My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Stop the clock!

Gosh, since posting last time so much has happened...and I'm sorry, I have to throw in this old chestnut; "where has the time gone?"!
I see in my last post we were just getting ready to attend my cousin's wedding. We had a fabulous time down country, the bride was blushing and beautiful and we caught up with a lot of Mum's family which is always a good laugh. I also spent time with some cousins who I hadn't really seen for a LONG time.  And top it off, the weekend ended on a real high with a call from our YD to announce her engagement - wonderful news :-)
YD and her fiance!!
A few days after that Mum and I popped over the Tasman to visit my son and dil in Queensland, Australia. Phew talk about hot, but copious amounts of water and use of the air conditioning helped with that! It was awesome spending time with them; we did the customary drive-bys of places of work etc, saw some Aussie wildlife in a local zoo and local places of interest. Dear son googled quilting shops; we visited one and were told about a craftmarket that was on... by the time we'd finished there, the others were closed, but I was ok, I'd had my fix :-)
Of course we visited the local eateries too, and spent time 'just chilling' enjoying each other's company. All in all a great time. The (extended) weekend flew by.
It was exciting to arrive home to see that my Secret Santa gift had come in the post - squeal!!
We are allowed to open one gift now; oh look, gorgeous little hangings, thank you very much, whoever you are - they are lovely and will look great on our tree!!!

Handcrafty-wise I haven't squeezed much in but I do have a little to show. Following on from my successful discovery that I can crochet in the car, (this post) I finished a short scarf (the pinky one) on the way to my cousin's wedding. It was a horsetruck project from several years ago (easy projects to do while whiling away the hours at horse shows with the girls). So early in the trip that we had to stop at a small town to find some more wool for another project :-)





And because I have now finished both my horsetruck UFOs (ignore the fact that I started the little blue scarf!), I rewarded myself with being allowed to start my ripple afghan on my trip to Australia...yippee..! I have looked longingly at ripple afghans created by other crocheters and bloggers for several years now and have been collecting up a little wool for when I would start mine. It is so good to have started it, the pattern is really easy (click here to get to it) and it is a wonderful way to spend time on a plane or just sitting visiting with someone. You don't have to concentrate quite the same way as when doing closer work, and a crochet hook doesn't get lost as easily as a sewing needle! - plus I don't get car/air-sick

Woohoo, my ripple afghan - I love it!!

Of course the visit to family in December meant that I could deliver some Christmas pressies - here are the tags for them. The pattern for these is The Alphabet Noel by Michelle Ridgeway Designs. I used Cottage Garden Threads - perfect for this type of stitchery.

And in my last post I showed the postcard I had received from Mary at NeedledMum... here is the one I sent her - you may recognise the reindeer from here, he is a little pattern I have fallen in love with :-)
Just before the MOML went out to do farmwork this morning, he commented that my 'palace' used to be 'quite a big room'... in other words it is FULL OF STUFF!! I need a good tidyup - wish me luck :-) [this is an all too frequent occurance!!].
Happy sewing to you all, and thank you for calling in,

26 comments:

  1. Looks like life has been very full for you, Raewyn.
    I loved seeing the photos of you with family.
    And congrats on your daughter's engagement.
    What an interesting display of wildlife from your zoo visit--I mean the animals!! : )
    Cute stitched ornaments--both sets. And what a great postcard!

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  2. Such lovely, happy news and excitement all round.such wonderful gifts.xxx

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  3. You have been busy socialising with a beautiful wedding and a trip over the ditch.
    Congratulations to the lovely couple on their engagement.
    Nice crocheting projects you have finished and the afghan you are now working on looks great. No worries with the crochet on the plane?
    Love both the gorgeous post cards swapped for Christmas.
    Nice to see you pop up again.

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  4. Oh such cute stuff! Love those embroidered pieces!! I hope you can
    get some time to yourself for a bit...hugs, Julierose

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  5. So glad you had a good time at A&A's! Wombats! They are my favorite animal. We saw those when I visited Alan in Tasmania and I fell in love with them. I swear crochet projects are the best for traveling. I find them so much easier to work on than anything else. All of your Christmas tags are so cute! I'm sure you will have loads of projects to show off after Christmas!

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  6. What a wonderful family time you have had Raewyn. So glad Queensland turned on some sunshine for your visit. Love what you did with my little letters. The last little reindeer postcard is a cutie too.
    By the look of your SS ornaments you are going to have fun with the other gifties xx

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  7. It sounds like you had a lovely trip. Good for you! Now enjoy tidying up the palace :)You'll be all inspired to craft some more once you're done.

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  8. Congratulations to your daughter!! Lovely photo of the couple, and lovely photos from your trip. Thanks for sharing.
    All your crocheting looks wonderful - good for you.
    Have fun cleaning. Hopefully see you soon!

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  9. Hi Raewyn, congratulations to your daughter & her fiance... such lovely news. Sounds like you have had a lovely family time lately catching up with them all. Those times are so precious. You have been creative too - I love all your makes, especially the chrissie decorations, a great post :-) Julie x0x

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  10. Wowza!!! Busy as a little bee, you've been!! What a fabulous trip!!! So fun seeing all the photos of your sightings!! Many congratulations on YD engagement!! How exciting!!!

    Oh the tidying - a never ending chore!!!

    Blessings and hugs from Texas!

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  11. boy you sure have been busy raewyn,love the gifts you have received and your crochet is gorgeous.xx

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  12. You have been busy, but lots of fun, interesting busy. Congratulations to your daughter. Love your new decorations, and the alphabet tags are so cute.

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  13. Glad you had such a fun time over the 'ditch'. Bet you treasured every minute of your time with your son and DIL. Congratulations to your daughter, wonderful news. Boy I am surprised at how much stitching and crocheting you have fitted in to your busy social life!

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  14. Whew.....busy times! How cool about your daughter getting engaged! mmmmmm a wedding quilt maybe?

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  15. sounds like you have been having wonderful times since your last blog, weddings visits to Aus and seeing so many relatives.
    Ripple will be lovely and the scarves I am sure will be well used during winter, blanket on your knees and scarf around your neck you will be warm as toast!

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  16. "Stop the clock!" or "The day should have at least 26 hours" is also on top of my wishes, lol. So I can clearly hear you on that.
    You seem to have had a wonderful time visiting with family and travelling. And stitching and sewing and crocheting, too. Gorgeous results!

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  17. Wonderful poist filled with great news and a pretty wedding and wedding to be ;-) Sounds like you and your mom had a nice trip to Australia and you made some progress on your crocheting , all around a great read !!

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  18. Congratulations on your YD, what a lovely picture of the two:)) Love reading of it all,what a big event. Exciting to see the strange (for me) pic of the zoo visit.Beautiful stitchery from Santa and yours as well!

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  19. Wow you have been busy, I too, recently found out I can crochet in the car, I thought I might get car sick as I can't read in the car.

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  20. Looks like life has been busy and fun for you, congratulations to your daughter! Love to see your knitted projects and your ripple blanket is looking beautiful already!

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  21. You life is full of good times and great news right now! Congratulations to YD and her fiance on their engagement. You'll be wedding planning next. Great crafty projects too. Love the Christmas stitching. Good luck with that tidy up!

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  22. We lived in Queensland for a year and I remember that heat very well - sap draining!!!
    Gorgeous gifts from your Secret Santa!
    We are having our Embroidery group lunch today and our secret santa prezzies too!
    Shane

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  23. Silly me...
    What exciting news for you Raewyn - your daughter engaged - wedding plans ahead - what could be nicer!

    We've just been up north - I wondered where you live!!
    Shane

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  24. How did I manage to miss this post? Congrats to your daughter - exciting news for you - a wedding to plan! Lots of Christmassy goodness in this post.

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  25. Wow, you've been busy! Lovely ornaments, and big congrats to your daughter!

    Hugs,
    Tatyana

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