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Here is a quick update of all the projects I have completed this year. Some of these were started a long time ago, but these are all the quilty projects that have been completed this year. My goodness I have been an even busier bee than I was last year!! I've made a huge collection of runners and quilts and bags. Wonder how many projects I will complete next year! I hope you'll continue to follow my blog in 2013 to keep up with my quilting exploits!
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 Yes yes yes - I know it's not Tuesday yet - but look what's coming in the New Year!! You can read all about this over on the Better Off Thread blog - you can link up any sewing related projects (sewing/ crocheting/ knitting/ embroidery...etc that you have blogged about in the last week. Each Tuesday Janice feature 2-3 projects that have caught her eye and if your project is featured, she'll post your blog entry on the Better Off Thread Facebook page!! Anyway, I've added the button to my blog - and can't wait for it to start on Tuesday 8th January 2013. Why don't you join in too?
 Look what I found when I was shopping online - these beautiful "Awakening" earrings with an organic and spiritual nature. Amanda Davie has used some unusual face beads and paired them with beads made from seed, and some Peruvian Ceramic hands. I always ask Amanda to add lever backs to the earrings that I order from her as I find them much more comfortable to wear. Can't wait for these to arrive!
 Wishing all my friends and family and blog readers a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope you manage to spend the Christmas holidays with your loved ones, sharing time together and making memories. And to all my Norwegian friends - God Jul xx
 I've been cutting up my worn out jeans again!! This time I've teamed up the denim with a bright doggy-print. This is a Laurel Burch fabric that I had been saving for a special project and decided to use it for my sister's birthday - what could be more special than that??.....  .....I layered the doggy-print with some fusible pellon and a piece of flannel, to make a very structured lining, and added lots of rows of quilting in a grid-design, using a navy blue Mettler quilting thread.....  .....this is the bag inside out. I have neatened the bottom and side seam with a black and gold Laurel Burch print, and added a key-holder to the top edge. I used the same fabric as the lining to bind the top of the bag, so when the bag is turned out the right way, you will see this gorgeous fabric on the outside too.....  .....a really cute pair of dotty leather handles were the finishing touch to this tote bag. I added a label to the outside when I sewed the sides together, just incase she forgets what a fabulous sister she's got!! Happy birthday Becky - hope you like your pressie!!
(Becky is the sister that designed my blog for me a couple of years ago for my birthday - and she's now helping my sister Lisa to do a blog too).  I've been making more quiltystuff!! Earlier this week I bought this AnnAKa pattern "Gaver" (translated means "Gifts") from Lapp-Elisa - an online quilt store in Sweden. I loved this scarf, and had recently seen something similar at a Christmas craft market in Woodbridge. I searched through my stash, and found this burgundy fleece, which went perfectly with this collection of Lecien fabrics (I bought those last year at the Autumn Quilt Festival at Chilford).....  .....I used a walking foot to make this, as sewing with fleece can be more than a little bit tricky! I even managed to add one of my labels - I stitched it in the seam where I joined two pieces of fleece.....  .....and here it is completed - a perfect fit! I may be missing in action over the next few days as I'll be busy baking mince pies and sausage rolls, wrapping and delivering presents and even maybe doing a little bit of hand-stitchery.
 I don't just like making quilts - my regular blog readers will already know that I like making other sorts of quiltystuff too - tablerunners and tote bags and cosmetic bags and peg-bags. Well now I'm making a guitar strap!! I found this tutorial over on One Shabby Chick's blog (there are some super pictures on the Shabby Chick tutorials flickr account too) and thought I'd have a go at making one too. I used an assortment of fabrics from my stash, including this fabric with guitars on - ohh how very appropriate!.....  .....anyway, I bought an Ernie Ball nylon strap from Amazon, just to use the fixings, and set to work. I had some black wadding that was leftover from a previous project, and used that instead of interfacing. This was quilted with black Mettler thread - with a few rows of straight-row quilting.....  .....although it was a bit fiddly threading the strap through the right way, the tutorial to make this was really good. I used a Schmetz jeans needle for attaching the leather tab on the end.....  .....well I finally managed to thread everything through the buckle the right way - AND added one of my labels to the reverse side of the strap too.....  .....and here we are - one guitar strap!! One of my work colleagues plays the guitar, so I'm going to ask him to to give it a "test-drive"!! Although this looks very smart in this colourway of black and dark grey, think how fabulous these straps would look made with vibrant batiks! Or made with fun Christmas fabrics!
 I have been really busy sewing gifts for friends and family for Christmas. I chose a few Lecien fabrics from my stash, and added some lace trimmings and threads and used my favourite bag pattern "Anna's Sminkepunge" by AnnAKa and made a collection of bags for Christmas gifts. These bags look very pretty when they are made with scraps of co-ordinating fabrics, and I love this pink spotty binding.....  .....the white embroidered fabric was my own vintage bed linen (AKA a duvet cover that I'd been given as a wedding present, and was still being used 24 years later until that blasted hairy hound ripped it when he was a puppy!!) the pink lace was a purchase from the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally back in October, and now I've sadly run out - oh dear - nice cotton lace is tricky to find - might have to go on another shopping spree in the New Year - how terrible!.....  .....these two larger ones can be used as toiletry bags. I didn't follow the cutting instructions on the pattern for these - I just used the fabrics that I had already cut as making a larger bag seemed a better idea than wasting the fabric! These ones all have one of my labels neatly sewn inside them. Now I'd better get busy and get these wrapped up ready for Christmas!!
 Mr F and me have been on our annual hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. A friend of Mr F's had a huge field of Christmas Trees and every year he lets us pick one out - for free!! So off we set on a bright, but chilly morning, armed with Mr F's tried and trusted tree felling equipment - a saw and a pair of sturdy loppers.....  .....it took about half an hour before Mr F spotted it - not too skinny, not too fat, quite bushy, and LADEN with pine cones! Anyway, after much sawing and huffing and puffing from Mr F, the perfect tree had been felled and was soon loaded into the back of the car.....  .....Beth is home from uni for the holidays, and decided she was going to be in charge of the decorating - and didn't she do well - even if it did take her all day to get it done! She played some Michael Buble music while she was decorating, just to feel a bit more Christmassy.....  .....and a close-up of those gorgeous pine cones. They smell divine, and so far that hairy hound Jasper hasn't pulled off any pine cones or baubles. Hopefully it will survive a very hectic Christmas at the Foremans!!
 Santa I've been very good this year, and as I've been really busy making lots of Christmas gifts and wrapping them and sending off all the Christmas cards, I really do deserve a little treat for me. Amanda Davie designs the most beautiful jewellery, and these Mantra Earrings feature her signature word charms, and wonderful bead and charm accents - wood, tiny turquoise hearts, and lovely little bird dangles. Hope they arrive in time to slip them in my Christmas stocking hehe!!
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 About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! 
  
 
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