Some stitching ...... and some unpicking!

A little bit of stitching today. I kept making mistakes though and had to unpick. It's not quite finished yet - more tomorrow. Today was the last day of school for Miss 12. Yay!!! I think it was a hard day for her because she is moving to a new school next year and today the realisation of that began to sink in. She has had a wonderful year and done really well at school. The year has passed so quickly, so now it's just two weeks till Christmas!



I have also been making a new bag to keep my pies and tarts in! Isn't this the cutest fabric? So glad to have made something for me! It has a pin cushion in the center and the elastic is to keep my bits and pieces secured. I'm off to put all my pies and tarts stuff in it.

It's Christmas at our house!

Not just Christmas, but magic as well! Mr 15 has been up and down the ladder setting up our Christmas lights. I am really happy with what he has done. So now we are Christmassy inside and out. I am busy making Christmas presents (me and my sewing machine) and thinking about our Christmas celebration for 2009. I don't think it will be an entirely handmade Christmas for us this year, but it will be close! Back to the salt mines! (I mean sewing room!)

Journal Covers

Miss 17 had her awards day today and is now finally done with school. She wanted to give her teachers a gift so I hit the Moda bakeshop and found these journal covers. They looked much better once I had put an A5 notebook in them! Miss 17 baked chocolate chip cookies to go with the journals. The covers used a honey bun (I think mine was beach house?) which I had never used before and now am madly in love with!!! One honey bun would make 15 of these covers! I only found it necessary to make six, three for girls (top of the photo) and three for boys (bottom of the photo). Hmm...... they were a lot of fun to make and now I am thinking that they would make quite nice Christmas presents. Think I need some new honey buns!

Pies and Tarts

I have started my new block of the month from the Patchwork Apple. It is called "Pies and Tarts" and involves english paper piecing and applique. I have very little done so far, but I am enjoying it! One and a half pies completed. (Ninety-eight and a half to go!) No tarts so far. I think this BOM is going to be a challenge!

The Dress and a Graduation

Left to right, Miss 19, Miss 17, Mr 21 (Yep! He had a birthday this week!). This is Miss 17 in her formal dress. Graduation was immediately before formal so we all got to go to the formal venue to celebrate the end of Miss 17's high school career with her. (This photo is Miss 17 with her two siblings who have moved out this year. The kids still at home miss them so much!)

Left to right, Mr 15, Miss 17, Mr 21. Miss 17 was very nervous about graduation because she had been invited to give the valedictory speech. She did a wonderful job! Of course I would say that because she is my kid, but others said it too last night. She wrote a brilliant speech and presented it beautifully.

The back of the dress. This morning she got up and said, "Well that's it Mum. I now have nothing to live for." said tongue in cheek of course! Then we figured out that her Year 12 results are only 2 or 3 weeks away and (hopefully) University offers are just over a month away. She is all psyched up for uni now - hope she gets into the course of her dreams! Kind of makes me feel old to have child number 5 graduating from high school and being just a few month off of adulthood. Where does the time go? I'm off now to clean up my sewing desk. It looks like a bomb hit it. I am such a messy sewer!

It's December!

Isn't this the cutest paper bag? Yes! It's December and we are beginning to think about Christmas. This is our first Christmas in this house. We are planning to decorate our house with lights, but haven't quite got that far yet. This evening Mr 15, Mr 9 and I went for a walk around our neighbourhood. Turns out we live in a place where lots of people decorate their houses with lights! Still sewing Miss 17's formal dress. Just putting the skirt together at the moment. Goodnight!

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!

Northern Lights are returning to Adelaide!

Just cruising around blogland and discovered this exciting news on Michelle Hill's blog. It's old news, but new to me. I went to see Northern Lights last time and truly loved it! We were in the throes of a heatwave at the time and it was just wonderful sitting on the grass late in the evening watching the lights. Can't wait! Apparently there will be even more in 2010. Wow.

Getting the hang of it, I think!

The title of this post could refer to lots of things. Not sure if Mr 9 is getting the hang of drumming (Slightly unconventional stick holding!) but he is passing on his wisdom to grandson nevertheless. (You can see grandson's sweet face in the bottom right hand corner of the photo.) When Mr 9 finishes bashing away, grandson takes over. (Usually with a more conventional style of stick holding!)

These are some of the nine patches I have been working on. I was thinking that I must be getting the hang of blogging again, but realised that's not strictly true because I am still taking photos in the middle of the night! These are for a swap. I will send mine off and get the same number back, but they will all be different and viola! A scrap quilt! (I think that's how it works!)

This is the quilt I have been practicing my free motion quilting on. It's not a big quilt, but I am only halfway through it! Kellie must be a very good concentrator. It seems to take much more concentration than I have energy for! I really do love the result though. I love quilts that are heavily quilted and this one just feels lovely. My stitch length is dreadful, but I'm sure that will improve with practice! Mr 9 was touching the quilt today and said that it felt really good. "Now I see why you sit there for so long sewing and pulling all those faces." Yes, apparently I am an animated quilter! So much so that my Bradley had to take a video yesterday of my facial expressions for the Paton family video vault! Oh well, if I can't entertain my posterity what's the point? So, what will I be sewing tomorrow? Finishing off the nine patches, some more quilting practice, and maybe playing with some split nine patches too. Maybe I'll even remember to take photos in the daylight! Maybe.

Mystery indulgence class

Saturday I went to the Patchwork Apple for a mystery indulgence class. Classes two weekends in a row! It didn't go unnoticed by Mr 9 I can tell you. I had a wonderful time. We got to stitch/embellish fabric for a cushion. Sara (the teacher) said we would be looking at fabric in a different way. I thought it was a great idea. There are so many beautiful fabrics around at the moment that demand you just look at them! Some (like this fabric I chose) are just too lovely to cut into. I decided to highlight the bird with stitching and beading. It's a little hard to see from my photos (that's what you get for taking photos in the middle of the night!) but I think it's looking great. It really was a great day and I got to hang out with Lorraine again and meet a bunch of other stitchers too! Don't know yet what I will do with it. Maybe not a cushion. Cushions have a hard life at my house! Grandson piles them up and then throws himself on them! That's called a snuggle buggle at our house. You need lots of cushions and some rugs as well and then you snuggle, a lot! I can't see a beaded cushion being very snuggly. Mrs 25 was the inventor of the snuggle buggle at our house so it's little wonder that grandson is such a devotee since his Mum is the inventor!

I am looking forward to this week of sewing. I am free motion quilting a quilt and making some nine patches for the nine patch swap. Photos to come!

My week has wings!

This week has just flown by! My Bradley spent this week in Townsville for work so it meant I had to be two parents instead of one which makes me so much busier. (I don't know how single parents do it!) Our new place (kind of not that new anymore after four months!) has a courtyard and now that our thoughts are turning to spring (it's warming up here) we are thinking about the courtyard! I am sitting outside under our new shade. My laptop is on the new table and I am contemplating just where to put the bbqs! (You know me, always feeding the 5000 so I have to have more than one bbq!)

A couple of months ago I joined a quilting group at the patchwork apple and yesterday managed to finish my Rosalie Quinlan Redwork Christmas BOM month 7 whilst there! I thought I was never going to finish that one! I was on a roll. Don't know what happened, but I obviously fell off the roll and I thought I would never finish number 7. I just have 8 and 9 to do now. Not sure if I will finish it for this Christmas, but there's always next year! I have a lot of Christmas projects rushing around in my head. I really want to have a handmade Christmas this year. I've been trying to think how I would have felt about that if my mother did that when I was a child and I realised that she did. She often made our gifts and I loved them all. We live in such a brand new, shiny, disposable, status symbol kind of world that I would like to remove that from our Christmas if I can. Too much emphasis is on what we've got and what we're getting, rather than what we are. So, on with the sewing!

Happy Birthday!

Mr 8 became Mr 9 today. (Technically, he turns 9 in a few minutes. He was born late in the evening on October 21.) Here he is with Mr 20's girl on the left and Miss 19 on the right. (He picked his best people to sit next to!) What's more fun than blowing out your candles? Lighting them yourself! He had a wonderful evening with all his brothers and sisters (and in-laws and his nephew). Time flies, doesn't it? Seems just like the other day that Mr 9 was born. He was the latest baby I ever had. He was 5 days late which seemed like forever to me! He was 11 pounds and 4 ounces (one of the big ones) and so very, very sweet. At 9 he is a laugh/riot. I guess growing up in a household of teenagers and adults sharpens your sense of humour. Happy Birthday my ashman!

Don't Look Now at Hettie's Patch!

Just setting the scene for you here. While I am writing this post Miss 23 is playing the piano in the background. I love to hear the piano! All of our girls can play (wish I could!) and the boys know the basics too. So I am having a lovely relaxed day which is perfect for this post!

This past weekend I attended a workshop run by Kellie (Don't Look Now) at Hettie's Patch. Kellie does such beautiful work! Go take a look if you are not familiar with it. Everyone had the best time and we all produced some great work! Thanks to Kellie, Lorraine, Leanne, Karen and Kate who worked so hard to give us an excellent workshop. If you ever have an opportunity to do a class with Kellie, don't hesitate. She is a great teacher with so many hints and tips that I found really valuable.

We had the opportunity to watch and listen to Kellie.............

..........and then it was down to work! At some stages during the day it was so quiet in the workroom! Just the hum of sewing machines. Of course, it wasn't that often, but we were all really inspired by Kellie's work!

This was my result. I love it, and whilst my work is not at Kellie's standard, I can see that if I practiced I would improve! I feel like I have the techniques I need to know to be successful. I think I will turn this practise piece into a pillow cover and I am going to practice on a couple of quilts this week to keep my momentum going!

Yesterday I drew this froggie on some calico. She sure is happy! She is based on one of Bronwyn Hayes' frogs from her "Chicken Little Feather" book. (Sweet book with lots of patterns and stitcheries for babies! You should rush out and buy it!) I have been thinking about things to make for babies cause Mrs 25 is pregnant and I am going to be a grandmother again. (You know you're old when you're a grandmother. You know you're really old when you are two grandmothers!) The frog's dress might give you a clue as to whether we think this baby is a girl or a boy! I think she will end up on the front of a bib!

Busy, busy!

So, I have been busy. One of the things I have been busy with is sewing machine shopping. My Bradley and I traveled far and wide in the search for a new machine for Rosemary Hill. (Yes! Despite our recent move we still live at Rosemary Hill. I have planted the requisite rosemary bush and am sticking with the "Hill" despite the fact that we now live on the plains! For those of you who don't know our city, suffice it to say that we now live close to an airport so it must be flat!) I checked out all the beautiful piecing/quilting machines that are on the market. (Gosh there's a lot these days!) Some were just perfect, except for the price! Others were just perfect, except for the colour! (Hey! We quilters are very sensitive to colour. I couldn't look at that colour every day!) It was a very confusing business. In the end I chose the Janome 6600.
Isn't it pretty! It has all sorts of features that I am really enjoying. Like a knee lift (new for me). And it sounds so pretty when I sew. Members of my family come to listen to it when I sew!

One of the reasons I went with the Janome was because my previous machine was a Janome and it was familiar. So, now that I have the new machine I must get sewing!

October?

This year really is zooming by. It is school holidays here (we're halfway through two weeks of holidays). This is what Miss 17 wore to school on casual day during the last week of term. For most kids casual day signifies a day to get out of school uniform. For Miss 17 it is a costume opportunity. She went as Wally from the "Where's Wally" books. (Waldo in the US I think) She spent the day being "found" by everyone at school! I have been busy continuing to get organised and just being busy. I have been watching re-runs of "Project Runway" on Foxtel. Not re-runs to me though, because I have never seen them before. I looooove "Project Runway"! Foxtel is partway through season 5. I find them all so inspiring. Not sure if I love the show so much cause I just like seeing people sew (What??? Sewing is my best!) or whether I just enjoy creativity - even vicariously! The show makes me think I can design clothes, so it definitely is inspiring! I have a day of sewing ahead so I must get to it!