Annie Angels arrived safely

Some of my Annie Angels have been flying off to their new homes. This orange Angel flew over to Marina's house last week and she took these goodies with her.

If you go by Marina's blog you can see what she did with the fabric and ricrac on the weekend.

And this Annie Angel all in Red...

collected some goodies and flew off over the waves to live with CJ here.

She took fabric, ricrac, buttons and a piece of lace. The Annie Angel production has not stopped yet and you will see more here soon, (or not if you have seen enough already).

It's Friday and the weekend is just around the corner - hope you get to spend lots of it doing what you like best.

Happy Crafting

Winners

The M&M's fairy delivered the following package after much delay due to snow in her home town.

It all started a few weeks back when Kathy had pics of these on her blog and I mentioned we didn't get that flavour here, she generously suggested she could send me some - once the snow stopped visiting.

So what is so different about these - the ones in the purple pack are dark chocolate and the red pack has peanut butter M's.

YUMMY

Thank you so much Kathy they are much appreciated.

I'm trying to figure out how to make them last for the longest time?

Here are the pretties I picked up at GJ's sale on Saturday - in the back row 3 London Cats fabrics, same design in different colours and in the front, some $2 fat quarters, cause they were there and everything was 25% off. I also picked up batting and thread to complete another quilt.

The winner of my one year bloggy anniversary giveaway is Marina from Maisie and the boys, and as this is my 150th post I chose a second winner, and that is Cathy from Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much.

Can you believe Miss Nudie chose the colour for her outfit today and then the power went out? Lucky it is not cold here! She will be dressed shortly and then she will be able to make an appearance here.

Hope you all had a good Monday - I sure did.

Happy Creating

Here we are...

four Annie Angels taking in a little sunshine - it was okay we didn't stay out long and there was a pleasant breeze so it wasn't too hot. Here is the Yellow one - changed the face again putting eyelashes instead of eye brows. She is so happy she has found a home to go to.

And the Blue one, which is really more purple. You will notice her chocker is a little wider than the others and sits higher on her neck - well she is staying with me, lets just say she had a bit of an accident and decided to let her stuffing come out of her neck.

Here's another shot of them all hanging together and you can see I did things a little differently and three of them have coloured fabric for the back of the body and wings.

Sometime last month was my first blogger birthday and I was going to do a giveaway - but well lets just say life got very complicated and January passed me by in a blur. So here we are in the second half of February and I am ready. The Orange Annie Angel is the one up for grabs, she'll be accompanied by some other little goodies I found today while rearranging my sewing things so that I can get the quilting started on the Happy House quilt tonight. The best bit is you just need to leave a comment on any post between now and February 28th to be in the running.

HAPPY STITCHY WEEKEND

Treasure

Yesterday when I finished work I popped into Spotlight for some inspiration for my Bros present - he asked me to make something specific. Prior to that his wife suggested he ask for $1,000,000. I figured this fabric is perfect he can get directions to the $1M then SILJ gets her wish as well. Oh, but what am I making??? You'll have to wait until Sunday 17th (bros birthday) to see what becomes of this fun fabric. The gold fabric you see in the corner will be the wrapping. If anyone would like to guess what I'm making, there may be something to giveaway if you are correct.

(JC you are ineligible to guess if you read this - but I'm thinking you will be too busy stitching up a storm at summer school to even read here before Sunday.)

So I'm off to make a space on the sewing table for some serious sewing today.

Have a great weekend with plenty of creative opportunities.

Happy Stitching

Stitching the day(night) away

This bucket bag featuring a serious shopper from the Loralie Harris Sewphisticates panel is winging its way across the waves to Jantine as the winner of my recent giveaway. You'll have to wait for the post people to do their jobs as I did not take pictures of the sewing treats included. Played with my new thread acquired on my travels around the state earlier this month. Just a peek at this design from Red Brolly found in the Miss Millies Flower Patch book. The thread is from Cottage Garden Threads and the colour way is Muscat, it was fun to stitch.

I got distracted last night and completed this stitchery. Remember how bad I am at following instructions - this design is the Butterfly on My Heart design which Vicki of Tozz's Corner shared on her blog, I know, I know it is supposed to be an applique pattern, I hope she doesn't get upset with me? The thread is DMC 4220 and the background is light green. Pushing things to the limit - I have packed my bag and will be sending this lot out to my Secret Stitcher tomorrow - yes, that is the last day for posting. My package just needs to cross a state border, no waves this time so I shouldn't have to wait too long for the post people to do their thing.

Thanks to Helen for organising a fun swap and to all the generous designers who freely gave the designs for us to play with. Hope their is time in your day for some creativity.

Happy Crafting

The Back and a Winner...

Do you wanna see what I did on the back of my quilt? Of course you don't but here it is anyway - The quilt is just wider than the width of fabric so I whipped up a few more blocks and put a strip on the back - now I have somewhere to record the details. As you can see the quilting is very simple circles which outline the stitcheries and the block circles, nothing more than that. Yesterday while I wasn't working I gave the quilt a bath and hung it out to dry, but it was too windy for an outdoor photo, just kept folding over itself. It looks even better now that it is clean, well I think so anyway. Now for the winner of the giveaway - Jantine over at Urban Style. Only a week late but you know sometimes life (or driving long distances for dinner) just get in the way of good intentions.

Enjoy the remainder of the week wherever you are, I intend to sew lots!

Happy Crafting

Bits and Pieces

Who could be hiding under this hat? Annie tried to hide, she just didn't want to put her broom into Action - but I sent her on her way to Gigi's house across the waves where she should be arriving shortly. Then you'll get to see what she looks like. As always I was sad to see her go, but I am anxiously awaiting my own Annie package coming from Gigi. The beginnings of my quilt in the previous post has attracted a lot of comments, thanks to all of you for the nice things you have been saying. There have been some questions which might be answered by a look at this quilt I made a couple of years ago from a design by Rickety Stitches called Lazy Hazy Days with summer themed stitcheries - you will need to click on the picture to see the detail. While there are a combination of drunkards path and solid blocks and the placement is very random, I used this quilt as inspiration for my new project. The only quilting is around the circles.

Time for a treat for some lucky reader - I will make one of these bucket bags and fill it with some treats of a crafty kind for a Giveaway to celebrate the three digit number that came up 10 posts ago. So I'm slow sometimes.

Every comment on a post between 100 and now will automatically be entered in the draw. You can also leave a comment here to be included and I'll choose a winner on the 15th October.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Happy Crafting

How many new projects can you start on one weekend??

First there was the little Sweet stitchery which is part of the Stitcher's Angel project from Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches - I actually managed to complete this. This is small and I thought no problem, I'll easily complete it in the time it takes one movie to play - was I ever wrong! Some how I managed to get my thread in a big mess and it took almost one whole movie to untangle enough thread to finish this piece. I had to sit through a second movie to get the stitching completed - a good way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon. Then there is a new knitting project which I started more than once on Saturday evening, but it seems to be going okay now. the colours are deeper than they appear in the photo and I am really liking the softness of this yarn which has a chenille texture to it. I got it at Lincraft last week a serious impulse buy - it was all about the colours. It is destined to be a neck collar, rather than a full length scarf.

Sunday I just had this urge to try making myself a new top, I figured if I started now it might be ready for when the weather heats up. There was a time when I used to do a lot of clothes making but not recently, I have to say I am happy with how this is coming together. It is not quite done but it fits and really I just need to do the cosmetic bits like the hem and finish the second arm hole - not sure what happened to the lining part of the pattern but improvised with bias tape it works.

You're right it will need a good wash and iron when I am done, this fabric has been in my company for many years and the creases just wouldn't iron out.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Go on over and say Hi to MissyMack, she has had some excitement this month - what with her Breast of Friends block being featured in this months Australian Homespun and now she is celebrating 100 posts with a giveaway.

Oh, that will be me soon too, it seems I have been talking too much here and I'm almost up to three digits.

Well I hope Monday has been good to you.

Happy Creating

Are you thinking about Christmas?

Yes! Well go here and check out Helen's new pattern - doesn't it look just gorgeous. All that red has to be a good thing. NOT a scrap of Green in sight. What are you doing still hanging out here? Wishing you some Crafty Good Luck

Such a Lot of Goodness

The post people very generously delivered a package today - and this is what it contained. Look at all that gorgeous fabric and thread... even a ready wound bobbin, I haven't checked yet but I'm thinking it will fit my trusty Nomee. There are also two very beautiful cards, which you can see in the bottom right of the photo and a crochet doily which is just visible at the top of the picture. This gorgeous package came to me all the way from Donna at Kindred Crafters in Canada, as I won a giveaway celebrating their 100th post earlier this month. I certainly feel very spoiled by all this goodness and next week is holidays so I should get some time to have a play. There has been some stitching going on in the evenings here while I have snuggled under my quilt to stay warm, winter is definitely making its presence felt. Happy Crafting

Who's the winner?

I can hardly believe it myself but I won a giveaway over at Kindred Crafters amazing really!! Oh, that's right I was having a giveaway too... Well it's not like I was overwhelmed with entries so as there were three milestones I chose the third comment, which makes Barb the winner. Congratulation Barb. I will email you shortly for the where to send it details. I have been doing some stitching in between marking papers but things seem to be going ever so slowly in the sewing room, so I'll just share this picture of a patchwork bag that I made for The Mother last Christmas, with the Paris Cats fabric range.

Hope you are all having a lovely week.

Happy Crafting

Celebrating with the Queen...

This weekend is a long one for us here in Victoria, "why?" you ask. Oh, because we like to celebrate the Queen's Birthday even though it isn't really her birthday! As I have been working full time for the past couple of weeks and will be for a couple more, the long weekend is significant and I intend to do some craft related activities. Today some friends and I are going for a little drive in the country to check out some fabric shops, I'll let you know how that goes.

Thank you to everyone who has come this way, when I started writing here in January I had few expectations that anyone would be interested in anything I might say, but now I know differently. Last month my blog passed some significant milestones... first there was the 1000th visitor, then there was the 50th post and then came the 10th follower. Yippee!!

.........

As there was a lot of family stuff happening at the end of the month and then the day job decided it was going to eat a big chunk of my time I did not acknowledge them, but I have three whole days off and there were three milestones last month so I found three things to giveaway, (the pictured item is not one of them). I'll include something that I have made, fabric and notions.

So leave a message here before Tuesday 9th June to tell me what you celebrated last month to go into the draw for some crafty goodness. Yes, I am happy to post anywhere.

Have a creative weekend.

Check this out

Okay, so I have been for another tour of cyberspace, thought I'd check some things before getting down to serious business - I am going to make the sewing machine do some work today! I got the trees sewed down on the Home applique yesterday and am busy making plans about other appropriate elements to include like the car and truck which were always a feature in the front yard. What do I want you to check out, well go here and see the cute doll and enter the giveaway - she is up for grabs and I have to say now that I have won something in cyberspace I am a very happy traveller. Oh and check out the other really cute things she has been making. Hope your week is going well! Happy Crafting

What have we here?

I believe the post people may have got my message last week, I got this in the post yesterday from Jantine, my partner in the Paper Bag swap, she only posted it Thursday from the Netherlands. Lots of my favourite colour RED and plenty of embellishments to inspire me, buttons, ricrac, metallic thread and some braid. The red spotty with white lace edge is actually a type of binding which could be a bit of a challenge! I have a few ideas so I will have to decide which to do. I have completed more Happy House blocks today. After all my practising I think I have finally made some which are suitable for swapping. I will be posting these off to Lurline next week.I won one of Helena's patterns in her recent giveaway and can't wait to see it in real life. A small quilt with a Sewing Angel on it, she will come in very handy, I am thinking for all those projects which I forget to finish before starting new things! Hope your week is productive. Happy Crafting

Easter Swap goodies

It seems my Easter Swap package arrived from Sweden in record time as I recieved it today when it was only posted on Friday of last week by Helena. She made me this gorgeous quilt wall hanging in all my favourite colours, just right for brightening up my kitchen, the work is beautiful and I know I will enjoy it lots. Oh and she included some Swedish chocolate which I am hoping to save for Easter, somehow I don't like my chances. Below is a picture of all the gorgeous stamps which were on my package, ever so cute and very colourful, chocolate dipped strawberries, hot chocolate and chocolate cup with a cherry on top among others. They are all very nice and I was wondering if there is a stamp collector out there who would appreciate them. I am willing to send them on if anyone is interested.

The lovely Helena has recently started her own web store to sell patterns for her beautiful designs, check it out here. Go over and say hi and don't forget to enter her giveaway.

Thanks to Julie for hosting this fun swap and to Helena for the goodies I recieved.

I will be back in the next day or so with some things that I have been working on between the day job.

Happy Crafting