IT'S ALL COME TOGETHER

I have been working on various things of late and this evening, it all came together and I realised I had complted quite a few swaps I am in so it is off to the Post Office tomorrow for me. Here is what will be posted;

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  Bag made on Embellisher machine - absolutely thrilled with the way this has turned out
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  Inchies and Twinchies swap - great fun to make
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  Birthday squishy + card for Fiona on 5th April
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  Birthday squishy + card for Lesley on 24 April
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  12 Star Block Kits for Red White and Blue swap I am in
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  2 Star Block Kits [extras] for the above swap
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  ATC colour Blue - we are doing the Rainbow eventually
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  April Fool Postcard - and it is NOT meaning I don't send a card to be the joke!!!!
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  'Whatchadoingnow' Postcard - this was Tuesday 23 March 3.25pm

Great stuff, I love it when a plan gets fulfilled. I work on bits and pieces, which seems unmethodical to most people, but it works for me, as all of a sudden, voila. It's all done. Mind you, I thought this brought me bang up to date with all my swaps! Only to open my emails and find there is one in there waiting to be done, new, but waiting never-the-less. Plus a postcard 'APRIL' for Angela.

Then I have to finish some bits and pieces I am making in scret for Lisa, don't tell her... http://www.cobblestonecabin.co.uk/CobblestoneCabin/index.php have you been there yet?  She has some scrap bags from MODA on there now, there are just a few, so you best be quick, they are going fast.   Actually if you go here http://cobblestonecabin.blogspot.com  you will see them all. This is Lisa's Blog. Remember, she will post abroad, you just have to email her first.
So you see I haven't actually finished all my swaps at all have I. Ho hum. I will put photo's up of all the above once the peeps have received them all.

LUCKY ME

I entered a give away on Phyllis' Blog and just look what I won, well actually Phyllis was very kind to me and sent me some extras, many many thanks Phyllis, it is all wonderful.

Just look at all these wonderful things, I will use them eventually in my Embellisher machine, but just now, I will look at them and stroke them. Phyllis you are a Genius with threads and wools..

Here is Phyllis Blog address for you. You will be able to get to her ETSY store via this, as she sells all her wonderful threads and wools, go on have a look, be tempted.

http://spinknitandlife.blogspot.com/

thank you again Phyllis

BEFORE AND AFTER

Don't say I didn't warn you folks...

BEFORE...

GETTING THERE...

RINSED, WASHED, CONDITIONED & DRIED...

JOB DONE

Nice hair, shame about the face!!!!  Ha Ha Ha  Well I love it, the hair not the face, hee hee, nowt I can do about that! For those of you who have never seen me before, pick yourself up off the floor and make a cup of tea...you will get over it. Rebecca did!

NO POST FOR THEM?

Remember all these I posted various things to;

Pat B - Jean - Irene - Pat S - Sylvia - Maureen -
Di - Maggie - Angela - Caz - Marian - Irene - Susan P - Susan Pi -

Well I am a bit concerned cos I've not heard from all that they have received their packages/envelopes. Only the ones in blue have I heard from. Hmmmm, not happy.
Updated 27 March the ones in red I actually don't expect to hear from, they don't read my Blog, so I guess it's not bad.

MY POST TODAY

The post came today at 3.30pm! Very strange. The postie is a new one, very chatty! We have a sign on our front door telling people - [not requesting] -  NOT to leave anything for us at No.2. He rang the bell and said

"I cant think why you don't want anything left there"

me - 'you gotta be joking'       ---  then I realised he was being funny......ho ho ho I think!  He then proceeded to chat to me for about 20minutes [this is why the post was late I guess!!] telling me has to take a deep breath before he ventures up the path to their door. When he has to ring the bell, he apparently, rings it then stands back well away from the opening door as the 'pong' that comes out takes his breath away. He asked me what it is they have inside as the 'pong' is goddam awful - his words not mine. See, I kid you not folks, I am living next to such scum it beggars belief. Anyway, back to my post which he delivered...

Yippee, it has arrived, PART 2 of the Embellishing classes from Myfanwy. Got hubby to quickly put it on the TV for me, he went out to take the car for it's MOT, which meant when the doorbell went [again] - GRRRRR - I had to answer it...

Chap - Hi, how you doing...... .                                            

Me - No thank you

Chap - I am from Anglian W......                                          

Me - NO thank you

Chap - I do see you have replacement windows but......      

Me - NOOOOO thank you

Chap - It's just we have a special d........

ME - Look buster, I am watching a really important DVD at the moment you are going to have to GO.

Chap -  [blank look]

Me - slam door shut and lock it, back to TV, don't know how to work the remote so have missed a fair bit, sat down and blow me, the doorbell went again.... double GRRRR GRRRR

Fling the door open and shout WHAT NOW - hee hee hubby standing there, going 'What have I done?'

You have to laugh really, I do not watch TV much, certainly not through the day, the one and only time I wished to sit and absorb it today and I am interupted like I don't know what. Suffice to say, he rewound it for me and I managed to see it all. WOW so much to take in - again - but I have my own little DVD thingy in my sewing room so I shall be glued to that at the weekend. Here it is then, the DVD No.2 -

BRILLIANT

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I also received this wonderful little ATC from Ros,

we are both in a Rainbow ATC swap in a group we belong to

thank you so much Ros, I love it, it is just so perfect for me because I love my cuppa's

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I also got some postal sacks I have been waiting for nearly three weeks to be delivered, ordered from eBay, hmm the seller will not be getting good feedback from me, particularly as they are only in Kettering, which is 20minutes up the road from here. Not impressed with there service at all. Then there were a whole batch of election envelopes for both of us. Why is it the only time we hear from our Politicians is when they want our Vote. I wasn't impressed with them either I can tell you. I think it is important to Vote, but this time who do you choose? They are all wassocks if you ask me.

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Sewing this evening I managed to rip my finger open on the needle of the sewing machine as I was changing the foot. Ouch!  I have a feeling I need my eyes tested and new glasses! Seriously, I do. Too busy at mo to go for eye test.  Went shopping with Annette this morning in town and noticed quite a few of the things I was looking at were quite blurred!!!! ho hum.

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CHANCE I AM TAKING

The 'chance' I am taking, is that I hope all of these have been delivered now. I don't think everyone I sent to reads this Blog so I may be safe on some. This first picture is of a 'Quiltie' made for a swap on a new group I belong to, it had to be 6" square, so fairly small, for me anyway, I am more used to large Quilts, I did enjoy making this for Caz though, I know she likes purple so the colour will be right...

Oh my gosh, this block has been very difficult for me, it is for another swap, this time on Popular Patchwork forum, the colours had to be 'bright, think sunset, desserts' well these are certainly bright, I had it in mind to do large colourful leaves as though it were the Rainforest!! Hope she likes it...

This was for yet another swap on PPF, I cheated here, I had this block done way back, glad it has come in handy for something as I loved it, the request was - 'my garden' - we used to grow fabulous Roses, so hence this block, yes I know it looks an odd size but 12 x 14 was requested!!...

You may remember Angela and myself are doing a monthly postcard swap, this is my card to her for March, I absolutely love doing trees, and this time I just had to put the yellow ribbon round for A - not Angela, my friend's son A. I sewed beads all over the tree as a hint of the coming Spring, hope Ange likes it...

This is my Quiltie from my swap partner who was.......Annette, my daughter. I just love this because I love all things Amish, as she knows, so am thrilled to bits with this little gem. Thank you Annette xx

I remembered this morning some others I had sent packages to;

Fiona, Susan P and another Susan

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Have you seen the fabulous competition at

COBBLESTONE CABIN

Click on the link to your right and then look in the NEWS tab

WOW

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MORE FROM SATURDAY - BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TOO

I ran out of time, was tired, went to bed knowing I hadn't finished loading pictures on here, never mind they are here now for you. Following are things that were actually given to me on Saturday, for me to keep, I am just so lucky as you will see.

These wonderful wools from Janice, I was cheeky and asked her for her offcuts, you know, the bits you cut off once you have sewn all the ends in from your knitting, but just look at the treasures she gave me, I have used some of them already, they embellish a dream on my E machine, thanks Janice...

Di has been clearing out her sewing room, she has amassed magazines like me and now feels it is time for them to move on as it were, she knows I like this particular magazine so kept it back for me, cheers Di, it is great...

Di also gave me this fabulous book, she knows I am 'into' this  type of thing, a great gift...

these fancy papers are also from Di for my Journalling...

plus a pattern she knew I was after...

Thanks Di for all the above.

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The book below was LOANED to myself and Rebecca to read by my friend Pat, not sure who gets to read it first Reb or me? Cheers Pat, I will get it back to you as soon as...

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Di LOANED me this book as I have become very intrigued by 'dyeing' of late, I had a quick look-see when I got home, and it is really amazing, can't wait to give this a try...

again, thanks Di.

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So what did I buy? I had Lisa as our stall holder at the group this time, [more about her later] she and Neil brought a wonderful array of fabrics and threads for us to purchase. Very difficult to choose as I wanted it ALL. I finally settled for the following fabrics - these are for my Dear Jane Baby quilt...

and these are for..who knows what they are for, I don't as yet, I just knew I had to have them.

the following two packs of Baby fabrics are what Lisa has asked me to make something with for her, as a kind of advert for the fabrics, I have almost finished the Cat Quilt for her with the fabrics I had before - go back a few posts to see the fabrics - I have an idea for these from Lisa, so shouldn't take me too long to make what she wants...

Blue above and Pink below...

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Do you think this colour will suit me?

I am going to give it a go - what the hell...

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Remember I said I had BIG news for you, here it is folks

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT - ROLL OF DRUMS

Lisa's website is up and running - hooray -

here it is for you folks,

http://www.cobblestonecabin.co.uk/CobblestoneCabin/index.php

She is doing PAYPAL too - Brilliant or what!

So why not pop over and have a look you may find something you need, just like me!

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Over to the Post Office I went today with a bag of goodies going to;

Pat B, Jean, Irene, Pat S, Sylvia, Maureen, Di, Maggie, Angela, Caz, Marian, Irene all in UK for a change

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Well, I don't know about you but I am off to Cobblestone Cabin.

See you there

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THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE FOR SATURDAY

It was my group's day on Saturday, but I was so tired at the end of the day, I didn't get the photo's sorted for here, only just done them on Sunday evening. Sorry folks, but hope you think they are worth waiting for.

So, first picture is showing you the blocks made by the ladies for our little competition we have, The Block Lotto, they have to make a block in the theme set the previous month, the one with the most votes gets to choose some of the blocks to take home and make into whatever they wish to make, this time we only had 7 blocks - shame on them - so it was split 4 and 3 blocks. Can you spot the winners?

This is showing you the assorted sizes of the Dear Jane blocks they are making, 4" 6" and 8" you should see me when I have to print them all out!!"! Then again, maybe you shouldn't!! Also on the boards are the few table runners that got almost finished, they are the baskets, very pretty I think you have to agree...

Last month we made Table mats, the next two pictures are what two of the ladies made, I wonder if they made a complete set or just the one?

Kate made this handy baby bag for a friend of her friend's cousin!! it was a long complicated mix, but regardless, the bag was super, six small pockets round the outside and big and roomy inside, well done Kate

You have seen this before I know...

This Quilt belongs to Bridget, she is Suzanne's friend, now can you believe she is new to quilting? She has taken to it like a duck to water, she made this quilt before she went on a month's holiday to Thailand, Quilted it in a week. Fabulous it is, absolutely fabulous...

Sylvia went to a class and made this gorgeous scrappy Log Cabin, I just love it as Log Cabin is my favourite patchwork of all;

Suzanne won on the Block Lotto and made this Quilt from the blocks she won. She actually made it for her sister - Annette - who loves green, she was thrilled with it;

it is on here twice as I want you to see she actually chopped up some of the blocks she won - mine was included in the chopping - and put them as a border, neat idea Suzanne, well done, Suzanne too is a beginner quilter. She is my elder daughter too. I am very proud of the two of them.

So there we are, not a lot on our Showtime table this month - they have been told off! - I am hoping there will be more for you to see next time, which will be MAY.

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BUSY BUSY BUSY

I seem to be going round in circles at the moment. Too many fingers in too many pies!! Oh well, they will all come right at the end. Things have a way of sorting themselves out don't you find?

Too busy to spend much time here I am afraid. It is my group's day tomorrow and I have been trying to get stuff sorted for it ALL day, still not done. ho hum!

Fingers crossed it will be a smoother day than the last time!

More tomorrow.

BIG NEWS for you tomorrow folks.

LAST CHANCE

Go back a few posts to see how to win this

GOT ONE

Went to town, met Pat for coffee, she knew Annette was coming cos she read my Blog before she left home!!! AFter coffee we had a good old wander round town, went down to Wilkinson's and WOOHOO, I got the set of drawers I wanted to get my painting bits organised. When we got home, slight prob! They wouldn't go under the table, it has a stupid plinth just under the flat of the table top. So Annette tipped the table whilst I pushed the drawers under. Problem solved as they say. I had a lovely time then sorting the drawers out, bottom one has paints and paint related bits in it. Middle drawer has dyes and fabrics that have been dyed in, and the top drawer, well I just shoved stuff in it for now. I will get them sorted properly after the weekend. Saturday it is my group day again, whew, that one has come round pretty quick, so I shall be very busy the next few days getting everything sorted for that. Meantime, here are my drawers!!! hahahaha

Sorting them out has almost freed up one table...

and yes I know there is a spelling mistake in Cottton...

Robbie

I put a picture of Robbie here cos I don't have any others for you just now, and he is just so yummy to look at. Oh I forgot to say, I found the paints I was looking for which started all the 'drawer' business, they were on a shelf to the side of my sewing machine!! DOH! I have done the journal page I wanted to do last night. Got to wait til tomorrow to have a look to see what has happened to it now.

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WHERE DID IT GO

I don't understand, I was sewing away, and the day had finished! Where did it go? What is happening? I am getting so behind in things I am supposed to be doing of late, it is all the fault of the clock. The hands are positively rushing around at full pelt if you ask me. SLOW DOWN don't be such a spoilsport.

This evening my friend Di rang and we were talking about the Journals we are doing along with Myfanwy, as we were talking it suddenly hit me, an idea for a page I had been stuck on, so after the call had ended, I quickly got the Journal out and wrote what I had thought of in it, over and over as we had been told to do. I then went to the kitchen and got all my stuff sorted to slap a bit of paint on top of the writing.

Well, this is where it all started to go wrong. I couldn't find my paints. I searched and searched. Grrrr I still haven't found them, so tomorrow I shall buy a set of drawers -hopefully on wheels - so it can go under my table in my sewing room and ALL my painting stuff will go in there instead of being scattered willy nilly about my room. Then when inspiration strikes, as it did this evening, I shall be all set. That's the theory anyway.

I will let you know how the practice went tomorrow!!! I am off to town to meet my friend Pat for coffee. Annette is coming with me so it will be a surprise for Pat, unless she has read my Blog before she leaves home!

Back to the sewing, I am making a quilt for Lisa, at my group last time, her hubby chucked me a pack of fat quarters of Cat fabric. Very nice said I. Can you do something with those he asked? Probably says I. So this is what I am working on at the moment. These are the fabrics;

Colourful aren't they! I am also using a plain black amongst them you will be pleased ! to know. The Quilt top is coming along nicely, I feel I may be making a bit too large for Lisa, but hope she will forgive me, some of the fabrics I didn't want to cut too small. We shall see.

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In the post today I received a lovely surprise from Joan. A while back she sent me a postcard with some fabulous colourful RicRac on, I mentioned I really liked it and she sent me what she had left and also bought some for me, look, isn't it gorgeous, thank you Joan, that was really kind of you. Love the card too.

I also got  the MARCH  Postcard from Angela, you may remember we are doing a month themed Postcard swap. I haven't done mine yet Angela, but I know exactly what I am going to do for you and this time, it is NOT the weather!!!! Here is Angela's card to me;

Another corker, thank you Ange I love it. When I have them all they are going to make a wonderufl hanging for me.

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On another tack completely, I was given at the weekend, before Mother's Day anyway, this small quilt by Annette, I had made it yonks ago and never finished it, she took it home and, Voila, all done. It is now proudly on show, in use on the back of the settee. I love it. I hope you can see the colours are wonderful muted ones and Annette has matched the quilting thread perfectly. Thank you Annette.

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