It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone and in just a few short weeks, we will be welcoming our first precious little grandchild into our family.  We are on the home stretch now and I CANNOT wait!

I have finished the first quilt, something to take to the hospital to use straight away.

It is hand quilted and I even did a little appliqué on the back.  

I have finished my tulip quilt.  

I have also finished the next frame of Hertfordshire, 48 little hexagons.  I miss doing them now they are all done......

I have also made a little bit more progress on St Neots, finishing all the hexagons.  I think I will tackle the appliqué that runs across the top of the quilt next.

I'm off to CAG tomorrow so I'm sure I will have lots of Show & Tell pics to show next post.  I have started playing with Instagram, I am loving it.  If you want, you can follow me on there.  Just click on the button on my sidebar.

One final thing, I have prepared this post on my iPad using the Blogger app, so fingers crossed it works ok????

Sue-Anne xxx

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year!

I did intend to do a post before Christmas day wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but the madness of pre-christmas set in and I forgot completely.  So ..... Merry Christmas!

My brother and his family came and stayed this year and it was really nice seeing and sharing my niece and nephew's excitement Christmas morning.

Christmas lunch is always a roast dinner with all the trimmings.  This year we had 14 for lunch.

Tea on the other hand, is leftovers and salads plus far too many desserts!

Big and little cousins keeping each other amused playing X Box.

Poor little Buddy trying to have a rest after such a big day entertaining the visitors.

This is the beautiful big bunch of Kangaroo Paws that my girlfriend gave me from her garden.  They are magnificent and I think the perfect floral arrangement for an Aussie Christmas.

I decided to take advantage of Nic being home and took off to Melbourne for a couple of days this week.  I stayed with my girlfriend and we had a great time time shopping, dining out and catching up with a few other friends.   I discovered a "new to me" shop called Zetta Florence.  I wish I had money to burn as I could have spent a fortune, but I was good and came home with only a couple of things.  I am in love with all the stationery and the whole atmosphere of the shop.

I want to wish all my fellow bloggers, followers and friends and very Happy New Year and a wonderful 2012.

Sue-Anne xxx

Christmas Decorating

No sewing today.  I love seeing how everyone is decorating their homes for Christmas and thought I would show you a couple of pictures of our home.

 Our main Christmas tree in the Loungeroom.

Some snowmen - always dreaming of a White Christmas (which is NEVER going to happen in the middle of Summer).

Rag balls and a couple of dolls.

Blue and green Christmas sparkle.

One of my treasured wool cones made by Michelle.

Michelle and I have been collecting Blossum Bucket snowmen for a few years now.  Here is the tinsel tree where they live at Christmas time

And our pool table that I have managed to keep clear since March - can you tell my soldier boy is home for Christmas???

Sue-Anne xxx

Irish Circles & Xmas Lunch

I have finally finished the centre for Irish Circles.

I have fallen in love with these baby circles.  They are only 3 inches in diameter.

Here it is all joined together.  It's not very big for all that work!  I still have a couple of borders to go though.....

We had our Friday Girls Christmas luncheon this week.  It was Marg's turn to be hostess and she did a lovely job.  The table looked so pretty (and the strawberry cider was pretty nice too).  We ate and laughed way too much and had a great day.

We exchange gifts each year and here is what I received.  There was also a home made pudding but it has already been cut up and sampled.  We all agree it is the best day of the year for us and this year did not disappoint.

Sue-Anne xxx

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Exactly one year ago today I decided to start a blog of my own.  I never imagined that I would make so many new friends from all around the world and I wish I could someday get to meet you all in person, what a wonderful time we would have! 

Christmas day arrived and even though there were a few "Kath & Kim" moments we had a fantastic day.  This is the only photo I took (slack I know).  Kellie's job was to bring the ham and because she had to work until 5 in the morning, she slept in and didn't make it till lunch was nearly over.  The Plum Pudding turned out well and my father told me that I have the job of making it from now on - don't know whether that's good or bad?  This year we finally decided to do Kris Kringle and everyone seemed quite happy with it except for Nicholas (the middle child, need I say more?).  He still thought he would be getting a present from his mum and dad and was devastated when he realised this wasn't the case - he is 24 years old!!!  I think these little stories are what makes each Christmas special and gives us a laugh when looking back in years to come.

The flooding has gone and the heat has set in and Buddy is bedding down for the duration.  I am not quite sure why he has started sleeping with his tongue poking out but it does look pretty cute.

I have cut out and stuck down all of the 48 star flowers for Swan Lake!!!

Here she is laid out on the floor and is now starting to look like a quilt - I am getting a little bit excited!!!

I have also stitched two more rows of clamshells.  It has been a stressful couple of months and this little quilt has been there to let me feel peace and calm whenever I start stitching.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year with lots of health, wealth and happiness for 2011!

Sue-Anne xxx

7 More Sleeps!

It's been a fortnight since I posted and as things are still quite hectic at home with Howard and Christmas preparations, I have found that one day has blended into the next and my brain is turning to mush (even more so than usual).  I have been reading all your blogs but have been really slack in not commenting.

We have had a little bit of flooding in our town.  The drought has well and truly broken here and we were told the other day that there will be NO WATER RESTRICTIONS this summer Yay!!!!

This picture is of a road I travel on almost every day and usually has a little creek running under the bridge.  This creek runs right through our town and the afternoon it flooded, every road that travels over it was impassable.  I have never seen the water run over the road like that.

This is the same creek over a different road.  My son usually walks his dog along that footpath.  The Murray River at Albury burst her banks due to water being let out of the weir and I can tell you, it has been a very very long time since we have seen so much water.  

We had our Friday Girls Christmas Lunch at Jan's last week.  Look at all those presents under her tree!  They were all for us!!!!!

We had the best day together, celebrating our friendship and exchanging gifts.  Here is just a small sampling of the goodies I received.

This is Jan's little table beside her armchair.  Don't you just love that little quilt!  It's "A Patridge in a Pear Tree".

Now I haven't done any sewing that is blog worthy so I will just leave you with a few pictures of some of my favourite Christmas decorations.

This just happened to come home with the shopping the other day, nothing like a bit of retail therapy.

If I don't post before, I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.  I want to thank you all for making me feel so welcome in blogland and I feel very lucky to have made so many wonderful new friends,  I love you all!!!

Sue-Anne xxx

I Lost November & 21 Days Till Christmas!

Well, I have totally missed November and there is only 21 days till Christmas! 

My husband became ill and had to be admitted to hospital on Melbourne Cup Day.   After spending two weeks there, he finally came home but there have been a couple of hiccups with his recovery, due to his disability.  I am happy to report though, that he is much better and will just need lots more time for total recovery.  I have been really slack in catching up with what everyone has been up to and thank you especially to those who have emailed to see where I have been, I treasure your friendship.

*To Bronwyn in Sydney - Thank you so much, time has got away from me but you are in my thoughts and I will be in touch soon. 

The one positive from sitting at the hospital every day was that I got to applique the centre of Swan Lake.  The centre is quite plain so as not to detract from the border which is definately the Star of this quilt.

The flowers were a little challenging though and I am pleased to have them completed.  Now all I have to do is cut out and applique down 44 flower stars????

I have also completed a couple more rows of my clamshells.  I really really love working on this and although I got lots of stitching done while Howard was in hospital, I have not been able to do much since he came home.  This is perfect to pick up when I get a few moments and need to destress.

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My Mum has made the plum pudding every Christmas since I can remember.  This year, she decided that it was a bit much for her so I was given the job.  Having never made one before, and having to live up to my mother's pudding reputation, I very nervously took on the task last Sunday (note the phone in the photo, I made several calls to mum whilst making it.  It smells ok and now we just have to wait till Christmas Day to see if it tastes ok.  Fingers crossed.

I finally got the tree decorated yesterday so now it is starting to "feel a lot like Christmas"!

Sue-Anne xxx