Camp Tucker!

We've just returned home from a very relaxing 5 day camping trip to Windemere Dam in NSW which is only about 2.5 hours drive from home........ it was extremely HOT, which meant most of us were VERY lazy but that's what holidays are about..... aren't they???

There were 16 of us in total, made up of 5 families and we always have a ball camping together. Everyone gets along great and we all pitch in which means everyone gets a break. The CAMP TUCKER is always a highlight (you thought camping meant roughing it didn't you?) and our designated "Camp Leader" Pete is always the first one to jump in and prepare the camp ovens! Soooo, since there's been no crafting going on here...... I thought i'd share some piccy's of our short getaway.

The Dam

The camp ovens cooking away

Roast Pork and Vegies

Roast Lamb..... a little over-done but still delicious!

More Roast Vegies

And delicous Golden Syrup Dumplings for dessert...... Will post the recipe tomorrow!

So now....... all I have to do is DIET!

Until next time.......

I Won, I Won, I Won!

 I was visiting Quilt Hollow yesterday and decided to pop over to Kimberly's blog "Quilting with Kimberly" from the link and enter her competition for a signed copy of her new book "Jelly Roll Quilts and More"...... and today I received an email from Kimberly to tell me I'VE WON! *Happy Dance*

I pinched this pic from Kimberly's blog to show you what i've won:

Thankyou Kimberly for such a great giveaway and Mary (Quilt Hollow) for sharing your competition finds.

I can't wait for my parcel to arrive.... maybe it will encourage me to dig that jelly roll out of the cupboard and put it to good use!

Until next time.....

Needle Thief!

Today I decided it was time I made myself a Needlecase........

I was throwing out all the pins in my old pincushion to replace them with new ones and once the cushion was empty of pins I discovered where all my sewing needles had gone! It turns out I don't have a needle thief at all..... they had just slipped inside my pincushion.

The little needlecase pattern is one by "The Birdhouse" and was given to me for my birthday a couple of years ago..... don't know why I didn't make it sooner (might of saved me some stress and my children some blame if I had)!

All of these needles were found inside my old pincushion.... and digging them out wasn't without incident! My old pincushion is now blood-stained and deceased :(

Until next time.......

Miss Millie

Today I helped my Miss 10 (aka Little Miss Thimble) to finish her first doll ..... who she named Miss Millie!

She turned out so well and it was a very easy pattern to follow with no really tricky bits except for the eyes which I painted on for her. The rest she was able to manage by herself with my instruction.

The Pattern was "Sweet Annie" by Country Keepsakes.

Until next time......

Confession!

Yesterday I set out to do a bit of sewing and first on the list was a nighty for Miss 10 that has been on my to-do list for quite some time. I had some very cute fabric with apples & strawberries all over it which i'd set aside especially for this pattern.

So I set to work...... and no sooner had I started when I realised i'd cut the pattern out incorrectly...... I had neglected to put the centre front of the pattern on the fold (gasp). So I thought, that's okay, i'll just put a small seam down the front but in the end that seam drove me CRAZY, I got the DIRTS, had a TANTY (swore) and threw the whole thing in the bin! I'm ashamed to admit how very wasteful i've been and had the garbage truck not come first thing this morning while I was still in bed, I think I may have gone and rescued it to see if I could make something else out the fabric (sigh).

This is the only scrap I had left to show you:

So all I have for the days sewing efforts are this tiny little Apple pincushion: And this half finished doll I ended up helping Miss 10 (aka Little Miss Thimble) with. By helping I mean I got to paint the eyes and instruct...... Hmmm, maybe she didn't trust me to cut and sew (go figure)! The apple pincushion pattern came from Dawn at UKlassinUS and i'm hoping to make a few more of them as it's very cute, although I am going to enlarge it quite a bit. The doll pattern is "Sweet Annie" by Country Keepsakes.
Until next time

Just in Time!

You may remember me helping my friend Jess to make her very first quilt for her Mum's 60th birthday pressie.........

Well, it was sent off for quilting a little while ago so I called my quilting Lady last week only to hear the very sad news that her machine was broken and she was waiting on parts to come from America! I passed the news on to Jess who was devastated as her Mum's birthday is this Friday! A couple of days later I got a phonecall from Sue saying her machine was fixed & she was dropping the quilt off straight away.....all done! *Happy Dance*

Sooooo.... last night I machine stitched the binding on (no time to teach Jess this time) and then did some of the hand stitching for her, before dropping it in to Jess today who is hoping to get the rest of the handstitching done tonight!Sue has done a lovely job of the quilting as usual. She tries so hard to always have things done in time for special occassions and has never let me down...... her efforts are greatly appreciated!

Until next time

Roll up!

I remembered today that we have a Birthday Party to attend tomorrow for one of our very special family friends........ Miss Katie is turning 10!

I've been admiring some pencil rolls that Bloom made using instuctions by Pink Chalk Studio found here and thought I'd give that a shot..... and since i'd made her a journal for Christmas I made it to match.... of course!I must admit that i'm not 100% happy with how it turned out as i'm not so sure that the white fabric was such a good choice and my sewing wasn't as neat as I would have liked it to be..... but then, i'm always my biggest critic so i'm sure no-one else will even notice!

Next time i'll piece the fabric to match the pencil colour like Bloom did..... lack of time and limited fabric choices meant I couldn't this time.

Until next time
Happy Stitching!