Grazie Mille!

Do you see what I see?

How the heck I have managed to get to one thousand posts is completely beyond me.

OK, so to some it may feel like it's way more already, but to each and every one of you who has taken the time to pop by, read my ramblings, once, twice, maybe 1000 times, you make my day brighter, thank you so, so much!

To show my appreciation, it's only fair to have a little follower GIVEAWAY don't you think!?

On Sunday I instagrammed and posted this sneaky peak...

Which turned into this...

I think it is possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever made!!  I love it, I really would love to keep it, and I think that's why I should give it away.  Giving away something that I don't really want, isn't quite the point is it?

Just in case you missed my Le Challenge post; this is made using the Liberty charm off-cuts from my Marcelle Medallion quilt, and is another gorgeous pattern from Alexia's beautiful book.  It is a substantial 6" square, made of Liberty lawn and a little Lifestyle, pieced with Aurifil 50wt 2021 and backed with natural Essex Linen.  I even did ric-rac, and it worked!  It is looking a little less luminous than it is in real life - it was so sunny, so no complaining!

So what do you need to do, other than not being a No-Reply Blogger?  (Well, OK, you can be, as long as you put your email address in your comment, please!).

One comment only, (extras will be deleted), no hoops, simply tell me:

What is the most beautiful item you have ever made?

I will use Random.org to pick a winner at 8pm British Summer Time on Friday 19th April; open internationally and as ever with giveaways, I probably won't be responding to individual comments, sorry.

Good luck and thank you, my wonderful friends xxx

*** The Giveaway is now closed ***

Don't you, forget about me!

As is the mysterious way with flickr swaps, for all the time and energy spent commenting on pictures in the pool, and the stalking then second-doubting of what I mail off to my secret partners, I always forget about the flip-side, and it comes as a total surprise when a swap parcel arrives for me!

My neighbours kindly took in a delivery yesterday, and after school I had to wrangle the stamp-covered jiffy bag from the hands of my 3 eager beavers; I was so excited to recognise the name of the sender.

Everything was out of that envelope before coats were off!

Wonderful Marg sent me a fantastic selection of scraps, some chocs, a sweet Camper magnet and the most wonderful pin cushion, so brilliantly channelling my Scrappy Swap inspriration mosaic...

Didn't I do well!

I have already thanked Marg, who is now on her holidays, (Susan, you don't have to act as special envoy!), and I am planning on making a dent in those Koalas very soon!

Earlier in the week my parcel arrived in the US of A with my partner Karen.  Karen was co-host with Kat, and so I had to be on my best partner behaviour, and I am pleased to report that the typewriter frame purse went down rather well.

Big 'Thank Yous' to Kat, Karen and Marg for a fabulous swap.  I have a couple of Bee Secret Santa's in the pipeline then my 2012 swapping is complete.  It's been such a good year for swaps!

Just a bit busy!

If I told you that yesterday I finished 14 needle books, made 2 zippy pouches and a pin cushion, you will hopefully believe me!

All bar one needle book are headed for Retreat...

I won't show them in too much detail as I want there to be a little surprise element, but these were fun to make.

The first zippy pouch is headed overseas to Danny.  Having put a call out for either zippy or drawstring bags for disadvantaged kids at camp this summer - please, please, please read all about it here, how could I not join in?

So as I was on a stitchery roll last night I put this 7" x 9" purse together quick smart...

I haven't made a zippy since the Mouthy Stitches swap I think, and I had forgotten just how satisfying whipping up a little beauty (or 2) can be.  I hope this will make a useful addition for a young girl this summer.

If you would like to help Danny reach her goal of 24 drawstring bags and 40 zippy pouches, then please check out the requirements and get stitching.

The final pouch, needle book and pin cushion will be revealed tomorrow, because the Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway bus is rolling into town!!  Woo Hoo!

Zakka me!

I decided I needed another quick fix - so I headed for my Zakka Style book, and didn't even have to open it to decide the little storage case and pin cushion on the cover would be a nice addition to my expanding pouch collection!

Another stash make, using my Christmas Kokka linen, Momo Scissors and those gorgeous Kei dots...

So quick to make, even substituting the suggested leather ties with homemade ones, I had these cut and sewn up in a couple of hours.

Now what am I going to put in this one!?

Good things come...

Have a look at these gorgeous charms that I received today...

These are the result of the fabulous Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts and her Rainbow Charm swap.

28 of us cut our 5" charms, sent them to Jennifer for sorting and sharing and we are now all receiving back 2 charms of 28 different fabrics.

I can't believe how lovely they all look - I have now boosted my red, purple and orange stash ten-fold!

Thank you Jennifer, and thank you all the other lovely ladies who joined in and made such wonderful choices.  I will report back on the Japanese fabric swap, for those of you who didn't join in, soon.

I have also been rather remiss in giving some credit to talented Ali over at Very Berry Homemade.  She posted a great tutorial for some super-cute pin cushions which I made a while back, one for Jennifer and the others for my Pay It Forward gifts.

If you would like to make one, please check out Ali's tutorial here.

I would also like to mention that tomorrow will mark a full 365 days of blogging for yours truly, so you know what that means!

I heart Inset days!

Firstly a big thank you for all your kind words about the HUG, they really mean a lot - check out today's new Flickr pic!

Today then, taking just 3 hours flexi-leave, I managed to cram in loads especially as there was no school run, no rain and no furniture to build for a change!

There were huge Belgian Buns for breakfast, (apologies to any Danes reading, but the Belgian variety looked yummier this morning), a lovely pot of tea, with a tea strainer, and a huge chocolate milkshake for my companion; the parcel was safely posted to NZ, we did some reading about tarantulas - not my choice, a few random rounds of eye-spy, a quick spin around Tesco, all before collecting the girlies from nursery, then back home for a bit of mummy-time!

We are still in need of a large picture or 'something' to go above our bed, to cover some incumbent holes and scuffs, and also to inject a bit of colour and personality.  So after a little ponder, here are my first 'drafts' using some of my beautiful and beloved Echinos and some previously covered canvases...

I have a real problem cutting into these gorgeous prints, so I am thinking that they will remain largely intact and be able to be re-used in the future should we tire of them, and I would get to see them all the time - so a win win.  Dear hubby seems to be onside at first glance, so I may well get happy with the staple gun over the weekend.

Taking the photos, and trying to get all 4 canvases in wasn't so easy, even with assistance!

Then, as if playing with fabric wasn't enough, I just needed to make a little something, some good old instant gratification, and what better way to use up some of those scraps left over from the bunting, than pin cushions.

I literary had my conscience pricked last night; check this beauty out by lovely clever Fi (Patchwork Delights) - I can only dream of making anything so perfect!  When Verity said at New Year that she was going to make a concerted effort to make things from the books she owns, this was one of those 'things' I vowed to make!

So I grabbed my Quilting In No Time and got going!

I didn't want the frilly bit, and I probably didn't follow the instructions to the letter, and if you don't look too closely, I am really rather chuffed! 

The pink one is for my mum, sort of a early consolation prize for looking after dear son for a few days over half term!  The other one is just for me. 

The postman also came laden with literature, (well you may beg to differ), and I now have these to look forward to...

 
I love days like these.