Things are "hotting up" ...

I'm sure you are finding, as I am, that things are "hotting up" in the countdown to Christmas.  Maybe my friends in the snow don't think that's the best way to describe this busy time of the year, but it's very appropriate for where we live.  We found out this week that ALL of our immediate family are going to be at our house for Christmas!!!  YAY!  All 25 of us!!! Now, I'm busy trying to work out if we have enough tables and chairs to fit everyone, counting the sheets and mattresses, deciding whether we need to buy another set of crockery etc. The interstate and overseas families will stay in our house and be around for a couple of weeks - as our daughter described it: "Fun and madness all rolled into one"!!!

Needless to say I'm going like mad trying to get the necessary sewing done.  I've been working on the new free Block of the Month quilt for 2012.  It is looking so sweet and turning out beautifully. I hope to have it ready for hand-quilting by the time everyone starts arriving in 8 days as that will be a good project for sitting around chatting. Then I will be conducting an on-line workshop early in the new year so I'm trying to finish a set of three designs for that.

Now here's something that was finished some time ago - my Showers and Flowers cushion. It is in Patchwork & Stitching magazine Vol 12 No 9.

I always love it when my project makes the front cover!!!



You can't go wrong with checks or stripes, can you?



We had some of our grandchildren with us last week but we only had one trip to the beach as the weather was not good.  It gave Miss E an opportunity to finish a couple of projects.  This girl definitely has the stitching genes.  She did all the stitching on the centre panel herself and most of it before she turned seven!

She decided she would like it made into a cushion, so Grandma raided the purple box for the squares to frame it.

Miss E also finished a little purse from a kit, but it didn't come with a handle, so that called for a lesson in how to make a twisted cord.  She was pretty surprised by how those threads suddenly became a rope!

One of her brothers is a pretty amazing stitcher too.  He even tackles satin stitch!  He has almost finished the Peace block from my 2010 free Block of the Month project, Gifts of Grace.

Well, that's enough skiting (that's Australian for boast!) about my talented grandchildren.

Have a great week.

Happy stitching

Val