Stitching...

It is the Australia Day public holiday here in Australia. Happy Australia day to my Aussie readers. Hope you have had a happy weekend. We had terrible storms here in Canberra on Saturday night with blackouts and some leaks in our house. The rain bucketted down and the winds were blowing and it was a little scary. No real damage other than wet towels but lots of people were far worse off. 

I have been trying to get a little stitching done. With the power off to the sewing room I must admit I did spend a lot of time reading my book! I did finally go in and did a bit of cutting for the quilts for Ben and Sam. They must be done for the winter! I haven't felt motivated to do them. I have decided to do all sorts of blues with red for the patchwork between the stitcheries.

 I did finish the stitching on this Rosalie Quinlan design last week. Such fun to just stitch in one colour.

 I have also been plodding along with the green stems on the Vignette centre. They are nearly done and then it is onto the satin stitch dots!

Visiting Phoebe and stitching

Deirdre and Ma came for a quick visit to see Phoebe too. It was lovely to see the little one again and to see her and Lois with "old" Ma, their very special great grandmother.

 Here is Ma with little Phoebe and her family.

 I have been stitching and it is so good to be getting a few things done on my old UFOs. I so want to start new things but am actually enjoying working on these projects and seeing them progress. The top and bottom borders are on Scandinavian Christmas. I had been putting this off as "too hard" and it has been really quite easy.I have started on the side borders now.

 I have also completed the applique on the second half of the centre of Vignette. Now to do all those little satin stitch dots!

Phoebe, Ben and Sam

We were so pleased to visit and meet little Phoebe yesterday. She is our newest little grand niece (is that what she is?). She was born last Tuesday and went home on Wednesday! She is just so gorgeous.

 Here is big sister Lois and her Mummy.

 We also had special visitors at our house too. Sam and Ben, their Grandma and Grandpa, Mum and Dad and Lyndal and Nick came over to visit. We had a lovely time with them all.

 Aunty Lyndal had a lovely time with little Benny.

 Here is Grandma Sharyn with Sam. They live in Perth so have been having a very special week with the boys.

Boys and Vignette progress

I minded the boys yesterday and they slept for almost the whole time! Such good little fellows. When they got up Mummy put them into their new appliqued suits!

 Benny in his suit but I couldn't capture a smile!

 Here they are when they came to visit on Monday night. It was a much cooler day so they are in long suits.

 I have been working on my needleturn applique on the two other centre blocks. It is time consuming but is coming along well.

A bit of stitching and boys

I had bought these little suits for the boys to applique and thought I had best do them or they would be too small! 

 I also finished the little coin purse from Red Home. It is tiny but went together very well, even with the zipper.

 Finally felt a little motivated to work on my large ongoing projects and put together the other centre piece for the Vignette quilt. I have decided to just do little bits at a time but try and work on each UFO at least a little each month. Eventually they should then get finished. I feel quite motivated to start the applique now!

 These precious boys came to visit on the weekend and they are growing and changing all the time.

 Benny loves to roll over and then isn't sure he wants to be there. He is able to lift his head right up and then does try to move his legs into a crawling position but no success yet!

 Sammy on the other hand is so happy and relaxed and loves to play with his toys. They keep him amused for ages.

Decorations

Spent most of yesterday putting away the Christmas decorations. It is such a big job! Thought I would just post what they looked like this year. 

I so love the decorations but not the tidying up afterwards!

Stitching and a busy weekend

What not to do! I felt like getting a border ready for Scandinavian Christmas (haven't touched this quilt in ages), so I read the pattern and started to cut the stars to the correct size! Oh no! I cut too close to this side of the star. What is the saying....measure twice and then cut!

 I had to stitch another star!

 Here is the top border almost done.

 I also forgot to show you the lovely bag from Red Home that I finished after Christmas. It is such a good big bag and went together very well.

 These lovely little fellows came to breakfast at Rocksalt on Saturday morning as it was their mummy's birthday. Benny went to sleep like a good boy. He does look tired in this photo.

 Sammy was very good and loved looking at everything.

 Benny woke up later when Mummy opened her presents and enjoyed a bit of paper chewing.

I then headed off to a birthday party for Sue which was fun and then a lovely BBQ at friends' place in the evening.We have had the hottest weather lately but it was a lovely time out and about.