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!!!!

ccaYeh!!!! 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!!!

Here we are.....

...at the end of another weekend! Father in law is still in hospital - not sure how much longer at this stage - depends which Doc you speak to :)
Anyway, I have managed to get a couple of things finished ready for piccies!!
The first item is a Christmas cross stitch that I started last year! Finally finished and ready to be framed in time for this Christmas.The second item is another cross stitch that I started earlier this year. It is done with one colour of the gold variegated thread and was real easy to do. Not sure what the finished product will be yet though. Either make centre piece for the table or frame it??? The last item is a little wedding dress that is knitted and is only 5" long (for a 1/12th scale doll) Only got a few beads to add and make the veil and the gloves next!
Today the sun is shining but the wind is still cold. Till later, happy blogging xx

Hmmmm...what have I been up to????

Well...not a lot of anything really! Other than working a little, staying warm and going to the hospital. The weather has been soooo cold here lately - one would of thought one was in the Arctic Circle this week. Altho, last Thursday we did hit over 20oC for the day, but alas it only lasted one day.
Unfortunately father-in-law has taken ill, the powers that be at first thought it was the dreaded Swine Flu, but turns out he has a multitude of things going on.... RSV, mild heart attack, blocked arteries and the list goes on....but they are doing their best to get him sorted out and back on his feet.
On a happier note, some of you might remember that I have been showing some ladies to do some stitchery and quilting this year? Well, this is one of the finished items - the lady is the picture is very happy with her finished product - it was her first stitch and quilt that she has done! So well done Jess!!! She barely got it finished and has started her next project...so wait to see what she does next:)

Its a kinda magic!!!!!

Well - what a weekend it has been! Firstly we had the South Australian Miniature Enthusiasts annual show. Very good one it was. Hopefully some bloggers managed to get out and about and pay a visit. For those of you who didn't, there is always next year. Our theme this year was a French Chateau - quite magnificent. Here are a couple of pics of some of the rooms.
There was amongst many of the lovely and wonderful items on display - a little shoe shop by Shirley from Western Australia. Tonight Quilty Gal, her youngest daughter and myself went to see Queen - Its a kind of Magic show. Absolutely fabulous!! The whole group did a justice to the original Queen - so if you get a chance to see them - take it!!! The group sat down for autographs and pics at the end of the show - you don't get that very often these days. Thanks guys for a great night! (me and Craig Pescos alias Freddie Mercury:)

...and here we are again....

two weeks down the track - the machine has had a bit of a workout - just waiting for some more thread to come before I install myself permanently in the studio!!!
In the meanwhile....I have been finishing some little projects off that have been 'sitting' around for a while........so I now have my own dance troupe!!! I am willing to hire them out for shows, parties, anything really :)
I have also finished off some of my crocheting that has been hanging around for a year or two. So now just got a couple of cross stitches to finish and then its on with the quilting!! Yeh!!!
August 8th and 9th is the Annual South Australian Miniature Enthusiast Festival - see poster below for details - come and pay us a visit and see what little things in life we do!! Tis worth the effort.

A very special delivery....

happened late last week for me - something that has been in the planning for a few months...once unpacked, this is what it looks like!!! My new Gamill Longarm has arrived :)Had to try and contain my excitement for a couple of days as I had 'other' things planned than quilting and wanted to make sure that I had some decent time spend fiddling and seeing what I can do on this fab machine. So I spent a day practising on some calico - tried out the pantographs and free hand sewing - love the freehand - but then got a little bored with the 'practice'.... so decided to go for the 'real' thing and did two little lap quilts that have been sitting on the shelf for a little while. Not too bad I think at the end of the day.....cant show them on here cos they are for surprise gifts :)))

So its off to the studio for a little while to see what else I can do.....

Finally some time...

b...(Langoliers must be on holiday!) to do a post and draw the 50th Post winner !!!! This is the 'prize' A little dilly bag for carrying your cup (or bits and pieces if you like) some coffee and Haighs chocs for when the mid afternoon nibbles are needed :)And now to the draw ~~~~ Toot ta toot ~~~ and it is Helz :)) Congratulations Helz - will contact you for the posting details. Hope you enjoy.

This weekend I managed to get two quilt tops together. I have been doing this project with some ladies on a Thursday morning so thought I had better get a move on and get mine completed!! One is mums and the other is mine. They are little Christmas stitcheries with a 16 patch between. Mine will be a table cloth that's why the stitcheries aren't all facing one way :)This little pram is the latest addition to my 1/12th collection. It is a beautiful Heidi Ott pram - have been saving for a while for this one. It has real metal wheels even! and is made just like the real thing. Looks lovely sitting at the front door of my Painted Lady. One of our Snob and Slobs member completed this table runner - it is from Michelle Hills new book ' William Morris in Applique' - This is the first completed project since her house was burnt down earlier this year by arsonist's. Just proves that you cant keep a good quilter down!!!

Has anyone heard....

....of the Langoliers???? Stephen King wrote a short story about them....they eat up time...however lately I think they are ahead of me and have already eaten it before I get there!!!

So - this is the 50TH POST!!! How about that??? So if you havent already left a comment, please do to be in the give away draw :))) Good luck to you all xx

Last weekend was the bi-annual Snobs and Slobs weekend away. A great weekend was had by all as usual.We managed to give a couple of old farts refuge for the weekend:) Good job they came with their own siren suits!The world was put right again for the next 6 months while we stitched (not a lot if any bitching this time round)Charades was played on Saturday night. This was Quilty Gals rendition of a book....can you guess which book??? Only one of the Slobs guessed the book - The Bible - so I think that means the rest of us are either heathens or thick!!!We consumed faaaarrrr tooooo much chocolate (wont tell you all exactly how much - but to give a hint - there was 7 of us and we ate more than 7 Family size blocks!!) How disgusting is that? even I think its bad and I am a chocoholic! :)
This was Friday nights supper...This was Saturday nights supper....Sunday we managed to lug our overfed bodies out of bed and get ready for an afternoon of retail therapy. We headed off to Kirkbride Quilts at Strathalbyn. I believe we all delved into our purses and made them a little lighter going out than they were when we went in! I bought one of Cinderberry Stitches patterns - Twelve Red Robins. Lovely little pattern to stitch (not quite finished yet tho) These little items are the ones that we purchased to do from our weekend away at the Inspired Stitches convention. I changed the doily and made it into a little bag for my little great niece (the girls sit and wait for a bus on the house stairs with their bags and goodies!!) Now it is time to get on with finishing some projects ready for the next posting. Happy stitching and stay warm xx

Winter is here...

...again I cant believe how quickly it has gotten cold here in South Australia this winter - or maybe oldtimers is kicking in and I cant remember it was always like this???!!!
Well, not much to say at this point in time other than roll on next weekend! Its the bi-annual Snobs and Slobs weekend away!!! Yeh!!!! Got the chocolate and wine packed - only got the toothbrush and pj's to go next and vwalla! That's all that's needed isn't it??? LOL
So next posting will be my 50TH post, so I have decided to do a little giveaway. You all know what to do - leave a comment to go in the draw and wait for the surprise to arrive!
Till then, have a good week stitching xx