Meet Alfie and Evie

Look at these two cute little Santa's helpers ...

Santa's Little Helpers - Jody's Crafty Creations, from the Cookies and Cream Craft Christmas Club

I am happy with how these two turned out although I made some mistakes along the way!  I forgot to iron pellon onto the legs so their legs are probably floppier than they should be, and I had drawn their faces from the pattern before I sewed their heads and they ended skewed!  To fix this I painted over their skin but then decided I wouldn't be able to embroider their faces as the pattern said, so they got simple drawn faces and a bit of blusher.  They are happily packed away until it is time to decorate for Christmas, and just in time too, because yesterday I received my September pattern for the Cookies and Cream Craft Christmas Club.

It is the last day of August today and it is beginning to look like spring in the garden.

It's so lovely to bring some spring bulbs indoors and appreciate their sweet scent every time I walk past.  As much as I love winter and fires it is nice to enjoy flowers and warmer weather.
Happy stitching, Wendy

Boys Story quilt finished!

I have been slowly stitching the binding on the Boys Story quilt and it is now finished and on Josh's bed ...

A Boys Story quilt - designed by Anni Downs

I used one of the stitcheries for the label

Here it is on my bed so you can see it better, with the Robot cushion

Needless to say, Josh loves it and I LOVE that I have finished it!

Thank you so much for all your kind and thoughtful expressions of sympathy in the recent loss of my precious mum.  Your comments and emails have warmed my heart and I am grateful for the friendship I have received. 

I am being very brave because I will post a photo of me!  Here is a favourite photo of myself and Mum, taken in May 2010.

 Blessings, Wendy

Tuesday's treasure

My treasure today is my dear Mum ...

I love this photo of her on her wedding day

Dad and Mum at their golden wedding celebration in May last year

Following a long period of declining health Mum deteriorated to the point that her passing seemed imminent.  Most of the family spent time with her on Tuesday although she was unconscious for most of the day.  As the hospice nurse and I gave cares to Mum at about 5pm she unexpectedly woke and was able to recognize her family and communicate with each loved one.  We consider it a huge blessing to have had this time with her and will treasure the fact that nothing was left unsaid. Even my brother in Perth had spoken to her the day before. Mum knew with certainty that she was surrounded by the people who loved her.  She went into a sleep some hours later and died peacefully at about 9pm.  The last thing I said to Mum was “have a good sleep now Mum, you look like you are ready for a rest”.  She had a strong faith and I look forward to seeing her again one day.

So my life came to an abrupt stop last week and now I am trying to return to normal routines.  I haven't kept up with leaving comments on the blogs I love to visit or kept up with replying, and I am sorry about that but I know you will understand. 

I love Mum dearly and I will miss her.

Almost a finish

The courier brought something very exciting yesterday ... my Boys Story quilt came home and it is now quilted!! I used Quilt Crazy (Sandra Bentley) in Tauranga and I love what she has done and, even better, Josh really loves it.  She has quilted lots of little designs throughout the quilt - dragons, dinosaurs, racing cars, trucks, trains, etc - so it has become like an eye-spy quilt, perfect for a boy.

Close up detail of some quilting

So just the binding to go and then it's finished.

On the sewing front, I haven't had time to do much this week, I got some flowers stitched on my hexie quilt ...

... and I started making the August Cookies & Cream Craft Christmas Club pattern.  I'm not sure if I am meant to show you the pattern yet so here is a glimpse of what I have done so far ...

Hmm, can you guess what it is? 

Happy stitching, Wendy

Hexagon progress

This week has been busy, trying to catch up on work now the children are back at school, but there have also been really special days.  I had my birthday on Tuesday and was spoilt by my family, although I loved my gifts what made it really special is that they obviously wanted to please me and spoil me.  Paul cooked waffles for breakfast (yum!) and Paul and Charlotte cooked a delicious dinner.  By the end of the day I felt very loved and blessed and days like that certainly make up for any times I might feel taken for granted (as is possible as a wife and mother!!)  Wednesday I spent the day with two scrapbooking friends as we all have birthdays in August, it was such a lovely day we have decided to make it an annual tradition!  I gave them the hanging cushions (see here) and they loved them.

So there hasn't been much sewing time for me this week apart from hexagons as they are so easy to take along with me and stitch when I have spare moments.  I have now finished my third row ...

... three down, four more rows to go!
The only other sewing I have done this week was adding rusty bells and a hanger to the hanging cushions and the Christmas wallhanging ...

The bells arrived from The Home Patch just in time for me to sew on before the cushions were given away.
I did buy some new fabric this week ...

The fabric on the left is Scandinavian Christmas fabric by Lynette Anderson Designs (very gorgeous) which I am thinking of using for the Cookies & Cream Christmas Club August pattern.  The pattern has stripe fabric in it so I am deciding out of the two stripes on the right.  I tea-dyed some calico ready for the pattern and also to make a Tilda doll ... I have joined a Tilda Sew Along that Lisa of Lydias Treasures is hosting and that I had seen on Shez's blog.  See the button on my side bar if you are interested.

The Farmer's Wife book arrived this week, I am so tempted to join in with the quilt a-long for this, hmm, I think I need some more fabric!!

The boys have returned from soccer and are wanting food so it must be time to feed the troops!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, happy stitiching, Wendy.

Second hand treasures

I went to an estate sale yesterday and found some new-to-me treasures ...

2 Old Britain Castle plates by Johnson Bros England

2 Norfolk plates by Royal Doulton

This is a Willow design by Britannia Pottery

I also bought this old suitcase and the clock in the top photo.  I love all my purchases, only $35 for the lot.  I will get Paul to add some wood beading to our mini-hutch so I can safely display the plates.  I'm thinking I might line the inside of the suitcase with some nice paper and then find the perfect spot for it and decide what to store in it, maybe my growing supply of patterns?!
Thanks to Melody for hosting Tuesday Treasures, for more treasures visit Melody at The House on the Side of the Hill.
Happy stitching, Wendy.