Rosalie Quinlan's Redwork Christmas BOM no 9

Last one! I finished number 9 on Thursday whilst I was at the Patchwork Apple (at Pink Ladies, a quilting group I joined recently) This is one block of the month that I have really enjoyed. Whilst I'm sure I could finish the quilt for Christmas it's not high on my list of priorities at the moment, so it probably is a project for next year I think. I have enjoyed having this portable stitching to take with me wherever I go. This BOM was a birthday present from my Bradley, one of the best birthday presents ever. So, I decided to start another hand stitching type BOM once the redwork was finished. I signed up for the Patchwork Apple's "Pies and Tarts" and started on that on Thursday too. The pies and tarts are created with english paper piecing and I'm enjoying that a lot too! (Will post about it more later!) I'm still deciding how to finish the redwork blocks. I've got time to ponder!

Take a peek.........at Bronwyn Hayes' new blog!

Remember my froggie? She is from Bronwyn Hayes' Chicken Feather book. I have always loved Bronwyn's stitcheries, in fact my Mum recently came over to show me some wonderful new DMC stitcheries she had just discovered. Turns out they were Bronwyn's and I had already stitched them! Anyway, why froggie's reappearance? Bronwyn now has a blog! Loz mentioned it to me and Sarah blogged it here. Go see them all!!!

The Christmas Shop

Went to the Christmas shop this week and discovered Christmas birds everywhere! At the moment they are perched on and around my sewing desk. I will be sad to see them go when they migrate to the Christmas tree next week. Can't wait to see them perched on our tree!

9 Patch Swap!

So, I got my 9 patches this week. All 72 of them. They are gorgeous! As soon as I received them I began thinking about how I would put them together. Of course, the design I have settled on requires me to buy some more fabric. (Naturally!) This was such a fun swap. Thank you so much Christine for organising this swap. And thank you all those who made blocks that are now sprawled over my sewing desk. (Toni, Peg, Donna......... for others take a look at Christine's blog on the sidebar!!!) Ahh....... just wallowing in them!

Monday was such a beautiful day.

It was a truly glorious day today. Really lovely spring weather! We haven't had much spring weather so far so today was even more wonderful. (After the last couple of weeks of 40+ temperatures spring weather is most welcome.) I managed to do some stitching and worked on Miss 17's formal dress. She fell madly in love with Jeffery's yellow checked couture dress from Project Runway. She loves the skirt, but not the bodice, so......

we chose the bodice in the photo above. We have several different checked fabrics and whilst none of them are incredibly yellow, they do have some yellow in them. (The original dress had three or four different fabrics in it.) So Miss 17 is pretty happy. I will be spending this week sewing her formal dress. And stitching redwork of course! I've nearly finished my redwork block of the month. Good thing too because I have just received the first of my new block of the month which I will show you later!

What blogs are good for.

I have often pondered why I keep a blog. (Intermittently of late!) In fact non blog keepers often ask me this question. It's a record of my achievements, a way to stay in touch with like minded souls, and hopefully a vehicle to help me remember things. So, the lesson for today is: I don't like sewing for other people. I actually discovered this truth for the first time about 24 years ago, but for some reason I forgot it. Finished this dress for a year 12 formal today - or so I thought. The year 12 concerned wants changes made. Hmm....... I am totally over it! My own year 12 is waiting patiently for me to start her formal dress, so that will be the next sewing project here.

So, if you bump into me anywhere, remind me that I don't like sewing for other people so I don't get into this situation again! I am looking forward to sewing Miss 17's dress. (When I say "other people" I don't mean my family!) I have been over at the Moda Bakeshop looking at their projects. I fell in love with this one. So, so pretty! Makes me want to rush out and buy jelly rolls, and honey buns, and layer cakes, and...... or maybe not. I kind of want to rush out and buy those things even without looking at the cute projects on Moda Bakeshop. We are expecting 43 degrees in Adelaide tomorrow. Too hot! So I will be spending the day sewing in front of the air conditioner!!!

Building this week

I have been sewing this week, but don't really have anything to show for it. I am sewing a formal dress for a friend and have spent most of the week making alterations to the pattern and getting the pattern right. I think I'm almost there with the dress now and have just cut out the dress. These photos show some of the building my boys have done this week. Mr 15 is the creator of the duplo guy above.

The wooden train tracks are Mr 9's creation. For some reason blogger thinks the photo should be this way (sideways), but it makes the face hard to see.

Tonight Mr 15 built his very own dog. It was just so cute. Grandson was visiting today (to escape the hot weather we are having and having and having) and he loved the dog so much that he destroyed it! (I think that was Mr 15's plan once it had been photographed)

Hopefully I will be back soon with photos of my completed sewing. Lots of it. And hopefully the temperature will go down here too. (Really sick of the continual 39 degree C days the weather bureau keep predicting. C'mon guys, you're getting predictable and boring!)

9 Patch Swap Sent (Oh, and did you know that it is November?)

I love swaps! So much fun! This is my pile of 72 9 patches that I sent off. Six different colour/fabric combos, 12 of each combo. Our Swap Mama will send me 72 squares back, but they will all be different! How cool is that. Then I will assemble my quilt top and quilt my quilt. This is the last swap for this year for me. I got a little swapped out and decided to take a break. I love the challenge of swaps (they really encourage me to try things I have never done before!) they have really increased my confidence and my abilities. I have learnt lots of new things this year and tried lots of new things too. Oh, by the way, it's November! This year has just flown by and I guess I am already thinking about the new year and the goals I will set for myself. I am looking forward to Christmas. Can't wait to set up my decorations and lights and make everything twinkley! Mrs 25 has already got her tree up. As soon as it hits November her tree goes up! I had a lovely surprise when I went to church on Sunday. Our new ward (congregation) often has organ and piano duets for prelude music and last Sunday they were playing Christmas carols! Such a lovely surprise!!! Usually Christmas carols are reserved exclusively for December and you don't really have enough time to enjoy them, so it was lovely to listen to them! I feel all warm and fuzzy now with all this Christmas talk! I'm off to sew now.

Rosalie Quinlan's Redwork Christmas BOM no 8

Finished number eight. Just number nine to go. Ultimately this BOM ends up as a quilt, but a couple of people have suggested that they would make small projects with the stitcheries. So I'm thinking about it. Thinking..........thinking.............thinking......

A day at the beach

My day started and ended at the beach today. I wish I had some photos of my beachy morning, but I didn't have my camera with me. It was sunny and hot. The water was clear. Some was dark blue and some was light green. I sat on the jetty on a seat under the shade and hung my head through the railings and watched the light green water and the sand below it. The sand hid a crab until it moved and it made it's way under the jetty. Once I had seen the crab I began to really look in the water and saw all kinds of fish. It was an Animal Planet kind of day (okay, Wild Kingdom kind of day for us oldies!) because I saw sea birds and even two dolphins!

My hot day had a weak cool change at about 3:30 this afternoon. We had always planned to go to the beach this evening and when we got there it was cool, windy, and overcast. Not sure what you call this. (sailboarding? kiteboarding?) If you do this you must be waiting for a windy day!

They were so fast and made it look so easy! (I'm sure it's not easy!) Everything looked so beautiful at the beach. The colours in my photos are not nearly enough. I really felt like I was looking at a watercolour painting. Despite the cool change Miss 12 and Mr 9 went swimming. It was a really lovely evening!