Before any one says I should get a life.....

...I do have one!!! In between visits to various medical facilities I do manage to get some work done, even though some might say "is that really work?" To prove it, here is my little bucket of Inchie Ornaments ready to be put together :)I must say that I have really enjoyed doing these little "quilts" and look forward to sending them to the appropriate recipients!!!
I also managed to finish of a few UFO's this week. This is "My Renaissance" by Michelle Hill. I hand appliqued all the pieces on with lovely matching rayon threads. Thanks Michelle for another lovely pattern to make up!These two quilts were started some time ago, but finally got quilted and bound!

This week I also received another birthday present! Aren't I the lucky one??? They are a pair of stones painted in 3d of cats - the pictures don't do them much justice. They fit beautifully in with all my other cat things - thank you Bev and Cliff (aka my adopted parents!) Today some of the Snobs and Slobs and one ring-in went to the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Show. I would like to say thanks to all the people who had a quilt on display - it was a good show and I feel rather inspired for another year!!! I believe if you go to the following link you will be able to view some of the quilts on show. http://saquilters.org.au
However, I can show you what I bought today....was rather restrained this year (mainly cos the Snobs and Slobs are off on our bi-annual trip to the coast in two weeks so am saving some spending for then!) I was quite happy with my purchases, and of course there had to be something to do with cats there....hopefully I wont take too long to make up the fabric with them on - cos its Christmas stuff!!!!I thought it might be nice to let you see what is growing in my garden at the moment (yes!!! growing!!!) (not a green thumb!!!)This is my fernery and I am very pleased with how it is coming along - lovely to look out on from my stitching room too.The yellow rose is a beautiful one - dont ask me the name of it cos I dont know - and my pot of naked ladies has made a great show this year. So I have to enjoy them the best I can before the heat gets too much and they start wilting.

And I thought I was doing well!

Here we are at the beginning of November and I am half way through my Inchie Secret Swap, thought this was pretty good for me! Then mine secret swap arrived last Friday!!!!!! Lovely package from Alesandra from Italy. Thank you very much Alesandra (if I have spelt your name wrong let me know :) ) Since my last post, many of the ladies at the craft group have finished off their quilts that we started at the beginning of the year, some have gone on and started and finished other small projects. They are now waiting next year to come with a little bit of anticipation. I have decided that we are going to do a mystery quilt!! These ladies are quite new to quilting for the most part and most have not experienced doing a mystery quilt, so the outcome should be quite interesting (the journey through the year should be interesting too, with the questions that will be asked no doubt!) So here is Ella with her beautiful Christmas Stitchery quilt. Then we have Margaret with her lovely pink and green (don't they go together well?) stitchery quilt.Lorraine has finished her quilt and moved to doing a cushion with candlewicking. Margaret 2 also did a lovely little cushion in candlewicking.My mum finished her Christmas stitchery quilt also - great job mum!!!I had made this quilt for a friends birthday but Jessie decided that she might claim it as her work :)School holidays were here a couple of weeks ago so our craft group close for the holidays, so I decided to have the ladies over to my place for the day. There is always lots of food, laughter and chatter to see us through (not a lot of sewing gets done tho!) So the world got righted again till the next holidays!!!!The next photo is of a wedding cake that belonged to a friends daughter in Western Australia. Couldn't resist taking a photo of the photo of the cake - just reminded me of a patchwork quilt. What a great idea tho for a cake - saves on cutting it up later for the guests!And last but not least for today, a pic of the lovely Pigs Face plant at my parents house. The plant puts on a lovely show every summer and looks so bright and cheery and certainly says the weather is getting better here!
Well, I better get off and do some Inchie things and get my other Christmas swaps done and sent off!!

Birthday week!!!!

Yeh!!!! Another year ticked :) Got to be happy with that - unlike some who don't like having birthdays....I do...I love them :)))) Had a good day at home with friends dropping in to say hello and later the fossils came over for tea. I got a new pet called Pepe - he is a Perfect Petz and does nothing but sleep all day - all I have to do is brush him from time to time....Some beautiful flowers and a bear called Valerie!!! Received a beautiful book on friends from Quilty Gal along with a lovely piece of fabric that will go perfectly with the next William Morris quilt.......a really cute jigsaw with quilts and cats from my brother-in-law and wife along with two jelly rolls, cake and an English Mars Bar......another cuddly bear, a Christmas doll and some more flowers, some soap and hand cloth, lottery tickets!!! How lucky am I???? This week I managed to get a couple or so quilts made and completed. The first is a quilt for hubby's relies daughters christening (only a couple of months late!) Its a crazy patch done with whites and various types of fabric. I do the stitching all on the machine using the different stitch designs. The second is a pink log cabin - this is for a friend who will be doing a raffle to raise funds for herself to go to Africa. She is going with the school and will be working and helping build an orphanage - "challenge" to say the least!So now its off to the cutting table to get going with some Christmas finishing off stuff....

A baby is born....

....and how cute is it?! I would like to introduce "William" to blogland. For those of you who might remember, my friend Angela lost her little friend Winston along with her house and belongings earlier this year in a fire. Little William is Winstons half brother and was born last week, so we were able to go and pay the first visit to see the little fellow. I love cats and it was very tempting not to come home with one or two of the little fellows - I don't think my two would like it though. Here is William with his three brothers :) Sooooo cute Another of the Thursday ladies has completed her quilt, and here is the pic to prove it :) Well done Norma. Norma has already started on her next project, which I cant show on here as I think it might be a bit of a secret?

Almost hump day....

nearly the middle of the week! The weekend came and went again - very quickly as usual - however, I managed to get a visit to one of the local Antique Shows that are doing the rounds here in SA. You will never believe what I bought???? Out of all the china, silverware, crystal, old jewellery etc........yes!!! a quilt pack....LOL. It was the only one there and the lady that sold it to me said she would never get to do it so decided to sell it on, lucky for me - it was less than half the original price!!! woo hoo - another item to put in the cupboard for posterity.An update on father-in-law...he is doing really well and very much on the way to being back to himself again. Thank goodness :))

Hmmmm....

warm weather at last!! But alas..along came some very strong winds too!!! Was nice to be able to wear a short sleeve top again today.
Contrary to some beliefs - I am not a freak!!LOL Just to prove it ..... I haven't finished anything this week, other than frame the cross stitches that appeared on my blog last week!!!!
However, I do have another 'star' to add to the growing pictures of finished quilts. This lady is one of my group that has been learning to do stitcheries and quilting. This is her first quilt!! She adapted some of the embroideries to suit her needs, added a bit and took a bit off and then did a wonderful job of putting it together. So well done Lorraine!!!

Its still cold here.....

but as long as you stay inside - you can stay warm! This weekend saw Father-in-law come out of hospital :) Still quite fragile, but coming along nicely - so thanks for all your kind thoughts this last week. We also had Fathers Day here in Australia - so I cooked lunch and trotted off to spend the afternoon with the Fossils.

Last Thursday I was given a little cross-stitch beading kit as a very early birthday present. It was a delight to make up - just got to get a frame for it now. Mill Hill do the kits and are just lovely to say the least. The stitching area is about 5" x 5" so it is not too big a project to tackle. I was very happy with the finished item as you can see! Last Friday was Snobs and Slobs day again (or the bi-weekly de-briefing session as I sometimes call it) One of the Snobs found this lovely apron in an op-shop recently. We all agreed that perhaps someone did not realise the age of the apron - it is embroidered with the Royal Crown and GR - which means it was probably embroidered during the reign of George who was crowned in 1937!! So we now look forward to the Snobs and Slobs day at said Snobs house and be served upon by a Royal looking tea lady!!! LOL This is the current state of my sewing (???) table. Things have been piling up a bit saying that I have been here and there of late. So the goal for the week is to have the items finished (they are cross stitches that need framing) hung on the walls and ready for the next bout of work to be done. You may of seen this book that Quilty Gal bought recently...well.....it was the Puffins that did it! I just had to have one, so mine arrived on Wednesday, so have been looking and looking and reading (mainly in the littlest room in the house) to see what project I will do first.....got to be the Puffins really!!!