Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable time with family and friends

I had a very busy time in the lead up to Christmas and so I really fell off the blog map... very sorry... so here is a summary of all that my family and I have done over the last weeks and weeks and weeks.

 

I finished this quilt for my daughter, it was a Christmas gift for her.  There was a few late nights stitching the binding after she had gone to bed. This is Felicity's quilt for the caravan.  She was very happy to find it under the tree.

 

 This little bag was made for an end of school year teacher gift.  We put lip balm, moisturiser and chocolates inside.  Felicity picked out the fabrics.

For my last customer quilt for the year I had a very large medallion style quilt that needed custom quilting on it.  Several days later it was finished and delivered. One of the many border had these 4 patches, so I did this cute little flower design that matched the applique shapes in the centre medallion.

 

Each year the local council organises a Christmas boat parade.  We took our dinner down to the park and sat and watched the pretty boats go by with many, many other people and shared and great night with friends.

 

With the kids on school holidays we drove to Brisbane and visited my sister.  The cousins had a great time playing together.  My sister makes glass beads for jewelry, this is Felicity learning how to melt the glass and create some beads.  I stepped out of the room and let Avril teach, I was making them nervous with my over protectiveness, that flame is very hot!!!!!  Felicity was so rapted with her creations.

The weekend before Christmas Hubby, kids and I spent the weekend in Brisbane doing the Christmas sights.  We looked at the window displays, they were not that exciting this year.  We walked to King George Square to see the Christmas parade followed by the Pantomime then the lights going on, on the tree. 

 

This year the City Council building was lit up by a new light show, this was a story being told by images moving all around the façade of the building but made to fit into the shapes of the building.  The story was a bit weird but the lighting was great.

 

 

This sparkly decoration was in one of the arcades in the city. I took a photo hoping my husband will make me something like this for next year..

 

 

 

The day after all the Christmas events we all went to the Queensland Art Gallery. The display was California Design, 1930-1965.  We all enjoyed it

 

An original Air Stream complete with wood panelling and chrome fittings inside.  Camping in this would have been very cozy.




This chair was part of the Design display, people were allowed to sit in the chair and invited to Instagram an image, Josh made himself comfy while there.

 

After the Art Gallery we went in search of a park to have lunch, we stopped at a set of lights, I looked out my window and saw this in a shop window.  Do you see the bead necklace, right hand side second row from the bottom, they are my sister Avril's beads and this is the shop she sells them from Artisan  So cool...

 

 

So then I had to do some last minute shopping and saw these snowmen hanging around.  I have confessed to you my THING for Snowmen, they looked so cool.  Well, last week I was in that shop and the snowmen had just been pulled down and were stacked up ready to be put in the bin.... well... I asked him nicely and was able to bring some of them home with me.... never too early to plan for next year...lol

 

 

This was my Prawn entrée creation for Christmas dinner, not much was left over, very yummy

 

 

My little sister, Heather, does the Ham each year and it is just heaven, again not much was leftover...

 

 

I think this was Boxing day or somewhere between Christmas and New Years.  The house was quiet early in the morning, so I did a little piecing. Do you see my polka dot pj's????

 

 

New Years eve was spent down at the beach, with friends, watching the fireworks going off.

 

 

New Years day was spent again doing a little piecing.  I have been working on Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice.

 

 

 I found these in Woolworth's on the 2nd of January, and it looked like people had bought some already, OMG Easter is not until the middle of April.

 

 

A little more piecing was done, and still not finished....

 

 

The family went to see this movie and enjoyed it.  The Snowman made me laugh, but you are not surprised by that..

 

 

This year I have decided to find a word to follow for the year, I will let you know how it goes

 

 

Some cutting of fabric for more piecing >>>>>>>

 

 

And now that some of the verrrrry HOT days have passed I am able to get out walking again, in my new shoes. 

 

 

I got myself a Fitbit to help me stay on track, this is after that first days walk, nearly 5.5kms, happy with that.

 

So that is about all, geez that was a long post.

 

May the year bring you happiness, health and some time for stitching.

My Little Sister

My Little sister turned 30 last week, I thought I had another year to go until she turned 30, but the little bugger stole a year from me.

So I had to quickly make a pressie for her. I decided on the Amy Butler Weekender Travel bag. You can get the pattern from here. And I am very impressed with my talents (this time). I have made this bag a few years ago, and though I love it, I know it is not the absolute best. My sisters bag is still not perfect but it is alot better than mine. She nearly didn't get it, I was going to keep it for myself.

I found the fabric a couple of years ago in Arizona at a sort of Remnant shop. The fabric is decorator weight and cost my $4 a yard, Bargain. I had remnants in several pieces, but was able to pattern match the outside pockets with the bag itself. Very impressed.

I was also able to make a small cosmetics bag in the same fabric for her. I put a chocolate bar in this bag.

She loved it.

I also made a the cosmetic bag for my niece, who also had a birthday last week. Megan turned 19. With this bag I used Tula Pink's new range, Prince Charming and a stripe for the lining. The first thing she said after "Ooh, Thank you", was my favourite colour is orange. My UFO students helped me find the lining fabric, they had such fun telling me which one I should use, usually the other way round.
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It took Megan a few minutes to see the frogs, but she loved it. I told her that, " you may have to kiss a few frogs to find your Prince Charming". Wise words from dear old Aunty Fiona. I filled her bag with hair treatment, lip balm, moisturizers etc and good old chocolate also.

We all had a great night out for dinner at My Thai in Brisbane, great food and great service. The whole restauarnt sang Happy Birthday with us to the girls. Just wonderful, this is just some of us. I 'm the odd one with red hair amongst the blondes