Thankyou is not enough....

I would like to say thankyou to everyone who has made today such a fantastic day for me, I turned that magical 50 today.....I have received so many phone calls, cards, virtual cards, emails, (a big thankyou to Bloom for these ones) presents, good wishes, that I actually became speechless, I am so blessed to have such beautiful family and friends, I hope to share with you over the next few posts some photos of the beautiful gifts I received....I am going to a retreat tomorrow one of our very special quilting ladies from Club Quilt - Carol has invited us to her farm for the weekend...so there will be lots of projects to share next week.....thank you again for making my day so memorable.

Wack and Stack or is it Stack and Wack...

Doesn't matter .....this is the quilt where you have 9 fat quarters.....and you cut through the nine pieces on an angle, move the three top ones to the bottom sew the nine fat quarters back together which means you now have a fat quarter made from two fabrics....cut it again in a different direction, rotate the fabrics again, sew back together, keep going until you have something that you like and then trim your blocks and sew in rows of three, add a boarder if you would like or you can tram between the blocks before you sew them and you have a quilt top.

Charm pack and a little rick rack...

This has been made from two charm packs - Moda of course and a bit of thick rick rack...I thought if I pulled out my completed tops it may motivate me into backing them and having them as completed quilts.....

Wow...what a day...

I have just returned home from a lovely day at Ros' http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com/

Club Quilt were all invited for the day - 15 of us rocked up...great food.....lovely company....Ros has such a beautiful home and family and I truly thank her for a great day....but I had a bit of a surprise I have one of those birthdays coming up...you know the 40 plus 10 thingie...all my gorgeous quilting friends gave me this beautiful bird.....Thank you all so very much I was truly blown away...my bird will be very much cherished as you all are, I am truly blessed to be apart of such a special group.........I did get a little bit of sewing done....not much.

Quilting again tomorrow

We have a quilting day tomorrow with our group Club Quilt http://clubquiltnarromine.blogspot.com/ ...we normally go to the Bowling Club but tomorrow we are heading our to Ros' home....http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com/ I spent a bit of time today putting together the project that I am going to do out there...I am making another shaggy quilt, Moda - "A Little Romance" - I am going to make this our of 4 charm packs - 144 blocks - I have used iron on wadding in this...this stuff is brilliant...we went to Cottage On The Hill http://kerryswainscottage.blogspot.com/ in August and we met some girls from Gunnedah and they told us about iron on wadding, I will never use anything else...

Decoupage

Decoupage.....this also was a lot of fun...what we did was poor man's decoupage where you had small pieces of rice paper and glue, you covered the item and then you could seal it with a either the floor polish lots of layers or just paint a coat of sealant over it.

Cross Stitch

An enjoyable challenge.....great way to get a collection of threads, and you can brush up on your counting skills.........

Paper Toll...this was fun

I must admit I did enjoy doing paper toll, it was a bit of a challenge, lots of little pieces, but I did give it a go and I would probably like to do it again......not the best photos because of the reflection from the glass.

Secret Santa Swap .......

Dear Secret Santa Swap Partner

I will let you know when I have received my gift and it is safely lying under my tree, but I would like to leave it until Christmas morning to open it...that is if the temptation isn't too great....

Well.... we also tried folk art

Well.....this was different....we had a bash at this for a while....did a lot of pots....we were going to make a fortune at the markets, but that never happened.....but again we had fun.....a couple of the items I have done.....The Welcome sign is actually hanging at the front of our home and the other is a lazy susan and I use that in my kitchen.......

My attempts at different crafts...

My very dear friend Dale http://day-daysblog.blogspot.com/ and I have been known to dabble in the odd craft or two....up until we found our true passion quilting....I hope to be able to share with you over the next few posts some of the things we had a bash at......

Teddies....well I must admit we both really enjoyed doing this and we did make the odd bear or two or three or four or twenty or.....and we did go to the markets and we did sell a few..and I am sure a few fell apart, but anyway we had fun, we met some lovely people and here are a few of the bears that I kept....

Applique....

A little bit of stitchery, a little bit of applique, a couple of buttons and finished...

Stitchery....

I love the rustic look....the older the better.........this is a "Hatched and Patched" stitchery, I have done it all in brown thread.....my son made the frame for me out of some old fence pailings and it is held together with a bit or wire.......very simple

Charm packs.....

Charm packs don't you just love them....add a peeper, add a border or two, and there you go you have a finished top........I think these are one of the best buys on the market at the moment......

My little purple quilt

I am not really a purple person, but we must step out of our square sometimes......This is a pattern from "Successful Scrap Quilts" - from simple rectangles - Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe, fantastic book.....some great patterns and ideas in this book.

My Children (the four legged type)

I have already shared with you a photo of my black spoodle "Ollie" this is a family shot of our big girl "Chloe" our german short haired pointer and our baby boy "Ollie". Poor little Ollie had to go to the vets today for a needle, and he cried and cried and cried when he had his needle, the vet gave him a treat and he was still crying as he was eating his treat.....so the vet gave him another treat...(I think he may be a bit of a con)

Completed - Secret Santa Swap

This is my completed gift for the Secret Santa Swap, organized by Chookyblue (and what a great job she has done).....Shaggy Quilt - Made from Moda - Roman Holidaty - 3 Sisters - 144 5" squares - I think in a way it sort of describes me....happy, uniform and a little rough around the edges.....

Progress shot number 3

Ok...it is now totally clipped ready for the washing machine....

Progress shot number 2

The Secret Santa Swap quilt is together, and I am about half way through the clipping....hopefully that will be finished tonight and then I can start on the washing/drying process....

Work in progress

I am lucky enough to be a part of Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap....... http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/ I am making a shaggy quilt, the fabric I have used is Moda - Roman Holiday by 3 Sisters......I have used a decorative stitch across the centre using a variagated thread....

The countdown is on our gift is to be in the post by 1st December........

Recipe....Slice

We have quilting tomorrow and we generally take along some morning tea, I was going through one of my favourite books "Women's Weekly - Cakes and Slices" and came across "Chocolate Fruit Slice with Lemon Icing" I haven't made this for a while but it is very quick and easy and so tasty....so here it is...enjoy

1 cup SR flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 cup mixed fruit
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup choc bits
2 eggs lightly beaten
90g butter, melted

Grease 23cm square slab tin, I use a small slice tin, and spray it with cooking spray.
Combine sifted dry ingredients, sugar, fruit, coconut and choc bits in a large bowl, stir in eggs and butter, press mixture evenly into a prepared pan, bake in moderate oven for about 25 mins. Stand 10 mins before spreading with icing. Cool in pan before cutting.

Lemon Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon soft butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice approx.

Sift icing sugar into small bowl, stir in butter and enough lemon juice to make a stiff paste.
Keeping time 3 days

Lovely Local Shop....

Lynne's County Gifts, great little gift shop here in Narromine....a couple of things I just purchased from there...and very reasonably priced....

Old family singer

This is the last of my old machines which I have just had restored...the machine was in my mother-in-laws garden shed, exposed to the elements, all the kids, grandkids use to hammer nails into it...it was very very sad, a local fellow came and had a look and thought there was no saving our old machine except for the base.....but as you can see he could not save the top too many nails but did a fantastic job on the rest....number 3 son is a builder and I am still waiting for him to build a top for me.....

Love old sewing machines.....

I have a bit of a passion for old sewing machines....This one my eldest son picked up for me at an auction in town....I was lucky to get this one...It is a David Jones all the others are Singers...(I think I should have done a bit of dusting before I took this picture)

This one was an Ebay purchase......this was made in 1957 the year I was born....only paid bout $30 for this one.

This one I was lucky enough to get on Ebay for $25.00 great buy

This one was picked up by one of my other sons at a second hand shop on the Central Coast, when he was living there...and the box it is sitting on he found on the front lawn of someones place when they put all the rubbish out to be picked up by other people or the garbage...garbage lost I won...

Our new little addition

This little fellow is our new baby - his name is "Ollie" and he is a spoodle....he is very naughty....he is very spoilt...but just look at him.....

My lovely gift..

This was given to me a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift by my very dear friend Dale, you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive this....

Noontime

Foundation piecing, "Noontime"......purchased this as a kit, it was great to do....