Parental Christmas gifts.....

 I didn't make as many handmade gifts this year as last year just because of time constraints but I did make an exception with my parents as they are probably my biggest fans (as they should be of course :-) and really appreciate my handmade gifts. So this year for my Mother I made this writing compendium based on the one  I made here. I picked out some pretty floral prints that I thought she would like and embellished the outer cover with some ric-rac and machine embroidery.

 A while back now I raided my Mothers button tin so I thought it was only appropriate to chose a button from her past and this button is such a pretty one don't you think?

 I've had this hen fabric for ages and since my Mother likes hens I decided it was the perfect use for it.

 And here's the back with some pretty blue and grey ric-rac that coordinates perfectly with these pretty prints.

 Now my Dad was pretty easy too as he admired my bible cover so I made covers for two of his three bibles. These are fairly quick to whip up once I've made the fabric choices and the pieces are cut out.

My favourite detail is the ribbon bookmark on this cover where I have simply combined the purple woven tape with the aqua ric-rac.

 Here's the back of each cover. As you can see I used some lovely vibrant Bali Batik's and I tried to avoid anything too feminine or pretty.
Suffice to say they were both happy with their respective gifts made with love :-)

Library book bags....

 A few weeks before Christmas I was asked by a friend if I could make up a couple of library book bags for her niece and nephew so I put Pinterest to good use and found this tutorial. I am so pleased with how these bags turned out as was my friend thank goodness :-) The tutorial was really easy to follow and I managed to make both bags in 1 day which was a bonus considering I left them till the last week before Christmas to make them.

 My friends niece likes 'owls' so I appliqued an owl to the front pocket and found an owl print to use as the library card pocket that is on the front of the strap. The main striped fabric is a cotton twill that was a leftover remnant in my stash from a skirt I made Caitlin when she was about 5 I think.

For the boy's version I found some striped canvas by "Prints Charming" at Spotlight and added some whale fabric from my stash which helped me come up with the whale appliqué on the front pocket. These bags are really roomy and strong with a 3 inch wide strap that is made with a creamy coloured canvas and they are fully lined with "french seams" no less :-) Makes me wish my girls were younger so I could make them one each although I think I might use this pattern to make my eldest daughter a laptop bag with a few measurement alterations of course and at 15 years I don't think she will want any appliqué on the front either.

A surprise in the post....

 I am feeling very blessed and grateful today to have made such good, supportive and generous friends through my blog. One such friend is Karen who is an Australian blogger who today surprised me with this Christmas parcel. Included in it was an Aneela Hoey quilting journal which  is filled with blank thick artist quality paper and some graph paper at the back and I can't wait to start using it. She also included a pretty embroidered laced edged linen and a very much needed bookmark. Much needed because I currently have no less than 5 books on the go. Yes books are my therapy at the moment as are girlfriends :-) 

Thank you Karen, you are so generous and thoughful :-)

 I have also been meaning to share this parcel that I recieved a couple of weeks ago just in time for the Christmas decorating. Back sometime in the beginning of November I agreed to do a Christmas ornament swap with Julie who follows my blog and is unfortunately not a blogger herself but I think she should be as she is a very clever crafter going from what she sent me for this swap. Everything is perfectly made right from the pretty wrapping of the parcel itself.

Julie generously made me not one or two ornaments but four ornaments all beautifully and perfectly crafted. 

Thank you Julie for your generosity and I would gladly do another swap with you next year!

I hope everyone is enjoying a peaceful and joyous Christmas/New year holiday break. For the last month I have been very busy sewing things for my shop and also some last minute Christmas gifts so will back here soon to share what has kept me away from blogging these last 3 weeks.

For the love of books.......

It is no secret to those who know me and my girls, that we all love to read a lot and therefore we have quite a collection of books or a small library in the case of the girls :-) There is always a book or two laying around in various places and a whole stack next to my bed at the moment. Some time ago when I was re-arranging and re-decorating our entrance room on the ground level of our home I got rid of our damaged and ugly bookcase and put my books in storage until I found the perfect bookcase at the right price. I have yet to find that perfect bookcase but last week I replaced a bedside table with a more appropriate set of bedside drawers in Caitlin's room. Having to fit the original little table she had been using elsewhere in our home I came up with the idea of displaying some of the very old books I had been given from my parents. Inspiration came from here, here and here. Two or three of them are in slight dis-repair but I quite like that. A couple of them date back to the 1930's so I think they deserve to be on display at that age and not packed up in a box in a garage. 

So when I was rescuing those old books I also found my Bible that I had been given way back in the 70's and decided it needed a nice bookcover to protect it and also make it look pretty and more me :-)

I used my favourite blue, turquoise and purple batik fabrics and embellished it with some machine embroidery stitches. 

My very favourite turquoise batik for the spine....

...a label stitiched on the back so I would know which was the front and back :-) and a ribbon bookmark was added to the top of the spine in a perfect colour combo of grey and turquoise.

And on the front inside I added a bookmark keeper to hold the small collection of bookmarks that were still in it.

I made this cover in just a few hours on Saturday afternoon and really enjoyed making something just for "me" for a change plus the whole challenge of designing it from scratch. Now it looks all very much at home and pretty sitting on a shelf above my bed.

Getting organised....

One simple and  practical idea that we (the Mothers) all liked at camp last week was that although we cooked all the meals everyday the menu was all planned for us along with all the required food stocked in the pantry/fridges/freezers. We all thought wouldn't that feel great to be so organised like this at home. So on Sunday morning I took 2 recipe books off my shelf, sat in the sun on our deck and wrote out a menu for this week along with a grocery shopping list.  As you can see in the above photo I have a wee 'library' of recipe books collected over the years. I have 2 recipe journals to write down recipe's in and one journal specifically for storing those recipes ripped out of magazines. The added benefit of writing out a menu each week is that I will actually use recipes from each book rather than them gathering dust. I love trying out new recipes hence my large collection of books. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that has recipe books that are seldom used though. Oh and to be completely honest here that shelf does not house all my recipe book collection. I have another 1/2 dozen recipe books on another shelf, because they are just too big to fit up there with the others and also not forgetting my small collection of "Donna Hay" magazines which I have stopped buying now.

 It really does take that pressure off throughout the day knowing exactly what's for dinner. Narrowing it down to 2 books each week makes it easier to choose 6 recipes for dinner, lunch ideas for the girls and my weekly baking. In case you're wondering my husband does actually cook and is a good cook. When his workload is not so demanding he cooks a few times a week but at the moment it's down to a roast on Saturday night. 

My girls are also enjoying having the menu on the fridge and knowing what's for dinner each night. No more "What's for dinner?" questions although 2 of the meals this week have stretched to do 2 nights which led to disappointed cries of "What about Thursday's 'Pork patties with fresh plum sauce'?? I like it when a meal lasts 2 nights though as it gives me a night off cooking :-)

So is anyone else this organised when it comes to family meals? Do you have a large collection of recipe books but only use a couple of favourite books?

I have been......

Strip piecing these squares....

....here's a little peek at what I created today and am hoping to finish tomorrow....

harvesting rhubarb and strawberries... 

 ...cooking the rhubarb with some granny smith apples to go with our breakfast cereal, yum. This is especially nice with a little orange juice and rind but today I settled for a little natural vanilla essence in the absence of oranges....

....and I am often found with my nose in this book lately. Jodi Picoult's books get me every time. 

New additions...

Every year my Mum and I have a girls day out at the Hamilton Quilt and Craft fair. It's a great day out looking and talking about things we both like, inspired by new products, seeing fabrics in person rather than online, and gazing at the beautiful featured craft displays. This years display from  'Creative fibres New Zealand ' really wowed us and left us in awe wondering how they create their hand woven and felted garments and art pieces. The quilt exhibitions also included some stunning work and again we were impressed with the details on the quilts and the beautiful machine quilting. Unfortunately I did not remember to take my camera with me so can share no photos with you. The only disappointment for me was that I only saw one quilt that included some hand quilting on it. I certainly know it is not a dying skill because I see many hand quilted quilts online but very rarely do I see them in local exhibitions.

While my budget didn't extend to buying yet more fabric I did add to my button and ribbon collection. And yes hidden under the buttons and ribbon is a copy of "The Farmers wife Sampler Quilt". I have been admiring the blocks being made in this Quilt along for a while now like Camille's here,  Kristyne's here and Jodi's here, but was on the fence about joining in since I hadn't seen the actual book. This particular copy was reduced from $45 down to $30 due to very minor dog-eared corners so how could I not resist :-). Now I just need to find some suitably pretty fabrics!

Last minute gift sewing...

Just quickly popping in to show you what I'm working on today. These are going to be some little chicks that I'm making from a pattern in Anna Maria Horner's book 'Handmade Beginnings'  I bought this book because I know of 2 little babies due to be born during the next couple of months and I thought that was a good enough reason :-) I have Anna's first book and love the way she writes and of course the patterns are great too.

These little chicks are too cute and are a baby shower gift to which we are going to on Sunday. 

Hoping to finish them up tonight with some hand sewing in front of the TV. 

Been busy just you know doing stuff like....

...reading Jodi Picoult's books, a slight addiction here as this is my 4th one in about 2 months....

...I finished making this pillow last week and today has been the first day that the weather has been good enough to take photos. I've always wanted to make a bolster pillow and I love how this one turned out. It is made from 4 leftover blocks and yoyo's from my Bliss quilt and can be purchased here. 

And here's a sneek peek of another wee project I'm working on with some more Bliss fabric:)

And I've finally bought myself one of these Clover yoyo makers. Yes I've been doing it the old fashioned way in the past but I'm sure this will make, making yoyo's quicker and more enjoyable especially when I start this quilt along.

I have also been kept busy with teaching my youngest daughter Caitlin and her friend how to sew. They have been working hard on a rather ambitious project for beginner sewers but when they are both finished I shall share what they have produced.

I don't know why it is when people ask me what I have been doing that I can often never think of exactly what I have been working on. My mind seems to go blank somehow....

Love a good page turner....and a classic

Thanks to my bookworm nearly 14 year old daughter I have found another great book that I am enjoying so much that it is way too hard to put it down especially when I should really be doing other things. We saw the film last year  and loved it although it is very sad and I thought Cameron Diaz was wrongly cast as the Mother. I think the  film was well done and portrayed the story well but as is always the case the book has a lot more in it. So Amelia got it out from the library for herself along with "The Clan of the Cave Bear" and I got out.......

......this book because I love the author's more well known series "The No.1 detective agency" and I thought maybe his other series would be worth a go. Unfortunately I got rather bored reading this and gave up which I hate to do but I have better things to do than read a book that I am not enjoying. So now that I'm 2/3 of the way through "My Sister's Keeper" I am interested in trying out her other books and hoping some of you will be able to recommend some of her other titles???

Since it is school holidays here Caitlin and I are reading this book together. This is a classic children's series that I absolutely adored  as a child so much so that I wanted to be Heidi or at the very least have her pretty little Swiss dresses, but to my disappoint I have never been able to get Amelia to read them, although she's probably a little old for them now. Maybe its because the writing is a little too old fashioned I'm not sure but Caitlin seems to be really enjoying having it read to her and I am definitely enjoying reading it all over again. Plus its nice to spend a little quality one on one time with Caitlin.

So what children's classics can you remember as a child that you loved and read over and over, please do share with me. As you can tell we love to read in our house where you will find books on every floor :)

A Friday finish!

Another cushion to lounge around on. Have been working on this all afternoon and managed to get it finished just before dinner (thankfully my DH made dinner tonight). After I machine quilted it I wasn't so sure whether I still liked it as much but now it has a nice plump pillowform inside I'm warming to it again. I did really enjoy working with the stripes for a change and just playing with the layout. I think in hindsight I would have done a simpler quilting pattern. The idea for this cushion is from Kaffe Fassetts book "Passionate patchwork" which is full of beautiful quilt patterns and just great inspiration.

The reverse side.

 It measures 24" x 24" so its big enough for a throw cushion in our lounge. I really want to keep it nice and vibrant which will be a challenge in our lounge as we have floor to ceiling windows on one wall and the sun streams in all morning (nice on winter mornings though).

I'm adding this to Amylouwho's Sew'n'tell Friday this week. Be sure to go on over and check out everyone's great finishes this week.

Ready to quilt.

I finished the backing for this quilt today and it is now pinned and ready for quilting. I made this quilt top way back in July so its about time I got onto the quilting!! I put it on hold to complete my zig zag quilt and the wonky log cabin quilt. I love this quilt already so I'm very eager to get started on the quilting. Not sure how I'm going to quilt it yet. Hopefully I'll get an epiphany when I sit down at my machine!

These 4 parcels arrived in the mail today. So exciting to get parcels in the mail so to receive 4 in one day was pretty cool.

These are the lovely colourful scraps that came out of the above parcels. I can't wait to start this quilt.

My daughter Amelia and I are going to the "New Moon" movie on Friday afternoon so I have been reading this book at every opportunity to get it finished before I saw the movie. Amelia has read all 4 books twice now so you could say she's a bit of a fan. They are aimed at teenage readers but I've gotta say I'm hooked and can't wait to start the 3rd in the series " Eclipse" which will be tonight.

Inspiration for today.....

Look at what came in the mail today! A very inspirational book with beautiful quilts beautifully photographed. I can't wait to have a really good read of it.

I did manage to make it into my sewing attic today. I got 3 items cut out but realised I didn't have enough interfacing for them so they will have to wait till tomorrow. I did some mending on the girls clothes. They had both worn holes in the knees of their leggings. On Caitlin's pair the hole was quite big so I cut out some flowers from some fabric scraps, reinforced it with a little interfacing on the reverse then simply stitched around the flowers. Caitlin was pretty happy with them and will probably wear them tomorrow. Amelia's pair just had a tiny hole and I found a stitch on my machine that I had never realised was there and it is obviously designed specifically for darning. I can't believe I've had my machine for 15 years at least and never discovered this stitch.

When I am mending the girls clothes or taking up hems etc I feel grateful that I learnt to sew and always wonder what women who don't sew do in these situations. A lot of clothing must be wasted out there!