Cross Stitch Tuesday Part 4

I'm in a rush to post this today as I've just been called into work. I have completed 2 more letters and I'm working on the last one. Then I just have another girl to stitch and it is DONE!
I can't believe it after all this time.
I hope to show a finish very soon.
Bye for now,
Jan Mac

Fairy Dresses Monday

I have been busy sewing gifts to give to needy families for Christmas and here are two of the little fairy skirts I made for little girls to pretend they are princesses or fairies at their very own party.
They were easy to make- I just cut a piece of fabric 3" wide across the with of fabric. Then I doubled the tulle and cut it 4.5" wide across the width of fabric. I folded it so I had 4 layers and stitched them around the strip of fabric, overlapping them by half. I left about 10" of the support fabric to make ties so the skirts can be tied around a little waist and I used 8 pieces of overlapping tulle on each skirt. It's hard to see in the photos and I didn't have a little girl to pose in them but I hope you can see what I mean. I also made a headband to match the skirts.
Hopefully some little girls will have fun dressing up in their fairy dresses and twirling around playing make believe as little girls do.
I also finished off some more QAYG quilts and they are shown on my other blog. We're off camping for a week or so at the end of the week so I'm trying to get my Christmas donations finished and delivered before we leave.
I can't believe that it's only2 months until Christmas. Where has the year gone. I've traveled quite a bit this year but we have still donated over 430 quilts so far and more to deliver very soon.
Hugs Jan Mac
PS Don't forget to check back later for Cross Stitch Tuesday. LOL

Stars on Sunday Part 3

I've found that by committing to writing about working on my UFOs and posting about it once a week I am actually able to focus on getting them finished. Otherwise I get distracted by working on donation quilts first. I am still working on them but I'm also making time to work on finishing some of my projects and I'm really happy with my progress.
The first photo shows the star quilt top from last Sunday when I had attached 25 stars for the top. I also spent more time making star sets this week and the final photo shows that I now have 32 stars in place.
I must be almost half way now I think and the hardest part is trying to balance out the different colours. It probably won't matter in the long term as red shades seem to be predominant and I have red fabric for the border.
It's good to be able to see that I will be up to attaching a border in a few month's time.
I've also finished off more donation quilts shown on my other blog so the week finished more productively than it started. Yesterday I was going to attend the country meeting of my Vic Quilter's Guild but it was going to be a 5 1/2 hour drive so at the last moment I decided to stay home and use my time more usefully. Maybe I'll make it to a meeting when it is closer to me.
Back to sew some more stars as it is still Sunday here.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Christmas is Coming

I received seven beautiful quilt tops from a lovely supporter, Sue V. (Vic) and they will make some lovely Christmas gifts for the needy who most probably will not receive any other gifts. I know it will be too warm for the quilts to be used at Christmas time but I know they will be appreciated as a gift from the heart. I have quilted one of the tops already and it is shown on my other blog, Oz Comfort Quilts.
Margo Barber (Tas) has also been very busy knitting mini Christmas stockings and these are really lovely and will be much appreciated by the organizations who use them as small gifts for the needy. I have more sewing to do and Christmas will be here before we know it so I'd better get off the computer and back to work.
"Stars on Sunday" update will be posted later today.
Hugs Jan Mac

A Mixed Bag

This week has been a mixed bag health-wise. We had a rushed trip to hospital at 1.30am earlier this week, with DH having chest pains. Luckily he was fine so we were home again by 4am. At the same time I had toothache and persevered for a few days with codeine etc while I waited for a dentist appointment. I had the nerve removed today and go back for a root canal in 4 weeks time- I can't wait!
Not much else has been happening but I did manage to finish off 2 more QAYG quilts and they are shown on my other blog.
I also bought some frames for these lovely postcards I bought in Rome- my favourite city. I hope they don't look too kitsch but I plan to hang them where I can see them every day and relive the memories of walking around ancient Rome- all that history! The cards are much better than any photos I took as there were so many people in the foreground of all the photos that it's very hard to get a good view of the ancient buildings.
We've just watched the mini series of Rome in Caesar's time, and I now plan to read Colleen McCullough's books, the Men of Rome series, based on Julius Caesar, again.
I plan to resume normal operational routines tomorrow and hope to have more finished quilts to show soon after a good night's sleep.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Cross Stitch Tuesday

Last week I was surprised at how much cross stitch I'd done for the week and this week I managed to do less but it's still progressing nicely.
I have finished the letters X and Y and have started the letter V. That's probably been less than last week as there were more children to be stitched, but I'll have to remind myself that even if I only completed one letter a week it is still more progress than I'd made from the last 10 years or so.
At this rate I should have the whole piece finished in another week or so and I'm really pleased with that. Of course I have the next piece chosen to work on but I'm sticking with my resolve to finish this one first.
I also finished quilting the rescued quilt that Gina W. (Vic) found in her local op shop and it's shown on my other blog. It will be a lovely gift to comfort someone in need of a warm hug, so thank you very much Gina for helping me to rescue this lovely quilt.
Hugs, Jan Mac.

Stars on Sunday Part 2

It's time to report on my progress again on the UFO I've chosen to finish. Last Sunday I had 13 stars stitched together and today when I stopped for a photo I was surprised to find that I'd stitched 25 stars together.
I've also been making extra cream diamonds to join the stars as well as making more stars to add to the top.
I'm very happy with my progress and even our visiting little kitten gave them a Cat Scan of approval.
What is it about cats that if you put a quilt or quilt top on the floor to take a photo, they always go over to lie on it?
Spending more of my time cross stitching or hand stitching as cut into my knitting time but as the weather is rapidly warming here, the hats and warm garments won;t be needed for some time now and it's good to get some of my UFOs finished.
DH has been asking if I've started on a fabulous new quilt pattern that I bought recently but as I have an unexplained desire to finish off some projects I want to get these out of the way before I start a new one. Of course that feeling may change but at the moment I'm sticking to finishing off UFOs. I have another hand applique piece that I need to finish off too so that may join the current rotation of UFOs to work on.
Have a great week.
Hugs, Jan Mac