January Finishes

Only 2 this month but more to come next month.
This was for the Quilting Gallery Fall Quilt Swap, it went to france. It measures 16" square and is hand embroidered in a simple backstitch on Linen then 2 borders. The outer border is some really nice fabric with faint leaves on it, I have done some Free Motion leaves on top of this one and it looks really good.

This one was a Swap Till You Drop swap for January, the them..."Rainbow" of course. it's a small stitcher about 10" x 9" and is done in back stitch and daisy stitch on muslin and then I have quilted around the green border with one of the fancy stitches on my machine.

How lucky am I

I was so surprised to get a parcel the other day.
It was from Jo in Tasmania.
My parcel contained this amazing piece of work.

A lovely little bucket bag and a needle case. It is hand embroidered in amazing small even stitches and the saying on the bag is:

"In my heart there lives a joyful song, the road to a friend's house is never long"

I feel very lucky, I have never met Jo, I participated in the Advent swap she organised last year and I wrote to give her some feedback and she sent me this.

I really enjoyed the swap and will be hoping that it runs again this year.

While I am here I just got pointed to this blog: WorldsBiggestHexagonQuilt it is amazing and I can't wait to see the finished quilt, it's going the rock the world record off it's socks.

Big Update

I have been a terrible blogger, I have the photo's all ready to go but forget to do the blog post so this is a catch up for anyone that is interested, hopefully there is at lease one person.

1ST

Our little girl is 10 months old.

Here is the late photo of her on her gorgeous quilt made by my wonderful online quilting friends.

2ND

and this is very remiss of me. I won some amazing fat quarters late last year from Twiddletails. Anita had a giveaway on her blog of her new fabric line and I as the lucky winner of one of the packs. Isn't it lovely, the colours are beautiful and the fabric is lovely quality.

Then I was lucky enough to win $25 to spend at the Etsy store This&ThatfromJapan. Where I got these beautiful fabrics. I did spend a bit more than that but not much and they are such lovely fabrics to look at and to feel. 3rd

I went to Albury on Sunday (out of the blue). I don't get there very often and a Sunday is not usually very good as not much is open. It takes about 1.5 hrs to get there so you want to make sure the trip is worth while.. But... Husband had to meet some people who were buying an old car that his Grandad left him and I had to meet him to bring him home. Would you believe it that across the road there was a lady having a yard sale.

Look what I got. (ignore the blue mug and other miscellaneous items in the background)

5 x Orange and 1 brown pyrex ramekin

A beautiful set of Teacups and Saucers in blue glass that are made in France

3 x handmade dishes that have a strange signature on the bottom that husband and I are trying to decipher.

2 x smaller yellow and 2 x larger beige ramekins

This is the whole lot. I got all that and 6 books for $21, how can you beat that. The kids love their new dinner dishes.

LASTLY

I was a bit naughty and did a bit of online shopping.

First off from the ever lovely Retromummy she has a lovely collection of fabrics, books and patterns, prices are good and postage in Australia is free.

And I also went a bit nuts at FreshFabricsAustralia on Etsy Amber has a wonderful collection of fabrics and is always quite competative considering how expensive it can be to get some of the popular fabrics here in Australia. I don't have a photo but go and check out her store, she is lovely and will do great prices and good postage too.

So that's about it, except to say a HUGE...

CONGRATULATIONS
to my cousin Peter and his lovely wife Lucy, on Sunday 17 January they had a little baby boy and have named him Archie.
I am already working on something special for him and he will get a quilt in a year or 2 also.

One Project A Month

Once again I have decided to join up for this little challenge. I don't know if I would call it a challenge, it's more group motivation.
You just finish what you can during the month and then get all proud and let them know about it and you can even win a few prizes along the way.
I enjoyed it last year as I really had no idea how much I was getting done before I started keeping track.
This year the lovely hosts are Kris and Peg. So if you are interested rush over to one of their blogs to sign up as places are limited.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FINISHES

A VERY QUICK HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.

We were in bed by 10pm, that's what happens when you have a very active 2.5year old and a teething 9 month old.

this month I was quite productive in my finishes so here they are:

A mini quilt made out of a favourite old t-shirt. You can't really see the swirly quilting but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.
A note book/diary cover to fit any A5 book for my cousin Kate, it has her name embroidered on the spine on the front.
A Zippered pouch/pencil case for my cousin's eldest son.
A Zippered pouch/pencil case for my cousin's youngest son.

One for my nephew Jack

One for my niece Gaby

One for my nephew James

A Table runner that went to Italy for Valentina for the Avent Swap.

There was another table runner but I must have accidentally deleted the photo but it was a christmas one for another swap and it went to Xena

A Merry Clarke Christmas

Well the big day has come and gone.

The kids did very well but thank goodness not too well.

Jess scored some beautiful clothes in some larger sizes (thank goodness) along with some toys, books and other great gifts.

Sam got a couple of wonderful trucks, some books and so much great stuff.

Here is just a couple of quick photo's, it all happened too fast to get many photo's.
Jess is wishing she got a big yellow truck too. Her grandma Clarke got her the pretty pink dress with matching bloomers. Sam just couldn't share on Christmas day and I can't really blame him, another day maybe.

Here is Sam in the middle of 2 of my cousins children. Ben on the left and Oliver on they right. They had come down to the farm for christmas from Sydney. It was a massive family affair at my aunts place just up the road, but I was too busy trying eat my lunch in between chasing Sam and soothing Jess. I think it was a bit too much for both of them and we had to go home for them to have a sleep in the afternoon before we headed over to Husbands family at Cudgewa for dinner in the evening.

Ho Ho Ho, Christmas Swap time

I have been a very lucky girl.
I have been participating in 2 Christmas swaps.
This first one is one from the Essential Baby Crafty Folks.

My lovely partner is ANNA who has the lovely little TillyTom Store on Made it.
She sent me the most amazing parcel containing the following:

Some lovely handmade coasters, a lovely roll of 2.5 inch strips in the Moda Cherry Fabrics, and this next bit is the best, some of her handmade hairclips, a lovley fabric covered button and one of her handmade drawing wallets they are really cute and only measure about 5 x 7 inches when closed up.
You can see here the drawing wallet is opened up and it has a little plain notepad and some lovely twistable crayons in it. You can get them at her store they would make a wonderful gift, it's not too late...

THIS NEXT BIT IS ALSO VERY EXCITING...

For the past 21 days I have been opening presents from my Avent Swap that was so thoughfully organised by Fiona.

My swap partner was the lovely Valentina from Italy and she has sent me the most wonderful box of goodies.

Here is a photo of SOME of them, I say some because the chocolates are all in the fridge as they would be melted if they weren't but they are the good ones. My husband is just beside himself, he loves chocolate and I have had to have stern words with him about not touching them.

Some lovely fat quarters of fabric. Some with bears and squares, some with holly for christmas, just lovley Some very cute star stickers that Sam is just aching to try out and some yummy drinking chocolate that I am keeping until Winter because I love a Hot Choc in the Winter, this pic also has the latest batch of gormet chocolates, I swear she must think i need fattening up...

This is a misture of a lovley pencil for tracing onto fabric, A gorgeous rubber stamp, some quilling paper, and the little flower basket thing actually opens up to have some sewing needles inside would you believe, very cute.
Next we have some very cute gingham ribbon, some embroidery thread in a very pretty peach colour and some cute as can be wooden pegs with sheep and flowers on them.This is a little bell that is painted green and has white snowflakes on it. Sam and Jess just love it, we don't have a tree this year but it will definately be on one next year. And last for today the most enormous tea towel I have ever seen. That is sam holding it up for me, he did a wonderful job, he is only 2 1/2 and is about 3ft 2in and had to hold it above his head. It is a map of Italy and has all the different pasta's all over it in the regions that they come from. It also has some yummy looking pasta sauce recipes on it that I will make once I have translated them. I will be back in a few days with the rest of the presents.