Christmas decorations, Barn door and doll quilt

Granddaughter Molly came over after school on Monday, shinnied up the ladder to the attic and handed down the box containing the tree and other decorations, then helped me put them up.   This is the one that Carol mentioned, she made one too.  I think it was late 70s or early 80s, about the same time I made the snowman -

He has a large polystyrene ball for a head and his body is over a tin, golden syrup I think.  Bit daft when you come to think of it that we cling to the northern hemisphere idea of Christmas with snow........ if you enlarge the wreath you will notice the seams - I had to turn it round to show the back as the front is very, very faded!

And my last one to share, is one of the very first decorations we bought in the early 60s, we bought two at great expense as a treat, one silver and one gold and they are carefully wrapped in clingfilm, placed in a plastic meat tray and tucked into a suitcase type carton from Vance Vivians - for those of you not native Wellingtonians, that was THE men's shop.

The same day that I saw the brick wall, I came across this barn door which I feel looks as though it should have a quilt arranged over it - the sort of thing Kaffe Fassett does so well - and we don't have to go to Europe!

There were many very pretty weeds and grasses growing in the gravel too.

Here is the third and final of the quilt tops I put together with the blocks given to me at the end of my tenure as President of Wellington Quilter's Guild [in 1995].  The autumn blocks wanted to be arranged like this -

I was pleased to find the border in my stash and here is the back, I used some vintage fabrics - one that I can't bear to cut and the maddest orange you could wish for -

Here's a close up of the panel,

Now I couldn't cut that up, could I?

But this little doll quilt was all cutting; I made it for my first granddaughter, Amy, about ten years ago, she used to love sitting on my lap while I sewed on the machine and she handed me the next piece from the basket of scraps -

My son, the cast driver, is back - they were rained off and cancelled the last three days' shooting so no more great photos for a few weeks, but here is one he sent from Te Kuiti, early morning with the misty cloud still hanging around - isn't this country just beautiful?

I have to chuckle at the words of wisdom for today - "Don't make excuses - make good".

Nice talking with you, thanks for the feedback.

June