Small Tree Cloth

Something DifferentI enjoyed this change in quilting.

It was in response to Jude's whispering. All from the stash .
Enjoy the remainder of the Holiday Season.

Terry

Traditinal Preperations

The gift of helping GD Awen make presents is wonderful.The wreath is now hanging on their front door.

Welcoming Everyone!
I was able to add it to the banister for a day.
Thank you Awen

More potholders

More gifts

A pile of leftover strips.......some Christmas weaving?

Read

To Mum Merry Christmas Love Awen

Merry Christmas to All

Terry and Awen

Wishes from the Heart

All these stitches carry wishes for You my dear friends. Gingerbread men and fanciful hearts.

Memories old and new

Enjoy the season dearest friends Terry

First Tuesday Post Belated

Earlier this year 2 blogger friends Nat and Ria started a challenge using the fence rail pattern. The other twist was to use their Singer Featherweight sewing machines VINTAGE.

I had lots of scraps and a brand new featherweight. Well being true friends all rules were amended to include me.

I am so glad because of the friendship I gained and the quilt I now have.

The fence rail blocks are made from scraps. My stash culling used any fabric that I could a 1 1/2 x 6" pieces. I now have a new table cloth large enough for the family table.

The border fabrics were purchased in the states a subtle version of red, white and blue.
A serious quilting weekend with friends and the fence rail quilt was almost finished. A binding from the stash and voila!!

A quilted table cloth with enough scraps from enough projects and items of clothing to keep everyone interested.

A special thank you to Natima and Ria for encouraging me and posting with me on First Tuesdays.

Enjoy the weekend . Celebrate prepare or just relax. Terry

Traditions

Advent Calenders start the Christmas season in our family.

Cadel helped me put the candy canes in each pocket and then started marking the days by enjoying the treat.

Old fabrics

elicit memories

I found this carryall when looking for the Christmas stockings.

The fabrics are corduroy I used in my maternity clothes and first daughter's early overalls.
The bag was a great size. As evidenced by the wonderfully worn condition.

Memories reflected and altered through use.



My New Carryall.
I made this new bag similar in size to the original. The base is called pet mesh. It's for screen doors. I fell in love with the fabric at a sale.

This one's for me. If time permits maybe a couple more for presents.



The season has officially started.
Baking is much the same for a Summer Christmas.
The difference is fresh fruit with the juice running down your chin.

I like the holidays and the family traditions which have developed over the years D.H. and I have lived in Australia. 40th Christmas coming up.

Dear Friends whatever your weather enjoy the season.

Terry

Saturday Stars

A busy life is a Happy one.

But..... Not much time for stitching.

A few pieced stars.The other activities have included

Orientation for School for DGS

Making whipped blueberry jelly (jello) and hot pink cup cakes.

I think GS is a budding cook or he likes to eat.

We took all our treats and ate lunch in the back of the station wagon under a tree. Tail Gating!!

Hope you all have a good weekend and squeese in some time for yourself.

Terry

Fortnights Update

Lunch with Nat and Myra.

The third floor of the Queen Victoria Bld. Christmas Tree.

Bling for all.Quilt Camp was 3 days of lots of sewing. I finished a Christmas present and machine quilted my Fence Rail Quilt.

Suzanne and Wendy shared my table.

Working hard

Finishing off. Yippie!!!

Lots of company to stitch with. What more could you want?

A great time.

Place mats are gifts for the Windsor CWA Christmas lunch.

Awen DGD needed special colours for Christmas present potholders.

Cutting strips across a pair of men's sox solved the problem.

I have had a busy and productive couple of weeks.

Quilting family and friends.

Great

Have a wonderful weekend . Enjoy yourself.

I'll be thinking of you all Terry

Packed and Ready to Go

All packed for a weekend of quilting.

A bit more basic accommodation and predicted temperatures in the high 20's.

Fan and sleeping bag seemed sensible.

I'll visit again early next week with pictures and some show and tell. Until then have a great weekend stitching. Terry

Flowers for All

Roses for all my dear friends.

It's raining and not much happening so I'm sending you all a bunch of roses to enjoy.

Have a great weekend what ever you have planned. My GD Awen and I are going to start making Christmas Presents. Handing down the traditions of my childhood to the next generation.

My best wishes to you all Dear Friends Terry

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Bloggers Quilt Festival number 4 organised by Amy of Amy's Creative Side has brought me in contact with quilters everywhere. Thank you Amy for hosting such a wonderful event.

I am posting for the first time thanks to one of my favorite fans. Otherwise known as grandson.

Great excitement was expressed while scrolling through photos. My 4 year old grand son was perched on the arm of the lounge (sofa) looking on. He squealed,planted a big sloppy kiss on the computer screen and announced proudly." That's my Blankie."The evening group of women I quilted with in Bathurst at the time wanted to make a mystery quilt. I searched the net and found this pattern. Many of the quilters were just beginning and rotary cutting was a must. I made a half size version knowing there was a 2nd grandchild on the way.

No soft pale colors for my daughter so I was free to use fabrics from my stash. The only supplementing I did was a couple pieces of bright green. I machine quilted it on the diagonal, nothing fancy. The quilt was intended to go from cot (crib) to bed and the washing machine.

I was going to have to purchase binding fabric ....there was nothing long enough left . The day I had the quilt with me and intended to lash out for binding one of the gals from Bathurst Flying Geese quilters piled the table high having culled her stash. Swooping by I snatched the piece of fabric that matched one I had used. The unwanted yardage partnered with my remaining scraps was enough to complete the quilt.

Yahoo!

The blankie is well loved.

Under the sheet when the big bed is made.

Drug to the lounge room for comfort and warmth.

Packed in the car for the hour drive home after the olds watch All Blacks (New Zealand) vs Wallabies (Australia) play Test Rugby.

I know why I quilt. My quilts are the hugs I give to everyone who sleeps under them.

I have no doubt my grandson is well hugged.

I shall be visiting the festival over the week. Plan on stopping by to say Hi.

Roses for Afternoon Tea

Roses Roses and more.

The quirky tea cosie was instigated by Nat.

She knitted a couple for friends using recycled wool. My version uses leftovers from DD's knitting. The roses and leaves are knitted from spinning and dying experiments. The samples from early spinning are borderlester. A strong wool easily spun. It has a luster that dyes well.

Recent spinning was merino tops finer spun and softer result.Tweed leaves were an experiment in solar dying. I spun the wool after dying the tops so variations of color blended . I like the incidental accidents.


The pink roses were dye with conchonel .

Very deep purple was logwood.



Knitting this quirky tea cosie was just pure fun.

I didn't need it. We're coffee drinkers.



It gave me a bit of a challenge and I enjoyed the sculptural qualities of the project.

Thanks Nat for posting yours.

Dear Friends enjoy your week and all your endevors. Terry

Flowers and Shopping

These are my Wednesday flowers.

The hexagon flowers and butterfly are my creations . The beautiful roses are Mother Nature and DH's doing.

The butterfly is 2/3rd's of a fussy cut flower that looks so real I couldn't resist landing it in the roses. An unexpected vacancy at quilt camp provided 3 peaceful days on the Hawksbury River.

A few 4" nine patch blocks made from the remains of a charm pack.

I'm not sure what I will do with them but something usually comes along.


Speaking of things coming along a visiting shop had a port (school bag) full of fat 8ths. I couldn't resist for some more flowers.




More shopping. OP Shop visits came up with a linen shirt to remake, a hand embroidered dollie to repurpoes and a roll of 2" cotton tape with the 1/4" already pressed.

All these treasures for only $6.

Dear Friends I must tell you all that we are very fortunate to have our craft. The past few weeks have been difficult health wise for me. Lots of sitting in doctors offices at least I can cover hexies even when concerned. At night I've come to visit all of you in blogland. Quilt Camp turned up. to distract me while waiting for test results. And of course you were all out there doing stuff and providing me with something nice to see and talk about. I thank you all.

Even though I feel a bit like The Patchwork Girl of OZ the results are good. I pick up my hearing aides next Monday with the promise that over time I will have more energy. A tripling of thyroid meds and therapeutic use of panadol have already increased my energy and decreased my joint and back pains. They tell me it will take 6 weeks to reach maximum CAN'T WAIT. Best of all the heart doctor says not palpitation just extra beats which are normal well for me anyway.

Take lots of fish oil and try gluten free diet. I am and it seems I'm sleeping better ect.

SO bring on Christmas I'm actually beginning to think about what I might make for friends and with the promise of all this new energy I just might get some things made.

Once again thanks for being out there.

Huggs Terry

Mid-week Lunch Treat

Wednesday is flower day so here are my flowers for the week.

I've been experimenting with fussy cutting. The flower on the top right is my favorite of this group.Exotic places? Well no just a short drive to another suburb. Cabramatta is a 30 minute drive for lunch. DH and I decided it was time for some Vietnamese quesine. The nice thing about Sydney is the diversity of ethnic food. Wayne and I visited Vietnam in 2002 and now we are able to enjoy the real thing in suburban Sydney.

The shopping mall with lanterns and lions. Just another day in Cabaramatta.

Lunch was delicious.

Green paw paw salad in the background and fresh spring rolls in front.

Choose a sauce and join me .

Som Tom or paw paw salad is my favorite. Crisp and fresh with lots of mint and chille.

Thankyou for joining me on an unexpected adventure . Happy stitching

Terry

Weekend's Gardening

It's Labor Day or Long Weekend in N.S.W. The weather's warm enough to garden. My plan for the weekend is to do just that.

Oh! and watch the A.F.L. Grand Finale.Thank you DH

My purchases from the garden shop yesterday. A few herbs for salads and petunias for some hanging pots.

My favourite type of gardening. Nat's adventures inspired me to take a stab at this lovely knitted garden. All the flowers and leaves are dying experiments from my hand spun wool. I did some of the dying in the 80's and some this century. ha ha The stripy leaves do not have black spot they are just experiments in sun dying tops before spinning and plying.

GS asked me who I was knitting a beanie for? I explained it was called a tea cosie to keep tea warm in a tea pot. Later the same day when DGD asked what I was knitting he responded "It's for she's cup a tea" guess that says it all.

Enjoy whatever your doing this weekend and have a good week

Terry

Messing About or That's Not My Vest

That's not my vest

It is too small

It used to be my vest a couple decades ago. I spun the wool and knitted the vest when U shaped necklines were popular.

The yarn is a plied 2 strands of
hand spun. One a fine black merino and the other a first cross grey over dyed with green.

The vest appeared a week ago Sunday during a clean out of the shed. Amazing what you find!

Close inspection reveals ribbing, seed stitch, basket stitch and garter stitch.

Now this is IMPORTANT stuff . Don't forget it. O.K.?That's NOT my vest.

Where's MY vest???

It's been to the washing machine on hot . I decided that I wasn't going to unpick it for the yarn or it would have already happened so..... Into the machine for felting.
It sure did felt . i.e. shrink in all directions.
The side seam is now 9" instead of 15 "
The patterns I worked so diligently to knit are unrecognisable (mushed together) .

Well what did I expect ? That's what happens when you wash wool at 90 deg. c. for 1/12hrs.
But Wait
That's not my vest!
My vest is green tweed not a pinkie brown.

Since I was felting I threw in the red wool skirt from the op shop.
The little dolls jumper shows the original tweed.

Underneath is the FELTED skirt and a sample of the original color.
At least the over dyed red is reasonably even.

My thoughts on what to do next include more messing about to make a bag.

I'll keep you posted on the search for My Vest.

I have had a good week letting technology alter my hand work. So.K. I went to the park.

Hope you all have a good weekend and enjoy the unexpected.

Terry

Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle twinkle my little stars are a the stitching I've managed in the past couple weeks.

Wednesday this week was a trip to see dinosaur bones. I did manage to cover enough diamonds during the train trip for 2 stars in between questions and oh Grama look.

Happy to have done some stitching also known in our house as threading Don't ask my ? Took me awhile to work it out LOL.

As promised a few shots of the groups quilts for CWA Awareness Day

This is the day before the open house. The group of stitchers are Community Quilts.

The hanging was being done around us.

A small sample of the quilts on display and a small sample of the groups' work.

As always the quilts are intended to catch peoples interest.

I made it only for a flying visit the next day so was glad I'd taken the photos a day early.

Hope you enjoyed seeing other peoples quilts. I always do.

I enjoy keeping in touch so hello to all and happy stitching.

Terry