31 March, 2013

Happy Easter!



Happy Easter from the MacDonald Family 

26 March, 2013

Stitch Me Up!

 
My day has arrived for the Stitch Me Up Embroidery blog hop over with Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt. Our wonderful cheerleader is Jane from Jane's Fabrics and Quilts. If this is your first visit here, welcome to MacDonald's Patch! Welcome back to everyone else too.
 
 This is the embroidery pattern I chose to stitch from the range Madame Samm sent to me. I could choose from designs by Madame Samm, Cyndi Hoeller of Stitch, Stitch, Stitch and Debbie Martinez of Busy As Can Be. This is one of Cyndi's designs.
I decided to make it into a pouch.
 
It could be used to sewing bits, but really you could use it to hold anything! Maybe some jewellery or even those stockings kept just for special occasions!
I'll let you use your imagination

I had this lovely fabric in my stash and thought it would be perfect. I appliqued the stitchery on with blue. This picks up the tiny blue bits in the flowers. I think the blue gives it a bit of a vintage feel about it.
The stitches I used were back stitch, buttonhole stitch and French knots. I found these gorgeous buttons in my button jar and they just seemed to finish off the embroidery nicely.
Thank you for dropping by.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my little project.

25 March, 2013

Stitch Me Up Embroidery Blog Hop!

Tomorrow is my day for the 
I hope you'll come back to see what I've made.

24 March, 2013

What's Happening?

 
Today ads seem to be popping up everywhere! Different words in a post, either mine or someone else's, are highlighted. If you hover the arrow over them, an ad pops up. Also, when I go to comment, if the person's blog has one of those pop up windows for comments, ads appear. Does anyone else have this happening to them? Or is it just my computer?

It's Back!

Footy Season 2013!

23 March, 2013

FNSI Results!

Not much was stitched last night as I was on taxi duty! I managed to make three yo yo's and worked a little bit on my stitchery. So not much at all to report this month. Hopefully, next month will be better!

22 March, 2013

Friday Night Sew-In and Stitch Me Up Blog Hop!

Can you believe it! It's the third Friday of the month again, so that means it's the Friday Night Sew-In with Heidi (Handmade By Heidi). I haven't decided whether I'll work on my stitchery or start stitching down all those bindings for my Merry Mistletoe banner. You can sign up here.
Are you enjoying the Stitch Me Up Embroidery blog hop hosted by Madam Samm over at Sew We Quilt? I'm certainly enjoying it. There have been some lovely projects stitched up so far. Head over to Jane's Fabrics and Quilts to see the full schedule.

19 March, 2013

Stitch Me Up Embroidery Blog Hop!

The Stitch Me Up Embroidery Blog Hop is almost here. It starts Wednesday, 20th March (Thursday here in Australia!). This hop has been organised by Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt. Our special cheerleader is Jane of Jane's Fabrics and Quilts. Here is the link to the full schedule.

My day is Tuesday, 26th March. Come back then to see what I have made! This is the first blog hop I have participated in and I'm quite excited about it.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has made.


17 March, 2013

How Annoying!

 Don't you just hate it when you are on a roll and you realise you have forgotten something? I have decided to make a banner with my Merry Mistletoe stitcheries that Michelle shared with us last year. I cut out the bindings and then started sewing away very happily. When I had sewn the seventh piece on I realised my mistake.
I had forgotten to back the stitcheries before adding the binding!  My plan was to quickly sew the bindings on and then that would be another hand project ready to stitching. Well, the binding is all unpicked and I'd better go see what I can use for backing!

16 March, 2013

Show and Tell!

 
I haven't shown anything for a while but I have been sewing. I've made this table runner for a friend's special birthday. 
 
I used a charm pack of La Belle Fluer by French General. The photos just don't show how gorgeous the fabrics are!
I've also made two shoe bags for the present box.
There's more sewing to come but you'll have to wait 
a little longer for those.

Thank you to everyone who voted for my cushions in the Quilting Gallery's Quilter's Show and Tell. I ended up with 75 points (61 votes plus 14 bonus points from the guest judges). I think I ended up equal 8th out of 58 cushions that were submitted!

09 March, 2013

Quilters' Show & Tell!

The Quilting Gallery has a weekly Quilter's Show and Tell. This week's theme is quilted pillows.
 
 I've entered my Butterfly Garden cushions. I made these back at the beginning of 2011. I wanted to make "something pretty for me"! Head over here and see what everyone else has entered. If you like mine, I'd love you to vote for me. You could even win a prize too!

04 March, 2013

How To Get Out Of Going To The Dentist!

Mitchell had a dental appointment after school today but I had to cancel it. At the end of the day, boys being boys, were mucking around. Mitchell was accidently pushed into a classroom window. I don't know who got the biggest shock, Mitchell or Darcy! He is okay. A few little cuts but nothing major. When we got home, I used sticky tape to lift the little pieces of glass from his shoulder and arms.

You may just be able to make out the white school shirts in the reflection. Mitchell has returned to Plenty Valley Christian College as he realised sport was not the direction he wanted to go in for his career. It was a very mature thing for him to decide at 16 years of age (although it would have been a bit easier if he had told us before school started, not 3 days in). He is now studying Year 11 VCE and has a new attitude towards school.

02 March, 2013

Adventures with Melody and FNWF!

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon with Melody (The House On The Side Of The Hill). We went to Jam and Cream which Mel had seen on television. There are lots of vintage things everywhere. Don't you just love the underwear hanging in the window!
 
Of course, as many of you already know, Mel and I are quite partial to the odd scone with jam and cream! Just for something a little different, we ordered one serving of cheese and chutney scones (named Gilbert on the menu) and one of plain (Jane) scones with jam and cream. We then had one of each. They were delicious!
There were none of those chunky tea cups you usually get in cafes. We had gorgeous proper vintage china teacups and plates. Some of you may even be shocked to learn that I ordered a pot of tea (it's usually only illness or pregnancy that gets me drinking tea and I'm neither! I just love my coffee!). I thoroughly enjoyed it and may start drinking more tea! Look at that cute little bottle with milk came in!
I just love this picture frame filled with vintage sewing items.
Out the back there is the cutest pink caravan. Next time we'll have to book so we can have a tea party in there! Thanks for a lovely afternoon Mel. I'm so glad you found this place (and so close to home too).
I joined in with our lovely host, Cheryll and everyone else for Friday Night With Friends.
So while I watched Pretty Woman (again!) on tv, I worked on some secret sewing (in the box underneath) and started stitching a new stitchery.
I was lucky enough to win a prize from Kaye of Kitten Stitching in her recent Mystery Giveaway A lovely embroidered hand towel, a needle case, scissors with a matching fob and a cute little book.
The scissor fob is made of yo yos with two different vintage buttons. The scissors are so cute. You can't see them in the picture but there are polka dots on them. 
Thank you so much, Kaye.