Christmas in July 2013

Last night was a cold and frosty night but the heater was on full blast and the table beautifully set when I arrived at group

Tinsel, Xmas tree, candles,Xmas food, Xmas mug rugs (saving one for you Shez!!) and great company!

Santa's helper (Marg) tempting us with jelly slice and Tracee's mini Xmas puds!

Tracee's reindeer - isn't it beautiful?? Our challenge for the month of July was something Christmas and this was what Tracee made.....I forgot to get photos of what Marg and Tania made ...will fix that soon! Everything was beautiful!

Here we all are, Pauline, Helen, Sue, Tania, Marg and Tracee - waiting for the self timer to go off on the camera...would it take the photo or fall off the white board first? Luckily the photo happened first!!

YUM!! Marg's jelly slice - believe me she is famous for it in these parts and Tracee's Xmas puds! I can assure you they tasted beautful!! They both are amazing creators of food!

And Tania had brought along mini pav's and cream and strawberries and I had had a bite (pav is my favourite food!!!!) before I remembered to take a photo! Woops! There was other food but it was ignored in favour of these wonderful offerings!

Tania's Xmas stocking, sadly her machine didn't want to sew around the top of the stocking as it was pretty thick, so it is still to be finished. But it looks very pretty.

Finishing things

 Another Wednesday night, and a few more members made it to the group tonight. And the heater was fixed, yay!
So we beavered away, all warm and cosy.
Tania finished her wonderfully warm and beautiful crocheted rug, all done except for a few threads needing to be cut. And just in time for more cold weather! Great job, Tania, it really looks and feels good.

And yours truly finally got all the Double Friendship Star blocks sewn together (with lots of help from friends!). All hand sewn so far, and a thin border yet to be attached. Then I'll have to win the lotto to afford the quilting, ha! Still, at least I have something to cover the new bed.

The group is all excited about getting a new Accuquilt GO soon, it'll be fun cutting out shapes easily and quickly.
Oh, and next week is "Christmas in July" night. Should be lots of fun.

Cold Wednesday

 Another Wednesday night, and the heater wasn't working! Thankfully, the temperatures weren't too frosty, so, armed with a hot cuppa, we still enjoyed the sewing.
Show and tell for the monthly challenge - quilted journal covers.
From left to right - my 'goth' cover, complete with pen holder. Unfortunately, a little too small, but good to practice. I just adore that fabric (Nevermore; Michael Miller), gotta get me some more.
Then Sue's cover, a pretty blue/brown fabric with owls galore! Finally, Tracee's cover, made from wonderful fabric depicting vintage postcards. Love it. Tania was still in the process of finishing hers, so watch this space.
The other show and tell item was Sue's little owl bag,just so cute! Sue's getting really good at this 'free range quilting' business.
The ladies were very kind to help me sew together a quilt top, should have most of it done by next time. Tania was finishing her crochet rug, and starting a new one.
Hopefully there's be heating!

Show and Tell

Tania brought along her beautiful quilt top, she participated in a Round Robin last year and made the centre appliqué and then off the centre went, with some fabric in a bag and once a month or there abouts, the bags were swapped to the next person and so on until the completed top returned to Tania.

Isn't it beautiful!!

Quilts and noms

Another Wednesday night, and a cold one to boot - 3 degrees on the way home! Six of us were very grateful for the heater tonight.
Sue had brought some beautiful knitted cupcakes, ice cream cone, and ubiquitous owl. The cupcakes looked good enough to eat!

 Yours truly eventually got her Ricky Timms convergence quilt finished. I must say, I could easily become addicted to making this type of quilt! Kerry in Macedon did a great job with the machine quilting. Happy to do a class one day.

This wee owl was supposed to be a mug rug but ended up bigger than expected. He might be flying overseas soon.



We've all had an email from Pauline, who is currently in Exeter, England, after some fun times in the Dutch town of Delft. Pauline and her husband will be off to London and the Cotswolds soon. Thanks for thinking of us, Pauline! We look forward to your travel stories.

Tracee spoiled us again with her yummy berry cake and cream! Just delish! Sue had brought coconut macaroons and my little contribution was some Lindt chocolate. We know how to live, don't we?!

Look what I found....

As I was browsing through a magazine the other day I came across this....

I knew Tracee was a very clever quilter and crafter but not that she had been published in a magazine!! Love the pelican!!! Have often looked at this to make....looked being the operative word!! Isn't she one clever lady!!

Wednesday night

Last night was cold and rainy and foggy, but four faithfuls gathered to sit and sew - luckily the heater was working and we had it on full blast!! Here is what we were working on

Marg has just finished (tonight) the French knots around the edge of her quilt centre, many, many French knots!!! It looks amazing...now for the joining together of all the blocks, something to look forward to!

Just for you Shez a mug rug photo!! Think we need some more!! LOL!

Marg's quilt centre block.

Helen busy working on hexagons.

Tracee-Lee now has the cows on her Perry's Place quilt

they are so cute!!!

many, many hours of back stitch involved here for Tracee but it is so worth it, the quilt is lovely.

And yours truly is still doing hexagons!! There is no rush here though, I love that you can just pick this up and sew when ever you are in the mood. We had a great evening, lots of chatting, laughter and sewing!