2011 December part B

 

Less of a zombie now!

After a 24 hour flight, and fighting sleep until as long as I could, I finally gave in at 5:30 last night and went to bed. Ah, what bliss to sleep, and in my own bed :-)

I woke at 6:30 which is ridiculously early, but I had had 13 hours sleep, so I feel much more with it!

There was some very exciting post waiting for me.  a pressie from Jackie, and one from the BQL Secret Santa, both of which have been put under the tree (albeit with a bit of squishing on the way!)

Also . . .

[Hold on while we travel back in time.  One of the blogs that I follow is Block Lotto - each month, the list Mom, Sophie, introduces us to a block, usually with a colour scheme.  We can make as many or as few of these as we like, and each one that we submit a photo of counts as a ticket for the month's lotto.  I actually remembered the let Sophie know that I would be in the air when she drew the names, so if I won I wouldn't be able to acknowledge for a few days - just as well I did as I was one of the winners {VBG}]

. . . now back to the present . . . there were four squishies, each with three Scrappy Round The World blocks.

Thank you so much to Cathy Ann, Celine, Debra and Kate - lovely blocks, and I'm really looking forward to playing with the blocks and deciding how to arrange them

jet lag, and Christmas pressies and a give away

I thought I was over the jet lag after my 13 hour sleep, but the next night I slept from 9pm until 3am, and this morning I slept a bit longer - until 5:30am!  Not impressed!

I did spend some of the early morning time blog surfing - and actually looked at my blog! [I appear to have two pages titled Finished Quilts - I need to sort that out :-] Do you know that this is post # 197 - who'd thunk it? Nearly 200 posts - and 50 followers, I am really chuffed - thank you all!

The extra hours gave me a bit more sewing time too, LOL.  So as I was awake at silly o'clock yesterday I decided to sort out my Australian fabrics.  Some I plan on using in a quilt for me, but others were bought as Christmas gifts for patchwork friends and blog friends.

 As I looked at the various fabrics . . .

. . . it occurred to me that they wouldn't necessarily be of any use to anyone as a FQ - so I decided to make a few Fat Quarter bags (click for link to instructions), and then I started some more, and some more - I feel as if I am working on a production line: there are at least a dozen, if not more!

I am so pleased to have this network of bloggy friends - mostly virtual, but some I have met, some have become family (thank you Jackie for the Christmas card from the Irish Cousins!!!), some really are family (hi to my Mum and Daughter :-) but all are supportive, and funny and helped me feel grounded even while I was away and homesick - So to celebrate Christmas, New Year, 200 posts, 50 followers, a new kitchen floor being laid downstairs and anything else you fancy . . .  to everyone who read and comments on this blog, please comment here, then I'll email you for your snail mail address, as I'd love to send you an Australian Fat Quarter bag.

Merry Christmas to all (but no Christmas dinner)

Just a brief post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2012.  Thanks especially to all who commented on the previous post - the bags are in their envelopes waiting for me to go to the post office, early next week.


I had an email conversation recently with the Littliest Thistle, Katy, about embroidery (have you seen the blocks she embroidered for her dad's quilt gorgeous) and mentioned that I hadn't done embroidery by hand for ages - sorry Katy I lied, look what I just found . . . my Christmas Cross stitch project

Sister In Law gave me this years and years ago, and I work on it a little bit each Christmas. When finished it will go into a house shaped frame, a bit like a dolls house

The other part of the post title may be explained by this photo of my kitchen

We planned to move the kitchen around sometime, but it would appear that NOW is the time.  Although to be fair, these is never much danger of a Christmas dinner at my house - we graze all day instead!

Merry Christmas ALL!!!!

Where did that week go?

Gosh, suddenly it's New Year's Eve eve, and I don't seem to have done much apart from veg in front of the TV, eat, and drink!

Christmas Day was very civilised: both girls slept until about 10am, and then it took longer than I expected to get from this

to this

 I had some lovely craft spoils:

 This scrummy scarf from the lovely Jackie

This craft bag and these goodies from my BQL Secret Santa - I couldn't photograph the bag to show how fab it is, but it has six pockets around the outside, and six sections on the base all for crafty bits and pieces

This goodies were a wall hanging from Jackie (Let it snow) Handmade Nation book from another BQL Secret Santa, and the fab pin cushion from the lovely Plum 

I also received this scarf from First Born Daughter - thank you Lisa, I love it!