Willowberry Designs ~ Alpaca Softies

SSCS gifts - thank you Kathleen

It's no longer a secret... Kathleen made me this beautiful christmas table runner as my secret santa gift.  Although it's too long for my dining table, it looks really lovely as a runner across my bed.  It's too pretty to pack away after christmas so I'll have to find a nice place to display it all year round.

 

 

And included in the bundle was this cute little glass ornament which matched perfectly with my glass Santa.  Thank you Kathleen, I love them both!

We had a great christmas, lots of fun and laughing, lots of yum food, great company, and sing star karaoke....  What a MAD afternoon!  Here's my man belting out his own version of Tom Jones'   -     'It's not unusual'.  

 

I was a good girl all year and Santa noticed   :-)

Only three more sleeps

and true to form, I have left everything to the last minute.  Every year I'm going to be more organised but every year my plans go out the window and I'm disorganised as usual :-)  Thank goodness the shops have late night trading

Last week was a bit of a whirl, two of my three sisters arrived on Wednesday to surprise our Mum for her birthday - she turned 73 on Thursday.  We had a lovely day, laughed lots, had a nice lunch and spent the afternoon chatting 

Bloss and I made this cute gingerbread house for Megs for xmas - very pink and pretty...

 

 

And this is my little christmas quilt.  I made it about 12 years ago and it comes out of hiding every December

 

I hope to be back before christmas but if I miss you, have a lovely time - whatever you're doing - drive safely if you're travelling and make sure you eat way too much!  I know I will.

Merry Christmas everyone

Cheryl

Lotsa little bags today

 

Two cute 'Sweet Treats' bags and two cute fabric baskets....  that's what I finished today.  Who'd have thought the little basket was just the right size for two lemons?  But it's perfect!  Shaz came over so there were lotsa laughs, lotsa coffee breaks, lotsa sharing ideas - 'I'm putting this with this, whadda ya reckon?'   etc...   and lotsa fun...

My favourite maths equation -

Friends + stitching days + coffee + the mama mia soundtrack = good food for the soul

Our kingfisher friend visited the arbour behind my quilting room, isn't he the cutest little thing?

 

I hope you had fun today, I did...  Cheryl  xxxx 

I might have to make one of these...

Cute little bags .  But I've been warned that they're very addictive.  That's OK, I'll add it to my other obsessions.   Turkish Delight chocolate bars are pretty high on that list.  I ate one today and did you know that they are 60% less fat?  Than what?  Not sure really but I know I ate 60% less fat today...  I feel quite good about that.

I visited a lovely friend yesterday and her organisational skills have put me to shame.  Really, her projects all have their own little homes.  Very neat, tidy (and pretty) boxes - one for each project, all sitting in a row.  They stay snug and safe until someone like me comes along and wants to know what's in the boxes.  I might make that my new year's resolution - In 2009 I'm going to be really tidy in my sewing room.  Every day.  For 365 days in a row.  How depressing... that's a lot of days.   

Anyway, today I tidy.  Efficiently and effectively without stopping to plan new projects along the way.  Why am I tidying when it's not even 2009 yet???  Because my templates for the new Zoo babies are stashed somewhere and I need to find them so I can turn this inanimate bundle

into a collection of zooified personalities.  That cream background with pink/green/blue daisies is just dying to become Harriet Hippo of Tippytoes Shire.  She teaches dance, did you know?

have a nice day  :-)

We had a bit of help

putting up the christmas tree and decorating the house last night.....

 

Ratty was in a 'bah.... humbug' mood

 

These guys guard the DVD player.  They do a pretty good job cause it's still there...

 

I think it snowed in the village last night

   

Rudolph rounded up a couple of mates 

 

and the North Pole Express is loaded and ready to go

Today I'm sewing.... don't know what, but I'm sewing.  My man is away for three days playing golf so that means I can do WHATEVER I LIKE!!!  No meals to worry about (I can get by on a boiled egg), no going to look at how much the corn has grown since I looked at it with him yesterday, no jobs to do for and with him, no hanging on to the other end of the piece of timber while he saws it in half.... no nothing... except my fun stuff.  Maybe I should start a new project..........  I'll call it project number 357 and, if all goes according to plan, I won't finish it  :-)

Lyn's beautiful sampler quilt

I normally use Hillingdon Quilts blog to post photos of my quilting but it's not playing nicely today so here's the latest.  Made by Lyn, it's a queen size sampler quilt in soft pinks, greens and creams.  Very pretty and quilted with various co-ordinating feather motifs, border feather scroll and ditch quilted each block and border. 

 

   

Quilt back

 

Sweet Rolls from the Bake Shop

How delicious are these little boxes of stuff?  My bake shop purchase included 'Patisserie' and 'Objects of Desire'.   I think most patchwork stores would have them, I bought mine from Lisa at Precious Time in Toowoomba. 

 

If you haven't seen them, the box includes two mini sweet rolls (10 strips x 1 1/2" wide) and a pattern for a cute bag - so two rolls makes two bags!

Very simple to make - probably only a two hour project from start to finish

 

 

Just needs a big button...

 

A storm brewed again today but we only had a few spits.  It's been hot and humid all morning 

 

It was noisy enough to make Norm dive for cover though!

   

I've just finished quilting a beautiful sampler quilt and will post some photos when I've delivered it to Lyn.  Here's a little pic.

  

happy stitches...

cheryl xx

Rose Cabins

About a year ago, I made 12 of these.  This morning I could only find 11......

 

Then I remembered that I'd started the stitching for the centres and went on a treasure hunt.

2 hours (and umpteen new projects all swirling around in my head) later, I found it.

 

The beautiful rose prints only needed a simple, gentle rose stem embroidery.  One in each log cabin block.  I'm not sure about the final layout, might need some help there.

 

gotta go do some quilting   :-)

cya next time

cheryl xx