Christmas Decorating

This is a long post so a cup of tea & some biscuits may be in order. Some of the photo's aren't the best. My camera is playing up. 

 I started decorating on Sunday, trees done by my daughter yesterday & i finished today by getting my 2 really big quilts hung.

Upon entering the short hallway the front door is decorated with a huge red bow.

To the right is a bom from Gail Pan from several years ago. First time it's been hung. I just never had a space big enough until now.

Also on the right are my snowmen, lamp, Santa & another snowman.

To the left is a small cupboard

Next is a tiered shelf unit my Dad made me a long time ago

Then my rather large Jim Shore Santa with a cupboard hanger from Gail Pan Designs

The top of the meat safe is also decorated

The wall above has a few decorations as well

This long hanging was made as a Round Robin with friends in Canada & the US.

In front

My Jim Shore collection

below them a triptych from The Raspberry Rabbits & a folded decoration hanging on the door of a cupboard my Dad made me.

& around the walls of the lounge

The coffee table hasn't got it's usual decorations on it this year as the cat likes to lay there at night :)

A couple of Santa's next to the tree

The main tree

comes with a train

Which the cats aren't to sure about. :)

Some decorations in the kitchen

Onto the dining room & the 2nd big quilt. I made the top in 2004 while living in central Queensland as a BOM. It was quilted for me in 2006 after i moved back to South East Queensland & i've never had a wall space big enough to hang it. So 17 years after making it & 15 years after it was quilted it has finally been hung.

Pattern is from The Chook Shed Girls.

Table decorations with tree number 3

Tree number 2

And hangings on the dining room wall

I said to my family that i was going to go crazy with decorations this year since last year i didn't get to decorate. I don't think i went to crazy. One daughter says i've to much out, i say i haven't put enough out. I only stopped because i ran out of surfaces. Ha Ha. I've still 3 crates that are each half full. :)

I'm still hoping to do some outside decorating if the rain ever stops. I have 1 stake hanging up on the front verandah, the other 2 are each side of my door(out of the rain), the baubles are waiting in a box & my solar laser light decoration might get used this year. Cross fingers.

Happy Stitching,

Fixer Upper

I made this pattern many, many years ago from a Chook Shed pattern. I thought it was on my blog but as i couldn't find it maybe i made it before 2008 when i started blogging. Blogger seems to have changed things around making it harder to look. 

Anyway i was never happy with the way it was put together from the pattern, just the backing & front, no wadding. So after quite a few years i carefully unpicked it & there is sat with promises to myself each year that i'd get it out & fix it up. A few days ago i made myself get it out  & yesterday made a new backing, cut of a piece of wadding & set to finishing it off. Yay for me it is done & can go under the tree this year complete with photo bomber. :) ;).

Happy stitching,

FNSI November

 Not a lot of sewing yesterday for FNSI. Thanks for hosting us again Wendy.

 I cut out a small bag for my GD for Christmas. Sewed the front panel & added the applique. Then i set about looking where i put a pile of red fat 1/4's when i moved. I came across a pattern this week i really like. I had received them in a birthday swap & had them where i could see them if i found a pattern i liked. So they were packed away but i wasn't sure where i put them. I found them tucked away in a drawer with other red fabrics. Yay. 

Then i decided to move crates around that just got shoved in the room when i moved. Probably wasn't a good idea as i moved the stack the cat uses to get up on the cupboard. She had to jump further when getting down.

Afternoon & time for Netflix & hand sewing. Stitched all the applique  &embroidery

the pattern it comes from is actually a sewing set but i think it's ideal for little girls as a carry bag. 

And a cat shape which i stitched the embroidery to & the applique heart. Needs to be sewn together & stuffed to pop inside the bag.

Pop over to visit Wendy here to find links to who joined in last night.

Happy stitching,

Pincushions

 I stitched these 3 pincushions by The Birdhouse a while ago & today i made myself sit & finish them. Yay 3 more ufo's done. 

The first one is Creative Critters

The 2nd one is Sew Essential

The 3rd one is ABC mice

Happy Stitching,

FNwF November

 Yesterday i joined Friday Night with Friends hosted by Cheryll.

My day started with a little housekeeping, repairing a skirt. Not my favourite thing to do but if i want to wear the skirt i must repair it. :)

I'd recently finished an applique Christmas runner so i found wadding & backing for it. My daughter was coming over for help sewing some faux leather pencil cases & i nearly finished the quilt before she arrived. Unfortunately despite the test run working on faux leather scraps the actual cases didn't sew together well. I hope she figures out what to do as i think there was about 10 in the pile to make.

Back to quilting & binding after she left.

That done i started stitching a little "joy" banner from The Raspberry Rabbits.

That was my day. Thankyou for hosting us Cheryll.

Pop over here to find links who joined in.

Happy Stitching,

Finishes

 First finish was the candlemat that gave me trouble. I quilted around the hexagons & then bound it.

Then it was cat tested for comfort.

Happy to say it passed. :)

Second finish is my black cat stitchery. I was going to put a border on it but decided it looked better without. I quilted in side the oval & around the shapes then added a black binding.

Third  finish is a little pincushion but i left off the pocket so that it is just a Christmas decoration.

Happy stitching,

Halloween Runner

 Yesterday i finished my Halloween table runner ably assisted by Lil P

though she seemed more interested in what was outside than assisting me. :)

All done. 

Happy Stitching,

EPP candlemat

 After stitching down 3 of the rosettes on my EPP project Friday night i knew i was never going to be happy with the result (see previous post for photo). Hmm what to do. Reverse sewing again & have a think about how to fix it or a way to use up the rosettes in a different project.

Here is my solution.

I made the centre hexagon with real papers & stitched the little cross from the stitched designs in the rosettes.  I was lucky i had some scraps left over to use in the flower. The kit came with iron on hexagons & after the 1st time using them i said never again. Well i thought i'll give them one more try & that i think is where the problem lies that i had. Not able to get nice crisp edges all round & the last fold the edge can't be seen or felt. So the hexagons may have been a little out in size. I think i'll make another one using cardboard & see if they work better to make the star shape of the original pattern.

Happy Stitching,

FNSI October

 Yesterday was FNSI hosted by our lovely Wendy. When Wendy told me earlier in the week it was time for FNSI on Friday i was a bit gobsmacked. Surely not i thought but when checking the calendar there was no getting around the fact that yes we are in the 3rd week of October & that this month is now nearly gone. Oh c__p that means in another month i'll have seen another year around the sun. :)

The first project i did some work on was this

I'd finished the stitchery & EPP a few days ago. All i needed to do was remove the papers, give it a good press & then stitch down. It's part of a quilt from Crabapple Hill & was going to get the whole pattern but after a good deal of thought decided on just the first block. Now to decide on how to finish it off.

Next i trimmed up the edges of my Halloween runner & cut some borders. 

I was going to finish the runner but my daughter asked me if i wanted to go over to the shopping centre & i said yes as i needed to get something at K-Mart. So back to runner today or tomorrow.

I'm having a love/hate relationship with the next project. I'd sewn 5 of the 6 EPP pieces Thursday night & despite marking the positions & careful pinning i couldn't get the 6th one to fit. Yesterday reverse sewing was in order. That done it was back to pinning & marking again with a small amount of fudging. I'm hoping once i'll be able to press it it will look better otherwise it maybe thrown in the corner & never finished. :)

Pop over here to see who joined in FNSI & the projects that were worked on.

Happy Stiching,

FNwF October

 Well how did it get to October already. Anyhoo with it being the 1st of October yesterday it was time for Friday Night with Friends hosted by lovely Cheryll.

I had my day planned to start early but was interrupted & that just seemed to set to scene for the day. 1st my iron had melted felt on it which i didn't realise so it ended up on the back of a block i was pressing. Hmm how to clean that off. Managed to remove it so i could get back to pressing without fear of more icky stuff on my block. 1 blessing i guess if you can call it that was it ended up on the back & not the front. :). So what went wrong next. Oh yes i sewed the first row to the 2nd row on the wrong side so reverse sewing was in order. Was it over yet? no after the top was together i found i had placed 2 blocks together that weren't supposed to be. Darn i was following the designers photo carefully or so i thought!! Well that was that the block was staying there. Oh there was some quilting issues which involved reverse sewing but i got there in the end with possibly some swearing & thoughts of throwing the quilt in the corner. lol

Sew what did i make.

Temecula Quilt Co started a sew along back in March 2019. I made the first blocks on Saturday March 30th. Followed along faithfully & finished all the little blocks, bought the blue fabric & of course it was shoved aside to make my next UFO  project. 

Fast forward to 2021 & it was getting close to the front of my basket of UFO's that i've been working through. One day several weeks back i cut out all the blue triangles & borders along with fabrics for another ufo so that when they hit the front of the basket they were ready to go. 

So there you have it one finished small quilt. Blocks measure 3" finished. 

Pop over here to see who joined in FNwF & what projects were worked on.

Happy Stitching,