Topsy-Turvy Tuesday!!

Actually ... Tuesday has probably been the LEAST topsy-turvy day in the last week ... talk about a roller coaster ride!! I told you we were to do the "big" move for my folks this last weekend ... we were to pick up the hire truck and drive to Mundubbera on Saturday, pack the truck, stay the night, then drive back Sunday to spread out the driving. Then ... along came Tropical Cyclone Marcia to throw a spanner in the works - EEK!

While there was no direct damage at our place or Mundubbera from the TC, a lot of roads were cut due to flooding in her wake ... SIGH! As a result, Sunday saw my Beloved Geek Boy and I drive into Toowoomba to pick up the truck (GB was originally going to pick it up Friday on his way home from work cutting out the extra trip) then we drove four and a bit very bumpy hours to Mundubbera via a different, longer route than we usually take to avoid roads that were still flood affected. Mum and dad had a band of willing helpers ready to pack the truck, we then hopped back into the truck and drove four bumpy hours back home. PHEW! Talk about exhausting!! Mum and Dad will follow their belongings tomorrow ... the next few months could be VERY interesting! :0)

A big shout out to folks a bit further north than us who WERE affected by TC Marcia to a greater extent than the inconvenience of road closures. Please take care and know the thoughts and prayers of all of us are with you.

One positive of the rearranged schedule was that I got to spend a couple of days with the Friday Night Sit N Sew gals at one of our mini retreats. Fabulous Fiona and I sat in the naughty corner together ... no incriminating photos to protect the far-from-innocent, right Fiona?! Tee! Hee! Hee! I DO however, have a photo of a project one of the lovely ladies finished that was rather dear to my heart ...

... A very pink and pretty version of my "Girl Stuff" mug bag. Didn't she do a lovely job? There were actually a couple more versions of this sweet mug/project bag being made over the weekend, which thrilled me no end. I love to see people having fun with my patterns! :0)

I was working on some shop sample stitching for the Marvellous Marion, so no pics, but I CAN show you some pics of a couple of little projects I finished over the weekend ...

... a couple more appliqué pillowcases for one of the nephews. The car and truck are enlarged versions from a quilt that featured in Homespun some years ago by Kelly Wolfson (I'm not sure I've spelt that properly!) the quilt was called "Peak Hour".

I love how the fresh, bright colours POP. Happy colours! :0)

I had fun playing with some raw edge appliqué to give it a 'sketchy' feel.

I love the VW Beetle. :0) I was asked belatedly to make a quilt for this nephew and I think that perhaps it will feature some of these fun vehicles. :0)

And ... that's about it for me today... tonight ... how did THAT happen?!?! I've lost a few hours again ... does that happen to anyone else?? I may not make it back here to blogland before the end of the month, so just in case ... OPAMers ... don't forget to update your sidebar lists with your finishes and email your January and February tallies through to Sweet Peg and me ... there'll be a double-whammy prize draw for the two months, so stay tuned. :0)

Hope your week is toodling along nicely and that there's some stitching time fitting into your schedule. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Tilda + Tea Party = FUN!!

Hello from WILD and WINDY Queensland! With grumpy ol' category 4/5 Tropical Cyclone Marcia bearing down on the Sunshine State ... there's NOT a lot of sunshine around and we're being blown off the top of our 'hill'! All hatches have been battened down and we're as ready as we can be ... we won't bear the brunt of this weather system, but there sure is some nasty wind around blowing heavy rain all over the place.

THANKFULLY ... last Sunday dawned warm and sunny ... the perfect weather for ... a TEA PARTY! :0) Add in some GORGEOUS Tilda fabrics and it was set to be a fantastic day, hosted by the Quilters Angel Dynamic Duo, Marvellous Marion and Stupendous Steph. :0)

There was ...

YUMMY treats ... teeny cupcakes, mini-bikkies, dainty ribbon sandwiches and fudgy chocolate brownies ... YUMMO!!!

There's Marion, making sure that everyone has cuppas and sweetie-treaties. :0) Some of the ladies enjoying a chat over their cuppas before ...

... Fiona and Chris from Two Green Zebras, the Australian agents for Tilda products, introduced the latest ranges of Tilda fabrics and products ...

... gorgeous books, fabulous fabrics, pretty accessories ...

... Tilda is SOOOOOOOO pretty and makes my shabby chic soul go pitty-pat! :0) I loved having a play with some of the new Tilda fabrics to show them off in projects for the tea party. Remember I showed you this ...

... a Tilda version of my Daisy Drawstring Bag (patterns now available at Quilters Angel!!) Well ...  there were some bits of those pretty fabrics left over. Hmmm ... seemed a shame not to play with them!! :0) So ... being the crazy stitcher that I am ... the night before the tea party, I was madly sewing, measuring, threading and the result was ...

... a pretty shabby chic Tilda mug bag. Loving how it turned out! :0) I can see that more of these pretty fabrics are going to be coming home with me!! If you think you need some for your very own self, you should catch up with Marion and Steph at Quilters Angel.

This weekend is the "BIG MOVE" weekend with my folks, so I'm not sure when I'll manage to get back here, but I'm hoping it won't be too long ... cos I've got some other finishes to show you. :0) Hope you've all got some fun stuff planned for the weekend ... and if you're a wind-blown, rain-soaked Queenslander ... stay safe and keep up with info updates. Til next time ...

WIND-BLOWN BEAR HUGS!!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Tiptoe Through The Tulips ... er ...Tilda!!

Hello there residents of blogland! Long-time-no-drop-in, I know! Sorry about that! The lovely CALM year that my Beloved Geek Boy and I had looked forward to doesn't seem to be eventuating ... SIGH! Don't get me wrong ... most of the craziness is GOOD stuff ... just all happening a bit sooner than anticipated and taking a bit of coordinating, re-organising, shuffling, head-scratching, mind-muddling and sorting. As a result ... I've been a bit of an absentee blogger ... it could go on for a bit longer, so I hope you'll hang in there with me! :0)

Short story ... my folks are moving down this way (YAY!), their house sold WAY quicker than expected (Mundubbera is NOT exactly a real-estate hotspot!!) and the unit they plan to move into in the retirement village where I work isn't available for a few months. OOPS! :0) So ... it's a REALLY good thing that we bought a BIG house last year. :0) They'll be making Edward House their home base for the interim, using the time to pop off for visits and travels during the waiting time. All will be well ... just a wee bit more chaotic than usual and there have been/will be a few weekend trips with trucks and vans to move them down. I promise to pop in when I can ... ! :0)

In the meantime ... I FINALLY managed to grab some sewing time this week and made a little something special for an event being hosted this Sunday at my Home-Away-From-Home. You see, The Quilters Angel,  run by the dynamic mother/daughter duo of Marvellous Marion and Stupendous Steph, is hosting the second Tilda Tea Party ... SQEEEEEEEEELLL!!!! SWOOOOOOOOON!! I love me some Tilda!! ... and the new range is my FAVOURITE-EST EVER!! ... and you sure can't beat a good tea party with stitching friends. :0) So it's been all-hands-on-deck to stitch up some pretty new samples in the new Tilda fabrics to display and inspire on the day.

Now, just like my Sweet OPAM Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg is addicted to making GORGEOUS notebook covers, I've found myself addicted to making a particular project ... pretty drawstring bags! :0) I showed you the five versions created during our recent Girly Stitching Day and this week I stitched one up in the Tilda pretties ...

I am LOVING this little design of mine. I know it's simple, but that's part of what I'm loving! It shows off the pretty fabrics and I love all of the different versions that have been made up now, not to mention that it comes together really quickly to give you a sense of achievement. :0) There will be kits and patterns of this sweetie for sale at the Tilda Tea Party ... I hope people enjoy making their own versions ... can't wait to see them! I'll share some pics of the tea party with you next time I get back here. :0) Oh! And if you're coming along to play for the day ... let me know so I can keep an eye out to say G'day! :0)

And another thing I'm loving is seeing how our garden changes with the seasons. The thing with buying a house with an established garden is, you just never know what will pop up where and when! :0) For the last few weeks, we've been spoilt with a spectacular floral show of crepe myrtle trees (not sure if they have another name, this is what I grew up calling them??). Trees that we didn't think had survived the extended dry period we were experiencing when we first bought our dream house have suddenly shown that not only are they alive, they're ready to put on a show! They look like giant bunches of fairy floss ... all pink and pretty and floofy! :0) I haven't managed to get any good pics yet of the trees, but I couldn't resist bringing a little bit of the pretty inside the other day ...

Isn't it pretty?! And I love how its colour really popped against the fresh aqua colour of the bottles behind it. I can't wait to see what the garden gifts us with next. :0) Do you have pretties in your garden? Unexpected beauty popping up to enchant you? I'd love to see some photos! :0)

But right now, I'm off to hunt and gather some lunch, before hitting the sewing machine this afternoon ... fingers crossed! :0) I've done my 'big girl' chores for the day and think I've earned some play time! :0) What are YOU working on today? Whatever you're up to, I hope you're having a blast!! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Special Sewing Day & OPAM Closed!!

Well, hello there all you lovelies! :0) I hope you've had a great weekend with lots of fun, relaxing stitching and creating going on. It's been a bit of a busy one here at Edward House ... comings, goings, votings (BLECH!! What do you do when you don't want to vote for ANY of the political parties cos they're all selfish, self-serving and out of touch with 'ordinary' citizens?!?!). And somehow I've run out of weekend ... AGAIN!! Don't you just hate it when that happens?! :0)

Quite a bit of my time in the last week or so has been getting ready for a very special sewing event ... a very EXCLUSIVE sewing event. :0) You see ... with all our house shuffles, busy end of year, visitors coming and going etc ... etc ... etc!! We were a wee bit REALLY slack at keeping up with family birthdays last year. So ... rather than trying to think of 'things' to buy as gifts, I decided to host a special event in lieu of a gift ... a sewing day for a few of the gals in the family ... a sort of mini-Stitchers Dream Day Out. :0) Step one ... we needed a project ... something with a little bit of hand stitching and simple enough for a couple of our nieces to tackle. The result was ...

... a simplified version of my drawstring lingerie bag sporting a pretty appliquéd daisy. Next step ... a bit of research into favourite colours and putting together some kits ...

These were popped into some giftie bags along with a few goodies ... chocolate ... of course!! :0) ... a nice purse size pen, pretty notebook, lip balm ... you know ... girly necessities! Tee! Hee! Hee! I also did lots of cooking to make sure we'd have yummy morning tea and lunch nibbles. Then on the day ... we got stitching!

Here's GB's sisters Kylie and Tonia and niece Annie-Rose working away.

And here's Kylie helping her daughter (niece number 2!) with some side seams. And at the end of a very enjoyable day of stitching and chatting ... and EATING!! ... the result was ...

... Five different versions of my drawstring lingerie bag. Not a bad day's work, right?! :0)

Don't you love all the different colour combinations?

Annie-Rose's favourite colour is purple. She hadn't done much embroidery before, but I think she did a lovely job on her blanket stitch appliqué.

Here's Taylah's finished bag. Don't you love the pretty aqua with the pops of green, pink and purple? She did! :0) Another novice stitcher who did a lovely job. Just quietly ... I think Taylah might be hooked on sewing and stitching ... gotta start 'em young, right?! :0)

Tonia likes a red/blue combo and this is a pretty classy finished bag, don't you think? Tonia has done a little bit of stitching before, which was just as well, cos she's a leftie, so a bit hard for me to think 'backwards' to help her! :0)

Last but not least, Kylie likes a fresh aqua colour and the pink/purple daisy petals just pop against the fresh background, don't they?! :0)

I had a lot of fun putting these kits together and hosting the sewing day together. We all tend to buy our own 'things' but many of our best memories are more about events and the people we spend them with, so I hope I've provided some fun, fond memories for the gals. Goodness knows how I'm going to top this one next year ... cos can I tell you, there's already talk about "Next Time". Tee! Hee! Hee!

So ... that was MY sewing adventures for the weekend ... and I KNOW lots of YOU have been stitching, cos you've been emailing your finishes for OPAM through to me and my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg. Thank you!! :0) Great to see so many of you getting into the swing of things early in the year. Don't forget ... there will be no prize draw this month ... Sweet Peg and I will do a double-whammy random draw at the end of February for both January and February, so you do have a chance to catch up with us with your January tally still.

Oh ... and of course, the sign up for OPAM is now CLOSED!! Thank you to all of you lovely ladies who have joined Sweet Peg and me for another fun year of being creative and remembering to take some time out for ourselves to recharge the creative batteries!! :0) In the next little while (ie. once we find a stretch of uninterrupted time in crazy-busy schedules!!) Sweet Peg and I will be putting the list of OPAM 2015 participants on our sidebars. Can I encourage you all to make yourself a cuppa, find a comfy chair and take a little bog-hop through the other OPAM participants ... I guarantee you'll be blown away by the cleverness of OPAMers and will enjoy drooling over gorgeous finished projects. And if you could take a little bit of time to leave some comments to encourage each other, that would be fantastic! So many gals don't have many people in 'real life' they can share their creative journey with, so be each others cheer squad! :0)

Right now, though, I'm off to make myself a cup of tea and catch up on a list of emails and maybe squeeze in a little bit of hand stitching before I have to think about getting dinner ready. Hope your week is off to a fantastic start ... and that it continues to hold that form! :0) Til' next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS