Fun day out :o)

My freind Lynn and I went to the Craft Expo yesterday … Great fun!!!

This just amazed me, it’s the ‘world’s biggest hexy quilt’ … well if it’s not already then it’s well on the way to becoming that!!!

I had to take two shots to get it all in!!! Isn’t it a fabulous effort – so many hexagon ‘flowers’ donated by so many wonderful quilters :o)!!!

Of course, there was shopping to be done, I found some wonderful stores that I couldn’t walk away from empty handed! This is Jane from Be Be Bold, she had a fantastic array of Japanese fabrics … this one I simply HAD to have. Don’t you love how the one side is spots and the other side is gingham??!! Yep, your eyes don’t deceive you, that’s just one fabric, with TWO different looks. GAWJUS!!!!!!!

I bought the terrific canvas tape there too, to make the handles, cos of course this just HAS to (eventually) become my new shopping bag :o) … and also a few things more from some other stores – the beautiful dragonfly fabric was from Indigo Niche and will be used to make another of my “night flight” tablerunners!! …. and how about these adorable little scissors… These are a little over an inch and a half (4.5cm) from top to bottom, and they’re spring loaded. Perfect for plane travel. HAD to have ‘em ;o)!!! HAD to have these cute little charms too ~ if you click on the pic you’ll probably be able to see them better. I just fell in love with the sweet little owls on the bottom right …See … I didn’t buy too much ;o). You should see what I DIDN’T buy he he ~ aaaah, such will power :o).

I’ve got some good news about my Mum too … I get to bring her home from hospital tomorrow!!! She’s going to stay here with us while she’s (literally) getting back on her feet. Thank you all so much for your good wishes, I passed them all on to Mum and she was chuffed to bits :o)!!

One more March finish and some other stuff …..

It’s been a big week for me … lots of things happening – so please forgive me for not answering the comments from the last couple of posts, I’ve been doing so much lately I hardly know if I’m Arthur or Martha LOL. To start with … my Dear Mum finally got in for her knee replacement operation last Monday, so that’s why I’ve been a little bit quiet in blogland. Gosh I have so many blogs still to read, I feel like I’m missing out on all the goss lol!! Mum’s doing really well, she’s been walking a few steps with the physiotherapists and although she’s in some pain she’s coping with it well. She’s such a trooper my Mum - Bless her heart :o)!!!

The day she went into hospital it was my quilt group’s friendship day, here’s part of the display we had ….. The larger quilts on the table at the front of the pic are some of the workshops we've done in the group. The small quilts hanging up at the back of the pic have been made for the Neonatal ward of our local hospital … they are our chosen charity for 2009/10. All of these little quilts, I think there are about 25 or so, have been made by members and will be given to the hospital in May.This is the one I made ……with a sleepy bear on the front ;o) – YAY, another finish for March :o)!!!Here are some more of the quilts on show made by our members. The one in the middle won a blue ribbon at the Brisbane Quilt show last year, isn’t it stunning!!??! It’s made by our very own Jenny Williams, and she hand dyed the fabrics herself too!!!Here’s some more … don’t you love the herd of giraffe in the front of the pic …Ooops, sorry … I think the one on the right might be a cow lol!I couldn’t help myself …. I ended up buying some fabric, I just couldn’t resist this gawjus kitty fat quarterand then of course I had to get some more to go with it ;o)!!!

I also found some irresistible fabrics at my local patchwork store … don’t you just love those cute little owls???!! I’m going to make another sashiko table runner out of these :o).

I’d better get myself off to bed … I’m going to the Craft Expo tomorrow and I want to be wide awake to enjoy it!!!

Big trucks and pretty threads

Ok I grant you, it’s a bit hard to see what those two things have in common. In actual fact, I don’t think they do at all … except me of course. They do have ‘me’ in common lol :o).

This is what arrived at 7a.m this morning (sorry neighbours!!!). Not one petal in my rose garden was damaged … aren’t they good blokes :o)!!Here’s what it used to look like down the side of the house …. And this is the finished job……. Much tidier doncha think :o)??? I’m picturing a nice little table and chairs down there, it just might be a nice shady spot to do some stitching :o).

I got some squishy mail last Friday …. I love squishy mail :o).

I ordered these gawjus threads from Cath last week and now that they’ve arrived I love them even more!!! Just love those colours, I simply can’t wait to have a play with them, I’ve heard so many good things about these Cottage Garden Threads.

Our northern neighbours are all battoning down the hatches tonight as Cyclone Ului is meant to be hitting the mid north east coast of Australia in the early hours of the morning. Hoping and praying that everyone is kept safe and that damage is minimal!!!!

Cute Chook!!!!

I thought you might like to see what I got up to yesterday with my Wednesday ladies – Wendy, Lynn & Valerie.

This is Rosie …… Isn’t she cute!!!!??!A red and pink chook with polka dot wings.Love it :o)!!!!!

Lovely weekend!!!

But first ….. aren’t these pretty!!??!

They come in this little book, 30 pages of lovely stickers to pop inside your treasured books so that they’ll always come home where they belong :o). Well, that’s the idea ;o). I also got these … I saw them on Jenny’s blog when she was labelling her cute little spice bottles and jars and I just had to have some for my very own. I’ve been saving up my jars too so that I can pop my own pretty labels on them :o).

It’s my DH’s birthday tomorrow, and it was my BIL’s last week so we had the family over for a bbq on Sunday. I made a brownie based raspberry cheesecake, very delicious (how cute are those Matroyshka measuring cups ;o) ??!!!?) …... My sweet Bear was happy to help clean up … what a treasure she is, LOL….. And this is how it turned out ……. doesn’t it look yummmo???!!! I put fresh raspberries on top and drizzled melted chocolate over the top. I reckon just looking at it can put on 5kg LOL!!!

It was such a lovely afternoon and this is what my Darling did when our visitors left …… Bless :o)!!!!!!!

I did manage to get a bit of crafty fun in .... I made these cute little mushroom pin toppers from a tutorial that I found at Krafty Panda's blog .......Sorry it's not such a fabulous piccy ...... they really were fun to make :o). Now that I've bought more polymer clay I'll be thinking up ideas for more ;o)!!! Thanks Amanda for a terrific tutorial :o)!!!!

Teacup dollies

I’m very naughty writing up a blog post when I really should be writing up a pattern!!! For those of you who are waiting …. my Sashiko Tablerunner pattern is coming …… I promise ;o).

I stitched with my friends Valerie and Lynn yesterday and a new friend Wendy came along to join us too. We had such fun. We made these teacup dollies ….. Aren’t they all so different!!!??! None of them have a face in this pic … that’s as far as we got lol.

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That’s Wendy’s in green, Lynn’s with the flash hat, mine has a halo and wings and Valerie’s has the basket full of fabric.

I managed to finish mine today. She has now got a face … and a little basket with her knitting, and a sewing machine in the other hand in case she changes her mind ;o).

Ok …. I’ll go and write up the pattern now :o)

Have a great day!!!!!

EDIT: - A few ladies have asked me where to get the pattern for these adorable teacup dollies. For the Aussie bloggers, it was in Country Threads last year Vol 10 No. 1. Or if you don't have access to that magazine you can go here to the Happy Hearts website for the pattern.

Ya get days like this ………

Monday started out terrific when the mailman called with these…….Oh Yummmmmm, am I drooling LOL???!!!!…. This is my bee-yoo-tiful “Martinique” – 3 Sisters fat quarter bundle … my very FIRST fat quarter bundle. Ooooh, I LOVE it!!! I haven’t even undone the ribbon yet, still revelling in it’s fabricky yumminess :o)!! And these too ……… I love this range to bits …. “Blush” by Basic Grey. Aren’t they so pretty??!!? I have charms to go with these too {{{sigh}}} ….Monday afternoon when I got home from my quilting group I see that I ‘ve got an order for some patterns needed asap. No problem, I could print them up that night and post them first thing in the morning. But this is what I got half way through the run ….. EEEEEK!!!!! and a stupid “alarm” light as well ….. I begged, I cleaned, I cajoled and I even googled, but nothing was gonna take away that stupid message. It should’ve just said “I’m dead .. buy a new one!!!”

So …. that’s what I did bright and early yesterday morning.Of course, nothing can go smoothly can it. I got it home, hooked up the printer and installed the software, which took about an hour after falling over packaging and struggling to get the darn thing out of the box in the first place ….. only to find out that it too is broken!!! AAAARGH … googles, phonecalls (both to no avail) then back it went into the box with all it’s packing (not quite how I found it but hey, ya get that!!) and back to the store for a refund. Simple yes?? Nope!!! I forgot the receipt!!!! Drove all the way home, got the stupid receipt, went back to the store, exchanged the stupid broken printer and brought the new one home.

Oh Pretty ……. and it works ……… phew!!!

Deadline met …. patterns are in the mail :o).

All’s well that ends well they say – but oh, what a day lol ;o).

How was your day????