~ Pssssssst ~ It's New Years Eve ~

It's the very last day of the year twenty fourteen and guess what I achieved ~ my goal AND more! That's right, I actually got more done than I thought I would, the kids are still really happy amusing themselves this second week of the summer holidays and I have had a great run at things the past few days while the hubs DIY's, well for a few hours of each of the past few days anyway.

I have been selecting, measuring, tracing and cutting ALL of the last bits for Mountmellick. I DID IT! All the bits for the final applique border are sitting here awaiting piecing ~ YES! This will be my evening stitching for a while now as I REALLY want to finish this ~ psssst Rachael, you will get to see it finished EARLY 2015, LOL ~ After this it's just the border print to attach which is not so very intimidating after all the business of the prior borders.

~ Look at all those BITS ~ 216 diamonds cut to surround a  hexie centre, 64 hexies, 40 squares & 80 triangles ~ WHEW! ~
PLUS 16 tulip petals and 16 tulip buds ~

~ It might not look much from here but there's 12 to a layer of those hexie centre cut diamonds  and that's a whopping 216 ~ 

~ Triangles for the border piecing , they'll be waiting until the applique's  over ~

~ Big squares for the corners will have a hexie flower and 4 tulip flowers, small squares get a diamond/hexie flower each ~

~ Next is glue basting the hexie diamonds to their paper pieces, just a mere 54 each border ~

Well, I am so thrilled that my last day of this year two thousand and fourteen ended on such a high note, that was a mammoth task all that prep AND I am still suffering back issues so sitting for this job was not the easiest. Watch this space as two thousand and fifteen will see these 'bad boys' morph into something beautiful!!!

~ AND on an even higher note (pssssst Rachael)  Guess what else I did today! All framed up and ready to trace onto the tissue ~ the beading fingers are nearly on!!!!!

HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL and see you in TWENTY FIFTEEN!

~ Xmas Has Arrived At Our House~

Something's changed under the tree since this photo was taken, it doesn't look the same anymore.....MERRY XMAS 2014

The Girls ~ Pre-Present Demolition! ~ sssshhhh ~ there's a sewing machine for them
in that pile somewhere!!! ~

~ Merry Xmas To All ~

I cannot believe that this is my last post before Xmas 2014 ~ where on earth has the year gone! It's Xmas Eve already!!! The kids are restless and the excitement is building and I am super duper glad that I am not one of those people trying to finish my Xmas shopping today ~ imagine the horror of that!

I am also super duper glad that I have been lucky and privileged to have achieved some super duper crafty stuff this year. My achievements have been many and varied this year and I have also been working through my finishing pile of shame this past week ~ you know, that pile where all the stitching is done but the creation is not assembled, that pile's been amassing over the year! It's feeling good, revisiting finshes and putting them together into something pretty to display my handiwork, but today, Xmas Eve 2014 I want to share my Prims, my Xmas themed Prims that is.

These guys are so neat and I am chuffed to bits at how they all turned out. This week saw that last duo join the gang, Santa & Elmer the reindeer, a creation from Pineberry Lane .

~ Bare Skin Santa ~

~ Bare Skin Elmer Nestled On Santa's Clothes ~

~ Dressed And Ready For Xmas ~

~ What A Pair ~ And I Found The PERFECT Antlers For Elmer In My Garden ~

~ A Face Only A Prim Hound Could Love ~

~ Loving Elmer's Blankie ~


Santa and Elmer are all ready to join the gang

~ Attending The First Of Many Group Gatherings To Come  On Our Dining Table ~

~ From Left To Right ~ Gingee, Grungee, Santa, Elmer, Pinee, Santa & Poker Face ~
~ One Can Never Have too Many Santas! ~

~ Two Santas and Two Snowies Chillin ~

~ Santa And His Prim Fir Tree With Bells On ~

~ Poker Face ~ There's No Reading That Expression ~

~ Gingee and Grungee Sharing A Cane ~

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my blog this year as I have your's.  Your encouragement is amazing as I continue to learn and grow whilst enjoying and sharing my varied crafts!

~ The Xmas Tree is Awaiting Pressies ~ After The Kids Are Asleep Of Course ~

~ The Cute Little Reindeer Made Out Of A Cup By My Eldest Many Years Ago Still Sits Atop ~

MERRY XMAS TO ALL

~ A Santa Quilt Made Many Years Ago By A Much Younger Me! ~

Somethins' A Cookin'

It's a production line at my house, a festive season production line....stitched, painted & stained & cinnamoned, dryed in the oven, sandpaper rub down, finishing touches....it smells so yummy at my house....all that coffee and cinnamon....loving these prim guys coming to life out of my studio and my kitchen....

Prims are in the oven ~ drying off ready for finishing ~ Santa & Elmer (Pineberry Lane)

 I love the look and feel of the muslin (calico in my neck of the woods) when it has been painted and sanded to a lovely smooth but perfectly grungy prim patina....this is what happens to you when you are a snowman and you make it out of the oven....

Snowman #1 ~ Perfectly Grungy

Loving that barrel chest ~

Snowman # 2 ~ A statuesque guy at 18" on his Kauri plinth, repurposed
 from our 130 year old church homestead ~

Poker Face ~

Look at that patina ~ loving it!

and Snowman #3 ~ a sweet little festive pin cushion ~

He's a happy wee chap ~

My prim collection is certainly growing, from zero to a small gathering in just a couple of weeks, I really have achieved something of late, despite....the renovation, amped up time of the year social  & kid activities and a bad case of sciatica making it very painful to sit for any length of time.......

Soon the crowd will be two stronger.... Santa and Elma are in the finishing queue....after that I need to knuckle down and finish a quilt as I have two new quilt BOM's starting in 2015....my scissors and applique shapes....here I come....

Happy Festive Time & do watch out for all the  prims posing for a collective christmas time selfie next post!

Culmination

What a week. Mostly wacky spring weather again apart from the odd day or two and stoppers in the house, gib stoppers, plasterers, tradee's, what ever you want to call them ~ mess makers!!! To be fair they did clean up after themselves pretty good, they had plastic booths they erected around opens areas to minimise dust, but you know plaster dust, it just has a knack of floating anywhere and everywhere. But it's mostly the invasion, strangers in your house for a week. The guy had to sack his lazy worker for not turning up to work one too many times and so he roped his partner into helping with the job but with that things got prolonged. This was what my place looked like for most of the week....

At least they had a meaty size vacuum to clean the floor of plaster bits

I had to uncover my stitching chair, the TV and the cat's chair each night

Most of the mess was up in the mezzanine 

But my bedroom is on the mezzanine

So uncovering my bedroom each night was necessary

It is over though. They have gone and I have started the long process of cleaning all that white dust up....not good for my poor stitching fingers as plaster dust is dry, like rubbing chalk all over your hands loads and loads of times. Still, it's nearly painting time. Things will have to be covered again but at least I won't have to 'super dust'. We are getting there slowly....living this close to a renovation is not so much fun when you are in the thick of it!

Flip side of the week has been fun though. My studio is secreted away in a remote part of the building and has already been renovated so me and the dog could hang out there and create most of the time and create we did. We also spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen, brewing up coffee stain, painting and distressing. 

I decided that I wanted to make a few primitive festive characters this year and since I want to put the xmas tree up on December 1st I figured that I had better get on with it. Besides, I needed something other than renovation to be the culmination of my weeks efforts ~

Using a Threadbare Primitives pattern as my base I worked up the calico/muslin form for Santa. Gingee is a Peach Bottom Primitives pattern ~

What a mess! Coffee stain with a pinch of vanilla and cinnamon to rub in for that dirty primitive look I was after ~ and the kitchen was smelling very festive while all this was going on ~

Here's Gingee after he's been painted, coffee stained, cinnamon'd, dried in the oven and had a rub with the sandpaper for that well loved look ~

Here's Santa undergoing the same beauty therapy at the day spa ~

The two friends exfoliated of cinnamon bits and awaiting costuming and makeup ~

Gingee's good to go on display ~

Doesn't he look like you could just catch him and eat him, just like the fox ~

The pals, already to sit about for the festive season ~

Think I will make him the primitive xmas tree to hold now, all wrapped with rusty wire and bells ~

That was fun, next is a snowman or two and maybe another Santa, you can never have too many Santa's at Xmas ~ Ho, Ho, Ho

Only two sleeps until the 1st of December and Summer!

Finished This And Finished That ~

We've been having the most uninspiring spring. This spring of 2014 has been just one long trawl through weather front after weather front ~ cold fronts too and lots of wind with lashings of rain. This unsettled and unsettling weather has meant that one has had to time tasks like mowing the still growing lawn in between the approaching fronts, the lawn thinks this is a lovely spring and is carrying on growing! Good for farmers but not so good for mowers! It also means that not so much outdoor activity has been desirable as it's not so pleasant weeding & tidying with the wind whipping your hair back and forth. We live on a hill, facing North and the wind has been predominantly North West and brrrrr when South West. There have been several of the fronts pulling the freezing air from the polar Antartic as we are not so far away here at latitude 37.

The glass half full side of this all though is that indoor activities at my house and in my studio have been moving along nicely.

Today I couriered off the commission scrapbook album I created on behalf of my friend. Very pleased to have completed this project and I am very happy with the finished result so hopefully they will be too. My friend commissioned this album for her boss who left to take up a very full on senior position in the public sector in Canberra. I know the subject, who is a very lively and very quirky character with a unique sense of humour so I could have fun with this one. Her colleagues sent me some of her favourite sayings and so I based a lot of the layouts with that in mind. I think it worked well and the whole thing just tended to fall into place as I went. They are looking to gift the album to her when she returns to New Zealand for Xmas holidays. Looking forward to receiving some feedback from them all ~ 

Delaine is definitely one who likes her own way ~

Avery colourful character ~

Ruling the roost ~

Do what I say ~ Do what I do ~

My friend Sharmaine dressed as one of the crew ~

Loving giving the orders ~

And the podium ~

There was never this much dress up when I worked there ~ thank goodness ~

Lots to remember about this lady ~

She was colourful and lively ~

And not easily forgotten ~

By all who knew her unique personality ~

Working for her was an experience in itself ~

Never one to be shy ~

I decided to add my own brand ~

So that's way more scrapbooking than I want to do for a while, on with things that do it for me more than that ~

Mountmellick Part 5 is complete. All those lozenges, all 56 of them are in the past. Here's how it looks now ~ just gorgeous ~

Mountmellick parts I through 5 ~

Blowing in the breeze ~

And here's what's to come ~~~~ part 6 is massive, all those stars! I have the magazine and all the fabrics so no excuses now ~

Busy, busy, busy is this quilt AND what I will be ~

I have also finished a couple of my evening pieces. My Stacy Nash necessaries are all stitched up and awaiting finishing. So pretty and the colours are so neat.

These muted primitive colours are just so appealing ~

My second punch needle to also completed and awaiting being finished into a pumpkin. I know, halloween is over but I was never going to do these things on time so will be saving for next years holiday decorating. I've got a few like that!

I'm just testing some different thread types down the bottom in case you was wondering what that other patch was ~

Jack & Boo ~ Brenda Gervais Design ~

The finishing pile is growing, it's embarrassing I know, I need to address it, there's about a half dozen things in that pile now!!!

Hope you've enjoyed my ramblings and have a great weekend ~