Back in the Groove

Last night I finished stitching this little Home Sweet Home stitchery designed by Lynette Anderson. Sarah and I purchased this pattern at Evandale in July and decided we would bring it along finished to the Quilted Crows gathering at Campania on September 20th. The pattern included a lovely house button which will go in the space under the tree. I am planning to add some borders and get it finished today. We'll see!



This is the first completed block for my Truly Scrumptious quilt. I am getting used to the flowery fabrics and ....



Oliver appears to approve. Just noticed how well the outer border matches his ginger coat. No wonder he's impressed!



It is nice to be back in blogland. Thanks to everyone who has been dropping by.

Christmas Banner

Do you remember this redwork stitchery that I showed earlier this year? I stitched it for the Material Girls Christmas in July swap.

Vicki made it into this cool Christmas banner (which I already have hanging on the wall ... you know I love Christmas decorating!) It reminds me of the banners heralds have hanging from their trumpets in story books. Thanks Vicki. I love it.

I really like the tassel and rusty bells. They look fantastic and will go perfectly with some of my other ornaments.

At Christmas time, we are going to exchange ornaments. They have to fit into a box we all chose at our Christmas in July dinner. I have lots of ideas .... the hard part will be deciding which one to make.

Spring has Sprung

Well, term 2 has finally finished and I am looking forward to two weeks holiday. Term 2 was very busy with lots of sickness and limited stitching and blogging. I am so pleased that winter is over and spring has come. Those who know me will attest that I'm definitely not a cold weather person!

This is a rather 'grey and depressing' photo of a block I made for a member of the Material Girls who recently turned 70. We each had to stitch a block of our choice that reflected the theme 'Flowers in Bev's Garden'. The stitchery is by Kirstin Kirby of Picaninni Patchwork and appeared in Australian Country Threads Vol 4 No 12. I enlarged it to fit a 9 1/2 inch square block.



Over the last few weeks I have made a start on my Truly Scrumptious quilt. I have traced all the stitcheries and started attaching borders to each of the blocks. I am using an older fabric range by Figtree Quilts called Allspice Tapestry. I took my jellyroll to Spotlight and choose DMC threads that compliment the fabrics. Since these pictures were taken, I've finished stitching the first block and made a start on number 2.

A Heart from Chiara

A while ago I sent a magazine and some fabrics to Chiara in Italy ..... and this is what she sent me as a thank you. Isn't the sheep adorable? ... and I love the wire hanger with it's little bow. I wonder how she knew I liked red and white? Thank you Chiara - it's perfect.



Yesterday when I was trying to catch up on some blogs I found that Helena in Sweden is celebrating the opening of her new quilt studio. Lucky lady! She has giveaways each day and a free pattern. Pop over for a look.

A Sally for Tali

My niece Tali recently turned eight and this is the Sally doll I made her.



The pattern is from Rosalie Quinlan Designs, although I did simplify the applique. Of course, the moment I took her outside to be photographed Oliver appeared to fulfill his quality control inspection. He seemed to approve!



Tali's favourite colour at the moment is purple. I'm pleased to say I found all the supplies to make Sally in my stash, including this ceramic button. I even managed to needleturn the heart ... it's not too bad if you don't look too closely!



I choose this muted green fabric for the pantaloons and used purple DMC thread to quilt the pinafore.



The 'scariest' part was doing the face ... I was very relieved not to mess it up!



Before she went off to live in Tali's bedroom, Sally spent some time hanging out with the first Sally I made back in February. Sally No 2 was painted with tea to give her a more aged appearance.



I also gave Tali this tin I found at Spotlight ....



and filled it with lots of crafty bits and pieces. Tali loves to create too and is gradually building up a nice little stash of supplies.

A Few Thank You's

I have been very slack in not showing these goodies sooner. A couple of weeks ago a very intriguing parcel arrived from Sweden and my blogging friend, Stina. Inside were all these lovely Tilda items ... Stina knows I adore Tilda and that this brand is not available in Australia so I was 'over the moon' to receive them. I love the Vintage Angel and will enjoy doing the delightful stitcheries. Thank you so much, Stina. (Click on the picture for a closer look at all this gorgeousness.)



Oliver and I were recently nominated for the Brillante Weblog Award by the 'quirky quilter' and her cat Lestat and also by Leanne of Lizzie's Page. Quirky is a blogger from Western Australia, a primary school teacher and a new blogger to me. These are the kind words she wrote:

'Christine’s blog makes me smile. I enjoy reading what she writes and looking at all the eye candy she posts…whether it is something she has made, a WIP, somewhere she has been and especially Oliver. Nice to know that I don’t have the only crazy quilting cat in Australia! This blog has Lestat’s vote too…besides being a quilting cat, he is a bit of a blogger, too!'



Thanks Quirky and Leanne. I am supposed to nominate 7 more blogs but just 7 is impossible for me. If your blog is listed on my sidebar consider yourself nominated. I love visiting you all ... blogland is so inspiring.

Last night I signed up for Chookyblue's 2008 Secret Santa Christmas Swap. I enjoyed following this swap last year when I was just a 'lurker' ... this year I will be part of the action! I imagine it will fill up quickly so get on over to Donna's blog if you want to be involved.



Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Peg's Challenge Summary

Peg has asked that all the participants in her challenge do a post showing the projects they finished in July. I managed to complete four things ... I guess that's not too bad.

1. Christmas Ornaments .... these were sent to Kymberly in the US.

2. Christmas Wallhanging ... this was made for the Material Girls Christmas in July swap. Dianne stitched the sweet little snowmen and I had to finish them into a wallhanging for her. The light fabrics look much crisper in real life.

I enjoyed working with the blue and white palette ...

and found this card with snowmen and quilted stars to accompany the gift.



3. Stina's PIF Tablerunner ... this is the PIF gift I made for Stina. Sorry it's such a yucky photo. Will show some close-ups of the stitcheries in a future post. It is a Viv Robinson design from a Country Threads magazine and I used Simplicity charm squares.



4. Redwork Tablerunner ... my redwork version of Rose's Summer Garden tablerunner.



Thanks to Peg for organising the challenge .... it was obviously very popular and inspired/motivated a lot of bloggers. Good luck to everyone in the prize draws

Christmas in July Ornament Swap

Merry Christmas in July for yesterday. I participated in the ornament swap organised by Sarah ... it was my first swap and was lots of fun. I met two bloggers who were new to me, one from Australia and the other from the US.

This is the sweet little parcel I received from Bec. I love the Swell fabric she used as wrapping ....



and inside were these gorgeous little fellas. Aren't they sweet? They are from Anni Downs A Christmas Story book which I have on my bookshelf. Must make some things from it myself soon. Thanks heaps, Bec.



Kymberly has posted some photos of what I made for her so I can finally reveal a finished item for Peg's challenge. Do you remember this sneaky peek?



Well, this is what Oliver was checking out. These little blocks are from a table runner pattern by Marg Low which I made last Christmas. I thought they would make nice little decorations to hang on the tree.

Heritage Stitching Day Part 2

Better late than never I guess! Thought I'd share some more photos from the recent Heritage Stitching Day at Evandale, this time featuring the works of Vivian Robinson - I love all the stitchery in her pieces. Vivian had designed three projects for Evandale, including this gorgeous Sampler Tote Bag.



A lot of the girls at my table made a start on this. I would like to make it too some time.

Vivian's second project was a Sampler Stitchery made into a small wallhanging.

I didn't get any decent photos of the whole piece but you can see from these close-ups how lovely it is. I adore samplers.

Vivian's third project was a Sampler Rubbish Bag for all your thread off-cuts. Being an absolute doofus, I some how missed taking a picture of it! Sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was very cute ... it had a little house stitched on the front.

The remaining pictures are some of the other samples Vivian brought to show us. I really like this swag of reindeer pulling Santa's Express.





This little hanging is a child's message to Santa with a rustic old key so he can get in on Christmas Eve. Click on the photo for a better look.



And finally Holly Jolly Christmas. Although I'd probably choose more muted colours if I made this for me, I really liked this quilt. (and I wish I'd bought the pattern - it was only $22.00!)

Just realised these are all Christmas projects ... well it is nearly July 25th. Looking forward to opening my parcel from Bec on Friday and seeing what she made me for Sarah's ornament swap. I hope Kymberly likes what I sent her.