Ahhhh Christmas!

More work being done on horse quilt - I am actually enjoying machine quilting this one - simple, almost straight lines, a few triangles to navigate but I am loving the golden thread and the earthy burgandy colours, splashed with some skyblue and grass green. Just a sneak peak mind you, little eyes will see! I have my deadline, as we all do, and it will be done! (I think) Click on the pictures to get a true sense of the colours - thanks so much to Laural Burch.







Some obligatory Christmas shots: I made some garlands from upholstery samples for last year's School Christmas stall - they didn't sell, but I love them - soft colours of blues, creams and greens.


Some doorhangers made from felt and a little embroidery (my first go at it!) I pine for plum pudding all year round, especially my Mum's; she makes two at a time, we eat one, one year and she stores the second one for the year after - OMG, it makes it taste soooo good! This is Year 2 -I think I may not eat at all on Christmas Day, just so I can fit more pudding in!

My friend made the Santa Snacks Cone - this I adore and had to buy it off the stall, along with 'Rudolph's Carrots' - she is so clever!

I love my tree this year - lots of handmade goodies from myself and the girls - the store designed look is so not me - give me glitter and sequins stuck onto paper any day!

Edited: I was going to suggest to click on these pictures for a bigger view, but I did it myself and realised that no, I didn't want everyone looking so closely at my embroidery! So Don't!

MIA and Mi

My DQS2 doll quilt is MIA; no word from swap partner at all; I am just a little disappointed! Did she not get it at all - why wouldn't you say something? Did she get it and just forget niceities, such as 'thanks'? Emails were sent, but no reply. Sometimes I feel so cross.about.the.whole.thing, then sometimes I say, oh well, ce la vie! Maybe someone has it right now laying across their favourite dolly, comforting and warm. I hope so, I really do. The DQS people seem to have gone into hiding; I hope the whole ordeal has not sent them into rehab.

On more cheery note, I won......Mi's little Chrissie stocking...I almost clapped my hands in glee, okay, I did actually clap my hands (hubbie can testify) and to say thank you to Ophelia for drawing out my name, I would love to send her something back, especially as it is going from Australia all the way to Canada. Oh the pressure - something little, Christmasy?, handmade (of course), my mind has gone blank (that is, more blank than usual).

Think Bronwyn, then just do it! Stop typing now and get up off your b...m!

Clear nostrils all over town...

Little pieces of Jennifer Paginelli's Girlfriend range was sent to me from Amitie (see sidebar for blog) for their Blog VIP samples - I couldn't think of what to do with them for absolutely ages - then, from out of the blue, came the lightning bolt - Tissue Holders! What an epiphany! What a stroke of luck! How inspirational! Pressies to help you blow your nose! Clear nostrils all over town! (I like that thought even though my Tongue is Firmly Planted in my Cheek)

I rather like them! A few made with some cotton drill from Spot-you-know-where, and I love the little ribbon 'Love.....dance' (for the dance teachers, of course). Ribbon edging just a little skew-whiff, but that's home-made for you loves!

I need some Colour Consultancy

Can anyone please help?
I am in the process of picking fabric for a quilt (for my mum) and she has chosen Kaffe Fassett collection of brights



(I don't know why the first sentence is as it is - can't undo, I'll keep going)

and I am choosing an easy pattern of 'split 9-patch'

My quandary is that the pattern asks for a 'neutral' fabric for the pinwheel pattern, which is fairly dominant and I have no idea what to choose. (By the way, Mum wants me pick what I think is best - greeeaaaat!)

I bought a creamy self-patterned colour as a neutral but it seems to stand out too much and reading through Kaffe's books, his quilts do not use white/cream, especially in his bright ones.

I am scared to just add a block colour as I don't want this to stand out either against all of the pattern. I have bought 3 fabrics so far, but one is too muted, other too strongly patterned and maybe too dark

What to do???

a little bit of country

'I've gone a bit country since I met you baby
I used to be so rock 'n' roll'
Banjo and Violin by The Audreys

Sorry to any others who are not blessed with living in the most wonderful country called Aussieland, but I have to write a post on the most facinating series on t.v. at the moment:
Rain Shadow, Sundays ABC at 8.30pm. Click here for the trailer.

Click here for character pictures

What a stunner of show - the mesmerising soundtrack of The Audreys (Way Cool group that I absolutely adore) opens to visions of dry, cracked earth and the characters who make their living by this dry cracked earth.

The characters are so real, masked, genuine, complicated, giving, shutoff, generous, hidden......

Hubbie and I have been watching it religiously every week (next Sunday is the finale) and when its short hour of viewing is over, we just sit still, trying to breathe, and tell each other that that was too quick, we need more, we will get some more next week.

The Audreys -'four lads and one lass from South Australia'; get their album now! It won an ARIA for Best Blues and Roots Album in 2006 - I am so damm hooked on it; the haunting sounds of violin, banjo, guitar and the sweetest voice. It lulls me; just listen, listen.

More twirls

Heather Ross' Lightening Bugs range Twirly skirt #1 - layers of pink, streaks of brown, with fabbo bikes - just for my bike loving girl.

(look out for more colours and 'tail waggers' to come)

By the ninth day of November...

Busy, busy, busy; can anyone else feel the momentum?
Lots of piccies to show and tell - here goes....

Hard rubbish pick - up; scored a really lovely wardrobe which matches our bedroom side tables, yay, I love it when things just go together and this will be handy for more storage. Of what you may ask? Why, of fabric of course!!!! My very clever husband took one of the doors home which was off and lying on the nature strip, until I could come home and help him shift the whole thing, (only 3 houses down the road!), so that a missing doored wardrobe would be not very attractive to those with cars and trailers, searching the streets for unwanted goodies. Clever boy!



I had actually seen it on my walk to the local chemist to get my 10 year old daughter's ears pierced (the age limit was 16 in our house, but a lot of working on by daughter to parents, and the age eventually came down to 10) She was so excited - BUT, one of the ear piercing guns jammed and she had one ear with stud (very pretty!) and one ear pierced but not stud! 45mins of negotiations resulted in a final, whew!, decision by her to get the ear done again and she was one happy chappy! Friends have told me that they heard a child screaming from the street - yes, that was her. Stiff drink was necessary, believe me.

The cutest thing was that she made a lovely card to 'The Chemist Ladies who looked after me' which said:

"Thank you for looking after me and I'm sorry for all of the crying and yelling. I was very happy afterwards." She has never looked back since!

"See my earing, see it, do you?

I love it that my 10 year still wants a bonnetted fairy on her cake! (Cake is missing any icing because I really stuffed up a passionfruit cream cheese icing (it was disgustingly sweet) and so rich, that it was used as sauce; even then, blurk! Cake was really good - rich banana!


One more '10 year old' pressie was her tutu; be-sequinned and beautiful - the tutu wasn't bad either!






Dance concert - both girls are in Jazz and Ballet - pre-show pictures show a little about how pumped they were - they had a ball! Both were truly excellent (and I am not just saying that because I gave birth to them!)





One more 'score'; lovely old chenille bedspread from, once again, my favourite op-shop! It was hiding in a dark corner, just waiting for Bronnie to discover it and bring out into the light, to join the growing collection of scrumdilliuptious chenilles. Remember the storage issue? Right on!!


Edited: Family pictures removed