Christmas Gifts

On Christmas Day I opened these amazing gifts made by my 'friends in stitching' pal, Dawnie. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement! Dawnie used beautiful French General fabrics to make me the Table Centre from Natalie Bird's Red Home book.

I love the stitching and fabrics on the front ...

and the backing fabric is divine. (I've already been investigating online to see where I can purchase some to add to my French General stash!)

 Dawnie also made me the Little House Pincushion from Red Home. There is so much work in this lovely pincushion. I love the appliqued house with it's stitched blue bird ....

 

 the musical quote and ...

 these tiny amazing hexies. Wow!

 

Thank you so much, Dawnie. My presents are perfect. I purchased the Red Home book earlier this year but haven't had a chance to make anything yet. I feel thoroughly spoilt but so grateful for the thought and effort you put into my gifts.

Lovely Gifts

I am lucky to belong to a lovely online group of ladies called Friends in Stitching. This year in addition to making a stitched gift to be opened on Christmas Day we sent each other 5 extra gifts to be opened in the lead up to Christmas. I am thrilled to be receiving from Dawnie this year. Below, in no particular order are the lovely items I have received so far.

SOMETHING FOR FUN - a gorgeous Christmas shopping bag and shopping list. I have already used the bag and have had people asking me where I got it from.

I always make a list before going grocery shopping. My current note pad is nearly empty so this one will start being used very soon. And it's red!

 

SOMETHING FOR THE TREE- I love the stocking Dawnie made me. I think it is a Lynette Anderson design. As you can see there is so much detail, front ...

and back. Adorable.

 SOMETHING FOR THE HANDS - these DMC threads will come in very handy ... Dawnie knows I LOVE red. Great scissors too ... I use this sort a lot.

 SOMETHING FOR THE TUMMY - yummy Lindt chocolates. I LOVE chocolate!

SOMETHING FOR THE TABLE - a lovely silver candle. My family are coming for Christmas lunch tomorrow and this will look lovely on the table.

 Thank you so much, Dawnie. I love all my gifts and can't wait to open my Christmas Day present tomorrow morning. Below is the delightful box my presents arrived in ... so cute.

Merry Christmas to all my friends in blogland. I hope 2012 was good to you and that 2013 will be even better. Now that the holidays have started I plan to be here more regularly ... fingers crossed! And in just a few days Auntie's Quaint Quilts turns 5 ... stay tuned for the traditonal birthday giveaways.

Delightful Dresdens

I'm really looking forward to having some time to work on these dresdens again soon.

I started these last summer as part of the Scrappy Plate Club over at Bunny Tales.

Thankfully, I still love the fabrics and can't wait to start playing with them again.

I might have mentioned that this summer at Auntie's Quaint Quilts is going to be all about finishing some UFOs .. and no doubt starting some new ones too! 

This afternoon I have a tablerunner that needs binding .. sounds like a good excuse to watch some TV. Luckily Project Runway Australia is on ... one of my favourite shows. Have a great weekend.

I Made Another One!

One of Sherri's bags that is. Rosemary was the last Material Girl to have a birthday this year.

Rosemary's 'theme' was 'something you'd like to make for yourself.' So I did! Her bag is made from Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew range of fabric.

 I really love the lining fabric ... there's something very nice about those red, black and grey flowers on the white background.

 

 Maybe after Christmas I'll find some time to make myself one. 

The next two weeks are hectic with lots of performances to either conduct or perform in. My school choirs have seven performances in seven days and I have five brass band engagements to attend too. Madness! .. so looking forward to the end of term and 6 weeks holiday.

Cherry Sundae

Block 5 of the 2012 Designer Mystery BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop is Cherry Sundae. This cute block was designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs.

This weekends sewing mainly fell into the 'secret' category although I did trim the edges of this quilt ...   

 

and try to decide what fabric to use for a binding. No decision yet!

 

 I also remembered to take a photo of these hexies. Have to confess I've lost count of how many of these I've actually stitched! 

I've decided that during the summer holidays my stitching time will be divided between quilting my Schnibble quilts and taking stock of all my 'works in progress'. That's the plan anyway .. wonder if I'll stick to it!

Zakka House Pouch

Currently I am besotted with linen so when it was time to make a birthday gift for Annie it had to be The House Pouch by Julia Bravo in Zakka Style.

Teamed with some Ruby by Bonnie and Camille, it made a rather cute house pouch.

I used the red and white scallop for the roof ...

 

 and spotty fabrics for the door and windows.

 The lining is another Ruby print. I had some dramas with the zip but it all worked out in the end!

Annie had requested some ric-rac so I used that between the roof and walls. 

 It was a fun little project and I'd love to make another one soon.

Joy Luck

Joy Luck is now officially a flimsy ...

and ready to join the growing pile of Schnibbles needing to be quilted. I'm thinking that might be a job for the summer holidays ... there are only six more weeks of school. Eek!

 Can you see the quilt inspector? ... he's never far away!

  

Cook, Eat Grow

I am lucky to belong to a lovely online group of stitching friends. Each time one of us has a birthday someone in the group makes them a special handmade gift. This year the theme was 'Cook, Eat and Grow' and it was my turn to make for Dawnie.

For COOK I made a pair of potholders from the book, Zakka Style. Dawnie loves Japanese fabrics and although they are very different to what I usually work with I did enjoy making these.

For EAT I included a magnetic 'eat' sign and some Tasmanian fudge produced about 25 minutes from where I live ... yum.

For GROW I made a drawstring bag based on Sherri's tutorial ...

and incorporated a Lynette Anderson garden stitchery called Secret Garden.

At the moment, I am enjoying mixing patchwork fabrics with linen ...

and will share some more examples soon.

 

Checkered Star

Yesterday I worked on Checkered Star one of two small quilt designs in Marg Low's Candy Floss pattern.

 

 

 For once I remembered to take some 'in progress' photos.

 

 

 

 Just the borders and quilting to go. This went together very quickly and was a nice change to all the 'secret' sewing I've been doing lately.

 It was great having a long weekend here in northern Tasmania. I spent most of yesterday in the sewing room working on various projects and this morning did some cutting for some others. Hope your weekend was good too.