Hope you are all keeping warm

Very, very sunny here in Sydney, so I hope all UK readers are keeping warm. If you need to send someone a last minute card to keep them warm, stick a tea-bag in one of these and hope it gets there in the post.

Merry christmas all

Feeling a little fraught here as we are off to Australia tonight, and my son announced at the last minute that he has pictures in the school art show this evening.

So what a lovely surprise to open up a parcel and find this great tree of fabric, made by my local quilting friend.

I know that the fabrics are by Fabric Freedom as they were bought at a craft fair for the Downs Association, held in the Normansfield Theatre in Teddington. Visit if you get any opprotunity, it is a beautiful space.

No blogging until 2010, as I will be on the beach. Now, fingers crossed that I will be allowed to take my minuscule needle and blunt ended scissors on the place.

Early Christmas stitching

This is the December block from the 2009 challenge on British Quilt List ( Yahoo). Very quick to do and very effective. This is appliqued and quilted at the same time. I've added a few extra bits of quilting to the trees and a few bits of bling and sequins.

Quilted with my favourite threads, floss from Empress Mills. It does separate terribly, but with a top-stitch needle and the thread spool loose in a bowl, rather than on the spindle it is worth the effort. It has the sheen of much more expensive threads, at a fraction of the price. I was introduced to this thread at a workshop a few years ago with Leslie Morgan.

I've shown the back of this one, as I am really pleased with ow my FMQ has come on this year as a result of this challenge.