Christmas Wish Blocks

I'm up to date with my Christmas Wish blocks, borders and all. Here they are so far:

Block 3 - Joy

Block 4 - Hope

And all of them together:

I am really enjoying this bom. It is quick, easy and so so pretty :) Thanks Gail!!

A Peek at Last Week....

While Alice and family were here, we not only sewed, but we had a big day of doing eggs - chocolate and hard boiled. Alice got me into making chocolate big time. When I first met her, it was around Easter time and she had made lots of chocolate bunnies to sell on compound. I was one of her first customers :) When she left, she gave me her chocolate molds, colored chocolate and instructions on how to make them myself. Now the kids and I are hooked :) Easter and Christmas time are chocolate making time!

Here are some photos of what we made:

(Yes, a hair dryer is an essential part of chocolate making...)

I forgot to take photos of the finished products :( And they have all been consumed now,.... Alice did you take any??

On to the hard boiled eggs... It's a European tradition to dye eggs at Easter time, and since I am officially Dutch, I have made sure this is part of my children's childhood memories too. The kids enjoy this as much as making the chocolate eggs and bunnies. They just love hard boiled eggs! I managed to find some white eggs and boiled about 4 dozen to color.


Oh, and finally, the egg hunt! The men hide the eggs and the kids go fetch :) The kids are almost too old for this, but even nearly 15yr old Daniel had fun. Here they are ready to go (and eating chocolate to give them energy for the hunt) :


I love our family traditions. Some are from when I grew up, and from my parents before me. Others we have started ourselves. I believe they are a big part of our identities as individuals and families, and are worth holding onto even when they make a big mess in the kitchen :)

Come Over to My House Blocks 3 & 4

I knew there was a reason why I didn't do block 3 last month. You should have seen the pile of thread that I unpicked after doing the little roof again and again and again and again. I didn't count. I should have. Needless to say, I had trouble. I am still not entirely happy with seams and points, but it is done and I am not fiddling with it anymore!!!!

Since I was on a roll (of unpicking), I decided to do block 4. I put off the triangles until the very end...... At 10.30 pm I sewed the left side of the house to the top of the right side. Should have taken a photo. It looked rather interesting. I also should have stopped and gone to bed. But no, I unpicked and sewed it in the right place.

By 11.00 pm I had managed to survive the triangles, after only a little bit of unpicking. In fact, the top of the house was looking rather nice. I sewed it all together, went to iron it, and then decided the roof looked rather odd. I should have taken a photo. It looked very interesting. Instead of sewing a sky and roof triangle onto the house triangle, I had sewn two sky trianlges. (If you are doing this block, pay attention, if you aren't, I hope you are not getting bored here!)

I didn't scream.

I felt like it, but everyone else was asleep, so I thought I'd better not.

I unpicked.

And fixed it.

Of course it didn't go together quite as well as the first time... but there you have it. It is done. Please, don't look too close. And I went to bed at 11.30pm.

Boy, am I glad this is a block of the month. I won't have to unpick again until next month :) Hee hee!

Another Finish!!

One of the snowball quilts, Garion's, all done and in use:

Doesn't he look as snug as a bug in a rug?! Thankfully it fit in the suitcase (ummm.. extra suitcase) and flew back to Perth with the rest of the family. Alice and I had a lovely week sewing and stitching, and even got a little bit of crocheting in on the last night. Now it is back to communicating by emails and messenger....

So, that is two quilts done this month! I'm so pleased! I will have to start tackling Daniel's soon, but I want to put some borders on stitcheries before that. I'll post photos as soon as I get that done.

Power Cutting

Friends and Friendship Quilts

Alice and I have been very, very busy quilting and stitching and sewing and shopping and ..... lots more :) This week is going waaaay too quickly!!! But then, there is never enough time to sew together. One day we need to try to live close together again.

The first thing I did this week was FINISH the Jubail Friendship Quilt! Yay!!!! Two years later..... it is done :)

Memories of lovely friends... I will try to do some close ups later of how I quilted and embroidered it. For now, I need to get back to playing with my friend who is here now :) Making more memories...

Veranda Views

Got my Veranda Views blocks ironed and photographed. Actually, I really want to get some borders on them in the next few days, they will look so much better. But for now, here they are:

Under the Willow

Bathtime


Bed 'n' Breakfast

I just saw that the "The Buffet" is up! Guess what I'll be doing soon?!

Thanks Cheryl for this lovely BOM :)