Welcome to 2022 - Happy New Year

Christmas is over for another year, well almost. In our house we start to put away the decorations on New Years Day, with the tree and decorations coming down on the 12th day of Christmas. I love the decorations around the house, many that are hand made or come from places were have travelled to. 

Jonnie and the girls love decorating - the putting away is all my job!

Celebrations started with roast dinner on Christmas Eve with family - way too hot to have on Christmas Day. I love the Christmas table settings, given to us by my Auntie.

Christmas Day is celebrated with pancakes and fruit brunch, again with family until they head off for a hot late lunch with in-laws.

We spend the day quietly doing what ever we want, no swimming this year as it was a bit cooler Christmas Day, we did watch some Christmas movies - and Die Hard is not a Christmas movie! We had two fridges full of food that I had prepared the days before Christmas and we just 'grazed' all day....and the next. A lovely relaxing, stress free day..... and with a cocktail of two.

I hope those who celebrate Christmas had a safe and happy day, as we did.

I did complete the next clue in Rhododendron Trail Mystery. I replaced the suggested garnet colour for purple, not too much of a stretch, and it will go lovely with the pinks and turquoise. 

I have one more block to complete in the focus-cutting sew along, the last one - freestyle. I also checked for the missing block 39. I had already sewn it into the quilt top.

Block 48, freestyle, theme fabric, I still have to find a centre for it.

December theme was Christmas / Winter. Block 49, pattern matching and I thought this Aussie Christmas fabric was perfect.

Block 50 was obscure sections. I used reindeer feet, could you tell?

Block 51, motif.

With my sewing room down stairs I found I needed a sewing case for downstairs hand sewing. I found when I took my upstairs case down I would forget it, so having one in both places that I sew seems like a good idea.

Link Up Parties:

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday 

Peacock Party 

Put Your Foot Down - For the Love of Geese

Small Quilts and Dolls

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

How Wonderful is Christmas?

How wonderful is Christmas? I love this time of the year. It's hot, sometimes unbearably so, and the days are long. I love going out to see the Christmas lights at night. I love wrapping the presents  (not so much the shopping for them). Christmas in Australia is different to Europe and North America. It is good swimming weather. We like nothing more than grazing all day and swimming and watching a Christmas movie or three, in the cool of the air-conditioning of course. I did open the Christmas fabric box and made a few bits and pieces. I made another Christmas tree (from 52 tags) and turned it in to a Christmas decoration. I will make a couple more of these, maybe using the bunting design.

I also made a couple of paper pieced ugly sweater coasters, so much work and such little pieces but I'm happy with them.

With the joy of Christmas, there will be no blog next week, and I will start the New Year with a blog and new sewing projects the week after. 

This past week I have finished clue 3 of Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail Mystery 

Adding wings to the half square triangles made in clue 1. Every year I run out of neutrals when doing Bonnie's mystery and this year will be no different.

November's focus cutting EPP theme was fabric. Each week had a theme 44 - just because. This fabric started life as a pyjama top. My SIL found it for me when I was searching for animal fabric for the then fussy cutting sewalong, a few years ago.

45 was earliest project fabric and honestly who can remember that far back. I chose a butterfly fabric that I have had for a while.

46 was recent fabric. I haven't been to many fabric shops this year, many were closed while we travelled, and to be honest I didn't go unless I really needed something. This fabric I got about 5 months ago.

47 - proudest fabric. What is proudest fabric? I have projects that I'm proud of and they are made of many fabrics. I do like Tula Pink fabric but I've run out of that and this fabric sort of reminds of Tula's fabric, it is not. I do like the pattern it has made, and will make one or two variations to complete the quilt.

48 is freestyle and will be one of those variations mentioned above. 49 - 52 will be Christmas and will be 🤞on the next post.

The next two weeks I'll be completing mystery quilt clue 4; quilting a top (maybe 2), sewing a few small Christmas projects, hand sewing and even some Christmas cooking!! N.B. I don't like to cook ... but it is Christmas.

Merry Christmas Link Up Parties:

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday 

A Pageant of Finishes 

Peacock Party 

Put Your Foot Down

Small Quilts and Dolls

 

What I Finished.... And What I'm Working On.

QAL By the Sea block four is Sun Block by designer Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. This block is a foundation paper piecing block, but as it it a large block and the pieces are big, I decided to do it the traditional piecing method. I don't mind paper piecing and have made some lovely projects using it - Mosaic Table Topper and My House is my Castle and even this little Ugly Sweater Coaster.

I went through my template box and found all but one of the templates needed, so made that one. I made my templates out of old cards.

I didn't have a lot of yellows as it is not a colour I use a lot. I was lucky my Auntie was clearing our her stash and I ended up with a few yellows. I chose these colours.

 Cut the templates.

..and here are my first four blocks.

This week I finished the Christmas masks....

and while I had the Christmas fabric box out I thought I would make a Christmas Stocking for new granddaughter and send the face masks and stocking at the same time. This is the first part done.

I don't like waste, and keep all sorts of scraps, even small 'crumbs'. I used the scraps to make the stockings and also to make 6.5" squares that will eventually be sewn together to make a picnic quilt. It's too hot in Australia for lap or bed quilt at Christmas, but a picnic quilt to sit on at the beach or park would be perfect.

This week I also finished some bunting.
 

Link Up Parties:

Whoop Whoop Friday @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Wednesday-Wait-Loss @ The Inquiring Quilter

Offthe Wall Friday @ Creations … Quilts, Art … Whatever

Finished (or Not) Friday @Alycia Quilts

Saturday Catch Up

Busy week this week with stuff other than sewing. I did manage to do the next block for the By the Sea Mystery. Block 3 is called Signal Flag by designer April Adams of JANDA Bend Quilts. I really liked this block and the secret message it says. This week we were to be going on a cruise for our 40th wedding anniversay, but with Covid restrictions sadly we are not. Still this block made me think about making some cruise related items for myself and my cruise loving sister. I will be adding signal flag placemats to my list of future projects - its a long list!

I have almost finished block 3 of Chick-Wheata, just a little more embellishments then I can start on the the next block.

With the hand stitching of this applique time consuming (I'm not complaining), I have done just a little of the Paper Moon baby quilt and I'm almost ready to move onto the next part. I haven't done this weeks - or last weeks - fussy cutting EPP, so that's a catch up for this coming week.

I did finish a face mask order, and got out the embroidery machine to make a few footie ROOSTER face masks.

Today I am going to make some (hopefully my last) Christmas masks and then two Christmas Stockings for family and add to my Christmas bunting collection.

Linking Parties to visit:

Whoop whoop Friday

Wednesday-Wait-Loss 

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday

 

Farmers Wife - #12 Becky

I really had to do some house work before starting, so didn't get to my emails until after 8 - but that's ok, I'm not on a deadline.  
 First block is #12 Becky - tutorial from GnomeAngel

I used the rotary cutting method and machine pieced, making three blocks in total. 

The first block I used Christmas left overs from 'special presents' that I have been working on. I just guessed the measurements as I haven't looked at the CD that came with the book yet. I did make a mistake, forgetting to add the 1/4" seam allowance on some pieces, so had to add a strip to make it 6 1/2" sq.

The second and third blocks I used Downton Abbey Collection, in two different colour tones. One pink/rose tones above, and the other in purple/blue tones.

Each block was inspired by letters written by 'Farmers Wives'. Angie from GnomeAngel wrote about her thoughts on each letter included with the blocks. I thought that was a great idea, so I'll attempt to give my own thoughts of some of the letters.

My thoughts on #12Becky letter: Quit Merely Existing by Emancipated, 1934.

Emancipated talks about living life to the fullest and her reasons for saying that.

Everyone has a different story but no matter what one's story is, it is important to remember to have a balance in one's life. It is easy to get bogged down and so busy that one forgets about what is important. With me it was work. Life was 6 days (and nights) working with only Saturday to myself, and I usually did sewing. Recently I had even given up Saturday's with the constant increasing and demanding workload. It only took 'the last straw' - you know the one that broke the camels back - to make me realise that life is short, it could end tomorrow. I needed to refocus on what I wanted, not what everyone else wanted of me. Family and friends are important as is having a balance in life. I didn't have that balance, it became all work, and as a consequence I didn't have time for family and friends. Life should not be all work and no play. 

I took time out and did 'me' stuff - reading, painting, family tree, photography, and yes, got back to sewing. It took many months to start sewing again, I just couldn't focus on what sewing I wanted to do. This quilt along is just what I needed. As Emancipated says

'live a glorious, full life'.   

Happy Sewing 

Allison