Introducing....

Here she is, our cute little granddaughter.

We are going to enjoy our first Christmas with her. She is adorable, cute, beautiful, sugar and spice and all that. We are smitten!

Naughty - but nice

This is "My Leaf Quilt" from 2001 - well used and well loved....

I did something naughty (but nice) a couple of weeks ago when no-one was looking!
I started a new project.........like I need one.
Anyways, it is going to be another leaf quilt for our queen size bed. Now, last time I made "My Leaf Quilt", I vowed and declared I would not do another queen size quilt.
How the memories fade, a bit like having a baby, we go back a second time.

This leaf quilt is going to be my own design and has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. In fact, I already have about 300 leaves cut out, tacked, and ready to applique. No two will be the same. On Wednesday I cut about 60 miles of bias (well, maybe not quite that much but it felt like it) for the vine. I am going to put it through a 1/4" bias maker and at the same time attach some paper back adhesive.
It will be a hand project that I can take here there and everywhere in the next few months. Can't wait to get started on the stitching now.

A Child is Born

Our beautiful baby grand-daughter, 'Lilian May', was born on Tuesday 9th December. She wished to enter the world earlier than expected by about 3 weeks and was a healthy 5lb 9 oz. She is the most adorable, cutest baby (of course, we are not one-eyed). Mother, father and baby are all doing well.
I am off to their house tomorrow to prepare for the home-coming, and to help our daughter and husband settle into their new way of life.
Exciting times! As soon as I get pictures downloaded from our son-in-law's camera, I will show her off to you.

Yellow Squash

Recently I read in a blog that it is a good idea not to plant more than one zucchini plant at a time.

May I also add to that yellow squash???
OMG we don't know what to do with them.... not too many people are fond of these things, you can't give them away! Hubby and I quite like them but are really over them now.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Crazy Block No 3 - revisited

My sewing days have been a little restricted lately, so I am revisiting crazy block No 3.

Life has been very busy around here, and quilting/sewing has taken a bit of a back seat. Every day I try to snatch a couple of minutes to put needle to fabric, but it doesn't always happen.

We have only 3 weeks to wait now for our first grandchild and I have been visiting our daughter off and on over the past few weeks as she has been feeling poorly. We are all getting very excited!

To the left of the saxaphone, I created a "McIntyre" tartan. It is a criss-cross of stem stitches and closed herringbone stitch in the tartan colours in a vague pattern of the tartan. Now, the truth..... it became a tartan because the stripey brown fabric underneath just did not work with this block, so I had to devise a way to completely cover it up. My mother's family originated from Argyll district in Scotland, so I came up with the idea of their tartan!
Aquarius, the "water-bearer", embroidered up in the right top corner there is pretty self explanatory. I am not a great follower of astrology, but whenever I do read the traits of Aquarians, I must admit a lot of them seem to sum up my personality.

The monogram "D" is done in a closed herringbone stitch shown to me by Robyn Ginn. For some reason I love doing herringbone stitch, and it shows up often in my crazy blocks.

It would not be a 'me' block without my favourite flowers, roses. The silk ribbon roses on this block are my very first attempt at silk ribbon embroidery, and I loved doing it. I just followed the instructions in a book and I think this one was called a woven rose - very easy. I also included some chain stitch roses in deep dark red in the heart embroidery. You just go round and round in chain stitch til you build up what resembles a rose. Robyn Ginn also showed me this technique, and what I like about Robyn's work and her instruction is that she uses all the basic stitches to build up her designs. The other roses I have done beneath the silk ribbon ones are bullion roses.

Lastly, the pictorial embroidery at the bottom right, represents a memory of going on Sunday picnics as a child with my mother and her best friend and all the kids piled into a small sedan (no seat belts in those days). We would go to a beautiful little creek which was lined with willow trees. The bullion stitch teddy bear is having cake and tea under the willow tree. The cake and tea came from the local cafe "Hamlyn's Cafe" (just pretend). My paternal grandparents had a cafe in the 1930's - 40's in our small country town, and my grandma did all the cooking as well as rearing five children. Home made cakes, pies, sandwiches etc. She was a legend!!!

The willow tree trunk is built up with stem stitch and the branches are lots and lots of fly stitches. I enjoy doing sketches with outline stitch like the saxaphone and the tea and cake and have done more of this in subsequent blocks.

GOAL - to have this crazy quilt finished sometime in 2009.