Wipe Out

Second weekend of December I was sidelined by a virus that turned into a chest infection and hung around for the rest of the month and into the early new year.  Consequently I didn't finish as much Christmas sewing as I would have liked but, thankfully, I had most of the Secret Santa presents made that I needed to send to Teresa.

I didn't take photos of the smaller Advent presents, only the Christmas Day gifts:

"Super Tote" designed by Noodlehead

and

"Sew Together Bag" designed by Sew Demented

I received the most wonderful gifts from Lorraine:

Days 1 and 2:  Christmas Tea Towels and Christmas Coasters

Day 3:  Christmas Potholders

Days 4 and 5:  Ornament (pink antlers and tiara) and Clotted Cream Fudge

Christmas Day's present was this fabulous Doctor's Bag in beautiful Union Jack/UK fabric - so beautifully made and Lorraine also sent some coins in the zipper pocket.

I made each of my sweethearts a pair of Christmas pj's

 and a couple of little dresses for ChaCha with patterns I'd made for her mother and auntie.

Finished off a couple of Annie Downs decorations for the sweethearts

and a Christmas stocking for Kurt to add to the family swag that hangs in the loungeroom.

"Two Fruits"

The theme for our on-line group's first swap of the year was to make something using a Helen Stubbings pattern (Hugs 'n' Kisses).

Jo sent me such a lovely parcel wrapped in a fat quarter of Helen's fabric.  The design Jo chose is "Pretty in Pink" and is beautifully stitched using more of Helen's fabrics.

 

Notice the card from Chookyblue

My partner to send to was Jenny.  I made "Two Fruits" for Jenny - I did all the stitching on the plane to Singapore and stitched the clamshells on the flight home.

 

This was a fun design to put together fitting it all around a beetroot can - I didn't have a "two fruits" can.

I had a lot of 2-1/2" squares left over from the B&C Patchwork Swoon quilt and was looking for a block design to use them in.  One day last week I had a brainwave and the scrappy churndash block is the result.

All my sewing time since has been taken up making these blocks.

I have loads of blocks in various stages of progress but have now run out of background fabric - that will be delivered next Tuesday, so back to Starlight and Hopscotch.

Had the best day on Saturday - minded ChaCha while Elizabeth and Matt were out for the day and we visited Michael and Gulliver.  The littlies were so entertaining playing with each other.  I also had a bonus time minding Gulliver later in the day which Michael picked up Peta from work.

Mum and I, along with some of our friends, are going to a charity showing of "Eddie the Eagle" tomorrow night - don't know much about the movie but I do remember Eddie the Eagle at the Olympics.  Hugh Jackman is in the movie so that's a plus :)

Christmas Presents

Our on-line stitching group has a Secret Santa each year and I received beautiful presents from Jo.  Having Jo as my partner was wonderful - we've been online friends for many years and I finally met her in person at our quilt camp in November.

Helen Stubbings, Jo, me

We had to send a little stocking to our partner containing a Christmas button, fat quarter, treat, sewing notion and ornament.

 

 

then a main present to open on Christmas Day - I LOVE this sewing bag - beautifully made and such pretty fabrics/colours.

 

I received some surprise Christmas presents in the mail from stitching friends: a beautiful ornament and paper clip from Helen

a decorated tea towel and ornament from Sandi

and this very cute owl from Sarah

Roseanne was my partner to send to.  Some of the presents I sent to Roseanne (unfortunately the chocolates melted):

Fig Tree & Co stocking

Hatched and Patched ornament

 Main present was Tree of Christmas Cheer, another Hatched and Patched design

and a Hatched and Patched doorstop.

It was a great stitchy Christmas.  There are more presents to be photographed.

Busy Weekend

Had a great time with the babies on Saturday and hanging out with friends on Sunday.

A friend of mine has an outdoor pizza oven and she invited a few of us over for lunch.  Delicious.

 

I should have taken a photo of the chocolate pizza with salted caramel icecream and strawberries - thanks goodness there were a few of us there to share - it was so good.

Most of my sewing is secret Christmas business and I'm making some progress but nothing finished yet.

The embroidery machine has also been busy.

Cleared some space in the loungeroom to take a photo of Orange Swoon - up on a ladder and still couldn't fit it all in.

One last photo from quilt camp with Sarah - was so lovely to see her again.

 

Swell

Nearly 6 months ago I decided to make Camille Roskelley's (Thimble Blossoms) "Swell" from her book Simply Retro out of a batik jelly roll I had.  The colours are very pretty and I had a few jelly roll strips left over from the two Goodnight Irene quilts, so I added those in to make this quilt a bit larger.

Karen had a fantastic blue/green/turquoise batik fabric in stock that worked very well as border, binding and backing.

I love the frilly spiral quilting Karen did.  I'll definitely be choosing that pattern again.

The Wish Quilt is almost finished.  It was started in 2008. 

 
I stitched the reindeer antlers last night

and I found some Christmas buttons in my stash to sew onto the stars.

There has also been a little secret sewing happening to get ready for Quilt Camp at the end of October.