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Friday, November 30, 2012

Swim Carnival, Friends Luncheon

This week has been quite busy and a bit hard to stick to my diet plan but despite all the things I should not have eaten this week, I braved the scales this morning and I have lost 6 kgs. So did a little dance around the bathroom before beginning the day.
On Wednesday, I attended my youngest grand-sons swimming carnival.  He swam in most of his age races and ended up getting 3 second places in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle and a third in breaststroke.  I was very proud of him. Below are a few photos.
On the blocks before the race. Jake has the blue cap on.

Making a start.

Here he is at home holding his ribbons. 
The place to be was in the pool though not on the sidelines as it was very hot.  In the end I found a seat and a shady spot under one of the few trees in the pool area so had a lovely time watching him race.

Yesterday, I drove up to Easts Rugby League Club in Brisbane to have lunch with some very old friends.  Most of them I have known  for over 35 years  when we volunteered together at our children's school tuck shop.  They still meet once a month and although I haven't been able to get there very often, I managed to catch up with them this month. I am in the above photo at the back.  It was like I had never been away as we chatted for several hours.    


They all exchanged small gifts as this is their last meeting before Xmas and to my surprise they all gave me one as well.  In the photo above, a friendship calendar, a Christmas tea-towel, a small photo album, a wallet with diary, pen and notebook in it, a lipstick holder, a cake of goat soap and some scratchies (no luck on those).  I went home one very happy girl.  Will have to make them a small gift when I next get the chance to catch up again.
Well must go and prepare a quiche for dinner.  Till next time happy stitching............

Monday, November 26, 2012

Quilt Group Xmas Lunch, OPAM finish


Today my quilt group had our Xmas lunch at the Runcorn Tavern.  The meal was great with a choice of ham and turkey or fish, pavlova or plum pudding.   Guess I was just too hungry when the food came as I forgot to take a photo.
Here is the Secret Santa bag full of goodies with Amanda playing Santa in the background 

We also exchanged our Secret Santa gifts early as one of our group is going on holidays on Friday and will be away for our break-up day in December.

The above photos are what I received. A beautiful ceramic pot in a wire basket filled with rose potpourri,  a handmade camel scissor holder and a fabric Xmas tree ornament. Thank-you to my Secret Santa. The camel is so cute, can't wait to use the tiny scissors. 

This is the gift I gave.  Choccies, a mug rug made with some of my Bliss fabric and coffee mug. 
In all, we had a wonderful day together, shared good food, did lots of laughing and talking and everyone had a lovely gift to take home.  Oh and another OPAM finish.  Happy stitching till next time...........

Thursday, November 22, 2012

SSCS posted, Bag purchase

Finally got my SSCS swap parcel finished and it is now winging it's way to ................

Last week I bought this bag from Fee's Deal of the Day. I'm in love with all things owl at the moment so it had it's first outing  to quilting on Monday.


It's so cute.  This week I bought some multicoloured ric rac and received my first block in Fee's stitchery BOM. Go to Fee's Shabby Shack here to check out the Deal of the Day and join up to receive the daily e-mail.
Well must go, lots of sewing and some more secret swap stuff still to do.   Happy Stitching till next time......

Saturday, November 17, 2012

FNSI projects

This is what it looks like around my place this morning. These photos taken at 10 am as I went over to my quilting room to take photos of my projects from last night.  Severe thunder storms are forecast for the south-east corner of Queensland and the thunder could certainly be heard with some rain as well so thought I would do a quick post in case we loose power.

Last night I continued to work on my SSCS swap present.  Have the ornament done and a few goodies to add to the parcel so on the downhill run now.  So here is a photo to add to the sneak peek from the other day.
The other things I worked on last night was some Christmas mug rugs.  Am going to add either a name on the small rectangle at the bottom or maybe a Christmas greeting.  The fabric is Adoring  by Sandy Gervais, from last year I think.  Had a charm pack and a honey roll to play with.  Really like these so think I will make a few more. Below are the four I managed to stitch together last night.
So that was my FNSI. I'm pleased with what I got done. Am going over to do some more stitching as we were supposed to go on a hot rod run today but the weather put a stop to that. Maybe I'll just check out a few FNSI blogs before I do that.   Until next time.... Happy Stitching........


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

FNSI, Curtains, Swap sneak peek

Friday Night Sew In is on this Friday night so if you want to join in and stitch along, pop over to Heidi's blog and sign up. It is good fun, and you can check the other participants blogs over the next few days, to see what they got up to.

I've not got much 'real' sewing done this week. Still working on my Xmas swaps and finally made those curtains for my son.  I went to put them up but had to do a bit of adjusting on the door one as I had made it too long and it just didn't look right. A bit of reverse sewing and the problem was fixed.
Here are a couple of photos of my handiwork.

 Below is a sneak peek at one of my swap gifts.

Well must go..... Happy Stitching till next time.......

Friday, November 9, 2012

Some finishes.....

The weeks are going faster as it gets closer to Christmas.  I have so many things I want to make but I suspect like most years I won't get everything done.  I have completed a few things from my to do pile so here are the photos. I have been trying to find a flower pattern that I liked to add to a bag I am making and also one for my machine cover but haven't been able to find one so, I fiddled around and came up with this. Felt on the back and used half a jelly roll strip folded in half and gathered for the petals, two buttons for the center. What do you think?



Two more journals.  One to keep track on all my embroidery UFO's. 

Thread catcher to match my mat and machine cover .
I am still working on my Xmas Swaps and have a request for some curtains for my son so marked some finishes off and added a couple more to the list.  Well, must go, as my sewing room keeps calling me and with only a week to go till I need to post my swap parcel, there's lots to be done.    Hugs..........

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Friday Night with Friends

Last night I had a late start to my Friday Night with Friends.  I went grocery shopping late and you all know the story, it takes longer than you think etc etc.  Anyway I finally got out to my room, no organization or prep done so decided to work on all the things I have already started.
Stitched 'embroidery' and quilted folder top  ready for lining. 

Stitched together this thread catcher, just need to add ric rac around the top.

Xmas Hearts, front one has blanket stitch done, have used Xmas fabric on back.  Thanks to Terry for pattern.  Still got to add embellishments and ribbon hanger.  Have a lot more cut out to make.  They are so cute.

This is from a Nancy Halvorsen book.  I love this saying and have made it before for a friend but always wanted to make it for myself and this Xmas is it.  Sorry for the poor picture quality as I traced it in pencil.

Added borders and pellon.  Used  Nancy  H  fabrics from a few years ago.
It ended up being a late night but at least I got a bit further with a few things. I am posting late as today my family came over for lunch and as they have now all headed home, I am free to get on the computer.  It was a lovely day and I am extra happy as we were able to get onto Skype and talk to my grand-daughter who is on study exchange about 4 hours from New York.  It was lovely to see her face and talk to her.  Fortunately where she is didn't lose power. She said they had bad winds and rain and today snow was falling lightly. So it is good to know she is okay.
To finish here is a  photo of my grandson on the quad bike.  You can see we need rain as the yard is so dry with leaves off the trees everywhere.
Well I am off now to check out some other blogs and see what you got up.  Thanks to Cheryll for hosting the night.           Hugs........Noela.
 

Friday, November 2, 2012

Friday Night with Friends, Some Goodies

Tonight I will be joining a group of ladies to sew and stitch the night away.  If you would like to join in go over to Cheryll's at  Gone Stitchin' and sign up.  Just need to post about what you did tomorrow and then you can visit all the other blogs to see what everyone else managed to get done. Can't wait till tonight. See you there.........

This morning in the post I received three small parcels.  I renewed my subscription to Homespun magazine and received a diary and Tilda charm squares as part of the deal.  Today the Tilda fabric arrived.  I have fallen in love with this pack.  There are 40 - 61/2 inch squares, not sure what I will do with them.  Will have to think about it for a while.
The spot buttons, check bias tape and scissors came in 2 small parcels from Fee's Shabby Shack.  Each day I get an e-mail with a Daily Deal.  The specials are a good price and have free post in Australia.  Go over to Fee's and sign up for the e-mail.  She also has some new Clubs starting.  They are Gift of the Month Club and 12" Mini Quilt of the Month Club.

The family are coming over for lunch tomorrow so must go and give the house a quick clean and then do the dreaded grocery shopping.      Till next time.......   Happy Stitching........

Thursday, November 1, 2012

FNSI, Boonah Retreat, Gardeners Journal Top

My retreat on the weekend went so quickly that as usual I didn't get as much done as I had hoped so have been working on my Gardener's Journal for the last few days so that I could have the top done by yesterday's finish date.  Well I am pleased to say that I made it and here is the photo to prove it.
My Gardener's Journal quilt top. Now all I have to work out is how to quilt it.
For FNSI at the retreat, I worked on the stitcheries and stitched together some of the pieces in the last block. The stitching in ' Resting in the Garden' seemed to take forever to finish.
Block I
 It was great having the girls from my group sewing along with me.  We had a wonderful time at Boonah.  I didn't get to bed until after midnight on both nights.  I worked on some journal covers, Christmas secret swap stuff which I won't be able to show and of course more stitching for my GJ block. I showed the other girls how to make my journal covers (pattern on Moda Bake Shop).
My journals made with Mama says Sew

Cindy used bright fabric and a crazy patch design

Clair's crazy patch design got everyone wanting to make one.

Jan let the fabric do the work. She quilted it by sewing with gold cotton on the diagonal lines.  It looked very effective and so quick to make as no piecing.

Beryl's journal.
They all look great, don't they?
Most of the girls were working on Secret Garden quilts so I didn't take any pictures as they are still works in progress.  I did take my friend Jan's quilt as she has been working on this for a number of years and has brought it to a few retreats.  This time she got the top finished so well done. The quilt instructions state to cut the fabric, put in containers and then randomly put the blocks together. She has put together a beautiful quilt.
Here it looked like stained glass as the light from the window reflected through it.

The red pieced border just makes the centre pop.

Here are some of us relaxing at morning tea. Lovely carrot cake, banana cake and cheesecake slice.



And above, here we are, machines at the ready.  We have quite a big area to work in which is wonderful.
Well that's about it from me tonight.  Happy Stitching till next time..............