As the year winds down, why does everything feel so wound up?

That's a question to ponder. Why does there seem to be a rush and almost panic when I head to town for my usual shopping? People driving like there's no tomorrow, shopping like they think the world is ending and they won't get bags of potato chips anymore!

Anyhow you can visit with me awhile for calm and a look at a pretty quilt................
Gillian's charm quilt for a grandchild is ready to have the binding attached and gifted with love. Gillian asked for the all over quilting design (edge to edge quilting -e2e) "Splash" as that is the pattern she had last time and she loves it!

The quilting is over Matilda's Own polyester batting and the variegated thread is by Superior - Fantasico called "Playhouse"..........which is a perfect name for a child's quilt! I had the perfect backing, a lovely vibrant blue with little swirls. Thank you Gillian.

A sneak peek of the lovely quilt I am working on at the moment, my Facebook page will have follow on sneaky peeks if you are interested.

Most of you know I work one day a week at The Country Yard, my local quilt shop, well one of our visiting fabric reps - Claudia was retiring so a special gift was made by the four of us "Country Yard Girls".

Store owner Kerryn and Raewyn and Bernice completed the sweet little stitcheries and pieced the top together leaving me with my part: the quilting and completing the construction of the cushion.

I loaded the cushion front and backs together and quilted fairly simple classic quilting, straight lines and a bit of stipple and of course feathers! You can see in the next photo the two back pieces that I did a rambling feather over both pieces.

When all the quilting was completed I sliced the three sections to their correct sizes, attached binding to the back pieces made button holes, sewed the front and back pieces together, sandwiching the prairie points in between, then stitched on the buttons and binding on the edge of the cushion.
Raewyn made this cute label from a re-purposed doiley, sweet aye!

The cushion was made with a new range of Tilda fabrics. I have been told Claudia was delighted with her special gift!

I have had my Christmas tree and decorations up for a week now and thought you might enjoy a look-see.............................

My Santa display, the next photo is taken at night with the fairy lights shinning merrily!

My upside down Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling, why you ask? Because I can....simple!

              Christmas is even in the bathroom...........ok so I'm bringing out my inner child!

I enjoying seeing all the very special decorations made by friends, myself but the ones I love the best are the ones my kids have made over the years, the chewed bauble - my son asks why I don't throw it away? Because it's special, so it's got a hole in it? So what, it symbolises life, us as humans, we aren't perfect are we, we have our faults, our 'holes'.

Lynette Anderson's 'Christmas Fun'

 

Gail Pan's 'All Things Christmas'

Gail Pan's 'A Merry Christmas'

So with that completed, there is still a bit more quilting to be done before I take a small break over the Christmas/New Year period. Thanks for stopping by, be calm, stay safe.......................and remember there are plenty of bags of potato chips at the supermarket! :-)

Stock piling.

Hello beautiful people! I hope your November is going well and you are not going on the 'stressed out lead up to Christmas' drama! I have decided it is not a healthy hobby to partake in!
In between quilting for my lovely customers I have managed to finish a few of my own things. First is a quilt that I finished the top in 2011 and finished the quilting a few weeks ago. The Maverick Star idea was from Bonnie Hunter then I alternated the start blocks with nine patch variation blocks.

I remember thoroughly enjoying making those stars, they were quite addictive. I chose some interesting fabrics for the block centres.

See here for a post from the archives about this quilt when it was a flimsy.

Well you know me by now, there has to be some feathers on my quilts! Simple cross-hatching for the main part of the quilt. Finishing with a scrappy binding. I like how the back shows the textures.

Next is a quilt I made for my seven year old granddaughter, I made the mistake of showing her a photo of Cat's son's Minecraft quilt that I quilted back here and I got "Oh granny can you please make me one?"...................well what is a granny to do?

After a few rummages through my fabrics looking for green fabrics I set to work cutting 5" squares. The quilt came together quickly. Here's hoping she thinks it's fun to have her name appliqued on the bottom border.

The techno quilting and lofty batting make for a soft snuggly quilt. I had a go at attaching the binding to the back of the quilt and bringing forward to the front and top stitched in place on my machine. Lime green flannel for the backing should also create some snuggle factor!
My new thing to do for quilt labels is to use a vintage doiley, they are perfect for the job.

Last, but not least my Winterberry Santa.

A couple of weeks ago when I went to Auckland Festival of Quilts I bought a part kit for this handsome fellow from Cameron James Designs. The kit was his face, hands, pattern and beard, which is Tibetan Lambs wool, can you feel the softness!

He is constructed over a wine bottle that you fill with something to weight it, I used cat litter, then you follow the instructions, the trickiest part was his facial hair. He has lovely hands that you cover with felted wool mittens, then embellish as you wish, in my case a rusty star, rusty bells wired berries and an antique key.

This morning while looking for a Christmas table runner to sit under him I got side tracked upon seeing my wonderful Christmas decorations!! I now have nice little displays throughout the house of my eclectic mix of handmade goodies.

Happy stress free creating!

decorating for Christmas

It's that time of the year again, I'm sure it was only a few weeks ago that I put the Christmas stuff away!

I found these wee stocking in the box of decorations, I usually hang them on the tree, but this year I thought I would make a small garland alternating pinecones with the stockings.

Easy to do, I just screwed a screw in the top of each pinecone & tied on string. You could alternate with other decorations you already have, or empty spools of thread covered with Christmas fabric.
I guess you could paint the pinecones too, but I like the natural/rustic look of them just the way they are.

For no other reasons than I can & I thought it would be fun to hang my Christmas tree upside down!

Such fun finding my treasures, bits n' pieces handmade by friends, my children & myself. There is something special about Christmas quilts, is it because we have them out for a short time?

Has anyone else blogged about their Christmas decorating? Maybe you would like to take us for a tour of your home.

Wishing you all a peaceful lead up to Christmas, stress free, worry free & free laughs!

another wall hanging & Christmas

Ngaire has been busy again....................................

The New Zealand native bird Kakoka  sometimes called New Zealand Crow.

The Christmas tree is up &  few decorations, wanna come see?................

The tree skirt I made & love, there are some special decorations on this tree, some made by my kids, some from distant shores, some made by my hands,

A Christmas quilt I made a few years ago, it was a online mystery with Susan Claire.

My friend Barbara made this reindeer about 17years ago, every year I smile when I get him out of his box!

 

A corner in our lounge, the wooden quilt hanger I made in the wood work room at school ( my son has now started making some to sell ), Lynette Anderson's button mystery BOM from last year, "Christmas Fun" & my boys stockings.

Our dining room, evidence of my cross stitch days!!

I have finished another quilt, that I will show you as soon as it has been collected by its owner & I am working on a beautiful Hatched & Patched quilt, with the neatest stitching I have seen!