December Update

4 Quilts ready to be boxed and sent to 4 little girls - hope they like 'em!!

Sneek peek!!

and another sneeky peeky...

I'm loving getting into the Christmas spirit with my machine going like the clappers....!!

3 French hens, 2 turtle doves and a terrier who jumps ashighasa tree!

I'm picking up a thread from a wonderful lady's blog over here atWith Heart and Hands: Christmas Memories  , where she's looking at her Christmas decorations from the past and present and recalling wonderful memories, mindful that those made and chosen today will become our memories of the future...this has made me take a few snaps of my decorations so far this season and I must admit I love recalling the stories of where these little treasures originated from.
Lots of those decorating our rooms this year are relatively new as there are boxes STILL in the loft, mainly comprising of precious baubles laced with memories...baby first christmas, millinium baubles, ones with photos in of when the boys were tiny, gifts of ornate treasures that have come from the USA when my parents-in-law went. But they are in the loft still...due to the fact that they are so precious and mostly ROUND, you know spherical...like a ball and we have the most balloholic dog! One that will gladly launch himself into a tree having spotted something deliciously spherical.
So we have one token bauble, glass and green camouflaged high in the branches..candy walking sticks as both terriers are not too fussed at sweet stuff (thank heavens for small mercies!) mind you I have caught one chewing on a dry and baked orange slice that I had made to adorn the tree.
We have candles rather than lights on the tree and the large red one in the foreground is one that that Max made last year at his school Advent Fair.

I decided to give the old lampshade a bit of festive bling!

everything held in place with pins!

wooden hearts made by the Camphill community, a felt star stuffed with Xmas spices and homemade paper streamers

My new addition of an IKea star

Maybe next year, the oldies will return, when our Jango has calmed down a bit and I can trust that our precious's can return...in the meantime we will enjoy this years selection of more robust decorations! Happy Holidays to you all x

If you need me...I'll be in the ditch

What a wonderful place to BE!!! I'm having so much fun machine quilting at the moment..its been like a EUREKA moment. I've had this industrial machine a whole year now, loved it and used it constantly but really struggled with quilting on it due to the power and speed...theres no walking foot here and you can't drop the feed dogs either. But I've practiced and practiced, slowed myself RIGHT down and increased my stitch length considerably. And I'm really happy with the results..I'm just stitching in the ditch, nothing fancy but its all coming together and if at first you don't succeed...TRY TRY TRY again.

I st myself the challenge of completing 4 quilts to give as Christmas pressies to 4 of 5 grandaughters...since then another (step) grandaughter has joined the family..so I've managed to up it to 5 (the remaining little one Madeleine received a quilt last year that I made with the help of 2 of her sisters) The picture above is of the last one being quilted... heres a few pics of the others dotted amongst other 'makings' of the year.

Lucy's quilt awaiting binding



Ruby's cat quilt - pictured upside down!!



Libby's hand quilted bits and bobs quilt

Charley-Mae's is the blue and pinky one - the other I sold as a babyquilt at a recent craft fair

Grace's quilt before piecing





I'm going to try and photo them all together before they are posted, ...it's beginning to feel alot like Christmas ,don't you think. Wherever you are I do hope that you are enjoying the run up to Christmas and that it isn't too stressful and like me you can find a bit of time for some joy in the ditch!!