2012 Christmas Quilt Show!

 

 I decided to enter a couple of my quilts in the 2012 Christmas Quilt Show over at Michele's Quilting Tutorials.

 

 I've entered the 12 inch mini quilt I made for Peg.

And I couldn't forget my Tis The Season quilt. 

There is a Viewer's Choice Award. You will need to go here and leave a comment with your favourite quilt (maybe even one of mine!). Voting takes place on the weekend. There are quite a few entries for you to check out. Plus, if you leave a comment, you may even win a prize!

2012 Santa Sack Swap!

 The last mailings of our 2012 Santa Sack Swap organised by Cheryll are heading all over the place.

Yesterday, my final parcel arrived from Simone. I only just managed to fit everything in! Even then, they are poking out of the top!

I've finished packing up my goodies for Simone, already for posting this afternoon.

Now for the hard part.

Waiting for Christmas Day so we can open them up!
 

The 12 Inch Mini I Made!

This is the mini quilt I made for the 12 Inch Mini Quilt Club organised by Cheryll. My partner was Peg of Happy in Quilting. It has arrived at Peg's and I'm pleased to say that she loves it! (Phew!)

With the theme being Christmas, I had decided that I wanted to make a nativity quilt. This is my own design and I wanted to keep it simple. I had the border fabric in my stash. I thought it was so lovely that I didn't want to cut it up into smaller pieces. Sometimes less is more!

Here are a couple of Santa sacks I made up for the sister-in-law to send to her daughter and boyfriend over in England. She was going to make them herself and wanted some help. When she came she had her granddaughter (my great niece) with her. I think I got the easier job as there is a lot of running around keeping an 18 month old entertained!

My 12 Inch Mini Quilt Has Arrived!

 A lovely parcel arrived in the mail yesterday. It was from Helen of Helbel's World of Craft.

 Helen made me this as part of Cheryll's (Gone Stitchin')

12 Inch Mini Club.

It is so much nicer in person. The colours aren't showing up properly. The red is more towards burgundy red. Helen wrapped the quilt in some Christmas fabric and also put in a gingerbread stocking!
 

Thank you Helen for my mini quilt. I love it!

Almond Bread!

I've had a few request for the recipe I use for making Almond Bread. So here it is!

4 egg whites

125g caster sugar

1 cup plain flour

125g whole unblanched almonds

Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is stiff. Fold in the sifted flour and almonds.

Place in a well-greased and paper lined log tin. (I have my baking paper overlapping the long sides of the tin. This makes it easy to remove the loaf.) My tin measures approx 8cm x 25cm. Bake in a moderate oven (180oC) for 35-40 minutes until firm. Leave to cool on rack.

When cool, wrap in a clean tea towel and place into an air-tight container for one week.

Cut into very thin slices with a sharp knife and place onto a clean, cold oven tray. Bake in a slow oven (150oC) until the slices have dried out (approx 35 min). Cool and store in an air-tight container.

Makes one loaf.

Note: If you are in a hurry and want to slice and re-bake on the same day, steam your almonds for approx 20-30 minutes until soft. Let them cool before adding to mix.

Enjoy your almond bread!

What A Great Day With Mill Rosie Friends!

 

What a wonderful day we had at Mill Rose Cottage. From the small group of five (Mel, Shez, Sharon, Barb and myself) we have grown to 16! We chatted, ate, stitched, shopped, had a wonderful Show and Tell and totally enjoyed ourselves.

When we arrived, the lovely girls at Mill Rose had everything set up for us. There were some beautiful roses from the garden on the table, along with a 3 tiered cake stand filled with chocolates.

 

Shez had made a lovely gift for me. A bon bon filled with chocolates. Thank you Shez.

And Barb gave me the cutest little tin bucket filled with yummy home-made truffles. I haven't had any yet but she has warned me that there's lots of alcohol in them! Better not share these with the boys! There was also a lovely little felt star decoration. Thank you Barb.

After meeting everyone and having a look around the shop, it was time for a cuppa and some stitching.

Last time we met, Shez took a photo of me taking a photo of her. So, of course, we had to do it again!

 Me and Mel.

 Mel, Simone, Barb and Tracey.

Eleven of us joined in on the Designer Swap. You had to make something using an Anni Downs design. Each gift was numbered and we all drew a number out. Tracee from Farm Gate Creations was the recipient of the hanging I made.

 

I've been wanting to make this for a long time, so I finally did! I just love it so much that I'm going to make another one for myself!

When my number was called out, I was handed this gift. When I opened it, it was a gorgeous bag from Anni's new book A Simple Life. Guess who made this bag. It was Tracee who received my gift! How funny is that! But the bag was not all!

There was a Sewer's Emergency Kit.

Inside was some chocolate, tea bags, an unpicker, a needle threader and some band-aids.

How cute are the band-aids! But wait, there's more!

There was also a gorgeous pin cushion. Thank you Tracee. I just love the goodies I received from you.

The lovely view out the window.

Yummy food.

 

Can't go to a quilting outing with Mel and not have some scones with jam and cream! Although Mel piked it on me this time and had a huge slice of cake!

Thank you everyone for such a lovely day. A big thank you to Mel for organising it. I'm looking forward to our next get together in February! Now how many sleeps is that Shez?

Mill Rose Cottage Here We Come!

 In about an hour we head off to make our way to Mill Rose Cottage for our Mill Rosie Friends Sit and Sew day.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting some new friends.

 

I'll have lots of photos to share with you tomorrow.

Nothing to show you from last night's FNSI as it was secret sewing! But I'll be able to show you some tomorrow.

FNSI, Mill Rosie Friends

Tonight is the Friday Night Sew-In with Heidi and Bobbi. Will you be coming? I'll be stitching at Little Athletics!

One one more sleep and we're off to the Mill Rosie Friends blog meet at Ballan for our Sit and Sew day. I can't wait!

Christmas Baking Has Begun!

 Yummy almond bread!

Beautiful Linen Part 2!

Here are some more photos of Gina's linens.

 

Peacocks!

 

Birds.

 Gorgeous flowers.

 Look at the lace edging on these two tablecloths.

 

 Crinoline ladies!

 

Gina also showed us some beautiful crazy patchwork. The colours on this one were so much brighter.

That white one on the top left is actually a mobile phone holder! It's the fanciest one I've ever seen!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the beautiful linen. None of the photos really show the linen as good as in person. Head over to Melody's blog to see some more photos of Gina's collection.