Finishing the Unfinished...

These 5 lovely quilts are all off at the Long Arm Quilter! From bottom to top... Gus' Swoon Quilt, I Spy Chain Reaction quilt, ButterCup Sweet 16 quilt, Sherbet Pips DNP baby quilt and Wonderland Jelly Filled quilt. Most were started and made last year (except the Wonderland quilt which was started in January 2010!).

I will be pleased to have these all finished! Now to finish the Bliss quilt and a few others that have been lurking around for much too long to!

Swoon - Complete!

Block 9

Block 8

Block 7

Block 6

Quick trial run on our bed

I really *should* iron my quilts before I take photos!

Oh yeah! Quilt top finished!

Finish-A-Long Quarter 1

I quite like the idea of a finish-a-long. Any motivation and encouragement to finish up some works in progress is always greatly needed and appreciated. So I am linking up with the Finish-A-Long hosted by a new to me blogger Rhonda of 'quilter in the gap'.

This quarter I *need* to finish up Gus' Children at Play Swoon quilt... His third birthday is on the 1st April so it would be good to have this finished by then!

And I'd like to finish the Bliss in Patches quilt too... This quilt will have a nice flannel backing and I'd like it to be ready in time for the cooler weather.

So that's my two projects I'd really like to finish this quarter. I am only posting two (although there are many more that need finishing) so that I can keep this achievable!

Stay tuned for progress!

Hello 2012!

In the course of a year, many things can change. Some good, some bad, much indifferent. I am hoping that this will be a year for mainly good changes. This year we *will* buy our first home (positive thinking!), Gus will turn 3 and graduate to the 'big kids side' at Daycare and Oliver will start school in September. All big changes. Good changes. Bittersweet changes.

Almost a year to the day (366 days in fact) we took the boys to Staglands and today we took the boys again... Here's a quick snapshot of how much the boys have grown over the year. Unintentionally most of the photos taken just happened to be the same as the year prior...

Gus - 2011

Gus - 2012

Donkey Cart Ride 2011

Donkey Cart Ride 2012 - Gus and Ollie (exact same seats as last year!!)

River crossing - 2011

  

River crossing - 2012

DH & Gus 2011

Gus and DH 2012 - no need to carry him anymore!

Oliver 2011

Oliver - 2012

Here's to a great year ahead!

2011 Challenge: Make, Bake, Craft & Create

At the start of the year I set myself a couple of goals - 1) to make, bake, craft or create as many gifts as possible and 2) to make more quilts to keep rather than gift. Here's some highlights for the year...

Yummy preserved lemons and lemon curd...

Central Park Quilt - a completed quilt for us!

The Philatelic Society - a completed quilt for Gus.

Arcadia Quilt for John's 70th Birthday.

A doll's quilt for Phil's youngest cousin.

Strawberry fields HST quilt for my MIL for Christmas.

My Mermaid Quilt.

I still have lots of works in progress that I need to finish up (sooner or later!) and lots of lovely fabrics that need using. At the moment I am working on a quilt made out of my much coveted Flea Market Fancy (FMF) and can't wait for the fabric to be released again in February. I'll share more on that soon.

Until then, Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2011 has been a fabulous year for you all! I am definitely looking forward to 2012 and a few changes (some big, some small!). See you next year!

Lara

Santa's Workshop

There's not many more sleeps until Christmas! Eeek! I have been a busy little elf this past week sewing a dozen heat packs as teacher gifts, finishing up 3 superhero babushkas and a little sweetie petite doll... as well as a superhero cape for Oliver!

Heatpacks

Cute 'thanks' ribbon and labels

Candy Cane Mice - cheap, sweet little gifts

Alexi, Nickolai and Yuri - a fantastic trio. Nickolai has already been gifted.

Herb bunches - another sweet, cheap gift. 7 different herbs to say thanks!

Ginger - a sweetie petite doll for someone in the South Island.

Now I just need to finish wrapping gifts and run through the checklist. Also need to decorate our ginger bread house with the kids on Saturday, decorate and bake the ham and build a bike! Hope you're feeling organised and ready to celebrate. This will probably be my last post until after Christmas, so wishing you a very Merry Christmas! May you have a lovely day with family and friends!

Santa's Direct Reports

Last week the boys Daycare had their annual Christmas party. It's always a great opportunity to see the boys playing with their friends and to chat to other parents. Each year some poor father dons a Santa suit and sits in the sun handing out gifts to the children. This year Wellington had an unusually hot day so poor Santa must have really been feeling the heat!

On the way home, Oliver piped up in the back seat "That wasn't the real Santa was it?"
Me: "what do you mean Oliver?"
Oliver: "that wasn't the real Santa. Under his white beard was a black beard."
Me: "that was very observant of you Oliver. No, that wasn't the real Santa. At this time of year Santa is so busy finalizing all the gifts, reading all the letters from the children and reviewing the naughty and nice list. He gets lots of invitations to Christmas parties, but he can't go to them all. So he picks one of his special helpers to attend the party for him."
Oliver: "oh. Ok."
Me: "just don't tell the other children ok?"
Oliver: "ok."

I can see this Santa gig might not last as long as I had hoped. Last year he wanted to know why such-and-such from daycare had got gifts because surely they would have been on Santa's naughty list...

I've been working hard on finishing up some more little Christmas presents. I will hopefully post about these later today :) only two weeks until Christmas day! Hope you are finding your christmas spirit and enjoying the festive season!