A few finishes

Traditional 9 patch swap blocks for February.....tick

Natalie Bird..True friends tote bag...SAL project for February.....tick

back view

A bargain desk from an OP shop...painted and installed.....tick

An old ladder  rescued from the council pick up...cleaned and roughly painted...now has a new use as a quilt holder.....tick

Family room repaired  and painted after storm damage ...just need to fill the walls with quilts and stitcheries again!.....tick

Just arrived today...my new Babies to play with....well...I don't have grandchildren!  

This is my new sport...(don't think I'll love it as much as stitching though!)..just hope it keeps me fit!

till next time 

cheers Lea 

A SAL Finish

This is the first time I have joined in on Chookyblue's Stitch-a-long.

January's projects were... an Annie Downes shoe bag and a Natalie Bird thread catcher.

The thread catchers became rather addictive and I ended up making 4

 this is the machine I learned to sew on...I made all Barbie's clothes. My mother bought it when she was a little girl, so she learned to sew on it too.  I love it ...its one of my favourite possessions!

The shoe bags were also a lot of fun and I made 2..but have plans for more..(watch out girls, guess what mum is giving you for your birthdays!)

I'm trying to use fabric from my stash ...this is the year I'm going to make a dent in it!...famous last words....no matter how much fabric you have...you never have the right one!

Just a little anniversary shot...although its a little dark.
We had a wonderful dinner with friends at their place in Manly..
( It was their anniversary also.)
Fabulous food and wines were consumed and a good night was had by all.

Manly beach the day after Australia Day...wet and windy...but still beautiful!

I'm off to start the next project now...another Natalie Bird..out of Red Home.
Its just so good to have someone to stitch-a-long with!
cheers Lea

A New Year Start

 Finally... I have emerged from a huge sewing room clean up.....It just got soooo overwhelming and I couldn't even sew in there!...even Chooky volunteered to come and sort me out!......I was heading for a program of Hoarders!

I started with this.......

And got to this......

 I know... I still have a lot to do...but at least now I have a creative mess...and I produced these little thread catchers...They are part of our Stitch-a-long for January....and they REALLY are addictive!

 My neighbour arrived with these little treats...they are just so cute...how could you eat them?....The little purple guy looks sad :(

Have a great Australia Day...
I'm off to the beach at Manly.. and.. its our 28th wedding anniversary, so I'm going to have a good time!
Cheers Lea

At last..a sewing day!

Finally finished month 1 of 'the aunts quilt' BOM with Amitie....YAY!
Mind you...they are up to month 4 ....but hey....I can catch up!
One block is needle turn appliqué ..the other a pieced block I did by hand. (still wondering why)
The colour doesn't show up here well..but the fabrics are cute repro prints.






So today I cut out month 2




DD2 was home last week and she is a budding seamstress...she loves vintage and rummaging through my old patterns..(never throw any thing out) and stash of..(should have thrown out back in the eighties) fabrics.....
she found a pattern and a cream silk and decided to make a nightie.
I chose a cotton floral and made one too.
We had a lovely day together...and I remember my mother making the same nightie and brunch coat for me back in the early 70's.







The worst part was that I discovered my big plastic box of fabrics smelt rather musty.
How do you prevent that?......So in the 41 degree heat of yesterday..I washed metres and metres of old fabrics...at least they dried quickly...as I put out each load, I could bring in the one before!

I was quite amused to see that all these fabrics had small squares missing from one corner.....the result of making a millennium quilt back in 2000 ...and a 21/2" square was taken from every piece of material in my house...the resulting quilt has 2000 different fabrics in it...(I also collected from friends - so not all were hiding here!)...

I'd better get back to my BOM.
Till next time..cheers Floss



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Secret Santa Christmas Swap

YaY!.... At last....we got to open our SSCS presents!

My swap partner was Oddbjorg from Norway... I was so excited to think that someone on the other side of the world made me a gift.
She sent a lovely parcel filled with treats..

 A beautiful zippered purse and matching tissue holder...How nice is this fabric!...I just Love it

The tissue holder has the most beautiful tissues in it...too cute to use!

Then as an added surprise she sent a calendar with beautiful pictures of Norway, an Arctic circle bookmark and some blue fabric..that I will use in a special project...actually it would be perfect in the amish quilt that is on my to do list.

Thank you so much Oddbjorg. I really Love my gifts and appreciate the time and effort you made to create and send them.

Now....some family Christmas shots....at Cassillis NSW

Bella and her Santa stocking and an Aussie bush tree!

  

 It was a really wet rainy day...The Best Christmas present ever was 71ml of rain....really exciting considering they have not had rain for 4 Months...and were also fighting a bushfire on christmas eve!

Boxing day
 Daughters 2 & 3 snuggled up reading in their quilts

It was really cold at Cassillis and we had to light the fire...and cook pea and ham soup for lunch...My sister in law makes the Best Soup!....My BIL and DD3

 The great Articulate game challenge...

 And the winners are....The mothers!  YAY

The Boxing Day Cricket Match...and yes that is a power pole used for a wicket!

A lovely family time ...I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas with friends and family as much as I did.
till next time
Cheers Floss

tis the season

Tis the season for bush fires in Australia.
A little busy over the last 4 days...but not getting ready for Christmas.

One of my worst nightmares came true last Wednesday night when we had a call at midnight to say there was an out of control bushfire on our property.. Started by a lightening strike.

Of course we were in Newcastle at a wedding, so drove all night arriving at 5.15 am ready to do battle.
Shocked to see our hill in the distance all aglow in the dark.....a bit like overdone Christmas lights!

Luck was with us and a shower or rain had dampened the fire so the process of extinguishing hot spots and containing the fire continued until after midday on Thursday... Satisfied that all was well everyone went home.

Mr floss and myself went back to check the fire at 4pm and it was off and running again....THAT was scary!....And our neighbours in the rural fire service all turned up again....( a fantastic group of volunteers)... This time bringing in the big guns...Planes to bomb the fire...They were incredible, dropping a foam and water mix that showered down like snow.  They worked till dark, filling up from nearby Lake  Keepit and were extremely accurate in placing their load over the burning logs and into the gorge that we couldn't get to.

yes this is me!

The next day a dozer arrived to put in containment lines and bury stubborn smouldering logs.
Luck was with us again and a huge downpour of rain dumped 20ml of water right on our fire!
That really put it out!...we were soaking wet and grinning from ear to ear...emergency over!

About 300 acres of country was burnt... The cows and our house were safe.... The grass will grow back better than ever .....so all is well!

Christmas isn't cancelled after all!
I hope everyone in blogland has a wonderful Christmas...I know I will.

Till next time
Cheers Floss