Helloooooo!!!

Oh my goodness I just realised it’s been 10 days since I did a post!!!!! (Edit: Ummm .... I just realised I can't count either .... 13 days ... lol !!!)

I hope you all had a super fabulous wonderful Christmas!! Was Santa good to you ;o)?? My DH and I decided this year to buy some accessories for our motorbike to make travelling more comfortable … but we haven’t even had a chance to try them out yet cos it hasn’t stopped raining!!! I’m not complaining though, there are people dealing with floods all over the place and we’ve been very lucky so far. But oh I do wish it would stop … bring on the blue skies!!!

These are a few of the lovely gifties I received from some very dear friends

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These very dear friends and I also had a really fun apron swap and the person who made my gawjus apron was Jenny!!! Waddyathink??????? Cute huh???!!!!!! The apron silly … not the old chook wearing it LOL!!! I just love it and I’ve worn it heaps of times since I got it – it’s just so pretty - thank you Jenny :o)!!! I sent the apron I made off to Dawn … but I’ll let her show you it ;o). I’ll just show you the cute little vintage button I popped on the pocket ;o).

We had another Christmas celebration yesterday (27th). Tahlia (DD1) and her partner Luke arrived from UK on Christmas night … we wondered if they’d make it here at all with all the cancelled flights leading up to the Christmas break … but they DID (phew) :o)!!!! Oh how lovely it is to have all the kids here at once :o). Here’s our table full …… that’s me sitting between Tahlia and Luke ;o). What a fun day it was … we had pork and turkey and all the trimmings - yumm, and here’s the Cassata I made for dessert … It really was delicious … but it froze so hard we had to let it stand for a little while before we could cut it LOL….. As you can see …. my poor DH is smiling through gritted teeth as he tries hard to cut the darn thing he he. it was worth the wait though … YUMMM!!!

I’ve been working on a quilt for an old school-friend of Tahlia’s who is having her first baby – although I haven’t been able to even touch it for the past few days as we’ve been so busy. I’ll give you a look next time as hopefully I’ll have a bit more done by then. These are the pretties I’ve used for it … Lovely bright and cheery Gelati type colours from “Me and My Sister” Favourites …… mmmmm, delish!!!!

I’ll be back soon …. ‘til then …….

My cat cracks me up!!!!!!

I’ve been doing some Christmas sewing …. that is, sewing Christmas Presents … not so much Christmas ‘themed’ sewing going on I’m afraid. So I thought I’d lay it all out and take some piccies to share with you, seeing as the gifts are for people who not only don’t have a blog … but don’t even have a ‘puter, so I know I’m perfectly safe in showing them to you :o).

BUT … no sooner had I laid out my dear Mum’s chair covers out on the floor to photograph them, my dear furry girl Sophie was there (from out of nowhere!!!!) to ‘give me a hand’.

Here’s the pic before she came along …Mum just wants to drape these over her chairs to protect them. I made them from my quilt-as-you-go “Diamonds and Braids” design – I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve used that pattern!! And here you can see how quick Miss Sophie was in making her way underneath it all … lol!!! Now you see her …Now you don’t lol, all you can see is the Sophie-like lump!! … What is it with cats and quilts LOL????

I also made a gift for my Mum’s dear friend Jill who’s visiting us for a year – she’s from the UK so will find this Christmas totally different to what she’s used to!! She loves to do Cross Stitch so I thought I’d make her this from my “Sew Handy” pattern – to keep her project in. It all folds neatly to form this little ‘bag’. Oh how I love those gawjus “Fig Tree” fabrics :o). Here’s how it looks when it’s opened out … There are 3 good sized pockets to keep her goodies in – one at each end and one in the middle. And here’s how the back of it looks when opened out … I designed this pattern long before Honeybuns came out but I realised when I was making this that it was ideal for using up the leftovers from my honeybuns as it only needed the little strips to be 3 1/2” (x 1 1/2”) long!! Hope she likes it :o).

I’ve also posted away some Chrissy gifts to some special friends …. they should be arriving at their destinations VERY soon :o)!! So that’s what I’ve been up to these past few days … have you finished all of your Christmas stitching yet??

I’ll leave the 2 ‘Buy Now’ links for “Teatime Tabletopper” and “Pack Up Your Troubles” on my sidebar just until the weekend so if you’d like one -

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(or both he he) of these patterns you’d better be quick!!!

Here’s another little tip for ya!!

So glad you all liked my little tip about cleaning your cutting board!!! Well, because you all asked so nicely ;o) .... I'm gonna share another little tip :o)!!!!

I'll show you how you can join your pieces of batting so that you don’t have to waste a scrap - AND … when you’re just that little bit short of batting you can just add a piece on – and it’s so easy :o)!!

See the first piccy below – the batting has rough jagged edges. Place these edges together overlapping them by about 1/2” (see below) – so that you can cut down the middle of the overlap and get rid of the uneven edges. Be sure that you have both pieces the same way up (sometimes batting has a skrim).Place your ruler on top of the overlap with the edge of the ruler right between the two rough edges … If you are joining pieces for a strip of batting – or you want to keep the pieces square then line up the top of the batting with one of the straight lines on your cutting board and square it up with the ruler. Then cut right down the middle of the overlap of the batting.Discard the ragged edges. You will see that your two pieces of batting now butt up nicely to each other with their perfectly straight matching edges. They are now ready to join. Set your machine to a 3 stitch zig zag …that’s number 11 on my machine. If you don’t have a 3 stitch zig zag on your machine then a single zig zag will do, just make sure it is wide enough to stitch across the join. Position the two pieces of batting under the foot as shown below with the straight edges butted up to each other.Then sew across the join with the zig zag stitch all the while keeping the two edges together. I have used red thread for the purpose of these piccies, but of course you would use a light one to blend in with the batting, otherwise it might show through on lighter fabrics when you come to use it in a quilt.Here it is all joined up….. Nice and neat and flat … ready to be used :o)!!Hmmm, now I’ve got all that nasty fluff in my cutting board!!! Whatever will I do LOL????

Here’s a little tip for ya!!

You might already know about this, but it’s something I discovered quite by accident and it might help you to save a few $$$$ either on a new board or a gadget to clean it!!

I was cleaning my cutting board, after joining all my bits of batting for a project, and just as I was about to clean the board off I wondered if you all knew how easy it is to do ……….

All I use is a pencil eraser!!!

Just a cheap little eraser, less than $2 from the supermarket!!

Here’s the before shot ….. Ok so it’s not usually this bad, but I had a lot of little pieces to join up and it did leave quite a fluffy mess lol.

Here’s how I did it. Using the flat side of the eraser rub it in a circular motion on the cutting board and all the fluff magically comes away from the board!!!You’ll need to stop every now and then to remove the flattened fluff from the eraser … And this is the final result … all achieved in about 30 seconds!!! Pretty cool huh???!!!!!!

Now if you don’t know how to join up your scraps of batting, let me know in the comments and I’ll show you that too …. it’s easy peasy :o)!!

How cute are these!!??

I went back to my lovely local patchwork store again today and look what I found!!!!! 3 Gawjus matching little cases!! Well you just know I couldn’t resist them. Don’t they look pretty displayed like that :o)?? Look at the pretty lids - all different ……

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The big one is now home for all my “Dear Jane” bits and pieces … that to my shame I haven’t touched in simply ages!!!The book actually fits in there too, it’s just the right size :o).

My Quilting group had their Christmas party yesterday …. we had such a terrific time!! Secret Santa is always great fun, and this is what I received, this wonderful apron - “Never Trust a Skinny Cook” – love it :o) … Sorry about the not so fabulous piccy, it’s hard to take a full length shot of one’s self lol.

This is what I made as my Secret Santa gift … a little sewing themed brooch, I also popped in some more fun goodies ;o).

With all the rain we’ve had lately it’s been great weather to hide out in my sewing ‘cave’, think I might do the same tomorrow :o).
Don’t forget you can still buy my new patterns – they’re listed on my sidebar but only until the weekend!!!

WINNERS!!!!!!

Thank you so much everyone for your comments and all the lovely things you had to say about my new patterns, I’m so thrilled that you like them!!

So now … we have 3 winners, each of you will receive both of my new patterns - “Teatime Tabletopper” and “Pack up your Troubles”So ……… drumroll please …………tatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatat

Highland Hen – Beth

Life’s Little Garden – Val

Debbie (no blog)

Please email me with your snail mail addresses and I’ll pop your prizes in the mail to you :o). Congratulations to all three of you and thanks to everyone who entered!!!!

As promised I’ve put both patterns on my sidebar for sale, just click on “Buy Now” if you’d like one. These are the hard copy (paper) patterns … not PDF, so they will be mailed to your home address :o).

Holly Jolly Bingo!!!

Oh you just have to join in and play this ….. it’s SUCH FUN!!!!You have until December 9th to join in …. I’m signed up and ready to start :o)!!! If you want to play too click here!!

PS …. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway too, I’ll draw the winners tomorrow (Sunday) night :o)!!!!!

My kids are creatures of habit!!

It must be nearly 20 years since I made this …

and every year it comes out and the pockets get filled with lollies (sweets/candy) - one for each day of December. I’ve begged offered over the years for them to let me make a new one, a prettier fancier one … but no, this is what my “kids” want. Hmmmmm ….. My “kids” are almost 28, 25 and almost 18!!!!! LOL

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway – you could win BOTH of my new patterns - “Teatime Tabletopper” and “Pack up your Troubles”!!!! Just leave a comment over here at this post before Sunday night (Brisbane time)to be in the draw :o)!!!

Oh and before I go, if you haven't seen it yet, Jenny of Elefantz has a little Christmas gift for you all!!!

You can find the pattern here on Jen's Blog - isn't she a sweety :o)!!!! Thanks Jen!!!