun stories, recipes..
..... oh , and giveaways....

anyways... as I said I do love food and Anorina shared this lovely recipe for Cheese and Herb Muffins HERE....

They go perfectly with my morning cuppa.... or on the side with my fresh home made pumpkin soup

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Our little wrens are still flirting around...

I managed to snap this picture and you can see Mr Wren's blue colouring is coming in

(not the best picture but they move so quicksmart)

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and of course I must finish off with some sewing

This cute little book that is being put away till October when Grandie#6 joins us

I do love Beatrix Potter so of course I couldn't resist a panel I could sew together 

Brings back memories of sitting on my Grannie's lap listening to her read

I do hope you spend some time in your Happy Place this week

it's SPRING on Thursday

August Christmas Items.....

I am sure many of us are thinking of people in USA who are waiting for Hurricane Irene's visit.... stay safe everyone...... we are praying for you....

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2043.html

It's time for showing those Christmas Items again.... you do realise it is only 4 months to Christmas?

EEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!

I was lucky enough to receive 2 Christmas Tree blocks this month.... this week this lovely set of trees arrived from Jen (no blog) ....  it's lovely... 4  pieced trees all joined together.... it will fit in perfectly with all the others I have HERE.  Thanks Jen... I love it

My Christmas Items this month are the other 3 little ornaments (the first 3 I showed HERE)

a robin, reindeer and little angel

these will be a fun addition to our decoration collection

I also completed this very cute candle mat

This is from a pattern I received from Annette.  The pattern was nice and easy to follow - a bit of stack and whack, then cutting templates and putting it all together... I have a few embroidery stitches on my machine so I played with some of them..

Thanks Annette for the lovely pattern..... now I have made one I may well do a few more.. they would be lovely gifts....

I am linking with Narelle and Allie - the notable cheerleaders for getting Christmas items done early....

Hoping you find time in your happy place....

Bargain buys.....

I found these cute little coffee cups in an Op Shop.... 50c a piece...

so I had to fill them up quick smart....

chocochino anyone?

don't you love this piece of fabric?

I don't know what to do with it..  but I love it.....

Finally finished these dishtowels I have had prepared for ages.....

cupcakes

apples....

and strawberries

I love the strawberries... I think they would be nice with chocochino's....

A few finishes .....

Today I am linking up with Sandy's Monday Show and Tell - my August OPAM finishes on the sidebar are looking a bit sad this month...
.. I tend to do several.... well... lots... of different things at one time... but then it inevitably means I have a few finishes at a time

I think it has something to do with A.A.A.D.D.  - information recently sent to me via email - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder....

however, I must add that although I do have mature age limited attention span... I don't think there is any disorder in it... in fact I think my chaos is very orderly..... (Hubz disagrees but then he has no idea how to sew)

so getting on... with doing a bit of this .... and a bit of that... and then a bit of whatever..... I now have some pretties that I have finished......

4 patch Stack and Whack is quilted and bound

Long time ago last year I did a workshop and made the top.

I'm glad to say it is a finished UFO to go to Sew It's Finished

I did all the quilting using a design on paper shown HERE.

a separate feather flower for each of the blocks and then a complete joined feather border

sorry to show off.... I haven't done a big feather design like this before....

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A little grandiegirl in England is now at an age where she wants pretty bags to go shopping with her mom -

these are dinky little bags and makes me wish I was a one year old.....

A fairly simple squared off tote... but just in little size.... with some buttons added for fun

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I only caught on the idea of having thread savers recently.....
(not actually sure what it's called but that little bit of sewing you do before starting your main item so the thread doesn't get all gemorshelled at the back of your work...)

.... instead of a scrap I pinned together a bunch of little 4" charm squares
(I belong to a quilt shop club and one of the benefits is getting 4" charms of a selection of new fabrics - we get about 10 of these quarterly and they build up nicely)
 - one square pretty charm.. the other square plain white..... these sit in a box next to my machine....

each time I finish off I sew down a side of the square and that acts to hold the thread .....

very quickly I have a bunch of sewn up charm squares.....

slice, slice, snip, snip.....

half square triangles..... they go into their own box now....

I'll now use them as thread savers (or whatever they are called so they don't gemorshel up my work)
and sew them up in rows

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I finished my embroidery sampler - and framed it on a 10" square canvas... just a few staples in the back....

.... very cute methinks....

design and lessons by Bari J of welovefrenchknots

.... some stitching and slicing of the yummy chocolates going on .....

some designing of a Christmas stocking for this years newly arrived Grandiegirl....

Future Fresh Salads from my garden

and watching fat buds open on one of my favourite climbers

...... and all that makes 4 OPAM finishes for me......

Time for a cuppa ...

.... and a snack...

I wonder what my A.A.A.D.D. will find for me to do today.....
I think I'll sit in the sun and read.... it's a beaut day

What are you doing?

Oh Christmas Tree.....

I do love all the different Christmas Trees I have received in swaps.... and I hope nobody is offended by my showcasing this one....

I have been blown away by this one from Larissa.  It is very pretty but I am also very touched to see the loving work she has done ...

Larissa knows I am just learning needleturn (we are bloggy friends) so she designed this lovely block....

each section of the tree is sewn separately and the 'ornaments' hand stitched with embroidery....

even the back is worth showing you......

... and look at the lovely card that came with it... giving a description of the work...

(I should have taken a picture of the front... a lovely native flowering bush)

I'm sure you will agree this is a very special block to receive

thanks Larissa