Some of what I've been up to

Christmas is over and I'm looking forward to the new year, I hope it brings lots of exciting sewing projects for us all. Here is a Christmas stocking I made for my DD. Funky is her style. I had a couple of questions regarding the footstool in the last post which I can't answer until I'm back home on the 14th January. I think I have a quilt pattern in the jigsaw style too, it might be a freebie, if it is I can link you to it if anyone is interested.

We took a nice trip out a couple of days ago, had a picnic and visited a quilt shop and the most gorgeous wool shop. The fabric was very pricey, some of them were $27 per metre, I couldn't resist these red and whites for my Nearly Insane quilt.

My DD also took me to a local fabric warehouse and lucky for me their fabric was on sale to make way for a container of new fabric next year. I managed to pick up these for $3 a half metre!

Of course I am missing my sewing being away from home but I always bring some handwork for the quiet times. I do some embroidery and this is a Hardanger tablecloth I have been working on for a long time. It's done on a 36 count linen so good light is essential to work on it. I go to a Hardanger group once a month.

I'm going to travel in the New Year so will take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the coming year and catch up with you again in 2009.

These don't live at my house

We've had a great family Christmas in New Zealand and it was a treat to be around small children. I hope you all enjoyed your day as much as we did.
This is the secret sewing I posted about a wee while ago. It's a bean bag foot stool for my SIL. The kids love it too!This coin purse I made for my eldest GD from a scrap of silk she was given a couple of years ago. The following quilts have not photographed too well for colour, sorry. This is one lap quilt I made in October for my DD's birthday. It's machine quilted and was a quickie done in 6 days. The pattern is from here.

This daisez quilt was made in 2002 from a Jan Mullen pattern, again machine quilted.

A cot quilt using a cheater panel called Hungry Animal Alphabet, Hand quilted.

Finally, a double sided king size quilt made for DD and SIl in 2006, commercially machine quilted. I was asked to make something cheerful but the quilt is brighter than shows in the photo.

Until next time, have a very happy New Year!

This and that

I managed to fit in some last minute sewing and made these origami pouches for the some little girls to put their treasures in. They are quick and easy to make and have handy pockets on the outside.On Tuesday we had our last small quilt group meeting for the year, we had a lovely day and a lovely lunch. We swap a lucky dip secret santa gift each year and this is what I got. The pouch has some sewing goodies in it. Lucky me.

My thoughts are already on my projects for next year. I think just because we are starting a new calendar year I can give myself permission to start some big amazing quilt that will probably take forever to finish. Oh the plans I make! This UFO below is on the list to at least make it into a top, It's been taking up my quilt wall for a long time and I want it off. It's a BOM from here. The instructions are in German and in centimeters but it was easy enough to work in a 2" grid. I have the Japanese book with the origional in it, which is not done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I like the mushy blendy look of the blocks.

Oh someones been shopping, yep that would be me! I have been hankering after some reproduction fabrics for one of those big plan quilts I was talking about, herewith now to be referred to as a major work. I have hardly any of these fabrics so I needed them. I can't wait to use them. They're showing a bit bright in this photo.

You might know I'm a Kiwi, I've lived in Australia for 10 years this month and I love living here but my heart still belongs to my homeland, New Zealand. We are flying into Auckland at the top of the North Island on Saturday for nearly a month to visit family.
I am so excited to be seeing my three GD's again and catch up with my son who I haven't seen for two years.

We plan to travel down the North Island to visit with My parents, other sisters, some of DH David's family and take the 9 year old GD to see her other Grandparents and Aunty. New Zealand is not a big country so it will only take 8 hours for the trip.

This is my last post before the 25th so until next time, have a wonderful and joyous Christmas
Janet

The week before Christmas

Last weekend we had DH's kids over for afternoon tea and that called for some baking. We enjoyed some lovely summer fruits, pikelets with jam and cream and these pecan brownies, I got the recipe here. For the Aussies, for 3/4 cup shortening I used 170 gm's butter. The leftovers freeze very well.Now don't be horrified when you see the photo below. Yes I've cut out the back of the appliques on my crib quilt. I know the stories as often told, if you cut out the back, it won't be strong and if it gets worn, it won't be easy to repair. Or this one, "they never did it on the antique quilts." I don't cut out the backs of the applique on my bed quilts and it makes it hard to quilt within the applique. But this is not something that's going to get used and I wanted to make it easy on myself. So It's all basted up now. I'd be interested to know what you do, cut out or not? Are the quilt police going to come and get me? And here's a thought, are the applique stitches more secure than hand piecing stitches in a quilt since they're smaller?

I'll probably do my last post before Christmas tomorrow, until then, have a good day.

Another red and green quilt

There's not a lot of sewing going on at Quiltsalott this week so I'll show you a quilt I finished last year in the red and green. You'll probably recognise this quilt if you are a fan of Piece O' Cake designs. It's in their book Flowering Favourites which is now out of print You may be able to pick it up somewhere. I hand quilted this in a basic grid design, it has a cotton batting so it has that lovely texture I love. You can click on the photo to get a closer look.
This is all I managed on the machine this week, three more nearly insane blocks, #'s 12, 15 and 16
A big thanks to Kathie who told people about me and also to those who visited and left some very kind comments. I appreciate it! Also thanks to other bloggers who have been so helpful to me when I've needed it, I have some basic computer skills and this is still a learning process for me.

Have a great weekend, Janet