Sunday 29 December 2019

Scrapping thru to the next Decade....lots of photos

Well golly gosh, here we are once more at the end of another year, and this time it will also be the beginning of another decade.  The mere thought of the year 2000 used to be such a far fetched fantasy, and yet now we are at the end of twenty years of this new millennium.  Many things have happened, most of them lovely, a few bad, but life goes on, and God is always Good.

Here are a few last photos of various things and I have included some of my favourite quilts over the past decade.  I hope you enjoy this little treat of photos.

 If all else fails, knit a beanie.  I have lost count of the number of hats I have made for my family and I do love making them.  Hunting out some of the yummy hand dyed wool is half the fun.  Thankfully they are still enjoyed by everyone.  Keeps me out of mischief.














 This year I decided not to hang up all the usual Christmas decorations and the tree as I didn't have enough energy for it.  Instead I asked Kerry for a "stick" or two on the wall in our lounge for me to hang a few things on.  This is what we ended up with and we have just loved it.  Along the top are our Remembrance Christmas bells for those who are no longer with us, and then on the bottom row I chose some of my favourite ornaments to hang.  It has been nice to be able to see them all at once, whereas on a tree you can only look at a part of the tree!  Plus the bonus is the cats have ignored them!!!

 What a tremendous achievement this was to get Danielle's quilt finished.  I had started this while not well, so had to do some remaking, grrr, but it was worth it in the end to get a good finish.

This finish is my best of the Decade actually.  I started to embroider this tray cloth when my eldest daughter was in her 10th year - 1982 to be precise.  LOL.  Needing only a small amount of crochet around the edges, the cloth languished in a chocolate box and was carted around the country as we moved!  The year 2019 was it's crowning glory of becoming a finished object of admiration.  It is now in Perth, Australia and said daughter Janeen loves it.  That saying,....you know...." all good things come to those who wait...."   Hehehe.
Hayley also finally received her finished quilt from Nana.  These were a precious collection of fat quarters from a shop no longer in existence.  They are really lovely together, and Hayley loves her quilt - thanks Hayley I hope you feel the hugs from Granddad and I when you snuggle under it.
 On our way to the supermarket yesterday, we spotted this tree with the new pine cones out.  They are the most loveliest shade of green before they dry out.  Quite unusual to see these days in town.
I am really enjoying making the smaller baby quilts for our great grandchildren and other babies we meet along the way.  Love using up scraps of pretty fabrics like this one for Nathalie.  We were testing an embroidery machine in our wee shop so did a butterfly centre for it.  It's actually now quilted and will have the binding stitched on over the next week or so.  Also ready to baste Nathalie's new brother's quilt so they can both get them together.
 Love this photo of some of our children and grandchildren, along with my sister, from Christmas 2018.  Feel so blessed to have made it to Christmas 2019 and in such good shape, thank you Lord.
My dear sister Joy comes and visits me once a month and we do stitching together.  We have a great time and it has brought us closer together since my ill health.  We are supposed to be working on some quilt blocks each month, but we have had a little detour, lol.  It will all come right in the end.


This quilt has now entered into the status of a WIP - work in progress.  It has morphed from a pile of half yards into blocks and rows, hahaha.  This is for Kea and I have had this fabric in the cupboard for a few years now.  Nice easy pattern, so will not take long once I get my energy back.  Looking forward to it now.
 This is Suzy's quilt - a friend who lost everything in a house fire.  It was made using Kaffe Fassett fabrics and a most simple pattern.  The colours just resonate with sunshine and warmth.
 This wee lap quilt goes back about 10-12 years I think when it became a finished centre.  Then I decided to get it finished and found this lovely border fabric at our little local shop.  Was perfect, and had just enough of the teal blue for the frame in my stash...love that,  Gave it to  my friend to practice her long arm quilting on and yay, it is now a finished quilt.  That didn't take long did it?
Richard and Kea's new(ish) quilt
It was started quite some years ago then put away for a rest. Oh and one of the loveliest things was the way the whole family worked on it . Mum, Dad, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.











 Shala's sunflower quilt.  Oh I love this quilt so much.  It was fun to make and brings nothing but sunshine thoughts to your mind when you look at it.  It is full of awesome memories of my trip to America and meeting my friend Barbara and her quilting buddies as well as Jackie her daughter.  I had a better photo but cant find it.  Here is a link to the post with the good photos sunflower photo
A new photo of Travis among my Christmas gift plants.  He thought he was missing out on something,  LOL.  Just as spoilt as ever of course
His big brother who is such a roamer.  He goes to visit a lady (human) down the road and sometimes we don't see him again until night time when he demands more food.  Typical cat.





















Well I hope you didn't find this all too much.  Thanks a heap if you hung in there and have read all the way down to here.  I pray you have an awesome New Year and that you are blessed in ways you have never imagined before.  Remember God is always Good and He can see the bigger picture.  I keep forgetting that, lol.

Hugs Clare
I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh!Scrap  here


9 comments:

  1. Lovely read with this post Clare - I'm making a start with all your quilts - beautiful!
    I absolutely love Danielle's quilt, very, very effective use of half square triangles, how big were the smallest ones? Now your idea for Christmas decorating was perfect! We didn't have a tree this year, our card are propped up on various surfaces and somehow I didn't have the energy to go all out with Christmas decorations. We had lunch anyway at our daughter's house and everyone else were then going on hols.
    Your darling tabby cats remind me so, so much of Marmaduke, he was the first cat we gave a home to a few months after arriving in NZ in 1980. Our neighbours cat had kittens, the three children loved the long haired kitty - Marmalade - and we said a big yes to her coming to live next door with us. After a week or so I was told that sadly they were going to have the last male kitten taken to the vet and put to sleep as they couldn't keep him any longer, well, we couldn't handle that so he came to live with us, a beautiful tabby he was. He was my special pal for 14 lovely years but then developed cancer in his mouth and there was nothing to be done, we had to do the kindest thing for him as he was no longer able to eat, so back to the vet.
    Gosh, I think I had better continue on with your blog post - a lovely family photo for the album and I have never seen pine comes that colour, they're beautiful.
    Clare I wish you all the very best for the New Year, I hope you can continue to manage your health as best you can under the circumstances and can carry on with your quilting!
    Oh I forgot the beautiful tray cloth, I remember Mum working on some of those but I think they were all given as gifts, luckily I do have two of her tablecloths with embroidery.

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  2. What a great batch of work!! Best in 2020 and beyond.

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    1. Thank you so much. Sorry for the long delay in reply.

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  3. Those pine cones are magnificent! Love all the quilts - you were so productive. I only made 4 personal quilts and some charity quilts, but I haven't counted them yet. God's blessings in the coming New Year, Clare, and likewise to your lovely family.

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    1. Hi Angie, blessings to you and yours too.

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  4. PS, Did you get my reply to your email? Just wondering.

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  5. Wonderful quilts. Such lovely work. Sometimes I wished I had a sister. I have a sister/cousin, but she lives too far away.

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    1. I see I put my reply in the wrong place, lol. Please read my comment about sisters hehehe.

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  6. Aww Billie, yes a sister is wonderful although I have to confess to not being such good friends when we were younger lol.

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