More DJ blocks

Yesterday morning's pictures were so appalling, so I decided to take a decent photo of those DJ blocks along with the ones I made yesterday afternoon. The two on the right are the new ones, on top is K4 - Thea's Turn. On the bottom is L8 - Box Kite. I'm seriously loving piecing with freezer paper, and I wish I'd been brave enough to try it before now.

I counted up, and I have a total now of 57 DJ blocks. That means I'm one third the way through! How wonderful! The two blocks I made yesterday also mean I have made my 12 DJ blocks for this month, so I can cross that goal off my list. I have only today left to achieve any of the other goals ... can I do it?? I'll let you know tomorrow :-)

Mrs Moody asked yesterday about what was at the top left of the picture of my cutting table. It's not a block ... it's too 'papery' for that ... it's actually the colour layout and progress chart for my DJ quilt.

I wanted to do 30's prints in a trip around the world colourway, so I inventoried all the colours I have and planned this colour chart to suit. I'm also marking off the blocks as I make them. I'm also thinking I may cut a small piece of each fabric and stick it over the corresponding square as I make it, so that way I won't end up with the same fabrics abutting each other. I'll see how organised I get for that one.

The last picture for today is some fabric I found on my cutting table while I was tidying it up. I got these fabrics at my fave quilt store a couple of weeks ago. The panel with the hearts is super cute and Amy chose it. She wants to make something sweet for her Godmother. I got the red print with the little gold hearts to go with it. The other three are reproductions I just love. The large floral is one of my favourites, and I used all I had on the quilt I gave to my Mum, so I just had to have a little more. The two others are half metre pieces of ones I don't already have.

I've been really good with my fabric purchased for the past few months, so I don't feel any guilt at a little stash enhancement. I also need to get some of the white Osnaburg that Cheryl got in specially for me. I love using it with feedsacks, it's more loosely woven fabric and goes perfectly.

That's it from me today. Tonight is New Years, so it's bound to be a big night, we're off to a party at Deb's house. We were out very late last night too, so I predict there will be no early risers in this house tomorrow.

Have a great day! x o x

The Holiday

Last night I went out to dinner with five of my girlfriends and then saw a movie - The Holiday. It was a fun movie, and all the way thru the movie I was wondering how they could possibly end it in a way that would suit everyone ... I'm not going to give anything away so no need for a spoiler alert. If you enjoy movies like Bridget Jones Diary etc, then definitely go see it. Pet decided she'd like to go again and take hubby to see it ... Sharon, Jane, Deb, Paula and myself decided it was definitely one for the girls only!

It was quite a stormy night last night, and I got home at midnight to find everyone asleep, and Cam had climbed in bed with his sister because of the thunder. He's always been nervous of storms. He's such a little cutie. He can't have slept well the honey, he was still asleep when I started this post this morning.

Yesterday during the day, I completed two more DJ blocks. On the left is C2 - Streak of Lightning. On the right is C4 - Tic Tac Toe. I don't mind confessing that I really did not like making the centre part of C4. It was evil. Those little white lines are 1/4" finished. But it's done now, and I never have to do it again *yay*. Those of you who have made or making the DJ will see that on C2 I added some seams in so I didn't have to applique those outer diamonds in place. I like the way this block looks compared to the block in my other DJ.

Sincere apologies for the quality of my pictures. I really have to stop using the camera phone - I'm just so darned lazy.

After the frenzy of finishing up all the Christmas gifts (which I managed with a day to spare) I really need to tidy up my cutting table. It's now getting to that point that when I want to work on something I can't concentrate because of all the clutter.

I can handle a little mess - after all, I have kids - but this kind of clutter messes with my head. I hope to get to it today. We have another dinner to go to tonight, so I'll see how many chores I get thru first.

Have a great day everyone!

Normality sets in ...

Wow! Christmas has just flown by! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. It all began on the Saturday evening before Xmas, we had some friends over for Christmas dinner, which was entirely wonderful. We've known them forever and always spend time together during the festive season. And they entirely loved their gifts, one of which was the 'bar runner'. Pet messaged me later and told me it was the nicest present she'd ever received. What a wonderful compliment.

Christmas Eve was spent with Marty's family with lunch at a lovely hotel, with the exchange of gifts in a nearby park with a wonderful playground for the kids.

Christmas day was spent with my family, too much food, lots of merriment and wonderful gifts. Mum absolutely adores her quilt, so I'm sorry to say it won't be put up for adoption. Maybe next year? I received so many lovely gifts, I won't list them all for you, but here are a few ... pictured, a wonderful #57 foot for Bernie. I have heard so many good things about it, I gave hubby specific details about where one could be located ... surprise!! One of my fave perfumes (Red Door), the Devil Wears Prada book (which I've entirely read now!!), gift certificates to my fave homewares store ... a cute purse ... I won't go on ... I was lucky to receive such wonderful things. Of course, the kids were showered entirely, and my lounge still looks like a toy battle-zone!

Some other friends of ours had their annual Boxing Day party, which lived up to the expectations of past years. Much merriment, probably a little too much alcohol, and many good friends meant a wonderful time was had by all. A very late night, and some very tired people the next day, so we had a low key Wednesday. Yesterday Amy and I hit the post Xmas sales, and spend some of our vouchers. The stores were busy, and we had a great time.

I have done very little sewing, just a couple of DJ blocks last night ... and here they are ... G11 - Decisions Decisions, and G12 - Gloriae.

Both machine pieced with an applique component. I've altered G12 a little from the one in the book. I have added seams in the border area of mine to make it a little more like the block in the photograph. The line drawing has no seams in the border and I guess it would have to be appliqued. I think my block count now would be around 53 or so.

I'm all set to make C2 - Streak of Lightning today. I've prepared the freezer paper pieces already. I'm altering that one too. I'm piecing the whole thing rather than add appliqued diamonds at the edge, and I've changed those extra two diamonds to make them the same size as the others. Can't help it I'm afraid ... I'm a symmetry girl!

I'm also hopelessly overwhelmed with the amount of blog reading I need to do. I logged into bloglines this morning and saw hundreds of unread, and logged out again. I don't think I'm ready to focus just yet ... don't give up on me ... I'll be visiting with you soon!

Once again, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas ... I look forward to reading all about them! x o x

It's almost time ...

Here are the Christmas Table mats I've been working on, as of about 1am this morning. I'm just getting ready to sew the binding down on seven of them. Why seven? Ohhh, because I ran one 2" strip short of binding at about quarter to one this morning. It's no biggie, I'll just run out and get a little more fabric in a minute. I will start stressing if they don't have any left, but I only got the binding fabric a couple days ago ... so it shouldn't be a problem ... *fingers crossed* Apologies for the blurry picture - late nights and cameras don't mix :-)

Last night Marty and I went out to dinner by ourselves for the first time in a looooong time. I actually can't remember the last time. It was so nice ... a local Italian restaurant ... a little red wine. It was like pre-children days. You know what, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something ... and I realised I was subconsciously looking about for the kids. I'm sure they've had a wonderful time with my Mum and Dad. I hope Cam was okay with the storms last night, he's so scared of them.

This is likely to be the last post I'll have a chance to put up until after Boxing Day, so please everyone have a safe and wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

x o x

Mats on the move

Here are two of the Christmas mats that are soooo close to being finished. They just need the binding now. Only six more to quilt (they're made already)! I'm finding it a little tough to get moving on these, for two reasons.

The first is because I'm quilting them using a really cute thread with a metallic strand running thru it. The thread is cute ... but it misbehaves terribly. Under the best of circumstances it has a tendency for the metallic strand to break, even with a metafil needle. It's hot here at the moment (about 37c or 100f) and that doesn't help with the snapping either. Sooooo, I'm sewing along slowly, which is mind numbing.

The second reason I'm finding it tough is because I keep seeing gorgeous projects on other peoples blogs I want to try. I think the amount we want to work on something else is directly proportionate to how fast the deadline is approaching.

And on the topic of other blogs, please forgive me for not leaving more comments and catching up at the moment. I'm stopping by when I can, but I'm feeling horribly behind. I promise to catch up properly ASAP!

Mum's quilt is finished, save for sewing down the binding on the back. While I'm doing that I'll snip off any little fuzzies I find. I tidied them away on the front of the quilt while I was quilting it, but the back is going to be another story!

I promise you all, should my Mum not care for it (and I feel sure the chances are slim at best) that I will let one of you give it a good home. You've all been so kind offering to take it in *smiles* should it find itself oprhaned!

Almost done

Last night I worked away at the Atlantic Jewels quilt, and I'm happy to report I'm almost done! I have only to quilt the outer border, and then I can get to the binding. It's looking really nice, and I know Mum is going to love it.

I need to get to the supermarket today, and then I'll finish up the quilting. I really thought I had so much time to work on my Christmas gifts, given that I had started a couple of months ago, but I still have two things to finish up - the sets of placemats. I know I'll finish them in time, but I'm always amazed at my ability to stretch out my projects right to the deadline!

Weekends are for parties!

Last night Amy had her bestie's birthday party to go to, so while I had a few hours up my sleeve, I canned another 5kgs (about 11lbs) of apricots. I would have made more jam, but I was low on sugar, and now that the fruit is in jars, if I want to make jam later I can. Here you see the 12 jars, they're 1 litre jars, which is about 1 quart. I still have about one more kg of apricots, but I think we'll keep them for eating. Our apricot and peach trees have quite a bit of fruit too, but they're still ripening. It's been a bumper year for stone fruit!

Today was Marty's work Xmas picnic. We had a great day in a park which is quite close to the quilt store. It was super fun, with a huge adventure playground for the kids, tennis courts, lots of shady grass and BBQ's. We all had a wonderful shared lunch, and after lunch, one of the bosses disappeared ... and magically, Santa arrived! There were wonderful gifts for all the kids, and then as it was a hot day, water pistol and water balloon fun! Such a great afternoon.

We then had to race home, as Amy has her friends over this evening for her belated birthday party. We'd had the celebration already with family, but this is the night where her friends come over and have fun. I'm manning the kitchen and helping them out, and leaving them to the run of the lounge and dining room. I've included a picture of a few of the 'lolly bags' I made last night after I finished canning. We wanted to make them a little special, so they're actually plastic tumblers, filled with sweets, and I purchased some fabric flowers on wire and wrapped them around the tumbler, like a potted plant, and they're finished with cellophane and curling ribbon. A fun idea and a nice treat to take home.

I have no plans for tomorrow at this stage, and to be honest, I'm looking forward to having a little down time. I can quilt, and the kids can relax a bit.

And it begins ...

Last night I basted (well, pinned actually) the Atlantic Jewels quilt. It's the one I'm going to give my Mum for Christmas. Thank heavens I haven't given this blog address to anyone in my family! My gift list would be a bust!

After I pinned the quilt, I couldn't help but start quilting just for a little. I am doing a swirly border thing in the sashing strips, and small filler stippling in the outer parts of the stars, and outlining the star points to make them pop up. My picture is not so great, I've been so lazy lately, I'm using the camera phone all the time. I just don't have to play with cables etc with it, it's just so much easier.

It's going to be really hard to give this quilt away as I really love it, and had originally planned to use it on my table. But I know my Mum will love it too, so that will make it worthwhile.