A little bit of sewing

Not a real lot of sewing to share with you as I worked all last week but now I'm on 2 weeks holiday so I plan to get lots of sewing done in between doing things with hubby and our boys. Tomorrow we are going to Hobart for a bit of retail therapy. The boys have some christmas money just burning a hole in their pocket.. Wednesday we are off to Swansea to do some camping. Should be fun I hope. I'm not much of a camper but I'll give it a go. I plan to do a bit of stitching while the boys are fishing. I did make a new needle case for myself from a charm pack. I loved making it.

This is the back view, it folds in twice if you know what I mean.

This is the inside, I think I should have put the felt to the side as the pockets will be more useful then so I'll make a note of that for next time.

Our garden is looking very pretty with lots of new plants flowering for the first time. I think this plant is Queen Annes lace. Its so delicate and lovely. I planted a pack of mixed seeds and lots of new plants popped up.

A new rose which is just divine, the scent is beautiful.

This one is my favourite, its so pretty and soft.

This cute little baby bird was sitting on our garden waste bin and making such a fuss, I went outside to have a closer look with my camera and I think he was stuck there, I picked him up and sat him on the ground and he ran off as he couldn't quite fly. His Mum and dad were close by and gave him a good talking to, it was so funny to watch.



Have a wonderful week, I hope you find some sewing time.

Sunday Sewing

I got a lovely surprise in the post on Friday, it was my christmas present from my friend Stephany, all the way from Belgium. She has made me a beautiful heart garland. I thought it looked really sweet hanging on my kitchen shelf. If I was lucky enough to have a sewing room it could go in there but alas I haven't so I'll leave it here where I can admire it while I'm cooking. Thankyou Steph, I love it. So pretty.

Also pretty is my new rose that has flowered for the first time, the colour is so soft and delicate.
I love roses.

Today I did a bit of sewing on my first new quilt for the year, this is for my youngest son, The fabric is called Children at play. I thought a simple square with some sashing was all it needed as I didn't have a lot of fabric to play with. Its looking good so far.

Back to work tomorrow which will be nice, just for the week then I'm having some more time off to spend with the boys and hubby. We are planning on going fishing and to the beach.

Have a great week and happy sewing.

Meet my new friends

We are having such a good time on our christmas/new year break, we have been swimming almost everyday. The swimning lessons have finally paid off and now the boys enjoy the water so much more. I have had a day or two for myself and I made these gorgeous Tilda dolls, they were so much fun to make.

I enjoyed making their clothes more than I enjoyed making the doll body but they weren't to hard to assemble.

This one is my favourite, I just love her red jacket, I made it from polar fleece and found a trim to sew around the edges. Their hair was tricky but after doing one doll I got the hang of it.

I recevied this Tilda book for christmas and the dolls on the front cover looked so sweet with their overalls on so I had to make a pair for my doll and give the first Tilda doll a friend.

The boys have laughed at me a few times while I played with ( I mean made ) my dolls, Jacob even said I looked cute playing dolls. A funny thing for a 13 year old to say but I thought he was sweet. Then we got on to talking about toyes I used to play when I was their age. They can't belive we didn't have computers and x box. Kids of today really don't know how lucky they are, especially mine.

A few more days off then back to work for a week then I have some more time off to sew, go the beach, go fishing with our friends and do whatever we feel like. oh the joy!!!!

What was your favourite toys or activity to do when you were a child, I'd love to hear about it.

More Christmas gifts

I had lots of fun making many christmas gifts this year, this cute little owl was for Lillian. It was fun to make and easy.

I also made her this cute little Anni Downs Ornament. Stitchery is my favourite thing to do so this was a pleasure to make.

And this book bag was for Lillian to. I hope it comes in useful for projects or books.

My on line stitching group had a secret santa and this was the main gift I made for Tess. I loved making this project.

This beautiful project was a gift for ME. My lovely friend Roseanne was my secret santa and she made me this block keeper and matching bag. I love it, the fabric is Ruby and its so pretty. Thankyou Razzy.

Now I have finished sewing for others for a little while I have been making things for me. I'm having lots of fun. I'll be back to share soon.

SSCS gifts

Here is my beautiful christmas gifts all the way from Martine in Belgium. The snowman stitchey is beautiful and I look foreward to trying the Belgium biscuits.

This is a wall hanging I made for my partner in the USA. I haven't heard from her yet so I hope she likes it.

Bright colours like these were way out of my comfort zone but it was fun to use something a bit different, My partner likes only bright colours so I really had to put my thinking cap on for this swap.

Thankyou to Chooky blue for organising the swap, I know how much work is involved in putting it altogether and she does a great job. 3 cheers for chooky.

Christmas things

Only 2 sleeps til santa comes, even though my boys are older they still get excited.
Yesterday we made this gingerbread house, its the first time we have done this and it was so much fun, the boys ate more lollies than they put on the house but hey!! its christmas. Thats what they kept telling me.

As soon as it was finished they wanted to start eating it, typical boys. I'm making them wait until christmas day before they can have a nibble. Aren't I mean.

At work we did a Kris Kringle where we had to make something for one person, Marian made for me and this is what I reiceved, its a great couch companion that she designed herself.

Look at the embriodery, its just beautiful.

This is a needlecase and its so cute, she even embriodered my name on the front.

My on line stitching group do a christmas swap each year and this year we had to give 6 gifts, one to open each day from the 20th Dec. My secret santa was Razzy and this is the first gift I reiceved from her. Its so sweet, look at the choccy spoon. I love it.


I'll be back tomorrow to share more photo of my gifts, have a great day everyone and I hope you don't have too much more to do before christmas day.

My Vegie garden

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know how much I love my garden. Every Spring and summer we get the vegie garden going. This year we have spinach, radish and snow peas just to name a few.

In one section of the garden we have green and yellow zucchini growing, I told my husband to stop watering in the steriods, Here is a zucchini that we missed so it has been growing for a few weeks and this is what we found.

Its huge and probably not that tasty now but I'll give it a go. Its 20 inches long.

I'll have to find some new zucchini recipes as we are getting a bit sick of zucchini slice and zucchini and walnut cake, any ideas??? Does any know if you can freeze grated zucchini? I should just try it and see if it works.

Have a great day.
If you're looking to buy some tools, plants or fertilizer for your vegie garden, try these coupons for Lowes.

Present for mum

Every year I always struggle with what to make my mum for christmas. This year I found a lovely Sally Giblin pattern that I knew mum would like. Its a lovely cushion with stitchery and applique, the writing says "Mothers are like buttons, they hold things together"

I chose mum's favourite colours which are yellow and blue. The cushion matches lovely with my blue hydrangea.

All my christmas presents are finished and in the mail, some have even arrived to their new home which is always good. Today I'm having a "me" sewing day. I want to finish some decorations I started to make. I hope you find some sewing time today .

Secret santa parcel has arrived.

My secret santa package arrived today all the way from Belgium, its very exciting. We had to send our partners an ornament that could be opened straight away and this is what I recieved from Martine, its so sweet. My other packages are safely under the christmas tree.

These cute little reindeers are on the other side of the ornament. This swap is wonderfully organised by Chookyblue.

Can any one help me with a blogger problem, I am trying to update my OPAM finishes for 2011 but when I open it a box comes up but nothing is in it, It just won't seem to load the content. This has been going on for weeks and I thought it may just fix itself but it hasn't. I can't even remove it from my blog as the box just stays blank . Any suggestions will be wonderful, thankyou.

A nice surprise

When I got home from work yesterday a wonderful surprise was left at my door by the postie, inside was this lot of adorable treasures from my lovely friend Joni, all the way from Canada.

Joni had told me she was sending me a christmas ornament but I never expected a box full.

They are just so sweet and so are you Joni for sending them to me.

Look at these little mittens, so cute.

My patchwork group is having our christmas luncheon today so I'm looking foreward to that.

Tonight I want to work on my last christmas gift then I'm done.

I hope you find some sewing time today.

Some christmas finishes

Most weekends we like to cook a few treats for lunch boxes during the week, Number 3 son wanted to try cooking with me this time so we made a carrot cake. He borrowed the cook book from the school library. Nicky did most of the work while I supervised and kept my hands in my pocket so I didn't take over. He was so proud of his efforts, the cake by the way is delicious, I hope there will be some left for lunch boxes tomorrow.

My on line stitching group had an ornament swap, my partner was Roseanne. She made me the pretty heart ornament pictured above and I made her the ornament below.

I have been busy finishing off a few christmas gifts, I made these book bags for some international friends,

These smaller ones were fun to do, they are on their way to England. Just a few more gifts to finish off and I'm done for another year.

Did you find some sewing time today? I hope so.

I'm wondering if someone can tell me how to change the colour of the words on my header photo.I have looked right through blogger but I must be missing something. I want to change it to make it stand out a bit more, Any help would be great. Thankyou

Quilt for Sale

SOLD, Thanks Lynne.

I have had a clean out of my cupboard and I pulled out this quilt. I have decided to sell it as I don't have alot of room to store all my quilts. The quilt is an Anni Downs design that I made in 2008. Its called An Angels Story.I used Antique flower collection fabrics by Lecien. The size of the quilt is 68x68 inches. It sits on my queen size bed just nicely.                

The cost is $180 including postage. I can only post within Australia I'm sorry as the postage costs are too high to ship international.

Here is a photo of the backing, its a green print with little leaves on it.

It was quilted by me.

If you are intertested please leave a comment or send me an e-mail. If you want to see more photos or you have any questions please just let me know.

Today I need to finish off a few christmas presents then I'm all done. I hope you find some sewing time today.