A Blogiversary giveaway

I can't believe that it has been one year since I started blogging! It has been such fun and really special to share my stitching life and other bits and pieces with my lovely readers. Thank you to those who visit and especially those who comment on the blog, by email or in person. It is always good to receive the feedback. I have decided to have a giveaway of 2 of my recent patterns and a canvas work scissor keeper as one prize and my nativity pattern including the wooden button as the other. You just need to comment on this post to be in the draw. It will be drawn on Thursday morning.

Looking forward to hearing from you. If you can't for some reason comment on the blog, then send me an email and I will add your name into the draw. 

A finished quilt and a great concert

I can't believe that I have finally finished the "Your Home or mine" quilt. It is a lovely quilt and I am very pleased with it.

It even has a label! Lynette included a label pattern in the instructions. I had it ready and stitched ages ago waiting till the quilt was ready.

Last night a group of us went to the Canberra Theatre so see the Spooky Men's Chorale and Fred Smith in concert. It was a great concert. I have heard the Spooky Men many times at the Folk Festival and it was great to see them on stage. We were only 3 rows from the front. Here is a picture of them performing "Dancing Queen" with their special hats on. They are a male acapella choir and they perform some serious songs but some hilarious ones too.

They teamed up with Fred Smith who is a very good performer and writes topical songs about all sorts of things. It was a good night.

Binding and stitching

Woo hoo! I have finished binding the "Your home or mine quilt"! Always such a good feeling to see a project almost finished. I hope the quilting does this lovely quilt justice as that is aways my downfall. I didn't want to overdo the quilting though as the quilt has such nice applique and embroidery.

I loved using these great clips to hold the binding over instead of pins. Such a clever idea.

I also enjoyed pulling our the tacking thread.

When I can, I have been stitching this lovely design by Cinderberry stitches. I am using my favourite DMC 221 red instead of the one Natalie used. I am a bit of a dark red person rather than a pinky red. Just realised that this isn't finished! If you look carefully, you can see that there is a little vine above the owls that isn't stitched. This pattern is an iron on transfer and the lines that transfer are lovely and thin and easy to cover with stitching. I usually prefer to draw my designs on with fine brown pigma pen but this worked well.

Special gift

Janelle and Richard, my sister and brother in law have just been on a wonderful, though chilly holiday to Korea and then to Europe. They went on a fabulous tour of Spain and saw such wonderful places such as these.

They brought me back this lovely, little bowl from Valencia. What gorgeous colours. I think I need to add Spain to my ever growing list of destinations!

National Museum

Last Saturday, Paul and Jeni came to visit and we went out and visited the National Museum. It is an amazing collection of Australian objects. There are many aboriginal artifacts as well as historical displays. I was taken by some of the bits and pieces from our more recent past. We only had time to see one section as you need a full day or more to look at all the exhibits. I have always been amused by this lovely old pink caravan on display. It makes me remember my childhood as we lived in one a little bigger and not quite as old for 5 years! I was 5 and my brother had just been born here in Australia and the 4 of us lived in caravan. Hard to imagine these days. There was no electricity or water and the amenities were very basic. My mum and dad worked very hard and saved to build their dream house on their own land! That's a very Australian dream.

These old cookbooks reminded me of high school too. I still have my old copy in my recipes cupboard and still make the Anzac biscuits from the book.

Couldn't resist these old jugs.

And here are some covers from old Home Beautiful magazines. I do enjoy seeing these kinds of ordinary. everyday collections.

Happy Australia Day

Today is Australia Day. For those who live overseas, this is a holiday to celebrate our lovely country. I am very thankful for this great land as I came here as a child with my migrant parents many years ago and it is a wonderful place to be. We went into town today so see what was happening in the park. We arrived just as the FA 18s (very, very, fast, noisy planes) flew over. They flew over so quickly that we couldn't get a photo. There were lots of flags including this one.

Many families enjoying the shade.

Jumping castles and rides for the kids.

Lot of yummy food. I love the profetjies or dutch pancakes. We just HAD to line up for some of them.

Here they are almost finished!

Fantastic clip from U tube

I couldn't resist putting Camille's link onto my blog today as she has a wonderful clip from U tube on it. Well worth a visit.  Check it out as it will make you smile...especially those of you who are Sound of Music fans.

A very cute robot

Here is the little felt robot all finished! He was such fun to stitch. Here he is sitting with some of the girls' old books. I went through kids books the other day thinking I would take some to the op shop but didn't find many to donate as they held such nice memories. So many of them were their favourites. I can use the excuse that I sometimes use them at school on the odd days that I teach (I don't do that very often these days).

Here he is again. I think he might have to visit Hobbysew and sit near Anni's lovely book.

Here are some of the books on the shelf in the spare room. I do love books!

A fun project

I bought this delightful book, "A Boy's Story" by Anni Downes, a while ago and have wanted to make this little robot! Last week I found some time and perused the pattern.

I got out the easyfix and the laminator to make the templates.

Luckily I had some lovely felt colours to play with in my stash.

Here are the pieces cut out ready to do the fun bit and stitch. Felt is so lovely to work with. I have started to stitch and will show you the results soon.

I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids crafting on Friday. It was a bit busy! I did clay with them and they had fun making all sorts of odd things. They liked making bird's nests and eggs and I ended up making birds for the nests. They could also make some great beaded barefoot thongs which were really popular with the girls, do woodwork, colour and cut, paint on fabric, make papier mache fish and make some stitched cards. They enjoyed themselves.

Bears and stitching

Hope you are all managing to cope in the heat in Australia at the moment. I am off to kids club and have still not taken any pictures of the crafts. Must try to remember to do that today. Here are a couple of bear friends made ages ago. I made quite a few grandma ones and even plaited the little hat! I was going through my raffia hat phase.The little fellow on the right is a favourite in his little felt vest. They are sitting on a miniature foundation pieced flying geese quilt. Great for using those tiny scraps that I can't bear to throw out.

There had been a tiny bit of stitching. I have finished this month's block of the Gardener's journal quilt. It is the sprinkler one...mind you we are not allowed to sprinkle these days due to water restrictions. I remember loving to run under the sprinkler as a kid in the heat of summer.

Hope you have all had a good week and that you have managed to do some stitching.

Collections

Here are a few of my little collections. I tend to collect all sorts of things instead of just one type! Hence there are a few different collections on my dusty shelves. I love blue and white china and use a cheap blue dinner set everyday. I have really just started collecting blue and white plates and cups. I also really love the Villeroy and Bosch Naif dinnerware. It isn't as available as it was and so a bit harder to collect.

This is a collection of blue and white bits and pieces.

This lovely jug was given to me recently by my dear friend Karen. It is from Italy.

Another little blue jug. It was bought when we were in England a few years ago.

And two little jugs from the Laura Ashley shop.

More bears and a collection of little things

Here are a couple of my favourite bears that sit on the kitchen shelf. I'm glad you can't see the dust up there.

These fellows sit happily on the piano. The little fellow on the right belonged to my hubby when he was little.

Lisa linked to a picture of her printer's tray yesterday filled with lovely little bears. This is my one and it is a collection of little things. Small bears, little houses, cotton reels and thimbles.

Here is a closeup. The VERY SMALL bear in matching fur to the larger one was made for me by Fiona years ago. She is so small and would have been so hard to stitch, turn and stuff!

Fiona is having a giveaway to celebrate one year of blogging. Make sure you check it out.

Bears

I have been "wasting time" looking at lovely blogs again this afternoon as I am not at work! I was at the kids club so took today off to do that. Another benefit is that I am home this afternoon and though I should be stitching or quilting or even doing some housework, I have been fiddling around on the computer. Sue had just blogged about bears and collections so I thought I would join in the fun and show you some of my collection of bears. I don't make too many these days but have enjoyed making bears, especially little ones, over the years. These ones are some little Christmas fellows. The gorgeous little (very little) white bear was made for me as a gift many years ago by the very talented Lisa. I made the others from various patterns.

The bear on the left was my first ever little bear made after seeing Gerry's Bears at a craft show in Sydney.

Here are two more. The left one was one we did at Batemans Bay needlework years ago. I think Lisa designed that one too.

I did branch out and make some bigger bears. The two oldies at the back are very odd as they were first attempts. I did think they were lovely at the time and can't bear to get rid of them.

The old trunk that they are sitting on came to Australia with my parents and me many years ago from Austria. Our entire possessions were in this trunk!

Lovely pictures

Thought I would share some of the lovely pictures that hubby took recently with his brand new camera. He has wanted an SLR camera for a while and got one of Christmas (aren't I a good wife...). Here are some of his pictures taken recently nearby. He also took the pictures of the kids in the pool. Mine would have been blurry.

I haven't much to blog as I am still quilting and am busy this week at a Kids club at church, every morning this week. I just might take the camera and show you some of the crafts they are getting up to this week. I have spent too much time reading some early blog entries of some of my favourite blogs. One of my favourites is Attic 24. I love her use of colour and the way she shares her life with all of us. There is new little one in their home now which may keep her busy but her old posts about her home, food, scenery and the children are very special. I feel like I know Lucy well and I have never met her. Blogs are amazing.

New house and fun in the pool

Spent some time over the last few days helping our daughter and her husband tidy their new house ready for tenants. It is such a lovely home and I think they will be very happy there once they move into it in a year or so. So wonderful for them to be purchasing a house now while they are still young.

Had some friends over today for afternoon tea. They have 3 kids and they had a great time in the pool. Pools really are so good for kids this age.

This little fellow had no fear at all! He just loved the water.

Dad was kept very busy throwing them into the air.

I have been quilting my "Your home" quilt and have hand quilted all the little homes and have machine quilted quite a few blocks.