Big achievements and small sewing

One proud mother here, on Friday our YD graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. 

Congratulations Laura, here with her hubby.
Both relieved that she's finished!

The MOML and I had a nice day off the farm and ED flew up to celebrate as well so it was great.

Family selfie

And yummy dinner afterwards.

On the crafting front, things have been a little quiet... I got my Chookyblue's SSCS gifts in the post...after a bit of an oopsie - I decided to do a last minute removal of a tiny bit of a pen mark but ended up with some colour bleeding - ouch - and of course trying to fix it made it worse! An extra day to remake my ornament and all was well and my gifts are now posted!

Crocheted on our way down to YD's graduation. The afghan is slowly growing
and gobbling up my scrap yarn well.

Recently I took part in a postcard swap...Sheila of sheilasquiltworld organises these regularly and it's always fun to play with different techniques on a small scale and see what other people make.
This time I swapped with Marsha (quilterinmotion). She was doubly organised, sending her's off before she made her annual migration from Canada to Florida for winter —

It took me completely by surprise, arriving before I'd even thought of what I
would do on mine! Looks like autumn in Canada to me!
Thank you very much Marsha :-)

Finally I got inspired by some NZ fabric which I fussy cut. I love the Pohutakawa tree, which we also call our New Zealand Christmas tree as it flowers in December. (And I've probably raved about it in previous years!)

I added some french knots and a little extra Pohutakawa bloom.

I also experimented with the script on the card by doing it FMQuilting style using hand embroidery thread (Aurifil #12). Scary but it worked - next time though I will loosen the top tension a little more as some bobbin thread showed on top.

 Speaking of postcards; when our nephew was staying in October he started making a couple... he's made them in the past and gets a buzz out of sewing them and then receiving mail himself. He hadn't finished them when he left our place but I understand they've both now been delivered to bloggy friends of mine in Canada.

Max's postcards when he left our place. All done by hand.
He wanted to get his techniques right so he could make more at home
where he doesn't have access to a machine.
[The L and P is a NZ drink, and Gilbert is a sportsgear brand name :-)]

 Speaking of the mail and cards, I think I can segue nicely into my last photo - check out one of the most gorgeous Christmas cards we have ever received ♥

The girls are about 4 months old now, at a happy chortling age.

Have a lovely week, and happy creating,