Twas the blog before Christmas.....

Phewwww - finished work until 1 February -how wonderful. Spent a gorgeous day at the beach having a long lunch and good solid chit chat with all the girts from CAYHS - a great way to ease into the holidays - finished almost all of my shopping and today just have to make a pavlova, some aoli and off to a festive Christmas eve at Port Willunga - and my gorgeous G had her first proper hair appointment with a cut and colour and blow wave - she is so thrilled and looks lovely -and she declared that 'our' hairdresser( yes she used to be just mine) was awesome. Thanks Marie!!!

Have a safe and happy Christmas wherever you are - and as am I am sure that there are only 2 readers of this blog Happy Christmas to Theresa and Kay - lets sew some more next year

Love Clare

Happy Christmas

Sew and sews Christmas get together included a 'sew and show' so I showed off my three latest projects - two WIPS and a set of finished Santa sacks Kaffe Fasset - a new bedspread for me Duck Duck Quilt - all from Red Letter day - very easy and thanks to Fresh Lemons for the inspiration.

and nicer bigger stockings for the kids

Still here

Work is so busy trying to finish everything on top of Christmas that the nice things in life like sewing and blogging seems to be left out - it is 6.00am and I am trying to organise for tonight's Sew and Sews Christmas party - but a little blog to soothe my conscience - something else to feel guilt about. Made such a quick top this week with lovely Lizzy House Red Letter Day- my goodness the fabrics design themselves - all cut and pieced in one night - very very satisfying - but do I have a photo??? - not yet!!

Sunday Stash

A peak at my latest quilt destined for a Christmas present - lime and raspberry is the best way to describe it - fabric by Patty Young called Mezzanine - I bought in on my recent trip to Robe and had no idea what it was until I did a bit of digging - now I have another favourite designer to
covet - will it never end!!!



Gotta love a poppy!!!

Stir up Sunday

As a secular Australian the Anglican reading for the last Sunday in November of " Stir up we beseech thee o Lord" is not something I get to hear very often - but thanks to numerous mentions by my Christmas guru Nigella Lawson I always make my Christmas puddings on this day - stir up Sunday. Roll on Christmas - four weeks and it will all be over -

Happy Birthday to me

A nice turn at 48 - saw New Moon- went out to dinner with great friends to eat yummy food- bought fabric - received Coco Chanel perfume and a copy of Beatles Rock band for Wii from my kids- lovely

Blogging on holiday

Greetings from Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast - so lovely I want to live here forever - look at the photos next week and you will see why - but sadly no fabric shops!!!!

Too busy to blog

Madly busy at work getting things finished- three day meeting - off to school camp this weekend and then Noosa for a week - no time for blogging or sewing - it will be a craftless fortnight for me - but here is what I am working on nice things

Another flimsy to finish!!

Nine patches all sewn and maybe quilted some day

Amazing

Following Theresa's lead I was doing some blog maintenance and added a "finished quilt section" to my blog and was amazed to find out that I have finished (not started and then not finished)) ten quilts this year - that makes me very happy!!

Some favourites

I found a rangeof shots of the small nine patches that I was working in and I love them so much that I thought I would share - I am particularly pleased with the black and white 'onions' hand screened by me - a first and probably a last

- but preserved forever in my scrappy nine patch quilt!!!

Rasberrry and Lime

Latest quilt - quilted and edged - still the hand sewing to go but I am so slow at that that it will be Christmas before it is finished -and that is a scary thought

New and blue

Three quilts on the go including a new one fro my best friends daughter - my first commision!!!!I hope it works out

( Later photo) I think it did!

New and blue

Three quilts on the go including a new one for my best friends daughter - my first commision!!! I hope it works out

Spring in Adelaide means.....

Mulberries - lots and lots of them - mulberry crumble, mulberry muffins, mulberry and apple on cornflakes...

yum

wet wet wet

A little bit of cutting , a little bit of sewing and lot of rain - 27 mls - yey !!!!!

Holidays

Pavlova and Thai Beef Salad

School holidays - lazy days - first spring lunch of the year - catching up with friends

Pedal Prix

Not a lot of sewing or blogging but here is a quick summary of the past few weeks - one belated blog at a time. Pedal Prix was a fun weekend with late night and early morning rides - the kids were amazing and we improved our time from the last race from second to last to fifth to last - got to love an improvement

Scarves and stuff

Now I have my camera back and working I can pull out all stops - including some of my early work like a couple of Denyse Schmidt scarves

and an early Moopy from a Sew and Sews class - (mine is the wonky one on the left!!)

61 done

My one a day nine patch is rolling along - ( make that 30 in a sitting ) 61 made and 11 to go.

Granny

When I was growing up I didn't know about quilting but my maternal grandmother always did patchwork- hand sewed hexagons with paper piecing from scraps of material - it was all she ever used - I learnt how to hand stitch this way and still have the pin cushion I made in 1969. Granny once made a double bed quilt and the other day I got my mum to bring it out of storage for me to show the girls at the Sew and Sews. It was like a journey through all my primary school dresses - all hand stitched and each piece a memory. Somehow buying new material to quilt is not the same as this lovely piece made with remnants.

A late picture of a finished quilt

My Anna Maria Horner quilt has been keeping us warm for a few weeks now - still a little bit of binding to hand sew but as good as done - here it is

I think I am getting the hang of this

Last night another good long go at my nine patch made out of scraps - it is extraordinary to me that I have manged to accumulate quite so much fabric in only one year of sewing (and from reading other quilt blogs my stash is VERY small in comparison) - prior to June 2008 I don't think I had ever bought fabric - let alone trawl websites to buy fabric gems from around the world!! So my nine patch is a wonderful record of my early buying with a journey from the Spotlight spots to the Fasset flowers with some Amy and Denise in between. And lots of fun along the way.

Better late than never

The one a day nine patch at Crazy Mom Quilts is 43 days old so I really am a bit late - but I wanted to give it a go - after one night I have to say that it may be a bit small for me to manage as I have the patience of a gnat- but I am going to give it a little bit of a go - maybe a small lap rug or cot quilt - does anyone have a baby that need a rug???

Finished

Had a productive week and finished two quilts - one for H's teacher Non who is was thrilled with her bright new lap quilt _ And one for Johanna and Amy who won the raffle that we ran to raise money for the new brakes on the Pedal Prix car -$207 in three hours at the school VIP day thanks to all the grandparents!! And spring has come to Adelaide in a week with my irises flowering and the chooks happy to be out and about scratching -with spring in the air and almost all of my projects finished time to plan some Christmas treats for the family- I am dreaming of a Kaffe Fassett colourful quilt ......

New quilt

A offered to make a quick quilt to raffle to raise money for new brakes on our Pedal Prix car - a very quick trip to Spotlight and guerrilla shopping ( all chosen in 10 minutes ) $22 laterI had the goods - pretty cats and spots and stripes - I hope the new owner likes the colours because I do - quilted in a lassoo pattern using my new found free motion skills - quite happy with the week's work - - now the binding - am planning on trying out the machine binding I learnt at the WEA class - hope it works!!!

Ya Hoo!!

Went to the second of my quilt classes and after the first one whenI was told" that to be a successfully machine quilter I needed a new machine " with my machine only three months old !! - I was not exactly looking forward to another day of failure - BUT To my great relief and excitement I discovered a trick that has made free motion quilting not only possible on my inexpensive Elna but positively enjoyable- the secret - I DO NOT NEED TO DROP MY FEED DOGS!!! - it gives me me great control and stops all the yucky looping that was happening on the back of my quilts everytime I tried free motion - And this simple trick - which all makes it all work out also worked for two of my fellow quilting members. So I am a very happy camper!!!

In the beginning

Got my camera back and found a whole lot of photos - this one from our fabric buying trip to Melbourne which for me was when it all began!!!

All done

Finished the top and a pieced the back of Non's nice new scrap quilt and am now ready to quilt!!Plus a lovely weekend at Second Valley with the girls - thank you all for a fun weekend!!.

Busy week

Last Sunday some of the Sew and Sews participated in a WEA machine quilting class - lots of new things were learnt but the inadequacies of my machine was the thing I learnt the most - shame as it is only three months old - however I can still do some of the things we learnt and quickly set about making a bright and colourful nine patch for Non - (H's fantastic teacher from when he was in reception who is going through a bumpy patch) - I hope the new quilt will brighten her up a bit - I have had fun pulling all the bits together from my stash. But no sewing this week as I am at the opening of The Hypochondriac by Brink Productions tonight, a street party in Queen Street for SALA on Thursday and then Friday and Saturday at Second Valey for a girls weekend- lots of nice things to do but no sewing. But - do plan to finish piecing the top next week so I can take it to the WEA class the following Sunday for some tips and tricks - there I have said it now so aim to get it done!!!

All pedal prixed out!!!

We made it through Pedal Prix with two tired childrenbut a lot of fun was had by all!! Not wanting to push oursleves the team come second to bottom on the primary school ladder, but it didn't matter the kids still enjoyed the day. Roll on Murray Bridge and the 24 hour race!!!

Good Fun

A full Sew and Sews last night with all the gals - nice to catch up and see what everyone is doing - and accepting sage advice on my projects - thank you all. Another very cold night so I think I better get a wriggle on with my bed quilt q uilt - looking forward to finishing - but with a nine hour Pedal Prix this weekend I am not sure how much quilting will be done - Good luck to G and H in their big race!!! PS I know blogging without photos is no fun but did I tell you I left my camera in Melbourne!!!!!!

Same air again

Theresa at Sew and Sews and I are breathing the same air again. ( see my first ever post -The beginning) I had just got off the phone from ordering my new walking foot so that I can begin to quilt my lovely new Anna Maria Horner bed quilt when I checked her blog and guess what - she is talking about using her walking foot !! I hope mine looks as nice as hers does.

Satisfying Sew and Sews

This week I excitedly started on my new Anna Maria Horner quilt with the pack of 4.5 in strips that arrived from America whilst I was in Melbourne. Such lovely material - just fun to play with the colours - With the hold of Theresa yet again we match all the colours and I am so happy to be back sewing on a anew project - this one to keep us warm in bed.

Finishing Mario!!!

No camera so no blogs for ages and school holidays and trip to Melbourne but back to it today on a sunny Saturday with some time to spare. Here finally is the lovely Mario quilt which H has not let go of - on the couch and in bed - - up and down the bunk ladder it gets dragged and wrapped up on the floor with the matching pillow - very satisfying and worth it all after the saga.

Busy Busy

Busy busy but still had time to finish unpicking the Mario quilt, re do the quilting in the ditch and attach the binding- leaving another quilt that needs hand sewing in my pile of quilts to finish - so last night when I really should have been finishing this last little bit so H can have his quilt for the weekend, I made myself a hat. I have been heading out to weekend sport this winter in A's hand spun brown beanie - very male and not very flattering.But I have been admiring a women on the train each morning who wears a close fitting red cable cloche beanie. So with two balls of chunky red wool I sat down last night and made a red crocheted shell stitch beret- wore it to work this morning and had a compliment from the first person I saw. Can't do better than that - now I have my heart set on a matching cable knit scarf - off to Spotlight again today for some more wool.