Jenny's Giveaway

Pop over to Jenny's blog - Jenny of ELEFANTZ..  She does the most adorable stitchery designs and now has almost 1900 followers.  If you go over there - enter the give away - you could win one of 3 prizes  and if you mention my name in your comment I win a prize too!  Can't  beat that.

My First July Give-away Win

I have won two Give-aways this month - lucky me!!
The first one has arrived - it was from Sew Its Finished and is a charm pack.  Go here to get the info.

The second one won't be here for a bit - its coming from the USA.
How very exciting!!

PS:They say Good Things come in 3's . .  there's still time to win one more thing!!! Maybe Lotto??

Progress on SKOW

Friday night I cut more 1.5" squares for my SKOW - it seemed that I cut oodles of them.
Saturday (today) - I sewed oodles of 1.5" squares - but I still have oodles left!
But I have the sets of little squares joined to their big blocks and most of the rows put together.
I still have the sewing block to finish off - though its 2/3rd done and the joining strips to do.I am going to take off the last strip - after row 2 and use it up the other way in another place. I just can't live with the 2 pink stripes where they are now and its only sewn on one side so no biggie to 'reverse sew 61.5 inches'!!!

This photo is missing the butterflies but just use your imagination!

I'm really loving this quilt!

Sunday Sewing - Close Ups

I was asked for some close ups - I was able to grab a couple of pictures in the daylight - though unfortunately not as sunny as I would have liked.
Hope these help.

Its not quilted yet - someone else will be doing that and another person the binding.

Sunday Sewing

My Best Sewing Mate (I'm just going to call her BSM from now on) and I got together today for a mini - sewathon - or as we called it a "Retreat" warm up.  I sent the husband and daughter out for the day to watch AFL down the coast so we had the place to ourselves.
After a coffee we made a start and by the end of the day (6pm or so) the quilt top was all done.
It's to celebrate two things for one person and I don't really want to say much more at this stage... in case...

Fine Dining

I would not normally post photos of food here on my blog - but for a special occasion I am making an exception.

To celebrate the first anniversary of my daughter and SIL's wedding, we joined them and his parents at Baguettes (a well known French restaurant where they had their reception last year).  Its hard to believe its been 12 months!.

Here is my entrée - Baked Camembert

 My main - salmon - can never resist salmon if its on the menu

 and my dessert - rhubarb & pear crumble 

Great food - exceptional service and lots of happiness.

More SKOW blocks

I am well behind schedule in putting the rows together but have been steam rolling ahead in making the blocks - there is just one to go - the sewing block.
Here are my latest blocks: 
Simply gorgeous shoes - wish I could wear shoes like this:

 Butterflies - I really don't like them fluttering - much better when they are still.

 I did a pet dog for the pet cat - and a pet cat for the sunshine on my face  

 My chair block ..... 

  and birdsong - not just in the morning

Still got a lot of squares to sew together - fortunately I have a lot cut and a few strips which are also cut.

Sydney Craft Show - by proxy

I didnt go to the Sydney Craft Show and I'm really sorry I didnt - it would have been so much fun to join in the blog meet.
So, I gave my bestest sewing mate some $$$ and asked her to spend it - what friends do for you sometimes!
The only thing I specifically requested was Natalie Bird's new book - Red Home but mentioned that maybe something from Marg Low would be nice too since she does not come to the Brisbane Craft Show.
That sill left money over for some surprises.
Here is what she got for me:

As well as the Natalie Bird book (personally autographed!!) and 2 patterns from Marg Low she also got me a gorgeous fat quarter bundle and 2 extra pieces of fabric (mmm maybe to make the quilt in Red Home - but certainly pushing me outside my comfort zone - since I am usually a brights/ jewel tones girl), a piece of tape with ruler measurements on it, the gorgeous shopper bag and diary from Quiltmania, plus a few of their cards.  And a NSW Quilters Guild badge - to add to my collection on my Quilt Diva quilt.
A truly wonderful bunch of goodies and  a big thank you to my best friend.
And she is going to make up a DVD of all the pictures that she took of the quilts .  Along with all the blog posts I have read - it's almost as good as being there.

A Gift for a Friend

My bestest sewing mate moved into a new house "The Cottage" last weekend.  Its been a long drawn out process (the story of which doesn't belong here) but she's in and settled.
I couldn't let the event pass with out some sort of commemoration so I made her this:

Its a Natalie Bird design that was published Country Threads Volume 8 #6 (with a few changes made by me!).

A very belated post on the Blog Meet

Gosh - how bad was I?? Organised the whole thing and forgot the camera and had a flat phone.
So none of my pictures to show but a few links to where the others talked about it.
You can go over here to see the whole group - minus Fiona since she took the photo - where was the staff when we needed them??
and some other posts: (in no particular order as they say)
from Kayly and Michelle and Teresa and Helen / (two posts) and  Marilyn  and Noela and De
Lynda was there too - and has now posted here.
And a huge thanks to Mary for taking the time to make us all a present and a Lucky Door prize!!  
And also to Michelle for her surprise gift to each of us.
We had such a fun time - everyone just fitted in so well and we all got along as if we had been friends forever and  met up regularly.  Hopefully that will be the case, so keep the first Sunday in June 2013 free.
One of the main topics of conversation - apart from "Nundle" was the blog meet in Sydney during the Quilt Show.  So sad I am not going (Silly me)  Oh well another time.
A big thank you to everyone who came - it was so great to catch up.