Back In Action!

Well!  Where did the summer go?  Where did I go come to that!  I spent most of May and June getting the house ready for visitors, then I spent July and August entertaining them all and then September came with all the tidying up, extra work (to make up for all the time off!) and suddenly it is October and guess what?  Time to start getting ready for Christmas.  I found a wonderful idea on Pinterest, well three actually.  The first was an Advent Bucket, 

the second a Red Work Quilt

 and the third an "Open at Sunset on Christmas Eve" gift.  

So I combined the three into one for my nephews.  I had planned something similar for my Grandkids but I thought I had loads of time as they were coming to us for Christmas.  Sadly I learned last weekend that due to unforeseen circumstances they cannot come.  I was so brave when my son broke the news, but I admit I bawled most of the morning after we hung up!  Trouble is due to shipping times and the fact that I would have to make 3 large lap quilts they won't get to the UK in time so I will have to put plan B into action - no idea what that is yet but give me time!

Quilting is all new to me and I am very much learning as I go along (hope no-one gets too close to inspect the wonky stitching) but I am feeling quite proud of myself.  First I drew up some of the images into my work book, then I put my fabric over the drawings and traced over them lightly before embroidering each ne by hand.  I also added a couple of my own, like a comical moose witht the words 'Merry ChristMoose' to give it a personal/Canadian feel.  I didn't have the confidence/patience to work out a random looking quilt block like the one above so decided to go with a log cabin block thinking it would be easier. Ha! NOT!  Log Cabin is actually quite irksome to do for a beginner!  Anyhow I finally finished them, added some popcorn, hot chocolate, a DVD, some candy and Marshmallows and finally a small bottle of Magic Elf Bubble Bath!  

They are now packed up and ready to go to the Post Office tomorrow (the other twenty three packages went last week).  If anyone from Canada Post/Royal Mail reads this please look out for my parcels, they were made with so much love and care, please speed them on their way to two very special little boys!

Ok so now I am going to do the dishes and then come back and catch up with all the blogs I haven't visited for a while!  Ciao

*** Update:  Almost forgot in my excitement.  I purchased my fabric for the quilts from a wonderful lady, Ginger, from Five Monkeys over at Etsy.com.  The fabrics were excellent value, very true to their colors on the website AND they shipped real quick.  Thanks Ginger!