An old-fashioned beauty

Our snail creeper (Vigna caracalla) is flowering profusely. I have this planted on an entrance arbour to our house. It is highly fragrant & delicious to walk beneath. It is an old fashioned plant, not common in gardens these days. It is easy to grow from seed if you can find some. The flowers are a wondrous shape, curling about like snail shells, in beautiful pearly cream & stunning purple shades. As the flowers age, they become a golden colour. The only disadvantage of this stunning plant it that it attracts millions of ants. Walking beneath it comes with the peril of ants dropping on your head! Aaaah, it's worth a few ants in your hair!

Christmas treasures

The Club Quilt Christmas party was wonderful as always. I received these gorgeous cushions from my lovely friend Leanne. These cushions are very special as Leanne is the mother of lots of young children, and has very little time to stitch. Thank you Leanne - I love them both & appreciate every one of your meticulous stitches! Leanne cleverly selected parts of this little Nancy Halverson print to embellish with stitching. She has backstitched over the wording, emphasised the the angel's dress & wings with running stitch & added three very sweet heart shaped buttons. This cushion is also a Nancy Halverson design, and I will know when this little ewe is lost because her rusty bell jingles. Too cute! My gift was received by Dale, and she was either pleased, or a very good actress! No doubt, Peg will have the details of the night & all the wonderful gifts on the Club Quilt blog over the next few days.

Happy 'Club Quilt' Christmas

Finished just in time, here is my swap gift for our Christmas party tonight. It is a Bronwyn Hayes Christmas design (Australian Homespun No.32). I was trying to achieve something Christmassy without using fire-engine red & bottle green. I have used some favourite Robyn Pandolph fabrics. I'm not completely happy with the inner border - not enough contrast? But the 'candy-cane' piping makes up for it I think. The piping was a nightmare to do, but it was worth it. In an attempt to avoid zippers and buttonholes (!) I decided to close the back of the cushion with fabric ties. I will do that again. Really easy & so much more interesting than a zip. I've now only to wait nervously to see if the recipient likes it!

School is out ... almost

Three teacher presents, done and dusted! Decided to keep things simple (for once!) and make them identical. I love how the 'Dick & Jane' fabrics have worked for these. Also really love the dotty Faber-Castell pencils. The inspiration for the pencil rolls is entirely from Pink Chalk Studio. My children are a little uncertain about giving their teachers coloured pencils as a gift, but I have pulled rank (a mother's privilege!) and hope they will be well received. They will be delivered on the last day of school tomorrow. I am busy completing my Club Quilt gift for our Christmas Party tonight. Not at all happy with how it is progressing. You know how you have a picture in your head of how you want something, but can't seem to translate it to fabric? Have to push on with it now though as I'm out of time. I will post about it later tonight, after the big event!

Quilt-a-long block 5

My Mum is really enjoying being involved in Crazy Mom Quilt's quilt-a-long. Here is her latest block. I am madly stitching in every spare moment of time, trying to meet my teacher gift & Club Quilt Christmas party deadlines for Thursday. Hopefully, there will be more to show later in the day. I thought this clever idea would be great as a re-usable gift bag rather than using wrapping paper ... too many ideas, too little time! If anyone has any idea why Blogger sometimes formats my text as single-spaced, other times double-spaced, please enlighten me. Pedantic I know, but it is driving me mad!

December bedlum

The craziness that is December has hit with a vengeance. Very busy with end of school activities, Christmas parties etc. Lots of fun, but not much time for stitching! I try to create something handmade for my three children each Christmas. These were last year's gifts.

They are 'A Little Bit of Christmas' by Anni Downs of Hatched & Patched. I have been well informed already by the munchkins as to their preferred content for their stockings. There are new, handwritten & carefully considered lists delivered to me each day it seems. Actually, the lists are not new, just updated and getting progressively longer!

What a sweetie

This is a Delbard rose called Paris 2000. So delicate & pretty. I planted it this spring having purchased it at 'the best rose sale ever'! Evidently, it was selected as the floral emblem for Paris' millennium celebrations, then planted throughout France in public and private gardens.

Deadlines looming

I have been waiting on this very cute fabric to arrive in the post.

'Dick & Jane' fabric PLUS

these EQUALS ?

School is almost over for the year and I need to get a move on with teacher gifts. The Club Quilt Christmas party is only a week away, so the deadline for my gift is looming for that also. Had better get busy!

Has Christmas come early?

The lovely Marg at Marg Low Designs recently ran a most generous giveaway on her blog, and guess who was lucky enough to have won?! I am very partial to silver jewellery & it hasn't left my wrist since it arrived in the post on Monday. Thank you Marg and thanks also to Roz who designs this lovely jewellery under her Charli-Rose label and who offered this beautiful bracelet as a prize. You are both exceedingly generous. I confess I did take the opportunity to purchase two of Marg's wonderful patterns, Sew Pretty and For You Pillow. Her patterns are meticulously written (I love that!) & I look forward to making them up.

Mum's Quilt-a-long block 4

Crazy Mom Quilts is gradually increasing the difficulty of her quilt-a-long blocks. Wonder what else she has in mind for us - perhaps we'll be doing hand pieced hexagons by the end!!