Done and Dusted for another 363 days

Well I for one am pleased that

Christmas is over for another year.

It was a very quiet Christmas here this year,

just dh, the girlies and I

and even though we had a great day

it just wasn't the same without all the

family around.

Next year will be different,

Mum and Dad have said they will

come here for Chrsitmas but I really want to

go home to Tasmania dh better start

saving his penny's :)

So I finally got to open my SSCS present from

Paula, and I love it

I received a mug which say Sew happy to be quilting, used needle

container, which will be used when I am playing with the quilty beast,

a photo mousepad and a bookmark

my main gift was a lovely crochet bag of Paulas own design

and Imogen having fun on the slip n slide the girlies received

Boxing day we sat around and did very little ate

leftovers, played cards and watched the start of

the Sydney to Hobart, I did some stitching on

my Anni BOM it was BLISS

Yesterday we took the girlies snorkelling

I sat on the beach and read my book and today I am

rather sore as my legs got burnt..... :(

then we went to Davidsons beach and did some fishing

not that we caught any.

We knew the Nemisis the BIG police boat was coming

into berth on the breakwater jetty as they had to do

a medi vac off a Sydney to Hobart yacht, so we went to have a look

and there was a Sydney to Hobart yacht in port, they had to

retire as they had rigging issues, Imogen was amazed that there were

so many sailors on it lol.

Another 2 came in overnight also having to withdraw.

Eden is the last Port before they enter Bass Strait, so if they have

issues they come here.

The girlies are at the beach with the neighbours today  and

 I am hiding inside out of the

sun and plan on stitching the day away.

Santa was very, very, very good to me this year.

I recieved a 3D, DS (big kid at heart) and a 3D game,

books, and a gift voucher for Virgin Blue

I can see 2 or 3 return flights home coming up over the next 12 months :)

I hope Santa was good to you all, and that you had a

fabulous Christmas with your loved ones.



Its almost time.....

for Santa to visit

are you excited.....

my girlies are

I am not only because I know

HOW MUCH WORK I have to do

in the kitchen, between now and Sunday

Its been a busy week for us

I have had an influx of stray children

I have had girlies staying over at friends houses

We spent a day shopping in Bega and Merimbula

 for all the last minute christmas gifts,

and food why is food so expensive

and then on Thursday afternoon the 2 big girlies were invested at

scouts

Let the badge earning begin

and my baby girl I love this photo of her

Today was a trip to the supermarket (again), dh and I went on

a slip n slide hunt, we were successful :)

& we bought some prawns and oysters for Sunday

then went to the beach for a couple of hours it was

so nice just to lie on my towel with a good book

listening to the kids have fun.

So as a result of the past week there has been very little

sewing of any kind being done :(

not even hand sewing at night

Tomorrow I have so much to do

I have a Nigella Pork roast thingie prepare

a meringue to cook

veges to prepare

all the Christmas presents to wrap after we watch

part 2 of Going Postal

I am looking forward to Monday :)

Have a Happy, Safe and Blessed Christmas

If you are driving, no texting, drive sober, no speeding

and stay safe

and I hope Santa leaves something special for you all

Girveaway

I love paper piecing, I just need to tackle

much smaller paper piecing projects so they

don't take me 3 years to do lol

anyhoo

the paper piecing guru of Australia

Sue Daley has a new book coming out

and she is giving away a copy of her

new book

Go here to enter

2 more to go

on my Anni BOM

Block 7 is done, I just need to stitch the Goose's beak and legs

and add some twine to the tomatoes

and what all the blocks look like as of today

Hoping to have this baby as my first finish for 2012

and there has been some stitch-a-long progress too

December is done and dusted, the sashing for January is

on , the chocolates are already stitched I just need

to stitch the daisy and January is done too

.I have swapped some fabric from the sashings, I have a dark

beige spot that I put into the sashing but I took it out and added

the cream/brown spot and the beige between the pink and green

blocks.

So lots of progress being made here.

YAY



In My Garden progress

Slowly but surely I am getting the blocks

finished.

I started Block 7 the other night, and spent an

evening stitching all the stems etc of

blocks 5 & 6

yay

block 5

block 6

and the start of block 7

I also started a small quilt today, one of the

Prairie Womens Sewing Circle, its a foundation pieced

one and I only have 1 block done so far

19 more to go.

The girlies start school holidays tomorrow.

Heres to a summer of little fighting

lots of beach time and time to sew.

SSCS

I just collected a parcel from the Post Office

this morning and it was my SSCS all the way from

Paula in the USA

and look what was inside

a gorgeous little snowman magnet

a delicious tin (I love love love tins) and nestled

inside the tin was a parcel wrapped in

button tissue paper

a GORGEOUS stocking ornament which is now

happily hanging on our Christmas tree

Made my day completely

Thank you soooooo much Paula xxx

the remaining present has been placed under the tree

out of Henrycats reach and my line of sight.

and a big thanks to Chookyblue

for organising this swap again

xxx



Some finishes

Park Avenue is now washed, dried and

on my bed and I LOVE it.

5 drawstring party bags

see the lining, I HAD 5 metres of that fabric yesterday, then a girlie

decided to empty the rubbish in my sewing room and because

a corner of that fabric was in the bin, she BINNED all 5 metres

and I found out AFTER the bin had been emptied.....

bugger

and my finds at the reject shop yesterday

$5 each, we love them

and my 3 2 wise Santa's, the 3rd had a run in with

Henry last year...and our Reindeer

and in case you have forgotten its



Another Finish

Park Avenue is finished

its just had a wash

and now is having a tumble in the dryer

and my quilting stood up to the washing machine YIPPEE

Its been a busy day for me.

After I dropped the girlies at school

I headed to Bega (40 minute drive) to get the Christmas

shopping done, and I got everything on

their lists, but need to get a couple of things for

Emma and Webby

Not one of the girlies asked for anything HUGE

I think the most expensive present they all

ask for was a DS game which I pre ordered

and lucky I did, when I picked them up they

told me that there were none availble in Aus until

after Christmas

They will all be happy girlies on Christmas morning.

Then I raced home unpacked the shopping and

went to school for Imogens Christmas concert.

After that I did the groceries, came home unpacked them

had lunch went to dh work to organise a Christmas BBQ here for his 2

workmates and their families for Sunday.

Stopped and got some fuel, picked the girlies up from the

bus, home for 1 hour, then off to scouts,

back to the supermarket for fruit and vege and some

christmas treats for the kids on Sunday

home again, half made some drawstring bags for the

kids treats for Sunday

Back to scouts to collect the girlies

home to get dinner, showers, some tv then bed for the girls

I got the last of the binding stitched down

quilt in the wash and dryer

kitchen cleaned

and I am exhausted

I am looking forward to Webby coming home on Saturday

he has been in Brisbane for work since Sunday and I had forgotten

how hard 3 girlies on your own can be

and you know I miss him, its the longest we have been apart for 14 weeks

and its very very quiet without him, and I miss having coffee every

morning at work or the coffee shop

2 more sleeps yippee



354 inches

of binding to stitch down on the Park Avenue

quilt, no pressure at all lol

My plan for today was to sit watch movies and stitch binding

BUT

I got distracted as I do and instead I made a

thread catcher bag for the quilty beast

and a huge pincushion

and together

and thats  all the stitching I have done today

but I did watch my movies while I sewed

I have cleaned the house, returned the dvd's, got chicken

wings marinating for dinner, and I picked up a

parcel at the PO and had another

delivered to the front door

and neither of them were SSCS parcels...

I am off to Bega tomorrow to get some Christmas shopping

done before the girlies finish school which is next Friday :(

I have my list, I just hope I can get what they want

and big excitement

Gumdrops and Frumpa are coming for a holiday

in Febuary lol, for 2 weeks

YIPPEE and ds will be here early Feb for a holiday too

we will definately have a full house

and my tension issues when quilting is 100%

DRIVER ERROR, it would appear you cannot

quilt as fast as you sew.........

so I slowed my sewing machine down, slowed myself down,

fiddled with the tension settings on my machine

and woo hoo tension issues sorted....I think

and Sarah yep you were right......I suppose an instruction manual is

there to be read lol not filed away



Its beginning to look alot like Christmas

Saturday night the girlies were given the job of

decorating our Christmas tree

and I hung our Christmas quilts up

A Christmas Story in the loungeroom

Tis the Season on the stairs

Today I hung our garland up on the stair banister

(looked much better hanging on our mantlepiece in Tas)

lighty decorated with 3 angels, 3 red baubles

and 3 apples

and Henrycat kept a very close eye on me today

from his  the ironing board

while I tried to quilt Park Avenue I am having tension issues

on the back.......driving me crazy

and if you look very closely

you can see I made it to the bottom border,

tomorrow it will be finished  I still have to quilt all

the dark triangles on each side.



Its Almost Finished

Park Avenue this morning

making the extra centre blocks

Ta da, still needs the top and bottom borders sewn on

4 corner blocks to make

  

and the colour is a bit off due to the lighting in my

bedroom

and I have moved Henrycat off the ironing board well

I have no idea how many times today

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the final blocks made, borders on

and on the quilty beast BEFORE dh flies to Brisvegas

for work on Sunday.