Merry Christmas

New traditions and special memories at this time of year. Grandson J gets to hang his personalised bauble on our Christmas tree.

Pa and Grandson J stop to check out Mr (or Mrs) Emu at the Rockhampton Zoo. We spent a lovely weekend with extended family and SIL's family to celebrate Christmas together.

Then it was time for more baking. Of course I thought I could tackle a Gingerbread House from scratch. It's a little bit wonky or I could call it a Gingerbread Bush Hut. My Santa gather around the wood burner chimney each year ... lucky it's Summertime.

 Out to the mailbox and want do I see ... a parcel of goodies especially for me :o) I was super lucky to win a prize for the last Friday Night with Friends hosted by the lovely Cheryll. It's always nice to sit and stitch with friends and these sweet treats were an added bonus. I look forward to many more Friday nights, starting with my new pattern ready for next year. Thank you so much Cheryll xx

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, safe travels and special times with friends and family. May your New Year bring health and happiness with plenty of time for creativity.

Time Keeps Ticking On

 Warning ... photo heavy post ... the last 3 weeks have flown :)  I've noticed lots of bloggers are having the same issue with their days disappearing almost before they begin ... is there a global time thief or is life simply speeding up for everyone?

Aunty Millie has 5 new babies she helps care for.

We spent some time pruning in the garden.

DD and her fiancee came to visit and Spencer had a sleepover.

Aunty Millie making sure they share.

My lovely prize from Anthea and CTTY

A purchase from Michelle.

There has been a little stitching at night.

Some sewing last weekend...

I found these over here.

And the centre blocks are together on 'Crossroads to Jericho'

This little farm has come together and just needs a touch more stitching on the border appliques. 

There was also a visit and cuddles with our gorgeous grandson ... my parents, niece and nephew visited ... housework ... book work ... cattle work ... then there's meal times and bed time before it starts all over again.

I'm sure you all know how it goes ... this is just a quick snippet of my days.

Hope you can squeeze a little (or a lot) of sewing into your days     >^..^<

Family, Friends and Fun

Monday after lunch hubby and I had a lovely surprise when DD and her Fiancé arrived to visit for a few days.  Then on Tuesday lunch DS and DIL also arrived for the afternoon and we all enjoyed a lovely family BBQ that night.

 

Wednesday was patchwork day for our little group so while I'm on school holidays, the ladies all came over to my home for a sewing day. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone as I haven't been able to attend our patchwork days this year due to work. I even surprised myself and have completed my Christmas Swag but a full reveal of that one will have to wait till the 25th for One Xmas Item A Month but here's an 'almost there' shot.

 

Wednesday was also mail day and I found a lovely parcel in the mailbox all the way from Peg. I was one of the lucky winners for August OPAM and get to have fun with these sweet goodies. Thankyou Peg and Kris for hosting OPAM...it's a great motivator to keep on sewing on :o)

Along with my prize parcel was another envelope containing some cute Christmas buttons I recently purchased. Santa and his reindeer are already stitched on to a project.



 

Today, Thursday, has been hot and sticky with the forecast of storms. Like many others we are getting desperate for good rain...the grass is crisp, the dams are getting low and our rainwater tanks are limited. I'm sure I could find some sewing to keep me inside if it's too wet to go out.

 

That must mean tomorrow is Friday and being the first Friday of the month it's time to join up with Cheryll and all her friends for . . . . . . .

Given that any plans I've made lately are more likely to be turned upside down, I'm hoping to get the knitting needles out and start on some more washcloths and dust cloths for Christmas.

Hope your weekend includes family, friends and fun.

>^..^<

Lovely Mail

Playtime ahead with this sweet charm pack from Joy and Alice. Together they host 'Finishing Stitches' and this was my prize for blocks I had completed in the month of April. Thankyou ladies ... I love the fabric range.

My lovely blog buddy Marina and I exchanged hexie flowers and these are the delightful blue flowers she sent for my garden. Thankyou ... your's should arrive any day Marina.

A parcel for me? Cheryll of Gone Stitchin' celebrated her 200th post with a very generous giveaway and I was the lucky one :)  Thankyou Cheryll for a wonderful parcel of goodies.

I am so glad I ventured into blogland, to have met so many wonderful people and made lovely friends along the way. Your inspiration and encouragement is a treasure.

OFW and Mail

Wednesday was town day but I took my hexagon 'tin' with me and made one of these blue flowers between appointments. Then made the other last night while watching the final of 'Farmer Wants A Wife' ... what can I say ... I'm a hopeless romantic. Follow my sidebar button to enjoy more beautiful blooms. Bags are one project I love to make and I can see some of these in my future ... although that could be the distant future. Closer in my future is my next hexagon project. My first honey bun arrived in the mail and is destined for 1/2" hexie flowers. Sadly no UFO progress to report for this UFO Thursday ... click on the sidebar button to see who has.

UFO Thursday and Mail

Ooooops! :) I mis-titled my post yesterday. It should have said One Flower Wednesday but I must have been thinking about UFO Thursday at the same time.

My lack of organisation means another week has gone by and I haven't made any more progess on the strip insertion UFO. I'll try and do better for next week. Thought I'd share a couple of other projects instead ... the bag is currently unfinished so maybe that counts?

An idea for scissor fobs popped into my head on Monday so I got straight to picking some fabric squares ... cutting ... sewing ... then last night had a chance to stuff and add a button top and bottom.



Today I finished sewing squares together for a shaggy bag ... ready for clipping and washing. Then comes platted handles.

My mail lady handed these over to me yesterday while I was in town. Just because the roads were cut in January and I couldn't go to town ... didn't mean I couldn't do some shopping.

This morning after reading Jessica's 'WIP Wednesday' post, I sat down and wrote out a list. I have a My To Do's Notebook and don't use it very much so now I have written down all my projects, WIP's, UFO's etc I feel a little more organised. Up until now I've just been thinking about all the things half done and getting nowhere.

OFW and Mail

Can you believe I was so into tidying the house yesterday that I never got around to posting for One Flower Wednesday?

22 flowers now have their 2 green hexies attached.

The yellow flower will remain in the centre with alternate pink and purple flowers ... then I'll play the placement game with the rest once they're all finished.

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Our last mail before the floods brought this lovely hexie all the way from Janet for December's Inchy Swap. I thought it would be nice to embroider names on the centre hexie.

Our first mail in over 2 weeks contained news papers, christmas cards and ... my next blog book. I sat down and read through January to March ... oh the memories! Now to arrange to have 2010 in print. They are such a wonderful keepsake.

May your hexie gardens blossom in 2011.

Pincushion Swap and a Special Book

Camera in hand it was off to town on Friday and a visit with mum. She also took part in the Pincushion Swap hosted by Jeannet and here is the lovely pincushion made by Lyda in Holland.
Mum has a picture of the pincushion she made and sent to Lyda on her camera but that will be require a longer visit to be able to share the picture.

Some very special mail arrived about a month ago and I keep meaning to post but haven't got round to it until today.

I finally took the plunge had 1/3 of my blog reproduced in a book at Blog2Print. I had followed the link from Chookyblue quite a while ago but was never game to go through with it. Now I wish I had done it sooner and will be going ahead with the next installment shortly, especially while the dollar is up. (This book titled 'Country Roses' covers my blog before I changed the name to 'Nells Notions')

It's so wonderful to be able to leaf back to when I started blogging and have 'ah-ha' moments. Like a diary with pictures ... full of memories! And yes that is my 'blue moon' rose on the front cover. The back cover has a photo of my feline girls.

The weather is drizzly here today and I have lots of sewing or stitching in mind. Hope you have a creative day too!

O.F.W. ~ Mail Friday ~ SAHR Sunday

First off is my purple hexie for One Flower Wednesday for last week.


I've been playing with them all, trying different layouts and now I'm really not sure at all how I want this project to look.

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Then on Friday, the mailman left a parcel in my mailbox. Major excitement to discover which of the quilts from Another Little Quilt Swap 4 came to live at my house.

Ta-da! "Flutter of Time"
Fabric is Flutterby by Tula Pink for Moda and Grunge by Basic Grey for Moda. Block used is hourglass. This lovely little quilt now hangs proudly on my lounge wall. Big thankyous to Charlie for your lovely quilt and Kate for hosting a wonderful swap.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kate is also responsible for the idea of a SAH (Stay At Home) Robin, a round robin that stays with the maker at all times and doesn't leave home.

For our August block, we were required to make a 4" x 6" block to be added to the left side of block 1.

It's basically the same block for both, but then I decided to tweek it for the above block because the colours didn't look right when I set them as in the blue.

This month I had fun playing with my 1 1/2" strip scraps stash. Now I await September's block.

Sharing Time

Seems like ages since I've been here ... what a week! Deadlines ... Mail ... Bugs

Bugs, seems once you get sick this year, it keeps returning for another bout. Everyone I talk to has been experiencing the same thing. You get sick, you just get over it and then either the same one or another bug grabs hold. DH has been fighting something for a couple of weeks and now my throat infection from a few weeks back is returning. Grrrrrrrr!

But enough of that, you don't need to share my bugs. I am going to share with you the high points of my week. A little while back, Fiona of Mothers' Cupboard had a sale and I found myself placing an order quick smart for ...

Fiona was also holding a giveaway and never did I imagine that I could be so lucky ... YIPEE!

Then this week when I was starting to feel yuk, this little pink parcel cheered me up toot sweet!

Thankyou so much Fiona for the chance to win this delicious jelly roll ... perfect colours for me ... and a charm pack to top it all off. More dreaming now of how to put them to good use.

Fiona is also one of the lovely Gum Tree Designers. If you haven't checked them out yet then you don't know what your missing. More goodness tomorrow with their next free Christmas design.

Deadlines ... yes. As usual finished this one Tuesday night to be delivered Wednesday morning for entering in the textile section of our local Art Exhibition. It's Deborah Baines' "Floral Fancy" found in 'Creating Country Threads'.

Couldn't help myself, I was enjoying this pattern so much. I also added some beads to the centres of three flowers and little yo-yo centres to three. I even did some hand quilting around each appliqued flower.

While not a winner on Friday night, it's a winner for me. Congratulations to the clever ladies who won placings with their entries and to the other ladies who entered.

Now it's on with the next deadline ... paperwork today and to finish off my Holiday Quilt Swap and Christmas Ornaments.

Is anyone else daunted by how quickly the end of the year is coming?

Happy Sewing and keep well.

Swap FRIENDS

It's a real test of patience when the parcel notice arrives in the mailbox and you're not going into town for another week!
*
But it was well worth the wait for Marina's parcel of goodies for the FRIENDS Swap. I was thrilled by her thoughtfulness.


F - Feline Fabric and two Fat Felines
R - Rose gift cards with envelopes and Red Lindt chocolates
I - Iris fabric and Iron on Transfers
E - Eggs (fabric ones) in an Embroidery hoop
N - Notebook
D - Doily and a Dilly Bag
S - Scarf
*
Plus some other choc and coffee goodies amongst the wonderful gifts, not all chocolates made it to the photo. Here's a close up photo of some of the beautiful gifts.


Below are the goodies I sent off to Marina, you can visit here to see more photos.

Many thankyous to Khris for organising this great swap. As always, I enjoyed the gathering as much as the receiving. Swaps are such a lovely way to meet new bloggers and make new friends.

Lucky Me

Still here, just heaps going on and not enough time as usual. This is just a quick post to brag about some mail I received.

Last Friday my first parcel of Birthday Fat 1/4's arrived from Jeni of With Needle and Thread. They are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to start planning a project.

Then Monday when I went up to the mail box on dusk in my dressing gown in the wind and showery rain from Cyclone Hamish, another parcel snuggly fitted in the mail box. My 4SQS from the very clever Janey of Sew Stylish. I absolutely adore it and can't stop admiring it. I now have three of the four seasons and I've decided to hang them all on one rod and display them in my lounge room. Hopefully sometime down the track I'll be lucky enough to acquire the fourth season. Janey added a few extras in her parcel so I'm feeling very lucky at the moment.

Sorry no pictures for now. Unfortunately my main computer is down, and I'm not sure of how to load pictures from my camera to this computer so pictures will have to wait. If you click here you can see the photos Janey has taken of the 4SQS.

Happy Sewing

Good Intentions

Saturday dawned and I had good intentions of getting some sewing done as part of Niki's Last Push Quilt-a-thon. The thing is, DH also had good intentions of getting some paddock work done ... and you know the old saying ... work before pleasure.

I did manage this little fellow while waiting for him to get things ready. It's just a sneak peak of a Christmas Gift I'm working on.

At the end of November I was lucky enough to win this "Old Fashioned Favourites" Pattern from JoyPatch and it arrived in the mail last Wednesday.

These will have to wait till after Christmas but then DD and I will have fun making them all up. She's keen to make the oven mit and declared she needs an apron cause she tends to be a messy cook. Thankyou Joy, we're looking forward to it.

Sadly I didn't achieve much sewing on Saturday, and my attempts at having even one finish for Finn's New Years Eve Challenge are looking grim but there's still time. So I'm going to jump in and join the 'Get It Done Challenge' for 2009. I already have a WIP list on my sidebar along with a list of projects that I have the kits or fabric for so there's plenty to choose from. 2009 will be my year for WIP's, UFO's etc etc. (I hope!)

The heat has been almost unbearable yesterday and today so I'm off to sit in front of the fan and finish a second butterfly. I need to get cracking or Christmas will be here. At least I now have six weeks of not travelling to work so there should be more time for sewing.

Wishing everyone a Special Christmas Time.

Christmas Mail

I had a parcel notification in my mail box yesterday. Luckily I was going into town this morning so didn't have to wait too long to find out just what? ... or who from? My SSCS all the way from overseas. I have been a good girl and placed it under the Christmas tree ... can't wait!

While in town I picked up the latest Down Under Quilts magazine. The winners for Bernina Blankets of Love are featured in this edition so here is a pic of my little quilt which I called Project X at the time.

I'm proud to say that my BFF has her quilt shown in the mag but I'll leave that up to her to share.

I'm now working on a little something for someone for Christmas and will show a peak next post just to tease that someone.

I have a couple more items to arrive in the mail so will share those when they arrive.

We were very thankful to receive just over an inch of rain on Sunday evening as we had spent the day putting out fires right up until the lightening got too close. Why were we still out there when the storm was so close? Because often the storms pass right round us and we miss the rain.

This weekend I hope to be doing lots of sewing!

Quilting Wishes