A Special Friend

Well the delivery man arrived last week with THE most wonderful parcel.  Christmas gifts from my gorgeous friend Karen.  Funny but several of my friends have a love for all things Christmas, and Karen and I certainly do, so was so excited to open her parcel. To say I was blown away was an understatement -

Such a gorgeous xmas tea towel and Karen knitted the snowball decoration herself, clever chooky. Wish you could smell those soaps - divine.

And look at this amazing tree mat, stitched in beautiful wool felt and such tiny pieces. I love it.

And loved too this most gorgeous stocking - made in beautiful wools, which we both love working with.  Love the shape of it - see photo further on.

Told you I was spoilt -love  this gorgeous redwork stitchery with cute handpainted buttons framed in a hoop.  And Karen knows I love pincushions, so cross stitched this gorgeous one for me "And Sew Happy Christmas".

Isn't the little hanger gorgeous also in beautiful wool felt.  Now it did have some choccies and candy canes in there - didnt' quite make it for the photo - but eagerly devoured by yours truly and two granddaughters.  It looks beautiful hanging off my dresser.

And this is amazing - just beautiful.  In gorgeous wools with my favourite little snowman on it.  Such beautiful work. Just love it Karen.  Spoilt beyond belief.  Thankyou gorgeous friend.

Had a visit to my favourite Christmas shop yesterday at Maldon. This is one very small corner.

All the beautiful trees.  Will show you my purchases next post, along with some more of my lovely FHFS gifts. Cheryl

FHFS and No Fuss Christmas Swap

I am part of the Friends Having Fun Swap. Our Christmas swap was 12 items, one to be opened each day leading up to Christmas.  Santa Shez was my secret partner.  Such fun to open a parcel every day.  This is what I've been spoilt with so far -

Day 1 was a cute little felt gingerbread man kit.

Day 2 was this wonderful Christmas cooking parcel - two great Women's Weekly cookbooks, some cute little xmas spatulas and a xmas tree cookie cutter.
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And Day 3 - loved this cute little snowy/Santa tealight candle holder.

 

Thankyou so much Shez - am loving opening a wonderful parcel each morning.

 

I also joined in the  No Fuss Swappers Christmas Swap.  I received my lovely parcel from Anthea -

 

Anthea made me a very cute mug rug with lovely hexagons, and included a very cute Christmas mug, a lovely Christmas fat quarter and two Christmas tealights.  A wonderful parcel so thankyou Anthea for your great parcel.

 

I had Sandi as my partner and this is what I sent to her -

 

The mug rug I made using a Gail Pan design and added this cute Twigseeds Christmas mug.  It was wrapped in a Christmas Fat quarter - not sure why I forgot to take a photo of that -  and I added some xmas munchies.  Hope you enjoyed your parcel Sandi.  Was a fun swap - I do enjoy doing their little swaps. 

 

Lots more to show you so back soon. Cheryl

Christmas is Coming

Such a lovely time - Christmas. Fun swaps, gifts from special friends, so time to share some -

This was a VERY special gift from a very special friend - the most beautiful advent calendar. Isn't it amazing.

And the bottom half.  Made using a 24 hole muffin tin and so beautifully decorated. I just keep seeing more gorgeous little treasures in it.  Something I will treasure always.

My SSCS gift all the way to Belgium to Martine.  She has opened her xmas decorations so I can show you what I made for her.  Now to wait til Christmas Day for the next part of this swap. 

We do a Kris Kringle gift for a work colleague. This is what I made for mine - a Hugs and Kisses table centre called "Give Thanks"

And my gorgeous friend Karen received her xmas gift from me today, so I can show you what I made for her. She loves Christmas as much as I do.  Loved this cute little Ho Ho, Ho design.

And of course we can never have too many decorations. 

Well today was the day we could open our No Fuss swap gifts and tomorrow is the first of our Friends Having Fun swap gifts - one each day til xmas day, so will be back to show you my goodies soon. Cheryl

SSCS

A very exciting parcel was waiting for me on my doorstep yesterday all the way from New Zealand. How exciting!!!  It was my parcel from my partner in Chooky's Secret Santa swap - no name to give me a hint, so I will have to wait til Christmas Day.  However we were allowed to open the decoration, which I did post haste -

How beautiful is she - just love her.

She's hanging already on my stand that houses my village so I can see her from all angles.  Thankyou so much to my secret partner - what a beautiful sewer you are. She is just gorgeous and perfect for me. Love it. Cheryl

Catch Up

Well lots of secret sewing happening so no sewing to show for this post.  But I did have a wonderful day off last week and hopped on the train to Melbourne for the day.  What fun we had -

First stop - Myer window.  Just gorgeous. A lovely story about  xmas eve at Luna Park.

Lots of detail and reminded me of my childhood.  It was gorgeous, but I did miss the fact that there was not a Christmas thing in sight.

 

Lots of shopping followed including a visit to the gorgeous l'ucellos.  I was pretty good lol - a lovely piece of French General fabric and some vintage buttons.  Not so good in the chocolate shops lol. to my defence I will save them for Christmas.

 

 

And to finish our day - high tea at the Langham. Divine.  This was just the sweets.  The best part of course.  But the sandwiches, plain and date scones that preceded were delicious as well.  Cheryl

My Saturday

Off to Melbourne last Saturday for another lovely workshop "Stitched in Time" with Gail Pan and Ramona Hermann. And it was Christmas, so you all know it's my favourite stitching. 

These were our gorgeous projects - Santa sack and xmas sign from Ramona (at the back) and an assortment of xmas bags and little hangers from Gail - loved them all.

Here's Gail showing Carol's gorgeous jester bags (Ramona's pattern).  I am lucky Carol made me a lovely one of these in cute snowman fabric last year. 

Barb and Shez hard at work.

Had a lovely little raffle win - a very cute tin and little bird to hang on my xmas tree.

And a purchase or two. Couldn't resist a new release xmas pattern from Gail  (complete with fabric to make it) and some fat quarters of her new fabric.

Loved Gail's gorgeous redwork quilt.

More of Carol's lovely show and tell.  This was one of Gail's lovely patterns also - a Christmas quilt and I should have taken more notice of the name of it.

Well not many photos this time.  Maybe too much talking lol.  Certainly not a lot of stitching was done. Cheryl

My Week

Well another week has flown by. In fact it could be two since I posted.  I blame it on this time of year lol. 

Stitching wise I have been making some little critters.  We received this lovely pattern from Leanne of Petals and Patches at the class in Warracknabeal I attended  -

"Mrs Flutterby's Pincushion" is actually a pincushion  atop a screw top jar, but I thought it would make lovely Christmas decorations (you know me - one track mind).

A bit addictive. I could stop at one.

 

I took them into work to see how they would look on the tree.  Think they will do just nicely.  Can see more of these happening.

 

 

We had a lovely weekend with my gorgeous friend Michelle and her hubby who were down from Queensland. 

 

 

We went to visit some locals among other things.  Had the best time but it went all too quickly.

She spoilt me with this gorgeous gift.  Some yummy fabric (Christmas of course), the cutest snowman ribbon in a lovely tin.

I can see a new collection happening - cute little tins.    Cheryl