late Birthday gift….

At the Geelong Quiltin last Saturday Christine gave me a parcel, a late birthday gift from her……..

Christine spoilt me with a beautiful cream linen apron with my initial embroidered on the front, just beautiful Christine and too,too pretty to get spaghetti sauce on it!! it’s now hanging in my spare bedroom with some of my other precious gifts I’ve received  from friends over the past few years.

Christine also popped into my parcel a lovely piece of fabric from one of Rosalie Quinlan’s ranges called “ Nellie Hill” and I must confess to this being the only piece I have of this beautiful range but I’m pretty sure that statistic wont last long lol, last but not least Christine also included a decorative tin for my pins, DMC threads and some of my all  time favourite chocolates MMmmmm I think my friends know me a little too well sometimes! Thanks you Christine for your thoughtful and beautiful birthday gift

My swap with Mel….

Last year at our girl’s retreat Mel and I fell in love with a basket that Annie had made and was going to frog as she didn’t like it and Mel and I decided it was too lovely to rip out so we commandeered it and claimed it for ourselves but then we had a problem of who would get to keep it and we came up with the clever solution that we would share it and at each get together we’d fill the basket with goodies either bought or handmade and pass it on and thus our one on one swap  began

this time is was my turn to be spoilt by Mel, look at all these yummy goodies displayed so beautifully in our basket….I think Mel has an inkling I like lady bugs lol.

Lady bug mini wall hanging, lady bug pin cushion, lady bug chocolates, stickers, fabric, ribbon, pegs  and to top it of the most gorgeous hand stitched lady bug necklace!! below is a picture of me wearing it…. I love it!!

Now to get my thinking cap on with ideas to fill up the basket with goodies for Mel. I am so glad I took up blogging as I’ve made some really lovely friends through it

My special swap with Shez!

I was utterly spoilt once again by my dear friend Shez, she knows me so well! Our theme for this swap was a Fig ‘n berry Christmas theme and if anyone knows me will know I love everything there is about Christmas!!

See I told you Shez spoilt me rotten! I think Shez knows me very well as she included a beautiful Christmas recipe book by Donna Hay which I have been hanging out to try a couple of the recipes out as well as a gorgeous felt candle mat, Fig ‘n berry  wall hanging, a cute Christmas tin full of yummy Christmas ribbons and a Fig ‘n berry pattern I actually don’t have in my pattern stash but must admit to nearly buying when I spotted it at Lisa’s table at the Geelong Quiltin last Saturday.

here is a close up of my gorgeous candle mat, Shez does such beautiful needlework

My beautiful wall hanging, I can’t wait for Christmas to hang this gorgeous fella! Thanks Shez you certainly know how to put a smile on this girl’s face XXXX

Here is a picture of what I gave to Shez, we decided as we’re both trying to cut out the lollies and chips we’d try and be a bit more inventive with what we add as little extras to our swap parcels so as well as the cute reindeer wall hanging I included three cottage garden threads, a yummy smelling soap, a soy candle from dusk as well as a special photo album cos I know Shez is just as crazy about Christmas as I am LOL and I thought this one would be a lovely one to put some special pic’s of her grandies into I love these one on one swaps with my lovely friend Shez and I’m always totally blown away by what she makes me

Geelong Quiltin, a very late post!

This post will be picture full so grab a cuppa and prepare to browse, I’ve borrowed a few few photo’s from other blogs due to the fact that my camera seems to be playing up on me it may be time to start looking around for a new one I think. I’ll also apologise for not posting these photo’s sooner but lets just say that if I’d been a horse last week the vet would have taken pity on me and put me out of my misery I haven’t been this sick in ages and hope to never experience it this full on ever again! Only today am I starting to feel like it might be worth joining the human race again LOL…...Anyway let the picture’s do the talking of a great day out with friends…….

FNSI Results….

Friday night saw me working on block four of my “Scandinavian Roses” BOM, still lots to do on this one. Pop over to Wendy's and see what everyone else got up to last night, I’ll be seeing what everyone else got up to later tonight with a cuppa  as I’ll be taking this stitchery and my red willow blanket to Geelong today to meet up with friends I haven’t seen for a few months at the “Geelong Patch work & Quilter’s Quilt in” and I’ll be taking my camera so lots of pictures coming up soon see you when I get back

First finish for May….

Finally made something for myself I couldn’t resist making myself one of Gail Pan’s Cottage Garden Thread holder after making one for Cheryl's birthday recently and of course it had to be in red & white LOL! So one finish for OPAM.

I’ve also been steadily working on this blanket, crocheting up my squares during my lunch breaks at work and stitching another couple of rows on in the evening while watching a spot of TV to make up it up to row seven, just ten more rows and it will be done! MMMMmmm that means another 170 squares still to be made yikes! I’d better get my skates on….I really can’t wait to see this one on my bed!!

I’ve also been doing some slow stitching on block four of my Scandinavian Roses BOM which is coming along nicely, so as you can see I’ve been keeping myself busy over the past week or two

What I made for Cheryl….Hexie swap

This is what I made and sent to Cheryl for our first swap with our group FHF Swaps… A snowman themed hexie runner as I know Cheryl loves snowmen, a hexie themed fat 1/4, a cottage garden thread in the same colour I used to stitch her hexie runner with, a candle and a block of yummy chocolate. I’ve heard back from Cheryl and she loves everything I made and sent to her so now it’s onto our next swap which is for a ruler cover

Hexie swap revealed!!

My fabulous hexie parcel arrived with my birthday gift from none

other than our Swap Momma extraordinaire Cheryll so I’ve waited very patiently to open this parcel LOL…… and then because of the week I’ve just had I actually didn’t open it till after the deadline!

Here it is all wrapped up waiting for me to patiently open it……not!

I finally ripped it open to reveal all these gorgeous hexie goodies!!!

 

Here is a closer look at all the beautiful hexie’s Cheryll sent me, not one pouch but three pouches in different sizes for all my numerous projects on the go…..how did Cheryll know this?? I thought it was a well kept secret

I love the little hexie scissor fob……

This beautiful pouch was full of hexie papers and hexie templates,I was  sooooo spoilt by Cheryll!

I just have to show you the back of this gorgeous pouch…. isn’t it just beautiful! Thank you so much Cheryll for making our first Friends Having Fun Swaps for 2015 such a fun swap! Sending lots of 0000 & XXXX’s your way

I would also like to send a big thank you to Peg and Shez our swap Momma’s for this swap for all the hard work they do behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly! Now to get to work on swap number two which is a ruler case, anyone have any suggestions on where I could find a pattern for one???

FNWF Results….

This is what I decided to work on for FNWF, block 4 of my “Scandinavian Roses” BOM by Rosalie Quinlan….. still a long way to go yet, but a start at least.

I also forgot  to show you a photo of block three that I’ve completed, so here’s a picture below for you…. All done and dusted, now to prep blocks five and six so I have them ready to work on when block four is done