A little birdie

Just a little stitching on Friday night.

(Sorry about the upside down pic!)

I really need to be going a little faster.

Another Christmas design from Bronwyn at Red Brolly, she shared this one last year.

Hope you're Friday Night was more productive.

Summer...

in my mailbox.

Today I received my OASS summer swap package from Carol.

Yippee! Do you see all those goodies there and Carol really did her homework - the stalking kind of course.

She created this fabulous art canvas with the saying 'Keep calm and let's go to the beach'. Perfect for someone like me who walks to the beach daily for a little reflection. I probably should be more sun smart and acquire a hat like that one on the canvas.

This gorgeous tote has an appliqued sunflower - I really admire those who can do the little button hole stitch that Carol has achieved on those petals - Beautiful.

And this little bag is for my knitting needles - the brightly striped part at the top opens and there are lots of little pockets to keep needles in their pairs - I have wanted one of these for some time and even picked out a pattern but had not made it. Now I don't need to, thanks Carol.

Carol also included a set of wine glass charms with a beach theme, Caramello Chocolate and a little cross stitch patchwork kit with everything in it - including the little stand and the backing fabric, too cute. I think this will be a fantastic summer project.

Thanks Carol for all my presents and thanks to Cheryll for hosting this fun swap.

Feels like Christmas here already with all these gifts coming in the mail.

Hope your week is full of fun mail too.

Happy dancing

All the way back from the Post Office!

(I may have been disappointed if the contents turned out to be something different!)

Thanks Australian Homespun - I won a fat quarter bundle of Helen Stubbings new range 'Life is Beautiful'. 21 fat quarters and a half metre panel.

Yippee - the colours are gorgeous and the designs pretty.

I'll be gazing at this pile of loveliness and just enjoying them all bundled up together - they will get their own space on the fabric shelf just as soon as I get around to cleaning that space.

Thank you Homespun.

The first three days of the Advent swap have revealed some useful lovelies, I'll show them at the end of the week.

 Hope your week has gotten off to a Happy start too.

Summer time fun...

All wrapped up and left with the post people earlier this week, now that it has arrived at its new home I can show you the finished hanging. 

If you have been looking here recently you would have seen quite a lot of the parts.

Bathing boxes at the beach

and the whole scene complete with girls playing on the beach.

I used a combination of raw edge machine applique for the larger pieces and buttonhole hand applique for the smaller pieces, I hand quilted clouds and around some of the shapes. The pattern has all of the work done by machine.

Instead of a hanging sleeve I put tabs on the top for hanging - they co-ordinate with the houses.

The design by Carol Turznik was published in Australian Homespun No 103 Vol12 No12. 

This was a very fun piece to work on and it was hard to send it on its way, so I was very happy to learn that Maria has a bit of a fascination with Bathing boxes and she adores her new wall hanging.

I found these turtles on the specials table at Spotty last week and figured they'd be perfect for backing.

While the fabric is a drill it is very soft and worked well for the purpose.

As it is almost time for celebrating the season of Christmas I included this little fellow and some chocolates too.

He is the one with the bead decorations I was working on a few weeks ago.

Thanks to Cheryll the wonderful host of this very fun swap.

Hope you are able to indulge in some Summer time fun this weekend with the beginning of the season here tomorrow.

Naughty Elf...

I'm sure she had her head in the clouds when she turned the trees upside down.

There were no clouds in the sky today when I went out for my walk and the temperature was soaring! A little sit down at the beach was necessary.

And like the big kid that I am I couldn't wait to open my squishy mail package so I ripped in right there on the beach. A cute little package from Kris at TagAlongTeddies, who is one of the hosts of OPAM.

Inside I found a pattern for one of Kris' own gorgeous designs - when I read the words I had a spooky feeling that Kris had been peeking in my windows.

I'd much prefer to craft than clean and tidy, so the words on this little hanging are perfect for me and my humble abode.

There was also a piece of gorgeous fabric (not sure how she parted with that) and some thread for stitching the design.

Thanks Kris it really is very sweet.

A little Santa stitching on this cutie so generously given by Bronwyn Hayes over at Red Brolly - lots of fun Christmas ideas there.

 Enjoy the rest of Thursday - hope you're cool.

Special Delivery

Today the post people left this special delivery for me.

Playing in the Advent Swap hosted by Fee, means lots of little packages to open in the lead up to Christmas - it really puts some of the fun back into those first weeks of December when life usually gets busy. I feel like a kid again - eagerly waiting for Saturday to come so I can open the first little package.
The little tags are just the cutest and they are three dimensional.

I promise I only opened the box and the Christmas card, I didn't squeeze, shake or sniff anything (ok, maybe one or two)

Thanks Gai for being my partner this year.

I do think it is funny that we both used the same wrapping paper.

In the sewing room there has been a little hand stitching and lots of buttons.

(luckily it has nothing to do with clothes!)

The machine has been busy with the vegetables and orange.

Pretty.

A perfect start to the week really.

Hope your week has started perfectly too.

Seasons in the sun.

Working on this piece I was reminded of the Old song sharing the title.

While we had a taste of summer today there was not much sun.

Hope your Saturday was sunny.

(All will be revealed when it arrives at a new home)