Stitching, Hail, Girl 18, OPAM

Hi everyone,

Gosh,  November has been a crazy, busy month here at the cottage.  There has been a LOT of stitching happening here but it's all good...stitching makes me happy.

Our Sunday Stitchers Christmas party was yesterday.  The name I drew for Secret Santa was Teresa who has a blog here.   Teresa loves gingies and she loves French General fabric, so I stitched this super cute design by the lovely Michelle who blogs here.   I put a few goodies inside...more FG fabric, a vanilla candle, a cute little Daiso cherry tape dispenser, a gingerbread cookie, and a notebook.   The Christmas party was great fun and I will show you my gorgeous present and tell you the story behind it in my next post.

Some of us in the SS group have been working on a row by row quilt.  It's been a paper bag swap type of event where we are given a theme each month to make a row for another lady's quilt.  We have not been allowed to show anything until now...the Christmas party was our big reveal.

            

                                            Susan, Maree, Debbie, De.

                                          Debbie, De,  Marilyn, Noela.  We had so many ladies in front of us
                       taking photos, that none of us knew where to look LOL.

I rarely show my face here, but this picture is especially for  Mel.  Earlier this year, Mel was my partner for another swap and she included this very special stitchery for me of a Labrador with a quilt to always remind me of the naughty one that wouldn't stay off the bed. I put the stitchery on my fridge so I will see it every day.  The instructions for the very last row that we were to make ourselves had to include stitchery.  So, I traced the special stitchery from Mel to include on my quilt (it's near my right hand).  The rest of the stitchery says "Happiness is a Sweet Little Cottage By the Sea".  I will show a better picture later but I hope you can see "Z" there, dear Mel.

Four of us also joined in the "haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas" stitchalong that has been happening on Instagram.  L-R:  De, Debbie, Teresa, Jeanette.  The hostess is Lori Holt from beeinmybonnet and some of the blocks are from her book Quilty Fun. We all managed to get our flimsys ready in time for show and tell at the party.  This has been great fun sewing together with so many ladies from all over the world....together.

Somehow, I also managed to make 20 cute little thread spool ornaments to give as gifts at the party too.  This the spool pattern is also from the book "Quilty Fun".

I still have more pictures to show of more things I sewed in between all this, but they will keep till next time.   I am expecting girl 18 to arrive 22nd of December.  She is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix and she is a working dog....pictures coming when we meet at last!!

Last....did you hear about the hail? In 7 1/2 years, I've only ever had pea size hail at this house, but last week, it seemed like rocks were falling from the sky. The noise on the iron roof was deafening but I am thankful my only loss was my tomato plants...I can start over easily enough.  So many others had it much worse that day.

 

 

This palm frond is well latched onto the power lines...until who knows when!?  That's all for now,  I will show my gorgeous present from Jeanette and the rest of the sewing soon. xx debbie