Winners!!

It took a while to work out how to draw a random number while separating out the locals from the non-locals so here's what I did:

I typed out all the names in 3 separate sections.
Hang on ..... 3 sections? Why 3 sections?
Well because I had:

• One for Aussie entries
• One for international entries
• One for the entries who left no way of contacting them. Seriously people, leave an email address or access to your profile in Blogger or SOMETHING!!!!

Anyway, I popped all the local entries into my divine new hat from Mary:

And drew out:

Claire, who said:

Any colour of that voile is good voile - it feels so beautiful! I love the whole line.
Thanks for adding me to the draw!

I was lucky enough to meet Claire at Sew It Together and I'm so pleased to send her the signed book and a yard of the voile.

Then I added in all the other international entries and pulled out:

Another local girl who just happens to be in my quilting bee, The Beehive.
(I swear this was NOT rigged, despite appearances to the contrary).

Belinda said:

Wow Andi..great giveaway. I adore that voile. The book looks pretty spesh too. They would both be great to win!!

Well, a yard of the voile will be heading your way!!

Thanks everyone for joining in the giveaway. It was especially nice to see some lurkers come out of the woodwork to throw their names into the hat.

I do love 'meeting' and getting to know the people who read my blog.
That's kinda why I do it. You know?


Have a great week.

Andi :-)

Gifts

Lots of gifts made by me recently:

Bunting to match Jonah's quilt:

Another softie using one of Karen's panels, this time for little Roni:

A soft wrap for a new baby born today (inspired by a beautiful soft wrap I spied around this delicious little person):

A bag made for a little girl turning 5. She's having a 'Baking Party':

And that same little girl's mum has a birthday in the same week and always misses out on celebrating her birthday so I made her a luscious soft scarf using my latest favourite fabrics:

And to top it all off, I received a thankyou note from Tina for her PIF gift.
It is a beautifully handmade fabric postcard:

Handmade gifts are always the best.

Don't you think?


Andi :-)

Mary Mary Extraordinary

The greatest thing about craft blogging (I know I've said it many times before but I MUST say it again) is the lovely friends I've made.

One of those friends is Mary.

She's one of these people who can sew, knit, crochet, spin and dye her own yarn, spin straw into gold, etc, etc.

A while back, she made herself this gorgeous skirt .... no pattern ..... and with a small child sitting in her lap to boot!!

So I  asked to try it on one night at Perle 8's.
It fit me perfectly so Mary said she would help me make one for myself and give me a lesson in using an overlocker (serger).

Next thing I knew (well ... a couple of weeks later) I was learning about cutting out pattern pieces and sewing them together to make this:

Of course, I couldn't resist adding a bit of embellishment:

I also asked Mary if I could commission her to make me a winter hat.
We spent a lovely shopping trip together last week to select some yarn.
And look what she gave me at this week's Perle 8's ...

Thanks Mary.
You're ACE!!!!



PS Thanks to everyone who left such supportive comments on my last post. 
You guys are the best!!!

Parenting by surprise

Yesterday was a curriculum day at Jake's school so he, Ella and I had a lazy day at home.
We watched a little TV, baked a cake, played games and went to the park.
A lovely day.

At the park was another little boy from Jake's school and a couple of other boys I didn't know. They made a game of playing 'run away from Jake' while Jake desperately tried catching up to them to join in with their play.

I watched on ... helpless. Unable to make it better for my sweet little boy.
I wanted to take those nasty kids and give them a shake and yell "Why are you so fucking mean?" but all I could do was wait for Jake to return, tearful, put my arm around him, tell him I loved him and that he didn't need those mean kids anyway!!

His response to this took me by surprise. He was angry with me for calling those other boys 'mean'.
He said that it wasn't their fault as they were only responding to the decree of "thou shalt not play with Jake" made by another even nastier bully child at school.
Jake wanted to give them another chance to be friends and didn't appreciate my calling them names.

My sweet, kind, surprising child.

Later in the afternoon, Jake completely destroyed me in a game of Monopoly and then gently took my face in his hands and said "Don't worry Mummy, next time we play Monopoly, I'll play easier on you".

Love.

Oops-a-daisy GIVEAWAY!!!

I mentioned recently (while declaring my love for the land of blog) that there might be a bit of a giveaway coming up at Patch Andi ... Well today is the day!!

A while back, I purchased some divine Little Folks voiles from Corie at Banberry Place.
I suspect that Corie was having a minor 'moment' when she sent me a yard of this fabric (which I already had in my stash):

Instead of this fabric (that I had ordered):

In fact, she was so keen to add to my pink fabric stash, that she sent it to me ... twice!

Oops-a-daisy!!

So I now have 2 yards surplus pink fabric for which Corie has kindly agreed to sponsor a giveaway!!!

Hooray for Banberry Place!!!

And hooray for Kathreen, author of Whip Up-Mini Quilts who has also generously donated a copy of her book to give away too!!

A signed copy!!

Kate has written a great review of the book over here for your reading pleasure.

So, I will offer 2 prizes:

1. A copy of Kathreen's book plus 1 yard of the pink voile (Sorry, Australian residents only. The overseas postage is a killer.)
2. 1 yard of the voile (All entries welcome)

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post.
No hoops to jump through.
One chance per person.
Please make sure you let me know where you are in the world and how I can contact you.

I will draw a winner Monday morning (Melbourne time).

Thanks again to Corie and Kathreen.


Andi :-)

On my design floor today

Andi :-)

A post of MORE belated 'thank you's

Further to this post ..... I have even more belated messages of thanks to convey.

It was over a month ago that I received this gorgeous selection from Marie as part of the Fox's Lane pincushion swap.

Marie was so thoughtful in making my gift. She had a good look through my blog and thought I would like a sewn pincushion (even though she's not a sewer!)

Look at the gorgeous detail in the little seed beads in the centre of the flowers.
I really love it Marie!!

When I said earlier that she's not a sewer (her words, not mine) she is actually a mad crocheter. If you have a look back at the first photo, you'll see the gorgeous little crocheted flower she made for me. I love wearing it as a brooch!!

And she even sent me some yummy chocolates.
I'm so lucky (and so remiss in waiting all this time to post about this lovely gift).
Thank you so much Marie. I really love it all!!!

In further luckiness, I was the winner of Gina's blogiversary giveaway ...

.... a coffee sack market bag with gorgeous gingham lining

and filled with fabric treats!!

Thank you Gina.

Gina actually sent me an email giving me permission NOT to blog about this beautiful gift, knowling that it can be hard to keep up with all the 'thank-you's and acknowledgements.

But I WANT to blog about these wonderful gifts (if a little belatedly).
They are examples of the kindness, creativity and generosity that I love so much about blogland!!

In that spirit, stay tuned for a little giveaway of my own!!

Andi :-)

The ottoman empire

Well ..... a patchwork ottoman empire!

Inspired by this stunning piece, I made this ...

Using fabrics purchased at Stitches and Craft a couple of weeks ago.

All Aussie fabric designers.
Namely:

• Ink & Spindle
• Pippijoe
• Yardage Design
• Kristen Doran

I'm a proud Aussie today surrounded by all this local design talent.

Andi :-)

Sew It Together

Saturday was BIG fun for me!!!

Cindy and Sophie picked me up at 8:15am. ("Bye kids!" "Bye Mummy". Dash out the front door before someone starts crying). Picked up Tanya and headed off to town for a lovely day of crafting.

Row 1 (L-R): Abbe & Julie; Bec; Cass and me; Corrie; Fi and Bianca
Row 2 (L-R): Gypsy & Liesl; Holly; Jodie; Karen; Me &Cindy
Row 3 (L-R): Nikki & Lara; Jodie, Trash & Fi; Nikki, Cam & Cathy, Sheridan & me; Tanya

60 of us gathered and stitched and chatted and laughed and generally had a lovely time.

I joined in with Cass's sample swap and, in addition to the gorgeous items I received in the swap, I picked up so many lovely bits and pieces from the many fabulous sponsors.
I am truly a lucky girl!!

In addition to meeting lots of new people and having a very fun time, I was a woman on a mission on Saturday. I arrived with all my raw materials (fabric pre-cut) to make a quilt and I was determined to finish it within the day.

And I did!!!
Using vintage sheets (thanks again Kate) and some beautifully soft linen, I pieced the quilt top ...

... used another vintage sheet for the backing ...

... did some straight line quilting ....

... and bound it with some solid pink Kona cotton.

All in one day!!
Very proud of myself.

After stitching the final stitches, I was able to relax a bit and do some more chatting, meeting and greeting.

Then up to Gypsy and Liesl's hotel room for more gossiping and stitching (Gypsy finished her first quilt top on Saturday. Hooray!!!) and on to the dinner where this non-drinking girl had a pina-colada and a lot of fun!!

Thanks so much Sheridan for organising this fabulous event.
Please put my name down for next year's event in Sydney. I'm stitching my bells on as we speak!!


Andi :-)

World's easiest softie!

So I went to Stitches and Craft in Melbourne last Friday.
I spent most of my time chatting with lots of other lovely bloggers and spending a MASSIVE amount of money on new fabric and other 'stuff'.
Thank you to Jodie for helping me to store the rather heavy loot bag while I continued to shop.

Wouldn't you know it, I completely neglected to take any photos but you can check out the action here, here and here!

Anyway, my daughter has a party to go to tomorrow (while I'm hanging out here) and I needed a quick gift.
Then I remembered these gorgeous panels (by Lisa at The Red Thread) that I bought last Friday.

Less than 15 minutes later, I had this:

Backed with some pretty red vintage flower fabric:

I think it will be very happily received.

In other loot news, I also bought some cushion panels from the lovely Lara at Ink & Spindle and here are my new-look living room cushions:

Craft makes me happy!!


Andi :-)

Only 2 more sleeps!!

I am rather excited about Saturday's Sew It Together aussie-bloggy-crafty-meet-up organised by this fabulous chick!

I have my name tag, courtesy of the fabulous Ms Curly Pop herself!!

In addition, Cam popped in the parcel a sunglasses case I had spied on her blog and simply HAD to buy!

Thanks Cam. I might be the funkiest name tagged (and glasses wearing) belle at the ball!!!

And ... because I'm a complete sucker ... I joined in with Cass's sample swap that will be happening at the event and have made these ...

They're only little but I hope will be enjoyed by the recipients.

Hope to see you there!!!
If you will be there and we have chatted in blog-land but not in real life, please come over and say 'hi'. I'll try and do the same. I'm crap at names and might only know you by your blog name but it will be fun trying to put faces and names to blogs and much admired projects.

Counting down!!

Andi :-)

Let your hair hang down!

I haven't been able to stop singing this song while making this quilt for little Edi (rhymes with Evie).
(Those of you who didn't grow up in Australia might not recognise the song but it's an absolute Aussie classic!!)

I chose the Kona solid fabrics using my handy colour card that I won over at Lorraine's place.
Thanks so much Lorraine. I'm sure it will come in handy for many a future shopping trip!!

Picture taken from Lorraine's blog

The front features Heather Ross's 'Princess and the Pea' fabric together with a couple of her other delightful prints.

Also included are some of my other favourite fabric designers including Denyse Schmidt, Anna Maria Horner, Prints Charming, Valori Wells and, of course, Jennifer Paganelli.

I used Jess's binding technique which is the same as Rita's approach up until sewing the binding down on the back.
At that point, Jess flips the quilt over so she can actually see what she's sewing at the back and uses invisible thread in the bobbin.
Brilliant!!!!
 

                                        
I really enjoyed making this little quilt. I hope the new owners enjoy it too!!!!

Andi :-)