Still celebrating !

Still celebrating our mild weather and lack of snow. Suits me just fine :) Also celebrating the flowering of my "Christmas" cactus - must rename this plant as it never flowers @ Christmas. I've counted 25 buds, here's hoping most of them open into flowers.

Have been busy, as usual, this past week. Got the "surprise" Hanukkah wall hanging/table topper completed and bound made 2 mug rugs to go along with it. I used the same Dreidel fabric from the back of the hanging for the mug rugs, and a white version of the Star of David fabric. Found a Hanukkah card so now all I have to do is wrap and deliver it!
 Today I'm hoping to make 3 mini Christmas stockings for the guild. We are to fill them with personal hygiene products and they will be donated to My Sister's Place. I am mater free next weekend and hope to get one, maybe two Christmas placemats completed, also for a guild charity, this time for Meals on Wheels for their Christmas dinners. Also hope to complete my Xmas shopping, just a little something for the wee one Claire. This will be fun shopping !

So that's my week, how was yours?????

 

TTFN

Glorious Weekend!

What a difference a week makes! Last week my Japanese Maple was gorgeously red but November winds did blow and now I can count the leaves on the tree .... 8! While I will miss the deep dark red of Fall outside my kitchen window I am not sad as it is another fabulous sunny Sunday and still nice and mild. Woohoo!!
Another big woohoo to my guild London Friendship Quilter's Guild who put on a fabulous feature speaker and followup workshop the next day. They brought in Karen Howes from Faeries and Fibres blog fame.

 

Now, I've been a big fan of Karen's blog for a couple of years now, every since I became addicted to EPP/Hexies. So, I took a vacation day from work, struggled with the sewing machine lugging it down the stairs and out to the car, into the Church and setting up. My only complaint is that I forgot my camera, drats !!! It was all worth it as this was one of the best workshops I've attended! Karen was very well organized, understands the difference between talking and teaching, and had a knowledgeable assistant with her.  Her pre-class instructions were very specific and that was good as we were all well prepared for our hand work for the day.

We were given an accordion file folder with these 6 mini patterns, some fabric and some paper hexies to practice with. Karen works with ordinary paper, not card stock, this and her counter clockwise basting were definitely new to me. Once we accomplished the first(yellow) hexie flower we were on to making the individual hexies from "made" fabric (our homework). We started with the "Half & Half" hexie, then the "Candle" block, the "Whirligig",  the "Frame" and the "T" blocks and finished off with the "Narrow Star" hexie. Karen had a different method for fussy cutting, different from what I use for my Lucy Boston, so that was interesting to learn. All in all I was thrilled - absolutely thrilled to have gone, met Karen and accomplished so much. A day well worth the effort!

On the home front I haven't been a total slug - and I have managed to accomplish a few things. I got the borders on the Hanukkah wall hanging , so I'm almost ready to start quilting.

I think I'll try machine quilting this one, perhaps with invisible thread. Just have to decide on t he backing. I have the same fabric as the border only white with blue Stars of David, or I also have light blue with dark blue Dreidels, hmmmmm which to use ?
I also accomplished another Lucy Boston block ...

This one was a bit of a challenge. I had saved a scrap of the black with flowers from a previous project and got busy cutting the honeycombs before I realised I didn't have many/enough repeats. So I improvised ... I kinda like it, what do you think?

TTFN,

Too good to last ...

Last week the weather was glorious, double digits - no coats, people were actually wearing shorts and sandals! My Japanese Maple , as you can see, was glorious. I had a tremendously busy week - working the weekend and trying to squeeze in my "regular" chores as well.

This week, the November winds have come. The temp has dropped and so have the leaves. That's Simone walking away in disgust - or is that confusion? Maybe she understands fallen leaves mean winter is coming! Bah humbug!!
Ah well, the fabulous weather was too good to last.
Also too good to last was my arrangement with a local "teenager" to help me out and take my garbage up to the curb. It was lovely for a month and a half, but he's moved on now, so it's back to me slugging it up there :(.
I don't have much show-n-tell this week as I've been busy catching up wth housework, chores and hand quilting the Wild Flowers. But I have started a new project! Shhhhhh it's supposed to be a secret.

 It will be a Hanukkah wall hanging for a friend/former work colleague. Somehow we got talking about Hanukkah on FB and it inspired me to dig out those patterns I've tucked away for "someday". Well, someday has arrived! It was supposed to be paper pieced but in my infinite wisdom (folly?) I decided to hand applique the candles/candlesticks.  I see some of the candles/candlesticks are wonky, oh well, done now, and all from my stash!! There will be a small inner border (of unknown colour & fabric at this time) and an outer border of dark blue with Stars of David, and a mid blue with dreidels for the backing. I'm thinking I'll machine quilt this one just to get it done. I also have Christmas placemats yet to make for the guild - one of our community activities as we donate them to Meals on Wheels. Oh, and of course there's work, parents and a social life to try and fit in somewhere somehow....

 TTFN