Sew Wots Christmas Lunch

It was time to meet up for our Sew Wots Christmas Lunch, enjoy a meal together and swap our hand made pincushions.  Unfortunately, I would be a little late as I had a hospital appointment to attend, and you certainly can’t turn those down, can you.  I must tell you about the unexpected compliment I received as I entered the Medical Centre.  There was an elderly gent sitting outside, waiting for a ride perhaps.  As I walked towards the door he called  – “Don’t you look lovely dressed in blue”, he said.  Oh, so sweet, his comment really made my day!

With my appointment over, I drove to the café for lunch, not too far away, luckily. The others had already eaten, as I had told them not to wait for me, as I wasn’t sure how long I would be.  My lunch order was Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, and we chatted as I ate my late lunch.

Jenny, Helen, Mary, Moira, Heather and Carol

All the gifts were place in a basket at the end of the table.  The instructions were to make our pincushion out of recycled items, so that was a bit of a challenge.  We had already drawn a name out so we knew who we were making the pincushion for.

Basket full of gifts

And here they all are, quite different and all lovely.  Helen made my pincushion from a pocket from her old jeans, and Mary made Moira a very elegant velvet chair pincushion.  Heather stitched Carol two pincushions, a sweet little chicken sitting on a crazy patch cushion, and I made Heather a tiny little owl, remembering that she really doesn’t like pins stuck into pincushions in the shape of animals.  Moira’s gift to Helen was a pincushion on top of a cute little watering can, and Carol’s pincushion for Mary was made from a recycled black bra!

Such a variety of pincushions

Heather had been busy in the evenings, she told us, and presented us each with a cute little elf.  The story was that she kept making them until she had used up her ball of green wool, and made about a dozen.  And here’s a close up photo of my very special pincushion.  Helen tucked a note inside, writing that the stuffing came from an old cushion, the tape was a birthday present, the tiny doily was made by Helen’s Mum some years ago, the embellishments came from her collection, and the two old buttons were from her button jar.  And tucked inside were a packet of needles, tape measure and pins from an Op Shop.  Truly all recycled, thanks so much Helen, I love it !

Hello, little elf, and my Jeans Pocket pincushion

That’s the end of our Sew Wot get togethers for 2019, it’s been a great year sharing stitching time with this group of lovely ladies.  And we will all be raring to go again in February, after we have all enjoyed a Christmas break.

Reflecting back

Now we are back home from holiday I’ve had the chance to catch up with some of my favourite blogs.   Some of the ladies can lay claim to finishing an impressive number of quilts.  Good on them – wish I had been more productive over the last year.  So I decided to have a count up of my own, to  acknowledge how I have done over the last twelve months.  Oh dear, it is not the least bit impressive, I’m sorry to say, but I have completed:

Only one large quilt - “Black, white and a Splash of Lime”, made for my daughter Nicky and son-in-law Robert who were celebrating their 25th Wedding Anniversary.  My generous overseas pen friends sent me lots of different fabrics to use in this quilt.  Not that I couldn’t have gone shopping myself to buy more, you understand, for of course I could, but to add lots of variety.

I made three double handed oven mitts, kept one oneself and gave two away.  I like to use the “silvered” heat resistant wadding inside these and back them with sacking.  Hemp sacking is almost impossible to find these days, so I am guarding my remaining sack with my life!

Also completed was a pretty little needle case in blue with a floral stitchery front.  This was made to go with my sewing pouch I had made the previous year.  There was a  little bit of animal flavour in my sewing too.  First came “Daisy the Turtle” made for Joy, who collects turtles and has many hundreds.  Daisy’s body was green, and her shell was covered in white daisies.  Next came “Funky Chicken” pincushion, made for a pincushion swap I was involved in, she was rather cute too.

I achieved more in the Christmas line, completing two Santas and a Rudolph the Reindeer Stocking, these were for me.  Then I made two selvedge Christmas Tree wall hangings, kept one and the other was sent to South Dakota.  One stitchery Christmas cushion for the caravan, and two Christmas aprons.  And I nearly forgot, I completed two Christmas Kiwi appliqué blocks, which I set in small timber  frames, both these were gifts too.  And not forgetting the mending I diligently did during the year,  the never ending repairs to Robin's work shorts, and repairing the stitching on our vertical venetian blinds!

It is not a huge list, but I’m quite pleased with what I have done.  I’m still working on the Cobblestone quilt for my niece, just need to finish the borders then I can start the machine quilting.  And my Angel stitchery quilt is ready for quilting now too.  I don’t even want to know what is lurking in other bags that I have started and put aside, there is no way I am ever going to count up my UFOs!

I’ll leave you with some words penned by my quilting buddy Carol from South Dakota:  “May 2011 be filled with fun loving quilting.  Our stash may be overwhelming, and our hopes and dreams for all of these UFOs will be getting them finished.  What would life be without quilting for us?”

Happy Quilting, everyone.

A Plethora of Pincushions

On Sunday evening my Friendship Group gathered for the last meeting of the year, our Christmas meeting.  The excitement was high as we all climbed the stairs, laden down with our stitching and yummy goodies for our Christmas supper.  We brought along a Christmas gift to go into the basket and our pincushion swap.  The name of the recipient had been drawn out previously, so we knew who we were making our pincushion for.  Some of us had worried long and hard about this project, me included.  I had looked through magazines, done a Google search, considered and rejected so many ideas before I finally made up my mind.  Who would have thought that making such a small item would be so hard?  But then again – procrastination is my middle name.  Or should be, if I had a middle name!  The presentations were made and everyone was delighted with their gift.  There was such a variety of shapes, sizes and colours and every pincushion was different.  Not surprising really, as they were each made with a special person in mind.

Pincushions for all

This simple 4 patch pincushion was embellished with a little appliquéd angel.  This thoughtful touch suited the recipient, who has had health issues over the last year, and thankfully is now so much better.  She was delighted to receive her pincushion with the guardian angel looking over her. 

Guardian Angel pincushion

These three were all quite different.  The gorgeous lady was presented to me – she’s voluptuous, I was told, just like me!  The tiny pink one in front is in the shape of a cup cake, especially fitting as the new owner is a marvellous cook who often brings her home baking to our meetings.  The third pincushion is made from felt and those scalloped edges are all hand stitched.

Voluptuous lady with cup cake and felt flowers

Hearts were a popular choice and these are so pretty. Floral fabrics and wonderful embroidery, they are all lovely.

Three heart pincushions

Funky Chicken was the name of the pincushion design that I finally decided on.  This was going to someone who loved country colours so I thought it should suit her quite well.  The chicken has felt for the beak, comb and tail feathers.

Funky Chicken

We finished our evening with a gift from the basket and our wonderful supper.  The food was divine, sandwiches, tiny muffins, and cakes galore, plus chocolate too of course.  Thanks girls, for a wonderful evening.

What a wonderful supper