FNSI is here...perfect for winter!

 Last month was my birthday month and I got spoilt rotten.  I found out our new neighbour has his birthday the same day as mine....only 32 years later (!!!!) so we took him out to lunch and then went to dinner with family.  He and his wife bought me a beautiful bunch of flowers which was very unexpected.  My boss called me into her office to talk 'serious' business.  I was honestly wondering what I had done wrong and going through a million different scenarios.  When I walked in, she unveiled a pair of perfectly gift-wrapped boxes and told me I could not open them until my actual birthday.    When I woke on my birthday, I headed straight for them as they had me intrigued.......inside were a pair of pearl earring and a pearl drop necklace, signifying 60 years!   So much thought put into it...and I haven't taken them off since!

I caught up with my best friend, Dianne and although our visit was quick, we always pack so much into such a short time.  She gave me such beautiful and thoughtful gifts....no stitching ones but ones just for me!   I love my snuggly and my warm socks.....perfect timing!    I caught up with Shez too and we went to lunch and had a 'girls day', shopping and just chatting.  The day flew by so quickly.  So many visits, phone calls and messages and lots of scratch-its....a few wins but put it this way, I'll still be going back to work! lol  Despite that, I am truly feeling blessed beyond measure!

I have been feverishly working on completing my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt and I can confirm I have finished the top this morning!   All Tilda fabric provided by Lucy Boston Club – Kitty Rose Cottage and I must say, I LOVE it!    If you've thought you'd like to start one but don't feel confident picking colours for all the blocks, I highly recommend letting Kitty Rose organise the hard work for you.

I love the colours all put together and how each one pops .  The pink Grunge fabric in the sashing really frames the blocks beautifully.  I couldn't be happier.  Now I just need to sandwich it and figure out how I want to quilt it....any suggestions gratefully accepted!  

I also finished the Tilly Tote Bag for a swap gift.  Here is mine that winged its way to it's recipient who has a love of pink, blue and teal....I hope I made one that fits the brief.

and here's the one I received in the swap....just gorgeous, don't you think?

Even personalised with a 'W' on the pot!  and the scrunched flower is just beautiful.  Some gorgeous swap gifts arrived with it too.. feeling very special. 

This Friday is our June FNSI - our first winter one in the southern hemisphere and our first summer one for those in the northern sector!    Even here in Tropical North Queensland, we've been hit with Mr Frosty with nightly minimums down in the single digits (but only for a few days!)  We're back up to minimums of 15-17 degrees C and daily temps of about 25-27 degrees C.  Still chilly for us but definitely nothing to complain about.  We managed to even cook up a nice warm beef stew one night and soup was also on the menu.  I even got out my fluffy slippers and my sewing buddies decided they'd help warm me up whilst I was stitching too!

Now I've finished this, I'm thinking Friday night might be catch up time for my Temperature Cross Stitch Tree.  Now it's getting cooler, I might be seeing some different colours come through which will be nice!   What will you be doing?  Any plans yet?  I can't wait to see what you are working on whilst we all sttich along together.  I get loads of inspiration from you all....my 'to-do' list is getting longer and longer!

Make sure you either sign up below, or sign up on our Facebook Group page.  If you've never joined in before or if you know someone who would love to join us, please invite them along.  The more, the merrier!  And who knows, you might get drawn out as the winner of our random monthly prize draw, proudly sponsored by our wonderful sponsor, Dawn Hay of Kitty Rose Cottage.  Pop by and have a look at some of the goodies she has in store.  There are definitely some beauties there.

Last month we had 29 ladies join us for our May FNSI.  There was so much happening.  I put the names into our Random Name Picker and spun that wheel like there was no tomorrow......

Congratulations to Jeanette Graham!!!!  Yippee!!!!  Dawn will be in touch to organise your prize.  Thank you to everyone for joining in.  I really hope you have as much fun as I do.

In the meantime, don't forget to sign up.  Have a great rest of the week and see you Friday night!

Big sugary hugs xox :o)

Four lucky winners today for our FNSI/EWSI.....are you one of them?

How was your Easter break?  Did you manage to squeeze in some Easter traditions,....some yummy hot cross buns and of course, chocolate over our stitching weekend?  Did you manage to get away for a well deserved break or like me, did you just relax at home soaking up the peace and reflecting on the reason for Easter?

I love being able to just stop and breathe, without having 'hundreds' of jobs to be done before I start the rat race all over again.  But that would be the same as all of you, wouldn't it?  I do love to be busy;  working gives me purpose and makes me feel satisfied but there's nothing like stopping every now and then for some well deserved calmness just to reset the mind and body.

And that's what our stitching weekend did for me....I hope it had the same effect for you?

Before I show you what I got up to, I have to draw winners for February and March. 

Our wonderful and generous sponsor, Dawn of Kitty Rose Cottage has been waiting patiently for me to get my act into gear so she can post these beautiful prizes out, soooooooo, no mucking about here.......you've waited long enough for these......here goes:

Ta da Ta daaaaaah....

From the 32 stitchers who joined with us in February, either in our Facebook Group page or in  blogs, Our February Winner was drawn and she is..........

    DIANNE MARCHESINI......congratulations lovely!  

I'm sure you'll love the special treat Dawn has in store for you.

Now for our March winner............drumroll please............26 joined with us in March but we could only draw one..........

    congratulations to PINK ROSE!  

 Another fabulous winner who will get to enjoy a lovely prize from our awesome sponsor!

I was keen to put my Birdhouse 'Heartstrings' quilt together but only got as far as handpiecing and stitching the centre panel, but I'm quite happy with that.

I love all things designed by Natalie Bird....she's an amazing Aussie designer and this one really caught my eye.  I've been using my Tilda "Windy Days" fabric range for the EPP and even though I hadn't been organised enough before I started to think of what threads I should use to match the range, it still works beautifully.

I used my Sewline fabric marker to draw the grid lines for placement of my dresdens.  I've never had much luck with the blue water markers...they always seem to  're-appear' for me, but the Sewline markers are made especially for fabric and work a treat, especially when you use the Sewline eraser pen which just makes the lines disappear before your very eyes! 

I did get the inner border stitcheries cut to size and their sashings but haven't yet stitched them together, my 'helper', Mocha was interested to see what I was up to so I never got as much done as I'd planned, sooo...that's a job for the next long weekend which is coming up in .....two days!!  Aren't we lucky here in Australia with all these holidays one weekend after the other?  Although I won't be taking it for granted as it's a very important public holiday, celebrating our Anzacs who fought for our freedom.

Now it's time for our special EWSI draw....I did promise there would be two lucky winners....one who will receive a fantastic prize from Dawn and another who will receive a special gift from 'moi', just to say thank you for putting up with my lacksy-daisy organisation of our get-togethers....I do get there but life often gets in the way! 

I don't know what Dawn has up her sleeve for a first prize but my supplementary prize for someone special is this....

one of Natalie Bird's Birdhouse patterns, the 'Blooming Lovely' pincushion and some scrappy Tilda fabric to make it!  'squeeee'.....The picture is just indicative of what you might get in the way of fabrics but I'll put some together so that you can make the gorgeous pincushion ...and I might even find some threads to throw in too so you can stitch the design without having to wait! Isn't that exciting???

Let's just see who our two lucky winners are....the coveted First prize from Kitty Rose Cottage goes to......

HELEN McCULLOCH........wheeeee! 

 Congratulations Miss Helen!

And the supplementary prize provided by me goes to .....

ANORINA MORRIS.......woohoooo!!! 

Congratulations to you too Miss A!   

And a special thank you to all of you for joining in.....you don't know how much pleasure it gives me being able to stitch along with you all.   Being in a remote-ish, rural area in far North Queensland away from many of my stitching pals, there isn't much opportunity to join in with others so I'm grateful to you all, every single month.....THANK YOU! mwah!  (If only I could give everyone a prize!!!)

have a wonderful week, or what's left of it and from me to you,

Big Sugary Hugs always xox :o)

TWO winners for FNSI

Thanks to all who offered their condolences, sympathies, love and hugs on the passing of my father (in-law).  I truly feel blessed to have a virtual family I can turn to when times get tough and I always know you'll all be there for me......the quilting family really is a unique one, don't you agree?  Love and hugs to you all.....only wish I could reach through the screen and give you big sugary hugs for real.  It really has meant the world to me.

Now, I was planning to post what I did on my FNSI,  BUT.....just my luck, I came down with a head cold - again!  The last time, not so long ago, it was one of the Influenza strains and it hit pretty hard....but this time, it was just a stubborn head cold.

Nothing pleasant about it though, blocked sinuses, ear canals and drippy, sneezy nasal passages don't make it any easier.  So I've mostly stayed home and slept and drank plenty of fluids, trying really hard not to rub my nose red raw (but we all know that doesn't work when you've got a cold!) and spread the lurgy.  So both Saturday afternoon, Sunday and yesterday, when I was going to post, I sat down at the computer and my head said ,"Nope!  Sleep!" so I went and rested a bit.  I'm feeling a fair bit better today, still congested but not as sleepy so I'd say I'm over the uphill battle and on the downhill stretch.

I did manage to get some stitching done on Friday night though.....

A bit more of this UFO  was stitched down.  Now just the windows and doors and stitching the details.....oooh, and the flower bouquet along the bottom to go.
….and then there was a bit more stitching on THIS project.....

Block 6 is nearly complete and only 3 left till I can put this baby together.  With Christmas only 3 months away (today!) *eek*, I'd better get a wriggle on.

I hope you had time to pop over to my last post and visit all my Friday Night stitching friends via their links?  If not, head back and have a look.....some beautiful eye candy there.

Time for a winner to be drawn...in fact, TWO winners.  One from last month and one from this month. Each will receive one of these beauties.....

…..a pack containing 8 gorgeous colours of Cosmo stranded cottons and a piece of beautiful white linen onto which you can stitch whatever your heart desires.  I've stitched on it, it stitches like a knife through butter...the needle just glides through.  I'm sure our winners will love these!

Here goes.....
Our August winner was

Vicki

and our September winner is

Illene

\o/ \o/ Congratulations to both of you!! \o/ \o/

I'll get those prizes off into the mail so you can start your stitchy projects for next month.

Speaking of which - FNSI for October will be on the 19th.  Pop that date in your diaries so you don't miss out.  It will be upcoming Halloween for our Northern friends.  I'm sure there'll be some spooky stitching happening next month - can't wait to see!

Until then, happy stitching and big sugary hugs  :o) 

xox

June FNSI wins

 I've been winning this month with the things I accomplished during FNSI.  

 

I was able to spend Friday, all day, on my projects and my plan was to get as much of my Nikki Tervo "Plates" flimsy done. 

 

I DID get the top finished and I am liking how it's coming together. 

 

  

I moved onto a stitchery I've been working on - Simple Joys by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse   Such a cute stitchery and I love the Theadora Cleave button too. 

 

   

 

By early evening, I took a break for dinner and enjoyed a little tipple of chocolate port...a very special gift from my brother and sister in law.....am I THAT easy to read? *cheeky grin* 

 

 

 

I finished off the night with a quick project - my Anni Downs/Hatched and Patched SEW Project Pouch   I had a kit for this and thought I'd get it started, not realising how super-fast this project really was!   Isn't the fabric adorable? 

    

I was sewing on the binding towards the latter end of the night, finishing it completely.  

It was a marathon FNSI for me and it felt like I just couldn't lose!  Everything was just going perfectly..... and I had a number of things I planned come to fruition.  This month I'm sure to see more than one OPAM finish which is a rarity for me!  How about you?  How did you go?  Have you had a chance to pop back to THIS last post to check what other FNSIers made?   There's loads of inspiration there amongst great friends.  

Having such a winning FNSI inspired this month's prize ..... 

 

 

....this wonderful book by Patrick Lose - a gifted and talented quilter who is definitely a winner in my books.  He may be Lose by name but never by nature!    So who is our winner this month you ask? 

Min: Max: 

Result:

7Powered by RANDOM.ORG

  

CONGRATULATIONS 

PEG 

You are our lucky winner drawn out by Mr RNG this month. I hope you enjoy your prize! 

Xox sugary hugs :o)