Thank You No. 2 - Secret Santa Christmas Swap

The Secret Santa Christmas Swap run by swap-muma Chooky Blue is always wonderful and this year lived up to every expectation. This is a round robin swap so I only knew who I was making for & not who was making for me. It ended up being a very exotically international affair for me this year!

 

I was in awe to see on my parcel that my partner that made gifts for me was Martine from Bizzy Martine all the way North in Belgium! It's quite amazing to think I now have beautiful gifts in my home that were stitched especially for me from all the way in Belgium - wonderful!

 

My first parcel to open was the Christmas decoration & Martine has made me the sweetest Christmas kitty, waiting by the tree, maybe for Santa Paws to come.... Purrfection I say!

 

 

My Christmas day presents were just as lovely, including a gorgeous snowman stitchery on a table mat. I have to admit to a bit of a soft spot for snowmen (ironic given our Christmas weather) and fabric with mittens on it. I really should live in the Northern hemisphere & have snowy Christmas every year. It is on the 'bucket list' to experience a bunch of winter Christmas's in the years to come. Look at my packet of fir tree biscuits too - all the way from Belguim - I think by now it's a little obvious that I can't believe I have gifts from Belgium!!! Thank you Martine, I love my stitchery gifts & they will be a part of every years Christmas decorating from now on. xx

 

 

 

 

Now this years swap was truly an international affair and there was purrs all around when Mia, HB & I found out our swap partner to send to was Florence & Princess Nounouche! Don't tell Mia but I think HB is a bit smitten by the beautiful French Princess.

 

First there was a decoration for Florence. I know she loves our Aussie designers so this stitchery by Gail Pan from the book Sew Gifts was perfect for this swap.

 

 

We had a family conference and after many meows it was decided the Princess could not be left out either so a decoration applauding her beauty was made and a little frame decoration filled with a picture of her and added too.

For the Christmas present I made up my favourite angel block with stitchery embellishments, adding a sleeve so Florence can use it either as a wall hanging or table mat. I love that sparkly Michael Miller white fabric, perfect for a background for an angel.

For a few added bonuses I added some Christmas fabric and a couple of Aussie patterns too. They were all wrapped in gold & white Christmas owl fabric & ribbon. A big sigh of relief and haha to Mr Australia Post when the parcel came in at 498 grams too!

Naturally I was very happy to hear that Florence & the Princess loved their parcels. So big thanks to Chooky Blue on organising another wonderful Christmas swap. I think it might be time for a cup of tea & a sampling of  Belgium fir tree.....

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Christmas Swaps I Sent

I have lost most of my pics for 2012 & so have borrowed pics from my swap partners to show you what I made for them.

In Chookyblue's SSCS Swap my partner was Siri in Norway. This is the peek of her main project I gave back in November.

And here is the finished cushion sitting on Siri's couch all the way in the Northern hemisphere - amazing! Siri's happy & so am I.

In an earlier post you saw all the amazing projects that Karen from Just Purrfick sent me so here is the line up that I sent to her.

The Christmas Tag - thanks to Red Brolly for this free design.

Something sewing - love this book by Lynette Anderson (see her new book Stitch It For Spring to preorder from UK Book Depository on my side bar - $8.93 bargain!).

The Christmas Decoration - simple with a steampunk embellishment.

A starter kit

A Christmas Postcard - a Jenny from Elephantz design. It says 'Ón Christmas Day at half past three, I'll think of you, you think of me'. The words you can't see are under the chocolates. I didn't know whether to add tea or coffee satchets so went with chocolate pops instead. I sent Siri one of these too as her decoration in the SSCS swap.

Something to nibble

 



A Candle mat - a very large candle mat - I thought this funky table runner would suit Karen's bright Christmas decorating so had to fit it in somehow.

An applique wall hanging - the idea for this was in a American quilting magazine but I had to add in Rudolph for a bit more humour.

A Santa Stocking, with happy dancing santas....

And the piece de resistance..... the steampunk robin stitchery & frame. I wasn't sure about this while stitching, not colours I am used to, but when it hit me I had the perfect frame & I got it in there, I realised it was better than I hoped for. The main thing is Karen loves him so yippee!

 

 

I can't believe I made so many gorgeous things! I love them, Karen loves them & Mrs Martin ran a great swap - so thanks to both of you for making this so much fun!

 

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

 

 

SSCS & Other Gifts

Hi all, survived Christmas and now trying to live out the Perth Christmas Heatwave of 2012. 10  days of temps around 40+ degrees & not even a low 30 forecast until next Thursday 3rd January - that's next year!

 

I'm just thankful that the worst I have to complain about is the heat & it's not as if I didn't know if was coming - it's been the same for the last 26 years I have lived here & every year I say 'I can't take another year of that' and every year I do nothing about it. Bah humbug to me!

 

On to more exciting things. Here are a few pressies that were under my tree from lovely bloggers;

 

From Michell in New Zealand from Michell's Place blog, this is my SSCS swap present. A gorgeous table runner & Michelle tells me it is her first time at FMQ - awesome - if only I can get to that level I will be happy! It's just the perfect size for my coffee table & gorgeous colours and prints.

 

 

Thank you so much Michell & your Christmas decorations (gingerbread man & snowman) opened earlier & blogged about here took pride of place in my little Christmas decorating. The Father Christmas & Stocking were brought at the Drysdale Craft shop (on the Bellerine Peninsular) while on my Ballarat holiday.

 

 

 

Also under the tree was this huge box of goodies from our gorgeous Shez which will be put to great use. What could be better in a sweaty, smelly Perth heatwave???

And this gorgeous angel who will take pride of place on my tree each year to come. Thank you my angel Shez! xx

And from our lovely friend Melody, another parcel I brought home from Ballarat. It contained lots of goodies, a kitty-cat bag, a snowman applique bag with choccies & candy canes and the most beautiful woollen pin cushion.

And a close up of the linen bag - chocs long gone & only a couple of candy canes left too....

And the kitty-cat pin cushion. I haven't made anything with wool felt yet & this is my first gift made of such so I think you have managed to give me a new obsession Mel. It is just delightful! Thank you dear Melody xx

And to end this is the cat & mouse Christmas card my cousin Chris sent me from New Zealand. She is a card maker, knitters & crocheter but i would say from this card that she has a lot of stitching potential too!

Spoilt again & loving it!

Happy New Year!

Tracee xx

SSCS Decoration

Hi all

While it is steaming hot over the Eastern States of Australia, Perth is having rain, hail, storms and cool nights. The hail stones almost made it look like snow last Saturday.

Now we have had storms for the last two days again & last night while I was finishing my last Christmas Angel swap present, we had a blackout. Even that couldn't stop me getting those last stitches done & I'm sure many a quilter in days gone by has stitched and tea dyed their work by lamplight only.

I have received my SSCS swap from a blogger new to me, Michell from Michell's Place in New Zealand. Michell has a lovely festive blog going at the moment so pop over & visit.

 

I have put my main SSCS pressie away for Christmas & opened my very large decoration present. It would be best described as a present extravaganza!

Not only is there a gorgeous little gingerman decoration but also a ceramic snowman decoration, a kitty tea bag holder (purrfect!), some embossed Christmas gift tags, a box of 25 kitty Christmas cards (even more purrfect!!) and a culturally Kiwiana New Zealand 2013 Calendar. Being Kiwi born I love having Kiwi calendars in my house & this one is gorgeous. Totally beyond spoilt I say!

Thanks very much to Michell for my lovely gifts, can't wait to open the sewn gift too.

I see I have just ticked over 100 followers too. I was planning to have a giveaway when that happened but with work tomorrow, payroll & paying accounts for the club I do Treasurer for tomorrow night and then flying out on holiday for a week first thing Saturday morning, I will have to leave it until when I come back. Thanks though to all those who have signed up as followers, those dear friends who comment on my posts & the readers who I hope will become followers, commenters & friends in the future. Watch this space in a couple of weeks time for a close to Christmas giveaway! 

 

 

Happy swapping!
Tracee xx

The Week That Was.....

Hi all

It's been a big week, lots of work including our AGM on Wednesday which meant getting home from work at 10.30pm (followed by a nap in on Thursday morning). A bonus was being able to bring home one of the flower arrangements. The photo below was taken Thursday so now all the lillies are out & it is even more gorgeous.

Like many I am doing the mad secret sewing rush to get all my Christmas swaps ready. Lots of hand stitching & Friday night I surprised even my self with a machine sewing frenzy. I zipped through a couple of swap pressies, part of a table runner & a little bag for a precious little lady who has just turned six.

 

The bag is called Ruby's Party Bag, a free pattern from Moda Bakeshop's blog & website. You can find it here. It is the perfect tiny size for a perfect tiny little lass, one of my big hands almost fills it. I used three of Melly's 'Where The Wind Blows' fabric, the main one great for a fellow pinkaholic.

Today was the first meeting of the WA Quilters Guild's applique group, now known as The Applique Junkies. We met in one members house with 11 of us to begin with. Next year we will have a hall & welcome everyone so it should grow much larger. There was a great show & tell (with my camera sadly forgotten at home), needleturn, machine & blanket stitch applique in progress and of course plenty of food & coffees. At last, a quilt group that meets way North of the river in Perth. It is only once a month but was a great day.

I worked on 3 projects today, finishing the binding on a swap gift;

Finishing the blanket stitch applique on another swap gift;

And starting the blanket stitch applique on a third swap gift;

Quite a productive day amongst lots of talk, recommendations of places to buy, lots of comparing notes on the frustrations of free motion quilting & longarm quilting and even some discussion on applique, especially the dreaded needleturn which a couple of ladies were very proficient at - hope for me yet!

 

Now I am going to sew three Snugglybug blocks - good thing I don't think I will need dinner.

 

Please note: NO santas were harmed in the making of these swap gifts!

 

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

SSCS Parcel I Sent

My partner that I sent to in the Secret Santa Swap was Lori from Lolastitchida. Lori showed very similar tastes to me in her SAL choices so after checking out her blog I figured she would like something similar in fabrics & designs to what I like.

So I got out some patterns from my favourite designers & finally decided on The Loving Home Wall Hanging from Natalie Bird's book From The Heart. The fabric is called A Fine Romance by Moda.

I am happy to say that Lori emailed & posted on her blog today that she is very happy with her gift. That is wonderful, thanks Lori. xx

Thanks also too our Swap Mama, ChookyElf who does an amazing job organising the swap and getting us all to make deadlines. I would have thought that after your SAL duties all year you would be happy for a break come Christmas but no. Thanks very much. I'm sure it is greatly appreciated by all us swappers & SALers and hope you realise what positive things you add to our blogging & swapping experiences. xx

Now back to my SKOW SAL blocks before the whip comes out in 2 sleeps time!

Happy stitching

Tracee xx



SSCS Swap Parcel I Received

At last Christmas Day came & it was time to open the Secret Santa Christmas Swap pressies. From my partner Kristi from kj's Weblog in the USA I received a gorgeous Pincushion Organiser & Zipped Pencil Case. Kristi can obviously tell I need to be a bit more orgnised & tidy - just kidding, but it's so true.

In her letter Kristi told me when she saw the fabric Whiskers & Tails that she knew it was just perfect for me. And she was right, totally PURRRRRFECT!

It includes a pincushion on the top & a woollen piece for needles, a nice pocket where I can put my sewing needles to remind me to change them more often, a pocket for scissors & the quick-unpick, both which Kristi included in my gift. Hanging down is the very important bin for my errant threads & off cuts. I am going to put all my tracing pens, Frixion pens & glue pens in the pencil case so I am not looking all over the place for them like now.

A gorgeous & useful gift that will be put to work by my sewing machine for many years to come. I had one down on my to do list too so now can rule that one off. Thanks very much Kristi, an awesome gift. xx

Happy New Year to all!
Tracee  xx  Brutus  xx  Hun-bun  xx

Three Swaps Update

Firstly I want to bless the Canadian post man who finally managed to deliver my Secret Santa Christmas Swap present to Lori of Lolastitchida blog. It took a month & is one of the last to show up so I was getting pretty apprehensive about it - just ask Chooky. She would have given a sigh of relief to see it was delivered & know I would now stop emailing to ask.

Below is Lori's snowman ornament up in her Christmas tree. I told Lori Mr Snowman was no doubt very happy to now live in Canada as it is no fun being a snowman in Perth at Christmas. The forecast isn't as hot as usual for Christmas Day but 30 degrees isn't a snowman's best environment. This pattern is from Rosie Quinlin's little Christmas Book 'Petit Noel'.

Only 3 more sleeps & all us SSCS swappers can open our main Christmas presents. I can't wait to show you Lori's main present. I think it turned out beautifully & hopefully judging my Lori's choices in the SAL's she will love it too.



I also took part in the Rainbow Charm Square Swap hosted by Sharon of Lilabelle Lane. It was based on the colourwheel & all 16 of us were allocated 5 spokes of the wheel & had to provide 16 x 5 inch charm squares to match those colours. Sharon then did her magic & sorted all the sqaures (1280 of them!) so that every member received a rainbow of 80 charm squares. Here's the end result. Now to think of what I am going to make with my rainbow of fabricy goodness. There are going to be more charm swap so so if you are interested contact Sharon & join in.

And for the third swap, here's a look at the pressies I sent to Marie in the Santa Sack swap hosted by swap-mama Cheryll of Gone Stitchin'. I really need to remember to take photographs before I send things but as this was a parcel a month that would be a few photos whereas Marie has a nice group shot.

Marie is just starting out on her sewing obsession so I tried to feed it with a couple of books - Tilda's Summer Ideas & Sew by Cath Kidson that includes a little kit. There is also a couple of pieces of jewellery, bookmark, notebook, clock, teatowels, soaps & an angel.

I sent Marie a little Christmas cushion using one of the SAL blocks from Tis The Season.

And because she loves Babuska dolls, a pattern & thread to stitch some small dolls and a table runner made with Babuska fabric.

I didn't have a pattern for this but made the four squares & then tried to decide how to put it together. Side by side seemed a little boring & adding too many complimentary fabrics would have been very bright so I got an idea from a recent table runner swap Shez did & decided to put them on point. When it came to doing the binding I was wondering how to do the inner turns but when in doubt, search on Youtube & there was the answer. It took awhile to bind, lots of folding, trying to hold the fold, dropping, refolding & a quick stitch to keep in place.

By the final stitch & press I thought it looked pretty impressive & Marie likes it so happy, happy, happy. It has been fun opening all out pressies, like having two Christmas Days. If you didn't get involved this year, look out on Cheryll's blog for next year.

I also received this beautiful card with a kitty on Santa's knee & a duckling needle holder & three little kitties to add to my brood from the very kind Melody of The House on the Side of the Hill. Melody hosts Tuesday Treasures each week where we can show off the things we love & that make us happy. Maybe on our first January post we should all post about the Treasure that is Melody & the acts of kindness she sprinkles lovingly on all of us. Thank you Melody! xx

Work is over for the year now & we are closed until Monday 9th January. I now have some last minute shopping to do (pressies for the furboys!) & the food shopping for Christmas Day. Of course there is the cleaning to do too. A trip to the pool shop to see if the salt cell needs replacing AGAIN.

Then I have to get some sort of system in place to remember all I have signed up for in quilty blog land for 2012 & get things underway. First I need to get all the December blocks sewn for the Some Kind of Wonderful SAL with Chooky & make lots of practice sandwiches for SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge that starts 1st January & for the online Machine Quilting class I am doing. Of course, I still have some Christmas gifts to finish sewing too. All good fun!

Merry Christmas
Tracee xx Brutus xx & Hun-bun xx

SSCS & Santa Sack Swap

I received my Secret Santa Christmas Swap parcel this week from Kristi from Tuscon, Arizona.  I don't know what her blog name is so can't link to it but Chooky who organised the swap may be able to tell me. We are opening our Christmas decoration now & the rest is put away for Christmas Day.

Here are my gorgeously wrapped parcels & card. See one says 'Open Now!'

And here is my Christmas decoration, a beautiful & colourful felt Babuska doll. I love it! Thanks Kristi, looking forward to opening my pressies xx



I also received my final Santa Sack Swap & we were all opening our 13 parcels yesterday. My swap partner was Marie who does gorgeous scrap booking & is a new sewer. I got the most beautiful santa sack followed by all these gifts.

It wasn't easy keeping them in tact when some had been in the cupboard since early July but I hid them a way to ease the temptation.

Look at these two happy characters. Maree loves Babuska dolls & this tin (now empty of the chocolates it came with) is now my second and she will be put to good use in my sewing corner.

I received many beautiful gifts; Here is my new pattern, Garden Path, 4 fat quarters & 4 lots of matching floss.....

A very fine cat mug, Bless Our Happy Home tin plaque, lovely smelling soap....

A gorgeus trinket box with the bird on it, a vanilla candle in a mosiac glass holder, 3 scented drawer bags & on the left is a scone set with recipes, tea towel & round cutter (on the 'to-do' list to try)....

Sorry my photos are a bit shonky from her on but there is also a gorgeous sparkly notebook, a set of 3 handcreams, a kitty hanky & a wooden scrapbook frame to embellish.

Thank you Maree for your most beautiful & thoughtful gifts. Also thank you to Cheryll from Gone Stitchin for your hard work organising this wonderful swap. To see what lots of other happy swappers got, click on the link above to Cheryll's blog.

Marry Christmas
Tracee xx