Phew - So that was Christmas!!!!!

And how lovely it was:)

Presents were wrapped and around the new tree...

It had all just got too exhausting for Pippa on Christmas Eve and those stockings were just so comfy!

Could be cos we had been flat out trying to finish this for a Christmas day present!!!!! I think she thought she was camouflaged!!!!!!

FInished, bound and quilted before midnight!

And the jandal buttons on top of the tree were just perfect. This present was for the Canadian mum of my brother-in-law who is over for the summer, and who I was buying for in our family Christmas present "draw". Having been to her house I know it is decorated in black and white, and prior to doing our Christmas "draw" peeps were asked to give three words that meant something to them. Carol put down New Zealand, family and 'Kiwi' (the name of her very precious dog). So.......

I made Kiwi her own snuggly polar fleece blankie complete with her appliqued name and pawprint. And if you look closely inside the pawprint I have cut out the shape of the kiwi bird. Carol thought that was kinda neat, and thinks Kiwi (the dog) is going to love her snuggly blanket.

Rugby jerseys I made for each of my nieces and nephews. Next year is the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand so the idea is that our families will be able to get together to watch some of the All Black games on TV and the kids can wear their shirts!!! The red ones are for my Canadian brother-in-laws family! I appliqued all the letters.

My ingenious presentation of a clothing voucher for Mal!!!

Sam's Christmas Eve revelry caught up with him just after lunch - these young 'uns - no stamina!!!!

Mal enjoying the fruits of his (and other peeps) Christmas cracker treats!

My clever husbands work - he made this for his brothers present. They had it hanging on the shed wall before we left - his brother said if he was a girl he would have shed a tear - how touching!!!!!!!

Boxing Day we had all the troops at our place. It was a glorious day weather wise so peeps were in and out of the pool. Food and drink flowed, great conversation and just a lovely fun time with family and friends.

SO from my family (minus my gorgeous Emma in Canada - love you EM) hope you and your family had a special Christmas with lots of love and magical moments.
Ciao,

What's on my design floor?

This has been on my design 'wall'/floor a.k.a the lounge floor since Tuesday.....

It's for a friends son who has turned 21, and it's from a collection of his t-shirts, shorts, old scout sweatshirt, school jerseys and rugby jerseys. Think even a dressing gown!!!!
Of all weeks though to get three days in a row relieving teaching and then another day already booked!!!!!!!
Yesterday I had it put together and borders on - phew!!!
Todays mission is to pin out, quilt and sew the binding on ready for the birthday lunch tomorrow.
Next posting should be a photo of the finished quilt?
I really do want to learn to have things done weeeellll before they are due!
Ciao

First Christmas jingles

I know it's still November but my bestus quilting buddy Sam and I had our Christmas early this year as she will be in New York (envious sigh inserted here) on the magical day. Add to that the fact that last year we actually didn't connect until March and had a combined Christmas/my birthday celebration!!!!!!!
SO two weekends ago we had a lovely day celebrating.
I drove up at the crack of dawn to Auckland as I had a secret mission re jobs for next year... but Sam and I managed to crack open our pressies before I headed off into the city for that!

Inside these three tins (which at the time were wrapped and looking way more gorgeous) were.....

...the 'winter warmers' themed tin. I stopped drinking coffee about 5 months ago in the hope it might help with my migraines, and chai lattes are my treat... and I have coveted this snowman pattern to make up for a very special friend so what a super gift:) Then -

...the "quilting" tin. 1930's fabrics to help me finish the never-ending Wedding Ring quilt that I actually was working on the last time I was at Sam's house but ran short of certain colourways of fabrics. And Sam keeps telling me she is sure I can come up with clever ways of using yo-yos hence the heart shaped yo-yo maker!!!!! Then -

...the "Kiwiana" themed tin. Scrummy coloured felt cos I am making felt ornaments for some projects for Christmas, a Buzzy Bee dangle and 

the cutest caravan dingles (since Emma & Jen stayed in a little yellow caravan when they were over from Canada it has become a bit of a 'thing' with us all) 
 OH and not in the photo cos I had already snaffled it out was the most fab silver charm for my Pandora bracelet of a caravan. Spoilt. Plus ...

... plenty of Kiwiana themed wrapping paper to keep me going for a wee while.
Great pressie and so much thought in it - thanks Sam:)
Meanwhile, I had been working like a wee beaver the day before (yes, as usual I kept to my usual last minute deadline) on completing Sam's gifts although one of them we were going to pick up in Auckland later that morning.
Sam has recently heard she will head off to university next year to do a years training to become a teacher so I had a few teachery bits and bobs for her along with ....

...her very own banner to hang in her teaching office space when she has her first classroom. I appliqued the letters onto various schoolish fabrics I had and then backed it all in a sewing themed fabric that had tape measures on it so it still related to our quilty connection.

Sam and I also have a 'heart' collection and I try to make a heart to give to her for each celebration. I had an idea the night before but had to adapt it at a little after midnight when I was outside in the dark searching for a shell and could only find a large one that wasn't quite right. Onto Plan B.....

And to go with that 'Love" a Pohutukawa angel.
To add to these we headed over to Albany on our way to Calico Christmas - the Auckland Quilt Guild's annual exhibition - to pick up the final part of the present - a rimu cotton reel holder that I had bought off Trade Me (like eBay) which was absolutely in fab condition. AND exactly what Sam had wanted:) On this adventure we discovered a gorgeous wee settlement with a quaint cafe so celebrated lunch before embarking on the quilt show which, as always, was a great exhibition and interesting merchants to browse (although had to be very restrained). 
WIll share some photos of the show tomorrow.
SO lovely to have the first hit of Christmas - has certainly put me in the mood even though it's only November:)
Ciao

Double whammy quilty hugs

Wow! How cool was it yesterday to be doing my usual morning scroll through my blog reading and suddenly 'whammo' there is a photo of one of my quilts on Em Celebrates page - that funky lady had featured two of my quilts full on!!!!!!
They are Emma's 21st birthday quilt

And Jen's 23rd (I think!) birthday quilt

But go over and check Em's page out cos she has the most fun competition (as only Em could have) running at the moment and it will explain why all this chaos is happening!!!!!
BUT why the double whammy quilty hugs???????
WELL not only did I have the warm fuzziness when I saw what a biiiiiigggg feature she had made of the quilts on her blog page, but about an hour later there was a package in my letter box

from the above mentioned crazy funky Em that contained 

Such an Em card and just love the fairy sprinkling her magic fairy dust over.....

these oh so me fabrics that I won a voucher for in yet another oh so fun random competition Em had. BUT I gave Em the challenge of spending my voucher for me and giving me a surprise of seeing how she spent it!!!!!!! AND what a neat surprise it is - so the sort of fabrics I would chose - YAHOO:) Now to mull over what scrumptiousness to create with these - maybe I will try my first wonkiness in honour of you EM:)
Ciao,

Generous bloggy friends

Oh boy - I am just blown away right now by the generosity that greeted me at the door earlier this week when the courier knocked.
This is what Pippa and I discovered....

Pippa quickly figured it contained no food so mooched off but I realised it was indeed 'food' for me - scrap 'food' of the fabric variety from a lovely lady I have met via the blog world.
Susan over at Tenderoni Quilts had mentioned that she had 'a few' scraps to give away if anyone was interested so I said I would be if noone else was.....well, you know the old saying, someone else's scraps are another quilters treasures.....mmm, think I may have made that one up!!!!!
Well Susan's  ' a few' has left me feeling ever so spoilt and humble -

When I opened the box it was like opening a spring loaded fabriclicious Jack-in-the-box as these goodies jumped out!!!!
Susan you are such a honey:) These scraps are currently chatting with my stash - in fact my scraps are a little embarrassed by them, as what I think of as scraps are considerable smaller!!!!!! 
I am a little overawed that so quickly I have been welcomed into the blogworld and have made some lovely friends already - such sharing and warmth and encouragement from people on the other side of the world certainly connects us doesn't it?
AND if that wasn't enough to get my tear ducts going, I then received another package from Michele at Nostalgic Cafe from a giveaway she had hosted

For me who is stuck at home a lot at the moment getting these surprises in the post is really making a huge moment to "celebrate" (that's for you Em) 
So thankyou my blogging peeps - I do appreciate you being out there.
Right - where are the tissues.......
Ciao,