Sunday Stitchers Xmas Party 2014.

Last Sunday I attended our final Sunday Stitches for the year. We had a wonderful Xmas Party with lots of good company and fantastic food.

Here we all are  ready for our party.

I only managed to do about half a dozen stitches to the stitchery I was working on as there far too much laughing and frivolity going on. Then it was time for the birthday fat quarters. This month three of us had our birthdays.  I was really looking forward to it. It was exciting to open all the parcels and see the fabrics the others girls had chosen for us.

Myself, Helen in the middle and Susan

Here are my fabrics. I love them all. Maree put her fabric and some thread in a mason jar and Teresa made the fabric into a cupcake. I don't think I will undo it even though I want to use the fabric. Thank you to everyone for my beautiful fabrics.

We also had Secret Santa and I received mine from De. It came in this little port.

A little Xmas cushion, some chocolates and this beautiful girl, made with the tiniest of stitches and looking too cute for words. De was making one of these a while ago and I said to her jokingly she could make me one in blue, then she pulled my name out for Secret Santa. How lucky was I? Thank you so much De, I love all the gifts you gave me but my little elephant will always be extra special.
My gift was made for my friend Susan.

A strippy table runner, a Xmas ornament and  a reindeer sweet dish filled with chocolates. Glad you liked them Susan.
We all exchanged beautiful gifts and I did take a few photos, along with some show and tell of the projects worked on through the year but I will leave that for another day .
Till next time Happy Stitching.............

Sunday Stitchers, Turning 21.......

Last Sunday was our monthly meeting for Sunday Stitchers. We had another wonderful day enjoying each other's company.  This time we finally received back our own row along quilt. Unfortunately I still can't show the top as we have one more row to do before we reveal our complete top to the other girls who didn't participate. The new row will contain some sort of embroidery, not sure what I will do as yet but we have until our final get together in November to complete it. This will add the 8th row to the quilt. To say I love my top is an understatement. It is amazing how all the tops looked so different.  I think everyone felt the same way as I do and loved how the theme for each row was adapted by the maker to suit the quilt they were working on.

This is a peek at my my first row which contained a bit of embroidery 

A bit of Show & Tell above and below.  Jeanette's Gossip in the Garden top and her Gail Pan Xmas top.

Maree's Gossip top and her very cute Hexagon bag.

Dee's Chicken baby quilt, very cute.

On Wednesday, I headed down the coast for the night to have a special birthday dinner with my son's family. My grand-daughter, Kiah, turned 21 and it was lovely to celebrate with her on her actual birthday. The photo below was taken a couple of months ago as I forgot to take my camera  on Wednesday night. She is having a Harry Potter themed birthday party next weekend. I raided the op shops yesterday to find some clothes to wear. I am going as the pink lady and managed to get some pink clothing to wear from head to toe.

Well that's it for me today. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Till next...... Happy Stitching.............  

12"Mini Swap, FNSI, Sunday Stitchers Meet.

I can now show the 12" Mini I sent to O'faigh in the June swap. I received an email last week to say the parcel has been opened  so I can post some photos of what I sent.

The hanging with some chocolate and a  mini charm pack.

Thank you to Cheryl (our Swap Mumma) for providing us with a label to add to the back. I hand-stitched mine.

For FNSI, I worked on my Gossip block for this month. I'm afraid I did a lot of unpicking as I tried to make my Periwinkle blocks. This is the first time I have made these using the template pattern provided and I soon learnt that precision cutting and stitching is required to make sure they fit together nicely. I ended up getting three that I was happy with so these were joined together to make up the bottom row. I also finished off the stitching on the other blocks. Now only 13 more star blocks to go. Wish me luck.

A big THANK YOU to Wendy for again hosting FNSI.
Early on Sunday, I headed off to our Sunday Stitchers Group meet at Ormeau.
We had a few people unable to attend due to various reasons but it was still a great day. The noise level was definitely on a par with other days. It was Debbie's Birthday so here she is opening her Birthday Fat Quarters.

Of course, Birthday cake was the order of the day.

This is a little mini Cheryl brought for show and tell. It is made with a very small twister tool using a mini charm pack. It was so cute.
Thanks Maree for organizing another lovely day and thanks to everyone for your wonderful company.

Well must close now. This post has taken forever to do. My computer has been so slow tonight.
Till later.........  Happy Stitching.........

A very long post.......

Boonah Retreat :
Had a lovely time at my retreat a couple of weekends ago despite my disappointment at not finishing my chenille bag.The pattern needed a bit more explanation as to the direction of the fabric as the vases were lying across the fabric and not up as I expected they would and I didn't like it that way. My friend Jan's was the same so after spending most of the day on it, we packed them up to look at another time.

Other things I worked on was another Xmas ornament for the Xmas box and the start of a Xmas topper.

I still have to cut this out with my Twister ruler and hopefully, it will look like a Xmas Wreath when I finish putting it back together.
I also worked on some hexies for a mystery row along quilt I am doing with 7 other ladies from my Sunday Stitches group but can't show any photos of this until the quilts are revealed in a few months time.
Here are a couple of candid photos from the weekend.

Relaxing over a bit of lunch.

Jan and I working on her other bag . At least success with this one.

Lorraine almost finished her grandsons Car Quilt.

Now these girls were suppose to be sewing but Candy Crush got the better of them.

Of course it was lovely to see our usual friends were still there.

Christmas in July Swap hosted by Cheryll :

These are the parcels I received in the post yesterday from my Secret Santa.

 And these are the parcels I sent to my swap recipient last week. Hopefully they have arrived as well.

Not long to go now until we can open them. Have been good, with no touching happening until the 25th.

Sunday Stitchers :
Last Sunday, it was time to catch up with all my blog friends at our monthly get together. We always have a great time, lots of food, fun and laughter was the order of the day. I was lucky enough to win the lucky door prize, a lovely bag pattern by Rosalie Quinlan supplied by Maree. A big thank you  from me to you Maree.

Alison with her  Pillow Shams.

Susan with her Quilt Diva Wall hanging. If you look closely you can see her collection of badges and buttons.

Inca with her butterfly quilt.

I didn't get a photo of our Gossip in the Garden quilt but will borrow one from one of the other girls when they post about it. I didn't get much done on mine this month as I was waiting for the Dresden papers Maree had kindly offered to order for me. No excuses now to cut out and stitch those 64 Dresden blades into 4 blocks.
Will be back soon to post about my grand-daughter Kiah who had a showing of her first clothing collection along with 12 other girls last Friday night at the Royal Pines on the Gold Coast. They have all just finished their 18 month design course.
Until then.......Happy stitching.............

Sunday Stitchers, Friday Night Sew In.........

Last weekend, our Sunday Stitchers group met for June. We celebrated by holding our version of The Biggest Morning Tea'.  We also managed to raise some money for the Cancer Council through a couple of raffles and other purchases which was great. Everyone brought along something pink to eat. Below is the food table.

Lots of pink cakes, muffins, beetroot dip and a special cake made by Maree. I got to take some of that cake home, my hubby really enjoyed his piece. 

 This is the sign that greeted us on arrival. With our sugar overload, we probably did sound like a group of pre-schoolers by the end of the day...

Above is our birthday girl for June......Cheryl opening her fat quarters.
Below is some show and tell. Sorry the next three photos are a little fuzzy. 

Gossip Girls with their blocks for June.

Helen with her Twilight Quilt. Maureen who has only joined our group recently, designed this one. Couldn't get a good photo of it, it is just gorgeous. Lots of beautiful stitching on it.

Inca with her quilt. Beautiful work in this also.  

We had a wonderful day which ended all too soon. Thanks to all in our group for your company. Look forward to seeing you in July. Thanks Maree for all your work in organising it.

It is again time for Friday Night Sew In and you can go over to Wendy's to sign up.

Set aside a few hours to stitch along with other like minded ladies and work on some of your UFO's as I will be doing or start a new project. Hope to see you there. Will have the kettle on and maybe even have a muffin or two to share.

Well must go as it is getting late. I have a few things to blog about so will be back soon to do that.
Till then Happy Stitching..................   

Friday Night Sewing.

After a busy day helping my son clean and rearrange my grandson's bedroom, I finally got into my sewing room, after an early dinner, to work on an old UFO from last year. Of course it was FNSI hosted by Wendy B of Sugarlane Quilts so I happily stitched along knowing that many other ladies were stitching along with me. After adding the sashing between and around the blocks, I started on the final border. This took me a while to work out so after putting on the side borders, I decided to leave the other two to another day as I was getting a bit weary.
Today I finally got around to that little job and am happy with how the finished quilt top looks. Below is a photo. The sun was going down as I took these

Now to layer it ready for quilting.

This is a photo taken at my April  Sunday Stitchers Group.  7 of us are working on Gossip in the Garden quilt by Anni Downs. This is the second block. I am already behind and have to catch up on the first block as well as our third block due late May.

To finish I will show you a photo of the gift my son Todd gave me to help me see my stitching when we sit outside at his place. He uses one of these when he goes night fishing on the beach. It actually works very well so no excuse now not to stitch while waiting for the food on the B-B-Q to cook.
Hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter so far. Till next time. Happy Stitching.........