Happy New Year

This year is going to be so different. I have posted a pic of me and hubby on my new blog page. But the most special thing is I will have a daughter from the 7th January2012. This is when our only son( only child) , Josh and Emma get married in Bundaberg so all systems go until then. I will post some photos after the wedding. Soooo. exciting. I have had a wonderful Xmas visiting family in North Queensland. I have been hotter but I don't know when. Ahaaaa! There is nothing like a tropical Christmas. Even though in my younger years I spent many years in North Queensland, for the last 23 years I have been living in the dry heat in Goondiwindi and I still can't get used to the tropical heat when we visit.  I hope everyone has a Happy and prosperous New Year and I look forward to some sewing when all wedding plans are over.

Secret Santa Thank You

A beautiful table runner from my secret santa.  Thank you so much to Cat from Catalina Cottage in New Zealand. I hope everyone is having lots of fun opening their secret santa presents today. This was my first time in the swap and I have enjoyed it a lot so Satu I hope you enjoy yours also.

Christmas Lights

Our Friends Lights display 

While hubby was on a work trip he came across a Christmas shop with this sign .
 They are soooo... right! LOL

Of course he bought me something ! I am so lucky !

I just love Christmas lights . After a huge shopping day in the big Toowoomba town  we decided Chinese and a drive around to see the Christmas lights was in order. 


Our very good friends spread Christmas cheer in their street. He becomes a Santa's helper and the lady and man across the street become elf and Mrs Clause. They have a lovely display and provide lots of treats for the children who get to walk around in the mini Christmas land. 


   Looks like not much sewing until New year for me between Christmas and our sons wedding.


I cant wait until we all open our SSCS parcels and see what everyone has been busy making. How exciting. Thank you Chooky elf for organizing it .


 I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas Spirit.  Remember the reason for the season. However you spend your Christmas I hope you are able to share it with family and friends and have a wonderful time.   Merry Christmas to everyone . 

Christmas Cooking and a Stitch or Two

 A few more little decorations finished- Annie Downs Pattern

Mini Brownie Cup Cakes- What a yummy recipe from this copy of  Family Circle

It's been a while since I have blogged Silly Season is upon us well me anyway.

What a busy week, Engagement parties, Christmas parties and pizza nights. We have had a full on week of family parties. It is always good catching up with everyone.  Our beautiful son was home .... Happy  me..... I am amazed and pleased that we have a very large and close extended family and many of them  make an extra effort to get together for celebrations. This time it was my nieces Engagement . 

Even if that means that every inch of floor space in my Mum's (74 yrs) house is covered with 18 people sleeping over. Ages ranging from 9 weeks to well you know my age . hmmmm.... What fun we all had reminiscing sharing a few drinks and lots of yummy food that mums always prepare. I think my mum is a super mum in the food department she made hot finger  food for 130 people for the party. Everybody loved it.

 We finished our weekend of celebration with a pizza night with the 25  of us who were still here. All the toppings are out and every body makes their own and then cooks them in our wood fired oven. A great way to feed lots of people ,the young ones love it.

A Lovely Gift from Across the Ditch

I was so excited when my very first Secret Santa Swap arrived from the lovely talented Cat in New Zealand. Thank you Cat.

Even more excited when I opened it and saw the beautiful knitted decorations - an entire set!  Oh Cat thank you so much they are truly lovely. Knitting really isn't my thing so I will treasure them as a part of my Christmas decoration collection!

The Sleigh is Packed

It's amazing to think that all those hand made gifts are flying  around the world or travelling overland to reach their destinations where SSCS swappers are  excitedly and anxiously waiting for the mail man to arrive. This is my first swap so I am so excited. 


I hope you are all enjoying the pre Christmas cheer. We went to our first Christmas party on the weekend at Jupiter's on the Gold Coast. It also included a show at Draculas. It was all a lot of fun.  Of course I also just had to do some shopping......... Now I just need a sleep.


I hope any of you who are around Moree and district are not getting your toes too wet with this flood.......

A little Aussie Christmas

Some XXXX for Queensland

 I was looking for a little something Australian  for a Christmas swag so I decided to use some drawings from Margaret  Rolf and Deborah Brearley ( I have had these books for Years) and make my own. A little xxxx , for Queenslanders, of course.  The wall hanging is from" I luv Country"by Tracey North, with a slight change to the wording. 

     I love Christmas and spending time with family although sadly, this year will be our first 
     without our son as he will spend it with his wife to be's family. Ho hmmm. 
     But that's ok because next year we will have a daughter.

Love Those Shoes

It getting so close to Christmas the Secret Santa's are done. It is getting so close to the holidays only a few reports to go, the seniors have graduated. Yeah! I was flicking through some photos to find some pics to put on my blog to make it feel a little like Christmas and look what I found - My favourite Christmas shoes!

Nundle 2011

Beautiful Roses

Rose covered  wool press

In the middle of the end of year turmoil some ladies from my quilt group, myself included took a trip to Nundle ( small town in NSW , near Tamworth,for those who dont know) to sew with the lovely Kerry at Cottage on the Hill. 


Of course there are all the treats that go with the word "Nundle" ; patchwork at Kerry's, stitching, friends, dinner at the pub , wine and cheese , roses and a  visit to the Woollen Mill (which was still open at 7.20pm. )  What a lovely weekend we had.


The trip home was a nightmare , it was truly the biggest storm I have ever been in, I thought I was a "storm chaser". The lightning and the rain were the most intense I have ever seen but we were on the edge and missed the hail .......in my new car ..eek!..................what a relief when we were free of it.

Our creations - not quite finished

The Essentials

Sewing with friends

Weekend of Sewing

  
I feel like i have been reading everyone's blogs and haven't said anything myself for a while. I had the best weekend we were home for once so I spent a lot of time sewing......finishing SS sewing...Sh...... . I have decided this year to try to make as many Christmas gifts as possible so I have made a start with bags , table runners and cushions .  Ok   I did say made a start.......... This morning  Monday ... before work I took one look in my sewing room which I am very lucky  to have.......and thought I wonder if very one who sews makes as much mess as I do when I just sew all weekend?????  I spent Thursday night tidying it up making sure everything was in place for my weekend of sewing......................

I just love bird houses

A Sally Giblin pattern- cushion

Does anyone else make such a mess????Oh creative space sorry!!!

My sewing friends and I collect thimbles for each other when we travel... fun

My creative space 

A Leah Paech Pattern Canningtown Patchwork  table runner . I love all things Christmas!

A page from Po's Kitchen She has the most amazing fabric pics throughout her cook book.  Inspirational!

Act your Age

I thought this might give everybody a laugh. especially you Chooky! Hope it is not too big to download. I am the green one.      Transform yourself....... back to some sewing next week. Thanks to my friend  in Blue,  Kathy for making the movie and our friend Steve for videoing it . The expressive arts week at our school is an amazing cultural event. All staff dress up on day one and every year the competition is bigger and better. The week is full of visiting artists, arts craft , music , dance , debating, burning poetry nights, stunt bikes and jugglers . Big Fun and exhausting. School is back to reality this week .
Our staff room decided to make a movie because we decided it would be too embarrassing for us to "park" ( at the end of the movie ) on stage in front of 400 teens. We may never get up .....

Transform Me

In my life as a teacher one of the craziest weeks of the year is expressive arts week. this is a week full of fun, art and culture. Each year we have a theme and for one week every lunch hour and break is full of fun activities. I think the girls in Art have topped it this year with the timetable of events. The week begins with all the teachers dressing up. Because I am a member of the art staff room we get pretty heavily involved.  We have spent many hours after work this week preparing........ Here is a snippet , more to follow after opening day Tuesday. I am sure I am too old for this ..LOL....

My Blog Story

I was a blog stalker, Kerry at Nundle and Designers like Rosalie and Leanne B, mostly I checked out Kerry's favourites and loved reading about what the ladies who love patchwork and stitching were up to. I have been to GDITC for four years but this year was different..........


 We were all at dinner and there was a real buzz. Then someone suggested all the bloggers identify themselves. It was exciting actually seeing the writers of the blogs I had been reading. The the amazing Chooky visited our table and convinced me to sign up. Email me as as soon as you get home and I will help you get started she said... well here I am and loving it.


 Oh, she also said you will have to think up a name so on our 5 hour drive home through flooded creeks and over very wet gravel roads and some slipping and sliding through alternate routes the name Bird on the Border was born............ I live on the Qld NSW border and I do love to see all the birds in my garden in the early morning. 


The ones making the most noise at the time was a pair of beautiful Kookaburras. You could set your clock by them morning and evening ...so the picture. Goondiwindi means resting place of the birds so Bird on the Border was born.

Family Weekend

Bargara Beach 

 What a nice weekend we have just had. Visiting our son and his fiance. Fish and chips on the beach with the complimentary seagulls, a little shopping ,a little dining. Sorry about the picture quality they were from my phone. It's cold and  raining  here today.  I cant believe it is October feels like winter. 

Bargara  Beach 

Everything looks so green after the rain.

Thelma's Day Out Bag

 So happy.... today finished a nice bag by Janelle Wind. I am planning on making a lot of my Christmas gifts this year. Perhaps a niece or a friend may get this one???




Berries anyone.....
There is a story to these wild rampant berries. My good friend Jill gave me a few runners a couple of years ago before she left to live in Darwin. 


 These magical berries seem to grow on  some water and little love almost anywhere. I moved a couple into what was my kitchen garden and now there is just a strawberry garden. The one in the tub did the same when I planted them there but they died out and are now regenerating from a couple of plants...I am no gardener what grows in my garden grows just because it does and these amazing berries just do...

Owls and Flowers

Today I finished the little project from "Stitchers Dream Day Out" by Julie Lovell . A little owl project bag. Cute... I thought I would photograph it with some gerberas I bought home from the Carnival of Flowers in Toowoomba. I also brought home from Toowoomba a ladder to hang my quilts on. I was so excited I have wanted one for ages. Lucky for specials at carnival time although it was a squeeze in the corolla.... Might add, I think it might have to move out of my sewing room into the lounge if I want to get into my fabric stash.

What's around Me

I had time to have a little play with setting up my blog. I drew some inspiration from all of the green wheat fields around me at the moment. So lets hope we get a little rain soon to keep them that way .

Carnival of Flowers

Add caption

We just had a lovely weekend at The Toowoomba Carnival of flowers. I have been wanting to go for years and I was not disappointed.  I thought I would share some lovely pics with you. Girls if anyone out there can help me .. I was playing with the design of my blog and now the last post doesn't come up first what have I done????

Dream Day Out

What a great weekend I have just had. My friend  Gail and I travelled to Toowomba to "Stitchers Dream Day Out" run by Quilters Angel at Highfields. The desigers were Natalie Ross, Libby Richardson and Julie Lovell. All the designers provided beautiful projects. I was given on of Julie Lovell's owl project bags. So cute!  I love owls.    Of course ladies can dress up but we made the Hootie Owl bags designed by Natalie.
It was soooo.. windy there and quite cold but warm inside with all the ladies.



Dress up contribution - love these colours



project bag by Julie Lovell



I was able to share the quilt I made with the designer

Gail and I



Designer projects for the day

 Yeh! school holidays start Friday I might get some projects finished . I aim to garden and sew and go see our lovely son and daughter in law to be for a few days.

Week-end in for McIntyre Quilters

This weekend my quilt group had a weekend in. We were working on a block quilt by Lessa Siegele called "Little Boxes". I have decided to use a kids print I picked up in Tassie last year. Cute I think ! Yes, something from the stash....

Pretty strips

Prepared to sew 

A finished one by one of our group

Hubby was off to Hong Kong on Sunday so I thought I had better stay home Saturday.  I did't get as far as the other girls ,however, it will happen???