Bye Bye Winter!!!

Today is the 31st August …. the last day of Winter YAY!!!!!!

Tomorrow is 1st September … the first day of Spring YAY!!!!!!!

I’m *so* over Winter!!!

I thought I’d better hurry up and post a few piccies for my last OPAM finishes for August. I made these two cute little camera pouches – one for me (the brown one) and one for Bear (DD2).We bought DD2 a camera for Christmas and because we are going away on our big trip soon we decided to give it to her now rather than wait, so that she can take lots of lovely pics while we’re on hols … so of course she had to have a little case for it. Judith … I hope that counts as an Early Bird Chrissy pressie … even though it’s been received already lol.

I’ve also been dabbling in a bit of crocheting … I like to have something to do in the evenings, I can’t sit and watch the tele without something to stitch or crochet. I’ve got another of these in the making too, they’re fun to do :o).

And the last thing I made was this … This is a banner for my stand at the local quilt show in a week or so … I just printed my website logo onto some fabric and then put a pastel-y floral frame around it ……… I think it looks pretty :o).

I’d better be off … the kids are coming over for a roast so I’d better get back in my kitchen lol.

See you in Spring :o)!!!!!!!

We have a winner!!!!!!

This is gonna knock your socks off ……… there are 720 buttons in that jar!!!!!

Can you believe it???!!!!

it’s true!!!!!!!!!!!! 720 of the pretty little treasures!!! So who’s the winner????????

Who got the closest guess???????? It was …

VICKI 

Vicki guessed  743 buttons!!!! So close!!!

AND ……  just because I can lol …. I’m gonna give a prize for 2nd place too – I know I can find something fabricky and fun for ………………..

 PENNY

Penny guessed 768 buttons.

CONGRATULATIONS to Vicki and Penny, please email me with your snail mail addresses at joy at joypatch dot com and I’ll pop your prizes in the mail for you :o).

Thanks so much to everyone for joining in the fun!!!!!!!

What fun we had … the last bit!!

I just realised I forgot to show you the other thing I was working on at the retreat!!! I’ve been making some chair covers for my lovely Mum for Christmas. I found a jelly roll and some charms that I’d bought AGES ago in my stash and decided that they contained just the right blue so took them with me. Honestly … when I unravelled them I realised how absolutely GAWJUS they were, it’s an old line that I’d probably have a devil of a job finding any more of lol – Portobello Market … but isn’t it just scrummy!!!??! I love the ‘blues’ … just gawjus!! I’m making the covers using 3 strips from my “Diamonds and Braids” quilt pattern, it’s quilt as you go so I’ve still got to join the strips … got more braided strips to do yet ;o). My friend Jill was also making the D&B quilt, don’t you just LOVE the fabrics!!! They’re Bali Pops – ‘Cappucino’ – simply stunning!! Think I need to get me some of those too ;o).

So here’s the last pic from the retreat …. this is my friend Valerie (in pink) and me with Karen and Roslyn – two of the three lovely ladies who organised our fabulous weekend … So to Karen and Roslyn and Kelly ... thank you - you gawjus ladies :o)!!!!

Don’t forget … you’ve still got time to tell me how many buttons are in the jar!!!!!!! Just click on the link to see the jar of buttons, then leave a comment with your guess – there’s a pretty “Plume” charm pack to be won :o)!!!!

What fun we had!!!! …part 2

Thanks so much everyone for your comments on my last post, you were right, it was the bestest time!!!

Now you know how I often talk about my friends Lynn and Valerie who I stitch with on Wednesdays?? Well they went on the retreat too and here they are – Lynn on the left and Valerie on the right. That’s another dear one, Roslyn, in the middle – she helped to organise our fantastic weekend.We all took along star blocks to enter the challenge … 3 lucky ladies won enough star blocks to make their own quilt!!!We also had show and tell … and this one I just couldn’t believe!! This is Mon’s hand pieced hexie quilt … and it used to be twice this size. She found her 3 year old grandson “helping” Nanna with a pair of scissors!! Eeeek!!! Mon, being the sweet Nanna that she is simply distracted the little man and gave him something else to occupy himself. But she’s had to remove a lot of hexies and as you can see from the gap in the middle, she’s still got a lot of work to do on it!!! 

Here we all are before we left for home ….. lots of happy smiling faces!!! I was lucky enough to win a prize at the retreat, I guessed the amount of buttons in a jar – I just LOVE buttons :)!! Here’s what I won, a bundle of lovely fatties and a cute little tin filled with lots of useful sewing stuff.And here’s the jar of buttons I won too ….. mmmmm, I LOVE buttons [did I mention that lol???] !!!!!!!!Soooooo, just for a bit of fun … how many buttons do you think might be in this jar??? I’ll help you out with the size of the jar – it’s 5 1/2” (or 14cm) high and 3 1/2” (9cm) wide in the middle of the jar. Just leave a comment and your guess on this post and I’ll have this prize … a lovely pack of 42 Moda charm squares from the Plume range by Tula Pink for the person who guesses the closest.

I’ll tell you the winner on Monday 30th August … good luck :)!!

What fun we had!!!! … part 1

I’ve often read on other people’s blogs about fabulous weekends spent with stitchy friends on retreat. Well ….. now I know what all the fuss is about lol ….. what super fun I had at my very first retreat!!!! We all laughed so much - my jaw was aching he he, and we all still managed to do plenty of stitching too!!!

It was a long drive to Gympie from home … about 2 1/2 hours … so we had a pre-arranged stop along the way at Patchwork Angel for some morning tea - and some shopping of course ;o)!!!! Penny also did a couple of great demo's of applique’ and paper piecing … and so this just HAD to come home with me … It’s a rotating cutting board – and I really should have bought one of these a long time ago – what a fabulous toy!!! Of course, that’s not all I bought, I also found some needles, and some threads – what a treasure trove that shop is, lots of fabulous quilty goodness around every corner!!! Before we all left Penny took a piccy of (most of) our group, there were a lot of us so she had to get a good vantage point he he he. Here’s Penny organising us lol ….. and if you want to see the piccy she took go HERE :o). Thanks so much Penny for making us all so welcome!!

In amongst the laughter I did manage to finish a couple of small projects … here’s a little iron caddy I made for my friend Karen… And I also made this steering wheel cover. The little embroidered logo in the middle was done by another of the gawjus ladies in our group, Jennine. That’s two more finishes for me for August – woohoo!!!

There’s more to tell, but I’ll save that for ‘part 2’ ;o)!!!

I’m so excited

I’m going to my very first quilting retreat!!!!

I’ve got all the important stuff Even taste tested to make sure all is as it should be!!!

Yummmm - licorice allsorts :oD!!!!

I’ve packed lots of sewing stuff too …A few different projects  to choose from ;o)Gosh I hope there’s room in the car for the 3 of us :o/???

Catch up with you all next week … hopefully I’ll have some show and tell ;o)!!!

What have you done???

This is what’s left of my Bromeliads!!!! And here’s Mr Innocent…….He had an accomplice!!! This is just what happens when his bestest doggy friend comes over for a play ;o).

Look at that face …. how could I get mad at him?????

So much to tell you - it’s a long one!!!!!

… And that’s entirely my fault cos it’s just been so long since I last posted … I can’t believe that it’s been over a week  … eeek!!! I’ve been on a roll though … a stitching type roll that is he he – got some great mojo happening here :oD.

Here’s what I got up to with Valerie and Lynn last Wednesday, we made some more items for the Rosevale Court Aged Care (where Valerie volunteers) Chrissy stall … These are “Bag bags”!! You know, bags to store those supermarket bags that are taking up space in our drawers … great for putting rubbish in… well this is where you can keep them all ;o)!! We made them from tea towels, 2 tea towels makes 4 ‘bag bags’!! All we need to do is pop some elastic in each end and a little brass ring on the back to hang them up.

These little baskets are easily recognisable … they’re made from this tutorial from Pink Penguin … there a LOADS of fabulous tutorials there and it’s well worth a visit :o)!!! We’re going to fill these baskets with some gifties for the menfolk … we thought of combs and razors, or maybe notebooks and pens, but after that we were sort of stumped!!! Any more ideas for what could go inside them for the fellas???

I’ve also been working on the pattern that I gave you a sneaky peek from last week (or was it the week before??? ** sigh**). and to go with it …… another sneaky peek (or two)  of “part 2” of the same pattern. Hmmm, this one holds a pen!!!Mmmm … and some lovely rosy goodness on the little button :o). Have you noticed that I’ve fallen in love with covered buttons??? They’re just gawjus ;o)!!!

This is what part of my sewing table looks like right now …The other part looks like this …   …cos I’ve been typing up the pattern as I go along, much better than putting it off til the end I’m finding (which is what I normally do!!!) ;o).

Hey Aussie ladies … have you seen the new Creating Country Threads magazine (Vol 11 No. 1)???!!! All of the Gumtree designers have been impatiently waiting for the latest edition cos we knew our “Springtime” quilt would be shown!!! There’s a fabulous write-up about it and all the reasons why we wanted to make this quilt for Fresh Hope. You might notice there are a couple of smiling faces missing from the magazine … I think there might have been some gremlins around when it went to print cos our lovely Dawnie’s smiling face isn’t there…

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and poor Fee’s pic and article got left out altogether!!! But you can pop over to our Among the Gumtrees blog to see what our Fee had to say :o)!! The patterns for the Springtime quilt will be available very soon from Fresh Hope, but there are loads of other patterns there too so it’s definitely worth a visit to their website. The website is undergoing some changes at the moment but if you’d like more info on “Springtime” or any of the Fresh Hope patterns you can contact Mary at Fresh hope.

**********Here’s a ‘heads up’ for you all too*********** … my fellow Nutter Judith is having a huge sale on her website – Calico Cottage as it’s closing down at the end of the month. So hurry on over cos there are some fabulous bargains to be had … up to 50% off on loads of gawjus items!!!

Phew … well I think that’s all the news for now, that’ll teach me for leaving it so long between posts lol. Hope you all have a t’riffic week ……

A bit of this, a bit of that …

My freinds Valerie and Lynn and I have been busy stitching for the Rosevale retirement village’s Christmas stall. Do you like our cute little pot holders?? We’ve lined them all with Insul-brite to prevent burnt fingers … and I think they turned out great!!

So when I got home I decided to make another one … I think this one will go into my box of goodies for my Early Bird Chrissie gifts – what do you think Judith?? I finally got another gift in the box :o)!!

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We also made these cute little gift bags that we’ll fill with some goodies …. In between all this giftie making I’ve also been working on a new design … just a couple of sneaky peeks for now.

A pretty red yo-yo flower growing out of some gawjus Aster Manor fabrics … yummm :o).Any guesses on what I’ve been making????I’m not the only Gum-nutter who’s been busy … pop over to Dawn’s blog and check out her new **FREE** BOM - “Frosty Flakes” …. soooo pretty :o)!Actually … it’s a Block of the Week … (does that make it a BOW???? LOL) and it’s running for 10 weeks, so hurry on over and grab your first pattern :o)!!