Some Christmas Shopping

These gorgeous Lakehouse Dry Goods fabrics arrived last week - the cupcakes and bright stripes are for a couple of aprons and oven mitts; the gorgeous pastels are for the "Ruffles 'n' Rows" quilt - this is such a pretty, little girl's quilt. Elizabeth and Matt have a 5 year old niece so it may end up on her bed. Luckily I placed an order before the dollar dived. Another fabric is on backorder so I'm hoping it will arrive soon.

The "Advent Calendar" pockets have been appliqued, sequinned and beaded, ready to be added to the pile of sewing for the weekend.

Elizabeth and Matt will be popping down on Sunday (she is learning to drive so the trip will add lots of k's to her log) - might have to buy some prawns for lunch, especially if the weather if lovely. Perhaps not so much sewing will be done.

Christmas Swap

For those of us who missed out on joining in a Christmas swap this year, or those who cannot help themselves and love to be in more than one, Janet is hosting a swap - send her an email before the end of the week to sign up.

A Winner

The winner chosen by random number generator is No 4: Sew Create It - Jane. Please send me your address Jane and I'll organise for some McGrath Foundation goodies to be posted your way.

Friday night I spent some time cutting out this little pile of fabrics and appliques which will become one of these Christmas wallhangings for Jenni.

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours quilting a bit more of "Sharon's Roses" - this quilt is almost 5 years behind schedule - I'm hoping like mad that I have it finished by early February next year. It isn't really a quilt to put on the frame and I believe it should be hand-quilted but that's just too daunting.

Girls' Day Out for Melbourne Cup

Yesterday John and I attended a Melbourne Cup function at our local racetrack with our friends, Sharon and Gary, and their daughter Kristy and son-in-law Heath.

After a good choice for my first bet of the day, I ran out of luck ... not to worry, it was a fun day and the only time of the year that I have a flutter. Last year Sharon, Gary, John and I spent Melbourne Cup day in Strahan, Tasmania.

Gary and I studying the form:

Block 5 (the cafe) of Girls' Day Out is finished - seemed to take me so long but it was lovely to stitch all that wisteria. Following are photos of blocks 4 (the lolly shop) and 5 (without buttons/beads). The fashion shop is next.

Don't forget the giveaway closing on Sunday.

"Truly Scrumptious"

" Truly Scrumptious

Though we may seem presumptuous

Never, never, ever go away

Our hearts beat so unruly

Because we love you truly

Honest Truly, we do"

Richard & Robert Sherman

"Truly Scrumptious" designed by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches.

This quilt and the backing have been made mainly from stash fabrics and leftovers from other quilts. Remnant pieces were bought for the borders and binding.

I wanted to use the "extra" block as my quilt centre because her name is Elizabeth, so Miss Izzy became my label.

As I'd pieced the blocks prior to tracing the stitcheries, I should have taken more care about choosing the stitcheries for each block because each Miss Scrumptious is either blue or green and it took me a while to finalise the layout of the quilt.

Which quilt did she choose? And a giveaway.

John and I had such a good day yesterday - picked up a few Christmas presents at various places, fruit for the Christmas cakes, Christmas lights etc. I visited "The Remnant Warehouse" on Botany Road, Alexandria (what an excellent shop - all the latest patchwork fabric ranges and a fabulous selection of ric-rac in all colours and sizes - last time I visited I bought the extra-wide green ric-rac from there for "Citrus Crush"). Didn't buy much for me - some cotton to use for stitcheries - but bought plenty for my girlfriend who makes smocked babies and children's clothes (silk, pique, voile) at terrific prices. And John managed to visit a few motorbike shops.

Went to Elizabeth and Matt's place for a cuppa and a chat before heading out for dinner. Elizabeth chose "Happy Days" - no particular reason. Drove to Michael and Peta's to collect them and spent a bit of time there looking at the fantastic brooches and head pieces Peta has been making. These are the brooches I brought home with me.

I don't have a photo of a headpiece - Elizabeth will be wearing one to her work's Melbourne Cup function so I'm hoping she'll send me a photo. Peta is looking into having a spot at Glebe Markets and perhaps an Etsy shop. By the way, dinner was lovely and so was spending time with the family.

This morning I noticed that this is my 100th post - I thought about having a giveaway, but as I'm a bit busy and don't have a lot of time to make something for a hand-made present I'm going to buy some goodies from the Jane McGrath Foundation and send them out as the present. If you'd like to be in the draw, please leave a comment and I'll ask Jenni to choose the winner (by random number generator) next Sunday night (9.11.2008 EST).

"Citrus Crush"

"Citrus Crush" designed by Janelle Wind is now finished and all my Amy Butler fabrics have been used up (except for a couple of tiny scraps).

We are going to Sydney today to do a bit of shopping and have dinner with Elizabeth, Michael and their partners (Jenni has to work), so I thought I'd take both Amy Butler quilts along and let Elizabeth choose which quilt she would like ("Citrus Crush" or "Happy Days"). Hmmm ... which one? I honestly have no idea.

"Truly Scrumptious" is almost finished - she's quilted and bound, label is stitched and written on ready to be attached. Might have time to do that tomorrow night. The quilting on TS is very simple - in the ditch on all the blocks, sashings and posts then 1/4" inside the stitchery blocks and across the diagonals on the corners of those blocks.

Miserable weather today - great for shopping and spending time with the family.