Wrapping up twenty-eleven

Just wanted to do a quick end of year post - more so that I can remember what I did his year:) So here are the quilts:

And  a few mini quilts/table runners/mug rugs:

Some other sewing projects:

And I even managed a bit of crochet......

But I think the highlight for me in 2011 was being chosen as one of the 10 finalists in the Umbrella Prints Trimmings competition. There were some amazing entries and it was a lot of fun thinking of how to use almost every tiny piece of fabric in the pack!

 photo source

It has been so nice to meet so many other lovely bloggers this year since starting this blog and becoming involved in flickr group swaps. Thank you so much for your sweet comments and wishing everyone a happy new year!!

Kirsten.

A Crafty Christmas

After seeing all of the lovely quilts at the Craft and Quilt Fair back in October, my sisters- in-law and I decided to make quilts for their other 3 brothers and sisters families for Christmas. We came across this pattern which was perfect for their youngest brother and his family who live by the beach and love surfing:

L and S made the applique blocks for this one and I put them together and quilted it.

And for their oldest brother who lives in the tropical north of Australia, they decided to make a "Raw Edge Layer Cake Quilt" using Kate Spain's Terrain:

 

And made the same quilt for their other sister using a Chez Moi "Sophie"  layer cake - and happy to say that all recipients loved their quilts!

Kirsten.

Merry everything!!!

Christmas card, a photo by kirsten67 on Flickr.

Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!

(This was my submission for the Holiday Card edition of The Pioneer Woman's "Edit this" using "Flying Charlie" which she featured in Group 3 on the 5th of December.)

Kirsten.

Winner - Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway!

After finally working out how to number the comments, I used the Random number generator to select a winner:

And this comment belongs to LynCC:

Hey there. I've enjoyed having your blog on my roll. :) This is a really nice mini.

Congratulations to Lyn!!!  I will contact Lyn right away to get a postal address for her so that I can send off the mini quilt ASAP:)

Thanks to everyone for visiting and participating!

Kirsten.

Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day

 

It is Giveaway day at Sew,Mama,Sew! and I am so happy to be able to participate this time around. Hi and welcome if you are visiting my blog for the first time - I hope you will come back and visit again soon!! And don't forget to go and have a look at all of the other blogs that have linked up to the Giveaway Day as it is on all this week.

Because it is the Festive season, I am offering a "Festive" mini quilt I made a few weeks ago using fabrics from Joel Dewberry (Aviary) , Denyse Schmidt (Winding Roads) , Sandi Henderson (Meadowsweet-Henna garden) and  by Basic Grey (Fruitcake):

This mini quilt measures about 14 inches square and is quilted with straight line stitching and has a cute tree print on the back:

The giveaway is open until December 16th, 5 pm PST (which is noon Saturday 17th December EDT) and is open internationally.  The winner will be drawn randomly and contacted via email so please ensure your email address is in your comment or in your profile so that I can get in touch with you. Good luck!

Kirsten.

A busy December.....

This time of year is always busy but the past few days were even more so than usual, with a lot happening in our household. I made another quick trip to Brisbane with my daughter to see the QLD Ballet production of Swan Lake which was wonderful - it is definitely my favourite ballet!



Queensland Ballet presents Swan Lake from Queensland Ballet on Vimeo.

And yesterday I went to Rainbow patchwork In Lismore  to do the Braided Tote bag class with 5 other ladies. We all had different fabrics and they were all quilted on the Gammill during our lunch break and they looked amazing.

 We all agreed that it was lovely to go to a class and 6 hours later, have a totally (toteally :) finished item to take home!!!

 Then we had my husbands work christmas party last night - his boss hired a "super stretched" Chrysler limousine to take us all to the Lennox Head Hotel for dinner. I haven't been in a limo before so it was quite exciting - and you really do feel like a bit of a rockstar:) It was a lovely evening and we had views over the ocean from the restaurant balcony. I chose the Bangalow Sweet Pork Rib cutlet which was delicious, and then sorbet (pistachio, berry and swiss chocolate) for dessert - yum!!!!!!!
 Now I am off to Sydney for a couple of days for work, then come back in time for Gemmas dance concert on Friday night, and an early christmas get together with my husbands family on the weekend.
Linking up to Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory.......


Kirsten.

Getting Ziggy with it........

I came home from doing the grocery shop earlier this week to find a nice little parcel sitting on my doorstep.I quickly dropped the bags in the kitchen so I could open it - and found a couple of "presents" wrapped up prettily:

It felt like christmas was here already:) But I certainly wasn't going to wait until the 25th to open the them........so I found the most gorgeous zig zag table runner made by Trudi as part of the Modern Christmas Table Runner swap:

She has made me the perfect runner as I just love zig zags and the colours and fabrics she has used are really lovely! And the quilting is stunning - some straight line quilting as well as a feathery design.

And the second parcel contained a beautiful pouch and some heart shaped christmas decorations and fabrics scraps from the runner.  

I wish it was Christmas all year round so I could just leave it out all the time......maybe I will anyway. Thank you so much Trudi and I love the label - so cute:)

Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday .

Nothing much to show this week as the last few days have been quite unproductive, but I have signed up for a class at a LQS this Sunday where we will be making a Braided Tote bag so I went over there yesterday afternoon to select my fabrics and came home with these:

 I have been looking for a good excuse to buy some of the Ruby fabrics that they stock:) And we get to have the bag quilted on the long arm while we are there too so that will be really fun!!

 Kirsten.

Fresh Sewing Day

I finished off the Denyse Schmidt Plus ("D+") quilt but couldn't take photos yesterday as it was raining and have ended taking them inside today with it hanging off my bookshelf  - which is also quite handy when I don''t have anyone here to hold the quilt up for me:)

I ended up using some blue backing which I had here already as it seemed to go with most of the fabrics.

It is actually nice to look back each month and see what everyone has achieved - I  know that there are times when I feel like I am getting nowhere but then I realise that I have actually done at least a few things:)

So last month I made the table runner for the Modern Christmas Table Runner swap along with a couple of decorations and a mini quilt using a leftover block , a pillow and the Plus quilt using some Denyse Schmidt fabrics, a green fabric basket and have pieced the top together for a Surfs Up quilt. I still have a few things to do by Christmas so hopefully this month will have a lot of finishes too:)

Also linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory  - so go on over to Lilys Quilts and Quiltstory to see what everyone has been sewing up!

 

Kirsten.