Good Lord!

It's December and I cannot even begin to work out how that happened!

I am not going to repeat the tone of my last few posts, blethering on about how busy I am and no time to blog; still all true, but you know the score!

So I owe you pics of my #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap haul…

…all posted on Instagram, and I was truly spoilt by my lovely partner!

I made a couple more Farmer's Wives…

…and I stitched up this little taggie for baby due early next year…

My Quilt Now Christmas Countdown has come out of the loft…

If it really was only 12 days to go, I would be waaaaaay more panicked than I am!

…but I really can't bring myself to start on the rest of the decorations just yet!

And incoming, the first two parcels of my Stitch Tease November Bee blocks have arrived…

I am so thrilled with these and can't wait for the rest ;)

Warning, Christmas is closer than it may appear…

I got followed home by a van stacked with Christmas Trees!

I am just not quite ready to accept it!

I meant to blog, honest!

My days have kind of crashed into a sofa-coma as soon as the kids have hit the hay this week.  I have been sewing; drilling a nice big hole into my middle finger with all the hand-stitching and binding I have been doing.  I'm not too happy about that, so I'll be on machine duty for a few days.

I took photos along the way, to prove how productive I've been though…

This is a Father's Day cushion for my Dad.  I spent most of Sunday pulling and cutting fabrics, over-thinking some of the fussy-cut text and generally trying make my super-sized She Loves You block from Jen Kingwell's Quilt Lovely, perfect.

I managed to get a couple of flower heads onto my Amitié BOM over the weekend too, and today I had a good go at the sky of my #mysmallworld…

I am starting to have palpitations about the end of year teacher gifts, with dear son moving up to middle school, I have to go large!  And I have a couple of must-do projects to get off the ground too, so no time for slacking.

So that's where I am at.  If I go silent again, I am likely to be stitching sleeping xxx

Mystery Catch Up...

Over Christmas I stitched up a few more of the mini blocks for my Amitié BOM quilt which I don't think I have shown you.  I've made 5 out of the 11 of November's blocks, although I am stalling on the rest, as future packages will contain more of the fabrics required; I am following the instructions, not making excuses!

I now need to get at least the same of December's made, before I can crack on with the amazing January package that arrived yesterday…

This is now starting to look like the quilt that Jen was working on at FQR last summer and got me all excited to join up in the first place.  So thrilled!

I need to crack on with the girls' quilts tomorrow, as well as a couple of other projects on a deadline, but I really really want to get my appliqué-action on asap.

Loose Ends...

My first day home from holiday has been consumed with 6 loads of washing and an afternoon sat in the sun whilst the kids enjoyed Junior Archaeology Day, so I have nothing crafty to show you but the mini hexies from the local museum (again!)...

But I have had the chance to read through my emails and apologise that some of my pre-written posts were written in haste, vital info missing, sorry!  So I figure it will be easier to answer the questions and comments here and be able to pretty much clear down my Inbox in one fell swoop!  (Bonus).

Looking for Inspiration - 50s style
My 3 favourite books, and those I showed prints from were...
Patterns - Philippe de Baeck

V&A Pattern - The Fifties - Sue Prichard

1950s Fashion Prints - Marnie Fogg

All highly recommended.

Hey FoQers
Thank you Susan for the photo!  I am so jealous of all you guys that got to meet up, and seeing all that Liberty Lifestyle fabric popping up in everyones' photos is not making me feel any better about missing out!

Thanks matey x

The Carnival is coming along...
Thank you for all the compliments - this is going to be a whopping cushion - I will have to go onto eBay to find suitably enormous innards soon!

Sweet Liberty
Simply Taking a Liberty more like!  I want to get these purses made as soon as possible, it would be too rude not to!  They may be international jet-setters but still no nearer to being made, sorry.

Buttercup Buttercup
This is a free bag pattern to download, so there's no excuse for not printing the pieces and getting one or two made, if you are one of the few people left who have not made one already.  Mine was invaluable for smuggling boiled eggs and assorted preserves from the hotel breakfast buffet!

Colour...
Told you that game was fun!  I average about an 8, but it does seem to be a little haphazard judging poor from very good, or maybe it's just my eyes!

For The Next Few Months...
Obrigado Tia - Estou tão animado!  
Still so excited, I have two cousins with babies due before my sister, another boy and a 'wait and see', so busy happy times ahead; are we going to place bets as to whether the baby or the quilt are 'ready' first?!

Open Wide!
I had to pre-warn Cindy not to read that post until the parcel arrived!  But like it she does, (Yoda?), and it arrived just in time, so all was good!

Did You Miss Me?
And finally, shucks... you make me blush!  I have to admit I have already gone stealth in catching up with some of the comings and goings in blogland, but hope to be back in 'real-time mouthy mode' soon, although I have to admit I am trying to cling to the holiday mindset for as long as possible.

I really do apologise for the lack of personal replies, but I promise I have read all your comments and appreciate every single one of them xxx

Right now, I need to think about getting on with my Stitch Tease strip and BQS3 parcel extras along with other less urgent things, like 2 tonnes of ironing and perhaps buying some food! 

Mañana mis amigos x