April 24, 2011

A wonderful day!

It's Easter Sunday here - a wonderful day!  We celebrate every day the fact that Jesus is alive, but somehow Easter Sunday is extra special.  We're off to church soon and I have the privilege of playing the organ for the service.

It's also a wonderful day too because we have one of our granddaughters with us.  Anita surprised us on Friday with a phone call asking could she come and stay for a few days. It's five years since we last saw her (she lives in Japan, has been studying in Brazil, and this year is studying in Australia). We have a lot of catching up to do!

There's been a little bit of sewing done. As I've mentioned before, I love making projects for children and another wall-hanging is now complete. It's a wall-hanging with a twist - but a sneak peak or two will have to do as it will be off to a magazine soon.




I had in mind some bright colours when I went looking in the stash for fabric for this project, not something I have a lot of, but there in the cupboard was a box of fat quarters that our daughter had given me for Christmas and the bright colours were just perfect for the design.


My "Fun and Fruity" mug rugs are in this month's edition of the fabulous Australian magazine, Country Threads.  


And here they are on the editorial page:


I never lose the excitement of seeing my designs in print! 

I better go and get organised to go out!  I hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday too!

Val

April 21, 2011

Easter wishes


I hope you have a beautiful Easter


 and have time to think about the real reason for the holiday.

God is Love!

Val

April 17, 2011

Free Pattern - Consider the Lilies Pattern 4


It's time again -
time to give you the next pattern in the free BOM "Consider the Lilies". 

In block 1 we were thinking about the lilies of the field. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers, of course He will care for us. Now we are starting on Block 2, and are looking at the birds.  

Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
Matthew 6:26

So, here is pattern 4:


a little stitchery surrounded by splashes of colour.

 
Go here to download this pattern (and the three from Block 1 are still there also).


Now is probably a good time to tell you about another passion I have and that is photographing birds.  My husband and I are avid birdwatchers, so this verse about the birds is a special one for me.  We are constantly amazed at the beauty, diversity, detail and habits of the birds that we see and I am always trying to capture some of that with the camera.


 A gorgeous musk lorikeet.  We have absolutely amazing parrots in Australia.



 A sweet little rufous fantail - happy to grab the insects that we stir up as we walk through his bush.


 A Rainbow bee-eater having just caught his breakfast.



It's always a good day when we see a Golden Whistler.


A Jabiru - Australia's only stork.


A delightful Eastern Yellow Robin - we always love to find a Robin, no matter what the colour.

After all my birthday celebrations last weekend, and having two grandchildren here for the week, we decided to have a very quiet day for our 45th Wedding Anniversary yesterday.  God has blessed me with a wonderful husband and we have had an amazing 45 years of adventure!  We were happy just to potter around the house enjoying each other's company ... with some dark chocolate for a treat!

The sewing machine has been packed away for 9 or 10 days but now it's open again and I'm working on a quick Christmas project.  I had two projects commissioned this week, another published, magazine instructions to proofread, and now more instructions to write, samples to make and templates to refine.  Sometimes I have to spend twice as much time on the computer as on the sewing machine!

I hope you have an inspiring week with plenty of sewing time.

Happy stitching!
Val

April 10, 2011

A Winner!

We have a winner for my giveaway! The Random generator chose number 9 - Heather!

Heather wrote: I love all of your projects, and have admired them in the 'Garden party' fabrics. I would LOVE to win this !! Thanks for the free pattern, the thread catcher is one I'll make..Best wishes, Heather

Heather, as you're a "No reply" commenter, I can't contact you, so please e-mail me to let me know your snail mail address, so I can post the parcel of goodies off to you. (You have until 13 April to make contact.)

Thank you to everyone who entered.  It was a fun week reading all the lovely comments. And welcome to some new followers too.  I might have to start thinking about another giveaway, now that I'm on the way toward 400 followers!

Now for a look at that piece of silk! 

I'm very pleased at how this little project turned out - sweet elegance with a touch of class is how I would describe it! 


 It will be off to a Australian Country Craft & Decorating magazine shortly, so a sneak peak will have to do for the moment.


Handmade magazine has a bag issue out this month and my little girl's Flutter-by bag is in there:




I want to thank all the lovely people who sent birthday wishes.  I had a fabulous day with people I love around me. My husband gave me a gorgeous embroidery book - think he knows me after 45 years of marriage!  Our daughter and her husband, our son and his wife, plus seven of our grandchildren all came to visit.  We shared a great party tea with all the food I love and which I don't normally have (because most of it is bad for me!!!)

This week we have two of our grandchildren staying with us during school holidays - two boys 10 and 8.  There won't be much sewing done, but we plan at least one fishing trip which will be a first for them!  Can imagine we'll spend a bit of time untangling lines!

Hope you have a great week.

Happy stitching
Val

April 3, 2011

A Giveaway ... and a free pattern

Remember all those little sewing bits and bobs that I made last week when I was sidetracked?  You now have an opportunity to win them!

I am quite overwhelmed to think that people actually like reading all my blog ramblings, so to celebrate reaching 300 followers, I am giving away this little parcel of goodies:


Along with the threadcatcher, pincushion, needlecase, scissor pillow and sewing pouch is a little pack of 30 charm squares from the Garden Party range.



The rules are simple. This is a giveaway just for followers of my blog - anywhere in the world.  So if you are a follower, (or become one in the next week!) you may enter the giveaway by leaving a comment at the end of this post.  The giveaway closes at midnight (Australian time) Saturday 9 April (hey, that's my birthday!) and I plan to announce the winner next Sunday.

.............................................

Seeing there's been a little bit of interest in my threadcatcher design, I have produced a free pattern, along with photographic steps, so you can make your own. You might want to wait to make one until after the giveaway in case you win one!!!, but it would make a great gift for a sewing friend, don't you think?  They are very quick to make.

Click on the photo to be taken to the download area on my website.
If you make one, remember I would love to see a photo.

Birgit in Germany kindly sent a photo of the appliques that she used from the Gifts of Grace quilt.  It's great how each quilter's personality shows through in their individual quilts, don't you think?  Lovely job, Birgit.


Next week I plan to show you a sneak peak at what I did when I got back on track with my piece of silk. It was mostly one of my 'night-time jobs', as it has lots of embroidery, so for some 'daytime' sewing I whipped up a breakfast cloth for our table, using left over bits from my Garden Party fabrics.

That's now 12 projects I have made from the fabric I bought from that range - but more about that another time.

Have a great week.
Regards, Val