Yule Decorating

Well it’s that time of year again when you drag out 30 years worth of decs & decide which ones for this year. I used to put everything out, it look like Xmas had thrown up in the loungeroom then someone asked me what colours I was using for Xmas. Light bulb moment, you can colour theme. Since then we’ve had blue & silver, purple & silver, silver & gold, red & white, aqua & white, & this year it’s aqua & white with a touch of red.

I even splashed out on a new tree this year. I’ve been moaning for years I want a new one but dh kept saying we only just bought one. I finally stopped to think about that & realised we bought the old one in a sale at GB’s in 1989!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually started decorating nearly 2 weeks ago only to find we needed lights with white cords to match the tree. Finally found some that didn’t cost an arm & a leg & the decorating continued. In the mean time I’ve been making some Xmas gifts that I can’t show here yet or the recipients might see them. :-)

  

I saw something similar to this in a Myer display & thought it looked pretty spiffy. Committed it to memory & sent dh down to the garage the next day to find one of our many vine wreaths & search for some silver spray paint. It’s hanging over the centre of the dining table.

I

I’ll use the 2 tier cake stand as a table centrepiece on Xmas Day & Boxing Day. For now it looks pretty on the traymobile.

My Xmas snowball quilt made of swap blocks from my dearest quilting friends in the US & Oz. I wanted to hang it this year & being a fairly lazy person I wanted to avoid having to sew a hanging sleeve on the back so I came up with this idea.

We bought a length of 2 x 1 & dh painted it the same blue as the walls. He then screwed a row of pegs to it & attached it to the wall. ‘Voila’ a quilt hanger to suit all size quilts & wallhangings. I’m really pleased with it. :-)))))

Our Lemax village. Each year we try to add something new, this year it’s a cute little glasshouse I couldn’t resist.

This tree is decorated with gorgeous handmade decorations I’ve received in decoration swaps over the years.

RIP Tabitha (Twitchit) 1992 - 2009

Dear old Tabitha passed away yesterday. She was born in my bedroom Easter 1992, so she was with us for over 17 1/2 years. She was a very intelligent cat with a sweet personality. Always ready for a pat & a cuddle, she purred non-stop.

She is the last of our dynasty of cats. We owned her mum Sooty, her brother Tom Kitten, her sister Miss Moppet & her niece & nephew Basil & Sybil.

A home without a cat is a strange place.

Here are a few pics.

Just pressing a pile of fq’s.

Chilling out on a hot day, the air-con is above her.

Tabitha could always be relied on to help with quilt basting.

Sprung!!! Sleep testing my redwork.

Just checking the points on my Dear Jane block, not her most flattering angle. :-)

OK a bit hard to work this one out. That is Tabitha's face peeking out, she was on my lap when Sybil decided it was her turn. Tabitha wouldn’t give up her spot so Sybil sat on her!!!! Lucky Sybil was a tiny cat.

Simon’s Quilt

I’m trying to catch up on quite a few posts. I’d planned to catch up a few weeks ago only to find the card reader had died. So better late than never. :-)

Here’s a quilt I made for my eldest son Simon. Simon has lived in Ottawa for nearly 2 years now. Dh & youngest ds Rowan flew over to visit in June so I was able to have it hand delivered.

The Hawaiian shirts are hand pieced, the thongs (maybe flip flops to you) I blanket stitched on by machine & the quilt is hand quilted. It’s 40” square. Simon tends to dress mostly in black but he does have a weakness for Hawaiian shirts. Two pairs of thongs are made with Canadian fabrics sent to me by kind quilters.

I’d seen Hawaiian shirt quilts & thong quilts, I simply combined the two.

Catching up on Birthday Swaps

 

A 12” block using 30’s prints with ‘that’ green was the brief for Lin’s block.

A 12” block with batik’s & blacks for Jodi.

Another 12” block this time a 9 patch using repo’s & muslin for BJ.

& one I posted earlier to Eula, black & white with a touch of yellow.

Dinner at the Weasley’s

Well it’s not every year you celebrate your 30th wedding anniversary so we decided to do something a little different to mark the occasion. As we are all totally obsessed with the Harry Potter books & films it seemed only fitting to become Arthur & Molly Weasley for the evening & along with our son ‘Ron’ (Rowan), we planned a night in at ‘The Burrow.’

Luckily we have like-minded friends who were happy to join us for dinner. We were joined by Tonks, Remus (luckily it wasn’t a full moon), Mad-Eye Moody & Luna Lovegood.

First we had to transform our lounge/dining area into a much more Weasley style room. It was amazing how many bits & bobs we already had that fitted our needs & what we didn’t have, we made.

 

first we emptied our dining area.

Here is our transformed corner. We based it on a photo below.

 

We found this picture online. It’s a movie still of a corner of ‘The Burrow’ living room.

The dining table.

Family portraits on the piano.

 

Our mini whomping willow.

The divination trolley.

Potions, complete with labelled drawers full of all sorts of wonderful things including Boomslang Skin & Doxy Eggs.

Ron’s trunk.

A close-up so you can see his Quidditch Through the Ages book, his animal crackers hat & assorted text books.

Scabbers in his cage.

Arthur’s first broom!!!

The snitches.

Arthur’s hat, I drafted it based on this pic of Arthur from Chamber of Secrets.

Ron’s jumper. (That’s the dog’s tail at the side of the pic). She was Sirius Black for the night, in his animagus form.

& of course it wouldn’t be The Burrow without the clock. 
I used pics of dh & my 2 ds’s on it. :-)

You can see in The Chamber of Secrets the clock has a domed top but you can’t see what is on the dome so I chose to put a pic of The Burrow.

 

Arthur took this pic with a ‘muggle’ camera that’s why nobody is moving!!!

We had such a good time on the night it was only afterwards we’d been too busy to take many photos of the actual dinner. We might have to do it all again to get some shots. :-)

Actually we’re already planning a ‘Halloween at Hogwarts’ party for next month.

Time Flies

Goodness 3 weeks since my last post! Time flies when you have a puppy to keep you busy. Molly has doubled in size in that time & is just at the point where she can jump on the lounge. We are still working on toilet training & she is teething so everything needs to be chewed including us, ouch! Between toilet mishaps & nips she is a sweetie & provides us with lots of laughs at her antics. The poodle side comes out when she dances on her back legs. We have timber floors throughout & they are a little slippery for her, especially when sitting, her bum tends to slide away from her front legs so she ends up lying on the floor a lot.

Molly even has her own facebook page, ‘Molly Spoodle.’

I tried to take some pics of her for the blog but because of the time delay with the camera they are all blurred!!!! It’s so much easier to photograph fabric. I’ll try to get some shots for next time.

I have been doing some sewing. I’ve made a few birthday atc’s for swaps, some birthday swap blocks & I’m working on a gift at the moment that I can’t show because the recipient looks at my blog. I’ve also been working on the Red Delicious blocks in redwork.

Cat ATC, the purple fabric down the side is organza & quite glitzy, it doesn't show well in the pic.

Christa’s purple penguins. They are really quite a pinky, purple but the purples always seem to come out looking more blue.

Pinky’s 4 patch marbles.

I have another surprise gift to make after that then I’ll start work on a quilt for my Mum’s 80th in October. I have it all planned & can’t wait to get started. I bought the book “Gardener’s Journal’ by Anni  Downs last week & it will form the basis of the quilt. I need it to be for a double bed so I will add extra panels & some stitchery blocks of my own & some from Bronwyn Hayes ‘Flowerbed’ book. I have a Moda jelly roll of Sanctuary fabrics plus a bundle of fq’s from the range to work with. It is all soft pinks, greens, mauves with hydrangeas.

 

I’d hoped to make a queen size bright flannel quilt this year but I think it will be next year’s project for me. They are all washed & ironed & just waiting!!!!

Molly

I have a new baby!!!!!

Molly joined our family last Thursday night & she is a little sweetie. She loves a game but when you pick her up she also loves a cuddle & a nap. Molly was born on January 7th, 2009 & is a ‘spoodle’ also known as a ‘cockapoo.’ She is half cocker spaniel & half (miniature) poodle.

She follows us around like a little shadow. 

Sybil is totally unimpressed & simply avoids her, Tabitha on the other hand has used some very bad language but still likes to sit out of reach & watch Molly’s every move.

What I’ve been up to.

Well I’ve doing my usual & working on several things at once. I’m having difficulty concentrating at the moment, so I find it’s best to just flit from one project to the next, rather than trying to stick to one thing.

I’ve also had to be on hand to help with the humungous amount of homework Rowan is now bringing home in Year 7. I don’t even want to think about what it will be like as he progresses through high school. I’m trying to teach him to get stuck into everything when he gets it, rather than waiting until the last minute, like someone I can very closely relate to, lol.

I have a bit of a knitting bug at the moment. I really enjoyed making Simon’s beanie so I made another using the same pattern. I finished it & started another, a different pattern this time. Once it’s finished I will pull out the top I started last winter & try & get it finished. Then of course I should sew together the top I knitted the Winter before! Why do I always put off the sewing up bit? :-)

The fluffy edge gets sewn back to form the brim.
I really need longer needles, sounds like a trip to Lincraft is needed.

I just finished making this house block for my friend Lynne for her birthday. There are a group of us in the birthday block swap & we choose the block we would like. Lynne asked for us to make our house so I decided to make my dream house. It’s ‘loosely’ based on a house we looked at when we were house hunting in Melbourne last year. (see below) My dream house would of course have ivy growing all over it. As I was making it, it reminded me of the villas in ‘My Family & Other Animals.’

 

I’m also working on a sewing machine cover. I’m making a large cover to fit over the machine even when the sewing arm is in place.

The designs I’m using are from a yummy book I bought recently, called ‘Sew Pretty Homestyle.’ In the book the designs are used on a quilt. I’ve simply adapted the designs to suit my needs.
I’ve ironed the top onto pellon & have started the embroidery.

This section will form the sides & top of the cover. I’m doing a ‘quilt as you go system’ to sew the strips to iron-on pellon. I need to cut some more strips to cover the ends!

Close up of the ‘stripes.’

I also have to make some Birthday ATC’s. I cut out the cupcakes & just couldn't find the right background fabric. Today when I was looking for something else, I came across my collection of gingham. I think it looks just right.

This will turn into 9 ATC’s in the next couple of days so I will have a little stash of them to post.

Found It!

Well thanks to a little (lot) of help from my friends, thanks Marilyn & Ros, I have tracked down the quilt name & the actual pattern.

It’s called ‘Road to St Louis’ & originally appeared in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol. 3 # 1. Even with the name there is not a lot to be found online & yet it is a really nice, easy quilt to make.

Mystery solved & much more fun than tracking down a murderer like Miss Marple does.

Road to St Louis, as made by Lois McCarthy.

Quilt Pattern Search

I received a letter from a lady in Tasmania today, she is looking for a pattern for this quilt.

This quilt was made by my Mum & appeared in an article in Country Threads about 365 years ago. The article was about my Mum, dd Emma & me. It isn’t my design as the lady assumed, Mum made it from a pattern in an Oz quilt magazine. I’m pretty sure it was in Australian Patchwork & Quilting. This would be going back 8 or 10 or more years. Does anyone know the name of the quilt or better still which issue it was in so I can let this lady know. I’ve just spent an hour or so searching through old mags but I couldn’t find it. Mind you I did find a few things I’ve put aside for later. :-)

Now I’m pretty sure it was called ‘The Road to ?????.’ I’ve googled Road to California & Oklahoma but it’s neither of those.

If I can’t track it down I will go over to Mum’s & I can give the lady the size & details of the blocks. Hopefully that will be enough.

I’d appreciate any input on this, you can email me at:

mollyw14@gmail.com or leave a message in the feedback section.

Thanks!!!!!

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Well I got my room straight again after a week or so of feverishly sewing strips, strips & yet more strips. The stack of blocks are now sitting waiting, a little impatiently, for me to source some nice quality purple homespun to join them together. I checked out Lincraft today & although they had a nice ‘colour’ purple the homespun itself was not nice, it felt more like headcloth, course rather than nice & smooth. I wouldn’t buy homespun from the other store after a bad experience with it a few years back. I used their navy homespun to sash a really special quilt, a set of swap blocks from my online family of quilters. I’d actually handquilted a half dozen or so blocks when it got put aside for something else, the story of my life. Anyway, when I pulled it out again to continue the homespun had faded even though it was in a cupboard. It was a horrible patchy mess so it went back in the cupboard until I could come up with a solution. In the end I bought a new sashing fabric & carefully unpicked all the sashing, queen size quilt, & replaced it all without having to undo the hand quilting. A little tricky but I got there.

So the blocks are on hold until I find the right fabric, maybe a marble might be the answer because they are usually a nice quality. I’d hoped to get to the Newcastle Craft Show, which was on over the weekend, & look there, but things don’t always go as planned.

In the meantime I made an ATC over the weekend for a birthday swap. I tried something different this time. The flowers are made with a foam stamp, I dipped it in water, took off the excess water than coloured the stamp with a water soluble oil pastel. I added a little detail with a watercolour pencil, embroidered them & added a few extra bits.

 

This is a beanie I knitted to send to DS#1 Simon. He’s been living in Canada for over a year now & it gets a tad cool there!!! It was his 27th birthday last week so I knitted this & bought some very thick sox to send. Rowan bought him a Hawaiian shirt which might have to wait until Summer to make an appearance. He was off to California for a week or 2 to celebrate his birthday so I decided to wait until he got back to post. The postal service to Canada is not great so I didn’t want anything to go astray.

I really enjoyed knitting the beanie so I bought some more wool & started another one. The 2nd one is a variegated green. I sit for an hour at tennis & an hour at 10 pin bowling each week so I need something to do with my hands as I watch.

Thursday’s Blocks

Yay!!!! The last of the blocks. I ended up making 6 more as Rowan loves the block he chose the fabrics for & asked if he could have it made into a quilt for his fave bear, Stanley. Not a problem.

Now I have to source some good quality homespun to sash & bind them with. I’m still thinking purple but I’ll lay them all out tomorrow & audition a range of colours. That should be fun but i know I’ll wish I had someone on hand to give a second opinion.

Anyone care to offer an opinion????? I must admit I think black would make the blocks pop but under the circumstances would not be appropriate.

I couldn’t help thinking about who might get the quilt. I decided I’d like it to go to a lady, my age or older, who loves to read & has cats who’ll like to curl up on the quilt with her. Lol.

Seriously I’d really like to think that whoever gets it will have fun looking at the different fabrics & will say things like, ‘Oh I love that fabric, but that one’s awful!!!!’. 

Who knows, all the quilts that are being made & given might inspire some of the recipients to take up quilting. That would be a good outcome.

Time for tea & I might even watch some tele tonight. I really need to catch up on Corrie (Coronation Street.)

But wait there’s more!

Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s together this time.

Tuesday’s: 11 today, getting there.

Wednesday’s: I was a bit slack today & went shopping, so only 6.

At this stage I’m thinking purple for the sashing & binding. Yes it’s my fave colour but I also think it goes so well with other colours, purple & yellow, purple & green, purple & blue, purple & red……………..ok you’re getting it. :-)

Monday’s Blocks

I made 9 today, this is getting very addictive. :-)

I’m posting the day after. I tend to finish sewing late, 10 or 11pm & it’s no use taking pics then because:
a. the light is bad &
b. I’m cross-eyed by that time.

Here I am doing the bit that takes the most concentration & freaks me out the most, trimming the blocks back to 10 1/2”. I always worry I’ll stuff it up!!!!

The room looks surprisingly tidy, it’s actually a total tip. I literally hoy all the offcuts on the floor as I go. Later I’ll sit on the floor & sort through them all to salvage the useful scraps. I make miniature quilts with 1” squares so most scraps are usable.