CHRISTMAS WISHES

I WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY AND SAFE CHRISTMAS AND A JOYOUS NEW YEAR!

MAY 2009 BRING EVERYONE ALL THAT THEY WOULD WISH FOR.

I DID promise to post some pics of my decorations but have simply ran out of time. The quilt in the photograph is one I designed and made way back in the very early 90's. Not a terribly good photograph but it is still part of my decorations. It hangs in the loungeroom and for want of a better title is called "Knight Christmas" :) I've added more quilting in the background since the pic was taken and it DOES hang a lot better! LOL Port is almost packed, Megs has been deposited at the cattery (the owner is a real softie with cats so perhaps he won't want to come home to us!) and we fly out of Cairns at around 11am, I think, and arrive in Newcastle at 5.30pm their time. It's going to be very special to spend Christmas with Matt in his home - he even said he'd buy a Christmas tree! :) Unfortunately Kirsten has to work so won't get to see her again this year. Until I post again (we arrive home on 8th January) I hope everyone has a relaxed time and also hope Santa is kind to you all! Love and best wishes,

Jan xxx

PS. Have to add that here in Queensland a suitcase is often called a port. LOL I wasn't just packing a bottle of port to take with me! :)

CHRISTMAS 2008

I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd written!!! Time sure has gone by so quickly. With Christmas preparations and also all those Christmas celebratory lunches etc to go to I have been rather busy. I might say it took me a good week to get all the decorations put out and the tree up. I'd spent quite a number of hours getting our old tree all in place and ready for the decorations when Ross came home from work and said we had better go buy a new one as it was looking a bit "tired"!!! I said NOTHING! :) I DO like the tree we have now though...would love to have a real one but they're not easy to find where we live. It is an enormous job to sort everything out and also pack everything away to leave empty spaces for my Christmas collections. I'm almost embarrassed to say that there are ALMOST too many of them all! You could never say I am minimalistic in my decorations! I will take photographs of it all and post them tomorrow. For now I have my yearly tree decorations for Kirsten and Matthew, along with my yearly pillow as well, to show you.
Also, three tree decoration I designed to give away as a lucky door prize at our sewing group (joined with the R&C sewing group in Mossman). I also made an extra 2008 pillow plus some of my Christmas patterns. Cindy from Mossman won the prize and I think she was happy. The three decorationsall have 2008 embroidered on the back and if you remember the stocking I designed for Handmade you will recognise the fabric AND design which I repeated for the 2008 pillow. K&M's ornaments (below) have the same whimsical tree (done with my Pfaff needle felting machine) on the front with their name and year embroidered on the back in the colour to match the gusset.
I feather stitched down the centre of the gusset in green and added an old gold colonial knot every so often.
Matt's comment was "rad Mum, you outdone yourself this year" - I was pleased!
I'm about to start thinking about what clothes to take for our trip to Newcastle - have to make three skirts this afternoon! Only simple straight ones so won't take me long. I haven't used my overlocker for ages so hope it still works!!!
Until next time, Happy Stitching,

Jan