Sue Ross Twisted Tradition Block 5

This is my BOM from Material Obsession.  I haven;t touched it much lately because the  blocks were diamond pieced stars, and I can't understand why anyone would want to diamond piece a star on the machine,  I may have to hand piece those diamonds also.

SO this Block is a Pot of Flowers appliqued block

It is an 18 " square block which is on point  and I have fused the pieces but not done any stitching yet.

I do love the fabrics in this BOM - they all go so nicely together, the finished work will be stunning.

Starting Blocks for December 2011

This small quilt needs to be all hand pieced

It is all paper pieced diamonds, so each one needs to be pressed and starched first up, ready to be sewn individually, and then all sewn together.  It is all in striped fabric and should look great when I get time to finish it - I think it may be a long term project this one!

You can see in the picture above, I have cut out all the pieces, now need to iron everything.  I'll keep progress reports going - that way I may finish it in 2012.

The second Oh my Stars large block that I cut out yesterday, so now I have 4 large stars, only have 50 something to go I think!  Whose counting......

Some Other Bits

I've not done much sewing over the break, but here's a little look at what I have done

Another large star for the Oh My Stars Quilt a long, with another cut and ready to assemble.

Sorry the picture is so bad, of my fused Christmas owl wall hanging.  I thought you might like to see what I am up to now.  The trees are in the process of being beaded, I'll show some close ups of it when it's further along.

So that is all for this post, I need to catch up with my Material Obsession blocks before the New Year gets underway - let's see how I go.

Bloggers BOM No 4

Pat Sloan has put the fourth block up and it's a doozie!  Lots of points on this one, I think I'm getting better with them.

Here's mine

It is quite attractive, isn't it?

Hexagons

Well here we are at Wednesday again, and this week I have 3 flowers to show!

I would like to call this Week 1 of my Red Centre series of flowers =

and so you can see them all together=

I'm very pleased with this series so far, I have tried to keep some semblance of arrangement going here.

So hop along to Karen at Journey of a Quilter - One Flower Wednesday and have a look at the wonderful flowers the members have to show.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day we had some friends over for lunch.  Everyone bought their dogs along and they (including the dogs) were all very relaxed and well behaved.

For the first time we had 14 people in the Bali Hut! Had to bring chairs from everywhere to accommodate everyone.  Everyone gravitated there as they arrived, then they didn't want to leave!

Everyone hoed into the nibblies including the flies!  It's remarkable, there won't be a fly anywhere but as soon as you bring food out, they all come from everywhere because they think its for them, and they make us feel annoyed .

Eventually we all moved around to the patio where we had set up tables and everyone ate.  Of course I didn't get a single picture of any of that time, you'll just have to imagine the fun we had!

 It was a lovely relaxed day and everyone said they did enjoy because they were able to relax.  We plan on doing more get togethers like this in 2012.

Before i go, I would love to show you the butterfly chrysalis that I found on my hoya plants.

It is the chrysalis of a common butterfly here in Australia, I think it's called a Common Birdwing, could be wrong

This is the second one found.

They both have eaten lots of hoya leaves, but I say theres more than enough to go around for everyone.  Sorry, I know the pictures are not real good, but it's difficult to photograph a chrysalis when the wind is trying to blow your camera away!  I probably won't be able to show you the butterfly as they come out in the evening.

Christmas Day

I do hope that everyone had a safe and fun Christmas Day, wherever you were.

Our day was very nice, we spent it at a friend's house.

The food was delicious - prawns done with proscuttuo and some chilli prawns, also, to start. Beef  with baked potatoes and vegetables, chicken, salad, Tons of different salads and sweets were a beautiful pavlova with berries.

We were all so full of Christmas lunch, one of us ate any tea that evening!

All in all we had a lovely day with good friends though not everyone made it into the picture!

It was a good day with a little wind at one stage, but it stayed fairly warm and comfortable.

An Explanation

Thought I had best explain why I deleted the other pages on this blog - you can only make one post to each page, so because I'm not a computer whizz, I thought they are a bit useless to me personally!

If anyone can tell me how to use them like so many others seem to, please let me know and I'll try again.  Thanks.

Do You Scrumble?

Does anyone know what scrumbling is?  It's great fun, is what it is. 

I do a lot in the winter time , I feel that's the best time for me to do it.

Not a very good picture, but I think this is one of my best scrumbles so far.  You crochet any yarn, any stitch in any pattern you like and in any shape.

There are a number of spots on the web where you can read up about it, such as Sylvia Cosh's site, and Prudence Mapstone, who is very well known for her scrumbling.

Go along and have a look, there is plenty of information and you may like to join me and become a "scrumbler"!

Last Sewing Group of the Year

Had a really funny time at our sewing group this morning - everyone was in the Christmas mood, ands we ate lots of good things, as well as sewed.

Anne, far left behind the others, Jean middle left and Tanya of Wee Little Birds fame.

Here we have Linda on the left and Liz on the right, I missed catching her poking her tongue out at me!

Anne's dear little Sophie, wearing her Christmas ribbon.  She is a lovely little girl who greets us every week with enthusiasm.

So we had lots of Christmas goodies and I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

The Pots are Planted!

Remember these gorgeous big blue pots?

They are finally home to the frangipanis and the rain lily.

They are sitting beside the house at the moment where they look pretty good anyhow.

They will be moved shortly, when the back garden is ready for them. 

Hexagons

Well I have 2 to show this week as well!

To see what others have done this week, head on over to Karen at Journey of a Quilter - One Flower Wednesday.

A few Things

Well I have been a busy little beaver, had to get Christmas presents finished and did some little bits and pieces for me as well.  Here's some pics:

Here's No 1 - a block minder - it's about 14" x 16" and this is the front

and this is the back of it!

No 2 is a block minder made from a postage tube .

The inside of the postage tube block minder - this is handy for my embroidery - I can just fold it up around the tube and it stays neat.

No 3 is an embroidery roll, I call it.  I can fit all my embroidery requirements in the two pockets

and then I can just fold it up and tie the ribbon!

You may remember this little quiltlet I started.  I have finally started the embroidery on it and this is what I have done:

The pictures don't show the stitching very well - I have started to put flowers on the front hill, then decided I had best do the big things first. You can just see the pink of the flowers in this

Here's the hills with their blanket stitched tops, and the owl has been outlined

and here is Mr Moon outlined in silver chains.  I'm trying to try all different stitches on this, I still have the trees and ornaments to go and that is where some beading will happen.

I don't know if I will get this finished for Sunday, but I can try.  It can be for next Christmas if I don't.

So I have been busy, what have you been up to?

Name Game Swap

This sounds like such a lot of fun - hop on over to Samelias Mum's blog and sign up.  We'll be making a small little quiltlet for our partner.  I can't wait to get mine.  January 15th we will find out who our partner is, and then we can start stalking and finding out what they like.  Then we have until the 15th March to make and send our partner their quiltlet.

It does sound like a lot of fun, doesn't it?

A Few Garden Pictures

We have had some rain and some strong winds over the past few days, so there are not many flowers out, but I would love to show you some of my favourites that I photographed today - they are as tough as old boots, these plants

Here is the red Allamanda, once it starts to flower, it is quite prolific and puts on a wonderful show.  It is my favourite of the Allamandas.

This second Allamanda has the dark red throat and red on the backs of the petals along with cream on the front of the petals.

This creamy coloured Allamanda has pointier petals than the other two.  They all flower madly and all put on a great show through summer.

This ginger plant is unusual, the red bud opens with 3 or 4 pink flowers.  It is only just beginning to flower today. It is a rampant grower, and is trying to "walk" all over the Swamp Lily!!  I need to attack it with the secateurs this weekend and get some control back!

our baby Staghorn Fern growing on the fence.  This is just beginning to grow so hopefully it will become a decent size this summer.  I love them when they get really large and throw those large antlers out.

Here is the rampant elkhorn - it is almost all the way around the palm now, which is no mean feat, it's not a small palm!

A couple of bromeliads that I planted through the week.  I'm not good with the names, but the one at the back is an Achmea of some sort.

Here is another Achmea that I've planted, this one has razor sharp thorny bits along the edges of the leaves and seems to grow quite large.  Time will tell h ow large.

This weekend I am determined to get out in the garden and do a lot of weeding for Christmas, I'm running out of time to get the garden up to scratch for visitors we will be having on Boxing Day.

December Block Swap

My Quilting Blocks Australia block swapper for December was Helen in Western Australia.

I finished her blocks today and posted them urgently to her - hopefully they will arrive within 2 days, so I will post these pics here.  I don't think she will see them before she gets them :):)

Helen asked for blue stars, here they are before ironing

and here they are after ironing!  I couldn't decide on which blues to send her,  so I sent both.

I do hope she likes them...

Small Bloggers Meet

Today I joined the Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts.  Any blogger with less than 50 followers is welcome to join - it may help with building up followers, and also with getting to know other newbies out there in Blogland. 
 
I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes along!

Hexagons

2 to show you today - at least it's a bit better than 1!!  I love the look of these two...

Hop on over to Karen at A Quilting LifeOne Flower Wednesday and have a look at all the others that people have done.

A Trevor Knight Concert

We had a great morning this morning, went along to the Entertainment Centre in Logan and listened to Trevor Knight.  He sings John Denver, john Lennon, old songs and was great to sit and listen to.  We could sing along with everything!

I tried to get some pictures, but obviously they weren't very good.

Our friends at the table - we had a table of 10 and were guests of our Mayor, Pam Parker.

A different morning and quite enjoyable.

Crochet Shawl

Yesterday evening I decided to start crocheting myself a shawl for winter - it's something I can do while watching television in the evenings, and it won't take that long to finish.

It's a very simple pattern simply single crochet and 5 trebles for the fan.  I'm really making it up as I go along. I'm starting at the bottom and working my way up. This picture shows the yarn I am using now.

I've had the yarn for so long I don't remember where I bought it.  I don't have much so I will be mixing in some other colours that match or look OK together, we'll see how it turns out.

Sunday Snippets

Hop on over to Tinniegirl and check out the other Sunday Snippets.