Last but not least. Here is what I did last night.
I have started to get into gemstones.
The large rectangles in the bracelet are Sodalite.
I have teamed it with turquoise freshwater
pearls, silver spacer beads and tibetan silver
filigree spacers. The matching danglies have the
same beads except round sodalite beads. With
this bracelet I used beading wire (tiger tail) and
crimps which is the first time I have used them.
I can see more of these gemstone bracelets coming up. Look out ebay here I come....

A closer photo of the green charm set.
Also pictured are the pairs of danglies I have made in the past week.
The pink rose quartz and pearl I made to match with the memory wire bracelet and the other pair I made to match a bracelet I had bought in August.

I am still working away at the beading. Pictured at right is my green charm bracelet with chandeliers to match.
They consist of indian glass beads, cube and rectangle glass, keshi pearls, czech crystals and gemstone chips emerald, agate and peridot which is my birthstone.

I think its about time I added something I have worked on so I will add some photos of quilts I have finished in the last month. Not many! Dorothys quilt took up most of the time being custom.

I freehanded large flower and leaf motifs in the large triangles, small flowers and leaves in the sashings, an echoed curl in the background of the flowerpot squares and feather then flower and leaves and lastly swags in the final border.










Bernies and Kris' quilt were all overs so took no time. Bernies quilt the black and white log cabin I put Kerryn Emmersons Spiral Square on.
Kris' quilt is a lovely quilt I would have liked to custom quilt it but it wasn't the right option for Kris for a number of reasons. It still looked lovely with KE's Field of flowers on it (which is my favorite panto pattern)

Pictured at left is my grandaughter Isabella. These photos were taken on cup day at 13 months. Her hair is finally starting to grow, it's getting much longer even since these photos were taken but not much thicker! In these photos she looks very much like her mother as a baby.

I can't believe it is snowing in November! Not long enough at a time to lay around but it's been falling on and off all day in between hail. Left is my front verandah looking out onto the front garden. It's really cold at the moment, wasn't too bad this morning when this was taken but it's got colder throughout the day. I hope it keeps going as it may lay around if it falls after five.



Now for the beading....pictured at right is my next project after the earrings in the kits. Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice. The bracelet is a bead charm bracelet, it has purple beads and gold accents the chain is antique gold in colour and I just finished the chandelliers last night to match it. In between I did two pairs of "danglies" for my Aunt (the one that lost her husband last month) and a pair of chandelliers in the afternoon that I went to see her last week. That night when I got home I made her a red bead charm bracelet to match one of the pair of danglies and posted it off, she has received it and was thrilled.





Pictured left is the memory wire bracelet I bought as a kit. I didn't use the original beads in the kit but replaced them with rose quartz chips, pearls from my grandmothers old necklace, silver bead caps and pink swarovski crystal beads.

Well since my last post I have discovered beading! Big mistake walking into that bead shop.
Patchwork wise I had been doing a bit of work here and there on Not quite shabby and I did manage to put it together except for the final border. It is pictured at left without the dark pink 1.5" border it has on it now. Next it will have a 6-7" of the light rose fabric that is the background.






I have also been working on the latest I spy quilt for the new grandchild which is only 8 weeks at present and is due in June so I have plenty of time. It is a real WIP, it's based on the Anjii's Angles unit but I am unsure yet of the placement. At the moment I am still fiddling around with whether I will have sashings of not.







Now to the beading! I started with three $5 kits for earrings and a memory wire bracelet (which by the way is still a WIP) and since then I haven't looked back. Below are the earrings made from the kits.

















In my next post I will show what I have moved onto!

It's been a few weeks but it's been busy as usual.
Family wise my DD came home from her trip to Europe to discover she is pregnant which is what they had planned so very good news. Unfortunately she is having a few problems with cramping and spotting so we are hoping for things to settle down and it is a bit of a stressing time for her which of course affects me.



Spring is in the air and summer is around the corner. A lovely time of year in the garden, very distracting really. The roses are all getting ready to burst open, some have started already. Even the pea straw keeps sprouting peas! Above is Cafe, a gorgeous rose with coffee shades as it ages.






I had been doing a bit of sewing at night and one of my WIP's is Not quite shabby pictured left.
If I get time to finish this and quilt it I think it will put it on my bed.

I have changed to knitting at night, with the thought of number 2 grandchild on the way I thought I would get an early start and finish the shawl I had started when Isabella was on the way. I have nearly finished the shawl body with only two and a half more pattern rows to go. The patterns take me two hours so hopefully it will be finished by tomorrow night. Then I only have to do the middle border x4 then the outside border x 4. I am hoping the borders won't take too long but if they do I will have enough time over the months to get sick of it, give it a rest then go back to it.

Heres my dog and cat, well one of the cats. Lucas is a five year old Lilac Burmese, very loving and vocal! Saffron is a five year old yellow lab she looks very well fed but poor thing looks at food and puts on weight....I know the feeling!!!!!!! They are catching the late afternoon sun on the back verandah, funny Lucas seems to have the best spot as usual.

Below is one of my own quilts that I did manage to quilt. The Healing Quilt is a pattern from Patchwork on Stonleigh although their colourway was very different to what I used. This quilt lives in the "shabby chic" bedroom. The quilt is made up of nine blocks four of the peony blocks and five of the flying geese (goose track?) blocks.