Piccies For the Rellies - Happy Christmas.

When boys wear silly hats and antlers and play guitar, you know it's Christmas Day at the Wagstaffs.

Dan and Callum even wrote a special Christmas Day with the Wagstaffs song, but it doesn't really bear repeating. Sung to the tune of Snoopy's Christmas anyhow.

I nipped in and out of the festivities to baste the turkey, which unlike my gingerbread house, was a great success.

"She" finally saw her cross stitch framed.

It comes but once a year.

Peace to all and goodwill to all men - even those who wear reindeer antlers and play guitar.

All the Nanas and Grandads arranged themselves for the pressies.

And the reindeer played guitar. Nirvarna, Guns n Roses, and other such Christmas classics.

The Goblins sat in the cheap seats and muttered to themselves quietly over their "scratchies".

The marzipan mice looked on.

No animals were harmed in the making of this production.

Not even any Goblins.

Hope you all had a lovely day.

Vignettes of a vintage Christmas.

Hello. It's only four sleeps till Christmas today.

Tonight I made the pieces for my gingerbread house. I didn't measure the dimensions, too tired. Just guessed and hope they all fit together ok.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.

I have two boys, three guitars and a drum set in my back porch!

It's lovely to have them all here.

We will have all the oldies for Christmas Day.

Pressies at eleven, because that's the earliest we can get the olds here from Wanganui (an hour away).

The Magpie Cat will enjoy all the extra attention, secure in the knowledge that it's all about her!

Enjoy it all Blog Chics. Be posting about Christmas Day.

Mostly as a way of sharing our Christmas with all the rellies in Australia and other foreign parts (like the South Island).

So everybody else is allowed to find it very boring, like holiday snaps.

Have a lovely day.

A Quilt Binding.

Yesterday I picked up my beautiful "pretty in pink" quilt from the machine quilting lady.

There is so much detail in it, she's done little clouds mostly, which is perfect for the "bitsyness" of the pieces.

So I thought I might do a little tutorial on quilt binding; the Magpie Chic method.

Might not be how the experts do it, but it's a way that I've worked out over the years that works for me.

I start by trimming off the excess wadding, which is easy when it's been machine quilted right round the perimeter.

I auditioned a few pieces of fabric that I thought would suit as a border.

I chose this one.

I cut 4" strips for my borders usually, along the length of the fabric if i can, but width ways if that's the only way i can make the fabric eak out. It takes quite a lot of fabric. About a metre- ish - for a quilt this size. Just measure perimeter of quilt to work out how much you'll need.

Then add up how long you can make your 4" strip by sewing all your cut strips together.

Add about 10cm for overhangs and foldovers. If it's a bit longer than the perimeter of your quilt, then you have enough fabric.

Press the strip in half, right sides out. Pin to wrong side of first corner with about 1cm overhang.

Sew with usual quarter inch seam.

Then press both sides of seam flat.

Use a 1cm overhang at each new corner so that you can turn raw edge under like a 1cm hem when mitering the corners. I mitre the corner like folding gift wrapping paper.

Press all the seams flat as you go, and the mitred corners.

I find pinning one side at a time, then hemming that side and that corner before moving onto the next one is the best method.

The Magpie cat finds sleeping on the pin cushion the best method.

Then just hem stitch each side as you go, on the wrong side of the quilt. Make tiny stitches, so they are not visible.