GIFTS FROM NEW YORK

Rebecca, our youngest daughter travelled to the US late November for 3 weeks and these are the lovely pressies she bought for me.  

This gorgeous maroon Kate Spade of New York bag, I love it.

A Christmas ornament from "The Big Apple" personalised with "Merry Christmas 2017", Rebecca said you could have anything written on it.

A key ring with "Kaylee" on it, how exciting, when Rebecca saw it she had to buy it for me.

 We looked after Rebecca's fur babies, Kendrick and Nala while she was away.  When Rebecca came to our place last Saturday I put a message around their necks to welcome their Mumma home.        This is Nala.

This is Kendrick

Rebecca with Kendrick and Nala, they were all excited to be reunited.

Hugs

Kaylee

AUSTRALIA DAY 2018 SWAP

My Dear Bloggy friend Anthea of Hibiscus Stitches is hosting her second Australia Day Swap in 2018.  We had so much fun this year, if you'd like to join for 2018 head over to Anthea's Blog and join up. SIGN UP CLOSES ON FRIDAY 5TH JANUARY 2018

Cheers

Kaylee

PASSPORT AND CHRISTMAS

I'm so excited, I'm 59 and applied for my first ever Passport for my travels next year, the pages are so pretty with the Australian photo watermark pages.

            Kate gave me this really gorgeous Oroton passport cover with my Birthday pressies.

My old Christmas Wreath was over 20 years old so last year I threw it out, this year I made a new                             one, it only took 20 minutes using my glue gun, it's simple, I love it.

Last Thursday I went into Brisbane city to visit my ex work place of over 19 years for a visit and I                            had my photo taken in the Foyer next to the glorious big Christmas tree.

I went to lunch with two of the girls I worked with to Jellyfish Restaurant at Riverside Centre (I worked in the Riverside Centre), it's my favourite restaurant in Brisbane.  We enjoyed the most delicious meal as usual.

My Mum has come to visit for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year.  While she is here she is going to teach me cake icing.  This is my first attempt, I know it's not a masterpiece and I really don't intend to paint cakes however apparently I need to learn everything "just in case". 

This will be my last post for 2017

Looking forward to a Happy & Healthy 2018 for us all. Also for many new adventures in our van and some travelling overseas.

Hugs

Kaylee

LAUNDRY BAGS AND DRESSES AND POPPIES

My craft efforts over the past few weeks have been these 2 laundry bags for our ADF, through Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags) for squadron and they need to be done in Black and Yellow.

       I also finished the hems and pockets on these 15 dresses for Dress A Girl Around The World,                                                                               Australia

     I started making some crochet Poppies for the project 5,000 Poppy group. Next year is 100 years                                                since the end of the great war WWI.

Happy Friday everyone

Hugs

Kaylee

BLOCK #1 "LOVE IS" BOM AND A PEG BAG

A whole month has gone by without a post from me, well since I last posted on here we were away in our caravan on two trips, the first one for 2 weeks, then home for 1 week and gone again for nearly 3 weeks and we've been home a week today. We had a wonderful time away in our van going to Woolgoolga and Ballina for the first trip and then to Port Macquarie, Nambucca Heads, Yamba and Evans Head for the second trip. I have a ton of photos and need to transfer them to my computer before I can do a BLOG post.

In our travels I have been doing some reading and Chicken Scratch on a table cloth and also finished BLOCK # 1 of "Love Is" BOM by Rosalie Quinlan. I've also started on BLOCK # 2. I love the embroidery thread colour DMC 3831, it's a Raspberry colour.

In the week in between our two trips I decided I needed a peg bag as I only had the pegs in a plastic zip bag and was very inconvenient so I made myself this apron peg bag for the van and it's also storage for the pegs, hence the zip.  I love it, so handy.

                                         

I've wanted a Sue Daley Rotating cutting mat for some time but at $39.60 I couldn't justify the price so I improvised with my own.  I received an email from Patchwork with Busyfingers 2 days ago and they have some specials on their web site so was really impressed when I saw the little package below for $99.99 with free postage. The package included the Sue Daley rotating mat which sells for $39.60, so adding up everything individually this was a really good buy so I made an executive decision to treat myself for Christmas as I hadn't joined any BLOG Christmas swaps this year.

Getting back to my own version of the rotating mat, I really couldn't justify spending $39.60 so last year I found a black rotating mat in China for $7.99 which has grooves in it and so I would use it with a small green cutting mat on it. How lovely is my Sue Daley rotating mat with the pink on top, it doesn't compare to my make shift one....

Well to my surprise and shock when I turned it over its the exact same mat as mine which I paid $7.99 for.  So actually this made me a little mad as essentially it's the same as the Sue Daley one and they charge $39.60 and the only difference being they have added the pink piece on top and it's just glued on as I could easily life it off with my finger nail.  Well I'm sorry ladies but really how can it be worth $39.60. They are making tons of profit on these. They could easily afford to sell them for $25  to make them more reasonable. Also as you can imagine they would buy them in bulk and would be paying less than $7.99 each for them.  So in actual fact I'm not as happy as I first was when I placed the order.

Ho hum we live and learn, just beware if you don't already have one and you'd love one, make your own.  I had asked my husband a couple of times if we could go to a cabinetmakers to see if we could obtain a small offcut to hot glue onto mine but it never got done........

Happy Friday everyone.

Cheers
Kaylee

LAUNDRY BAG DRESSES BABY BLANKET

Over the last few weeks I made myself this laundry bag to take on my trip to Japan next year.

I have had this fabric in my stash for years, it's perfect for a laundry bag with this lovely large

scenery pattern.

I've been sewing these 15 dresses for "Dress a Girl Around the World", Australia.  I only have the

hems to do and they're all done.

This is a "Self Binding Baby Receiving Blanket" from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.  They are so easy to make and a great gift to include in a babe package.

                                                         Happy Monday everyone.

                                                                     Cheers
                                                                     Kaylee

MY BIRTHDAY 2017

My Birthday was last Friday, 22nd September, 2017. We went to Brisbane for the weekend on Friday morning and celebrated with family and friends. My good friend Vicki made me a caramel mud cake for my Birthday.

My pressies from Vicki were in this cute Doggie box.  2 gorgeous mugs from the Kitchen Warehouse, they are quite big and will be great for soups.  Vicki also gave me 3 bundles of fat quarters. Vicki is not a sewer and doesn't know much about fabric but she knows my favourite colour is red so first selection was the red bundle, then she took photos on her phone and sent to her sister in law and phoned her and said  H E L P.  For a first time fabric buyer she did very good.  I love all of her selections.

                                                             My BFF and me

We then went for lunch, I had a Wagyu beef burger, it was so huge, I only ate half and gave the other half to Stephen. He was so full after eating his steak and chips and then half of my burger.........

The last couple of years my bloggy friend Anthea of Hibiscus Stitches and I have been doing a Birthday swap, these are my goodies from Anthea this year, I was very spoilt that's for sure and I was super excited with the fabric when I opened the parcel.

Anthea gave me 3 fat quarters and a charm pack of my new favourite fabric range -  Lulu Lane by Moda, isn't it pretty............

                                     

A really lovely thread wallet in Japanese fabric, I have some of this fabric in my stash - would you believe......... It's really pretty.

This is inside the wallet, I'm looking forward to filling this with thread when doing my next embroidery project.

Plus a pack of birch needles and also a skein of some gorgeous Cottage Garden thread (in photo further up the page)

We bought Chinese food for dinner and ate at Kate and Josh's house and of course Rebecca came over and spent the night as well.  We had a lovely meal and watched a semi-final footy game.

Kate spoilt me as usual, from Kate and Josh I received the following. Modern Muse Parfum by Estee Lauder, Estee Lauder foundation makeup, 3 MAC lipsticks, a bottle of Clinique moisturiser, a MIMCO phone case and an Oroton passport holder.  I don't have a passport yet though, I will be taking my very first ever overseas flight in March 2018 so will be applying for a passport in the next couple of months.

I don't have a photo but Rebecca made a really yummy backed cheesecake and a caramel slice for dessert.

I received lots of lovely messages and had enjoyed a really lovely Birthday. It's all over for another 12 months, next year I will be turning 60 aaahhhhh, I can hardly believe it but it's true.


Happy Monday

Cheers
Kaylee

BAKING and BABY QUILT FINISH

Over the past few weeks I have been making a baby quilt in between making the kitchen hand towels, Lingerie Bags, etc...... The baby quilt is for my daughter's friend, she had a gorgeous little baby boy on the 9th August.

                                                       Sewing the binding on the quilt...

                                 Watching TV and hand stitching the binding on the quilt.

Quilt washed and ironed and now wrapped and ready for gifting, the fabric is "Puttin on the Ritz" by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. I also have it in pinks.....

       I baked some jam drops this morning, I did a double batch and it made 120 Jam Drops....

                                                            Jam Drops in the oven.

                                Jam Drops everywhere, two layers in the Tupperware container.

                                           Fresh Jam Drops with a coffee for morning tea.

                                                                        Hugs
                                                                       Kaylee

KITCHEN TOWELS, LINGERIE BAGS AND LAUNDRY BAGS

My youngest daughter had a couple of bath towels given to her by her Grandma (my Mum) and they were not very wide so I turned them into kitchen hand towels, I actually made 6 even though there is only 4 in this photo. I could easily have made 12 out of the 2 bath towels but I decided to make each one with double the towel (2 pieces), I hope you understand what I'm trying to say......

I used the same fabric on all 6 of them, very happy with the end result.

I found these very old buttons in my stash, they were perfect for this project and very cheap too.....

I also made a couple more Lingerie bags during the week, I love this design and I'm getting quite quick at making them now. I've been making them all for gifts and hadn't made one for me (still haven't) or my girls, so decided this past week to make one each for my girls.

                                              This one is for Rebecca (youngest daughter).

                                                 and this one is for Kate (oldest daughter)

I was sewing in my craft room every day last week and very happy with my finishes. I also made 3 laundry bags for "dirty" laundry when travelling. These were quick and easy to make, I'll make some more of these for gifts too.

                                                      This one is for Rebecca.

                                                         This butterfly one is for Kate

...... and this one is for me, as you can see I added a touch of my favourite colour - red.....

A very productive week and feeling quite chuffed with my achievements, we're heading up to Kate's next weekend to help her pack up the house, they have purchased another home, moving date is last weekend of September.  I'm going to give Kate and Rebecca their Lingerie Bag and Laundry Bag
next weekend.  The only person not receiving any gifts will be me, I love seeing the look on their faces when I give them something, especially something I've made.....

Aussie Hero Sewing - I made these 3 laundry bags for HMAS Darwin, around 4-5 weeks ago. HMAS Darwin is being decommissioned later this year and Jan-Maree wanted to give every single person on the ship a special souvenir laundry bag they could get signatures on to keep as a memento of their service on HMAS Darwin, that's the reason they are a plain colour.   I was saving the post till they were presented to the personnel which happened during the week.  

That's all from me for now.  I hope you've all enjoyed a lovely weekend. Looking forward to Spring soon.

Cheers
Kaylee