Summer School

On Saturday I headed off bright and early to Melbourne to attend Summer School - a day organised by Karen from Mrs Martins Quilt Shop in conjunction with Max and Louise Pattern Company. What a day I had with lots of inspiration and great company -

Two of the beautiful designs we received patterns for on the day. Loved the table runner in the centre.

Some more gorgeous Max and Louise inspiration.

This is the pattern I chose to work on on the day.  It is nowhere up to this stage, but should be able to show you some progress soon. Karen from Mrs Martins had made me up a beautiful kit in reds and mustards.  I did get my little pointed star flowers paper pieced on the day.

 

Lovely Simone and Lorraine were on our table - here they are with Lisa, one of our tutors.

And my gorgeous friend Maria had bought me this delicious homemade everything lunch. Boy was I full, but it was amazing especially the potato pie.

And what a bonus having Barb from Theodora Cleave there with her gorgeous handmade/painted buttons. Of course I had to add her two new snowmen buttons to my collection. 

I "borrowed" these lovely photos from Mel's blog www.thehouseonthesideofthehill.blogspot.com but I did warn her that I might as she took lots more photos than I did and was my lovely sewing companion on the day.  Barb has lots more lovely photos on her blog too www.theodoracleave.blogspot.com.  Cheryl

Special Friends

I am very lucky to have made some very special friends through my love of sewing, blogging and swaps.  That is how I met my friend Karen from Qld - through a swap we did three years ago together, and even though we havn't met we just hit it off like we've always known each other. We are both mad about Christmas (and that can be said of some of my other friends lol), we love working with wool and felt, we love the same colors and designers.  Just about everything. Oh and to make it more scary we were born in the same year and our birthdays are two weeks apart.

So you can imagine my excitement when this parcel arrived about ten days ago from her - a gorgeous xmas parcel that she left til after xmas to post knowing I was busy, busy with work, swap commitments, etc.  Want to see how spoilt I was -

This gorgeous felt swag was the first thing I spotted.

Karen knows I love pincushions and snowmen - how sweet is this little handbag pincushion and I love the snowman hanger as well with his cute little wooden hat.

And there was more - these two gorgeous patterns to stitch. The gorgeous xmas one is in kit form with gorgeous fabric to stitch on and cute buttons, and I love the HugsnKisses one, which has a iron-on transfer, with lovely sayings - "live life", "believe", "keep your promises", "do your best", etc

And if that wasn't enough Karen had sent me this gorgeous advent calendar to sew AND a kit of yummy Nancy Halvorsen fabrics to sew it in. 

They are all still sitting on the couch beside me so I can have a play and drool some more til I can start on them.  Thankyou, thankyou dear friend for spoiling me.  I love my most gorgeous gifts and will treasure them.  And I love that we can be hundreds of miles apart and still have that bond of friendship.

Now off to do some packing. I have a week off as we are moving house (not far), so please don't tell my husband I'm blogging and dreaming of stitching lol and not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, Maybe I'll put the kettle on first. Cheryl

FNWF

On Friday night I joined in with Cheryll and the others stitching along in -

As I have joined in with Chooky's  Stitchalong of Anni Down's new quilt "Nature's' Journey" I decided to work on Anni's free Christmas stitchery that Chooky suggested we stitch for January until Anni's pattern was available.

I stitched this in CGT "Plum Pudding"

And because I thought it would be a good one for the present box, I've started another using DMC threads.  Cheryl

Swap Gifts I Made

Think I have shown all the beautiful swap gifts I received leading up to Christmas. I was very spoilt indeed by lovely friends.

Thought you might like to see what I had made/sent -

For Kerrie, my partner in Mrs Martin's My House, My Home swap for the Christmas gift I made her this Gail Pan wallhanging and also one of Michelle's cute star decorations.

And Barb and I have a one on one Christmas swap (seeing as we are both Christmasaholics) and have done so for the last three years. I made this little guy for Barb this year. 

I've pinched this picture from Barb as I didn 't take a photo of the other things I had sent her.  Love our one on one Christmas swap Barb and just adore the gifts you sent me. Look forward to this year's.

And talking of buddies - this was what I made for another buddy Shez - a tablerunner which is a Gail Pan design also.

And lastly my partner in the Friends Having Fun swap was the lovely Cheryll. This was a fun swap. We sent 12 items, with one to be opened each day for the 12 days leading up to xmas -

Days 1 - 3.

and Days 4, 5 and 6. The bon bon is an Anni Downs pattern.

Days 7, 8 and 9. Will be making more of the cute candlemat from FignBerry Creations.

Days 10 and 11 - mug rug, xmas mug and xmas fabrics.

And would you believe I can't find the photo of the main gift I sent to Cheryll to be opened on Christmas Day, so will have to show you that another time.

I have been stitching so back with some piccies of that soon. Cheryl

FHFS

Thought I would show you the last of the gorgeous gifts from Christine in in our Friends Having Fun swap.  This has been a fun swap and is one I will be continuing with this year -

I just LOVE this - Christine has made me a gorgeous little hanger with "Hello my name is Cheryl and I'm a snowmanaholic". Love it Christine.

I had often thought I would love to make myself this little hanging pillow and now I don't have to.

And this gorgeous wallhanging was the lovely one I opened on Christmas Day. I still have it hanging on my wall. Just my colors too Christine. thankyou so very much for being the most wonderful and generous partner.

Now in Chooky's Secret Santa I had forgotton to take a photo of the other lovely gift that I opened on Christmas Day along with my beautiful xmas table runner.  Lyn from New Zealand was my partner -

She had included this lovely sewing roll in lovely French General fabrics.  Lyn this will be perfect to keep handy with my current project.  Thankyou so very much for my gorgeous gift.

Now every Christmas my boss has given me a Settler Christmas bear for the 7 years I've worked for her, and this is this year's. Her name is Carol -

Isn't she lovely?

I have two old wash tubs that I've had painted and this is where they reside all year, rather than put them away.

 

43 degrees here today and terrible fires nearby, so lets hope the thunderstorms that are coming through bring some relief and not more fires from the lightning. Have a great weekend. Cheryl