Giveaway Time...

All I've managed to do this month is go on holidays...what a tough life I am having.

First a weekend at Kangaroo Valley

then a week in Tea Gardens, 

then a 3 night cruise from Sydney to the middle of the ocean and back again.

Australia Day on the Pacific Sun

It's a hard life watching the world sail by!
 I unreservedly take back almost every negative comment I had about going on a cruise.

Rainy start to the 3 day Cruise

Despite the wet weather of the first day...it's a load of fun...most likely becasuse I went with a truly amazing bunch of women, who are all sisters and sisters-in-law.

My Math is one of 11 children (3 girls and 8 boys), so there are 3 sisters and 8 sisters-in-law - we managed to have 8 of the 11 come on the cruise. What a happy, loving, riotously funny, giving and generous group of women.

The wide blue yonder!

Here's a question for all my Australian readers:

Can one have too much of a holiday?

Is it "un-Australian" to want to go back to work??

I've got a few more days to ponder those esoteric questions...

but now you've made it to the best part of this post...

GIVEAWAY TIME

I've made it to 300 posts and 104  followers so I thought I'd reward you all for your tolerance of this rambling blog and run a bit of a giveaway.

The prize will be a sewing kit made to your colour choice.
Here's an example of the ones made for SIT 2011

Also included will be a rainbow charm pack,
of quilt shop quality fabrics, with about 60
5" charm squares. I've been waking up early and cutting out squares,
while all the rest of the household is sleeping in.
It's very therapeutic to do something so practical and repetitive in utter peace and quiet.

some of the charm squares in the giveaway bundle

There are a lot of 'scrap busting' project around on the blogosphere to inspire you - should you be the lucky winner!

What you have to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post - you will have to be a follower - after all it is meant to reward those who stick with the inane as well as the interesting!!!!
2. Comments will close at MIDNIGHT (AustralianEasternDaylightTime) on Monday 20th February. Winner will be announced on Tuesday 21 February.

So there you have it! Good luck to all and...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

301...

I could be very boring and pragmatic and just number posts from now on, couldn't I?
No...you're right that's beyond boring...

Still enjoying a summer filled with the sound of tennis and cricket and doing...

a bit of this...
Finished the blocks for Sew & Bee Happy and they are winging their way to Cindy in Ireland as we speak...er...read!
You are going to get an overload of photos of both of them...I love them to bits!

 Except for the bit where I found I'd pieced the bird in the cage upside down...

 and I had to perform a little bit of surgery...

 But he's all good now!

This is the 301st post and I am just going to say that in the next post I promise I am putting up a giveaway.

I've been so lazy on holidays that I couldn't even manage to take a picture what I'm giving away....but it will involve a bunch scrap busting rainbow charm squares and a sewing kit like this...

SIT 2011 swap item

as the "goodies"

So next post...after I (somewhat reluctantly) go on a short 3 day cruise with 7 of my Sisters in Law (it's not them,  it's just I'm really not a cruise person), I'll make a proper giveaway post where you can put your name down and everything, like a proper blogger and all! See you in 3 days time! Thanks for being patient and...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

300

...no not the movie...or how many days it feels like I've been on holidays..
It's the number of blog posts I've blurted out over the last few years!

This calls for a celebration...of some sort...

But this post isn't just about a number...it's also about the lazy days of summer, where things get done at a very slow pace and the days turn into weeks without trying.

Since the market a little over a week ago, we've have been away for a few days up at Tea Gardens...a cute little hideaway on the mid north coast of NSW. The apartment looked over the river. Peaceful is an understatement.

...so laid back the kids are allowed to steer the ferry on the trip across to Nelson Bay

Spent time with my newest obsession...

The starfish is finished and the snail well on the way to being done. It's funny how these reduce even the most hardened adult to mushy squeezers and huggers of woollen toys! The are really, really, really cute!!
This book is brilliant...I've seen some mixed reviews, but as a novice/not very good knitter, I found the techniques really clearly explained...and I'm pretty chuffed with my new skills...

Of course I found a quilt shop...or two...
Blackpossum in Tea Gardens and  Belmont Patchwork Heart (just south of Newcastle)
I found a thing called "shrinky" which was new to me, but has apparently been around for a while. It feels like a nylon and after quilting it to your fabric, you carefully hold an iron above it and it 'melts' and pulls the fabric in along the sewing lines. I'm going to have a go at making a bag with these...the pattern in the shop looked great and after my success with amigurumi...I'm game to try any new technique (famous last words indeed!).

 I found a fence button and some other cute fabrics and a couple of patterns

 
 and there may or may not have been a secondhand bookshop with an old magazine...

...with the perfect idea for what I want to do with my charm squares from the rainbow swap...

Well that's a long enough catch up...
...so what am I going to do about my 300th post...well you'll have to come back for the 301st to find out!!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

This Little Piggy...

...went to Market, to...do a big de-stash!

I did it - I had the stall at the Stash and Treasure Recycler's Market to de-stash many excess metres of dressmaking fabric, lace, braid and doilies in cahoots with Marisew. We both came home with WAY less than we took.

HUGE thanks to Cherie and Justine for an amazingly well organised day, and a lovely crowd, both behind the stalls as well as those coming in to browse.

Here's a few shots of our table at the beginning of the day:

 This one closer to closing time and there is much more space on the table...There are a few things pictured that we didn't  come home with... For our first ever market experience, we were pretty happy.

I caught up with two bloggers and as always, it's great to put a face to the name...and they both managed to have some tempting items on their stalls...

...a bit of 2" patchwork magic... from Amy

and a special lot of hexagon charm packs...brought especially to tempt me by Joanne!!!

If you missed this one, don't despair....there will definitely be another one

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Seeing stars

I've been frustrated for the last few days trying to post to blogger.
It's made me a little bit cranky!
There is no response from the "blogger team". The help site is full of requests with the same 'bX' error ...whatever that is...with no useful answers  - a bit of "go to the old interface", oh that doesn't work, "go to the new interface", "change your browser"...it must be all the user's fault...couldn't possibly be a problem from their end...hissy fit over...

So I rebooted the computer and tried again...lucky for them it works and I don't have to go around to their house and...well let's not go there...

So apart form the 'stars' of anger...these are the other stars I'm working on for the Sew & Bee Happy Bee...

Hope that FluffySheepQuilting likes it!

Getting ready for the Stash and Treasure Recycler's Market on Saturday 14 January at Marrickville Town Hall.

One enormous suitcase full...and there's still more to go...

Vintage fabric anyone?

I found htis piece of fabric that has a "Nock and Kirby" label on it for 11/6 ..yep that's 11 shillings and sixpence...pre decimal material!!!

This one is 'sundeck linen' from a long-gone shop too!
Come along a find a few bargains and save me from my material overload...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Sew Scraps....

This may just be what I need to tame my sorry, jumbled, mess of fabric scraps.

Head on over to Pleasant Home, the host of Scrap Sew Along.

Every day of the week there will be scrap busting activity: 

Tuesdays and Thursdays - there will be lots of tutorials,

Wednesdays - a bit of bloggy inspiration,

Fridays and Saturdays - more ways to work with scraps

...it's ok you do get Sundays off!!!

and there are quite a few giveaways on Jodie's blog and also on any guest bloggers...bonus!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

#297!!

Reading...sewing...

The best thing about holiday: loads of sewing time...
The second best thing about holidays: loads of reading time...
Put them together...we're heading into Nirvana...

Our 6 children gave the Math and me a Kindle each for Christmas...I knew there was a reason we had so many...

...so I did a bit of sewing....

Some recycled denim and a hunt in the scrap bin...

The Math wanted his to sit to one side with a velcro closure...

(this was the prototype and is a little short to wrap around well)

 I wanted to have mine in the middle and a button close...

The finished items

(Warning: DO NOT look too closely at the fmq on mine...not a pretty sight!)

 I really like these and they cost me nothing just a few hours of time (lovingly spent!)

My friends and family know me pretty well...
a selection of reading material I received for Christmas and birthday...

If you can't find me for a while, you'll know why!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

post # 296

Blocks and Bees...

 The rushed end to 2011 got in the way of me finishing the November block for the Canton Village Bloggers BOM. ...Eeek.... I didn't want to get behind because I know it would be too easy to just let it go...Then the December block came out...gadzooks...two block behind..
Never fear, Summer holidays, hot day, airconditioned room, cricket on TV and at Marisew's place...the perfect sewing catch-up day...

November Block

December Block

 The first 4 month's blocks all done...

I think I might do two of each now to make a bigger quilt top, because, some how, quite a few more metres of Saffron Craig fabrics made it into my stash over Christmas...

ONLINE SEWING BEE

I've joined in with my very first online sewing bee - Sew & Bee Happy

FluffySheepQuilting is first off the mark in January, with a block from the Modern Blocks book (and I now have this book - thanks to my in-laws who have learnt to tolerate my obsession passion...)

 I was a bit scared when I first saw Stargazing and wondered if I could actually make something presentable and accurate enough to send off to someone else.

Cindy kindly told me not to worry, telling me to have a practice go and see how easy it really is

...so with nothing to lose and everything to gain,

and a very persuasive excuse to hide away in the sewing room, 

I cut up some scraps...

pieced the baby star...ok that's not so bad... 

 pieced the middle sized star...quite happy with this...

  and finally the Mumma star...block all done!

I had three little 'wrestles' with the unpicker...drats! 

Cindy, I almost made it through the whole block!

I did notice that I need to be careful trimming the block back and remembering to use the white block as the as the template for trimming, not the bits the star arms are made of...

I get to keep this one, but I'm a lot more confident that when Cindy's parcel arrives, I'll be able to knock out one or two of these little babies pretty quickly...
Since my turn isn't till August, I've plenty of time to work out what I should choose...I'm thinking I'll pick a block that would suit a quilt for the BaTH (Boy about The House)...in the mean time I've got a few more Bloggers BOM blocks to make...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...