Tuesday 28 December 2010

Christmas Day 2010

 Well Christmas day has come and gone for 2010.

Graham and I  spent a quiet, but nice Christmas with family.


Kim and Graham on Christmas Day 2010

The week before Christmas was busy - I've been at work nearly every day, including  two nights,  so I can have some days off over New Years.

I even worked Christmas day from 7am to 3pm -- Someone's got to do it and I felt it was my turn. I wrote this roster so I only have myself to blame and it amuses the other staff that I gave myself  a shocker! The hospital does provide a nice meal for the staff on Christmas day so its nice to eat with the clients and wear silly hats. We always make sure that there are plenty of lollies and other Christmas treats for the clients, traditionally one of the staff even takes some of them out for a drive to see the Christmas lights! 



After work Graham and I headed over to his mothers for Christmas Dinner - Graham's family where up from Sydney - Michael, Gail and Tom. My son Andrew was also in town so he came with us.



A lovely meal was cooked by Vi, who I'm pleased to say was thrilled with the quilt!

Tom and Andrew

It poured rain all afternoon. The creek was flooded by the time we were on our way home, at least the town is on top of a hill and the water drains away quickly. But its not going to take mush rain for the level to be up again as the ground is so sodden.

Boxing Day at our house

But I am looking forward to heading up to Sean and Emmy's this Thursday for a mini holiday. We are taking the doggies and they have two little dogs as well so it will probably be chaos...

until next time .... Kim

Tuesday 21 December 2010

My Birthday


 Happy Birthday to me....
These are the flowers sent to me by Sean andEmmy

I am a Christmas baby! AND I am not telling my age!

We had a low key celebration this year with Dinner at Andrews place.


















The Vase was a birthday gift from Mum and Dad
You may remember that for Graham's birthday he was given a helicopter flight from everyone - he hasn't done this yet as it has not stopped raining since his birthday in September....

But Lucky me! The family has all pooled their gift money and given me a voucher for my birthday so I can go with him! Woo HOO...

We will have to wait for a fine weekend so we can do this.

Sean & Emmy sent me the lovely flowers on this page and Mum and  Dad  gave me the vase. Its a lovely coincidence that they match soooo well!



Until next time... Kim

Sunday 19 December 2010

My Quilt World - Ripe Strawberries


FINISHED!



... and just in time for Christmas -
now I just  need to wrap it up for a Christmas gift - 
I hope she likes it..(my mum in law)....





One of the labels.

This is the second label - about my inspiration - lots of ladies carrying baskets of strawberries! 
Remember - my inspiration for naming this quilt came from the musical - OLIVER!. 
Click on the photos for a close up view.





if the photos look really good its because I've bought myself a new camera! 
Happy Birthday to me!!

until next time... Kim

Saturday 11 December 2010

Christmas Countdown


Well, its party season and nearly Christmas.. 

I been working full time over the past 5 weeks, being boss while 'she' is away. It has been extremely busy and stressful at work - and the past weeks have probably been the busiest of the year, and I am exhausted! Although I have earned lots of money, which I'm sure the tax man will appreciate...

Whoopee - I've finished my Christmas shopping! I did 95% of it online. 

The first Christmas do was the car club party - much to Graham's shock he was announced as club man of the year. 

Graham and his trophy

Then we actually had a work Christmas outing this year -  we missed out last year as no one felt like organising it. Because the organisation I work for has privacy laws I actually had to gain the permission of the people in this photo before I could publish it. We had a much better time than the glum faces in the photos show! The meal was nice too....

I think we may all be a little tired and emotional due to work stresses!

The house is looking splendid now all the decorations are up. AND yes there are roses and pearls on the Christmas tree.
This is a scented Christmas candle

The tree is a tall skinny one so I can fit it in our limited space

The baubles are nice glass ones I bought online a few years ago



Some of the Harrods Christmas bears have been released into their natural Christmas environment!


I have done hardly any work on quilts - even the binding on Ripe Strawberries has taken me 4 weeks - rather than the 4 evenings it would normally take!

...And, its hardly stopped raining - my lovely garden of a few weeks ago is now mush... but its minor to some areas of Australia that have been flooding -
Alfie has gained 1kg since we adopted him and its looking forward to Santa

Georgie Girl says "don't aim that flashing thing at me..".

Georgie Girl and Alfie are sick of getting their feet wet!

until next time ... Kim








Friday 10 December 2010

My Quilt World - 'All Spruced Up'

This is the Christmas quilt that I completed for 2009. It now lives in our entry hall at Christmas and I clip our Christmas cards to it with plastic clips.


I designed this quilt before I bought the EQ6 program. I  used graph paper and coloured pencils. 

It was one of those projects that changed as it went along. I decided to put an angel on top of the tree rather than the star I had originally planned, especially when I found this great appliqué pattern. (From, Australian Patchwork & Quilting, vol 17. issue 4).


I machined quilted this myself with simple straight lines (and a bit of huffing and swearing) in a variegated gold cotton.

Then I decided to cover the whole thing in beads and sequins by hand! REALLY - what was I thinking! But I had great fun raiding Vi's (my mum in law) box of beads to find what I wanted... (However, its 12 months later and I'm still finding loose sequins down the back of the lounge). 



When I was nearly finished I decided it looked really bare at the bottom - so I toyed with the idea of appliquéing a Merry Christmas banner across the bottom. Finally I decided on presents under the tree - they are made like mini quilts and attached with press duds so they can be removed for easy washing.

The gift tags (which I printed on printable fabric from a word document) say - seasons greetings, peace, joy, love and happiness - gifts I'm sure everyone would like at Christmas...

until next time  .... Kim

Monday 6 December 2010

In my life - The Presidents run 2010

In early November Graham and I went for an adventure with the car club.

It was a mystery run, so we didn't know where we were going. We ended up in Central NSW , Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange and it was great to see it so green and lush after so many years of drought. Although the Lotus isn't very waterproof and at one point I started calling it a dinghy.

Here is a slide show with the best photos from the trip. These are mostly my photos, but a couple have been borrowed from fellow travellers, so thanks to Lyn and Judy for filling in my gaps.

This slide show is about 10 minutes long (the longer version is about an hour!) Make sure you have your speakers on for the full rock effect.

until next time.... Kim

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Saturday 27 November 2010

In my life - Spring Garden

We have had so much rain 
that this year the garden is fantastic,
and here are some photos to prove it.....


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Thursday 11 November 2010

The Presidents Run - 2010

A photo shoot at Mudgee Station

Graham and I have just returned from a Mystery Run with the car club.

Here is a "teaser" with some of my photos of the trip and I will post a longer slideshow when I can get some of the group photos from others.

Kim & Graham at the Zig Zag Railway near Lithgow

Seven days away, 17 classic cars and good company. Each morning we found out what our destination was for the day, although after day one I think most of us had a general idea of which direction we were heading...

Start your engines - lined up on the grid at Mt Panorama Bathurst

We ended up in Mudgee, Lithgow, Bathurst, Orange and Gulgong in Central NSW.


Over the top of the mountain

Kim and the Lotus at Mount Panorama

Waiting at the roadworks


Until next time...Kim

Monday 8 November 2010

My Quilt world - Ripe Strawberries - version 2

My EQ6 design

Well, as I did get sooooo many nights I was able to make headway on the smaller version of Ripe Strawberries.

This one is for me to keep and I thought I'd use it as a table topper. So I've chosen the background fabric to match the lounge room colour scheme. (gold) I'm also using lots of the leftover fabrics from the larger version.

All blocks need to be pressed and trimmed

And,,, I'm working on it backwards and have started with the birds in the air blocks that form one of the outside borders.


Chain piecing of all the triangles
Until next time....... Kim

Thursday 21 October 2010

In my life - Is it Christmas already?!

A Christmas baby - how lovely!

My friend Elizabeth will be so proud of me! -- She puts the Christmas decorations up in September and this year I have nearly matched her..





I was so excited by my new Christmas houses that I have already put my little Christmas village out... (the tree and the rest can wait until December though)..




I CAN hear you all laughing.... a little silliness at Christmas is allowed!




until next time .... Kim