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!

Busy week.....

This week I have been busy sewing lots of stuff .. things I have been wanting to do of my own...

I finished this cute set of decorations..... 

...and put the borders on the Wild Things..... and made the binding for it....

(more stripey binding!)

I got out my little vintage Elna, which has been service and we are now playing nicely together....

Us Tuesday girls got together, all of us with our vintage sewing machines and worked on Splendid Sampler blocks....

Lyn forgot her fabric so she kindly did one of the foundation piecing blocks (not my favourite technique) for me.... hers is the one with the 0 and X 's - thanks Lyn

There is still a long way to go with catching up but I am pleased with the progress so far this week....

Righto, Gotto Go... it's officially Summer and we have warnings for a heatwave,  it's December too and that means Christmas parties so I have some baking to do ... and I want to do some more blocks aswell..... 

Quilting and Binding.....

I had a fun weekend doing some quilting...... swirls and circles for the superheroes after going around  all the applique pieces in an invisible thread.

I used a variegated grey for the swirls and it has kept the quilt soft whilst giving it a bit of texture .....

then came binding...... sewing the strips together. (I had bought half a metre and realised the stripes went between the selvages so there was a lot of ends to sew together ....

.... I get excited at getting the ends to meet perfectly on the stripe ....

...most of the time....

I have a few old thread cones and they make useful binding holders....

... do you ever get the feeling you are being watched while you work???????

I have my evening hand work ready to do now....

Righto, Gotto Go....... I want to play catch up with Splendid Sampler blocks this week.... only 32 plus behind....

Superhero's.....

Young Jack is in the superhero mode - he loves dressing up as them and the action toys too ... and he is a bit of a superhero himself (in my nana opinion) .....

I have been working on these superhero blocks giving them some outlines in glow in the dark thread...

.. in this one the white on the glasses have been buttonholed with it and round the outside using a triple stitch ... and the same with the white patch and the J.....

.. again the mask in this one and around the edge of the lightening flash...

... all the blocks have a little bit on it....

This week I sewed the blocks together with the sashing.... 

... the stripes on the table is for the binding.....

don't they look great..... I need to go out and buy a bit of backing - then guess what I am doing in December????

The Superhero's quilt is one of the wonderful patterns in Toni's book Happy Quilts...

Thursday brought a once a month sewing morning ..... I am stitching more Christmas decorations.... 

tea in a pretty mug and some fresh baked scones with jam and cream helped.....

Righto, Gotto Go... the Wild Things want some attention now!

It's scary....

How fast time is going.....  I am not ready for November but here it is!!!

I am participating in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap so having to do some behind the scenes sewing for a gift to go overseas..... 

I'm also in a Friends Having Fun Swap so that also needs organising but it can be posted a little later as it is within Australia.

I do love swaps but this year I have limited myself to these two

This weekend past I made more mess as I prepared another quilt for blanket stitching....

This one is called Wild Things... and is for the brother of the Superhero.....

It is another quilt from Happy Quilts by Toni .....  I love it.... I am going to use glo-in-the-dark thread around the eyes and teeth.... hope it doesn't scare our little Wild thing too much...

This pomegranate bush is flowering at the moment... such lovely bright flowers.  It doesn't get any fruit though (well it didn't last year) but I bought another kind which I hope will fruit for us....  I looooovvvvee pomegranates....

Another spot in the garden I am enjoying is the yellow/lime leaves of this Acer (Maple) with the bold blue/purple of maybe salvia????  Anyway they look splendid together....

I started sewing some Ausi Christmas stitcheries this week - these are from a new set of designs by  Michelle  and don't take too long to stitch up.  I am doing stem stitch with a single thread ....

... and of course the Dutch Treat blocks are going along ... those little flowers in the square nearly broke my resolve but then the big flower cheered me up!

Righto, Gotto Go - I've got a sewing morning planned at The Quilters Angel - and I need to prepare a new block to take with me.

I must say this is a very portable project - 

Sewing is a Happy Place....

.... especially making a Happy Quilt from Toni's book "Happy Quilts".....

I am doing a quilt for a superhero called Jack - one of my grandchildren who needs a new quilt ....

I was lucky to have fabrics to work with in my stash and only needed to buy the grey backgrounds for the blocks.....

Toni's book comes with a CD so one just needs to print out the pattern for the particular quilt.  I like that it's then printed on one side only which helps with lines when tracing (I always get mixed up with lines on the back of the page!)

The other thing I like about Toni's instructions is that the pieces are colour coded and numbered so it's easy to see which order to place them down on (another part I always manage to make mistakes)

Bits of fabric everywhere when I'm choosing ....

Even Hubz said that he had never seen my sewing room in such a mess....

(and you can't see the floor here!)

This is how far I had got in one day!

.. the next day I got all the blocks stuck down.  There are some parts I will iron glue down when I have sewn what's underneath...

The coloured strips are for the sashings around the blocks - there will be white cornerstones.

All put away in a box now awaiting a retreat next month where I will be machine blanket stitching madly....

I am also hoping to get a Wild Things quilt from the same book prepared for his brother...

On the quilting front I have lately been working with some threads with a bit of a sparkle.... it's hard to photograph sparkle but this Christmas star has a fair bit of it....  I used a ruler to get the lines straight....

... and of course Dutch Treat blocks still take up my evenings....  

Some of the colours I am working with are a bit dull but they will be fine when they are all together with the other blocks....

Righto, Gotto Go..... today the weather looks just lovely here.....  I hope you have a great rest of the week ....