A bit of family time needed....

Meet Ollie - he's our new grandpuppy. ( about 10 weeks old in this photo) He is a groodle - a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. He came visiting last weekend and was just too cute.

There hasn't been much time for anything this week as my 17 year old son is in hospital. He has had to have some surgery on his jaw which has been quite major. He was operated on last Monday and won't come home until Saturday. Then we have to feed him blended food for 6 weeks. It was his choice to have the operation now - but it has meant that he has missed his very last week at high school and also his graduation and school formal. He also gave up going to 'schoolies' at the Gold Coast. ( For anyone overseas Schoolies is a time for students to let their hair down a bit(?) after finishing high school. )

My week has been spent visiting and travelling. The hospital he is in is situated in the city, and parking is a real pain. The good part is that the hospital is air conditioned and with our hot temperatures at the moment it is a good place to be.

So I have taken a bit of a break from things just to support my boy - next week we will be at home a lot so hopefully I can catch up on things.

Finally something to show....

There's been quite a bit of secret crafty Christmas stuff going on in this household but because it is for swaps and presents I can't show very much.

I made this for a friend's birthday over the weekend. I don't think she even knows about my blog so I think I can safely show this here ( she hasn't been given it yet but her birthday was two days ago). It is a runner made from border fabric, which I have had here for quite a while. I wish I had bought more than a metre because it would have been nice to make it longer - just something I'll need to remember for next time when I see a suitable fabric.

When I first made it I thought it was waaaayyy too busy but really it has turned out quite well and I certainly will do more. I have some ideas of how to adapt the pattern for two fabrics - that should be fun too and I already have something suitable in my stash.

Here is the runner on my dining room table - I hope my friend likes it, she always likes decorating her house for Christmas.


And this is outside in the garden ( I thought the light might be better.)

When I went to the craft show a week or so ago I treated myself to a new 60 degree ruler so I could have a play with one of the new Anka's Treasures patterns. Now I already own at least 2 rulers of this shape but another one (bigger) will always be useful, I'm sure. Then I realised that I could use this runner pattern as well as it is the ruler suggested in the pattern. The pattern is one that used to be on the Timeless Treasures site but it isn't any more which is sad, probably because the fabric it is written for is out of production.

Here you can see the ruler and the pattern and the leftovers from cutting out the runner. I think I can make something else out of the cut offs - that will be great to have as an extra for someone's Christmas stocking.

I really enjoyed this one.