Christmas In July Swap

This year I decided to take part in Cheryll's annual Christmas In July swap..... I haven't taken part for a few years so I was excited to be a part of it.

I had a  'Boxing Day' unwrap as my parcel arrrived on the 26th and wow how spoilt was I??!!

Lyn (no blog) sent me the most lovely and generous package...can you imagine my squeals of delight when I first unwrapped this —

"Oh this lady knows my tastes" is what I thought!

Next came this hanging :-) —

But wait, there's more —

I love how the addition of a bit of ribbon and a bell make this into a perfect
Christmas gift!

— and more —

Hasn't this wee guy got the sweetest face?

- and body!

Hmmm not sure where the chocolates got to.......!

Once again Lyn, thank you so much. It really was a lovely set of gifts! I love them all :-)

Even though Lyn doesn't have a blog, she does comment as 'Linny', so if you receive a comment from her, just know that she makes the most beautiful things!

I love these swaps where we send to different people than we receive from. This year I sent to Anthea of Hibiscus Stitches . I was delighted to 'draw' her name as she sent to me a few years ago in a Secret Santa Swap and we have been blog friends ever since.

In my last post I gave you a sneak peek of this wee Gingie (from Michelle's Gingerbread Kisses book). Here he is in the hanging I made for Anthea.

One of the things Anthea made me last time was a 'Round the World' table topper. I knew straight away that I wanted to make her one the same (similar at least) —

The one I made for Anthea

This is a clearer look at the fabrics.

This is the one that Anthea made for me a few years ago :-)

It gets well used every Christmas.

This covered pad completed the trio of goodies I crafted for her.

[These three makes are my three OPAM finishes for the month too :-)].

A very big thank you to Cheryll for hosting this swap. Not many people took part but I'm pleased that I did!!

'till next time, 

happy stitches,

Friday Night (and weekend) Sew In

I realised this week that it was high time I got on with July's block for our Holly Cottage Christmas SAL. Each month we sew one block from Michelle's book. Friday Night Sew In was a good chance to continue on with it. I made good progress on Friday night and have added to it as the weekend has progressed. I still have to applique some holly to the top of the pudding, then a little more stitchery work and it will be done. A nice block to do :-)

I realised, too, that I hadn't shared my June block. As you can see there is a big difference in fabrics between the two blocks! I love the fun fabric of the stocking but had just used scraps while I was waiting for the above fabric to arrive at my local. I think the stocking will make a nice little hanger.

Thank you to those who kept me company while I was hand sewing - and also to Wendy for hosting FNSI. Visit Wendy at Sugarlane designs to see what else people were working on.

When I published my (long overdue) post the other day, I remembered that I hadn't remembered to share photos of YD's latest knitting.

Some of you might recognise the photo below, showing the winter knitting she did last year for her small dog....

....I thought she had the dog knitting out of her system but lately there have been two more additions to his wardrobe. Her latest designs have been for vests (or crop tops as I call them!).

This says "Nug Lyf"
The Nugs = Chicken Nuggets = dinner of my babies in the henhouse if he can get
to them (which he hasn't)(but keeps on trying).

Then this cute one appeared —

He does look a little grumpy here, but I think he was just having a Bad Hair day!

(Yes I know we live in mild Northland and he has lots of fluff but he still does get cold!! Being an indoors AND outdoors farmdog means he gets bathed several times a day!)

I have some left over soup for lunch today so I'm off to heat that up now. Hopefully there'll be some more sewing time before cow and calf time later this afternoon :-)

Happy Stitches,

Catch up time!!

Gosh, has it really been three weeks?!! It's been tails up and heads down in my little corner of the world, and I didn't realise I'd been blogfree for such a long time!
So what has been happening?

Some rather major and exciting Christmas in July sewing happened...my parcel is winging its way to (somewhere and someone in) Australia and I've been camping at the mailbox waiting for my own parcel to arrive :-)

I've also taught two classes recently, which I've really enjoyed. The first one was a Caddy class - this was a two day (over two weekends) class; the ladies did well, several of them finishing their caddies the day after the class.

The second class was a feathered star - this is Bernice's finished block, a couple of the other ladies just need a hand to do the last little bit of assembly and then they'll have completed ones too.

Below are the two cushions I made earlier this year as samples... 

I made the block nice and big so it was more achieveable and wasn't as fiddly, so they've made nice big sized cushions...

...and I started this one for demonstration purposes for the class...hmmm...wonder how long it will take me to get back to this one - (sigh) - I do think I will build mine some more and let it become a quilt.

 Lately I have been putting my Friday's Village quilt together (aka Moda's Be My Neighbour SAL). We have doing this quilt as a sewalong at The Country Yard and it's been a fun project. Last post I bravely stated that I had chosen a grey sashing fabric and I'd sewn it on before I changed my mind.....famous last words...!! The grey sashing was removed.... then I put on a grey (first) border....then removed the grey border...

Here's version 1.2 with a grey border.
I had planned on more borders after this one but wasn't happy with the
start I'd made.

...finally though I have a version I am happy with!

Lots of borders...cream border...colour border...cream border...grey border

...and you can see how big this has grown...it's hanging from the balcony and nearly touching the ground! Quilting time coming up :-)

I'm linking up with Julie and Linda for Sew, Stitch, Snap and Share..feel free to visit their blogs to see what others have been up to.

It's nearly the end of the school holidays and once again we have had the two elder grandies staying with us. The two weeks have flown past really quickly. The girls are delighted that we have started calving and have been busy naming the calves and spending time playing with them.

And helping out too!

Me, well, I'm not quite as delighted to all of a sudden have lots of extra mouths to feed! Downtime over winter has come to an abrupt end. Officially for us this is now Springtime but looking out the window, it doesn't seem that way! Apparently there is another bad weather system heading our way...Northland has been pretty mild lately and I'm really hoping it will stay that way!

Here's hoping it's not quite so long until I post again - I really did miss all the interaction ♥

Until then,

Happy Stitches,