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.