How lovely it was to receive all your best wishes for our wedding anniversary - thank you so much!!
You blessed us both!
~~~~~
Have you received all your Christmas Swap gifts?
Due to our mail being held at the PO until the school office opens again on January 4th, I have not received my Secret Santa Swap gift yet, but I cannot wait! Just 5 more sleeps until I have another Christmas gift to open and I can discover who my secret santa is. I wonder, is she reading this???? Hmmm...who are you??? ;-)
I can still show you the gifts I made for my own Secret Santa swap partner. She is Karol-Ann and lives in the UK where the snow fell so perfectly at Christmas. Karol-Ann has some lovely snapshots on her blog!
These are what I sent her - a Christmas Tree wallhanging (from one of my A Christmas Package In Stitches designs), a beaded and embroidered Christmas stocking ornament (another of my patterns from the same set) an applique cushion cover, a redwork pincushion, and a Melly & Me pattern ...
Karol-Ann said she loved them, and that's so good to hear! :-)
~~~~~
I did get to open my main Advent Swap gift on Christmas Day, though! My partner was Jeanette, and she made me this beautiful poinsettia table runner! Isn't it gorgeous? I always admire those who do needleturn applique - and Jeanette's a wonderful stitcher. Thank you so much, Jeanette!!
(did you see the tea cosy she made me at the start of the swap?...have a look here!)
The Advent Swap was a straight swap, so I was also Jeanette's partner. I discovered that her favourite colours were red and purple, and by watching her blog I also found that she *loves* bags! So, these are the gifts I made her.
A raw silk embroidered and appliqued bag, the perfect size for storing patterns in...
...a large embroidered shopping bag (do you remember I showed you a sneak peek of how I used the Moda twill tape on this bag?)...
...and a matching Tea Wallet.
Thank you Jo and Fiona for hosting this swap!
~~~~~
How do you store the blocks you are working on?
When we drove across Australia in July to move here I hit upon a wonderful way of keeping my blocks clean, tidy, and flat whilst stitching in the car. I bought pastry sheet storers!
They are lovely are big, and hold quite a lot of blocks! I have one for finished blocks that haven't yet found a permanent home...
...and one for blocks on the go.
I'm going to buy another one to keep all the blocks I have traced but not begun yet...and I may even get more so that I can keep all the blocks from one project in their own 'compartment'. I love organisation!
~~~~~
Mr Elefantz has built me a large shelf for my sewing room, and tomorrow I'll show you how it looks. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the room - now I have all the table space for my cutting boards and planning. It's wonderful!
We're also going to give the ugly old verandah a mini makeover in the morning, so I'll have some before and after photos of that too.
I'm still working hard at making this neglected old house into a home, and now that the Christmas decorations have begun their journey back to the storage tubs I'll be able to do more of the sewing jobs I have on the planning list.
Have you been working on making your own house more of a home?
What changes have you made?
Enjoy the end of 2009,
Hugs
Jenny
xxx
You blessed us both!
~~~~~
Have you received all your Christmas Swap gifts?
Due to our mail being held at the PO until the school office opens again on January 4th, I have not received my Secret Santa Swap gift yet, but I cannot wait! Just 5 more sleeps until I have another Christmas gift to open and I can discover who my secret santa is. I wonder, is she reading this???? Hmmm...who are you??? ;-)
I can still show you the gifts I made for my own Secret Santa swap partner. She is Karol-Ann and lives in the UK where the snow fell so perfectly at Christmas. Karol-Ann has some lovely snapshots on her blog!
These are what I sent her - a Christmas Tree wallhanging (from one of my A Christmas Package In Stitches designs), a beaded and embroidered Christmas stocking ornament (another of my patterns from the same set) an applique cushion cover, a redwork pincushion, and a Melly & Me pattern ...
Karol-Ann said she loved them, and that's so good to hear! :-)~~~~~
I did get to open my main Advent Swap gift on Christmas Day, though! My partner was Jeanette, and she made me this beautiful poinsettia table runner! Isn't it gorgeous? I always admire those who do needleturn applique - and Jeanette's a wonderful stitcher. Thank you so much, Jeanette!!
(did you see the tea cosy she made me at the start of the swap?...have a look here!)
The Advent Swap was a straight swap, so I was also Jeanette's partner. I discovered that her favourite colours were red and purple, and by watching her blog I also found that she *loves* bags! So, these are the gifts I made her.A raw silk embroidered and appliqued bag, the perfect size for storing patterns in...
...a large embroidered shopping bag (do you remember I showed you a sneak peek of how I used the Moda twill tape on this bag?)...
...and a matching Tea Wallet.
Thank you Jo and Fiona for hosting this swap!~~~~~
How do you store the blocks you are working on?
When we drove across Australia in July to move here I hit upon a wonderful way of keeping my blocks clean, tidy, and flat whilst stitching in the car. I bought pastry sheet storers!
They are lovely are big, and hold quite a lot of blocks! I have one for finished blocks that haven't yet found a permanent home...
...and one for blocks on the go.
I'm going to buy another one to keep all the blocks I have traced but not begun yet...and I may even get more so that I can keep all the blocks from one project in their own 'compartment'. I love organisation!~~~~~
Mr Elefantz has built me a large shelf for my sewing room, and tomorrow I'll show you how it looks. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the room - now I have all the table space for my cutting boards and planning. It's wonderful!
We're also going to give the ugly old verandah a mini makeover in the morning, so I'll have some before and after photos of that too.
I'm still working hard at making this neglected old house into a home, and now that the Christmas decorations have begun their journey back to the storage tubs I'll be able to do more of the sewing jobs I have on the planning list.
Have you been working on making your own house more of a home?
What changes have you made?
Enjoy the end of 2009,
Hugs
Jenny
xxx