Thank you Jenny!

Christmas is finally here, and I could open the main gift in the SSCS swap.  Jenny made me this lovely table topper, and she even included a pretty kangaroo bookmark and a Minnie Mouse appliqué!

The tabletop fits perfect on my side table, it is soo pretty!!  I love the card with Santa and his surfboard, it is a big contrast to our winter here!

From our house to your house- I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas!

Thank you Jenny!

I just received my SSCS gift today, and Jenny in Australia is my secret Santa.  Thank you so much Jenny!  I LOVE how she wrapped the gifts in Mickey Mouse wrapping paper.  She obviously knows me well .... lol

Look at this cute Christmas card :-)  I guess Santa gets around on a kangaroo in Australia :-)  How cute is that!!

This is the lovely ornament Jenny made for me.  It is super pretty!  

She even sent me this awesome Aussie keychain, I love it!!

Thank you again Jenny, now I can't wait for Christmas to arrive so I can open the last gift :-)

My husband and I just got home from a 2 week vacation last night, and I thought I had written a blog post while we were away, but it's not showing up here..... I was using my iPad and the blogger app, and I haven't used that in ages- does anyone else use the app to write posts?  I just wonder what I did wrong....

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for Christmas!

SSCS finally arrived in Australia

It took a little over a month, but finally the SSCS swap presents I mailed in November arrived at Cheryl's in Australia.  I enjoyed stalking Cheryl's blog, and soon discovered she loves snowmen, like myself :-)

This bag is from a pattern by Wenche Wolff Hatling, and it was so much fun to make it, I might just have to make one more for myself.

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and a fun New Year's Eve.  

I am so looking forward to the new year and all the fun I plan on having in my sewing room!  Time to use fabrics from my stash I think.  At least that is my plan.  But of course I will still get new fabrics, I just need to sew MORE!  Sound like a good plan or what??

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

SSCS

Thank you so much Lisa for the lovely pillow I received in the SSCS swap.  Your stitching is just beautiful, and the pillow is gorgeous!

I am really sorry my SSCS parcel still has not arrived in Australia, even if it was sent from Norway in November.  I really hope it will arrive safe soon, or I will make another gift and send!

I hope everyone is having a nice Christmas, my thoughts are with our lovely hostess of the SSCS swap, Donna, who lost her sister to cancer right before Christmas.  Sending you lots of hugs Donna!

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!

The SSCS sleigh has landed

The SSCS sleigh landed here yesterday, and Lisa V is my Secret Santa!  Of course I had to check her blog out, and she does beautiful cross stitching!

Look at the gorgeous Santa ornament she sent me!  I just love it!!!  

The other gift is hidden away until Christmas Eve- I can't wait to open it :-)

Thank you again Lisa, I LOVE my ornament!

SSCS 2015

I am SOOOO excited!!  I just got the e-mail from head-elf Chooky with all the info on who I will be sending to in my favorite swap!  I will be doing some serious blog stalking, and I think I know what I will make for her already.... But I'm not telling ;-)

Have you joined this swap? Wonder who is my secret Santa this year??? This is my 9th year in the swap, and a couple of years I swapped double since there wasn't enough overseas girls in the swap- which was twice as much fun! ( and twice the work of course)

Today I have dug out my Fall decorations and table runners. Hubby is at work, and I needed to do some serious cleaning, which always means I end up rearranging the furniture.... Makes everything seem nice and new for a while....

Merry Christmas to all!

Finally Christmas is here, and I didn't have to wait any longer to open my SSCS gift from Jan over at "little Red Hen". She spoiled me rotten with not only one, but three gifts!  First was this lovely bag in awesome fabrics, and inside were two wooden kangaroo buttons and a pattern!

This is the bag closed, isn't it gorgeous?

Jan also made me this pretty drawstring bag ( again- i LOVE the fabrics!!!!) and inside this bag was a pack of Christmas kleenex :-)

The third lovely gift Jan made me was this adorable stocking!  I just had to hang it on the tree right away!  Thank you so much for your generous presents Jan, I am thrilled with them all!!!

A million thanks to Donna as well for hosting the swap!!!!

Today we woke up to a cold morning with -32C ( -24F), so we have stayed inside pretty much all day.  Went to my Mom and Dad's for Christmas lunch/dinner which is a tradition, along with my brother and his wife and her parents and sister.  My parents also have some friends from Romania who doesn't have any family here who spend Christmas day with us,  Kristine is in Texas celebrating Christmas with her dad and stepmom there, so it does feel a bit empty here without her.  Can't wait to see her again in January.  She has a couple of weeks off before University starts again, so she'll be home for a few days then.

I hope everyones christmas has been wonderful!  Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Thank you my Secret Santa!

Santa has dropped off my SSCS parcel from Jan over at "Little red hen"  and look at the cute ornament she made for me!  I love it, thank you so much Jan!

The other gift has been hidden away until Christmas!

But the ornament has been hung on my little tree in the sewingroom.  Isn't it just adorable?

Thank you again to Chookyblue for hosting this swap!  I've been in it every year since she started hosting it :-)

A new ruler to play with.

I have a new ruler, the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star ruler, and it is so much fun to use!!!  I was demonstrating it at the quilt guild the other night, so I thought I'd tell you all about it as well.

The pictures just show a little of how you use the ruler when you make the star points for the Hunter's Star.  Now in my last post I said I would use my NEW fabrics first, and not my older ones, but I failed already.... All the red and cream fabrics I am using in these blocks are from my old stash.... ( Now I can actually close the drawer with red fabrics again :-) )

The ruler makes it really easy to sew the star points to the trapezoid, and you use your regular ruler to trim pthe bits when they are sewn together.

Here is a block almost finished- I just need to trim it down using the Hunter's star ruler!

This is the layout I am using, these haven't been sewn together or trimmed yet, ( well, now they are, but not when I photographed them...)

I've knittesd this weekend as well, winter is here (or it should be), and more mittens need to be made.  Look how huge these are before I threw them in the washinmachine to get felted.

I just hope they are a lot smaller when the wash is done!  I will show you the result :-)

Well folks, that's what I've been up to- oh, and I've mailed off my SSCS package to someone far far away!  I hope it gets there in time for Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by!

SSCS and sewing

These yummy charm packs arrived at the shop a couple of weeks ago, and I just knew I wanted to make something!

I decided to make half square triangles with plain black fabric as the second fabric.

Here they all are stacked and ready to sew together....

And this is what it (hopefully) will look like when I have it sewn together... (one day...)

Last week I had a day off from work and FINALLY got around to quilt this flimsy.  It feels great to finally have it finished!

This is the final result. I am not thrilled with it, but it turned out ok.

So have you signed up for the SSCS this year?  I have, and I am busy stalking somebody's blog..... FUN!

Thank you Suze!

Thank you so much for the lovely bunting you made me for the SSCS swap Suze!

As you can see, it is already up!  It fit perfect in our livingroom :-)

Suze also made me this lovely tea towel. Isn't it just adorable?  And she included a cute Koala bear ornament as well, but I forgot to put it in the picture- sorry!

I hope everyone in the SSCS swap had a lovely Christmas! ( And all of you who wasn't as well of course!)

I'm off nordic skiing- enough of the eating for now!!

SSCS received

Today Santa dropped off my SSCS gift.  This year Suze is my Secret Santa, Thank you so much for the sweet Snowman ornaments you made for me Suze!  The two other gifts have been safely put away until Christmas.

Don't you just love these sweet snowmen? They sure look right at home in our house :-)

I also know that the SSCS presents I sent have arrived at their destination in Australia :-)

Thank you for stopping by!