Halfway

Half of the "All Wrapped Up" blocks are made and I doubt there will be much, if any, progress until after Christmas.

I've had a lot of help from my Christmas Elves with Christmas decorating this year - it's been a lot of fun for me and, hopefully, for them as well.  I have some great photos and videos of the little ones from this lovely time of year.

Wonderful friendships and memories are attached to so many of the ornaments, wallhangings, dolls etc.

Loungeroom:

Family Room:

 

New Start

Another beautiful "Summer Nights" block arrived yesterday - this time from Alison.  6 more to come this month.

Alison

Towards the end of October I cut out "All Wrapped Up" a FigTree & Co design  in Bonnie and Camille's "Vintage Holiday" fabric.

I've been busy making dresses, decorating the house, knitting and spending time with my family, so there has been no piecing for a month.  Little Sweetheart and I finished the decorating on Sunday afternoon and by Monday night I just had to sew up a couple of blocks.  I think this quilt will be lovely (but not ready for Christmas 2018).

Last Saturday afternoon I went to see "Book of Mormon" - this show is definitely not for everyone.  Aside from the subject and language, there are some very confronting scenes about modern-day life in Africa.  The singing and dancing are wonderful (especially the big tap dance - LOVE a good tap dance) and there are many truly hilarious moments.  It's always a lovely surprise to recognise someone you knew as a youngster in the cast.

In complete contrast to "Book of Mormon", this coming Saturday I will be seeing 'Sarah and Duck' at the Opera House with my little sweethearts and Elizabeth, Matt and Michael.

Beehive Blocks

Blocks have started arriving from the Bonnie and Camille Aussie Beehive girls.

Nicola

Claire

Kim

Early next year I'll be able to sew the blocks together and will have a very special quilt.

Jenni's Christmas blouse is finished - she wanted bobbles and they are perfect for Christmas.

Going to see "Book of Mormon" tomorrow with Elizabeth, Jenni, Kurt and some friends and hoping to do some Christmas decorating on Sunday.

Christmas Cakes

Not much sewing to talk about except for a Christmas blouse for Jenni that I hope to finish off tonight.  I have a couple of Christmas quilts cut out but they probably won't be started for a little while and I have Christmas decorations to make for the little ones.

Life has been fun over the last couple of weekends with the little sweethearts.  Mum and I took them to School Spectacular and then we had dinner with Jenni and Kurt.  They stayed over at my place and the following morning they started decorating the tree - there are a lot of decorations on the lower left-hand-side of the tree.

Last weekend Gulliver came to stay and we baked Christmas cakes - he is a great little cook and can crack an egg like a champion.

Gulli took one of the smaller cakes home.

The next morning Gulli finished decorating the tree - more decorations in the same spot - I think it's because he's left-handed :)

We then drove up to Ikea with Lynell and Robyn for our annual Christmas trek and met Michael and Peta there.

Yesterday was Mum's 91st birthday - she is such a wonder.  Last Wednesday we had some terrible rain and winds and in the midst of that Mum went for her driving test and passed.

Snippets

In 2016/2017 Karen and I made a "Snippets" quilt each out of FigTree fabrics.  There is a lot of sewing and trimming before the pieces are ready to sew into blocks but after that the blocks and quilt go together very quickly.

I started collecting Bonnie and Camille charm packs to make another "Snippets" quilt and it was finished this week.

I  love dotty backgrounds and used Moda Essential Dots (red).

Sarah quilted it with Cables - another favourite design.

Fun weekend coming up - Mum, the 2 little ones and I are going to "School Spectacular" on Saturday afternoon and the littlies are staying over.  The Christmas tree is up for them to start decorating - I reckon 10 minutes and they'll be wanting to do something else :)

Conversations with a 3 Year Old

Earlier this year I bought this cute watermelon fabric to make a little dress for ChaCha for this summer.

On Wednesday I was having a chat with her about her new dress:

Me:  I'm making you a dress with watermelons on it.
GD:  I would like pineapples.

Fortunately I had just enough pineapple fabric from backing Gabby's pineapple quilt to make little sweetheart a dress.

I've also made her a new twirling dress - love this fabric and she looks beautiful in red.

A few months ago ChaCha and I were discussing Jenni and Kurt's wedding (in May 2019).

Me:  Auntie Jenni is going to be a beautiful bride.  Would you like me to make you a dress to wear to the wedding?
GD:  I already have dresses you made.
Me:  Wouldn't you like a new, pretty dress?
GD:  No thankyou, I will wear my Elsa dress.

If the flowergirl is dressed as Elsa, you can bet the pageboy will be dressed as Batman!

The two sweethearts are coming to stay next weekend and I'm hoping they'd like to put some decorations on the Christmas tree.   Trainset is up and running.

Weekend before I got out the glue gun and some red beads I bought in the post-Christmas sale.  I have no idea where I saw this idea to give the person credit.

Pretty happy with how it turned out.

On Friday "Snippets" quilt arrived back at my place from Sarah in Tasmania - the cable quilting she did looks fantastic.  This is a huge quilt - I have 10.5 metres of binding to stitch down (lots of tv watching).

Elizabeth and I went to see "Bohemian Rhapsody" on Saturday afternoon - Elizabeth hadn't seen it and I was very happy to see it again (and I'd be happy to go a third time).

Stitching Girls are coming over tonight - that's always a nice time.

Happy Places

Family - Sewing - Christmas

It took me a few weeks to get around to sewing this sweet quilt top together for Jenni's best friend's new baby boy.

This is the third "Bradley Street" cot-sized quilt I've made this year - such a great design to show of pretty fabrics.

The backing fabric.

I love this fabric range and have ordered loads more.

Last Saturday Mum, ChaCha and I had such a fun time visiting Michael and Gulli.  The little ones had a ball playing with the big pump action water pistols, dressing up in Gulli's various superhero costumes and generally pulling out every toy Gulli owns. 

Marshall - "I'm all fired up!"

On Sunday ChaCha and I did a bit of Christmas decorating prep before it was time for her to go home and for me to go to the basketball.

Hearts at Home

Started sewing down the binding on "Hearts at Home" earlier this week and finished off last night after the Basketball - Hawks played very scrappily and were lucky to win.

Lots of pretty colours in this quilt, designed by Chelsi Stratton.  I used loads of Bonnie and Camille fabrics

and asked Karen to quilt it with "Rainbow Hearts" - a favourite of mine.

A lovely weekend coming up - Miss ChaCha is visiting for two nights and tomorrow, along with Mum, we're going to visit Michael and Gulli.   Maybe some Christmas decorating before she goes home on Sunday and then we have another Hawks game late Sunday afternoon.