Ross Goodies and a giveaway

I just want to show you the lovely things I got at the Tassie Quilting Bloggers and Friends Gathering, yes I've got my camera back, about time too!
This is the fat quarter I received for the secret santa, a beautiful piece of At Water's Edge by Blackbird Designs, it's so pretty, Thank-you to the blogger or friend who put this in the basket!

I bought this cute snowman from the local nursery and gift shop, I think he can sit on my shelf all year round, he's too cute to put in a box!

Sarah from Sarah's Prim Treasures and I did a swap and this is what she made for me my very own desk tidy, I love it and it has been christened already, Thank-you Sarah!

Here's a close up of the top....
Isabella from I Just Love to Stitch made a few of us these thread/pencil holders, I think she's converted me to the special gadgets for DMC threads, just have to start using them. Thank-you Isabella for being so generous and also for loaning me a camera!

Here's the lucky door prize I received, one of Hugs 'n Kisses beautiful notepads, some lovely fabrics for the Quilted Crow and a cute little wire hanger! I knew what was in all these little parcels and I'd have been happy with any of them!!

And my lovely Mum gave me this cute little tin that she picked up from the same nursery and gift shop that my snowman came from, isn't it pretty. I've put some of my favourite buttons in it!
I think I did well for the day, rather pleased with my lot but the day was really special as I got to share it with my blogging buddies and friends!

Visit Daisy Quilts for a beautiful giveaway celebrating 1 year of blogging, drawn New Years Eve!

The Stitching Cow

Have you seen this gorgeous quilt popping up over the place, it's called Cottages in Common and is a BOM by the Stitching Cow. Lenna's going to giveaway an epattern and videos on the 24th December so be sure to visit her blog. And what a big surprise I just had when Lenna told me she is also a Tassie Quilting Blogger, so to all you Tassie girls, bloghop over and introduce yourselves!

Snugglybugs & Quilts4Hearts

Helen Stubbings from Hugs 'n Kisses organises quilts for ill children at the Royal Hobart Hospital under the banner of Snugglybugs. This is the third quilt I've contributed too (ignore the date, photo was taken with the work camera), it's on it's way now to be assembled into a quilt with the other donated blocks for a 14 year old girl.
It feels so good to be able to contribute in this way and hopefully bring a smile to their face and warmth to their bodies.
I also hope to tackle more projects like this in the future for another charity Quilts4Hearts , maybe this is something you'd like to do to, just click on the picture on my side bar.

Edit: Please bloghop over to a new blog and say Hi, tell her Jo in TAS sent you!

Bloggers meet and other goodies

What a fabulous day us Tassie Bloggers had on Saturday. We gathered at the small town of Ross at the bakery for a day of fun! I made everyone little parcels with a surprise inside.I also gift wrapped 19 lucky door prizes that were kindly donated from The Quilted Crow and Hugs 'n Kisses and were well received by all!Check out the Tassie Bloggers on my side bar for more posts about the day, without them the day wouldn't have happened and I'd like to thank all of them for coming and our friends too that joined us Meredith, Bronwyn, Sarah, Polly, Kerrie & Tali. Plus big thank-you to my dear friend Sarah for driving us there!!

I'll post some more picks later in the week (when my camera comes home) of the beautiful gifts I received at the gathering!

Now onto other things, here's some sneak peeks of my gifts for the SSCS 2008 that are winging there way across the globe, are they coming to your door?And when I popped home for lunch today a lovely parcel was in the mailbox from Embroideroo. Sandi knew I was drooling over the Macadmia Bliss Bar and offered to send me one so in the end we did a little swap of xmas ornaments and sweets. Sandi sent one of her own designs of a Roo, isn't it the cutest kangaroo you've ever seen!, and a lovely felt snowflake, some buttons and of course the bliss bar...no I haven't opened it yet but it's calling me saying "EAT ME!"Thank-you Sandi, I'll be putting my tree up soon and they'll be on it!

Almost forgot to mention but two of Ric Rac's creations joined us at the gathering, Marita's Henry and my Jodie, they enjoyed catching up too! Thanks for the pic Sarah!!!

Tassie Quilting Bloggers & Friends Gathering 2008

This Saturday I've organised for some of the Tassie Quilting Bloggers to meet in Ross, a lovely town, located in the middle of Tasmania. We're meeting at the Ross Bakery in the Stables that are set up as a meeting room.

There's 13 bloggers coming along and a few non-bloggers. Some of us have met at other gatherings. We're all looking forward to a fun filled day of stitching, chatting, eating and of course sharing a little of that blogging knowledge.

So if you're a Tassie Quilting blogger and we've missed you out this time round send me an email and who knows we might just do it again next year!

A special giveaway by Debra Facer

Please visit Debra's blog for a special giveaway, helping to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer.All you have to do is scroll down and read the information that Debra has kindly provided, find four symptoms for ovarian cancer and leave a comment under the Giveaway post listing these four symptoms.Please help her reach as many people as possible.

I should feel so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky!

I've been so lucky these past few days, with wonderful suprises in the mail and last night I won Hilltop House's Giveaway, a pattern for Santa Babushkas, very cute. Wonder if I can squeeze them in between now and xmas!! Thank-you to Evonne for hosting the giveaway and her lovely dqughter for drawing my name out!

Close Ups

Simone asked for a picture of the inside of this

the lovely gift I received from my Stitcher's Angel Lieve Huys .so here it is

It's shown here with the stitchery inside. A great way to keep those "Works in Progress".

I also want to show you a close up of Stina's beautiful stitching on the PIF she sent me, her poor hand must've been aching after all this work. I'm still smiling from ear-to-ear, blessed to receive such lovely gifts.

Red Delicious Mystery BOM

Esther is hosting a Mystery Bom called "Red Delicous". On the 15th of each month a new block will be released with the old block being removed. Red Delicious is designed for Applique or Red Work . We're very lucky to be receiving this free BOM, Esther's work is beautiful. The first installment is up and it is everything I had hoped for from such a talented designer, so get in quick before it disappears!

It must be Christmas!

Well today it feels like it!

As DS was heading off toschool he came back in the house with two parcels, to his disappointment they were both for me!! I felt like a little kid all over again.

The first parcel is from my Stitchers Angel, the beautiful Lieve Huys (No Blog) who owns a quilt shop in Belgium

Oops need to unwrap it....
Just look at these beautiful goodies a scissor keep with a little pair of scissors (from French magazine "Quilt Country"), a pincushion (from May Britt's blog), a lovely stitchery and stranded cottons and a gorgeous roll to put my work in!! I've always wanted one of these rolls!! I know Lieve has read my blog because she knows about my addiction to pincushions!

Lieve, you have truly spoilt me, you are one generous angel , thank-you so much I'll treasure it forever!

The second is my PIF from wonderful Stina. I know she's had a sore hand and I'm just amazed at how beautiful her work is. Look at this lovely wallhanging I should've ironed out the creases before I took a photo but I couldn't wait, just had to show it to you all....

it's beautiful Stina, Thank-you so much!! By the way I ate the chockies and they were scrummy!!

Thank-you ladies you made my day, I'll be smiling from ear to ear all day:-)

I better make a start on my PIFS for Ann J, Karol-Ann & Trashalou!!

Firsts plus some more

I'm going to post a few photos here.

First up I'll show you my firsts, my first teddy and my first quilt, wallhanging actually.

I worked with a girl in Brisbane who was a mad teddy bear maker, Yvonne and she was the one who really started off my love of craft. I told her I wanted to make a minature bear and it had to be blue, I think she thought I was insane tackling such a difficult project. I did and here's the result, not perfect but I still love it. I've taken the photo next to my mug just so you can see how little it is.

The wallhanging is from a magazine and I made it in 2002, no idea which magazine or who designed it. I'm much better at keeping the details these days.

Mum taught me how to use a rotary cutter, told me why I had to sew a 1/4 inch seam and how to do applique. It was from this I was totally hooked.

I made a few more teddies, like Hamish who I've posted about previously, Marnie who I made and sadly finished just after my grandmother (Marnie) passed away

and Ted, who I think is pretty handsome

I'm also a scrapbooker and this year I joined a "Book of Me" class just so I could do some girly layouts, here's a few, they're just a bit of fun. They're all on 8 x 8 pages.

And this week I've been doing this

it's an online class by Jessica Sprague. I've made the journal and now I hope to learn a bit about how to best write my life stories and put some down on paper!

What were the first things you made?

Welcome to the Blogoverse Ange

I'd like to welcome a newbie to the blogoverse, my friend Ange. Ange and I are workmates as well as craft buddies! Ange scraps, sews, cross stitches and knits and I'm sure we'll see lots of creative things posted on her blog.
Currently on maternity leave looking after two adorable children I'm sure she'd love your company so head on over to Ange's Ramblings and show her some of that blogging friendliness!

Made With Pride

My favourite little craft shop "Made With Pride" is closing down :-( Their landlord has upped their rent so they decided it is time to retire. I'm going to miss them.

(Picture taken from Google Street View)

This shop stocks all those little knick-knack bits and pieces that you just can't get anywhere else. It's been so convenient to visit during my lunch break to get that one DMC thread I need for a project. This week they've reduced all their stock by 50% so today I bought some of those DMC threads I don't have, some wire hangers, freezer paper, magnetic clasps for bags, cord and some button covering kits. I'm heading back tomorrow to go through the fabrics and everything else.

So if you live in Southern Tasmania I'd get in quick because they're clearing the lot and they must be out before the end of November!

I love surprises at lunchtime!!

Most of my regular readers know how I sometimes go home for lunch, well today was worth it because a little package was in my mailbox.

Beautifully wrapped inside were some goodies from Ric-Rac.
Jodie is so creative, I love the recycled pattern paper as wrapping paper, the key ring and the cards, they're all so beautiful. Oh, sorry you want to know what was inside. Well after seeing these on Jodie's blog I emailed her and bought one.

Apart from it's monster appearance it has this added feature..... (Not the best photo, angle hasn't captured the last word "Craft")

How could I resist, it's just perfect for work and says how I feel most of the time!!

Here she is proudly displayed on my desk at work, my colleagues think I'm strange!

I think she needs a name, any ideas?

No husbands, let's stitch!

DH was away this weekend so my Mum came down for a visit. Mum loves to stitch as much as I do so we've had a very productive weekend. Here's what we got upto....

This is Mum's little dilly bag.....

Here's my xmas baubles finished at last.....

Mum made some grab bags from the pattern I posted about previously.....
...aren't they gorgeous!

Here's a Rosalie Quinlan doll "Sarah" that I made....

and Mum made some gorgeous sewing accessories that she'll sell in her local craft shop.....
Pity the weekend is over, we were on such a roll!!

Angel gifts have arrived in Portugal!

I can finally reveal I was a Stitcher's Angel to Noemia, bloghop over and check out what I sent her.
At first I was a little bit daunted by it all because her blog was in Portugese but she kindly put a translate button up for me so I could read her posts.
This has been so much fun, my Angel assures me that mine will be on it's way this week, so I'm waiting patiently as I'm sure it'll be wonderful.
Thank-you again to Helen and her group of designers for organising the swap!

Ride to Work Day 2008

I recently took part in "Ride to Work Day" thought I'd share a photo with you....I was somewhere on the rear wheel, can you see me?

(Photo taken from Cycling South Website)

Felted Wool, so simple

Just had to show you this, working with felted wool is so simple, not like applique where you use vliseofix, instead you can use staples, I've used a little bit of glue for the tiny pieces. All I have to do now is blanket stitch them in place and embroider the other bits.

For some great patterns and felted wool visit The Quilted Crow.

P.S. Photo taken with the office camera during my lunch break of course!

P.S.S. Oops forgot to acknowledge the stapler it was from work too!!

Now back to work!!!

What's a blogger to do??????

Hubby's gone away for 3 weeks and taken my camera so unless I can beg, borrow or steal one my posts will be pictureless!

I've had a busy weekend, finishing off xmas baubles (just the strings to do now), another swap gift for a blogging buddy, preparing my next project "Treasure Cones" (bloglifted this photo) as designed by Leonnie from The Quilted Crow.

And not to mention all the housework, bit of gardening, grocery shopping, meals and last but not least giving my DS lots of cuddles because he said I don't give him as many cuddles anymore!

Note to self, cuddle DS everyday and tell him he's very special and I love him :-)