Wednesday 5 December 2007

Christmas is Coming...

Wednesday 5 December 2007
And I'm getting excited! I love christmas and we're having it at our house this year with my parents. We got all the decorations out yesterday and the tree is going up tonight, it's nice to finally be in a house that we can fit the decorations in without losing a huge chunk of living space!

Last month I made christmas puddings for the whole family (including one to post to Greece!) and will be making mince pies at some point. Turkey is ordered from M&S (pre stuffed and in it's own roasting tin) and I'm busy making a food list for my Mum to check over. Not because I can't order food but because my StepDad can be a bit fussy and I want to make sure there's plenty of stuff he'll eat.

Lia's been singing Christmas Carol's for weeks as they're practicing for a Carol Concert next thursday. I asked if she should be wearing anything particular (stupid me) and they said if she had a white dress because they're supposed to be angels. What parent in their right mind has a white dress for a 2 1/2 year old???? Someone at work says they have an angel costume that might fit, otherwise I'm going to try and find a white nightie somewhere.

She's still not really aware of the whole presents part of Christmas (yes I am making the most of it) but she's loving the lights and decorations, especially the 8 foot inflatable snowman they have outside nursery.

Crafting wise, I thoroughly enjoyed my quilting class and have almost finished my quilt - just two sides to have the binding stitched on. I've been waiting since the class for the quilting foot for my sewing machine to arrive - it turned up yesterday but now my machine is playing up big time and I'm going to have to take it for repair I think. It's eating the thread somewhere between the reel and the needle - basically the thread seems to get stripped thinner and thinner until it snaps and I'm left with a 'spring' of thread where it's been gathered.

I'm not sure if that makes sense but it wasn't doing it before, I've cleaned and oiled the machine, used different threads, different tension, different stitch lengths and it still happens. It's incredibly frustrating as I've got so much I want to get on with.

Anyway, here's two more quilt tops I've finished that are awaiting quilting. Thanks everyone for you kind comments re my first quilt top (here and in the other places I posted it in my finishing excitement LOL). I'm having so much fun with all of this and have just ordered a whole load of fabric having sold some stuff on eBay (so it's not real money I'm using!)






Both quilts are using the colour schemes I chose for the first two quilting courses. My next course is 5th January and I've paid a deposit for another three - one in Feb, one in March and one in May!!!

Stitching wise I haven't done much (I'm sure you can understand why) but I did manage to post an update of my Cirque des Cercles on the Snowbird SAL. At least I'll get some stitching done while my sewing machine is out of action LOL.

Finally here's some pics of Lia









7 comments:

Erin (moviemuse) said...

Your quilt tops are just beautiful! And that red dress of Lia's is just wonderful. She's looking so grown up!

Stephanie said...

Lia is really gorgeous - I love the red outfit she's wearing!

I'm so impressed with your quilting, it's amazing! Are your quilting classes next year based around a specific project or technique? Boo about your machine - hope you get it fixed soon, very frustrating not to have it - especially at this time of year when things take much longer to get fixed :(

Roll on Christmas!

Darla said...

Lovely quilts!!

Yep, "sounds" like a tension issue to me. Have you taken out the manual and followed it step by step tediously when threading the machine? Mine has a "park" position that needs to be used for threading, rather than the "neutral" position. Does yours "lock" the presser-foot assembly?

Lindsay said...

Love the top quilt Joy, you quite welcome to send it to me if you don't have room for it :)

Wonderful pics of Lia, the one's of her in red are fantastic

Sheila said...

Your quilts are wonderful, and even more so is Lia - isn't she growing up quickly. A real cutie :)
I never thought I'd hear you say you are enjoying sewing - maybe I should believe you and give it a try myself! My Peacock Chair is still one large piece of fabric!!! Thanks for updating your blog.

Kathy A. said...

Check out the SAL blog today, There is a special message.

Kathy A. said...

BTW - your quilts are stunning! I spend lots of time calling my sewing machine very creative names. Hope your issues are easily resolved.

 

Total Pageviews