Holiday Goodies!

I was going to be back on the weekend to share photos of the goodies I bought during my holiday shopping sprees, but got a little tied up with two projects that had deadlines ... neither of which I can share photos of for completely different reasons. The first was the sample for the pattern I will be teaching at the annual Creative Craft Retreat at Somerset Dam at the beginning of November ... Retreat Co-ordinator Janelle needed a photo of my project to include in the pamphlet which should be printed this week. Once she has the brochure printed ready to go, I'm sure she wouldn't mind me sharing a photo, as it's a retreat where people see the projects before hand and sign up for the one they want to make, not a super-surprise one. (And I'll release this pattern generally after the retreat, so never fear!) The second project was another stacked coin quilt for a wedding gift for one of my cousins - the third one of these quilts I've made - they are just so QUICK to stitch and so effective. It had to be dropped off to the lovely quilter extraordinaire Rosalie today and while I COULD share a photo ... I CAN'T now. I  um ... lost ... the photo! BLUSH!! I think it was deleted with a few other older photos - OOPS! I promise to show you a photo when it comes back from the magic quilting cave! :0)

OK ... enough of photos I'm NOT going to show you and on to some that I AM going to share. Now, you just KNOW I went hunting for patchwork shops wherever we went on holidays, right?! And of COURSE some fabric followed me home from each stop ... SHHHH!! Don't tell my Mother, who says my stash is out of control! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK ... first fabric fuel up was at Gympie where we had to do a bit of searching to find the Gympie Patchwork Factory - but we were determined! (Well ... I was determined and my beloved Geek Boy was resigned! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Purchase number one ...

None of these are earmarked for specific projects, they just looked interesting! :0) One can never have too many spotty dotty fabrics ... so I added a couple more to my collection. I hadn't seen the red fabrics before and need a few for some Christmas ideas I'm toying with ... I'm always looking for nice yellows that aren't too orange and always on the lookout for bear-coloured fabric, too.

The next fabric fix came in my home town of Mundubbera at Lemon Jo's Country Crafts. Alicia, who owns Lemon Jo's, and I went to school together, so it's always nice to have a chat, too. And this is what followed me home from there ...

OK ... not too much damage done there ... my Mum was with me and kept asking what I was going to DO with these fabrics! I did try to explain that one of the rules of fabric collecting is that you don't necessarily have to have a project in mind, you just collect fabric ... but being a dressmaker and not a crafter, she didn't really get it! Tee! Hee! Hee! Well ... the brown spot (yep, more spots!!) is for the binding on the quilt that I lost the photo of, the ladybirds were just TOO cute to pass up and the navy and yellow just tagged along with the others! :0)

Now, I had to travel about 800kms to reach my next fabric fuel-up spot in Mackay at Needleworx. This was one of the biggest patchwork shops - area wise - that I've seen in a while, but it also housed lots of makings for a large variety of crafts, so I guess the room was needed. The additions from here were ...

Some yummy tone-on-tones that will be incorporated into my Butterfly Garden and Gardeners' Journal blocks and the bottom fabric was just so darn cute that I had to have some. It might end up being a dress for a bear, or a new sewing bag for me, or a sewing machine cover or ... well ... the possibilities are endless, aren't they - that's half the fun!! :0)

And my last fabric stop was in Rockhampton on our way home. After confusing Pricilla (the iPhone navigator program ... she just sounds so PRISSY that she was dubbed Prissy Pricilla! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and making a false start, we tracked down a shop that several people told me I HAD to visit if I was in Rocky ... so I did! :0) Patchwork Paradise is housed in a lovely historic building that has so much character that I would have enjoyed just looking at the building ... but of course there was all that FABRIC to look at! :0) And this is what followed me home from my last stop ...

The red floral is to make a bear dress when I make another version of Annie-Rose Bear for Mum's birthday later in the year, the next two are for borders for a quilt I need to make my sort-of-sister Tiffy for her 21 in November and the "Pure charm squares" ... Weeeeeeeeeeell ... I've been eying off this range for a while and just had to have some, even though I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet ... a few ideas are kicking around, so we'll see what brews in my mad imagination! :0)

So ... that's all the fabric (I don't think GB will let me add any more to my stash for QUITE a while now! Tee! Hee! Hee!), but a couple of other treasures also came home with us. From the Eumundi markets, we bought this ...

Its a large whirligig. It may not look like much when it's still, but when the wind catches it and it spins, the optical illusion of the spiral makes it look like the glass balls are moving up and down the spiral - very cool! We stood mesmerised for ages at the stand that was selling them and in the end decided one would look perfect in our decorative arch that leads into the lounge room. Wonder if we can use it to hypnotise people?! Tee! Hee! Hee! And I spotted a sale sign in a lovely little gift shop in Montville that led me to adopt this ...

Hmmm ... perhaps I need to clarify which "THIS" I mean. :0) The cast iron book stand "THIS". It's perfect to keep my place for me when I'm cooking so I don't end up with sticky finger marks on the pages every time I have to find my recipe when the book shuts itself midway through. Do you like the picture in my cook book?? I don't think I've cooked anything from this book yet, but it has such lovely photos! Tee! Hee! Hee! And in front of it is the latest snow pea harvest. We came home to find our triffod snowpeas COVERED in pods and flowers and BOY are they YUMMY! :0)

I think that's all of my holiday treasures. Oh! I do have one more photo to share with you ... when we arrived home, I discovered a parcel from the lovely Mary (whose blog I can't find the address of - Aaarrgghh!!). Wondering why I was getting a parcel when it was closer to GB's birthday, I opened it up to find ...

A cute little teddy bear kit, a sweet Thumbelina sized bear and a card from Mary to say she was sending this as a RAK gift ... a Random Act of Kindness gift. Aaaaaaawwwwwww .... what a SWEETIE!! Thank you , Mary! What a lovely surprise to come home to!! The little bear has found a spot amongst the bear-hug troops in the lounge room and the little teddy kit has been added to my "To Do" list ... oh dear! That list just keeps GROWING! Tee! Hee! Hee!

PHEW! Well, that's it for today ... I think that's finally all of the photos from my holiday that I needed to share. And now ... I just have time for a cup of lavender tea before I need to think about dinner, so I'm off to put the kettle on. Hope you're all having a lovely start to your week and managing to find some time to be creative. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS