Pressies......

This year I took part in a couple of Christmas swaps.... One was a 12 days of Christmas and I was so spoilt.... this is the last present I got on Christmas day from Cheryll ...

It's a lovely sewing bag with heaps of pockets inside and outside - just perfect for sewing days.... thanks Cheryll for this and the other lovely goodies (shown on the FHFS blog)

Shez sent me this cutest wool rug.... so pretty and perfect - thanks Shez....

Carin from Sweden was my SSCS gifter and she sent this lovely wallhanging

... so much stitching gone into it and just perfect - the colours, the work - everything - thanks Carin

This year all my decorating was hand made - I just love them all and it's wonderful to have some extra pieces to add to it 

Thanks so much to all those people who organise swaps - Shez, Peg, Chookyblue..... its always so much fun for us all....

Cheers to you all.....

Righto, Gotto Go..... not sure what to do - I am feeling very lazy!  Better start with a coffee!

Happy Christmas everyone....

I'm a bit late wishing Happy Christmas - but the love is there!!!

There was lots of last minute stitching ....

Twin Tawny FrogMouths were born to us ..... I only have my phone camera so it is not clear but I assure you these babies are very sweet... and so good.... not whiney or noisy or demanding at all!!

They are an Australian native bird and if you google it you will see much better pictures....

We are having fun watching them - they are moved from branch to branch each night so part of our morning ritual has been looking for them..... often mum and dad are there too....

In this picture mum is sitting with the twins

.... I finished the Wild Things quilt for a grandson.....  I rather love this one....

... as the pictures are big and bold I used monofilament for around all the applique and then echoed around each Wild thing..... then some wobbly geometric shapes in the border....

The superheroes quilt was also finished..... I rather love this one too!

... In this one I also used monofilament around the applique and then some wiggles and circles in the backgrounds....

Both these quilts were made from Toni's book Happy Quilts

.... then there was more birthing it seemed in our house..... looks like a breach delivery????

... and a superhero was born....

... and so was a Wild Thing....

I've only done a couple of stuffed toys before and this time I used felted woolen fabric - a little bit bulky but also forgiving for the shapes....

... here they are placed under the Christmas Tree for Jack and Blair.... whose Dad was with us for a few days over Christmas...

I spotted them all packed in the backpack ready to take to Melbourne for these little men....

I can't wait till I hear how they respond to them...

The best thing about making quilts is them going somewhere to be used and loved isn't it?

Righto, Gotto Go.... Christmas is over, house is empty .... I really don't like the after feeling so perhaps I will find some sewing to occupy me!

Bits and pieces.....

I participated in a Christmas postcard swap hosted by Sheila and recently my card arrived all the way from Ana in Portugal....

Isn't it just lovely......  both a treasured Christmas decoration and a piece of art to join others I have....  I love them...

Thanks Sheila.... 

Coming up to Christmas is always a busy time.... and that's when I find things that need to be sorted out ..

I had these old pieces of curtain fabric - and having my obsession with not throwing useful stuff out I made them up quickly....

Our little dog is a bit of a messy eater and when her mat is in the wash there is yucky kitchen paper down.....  no more... we have plenty of little mats...

I don't throw away my smaller pieces of wadding either so they have wadding in the middle but are not quilted... Instead I just layered them and used my overlocker around the edges.....

Quick and easy - the old curtain fabric is finished (the mats are double sided with the same fabric), some smaller pieces of wadding cleaned out and Tarka has new food mats!!!  Win, win.......

Next up came human place mats..... you may remember some time ago I pulled out a whole lot of Christmas blocks from a block swap and added scrappy sides to them....

This week I quilted them all and did the binding by machine ....

...it looks like a selection of flags! ....

they are all quilted in different ways....

... some have sparkly thread....

... and some blocks are really quite complex ....

they have worked out better than I thought.....

Two of them are already in use on our trays - (yes we eat in front of the TV most nights)

A lovely ornie and hand made card arrived from Karen this week....

.... don't you love the cat....

I normally send out quite a few hand made ornies - and this year I made a good assortment - but lost time somewhere and haven't ended up getting them into envelopes!!!!  Too late now so they will have to wait till next year.  aaaarrrggggghhhhhh  (kicking self up the bum)

I am being watched while I work!!! 

Righto, Gotto Go..... I'm still finishing off some sewing I want done - before tomorrow..... and baking ..... and preparing spare bedroom...... and... and..... you know the drill!!

Christmas Quilting....

This is the last of my quilting 'jobs' for the year.....

... and it's perfect for this time of year...

 oh my gosh aren't these cute faces?????

This is Toni from The Red Boot Quilt Company newest Christmas Design....

adorable

I pin my quilts and I have a lovely view outside - lots of natural light..

a lovely silvery metallic thread for loops and stars after going around the edge of the applique with a monofilament invisible thread....

... I love the texture of a quilted quilt...

... my preference is custom quilting... going around the shapes and then filling in the background.... I feel it can show off the applique pictures which is of course the main focus of the quilt....

This Christmas quilt is already in Toni's shop - I love it....

Toni has a couple of Christmas freebies ... of course I had to give them a go...

These are the cutest little reindeer ornaments..... I made them up using my home made felt (from woolen blankets and clothing)

of course I couldn't stop at one!!!

The other one this year is mug rugz..... which I love.  I decided to whip these up for me and my friends who sew together regularly on a Tuesday... so we each have one to display and use when we get together....

I chose raw edge applique this time,, gives it a bit of a scribbly outline look which I wanted.

I actually used the raw edge sewing as the quilting too ....

It gives both an outline and the little bit of dimension too.....

Just visit Toni and go to the Freebie page to find these....  

I notice quite a few designers give out freebies at this time of year.... which is a wonderful way of saying thank you to us.

 Some of them have had complaints about it!!! Pfffftttt.... that's a bit ungrateful...  

It's easy to download a freebie - but it's worth taking that little bit of time to drop a line and say thanks....

Then share pictures and links for the designers, follow them on any social media you can... It gets their word out and you are the first to know when there is a new design (or a freebie!)  It's just our way of saying thank you to them.

Since I'm telling you about Toni's lovely Christmas things I'll show you one of her designs that I am making up for a young man

This is Wild Things from Toni's book Happy Quilts....

I'll be starting the quilting on this today

Righto, Gotto Go - I need coffee first!

An afternoon out....

Last weekend we had a really fun special afternoon tea.  

A friend of Michelle's (Robyn) was kind and energetic enough to coordinate the remaking of Michelles lovely Christmas quilt that got stolen and we met for a hand over...

Now the quilt has been needleturn appliqued and stitched, then hand quilted by people all over the world and country.  Blocks were sewn overseas and sent back and the quilt travelled many miles so as many people as possible who wanted to could participate.  All done sneaky so Michelle didn't know anything about it ....

Here is the group of us before Michelle came in... it was quite a 'bloggers' meet though of course there were plenty of non bloggers too.... perhaps you recognise some of us?

Robyn, who coordinated it all is the one holding the beautiful box with the quilt in it...

... she was a little bit emotional about it!!!

... not the original quilt with all her own hard work but I think it is ultra special for different reasons...

I didn't take too many pictures.... and I'm pretty sure you have seen a lot of different ones around blogland.... 

... this little group of us are quite international, interstate....

What fun sewing on a collaborative project such as this... 

I pulled out a UFO this week to work on.....  a table runner that I stitched a few years ago.  I don't even remember the name of the pattern and it has been sent to me by another blogger.  Once I had stitched it and cut the borders I passed the pattern on....

I got as far as sewing the borders on ready for quilting.  (the original pattern had patched blocks for the borders)

... I have kitted it up in a bag with some wadding and backing and fabric for the binding ..... I will keep it for next year but at least some progress has been made!

The runner pattern also had little stitcheries to be made into door hangers.  I didn't do as many log cabin rows and have instead made them into tree ornaments....

... used up a few Christmas scraps ...

... so that's a UFO with progress made .... and 4 little UFO's finished!!! 

Righto, Gotto Go - more UFO's and more ornaments to sew....