Giveaway Draw

The draw has been done - I just found it was too hard to fight with the kids for the computer on the weekend to post before today.

Here is my Trusty Helper...all ready to go...

 The first name is out....

And the people who will be receiving the giggle buttons are

Debra 

and Lois.

I'll be contacting you to let you know and to get your addresses.

I just wish I had enough for everyone who commented. Thanks for visiting. 

A little giveaway...

Have you visited Red Brolly lately and seen the free Christmas sampler she has on offer. There is a bigger photo here of the finished item.

Cute, isn't it?

Did you notice the two Giggle Buttons included in the stitchery?

My plan when I went to the Craft Show was to buy a set of buttons for myself and also one set as a giveaway. I mentioned it to the lovely Kez and she gave me a set to use for the giveaway. How fabulous is that? I decided that I would still buy a set to give away and so now I have two sets to share with two lovely blog readers.

Just leave a comment before next Friday night Australian time and I will announce the results on Saturday next week. It couldn't be easier.

Thanks to the wonderful Kez and Dan from Giggle Buttons for the opportunity to do this.

 And here are the buttons. Aren't they sweet ?

Good luck!


I am happy to post worldwide.

Craft show...

On Wednesday Kayly and I went to the Stitches and craft Show ( Brisbane). We had a long day and when I went to visit Kayly today it seems that she might just be spreading rumours about me being a shopoholic. She says I was still shopping at closing time. Aren't friends supposed to support you and keep your secrets? To be fair, I was still shopping at closing time but that was because I had just found some felted wool pieces I wanted. I actually achieved what I wanted at the show - I got a pet mesh bag kit which I wanted to make for summer. Of course there was the felted wool and a pattern from The Birdhouse for making a pincushion. I did get some small kits which I haven't shown because they are for secret gifties - and that was also something I had planned to look out for.

 Interestingly a large pile of fat quarters jumped into my hands near the end of the day as well - I just liked them and they are the sort of fabric I like to use for smaller projects - bags, purses and sewing accessories.
We did go and have a good look at the Queensland Quilters show which was packed with beautiful quilts, giving us lots of ideas. If you have the time check it out - although the photographs don't look nearly as good as the real thing.
The next two pictures ( taken with permission) are of part of the stand from Giggle Buttons. They are working with Red Brolly as well so the display was very impressive. I also had a chat with Joy here - we always seem to find each other at Craft shows.

Come back and visit me tomorrow as I am going to talk about a little something I bought at the show and will be sharing.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap (2)

I guess I should show the things I made for Lida. I feel a bit silly because when I photographed them before I wrapped them I only took photos of the things I made - but not of everything else. You might have to visit this post of Lida's to see the other things I sent. Lida normally writes in Dutch but she has provided some English as well on this post which is nice.


F = Four Fat Quarters

R= Ribbons

I = Images ( Calendar of Queensland)

E = Embroidery Threads ( some of my favourite Cottage Garden Threads)

N = Needle Book ( and Needles) - a design by Rosalie Quinlan

D= Drawstring Bag

S = Stork Scissors and Scissor case.

The Something Extra parcel contained a Humbug Bag - Lida had admired them on my blog and so I included one for her.

I hope you enjoy everything Lida. It was fun making things for you !

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap

I am catching up a bit with things I want to post. This post is about the F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap run by Khris of Sew Prim Khris. The idea was to send things which start with the letters in the word FRIENDS.

I had just arrived home from retreat ( that's still another story to come) and the parcel was waiting for me - of course I ripped it open straight away.Well, I did say hello to my family first....

My swap partner was Lida from The Netherlands, which is why this parcel is full of lovely blue and white goodies. The photos aren't the best because I took them at night as soon as I opened them. You might like to look at better ones on Lida's blog at this post.

 The card with the clogs had all the items written down so using Lida's words here what I received.

 F = for Feathered Friends and Flowers!  ( A lovely panel)

 R= for Ribbons in Blue and Green ( My favourite colours)

 I = for in a book very handy!

 E= for Empty but you may fill it yourself ! ( a fabric covered heart box)

 N= for Needles and Pins! ( Beautiful!)

 D = Dutch Shopping bag! (How did she know I love shopping bags!)

 S= for Snowy Cushion Cover! ( I can't wait to use this for Christmas)

Thank you so much Lida for all the lovely beautiful things - I love them all!

Good and bad....

The good is that my Tis The Season Quilt is finished. I posted the top a few posts ago but now it is quilted and bound, and I am really happy with it. I love the stripey border and binding and the little touch of gold it brings to the colours, as well as pulling all the other colours together.

Here's a close up of one of the corners. I mainly did stitching in the ditch but added two little rows in the outer border.

 You can see more finished quilts here

Now for the bad....

Yesterday I was travelling home along one of our major highways and it started hailing. I pulled over to the side of the road and waited it out with my three passengers. The hail stones were the size of golfballs and the noise in the car was loud. But being the true blogger I am ( smile) I took out my camera and took some photos. This is looking out the front of the windscreen with the hail on the wipers.

And this ordinary photo shows the road after the hail had stopped - This is a three lane highway ( in one direction) and it was just covered in ice.

The bad news is that there are dents in the car - we haven't really assessed what we will do about it yet.

It is just one of those things.

Going on retreat...

 I'm going away for a few days on a retreat here. I am not taking my computer so you won't hear from me. However I am taking waaaay too many projects and hopefully I will finish at least one thing.

And what does the photo have to do with this......nothing. I just found it in my photos and is what I found one morning when I opened a new container of margarine. I peeled the paper off the top and obviously there had been some air bubbles.It cheered up my day.

Activity happening...

Over on the Stitch-A-Long Blog there has been a hive of activity with lots of people finishing their quilt by the deadline of the end of September. ( It was a nice deadline - nobody is getting into trouble. It is just nice to have a goal.) I'm afraid I didn't get my whole quilt finished, as in quilted and bound but I did get my top finished before midnight of the last day. The fabric I used was Moda Adoring by Sandy Gervais and I stitched the blocks using lovely Cottage Garden Threads in the colour Plum Pudding.

I added and extra border to the pattern as I found that the light border I had chosen was too similar to some of the blocks. The simplest solution seemed to be to add the stripe ( which I am hoping will look good for the binding as well). It seems to pull the colours together nicely so I am happy with it.

It has been a lovely project to work on and I send my congratulations to everyone who has been working hard.

The Tis the Season quilt is designed by Natalie Bird from the Birdhouse.

P.S. Yes, Chooky, I will be going back to working on my Gardener's Journal now.