HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

I do a little bit of Easter decorating but only a little. I haven't been collecting Easter decor for long but am getting a few small pieces.

I made this bunny a few years back adapting a reindeer pattern for the bunny. She sits proudly on a pedestal at the bottom of the stairs with her little friend.

My DD gave me this cute rabbit candle just the other day. Very sweet.

I made this cutie on Monday and GD Kaitlyn scored this one for herself.

Lastly I had to make a special order of something crafty for my DH to give to his 2 work colleagues so I found this pattern from http://www.myrtleandeunice.com/ a little tricky at first but then again I am not a good one for reading patterns properly but I was happy at how they turned out considering I only had 24 hours notice.

Lastly I have finished the wool embroidery on Laura's pincushion. It will be winging its way to North Dakota very soon. I hope she likes the finished top.

Thanks to Fiona at Bubz Rugz for organising this great swap. My part is the blue heart with the red flower and purple spray flowers.

The yellow butterfly and little flying bugs and also the orange flowers along the edge.

Quilt top finished

The way it was originally designed. I am definitely not an arty type of quilter so this was a bit of a challenge for me and I have to say I like this one a whole lot better. This little quilt is an Amanda Daly design I have been attending classes with her for quite some time. Next week I hope she will be able to give me some quilting ideas to finish it off and not be another UFO. The close-up of the dragonflies these are raw edge applique.

Another UFO has found its way out of the box. I think these 9 blocks were started about 2 years ago and were a free BOM from Gail Pan Designs. I did finish all the blocks in that year but never got to put them into a wall hanging .

They are now pinned onto my design wall and today I am cutting out the borders.

BUSY BUSY

Yes time passes very quickly in this household. Looking after my newest grand baby is just wonderful she is such a treasure. Meal times are wonderful if only her Mum knew what I fed her some times. Here is little Zoe enjoying her Vegemite crust loves every bit of it and gets into the biggest mess.

My eldest Grand daughter lives with us and is also a treasure. I have been kept very busy over the past few weeks helping her with one of her school projects on "Gold". Last week I was making her an outfit for the Colonial school incursion. They were having a travelling show from the Australiana Village come visit the school and the children were asked to dress in old colonial dress.

How cute does she look? The little case Kaitlyn is holding is my Dad's original school case made by his father some 83 years ago. Kaitlyn felt very proud going off to school yesterday carrying her lunch in that little case.

A little bit of leisure as well. Last Sunday we took my beautiful parents on another adventure. This time we went to Palm Beach and caught the ferry across to Umina. A lovely day and the weather was wonderful.

This week I have tried real hard to get some stitching done but I didn't achieve much. I did however get this apron finished. I showed this in an earlier post it was all in pieces when I found it at my Mum's house during my Spring clean. I think that it would probably be at least 30 years old as are some of her other aprons as I can remember her always having one of these crossed stitched aprons almost every day.

The embroidery has been completed on my next Christmas stocking for Zoe. I am waiting on the velvet backing to arrive from The Crewel Goblin to completely finish this one.

Lastly on my design wall I have been slowly and I mean very slowly working on this little wall hanging and the more I looked at it the least I liked it. I took it along to class last night with out the side and bottom borders and am now working on the original design. When I started this I thought I would like to do something totally different to what I usually do but I have decided I am more of a traditionalist than an arty farty quilter.

BORDERS ARE ON

I am really happy to say that the borders are on my BOM quilt. I have been working on this quilt for 14 months , there was a fair amount of embroidery on each block that kept me very busy but I have enjoyed every moment.

Yesterday I was determined to get the borders on and everything went very smoothly.

This is the finished quilt top. One of the inner embroidered borders.

A really cute little heart cornerstone on the final border

I am going to quilt this one myself it just needs minimal quilting and lots of little heart buttons which I have been collecting over this past year. Hope I have enough.

What have I been working on.........

Over the past year myself and 5 of my friends from my patchwork group have been working on a BOM called "Seasons of the Heart" by Leanne Knell from Petals & Patches. I have completed the 9 blocks and although I liked the original patterns of the embroidery I have changed about 90% and designed my own or used patterns from other embroideries I have done before. These are just a few of the blocks

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have all the blocks together and the borders on as I am quite keen to get this one finished. So more photos to follow on my next post.

PINCUSHION

As a part of Fiona's Crazy Felt Pincushion swap, today I have finished my part on Dianne's pincushion. This is my first experience at wool embroidery and I quite enjoyed it. Now it is ready to post on to Laura in North Dakota.

AN ENJOYABLE DAY

Last Sunday my DH and I set out early to travel to Oberon to attend a swap meet. I don't usually go to these but after all I have been doing lately for my parents etc I needed a day out.
Travelling up through the mountains the fog was quite dense until we got a bit higher and I was able to see and take a few photos.

The landscape looked beautiful with the fog in the valleys. So fresh and clean.

At the swap meet apart from the few car pieces my DH purchased I was lucky to meet up with a fellow blogger jannimary, and look at what I bought from her stand. An old icing set for my daughter Danielle, an old frame and a whisk and all for a good price. It was lovely to talk to someone who has the same interests and to think I have often followed her blog and her bike riding experiences.

Also purchased these few items. The little fan is for a friend who loves fans.

After leaving the swap meet we headed for Bathurst to visit the patchwork shop Home Patch but unfortunately it was closed. On our way out of town there was an auction at the showgrounds we just had to go in to have a look.

Well we came home with this occasional table.....

Another mirror for my mirror wall I just loved the shape of this particular one.

And a bargain for $5. a lot of old picture frames. Danielle is forever looking for old frames so once cleaned up they will go to her home.

All in all we had a lovely day.

HOME AGAIN

Yes came home last night after spending time helping my parents. My Dad came home from hospital on Tuesday night and is doing well. I will be returning there next Tuesday when Dad then goes in for an eye operation. Everything seems to be happening all at the same time. Whilst I was at their home it gave me a great opportunity to do a bit of spring cleaning. Now I know you can all imagine how much clutter has been collected after being in the same home for over 54 years?????? There was lots. Many bags of stuff went to the charity bins and lots went in the garbage bin.

I was able to get my wool pincushion base ready to be posted to Melody for embellishing. I guess this is like a round robin pincushion started on Bubzrugz.blogspot.com. Sure am looking forward to receiving Diannas' base from Canada.

During my cleaning up at my parents home I found a few things I thought I would like to keep.

I made this knitting bag for my Mum a few years ago when she was a prolific knitter. These days she only does a bit of embroidery and crocheting which is pretty good for an 86 year old.

How cute are these little embroidery transfers and look at the price.

Also came across this unfinished cross stitched apron. All the pieces are there to complete the apron so in a spare moment I will do just that. I can remember my Mum doing a lot of these types of aprons.

The pattern for the above apron was in one of these book along with lots of other hand drawn patterns

And these were two of a draw full of aprons that I found stuffed in a cupboard. These certainly do bring back lovely memories. My Mum always had an apron on as she went around the house doing her daily chores or cooking, both of which she does not do much of these days.

A few years back (about 2 years I think) my friend Chris and I bought some yellow chenille fabric with the idea of making some chooks. Well I wanted to do something reasonably easy during my days of rest from my parents AND get finished so I stitched up the 2 chooks.
How cute do they look. I guess you can say that this was another UFO just waiting to be made.

A Quick Post Today

I have not been able to post lately as I have been staying with my Mum whilst my Dad is in hospital. Am home today for a bit of a rest myself as my sister has taken over the Mum sitting duties for the weekend.
I am so happy with myself before I left to go to Mum's I wanted to get another UFO finished. This quilt became my worst nightmare. The top had been completed some ? years ago and I had started machine quilting it in June 2008. Nothing seemed to go right at the time so it was put away for a better day. Last weekend I started the quilting and once I got into it everything went smoothly. Took me three days and the quilt was complete.

Because the quilt is now well over 8 years old I have misplaced the fabric for the binding (probably used it in another project) so it still is not totally completed but I am pleased I only have the binding to do.

This is my finished quilt (well almost). Another UFO out of the box.

What UFO will be next????????