Giveaway winners

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Blogiversary post. The winners are Christine and Tudy. Could you please email me and let me know your addresses so I can post the prizes. Congratulations.

Wednesday morning social stitching and a movie

It was so nice to catch up with all the stitching girls yesterday at social stitching. My classes started again too so I have plenty to post over the next few days. They had some lovely show and tell. It was a day of chatting and catching up with everyone. Paddy had a lanyard that her special friend had made for her. Doesn't it look great.

I love the cow button.

Paddy has also been hard at work on her Leanne's house quilt and it is looking so beautiful. I just love the colours. Paddy reminded me that we do have similar taste!

What lovely stitching!

Last week, Donna, Jan and I went to the pictures! I don't go often but plan to do so from now on. Hubby and I haven't the same taste in movies so we rarely go. We saw "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep and it was good fun, especially for 3 women of a certain age! We all loved the house in the movie and especially the kitchen (that she was removing in the movie!) and the vegie garden. The shop she runs is so wonderful and we wanted to head there, if it existed, for coffee and a chocolate croissant.

Lovely books and some stitching

It was so exciting when I came home from work to find 2 packages on my verandah. Two of the books I ordered from the Book Depository had arrived. I have ordered 2 others and they may come today. It is a fantastic site and I discovered it by talking to Jenny of Elefantz. She had shown this lovely book on her site a while ago and I WANTED one! The Book site is very good and there is no postage cost, which is amazing.

I was also tempted to get this lovely book by Cath Kidston. It includes the fabric and buttons

for the bag shown on the front. I have had a quick look and it is a very lovely book.

I have been stitching too. As February was almost here I traced the 4th block in the Crazy Christmas BOM and another Gardener's Journal block on the weekend ready to stitch. I enjoyed this so much and had some time so I kept stitching and here it is!

My classes at Hobbysew start today and it will be good to see the girls and to see what they have been stitching over the holidays. Must remember the camera!
Don't forget that the giveaway for my blogiversary is being drawn tomorrow. All you need to do is comment on the Sunday 31st January post to be in the draw.

Special afternoon tea

One of my lovely class girls, Margaret, is leaving Canberra soon to live in the beautiful Blue Mountains. We will miss her very much but hope to catch up with her soon. Sounds like a good excuse for an excursion. Margaret had us over to her house, which has just been sold, for afternoon tea. It was a really nice afternoon. Here are some of us. By the time we remembered the camera, Linda and Anita had already gone. The photos weren't too clear so I hope yours were better, Margaret.

We then had a wander around Margaret's beautiful garden. My photos don't do it justice.

We left with cuttings for some of her lovely plants! I might just manage to keep them alive!!!!

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.