Christmas Day table cloth

This was a VERY last minute project!  We had decided to have Christmas Day at home, just the two of us, and I wanted something seasonal to put on our little two person kitchen table.  I had this piece of fabric in my stash for a while but didn't know what to do with it.  So I pulled it out on Christmas Eve, added a border and backing, and voila!  Just the right size.

Happy Christmas to all who visit this blog.

Two new books and a happy friend.

Ken and I drove up to Healesville on Tuesday to have lunch with a friend. Before going to the local RSL for lunch, we stopped at her house for a few minutes, and I presented her with one of my Christmas patchwork mats (the second one in the previous post). She was delighted with it, and immediately moved something else from the centre of her kitchen island bench to put the mat there!
After we'd had lunch, we wandered around the shops in Healesville, and I found two books I'd seen on the internet and had wanted to buy at some time in the future. The future was yesterday!


We also had a quick look in one of the local opshops and I found this gorgeous framed cross stitch for $3.

Of course I couldn't leave it behind. How sad that someone has done this beautifully stitched picture, and it ends up thrown out for a pittance. Well, it hasn't ENDED there now - it is in good hands and will be included in the wall hanging I've been planning for a few years, made up of similar items that I've found in opshops over the years.

More little Christmas patchworks.

I'm on a roll here, with my Christmas fabric stash! It's great to see the older stuff disappearing into actual projects, leaving the newer fabrics until....um. Next year? Anyway, I needed some more last minute gifts so I made these over the weekend.
This is loosely based on a table runner that I earmarked in a magazine.  The designer also used her stash to make the strippy centre, but she added more borders to make it bigger.  I was going to do that, but couldn't make up my mind what to use for the next border, and I was running out of time, so I just quilted this as it is and will bind it with dark green to finish it off.

This is the back, for which I used some newer fabric that I have a lot of.

This mat is made from charm squares that I've had for two years. I've been using them on a variety of items, and decided I just wanted to clear them out, so I sewed them all together in a nine patch, cut it down the middle, turned each section around, and re-sewed them together. I've seen this done in magazines, and always wanted to try it. I'm delighted with the result! I used strips of red and green plain fabric for the border, and the binding is cream.

And this is the back.

These could be coasters if the recipient wanted to use them for that purpose, but I've actually made them for candle mats, and will be keeping one for myself for that purpose. How often do you want to put a decorative candle on display, but have to find something to put underneath so it won't mark the surface of the table?

Baby quilts finally on their way to PNG.

I have just posted the last donation of six quilts from Melody here, and the details of where all 74 quilts will be going in the next few days.

Christmas table mats

The bunting I made only used smaller pieces of my Christmas fabric stash, and even that left more little bits that I was reluctant to throw out. As well as that I had a few little blocks left over from last year's projects, so I got them all out and made up these two table mats for my SILs (my brothers' wives). We had afternoon tea with my family on Sunday and although we don't usually exchange gifts, I decided to give these mats to the SILs anyway. One of them dabbles in patchwork and the other does no craft work at all, so they were both delighted with their mats!
Front:

and this is the back.

Front:

this is the back.

PNG quilt from mystery donor in the USA

I received this beautiful cot quilt yesterday,  from Bonnie in Missouri, USA.  I don't remember having contact with her regarding this - I usually receive emails from donors asking for my address.  Bonnie if you are reading this, please reply to me with a comment here, or direct email, so I can thank you properly.  The quilt is really stunning with wild animal fabric on the front.  Ken wants to keep it for us!!

I asked if any of my readers could advise me how much to charge for making bunting, and Jane suggested checking Etsy.  Thank you Jane - I never thought of that!  I did check Etsy, but the prices are mostly European currencies or American dollars, so I went on to eBay and found lots of Aussie bunting, mostly priced at about $10 a metre.  I'll see what's going on at our opshop later this week, before I decide whether or not to make any more bunting for resale.  I've got other urgent things to do for Christmas first!

Beautiful embroidered pillow slips.

This pair of embroidered pillow cases turned up at our opshop last week, and fortunately I was on duty and saw them being sorted in the back room. I'm not going to say how much I paid for them, but it was a lot less than I would have paid if I'd seen them on eBay! Beautifully hand stitched, a lovely addition to my collection, which has been static for some time now. I'm trying to resist buying vintage linens because I have no space for any more!

The bunting I made to decorate our house this Christmas is now decorating the Brotherhood Opshop where I work. I took it in to show the ladies I work with, and they urged me to hang some up to see how it looked. I put one length up, and it looked a bit lonely, so I put all three lengths up, which looked a lot better. Within an hour, two customers asked if they could buy it. I went back to the shop on Saturday morning with some donations, and the lady on the counter asked if I'd made the bunting. She said she'd had three people ask if they could buy it, and she hadn't sold it because there was no price on it! Also, she'd been informed that one of the volunteers had made it to decorate the shop, so she refused to sell it until she knew what to do. She suggested that I put a sign up saying it was not for sale, so I did. But I'm wondering whether I should whip up some more bunting to sell, and how much we should charge? One customer asked me if I'd make some for her and how much would I charge, and I said "Oh, about $5 a metre, I don't really know". She seemed to think that was okay. Do any of my readers have any suggestions?