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)

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)

 

A Heartfelt Freebie for FNSI-ers

A sneaky peek it is......
here is your freebie design I'll be sending you (as soon as I write the pattern this morning).

Inspired by all the horror happening in the world at the moment, I penned a sweet design called "Share the Love", featuring Natalie Bird's of the Birdhouse new fabric range - "Heart and Home"....suits it perfectly don't you think?

I'll be sending it out to all those who have linked up to join in with us for FNSI this evening.  

If you don't have a blog, that's ok, link up your Facebook page, or your Instagram so we can all come and join in on the fun.  It's always a blast!

Link up details are here, so pop back and join in....you'll enjoy it, I promise!

See you there,

xox sugary hugs :o)

Hearts a-flutter.....

Wow....time flies so they say, and boy, they weren't kidding!

I have been working studiously on my APQ UFO challenge this past week, trying to get it finished in time for the end of February, but even with an extra day thrown in, I didn't quite make it!

Once I'd put it all together, I noticed I needed 3 more blocks, so I appliqued a heart on the bottom corner block, and drew two other blocks up to match....one a snow hearts label and one other snowheart.

But once I've finished those two stitcheries, I might add a couple of borders on, then it's time to quilt.....so much further along than I was at the beginning of the month, so even though I'm not finished completely, I'm entirely happy with where I'm at with it. (you'll notice, the date on the label???.....2011......so this has been resting for a looooong time!)

I've also made a start on my 2016 Homespun BOM, a design by one of my favourite designers, Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse....another great Aussie designer. (Queenslander!)  This one's called "Foxley Village and with it, I'm rediscovering my love for needleturn (and Tilda *swoon*)

It's funny, I don't know about you, but needleturn was one of those techniques that never really 'grabbed' me....that was a style that 'other' quilters used, not me!  But over the course of the past year or two, the slow stitching and 'preciseness' of it all has really drawn me to it...need I say it makes my heart flutter?   Have you found there's one style you swore off for life, only to find it's one of your favourites now?  I can't say it's my absolute favourite, I love all kinds, needleturn, raw edge, hand applique, machine applique, not to mention piecing and stitchery....I just love it ALL!

And I've made a start on the Splendid Sampler....are you doing it too?  It's hosted by Pat Sloan and our very own Jane Shallala-Davidson and incorporates 100 blocks from over 80 designers from around the world...I'm sure you'd have heard of it?  There's over 16000 people signed up to participate and well, I'm just a little slow off the mark.....there's two blocks per week and I've started with number 3 block and that's all I've done so far....we're up to number 5!  Ho hum....nothing like starting behind the 8-ball!   So here's my progress....

with all the tools I really,  reeeeeeally needed to make this block!  

Needless to say, I didn't have any complete finishes for OPAM for February, however I'm sure March is going to be a whopper!

xox Sugary hugs :o)

February FNWF Finish and a reminder

Last night was our Friday Night get-together with our ‘virtual’ friends over at Cheryll’s place and I must admit, I started pretty early.  My plan this week was to finish the Christmas Blessings quilt so I could post it away and I was doing well, until I had to practice some ‘reverse stitching’ due to some hasty and somewhat cocky progress. (happens to all of us, doesn’t it?)

So Friday morning was sandwiching, pinning and quilting and I got to sewing the binding on just after lunch.

It’s always so satisfying sewing that last bit of binding down, don’t you think?  Always gives me a real sense of achievement (now why then, can’t I apply this ‘knowledge’ to my huge long list of UFOs I wonder?)

This was also my January challenge on my list for the APQ 2015 UFO Challenge I mentioned in this post  so I can tick this one off  …. even if it was a week overdue, AND add it to my OPAM list for Jan/Feb!  Double whammy!

It is now in the safe hands of Australia Post, winging its way to  Natalie at The Birdhouse to live its life out as a shop sample.  I’ve had a few people interested in purchasing the pattern.  I suggest you Google ‘Christmas Blessings by Natalie Bird’, and you will get a few stores who stock them, then you can choose where you’d like to purchase it from. The ones I have seen are all really reputable and wonderful to purchase from (and yes, I have had experience with them all – shhhhh,  don’t tell hubby!)

I then went on to stitching up some more of this gorgeous design of Jenny’s for her Stitchery Club Swap. 

A little more to go and then I can make it into something I hope someone will love!

So that’s what I got up to…..come with me and visit all my friends and see what they got up to last night.  Thanks Cheryll….it’s always terrific fun spending Friday nights with you. *mwah*

And before I forget, drop back here and leave me a comment and you’ll be entered into the draw to win two of my patterns in the Grow Your Blog 2015 Blog Hop.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Big sugary hugs xox   :o)