Busy Bee Weekend!

Well, here it is, almost the end of the weekend (here in Australia, anyways!) and I have been buzzing around like a busy bee ... PHEW! It will almost be a rest to go back to work tomorrow ... ALMOST! Tee! Hee! Hee! Let's see ... what have I been up to?? Hmmm ... quite a bit, so perhaps you need to go and get a cuppa before you read on ... sorry Chookyblue ... NOT a short post today ... but lots of photos! :0)

Firstly ... yesterday was a horrible, cold old day here on top of our 'hill' ... the temp clawed its way up to about 13 before plummeting back down to 4 degrees overnight ... BRRRRR!! You KNOW how I feel about cold weather!!! :0( So what's a gal to do ... but lock herself in her sewing room ... which I did, cos I was a woman on a mission. Remember the green Moda Basics fabric and Beach House charm squares I showed you on Friday? They are now a finished quilt top ...

I'm pretty chuffed with how it came together. The green really shows up the dusty colours well.

And I appliqued some dotty hearts at the top of the quilt ... two larger ones overlapping to represent the quilt's recipient and her husband, with two smaller ones to represent their children. The light cream dot block you see under the hearts is one of the signature blocks I included so family and friends can write messages of love and encouragement so this lovely lady will know that she's wrapped in love and prayers when she snuggles under it. This sweet quilt came together pretty quickly (though I think it was about 1:30am when I finished the applique!!) and today it has been whisked off to the Fabulous Fiona of Bubz Rugz to be quilted. Thanks Fiona! :0)

Another task for today has been rearranging the dining room a little to properly show off ... our new table! YAY! It's taken a little longer than anticipated to finish giving it a facelift due to visitors, wet weather etc but it's been well worth it. Do you remember this 'before' photo ...

If I ever find the person who put the HIDEOUS varnish over the original finish I will do them a damage!! It took quite a bit of work to cover and/or get rid of it ... paint stripper didn't even make it flinch!! So it was back to old fashioned sanding to clean it up. And the after photo ...

Ta Da!! Hasn't it come up well!! We are so chuffed! And that's not the 'royal we' I might add ... both my Beloved Geek Boy and I had a hand (or two!!) in transforming this beast into a beauty. I love the contrast of the honey gold timber with the white and the original drawer handle has been popped back on. I would have liked to 'shabby it up' a bit ... but this tentative suggestion was met with growls from GB along the lines of ruining a perfectly good paintjob! :0) Here is the madeover grande dame in her new home ...

You can see the recently refinished kitchenette behind it ... they make a lovely pair, don't you think! :0)

So ... I then had to decide how to dress this pretty lady. I had a few 'outfits' to audition ...

I've had this vintage crocheted cotton tablecloth for a while but still haven't found the right home for it. I quite liked this look ... but GB grumbled that it covered up all the hard work he's done sanding and finishing the timber top ... not to mention the drawer. OK, OK ... next!

This is a lovely linen and crochet lace table centre that I rescued from an antique shop bargain table some years ago ...

It has a few holes in the crochet lace edging, looks like it has fallen on hard times and is a wee bit battered around the edges ... but who isn't:?! :0) But I love it ... it was love at first sight! :0) OK ... a bit of a favourite emerging from the field, but one more to audition first ...

This table centre is in pretty good condition and was embroidered by my great aunt who passed away last year aged 99. I was fortunate enough to be gifted with a small pile of her lovely linens and the white Dr's bag that's on top of the kitchenette. Most of the linens have age and storage marks on them ... any tips on how to freshen them up??? This one didn't have any marks, though. Hmmm ... OK ... this one was pretty, but after consulting the table's fellow-restorer, we decided on ...

... this look. You can see a few of the holes in the lace edge in this shot ...along with the gorgeous detail. So ... another project crossed off the ol' "To Do" list. :0) Now I just need to find new chairs to go with the table, as the directors chairs we've been using as dining chairs have handles that bump against the edge of the table when you sit down ... DEFINITELY a no-no in GB's eyes! :0) I know just what I want, though ... I found the perfect chair on the Ikea web site ... will have to schedule a visit, I think! SHHH!! Don't tell GB!! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OK ... that's finally it from me for today. I'm off to make a pot of soup for dinner and then I think it will be some hand stitching in front of the TV for this busy-but-tired little bee. What have you been up to over the weekend?? I hope there was some time to 'play' scheduled in. :0) Have a fantastic week ... and remember to appreciate the many 'everyday' blessings that your days contain! :0) Til next time ...

BUSY BEE BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Ready ... Set ... STITCH!!

BANG!! The starter's gun goes off marking the start of the weekend and I'm all set to spend it STITCHING! :0) There are a couple of projects that I want to work on this weekend, so I popped out to my "Home-Away-From-Home", Quilters Angel, to gather a few necessary supplies. Yeah ... it's tough when you HAVE to visit your fave quilting store! Tee! Hee! Hee! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! :0)

First project in line is another version of the Birdie Bunting wall hanging I showed you in my last post that I made as a housewarming giftie for Steph. (she liked it, by the way!! :0) ) I decided to make another version of the Birdie Bunting in a different colourway, just to show how it can come up with different colours. Oh so many yummy fabrics to choose from!! What would I choose?? After much deliberation and some consultation with Steph, here's what came home with me ...

Some yummy Tilda fabrics. Marion and Steph have a rather nice range of the Tilda fabrics (and other Tilda goodies!!) in stock and although you KNOW I'm not a pink gal, I love the fresh greens in this range and chose a few pinks to work in with them. The fabric at the back is the Moda Basics that I'll be using for the background and it is actually a very pale pink ... I know, I know!! Marion's corrupting me and still trying to drag me over to the DARK (pink!) side! :0) And that yummy giant rick-rack will make a nice trim on another companion project for the Birdy Bunting wall hanging. I've prepped all of the applique tonight, so am hoping to camp in front of a Midsomer Murders or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries DVD (and the heater if it's as cold as it was today!!)  for most of the weekend and get stitchin'! :0)

The other project I'll be working on this weekend is machine sewing and it's a very special quilt for a friend of my parents who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She is just 46, only a little older than me, so a bit of a shock all round. I decided that a quilt for her to snuggle under while receiving treatment was in order, so dug in my stash for some charm squares and Steph helped me choose some Moda Basics to match  for the sashings ...

The charm squares are from an older range, "Beach House" by Blackbird Designs for Moda and there was only one set of charm squares left when I bought them. So, I'm going to team them with this lovely moss-green Moda Basics to make a stacked-coin quilt. I've cut all of the charm squares in half already and have added some lighter tone-on-tone blocks that friends and family can write special messages of love and encouragement on. If I get my skates on, I'm hoping to get the top of this quilt finished this weekend so I can whisk it off to be quilted so I can get it to Mum's friend by the time she is ready to begin her treatment in a few weeks. No time for procrastinating for ME this weekend! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I have to say that this cancer diagnosis has been a reminder to me ... yet again! ... that we need to be grateful for every day we're given, for the gorgeous people in our lives, for the blessings we enjoy and sometimes take for granted. Life can be short ... so take every opportunity to tell the special people in your life how much you love and appreciate them. With the right attitude, every day can be a wonderful adventure full of friends, family, laughter and love. 

So ... what are you planning to do this weekend? Big plans? Lots of stitching? Grown-up stuff? (BLECH!!) Whatever you do, I hope there's time in your schedule to spend with loved ones and to collect lots of BIG SQUOOSHY BEAR HUGS!! :0) Til next time ...

BIG SQUOOSHY BEAR HUGS!

(just to help you start off your collection! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

CHEERS!
KRIS

Home Tweet Home!

It's been an icky, overcast, drizzly kind of week here on top of our 'hill', but there were two advantages. The first was ... the temperature was a little warmer ... YAY! :0) The second was ... it was the perfect weather for sittin' and stitchin'!!

Which was perfect, cos I had a housewarming gift to create to wish a sweet friend "Home Tweet Home" as she and her sweetie moved into their new home. So ... out came the pencil and sketch pad, out came some yummy fabrics and after some sketchin' came the stitchin' and ...

TA! DA! A 'tweet' wall hanging. Sorry ... had to be said! Tee! Hee! Hee! These little birdies and their cheerful bunting will welcome Steph and her friends and family to her new home. May your new home be a warm haven, your 'happy place' and a safe 'nest' in life's storms, Steph, and may you and your sweetie enjoy many happy years together there!!! :0)

 I'll be playing with some more fabrics to make another version of this with another project or two for a new pattern, so stay tuned. :0)

Right now, though, I'm off to play Polly ... bet you knew I'd say that! :0) Hope your week has been fantastic ... and a little less hectic than mine ... my poor brain is a bit fried!! Let's just say I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. :0) I'm hoping to do some more stitchin'. So I'll see every 'birdie' later! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

TWEET BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

OPAM Winners & Long Weekend!!

Here I am ... back on the air ... FINALLY!!! My email service took quite a bit of sorting out ... My Beloved Geek Boy fixed the initial issue of a lapsed domain name (his oops!) but it took a little longer to work out that the server my email goes through had got tired of trying to send mail through and having it blocked (due to the domain lapse)  and so it stopped trying. After my complaint a full day after the domain update I still wasn't getting emails ... GB investigated further, found the problem and fixed it ... YAY! I'm once again in the email loop! :0) You don't realise how much you rely on email for communication these days until you don't have it! :0)

Sorry again to my lovely OPAM gals who tried to email finishes through and got a "Computer says NO" type reply ... I think most of you managed to either contact me again or let Sweet Peg know your tallies, so all sorted ... and I have done the random prize draw.

First, let me say a big CONGRATULATIONS to all of you ... whether you had finishes to add this month or not! If you took some time out to be creative ... or even if you spent some time PLANNING to be creative (yes, looking at pretty craft magazines, Pinterest, blogs and books counts!!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) then you are a winner  for having been kind to yourself and rewarding yourself with some "YOU" time. :0) We had a final tally of 502 finishes for May ... WOW!!! Well done!! Since I only contributed a simple scarf to that tally, I'm really hoping to make a bigger contribution in June ... fingers crossed! :0)

OK ... this month's winners are:

FIONA (BUBZ RUGZ)

CYN

Congrats, gals! :0) Now ... I've already cheated a bit and delivered Fiona's prize in person yesterday when we caught up, but Cyn, if you would like to email me with your snail mail address, I'll get a little something in the mail for you soon. A big thank you to all of you clever-clogs gals out there who have joined us for OPAM 2013. It is always so inspiring to see what you've been working on. There are so many wonderful projects being finished and so many fabulous ideas being shared. If you haven't done so for a while, why not make yourself a cuppa and go for a little bloghop through the OPAM participants list on my sidebar. I guarantee you'll see some gorgeous projects, hear some wonderful stories, meet some lovely fellow-crafters and if you leave a comment, your encouragement is sure to bring a smile to someone's face! :0)

In other news ... it's a long weekend here this weekend to celebrate the Queen's Birthday ... even though it's not REALLY her birthday!! Talk about confusing! But who am I to pass up a long weekend! :0) It got off to a lovely beginning yesterday when we had our monthly Quilting Angels gathering at Quilters Angel. I love spending time with Fiona and Bev ... they are such relaxing, fun ladies to be around! :0) And we had a new friend join us yesterday, with Cathy coming along for the first time ... we're 'corrupting' her in the ways of blanket stitch applique! Tee! Hee! Hee! Meanwhile ... Fiona was hard at work on a super-pin cushion ...

Here she is, concentrating hard on getting the rice inside the pin cushion to weight it ... so you can hurl it at husbands who interrupt your sewing time to ask silly questions! Tee! Hee! Hee! And as a nice byproduct, the weight stops it moving around your sewing table. :0) By the time Fiona had finished, it looked like we'd had a wedding in the room, with rice on the table, on the floor, in containers ... all around! :0) She was a good girl and cleaned up though! :0) Fiona's lovely creation will be a shop sample at Quilters Angel ... so if you are eyeing it off ... you can buy the pattern from Marion and Steph and make one for your very own self! :0) (Keep an eye on their blog, too, as they have some wonderful on-line-only sales quite often!!)  Thanks for a lovely, relaxing day Fiona, Bev and Cathy! :0)

Then last night was our Friday Sit N Sew gathering ... I'd missed the last two due to dropping off and picking up parents from various comings and goings, so it was lovely to see everyone and catch up on their news and stitching. And I made some progress on a slowly-progressing new design project ...

These are fun to stitch and will ... some day! ... be a garden-themed quilt called "Lynda's Garden". There are a few more blocks left to stitch and hopefully this weekend will give me a bit of time.

Today, we've had a bit of a lazy start to an icky, overcast day here on top of our 'hill', with GB and I heading out for a breakfast treat ...

MMMMMMM!!!! Hazelnut latte! Not a bad way to start the day! :0) I had some gift vouchers that needed to be used before their expiry date, so it was a good excuse to not have to make brekkie this morning. Needless to say ... neither of us have gone looking for lunch and it may be boiled eggs and toast for dinner here at the Meares' Madhouse! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Hope your weekend is off to a great start ... even if you're not lucky enough to have a public holiday on Monday to look forward to! :0) Enjoy yourselves and don't forget to schedule in some "YOU" time to be creative ... or contemplate creativity over a cuppa! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

GRRRRRR!! Computers!!!

Do you ever feel like doing this to your computer?!?! I DO!!! For the last week, I've kind of thought to myself that my email folder was a little quiet ... there weren't nearly as many OPAM tallies being emailed through and there were no comments emailed through from my last blog post. Hmmm ... 

"Oh well" ... I thought to myself ... "everyone must just be really busy and not emailing/blog commenting." WRONG! It turns out, one of my domain names has lapsed (due to another 'lapse' ... of my Beloved Geek Boy's memory, apparently!!) and so any emails sent via that address ... all blog-related comments/emails!! ... disappeared into cyber space, doomed to circle around the ether for eternity, never landing in an 'In' box!!! SIGH! Computers are a wonderfully quick way to do things ... as long as you're not in a hurry!!

So ... if you emailed your OPAM list to me or left a comment on my last blog post ... SORRY!!! I'm not ignoring you, I'm not being rude, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth ... I'm just reaching for the chainsaw! :0) OPAM gals ... if you had updated your sidebar list by June 2, then Sweet Peg or I will have checked and added your tally of finishes to our spreadsheet ... if you hadn't ... perhaps you would like to re-send your email to me (Sweet Peg has been receiving any emails sent to her, so no worries there!) and I will double-check that we have your totals correct. I'll wait a couple more days before finalising the month and doing the random prize draw.

I'll pop back soon to share some sneaky peekies of what I've been playing with in my sewing room ... promise!! :0) Hope you're all having a fantastic start to your week ... it's starting to get even colder here on top of our 'hill' ... almost time to hibernate and stitch, I think! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS