What's in the box?

Unfortunately this is not mine, even though my children wish it was. I borrowed it to take some photographs for reference and ideas and thought I would share. It was made for my friend Dianne who made the nine patch quilt I have previously posted about.

Just a peek....




Fully open....
Some close ups...


And Colly's four year old hand showing how small the items are. The photos on the wall of actual family photographs. The stockings and presents are named and if you look on the right wall there are some little bolts of fabric, scissors and a pincushion.


My children have loved looking at this - maybe we can start work on our own this Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving...

Just thought I would say Happy Thanksgiving to people in the States. Warm wishes to you all.

The bags are finished...

Just thought I would post the bags all done, complete with cord. I am very happy with them. I can see lots of uses for them. And it means I actually finished something..... Anyone who knows me knows that I am much, much better at starting things than finishing.

Thank you May Britt....

May Britt posted a tutorial for her little bags on her blog and I thought I would try them. There were two main reasons ( apart from the fact that they just looked like fun). Firstly I need a secret santa gift for my craft group's Christmas party next week. I know it seems early but it keeps December free for other things. And secondly, I need all the practice I can get using my Bernina BSR. These pieces are perfect for trying it out. When I went looking for fabric to use I found a bag of Christmas scraps and decided that I would make scrappy bags. I am almost finished them and I found everything I needed in my stash. Now all they need is cord but I thought I would post pictures so you can see what they look like. They are very easy to make and something that would be a great idea for Christmas. Thank you May Britt.

I knew this one already...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

I don't usually do these things but I have always loved Pooh and his friends. For years now we have known which family member is which. My 17 year old son has always been Eeyore, my 14 is Tigger, 8 year old Panda is Piglet and 4 year old Colly is Roo, following in Tigger's footsteps. And as for me, I have always been Kanga. So when I did this one - how did they know? I think my husband is Rabbit - but I don't tell him that.

I was feeling sad about not having written anything and I realised that I was thinking that if I didn't have a photo it wouldn't be worth making a post. So I have to overcome that hurdle - to keep things up to date. There doesn't have to be a photo everytime, although that has also been a great incentive to take photos of things around me.

I am about to go and cut some fat quarters. On Wednesday I was a bit naughty and visited three local Quilt Stores. ( well I only bought things at two) Now for the rest of the year I am really going to try to to use just what I have here. I guess I can justify it this time in that I bought things that were for projects that I already had here. I did get some fat quarters which go with some other FQs I have here and that I what I am about to cut.

The reason for the picture of the magazine - well, I am in a number of yahoogroups and often I see there people writing about the price of magazines , and of course the Australian Magazines. Also from those groups I see things mentioned that are coming up in magazines which take a while to get over here. This one had a project that I was interested in and while a lot of the projects are fairly simple there are quilte few ideas which I think will be a big help in reducing stash. The point of all this - and I hate to admit it - is that I paid $23 Australian ( which is about $17.64 US) for this magazine. At that price I think I need to make every pattern in here to justify this. At times I think I should subscribe directly to magazines but I don't always want each one. I just bought the lastest Quilt Sampler too and that was $17. So I really need to start thinking about how much I really want these magazines.

So now off to cut - and it is something from this magazine although I could do it without the pattern. It was just good to have the visual idea, because I didn't know what I wanted to make with the fabric. I doubt if I will get the sewing done tonight or tomorrow for that matter but at least I will be ready.

Rain...

Jenni mentioned that it had rained here on Saturday. It rained here again last night. This was the sunset last night before the rain. The whole sky had cloud cover except this little patch in the west where the sun shone through. This is the view from the back of my house ( and my kitchen). We do live in the suburbs but as our house is at the top of a hill we can look over all the houses so they don't appear in the photo.

We are in Level 4 water restrictions which basically means that we can't use water for very much. The problem for us is that as we have a pool it needs to be filled up every so often and there are strict times when we can do that. Also they are bringing in conditions that if you have a pool, you have to have three of four things. 1. A pool cover 2.dual flushing toilets 3. a water saving washing machine 4.and water saving taps and showers. Well, so far we have the toilets but it is going to be expensive to get the pool cover and other things. So.... hopefully we will get lots more rain so these things won't need to be enforced. It is not that I don't want to do my bit about water saving but new plumbing, a pool cover and a new washing machine will put a dent in the budget. As I wash for 6 people in this house trying to get a suitable washing machine of the right size might be difficult. Keep your fingers crossed for more rain.

Gone Quilting

Seems like I have been away a long time from posting but I HAD to finish that quilt for my friend's birthday. I haven't done a lot of machine quilting so it is still an effort and this time I was using my new machine so had to adjust to that. But I do have to say that apart from handling a quilt bigger than I would have liked the machine handled it beautifully. I finished the quilt at midday and I was supposed to be at my friend's place for lunch. It still doesn't have a label but that can happen at my next visit. I guess I was disappointed by her reaction but maybe it was because there were other people there and she didn't want to make a big thing of it. She just whisked it away to her bedroom and that was it. I guess time will tell... she may talk about it more when we are one on one. I know that giving a quilt is like giving other gifts - sometimes we put a lot of time and thought into a gift and we have to accept that the receiver doesn't feel the same way. Still I am happy that I chose to give it. And I feel good because I have actually finished something. That is a big achievement for me.

And how to wrap the quilt? In the end I just used ribbon that matched the colours of the quilt. The stripe is the backing fabric ( yes, I know stripes are hard to get straight but I did a fairly good job.It was just that the fabric is from the same Pandolph range and it was a good price.) I wish the flash shot didn't make the quilt look so orange but the one I took without the flash was just too dark.