Christmas Stars and Nine Patches

The “roll of the dice” brought up UFO number 5 this week, and I just might be able to do a little sewing as well as diving head first into the rush and bustle of pre-Christmas stress.  My swap blocks of Christmas stars and nine patches come out to play this week – to be fitted in around two Chrissie functions and various appointments.  It’s all go in our house again this week.

The dice rolls 5

I took part in two internet block swaps some time ago, and received exciting packages in the mail containing these colourful blocks. 

As both the swaps were in Christmas fabrics I decided to use the blocks together in a small Christmas quilt.  And this is how many blocks I had stitched together last time I’d worked on this UFO, so the top is starting to take shape.

Four rows stitched last time then packed away

So with a bit more time spent pinning the remaining blocks in rows and stitching them together, the top was finally assembled. Wonder what I was thinking of – I forgot to take a photo at this stage.  Next step was the border, nothing too fancy, I decided.  I chose a smudgy dark green plus a narrow cream and red print for the inner border.  All cut and stitched, waiting to be applied.

Border fabrics

With some measuring and plenty of pinning, the borders were finally applied. 

Attaching the borders

Mmm, doesn’t look too bad, does it.   I’m not really a “scrappy” person, but I love how all the different festive fabrics look so nice together.  That’s the top done, although I have to say it won’t be getting quilted this side of Christmas.  If I have enough time, I’ll try to get it pinned up, ready for quilting for later.  We’ll have to see how I go – things are rather hectic in the pre-Christmas countdown!

This week I’ve……….

One of my Sew Wot buddies quietly mentioned that I had hadn’t “rolled the dice” to see which UFO I would be working on this week.  No, I had to admit, I hadn’t.  So just what had I been doing all week, I wondered?  A 60s Up Christmas meeting on Monday morning, followed by joining in my quilt club stitching day in the afternoon.  There was a medical appointment on Tuesday morning in Palmerston North, followed by meeting friends for lunch,  followed by a visit to see the Dinosaur Exhibition at the museum.  Wednesday was just as busy with my sewing group Sew Wots Christmas lunch, followed by a friends retirement BBQ in the evening – phew, another hectic day. And we had another Christmas get-together all day on Thursday with a group of friends.  Friday was free, but I’m sure I had shopping, laundry, and a spot of cleaning to do that day.

All the Love of Christmas

Instead of sitting at the sewing machine this weekend (although I did finish stitching down the binding on the horse quilt) the pair of us have been busy putting the Christmas decorations up, hanging quilts, and just a few lights.  This always starts with a trip up to the loft climbing a narrow set of pull down stairs to retrieve the Christmas crates.  Robin isn’t bothered by this excursion, but I’m always careful where I put my feet so I don’t trip and fall.  We don’t have a lot of Christmas “Stuff”, compared to some, just a few crates, but it’s always nice to welcome back the items which have been packed away all year.  Such as my collection of Jim Shore figures, sent to me over the years by my pen friend Carol, in South Dakota.

Jim Shore snowmen

Carol also sent me this gorgeous collection of Christmas Mice, sent one piece at a time for Christmas over the years.  I love them, they just so cute!

Christmas Mice

As I don’t have so many places to hang quilts here as I did in our previous house, I have to rotate them.  This year I’ve put one up in the bathroom – down came my little fish quilt to be replaced by birds.  This lovely Robin Redbreast quilt was a gift from Rose in UK – looks like a sparrow sneaked in amongst the robins.

Red Robins for Christmas

Things are all Christmassy and sparking inside.  My village snow scene is twinkling away, as is the small fibre optic tree, and  Robin has strung a set of lights along the top of the windows.  We celebrate Christmas in summer down here in New Zealand, but we still like to see Christmas lights, it just takes a lot longer to get dark enough so they show up!

We don’t have Christmas snow in New Zealand

So that’s been my busy week – and I’m sure others as just as busy in the lead up to Christmas. 

Finished in time for Christmas

The “Great All Breeds Horse Show” quilt is finished, in time to get it wrapped up and delivered for Christmas.  The last remaining side of the binding has been stitched down, and the heavy quilt was lugged outside for a few photos.  A bit difficult as it is too long to hang nicely on the clothesline so I had to drape it over the fence, and it was still too long.  But at last it it finished – oops, haven’t stitched the label on yet, but that will only take five minutes or so.

Great All Breeds Horse Show

I’ve made this for my grand-daughter Emma, and it will be a surprise for her for Christmas.  We talked colours last year about a future quilt I might make her “sometime” and she wanted black and grey.  So black and grey was what she got, nine patch blocks all with a plain black homespun centre.  But I decided  to add the raspberry batik sashing to give the quilt a pop of colour.

Emma lives and breaths horses and has several on the family small holding.  So she will love the addition of 18 different named horse breeds, with everything from an Appaloosa to a Welsh Pony.  These exquisite embroidered horse head blocks came from Kings Treasures.

And the beautiful freehand machine quilting was done by local quilter Paula of Rabbit’s Patch Quilting, didn’t she do a marvelous job!

One last photo

Little Jars of Fun

Christmas is coming up fast, and our Sew Wot group celebrated with a lunch out at one of the local cafes for our final meeting of the year.  We like to have a gift exchange and this year we did something a little different – with a jam jar.  The instructions were to fill the jar with either homemade jam, sauce, or pickles.  Or maybe sweets, fudge, or something edible.  The third option was to fill our gift jars with sewing notions, fabric, cotton, buttons or lace.  In fact, anything goes!  We arrived at the café in the pouring rain, settled down, ordered our meals, and placed the festively wrapped jars on the end of the table.  My goodness, they certainly looked interesting.

A nice assortment of Christmas gifts

The meals were very tasty and the service was great.  Our group had plenty to chat about – who was coming for Christmas,  holiday plans, and the dreaded Christmas shopping.  Sadly, two of our ladies are still unwell and could not attend.

Sew Wot ladies at the café

After our meal and coffee had been consumed, the fun began.  Mary wrote the names on all participants and we each chose a folded slip of paper.  And received the gift jar prepared by that person.

 

Helen choosing a name from Mary

What fun we had unwrapping our jars to see the goodies packed inside.  There was home made lemon honey, a nice assortment of nuts and nibbles in another, and a clever little quilted Tic Tac Toe game and counters all rolled up inside another jar.  The others had all sorts of interesting sewing notions, buttons, thread, pieces of fabric, anything to bring joy to a stitcher’s heart.  It was amazing to see just how much could be rolled and squeezed inside each jar.

Little jars full of fun

It was such a lovely conclusion to our Sew Wot mornings this year, I have certainly enjoyed meeting up with the ladies (when I could) at our fortnightly meetings.  And special thanks to Carol and Mary for organizing our Christmas challenge.

Club Stitching Day

It was the final Town and Country Quilters stitching day of the year, and I was determined to get there!  But you know how it goes – things sometimes conspire against us and I had another meeting to attend in the morning.  So I squeezed both things in, attended the morning meeting, rushed back home for a quick lunch, and then I took myself down to the hall by 1.00pm.  Whew, life gets very busy, especially at this time of year with the pre-Christmas rush.

There were eight or so members working away on their various projects.  Ladies were pinning, or slicing fabric, a couple were pondering the next step on their work, and the sewing machines were whirring away.  I took along my very large horse quilt, with all the binding carefully pinned down.  My goodness, that quilt is heavy, and rather bulky, so it was just as well I had a nice large table to spread it out on, as I sat quietly stitching away.  By the time I had packed up at home time,  I was up to the last side – almost there now!

Still stitching that binding!

Ute had recently attended a club workshop on free motion quilting and was practising some of the designs shown by the teacher.  She was doing a great job, Ute’s quilting is wonderful.

Ute with her free motion quilting

I think one of the secrets of free motion quilting could well be those quilting gloves.  I noticed that Lynne was also wearing them as she machine quilted her Pacifica quilt, using gold thread while making tiny little swirls, no less!  (I’m certainly not that clever.)

Lynne’s Pacifica quilt

Another lovely design was Gill’s quilt colourful quilt top.  Made with an interesting pieced block with curves, I thought the floral applique border finished it off rather well.

Gill’s quilt top

It was a lovely peaceful afternoon spent stitching in the company of other quilt club members.  Thanks for your company, ladies.

Camping amongst the Pohutukawa Trees

Finally finished – several projects for our caravan – using up just about all of the remaining camping in New Zealand fabric, featuring cute retro caravans, beach scenes and flowering pohutukawa trees.  With their beautiful crimson flowers tipped in gold, the trees are known as New Zealand Christmas trees.  All that remains of this fabric is just a few tiny pieces, although I have a reasonable amount of the plain grey homespun left.

New Zealand summer scene fabric

My plan over the weekend was this – to complete two placemats, one apron, and a double handed oven cloth.  So a little after lunch time on a wild, wet and windy Sunday the current number 6 has been knocked off my List of Six UFOs.  In between showers I stepped out to get an outdoors photo, hoping that the wind wouldn’t pick everything up off the wooden bench and blow them all over the fence!  I’m so pleased with another finish, and these items will reside in our caravan and get good use, I’m sure.

Sewing for the caravan

Roll the Dice Thursday

Where has this week gone, I wonder?  It’s Thursday, and I’ve only just got around to rolling the dice to see what UFO I’m working on this week.  Monday was spent machining the binding on my horse quilt, after I had dealt with lots of laundry.  Tuesday – spent the morning with the Sew Wot ladies, and then started pinning and hand stitching the binding down.  Wednesday – out and about purchasing fresh fruit and veggies from the market gardens, a trip to the library, then on to the supermarket. And so the days rush by.

And today, Thursday, I finally get to roll the dice, and the number stops at 6.  A quick check on my List of Six reminds me that this UFO is a set of place mats and an apron made from a New Zealand inspired fabric featuring cute retro caravans.  I had a piece of this fabric left over after making a memory quilt for Pauline after her husband Geoff passed away.  They were keen caravanners too and travelled with us on our South Island Odyssey a few years ago. Read about the quilt here.

Caravan fabric originally used on memory quilt

UFO number six saw the light of day early in the month just before we took our trip up to Hamilton.  And I had made a start by stitching  all the bits I’d previously cut out and pinned – straps for the apron, and started to assemble the pieces for the place mats.   Looking through my scraps, I’ve now decided to make a double handed oven cloth as well, to use up the last of the little bits of caravan fabric.

Assorted bits cut, stitched and pressed

I’m spending an hour or so at the sewing machine this morning, stitching this bit and that bit together.  And getting into a bit of a mess as I’m using sacking for the outside of the oven cloth, and strands of that gets everywhere. 

It’s almost time to switch the sewing machine off, as I’m “out to lunch” shortly with friends from our village.  But every little bit helps, and I’m planning on getting a bit more stitching done over the weekend, all going well.