OPAM finishes, Christmas goodies.

I have left this to the last minute but  here are some final finishes for December.

A Christmas Hand Towel

Mug Rugs for my boys.  Scott has taken his to work.  Not sure how long it will stay clean as he is an Auto Electrician.

Finally a Xmas Banner which didn't quite make it on the wall for Xmas.  

Close-up of two of the labels on the red striped triangles. The pieced triangles have been blanket stitched.

I made the banner to go with this so will have to wait until next Christmas to see them together.

I  love Sweetwater labels and belong to their monthly label club. I am a bit behind with my label projects so will try to catch up over the holidays.
To finish, I will show you a few quilty things I got for Xmas.

Some Theadora Cleeve Buttons.  I have a pattern by Marg Lowe that uses some of these buttons.

Some Hugs and Kisses patterns and a stitching kit which had  some needles, thread, small pattern, pellon , a hoop and a Quizzles DVD pattern.

In closing, I would like to:-

WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR

Hope to catch up with you again in 2013. I have enjoyed visiting your blogs and have loved reading your comments.   Less than three hours to go now. Time to join my hubby and see if I can keep him awake till 12 midnight.                 Hugs........

Merry Christmas, OPAM finish.

A quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone.  Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas Day shared with those people you love the most. We got to do that yesterday when we had our family over for an early Xmas Day celebration. This morning Chris and I had our eldest son, Scott, pop in for breakfast and a swim before heading off to visit relatives for lunch leaving us the rest of the day to enjoy each others company and to celebrate that we are one year older. It has been a wonderful day as we have been swimming, had a lunch of leftovers including trifle for dessert and generally not doing much at all.  I looked through my cards and found some birthday scratchies and won $27, then looked at all my beautiful presents again, read some new magazines and watched some car racing with my hubby.
I can't finish this post without showing some pictures of yesterday so here are a few.

This is the Christmas wall hanging I finished this week. I got the label with our surname on it  from Sweetwater.

Scott,  Josh and me in the pool enjoying the water.

Debbie, Kiah and Hayden

Scott, me, Hayden and Kiah who has just returned from 4 months study in the USA. 

Josh, Deb, Todd and Scott.  Had to rescue my SSCS parcel (the yellow one) from Josh before he opened it.

My daughter, Kym, made it from work just in time to have an early dinner with us.

Our Christmas Meal. Vegetarian Noodle Salad, Spinach and Feta Salad, Tossed Salad, Curried Sweet Potato Bake, Roast Potato, Glazed Ham, Roast Turkey, Lamb and Pork.  Thanks to Scott and Todd for roasting the meats and  Kiah for her lovely vegetarian salads.

And a  big thank you to my grandson Joshua who made our cake. Here we are about to blow out the candles on our White Chocolate Tim Tam Cheesecake.    It tasted just beautiful.

A fitting end to a great day.  Will be back soon to share with you the gifts that I have received from Odette from Chili  in my SSCS parcel. They are just beautiful.    Till then Happy Holidays...........

Last Nights Results, OPAM finishes

Well it was an interesting night.  I ended up having some unexpected grandson sitting duties so my plans to get lots done sort of went by the way.  Having said that, after getting Jacob settled into watching some car racing with Grand-dad, he  ended up falling asleep so I popped over to my room and got this done.

I am making some mug rugs for my family and adding their names to them. I finished the quilting and added the binding, just need to hand stitch that back. Below are two more.  Need to add the names and stitch.  For those who don't drink tea or coffee, I am making smaller square ones. 5 more still to prepare and stitch.  

I needed a break from these so started to cut out some squares for Xmas bunting.  Got the kit from Sweetwater last year. Three pieced triangles and 4 striped. Have four printed labels to go on the striped ones. Hope to get it finished to hang up this year.

It was getting late so went back inside to wait for Jake's Dad and did a bit of stitching on this Gail Pan free ornament  pattern until he got back. So it ended up being an okay night and I was happy with what I managed to get done. The prep work always takes the longest.

Now I am going to go and check out what everyone else did last night and do some blog hopping.
Oh, before I go, here are the two mug rugs I have already finished.  Added some buttons to mine.

Till next time Happy Stitching..........

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...........

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..........

Quilt Show, 2 Finishes OPAM, Another GJ block

Yesterday I went with my friend Jan to the Brisbane Quilt Show.  Of course I forgot to take my camera so took a few photos with my phone. They aren't great so will just show a few of the beautiful quilts that were on display.  The 2 photos below were made from the same border piece of fabric and was one of the challenges given to any quilter who wanted to enter. The face was just stunning.

Some very talented people as can be seen by the above three quilts.

Two of the red work quilts. The display of these quilts was wonderful. Of course there were lots of traditional quilts as well.  It took quite a while to view them all but was time well spent. The photo below showing the quilting on this piece is what I would like to aspire to. Wonder if I will ever get there?

Today I stitched the buttons on these little place mats made from Lucy's Crab Shack fabric by Sweetwater.  I bought the little kit from them but forgot to also buy the pattern so just made my own up.  The pockets are for holding your cutlery.  Very cute , I think.

I have completed another block in my Gardeners Journal.  Still stitching away on the last two blocks. Posted this on the Stitch-A-Long blog a couple of days ago but have been too busy to post on here until now.

Well, that's all for me tonight.   Happy Stitching till next time......

Ekka, OPAM finish

Last Friday I went to the Ekka with Scott, Tom & Jake.  The boys enjoyed the train ride there.   We had a wonderful day and I even managed to check out the quilts that were on display as well as the arts and crafts and the iced cakes.  The boys went on lots of rides, checked out the baby animals and got a few show bags before we headed back home.  They both went to sleep in the car on the way home.

When 's the train coming?

Hang on, I think we might get wet here.

The boys loved the pirate ride.  Just trying to dry out in the sun.

Jake loved being in his bubble.

I think this car might be as good as Grandad's.

My favourite cow.  The dexter.  I was feeling like joining them for a snooze by the end of the day.

I have been getting a little stitching done and have been able to finish my machine mat and sewing  machine cover.  The cover looks a bit plain so am going to make a flower to go on the front.  I  made these to use on my next camp at Evans Head in September.

That's all for now.......Till next time ......

3 Finishes, Design Wall

I have a few more finishes to show this week.  The first one is my Patisserie table runner which I have been hand-quilting for some time.  I am amazed just how long it takes me to hand quilt but I do think the rewards are well worth it in the end.  So after adding my hand stitched label to the back, I'm very pleased with the final result.     

My other two finishes are my Journal Covers made with a  fabric called Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater.  Love these but the one with the tape measure ribbon around it is my favourite.  Do you agree?

The one on the left for my Quilting to do  list and the one on the right for my shopping list.

Also this week-end I had some help from my hubby installing a design wall.  I used a flannel back tablecloth, stitched a sleeve across the top, threaded an aluminium flat rod through it then Chris nailed the rod to the wall behind my cutting table.  Can't wait to try it out with some blocks to see if it works..  It will certainly make a change from having to sort them on the floor. Not good for the old knees these days!!!

The black fabric seems to be staying in place which is a good sign.

Happy Stitching till next time.........