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

WOODLAND BLOOMS PROJECTS

The other three projects from the "Woodland Blooms" range of fabrics from Moda. LOVELY fabrics - a polished cotton feel to them and, as always with Moda, great to work with. I really liked the green background floral fabric to start with but ended up preferring the blue background! :) Unusual for me as I just love green. ALSO out of the ordinary for me to use bright pink too but it just seemed the best colour to bind both the bag and the tablerunner. I went mad with the ric-rac again but just love it as an accent. I called the bag on the left "Carrington" - don't ask me why! And the bag on the right is "Flamingo" - mainly for the bright pink binding. The tablerunner (Flowers with Power) is quite a long one - it sort of grew! 14in. x 48in. (35cm x 116cm). The photograph doesn't seem to do it justice...it's very bright and cheery and would even look good along the bottom of a single bed I would think. It's been fun and now I'm working on Christmas things in between doing all the instructions for these recent projects - the one part of designing I DON'T enjoy! :)

Terribly, terribly hot here today...not sure, exactly what the temperature is but would have to be around 35-36C I would think. These past few days have been very enervating when the heat hits all of a sudden. Think I'll go and have my third cool shower of the day when I've posted here - cools you down for a little while. It's times like this I'd love a pool in the backyard!

Until next time, happy stitching, stay well and safe, Cheers,

Jan

"A CHRISTMAS KISS" WINNER!!!

Apologies for being late....the date had just got away from me!!! I'm happy to announce that Cheryl won first prize so will be posting that out to her shortly. I decided to give a second and third prize as well and Kim won second prize of a small swag of felt hearts. It's the one at the top of the pic. If you email me your address Kim I'll get yours into the mail too. Third prize was won by Jules and if you email me Jules, to let me know what sorts of things you like to sew, I will send you two of my patterns. Anything from quilts, bags, tablerunners, placemats and also Christmas things too! Email me and give me some thoughts. I'll do another lucky draw early next year so watch this space! :)

I had a lovely weekend, starting with an art opening of just wonderful watercolours by a very talented local artist, started my Christmas shopping on Saturday morning and went to a champagne and chocolate make-up and other goodies Nutrimetics party on Sunday morning. Finished the day by sewing some more projects AND watching the first disc of Series 7 of THE Gilmore Girls. LOL One of my alltime favourite TV shows and I spoiled myself while shopping and bought the series 7 pack on special!

Off now to paint some of my buttons from my new range and then some more sewing! Happy stitching and Stay Safe,

Jan

LATEST PROJECTS

The first bag pictured is "Sassy 60's". It's from the "Woodland Blooms" range of fabrics from Moda. I've got three more designs in this range half made so - watch this space! :) The other projects are all from the "Recess" range, also from Moda and I just loved them! To me they had a feel of the 50's and 60's, hence a lot of the names. The bag with the great, green commercial handles is "Top of the Pops"; the little round bag along with the needlecase and scissor holder is "Stitching Dilly Trio" - "dilly bag" comes from my youth and perhaps a distinctly Australian word...Mum would always call things that. The orange bag (and I just LOVE this fabric) is " Both Sides Now" - I need to take a pic of the other side as it's a different fabric and the gusset has both fabrics as well. Last, but not least are the two wallets/purses/pouches to be whatever the owner would want them to be - "Blast from the Past". They would be useful for putting any of your current, hand sewing projects in, handkerchiefs, anything special etc etc - I feel. Hope you like them all. Seems like a lot but been working on them all, in tandem, for probably a couple of weeks now. I tend to do that sometimes if I've been inspired by a particular range of fabric and I do all the cutting, then any handwork, then the machining, back to more handwork then back to any machining and so-on. Work for me! I have a tablerunner just waiting on the binding, another bag, also waiting for a binding choice and then ANOTHER bag at the cutting process in the Woodlands Bloom range so busting to get them done too. LOL THEN, I have to do all the instructions...the part of designing that I like the least! I find it a real headache at times and agonise over making sure I've explained myself in an easy way. Off tomorrow to my monthly Tablelands Regional Gallery voluntary duty and will enjoy the new exhibit. WONDERFUL paintings by a very talented artist - we attended the opening last Friday night and, if I were a millionaire, would have purchased quite a number of paintings! Talk again soon, happy stitching and stay safe,

Jan

STITCHERS ANGEL SWAP ARRIVED!!!

Erin, from New Hampshire is my wonderful angel! The parcel arrived last Wednesday as I was just about to leave for Mossman for my monthly bag workshops. Needless to say my departure was delayed a little! :) Erin was SO good to me and opening the box was like Christmas come early. My lovely Alphabet Annie, fat 1/4's of fabric, the wonderful bag that is almost hidden in the pic by all the other special, thoughful gifts. And then there is the fabric box, the snowglobes, GENUINE maple syrup! (Ross can't wait to try that! lol), yummy chocolate buds (that I demolished almost straight away), and the Willow Tree "Friendship" angel that now sits beside me here at the PC and last but by no means least - a special treat for Megs! I might add, Erin, that he just RUNS when I shake the packet now so they've been a great hit! :) Megs says thanks...and he's a great talker so you can imagine! I love the Bohin needles too, thanks Erin - they're my favourite needle to use. Erin was rather sneaky in that she made contact with me and we've exchanged quite a few emails and, silly me! It never occured to me that she might be my secret angel until she posted her hint of the package ready to send on her blog. http://www.godoodlesnquilt.blogspot.com/ Go visit Erin's Hannies Annies site too! http://www.hanniesannies.com/ THANKYOU again Erin, you spoiled me way too much but I'm glad you did! LOL A big thankyou to Helen from Hugs and Kisses too for organising the Stitchers Angel Swap - I'll make bets that it's been a huge success.

Now I'll have to get back to normal and enjoy my gifts as I work....Alphabet Annie will live with my other fabric dolls so hope they don't get up to any tricks together! Until next time, happy stitching. I've just completed quite a few projects using the new Moda, Recess range so will post pics as soon as I can. It's been fun! Bye for now,

Jan

NEW BAG - FLOWER POWER

I had a great time designing and making this bag. LOVE the Amy butler fabric and it really makes me think of the 1970's, hence the name. The handles are from Studio Mio, a great company, based in Sydney, who import the most interesting handles and other "hardware" for bagmaking.

Love the new buttons from Beutron too and used them to hold the pleat in the gusset closed. I'm on a real roll with bags lately! Have another 6 or so designed with fabric choices made and just waiting for me to get to them. That's in between everything I'm planning on doing! A cold and miserable day here in "sunny" North Queensland but Megs is still sitting beside me here on the window sill. Not many birds for him to "eye-off" though! LOL

Until next time, happy stitching, Cheers, Jan

CRAZY PATCH PIN CUSHION

My friend Sue in England and myself have challenged each other to make one of these. We both post on a wonderful forum and also visit
Lisa's blog. Lisa had made this beautiful crazy patch pin cushion and Sue and I decided to "have a go" too. It's ages since I've done any crazy patch and it took me a while to get my brain back into gear with all the embellishing. I'm afraid I went a bit overboard and, in my rush, as I always do! Made the circle too large for the jam jar lid I had chosen plus, didn't take into account the area where the embellishing would get lost when completed! So typical of me but I had such fun doing it I've promised myself to take the time and do more crazy patch. It will mean taking time out from my designing etc but "feel the need"!!!! Here's Lisa's link to her wonderful blog - have a good look at everything she does, it's just beautiful!

http://ivoryblushroses.blogspot.com/2008/09/rosebud-pincushion.html

If you want to see more pics of my pin cushion here's the link to my flickR page....they're in with other things so just click through until you find them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozjan/sets/72157607914091412/

Tomorrow is my day with my "Artistic Licence" girls so I'm looking forward to that. We're planning our next exhibit and this one is going to be in the new Regional Gallery so we're really going "upmarket"! Not until 2010 so got plenty of time. It's another interesting concept and I'll tell you all more when we finalise the details.

Until next time, happy stitching and stay safe,

Jan