Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year to everyone. 

We hope 2012 will be a great year for all.

Christine, Noel, Mitchell, Austin and Nelson.

xxx

Santa Sack Presents for Maria!

 

Maria has opened all her pressies from me and this is what I sent her.

 Some lovely beads made by a friend of mine. Sorry the photo's not very good. They look so much nicer in person.

 A charm pack.

 A clip-on light. I thought Maria could use this in her travels
while sewing her hexagons in the car.

 A couple of covered hangers.

 Cath Kitson emery boards, some hand cream and lip balm.

Lavender Hearts.

Some varigated threads and needle case with needles.
I forgot to take a photo of the needle case.

 A covered project book and tape measure.
I cut out all the flowers using my Go Cutter!

 A bag.

Thread catcher, scissors and holder.

 As Maria says "You can never have enough fabric!"

A table runner. This is the photo Maria took of it. It's so much better than my photo (not washed out) and you can see the feature fabric better.

This is the label I made for the runner.

Thank you again Maria for being such a lovely swap partner. I really enjoyed getting to know you and putting all these goodies together for you. If you head over to Maria's blog, you'll see some better photos.

Santa Sack Swap!

 Maria and I waited until Christmas Day to open our sacks. 

 Oh boy! Did Maria spoil me something rotten!

Just look at this beautiful hanger. Maria said it reminded her of the three boys. Each of the elves' hats have a block on the end with a letter on it. M for Mitchell, A for Austin and N for Nelson!

A Christmas tree hanger. My "Christmas Wall" is looking so

lovely with all the hangers.

A sewing machine mat with matching thread catcher. I've been going to make myself another thread catcher, but you know how it is. I just never got around to it and now I don't have to!

Maria's stitching is just beautiful on this book cover.

 

Two gorgeous tea towels with chickens. Maria knows I collect chickens.

 

A cute chicken ornament.

A couple of fat quarters. Isn't the sewing fabric lovely! 

I haven't seen this one before.

 Christmas fabric.

 Threads and matching ribbons.

A lovely star bowl.

The cutest note cards.

Some lovely lavender soap.

Magnetic list pad and a fold up bag to keep in my handbag.

I'm sure you'll agree with me about being spoilt by Maria.
Maria also sent something for the boys and Noel to open.

Thank you so very much Maria. I hope you enjoyed this swap as much as I did. It's been lovely getting to know you and I thoroughly enjoyed putting all your gifts together. (I'll post about what I sent Maria later.)

We had a lovely Christmas Day. We all got lots of lovely presents and ate lots of yummy food. I hope everyone is okay after yesterday's storms. We got caught driving from my parents' place to my sister-in-law's and were glad to get there in one piece. No major damage was done at our place. 

Ginger got a bit wet as she was tied up under the verandah and was splashed by the gutters overflowing!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Have a lovely Christmas Day be it a white one or like here in Melbourne, a hot one!

Lots of Love,

Christine, Noel, Mitchell, Austin and Nelson.

xxxxx

Some Baking and Sewing

 All the Christmas baking is now finished. The other day I made six batches of biscuits. Three of Anzacs and three of choc chip. Prior to that I had baked three batches of almond bread.

All are now bagged in nice Christmas cellophane bags and are waiting under the tree to be given out.

Yesterday I thought I'd make Mitchell a holder for his mobile phone. He chose black and white of course. I made one for my new phone but I have to wait until Christmas day to get mine! They whipped up very quickly. I used this cute mushroom fabric that I just had to buy. The colour isn't showing up very well. It's so much nicer and not quite as red. Austin's been through my stash and chosen fabrics for his cover.

 

Off now to the work BBQ. Housework's all done so I can just sit and relax. Of course I'll take some stitching with me.

Friday Night Sew-In

 Well, it was Heidi's Friday Night Sew-In last night and look at the pitiful amount of stitching I got done! By the time I sat down to sew it was late and then I was a bit tired so I went to bed.

 Here's block 3 that I finished on Thursday night. 

At least I was a bit more productive then!

Well, I'm off to our Guild's Christmas Lunch Sewing Day. Hopefully, I'll finish block 4 (if I don't spend too much time eating and talking)!

My Machine's No Longer Feeling Neglected!

I've been seeing everyone's lovely hexagon flowers around blogland and now I've made some myself. Although mine are a lot bigger! lol My machine has been feeling rather neglected of late (except for the odd mending) and over the last couple of weekends I've managed to do some sewing. 

I used the jelly roll I won earlier in the year from Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts. The fabrics look so much nicer in person and do not show up as well on the screen. This close-up photo shows some of the fabrics a bit better. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. Now I'll just have to get some backing fabric and quilt it.

Friday Night Sew-In

 I didn't get a lot done at last night's Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Heidi of Handmade by Heidi. I got a little done at the Little Athletics Twilight Meet in between watching Austin and Nelson and a bit more done waiting until it was time to pick up Mitchell from a birthday party.

 I worked on my Road to a Friend's stitchery. 

This is as far as I got as I ran out of thread!

 You can see how close to the end I am. Just finishing off this flower, the curly bit, a few crosses and then the long winding line underneath. So annoying. I'll have to get some more.

 I also did a bit on block 3 of Tis The Season.

Not an awful lot of stitching but a little bit is better than none!

Happy Birthday Noel!

Happy Birthday Noel/Dad

Lots of Love

Christine, Mitchell, Austin and Nelson

Ginger too!

xxx