Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop Giveaway Winner!

 Well, the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop has come to an end.
Did you enjoy it? I certainly did. 

Thank you to Madame Samm (Sew We Quilt) and Carol (Just Let Me Quilt) for organising this hop.

 I was so surprised with how many of my international visitors knew the Kookaburra Song!

Now for the giveaway. I listed everyone's entries and had Nelson pick a number between 1 and 145.

The lucky winner of my Aussie Christmas ornaments is

Sharon of Vroomans Quilts.

Congratulations Sharon! I have sent you an email.

Thank you to everyone who left lovely comments.
Sadly, quite a few of you were "no-reply" bloggers so I wasn't able to reply to your comment.

Retreat Goodies and a Football Finals Update!

This time last week I was sitting at my machine at retreat sewing my Granny Squares together. 

That seems so long ago already. LOL! 

Would you like to see what came home with me?

We all received a very useful project box 

filled with lots of goodies.

My lovely friend Maddy from Woomba Woomba flew down from Queensland to join us on retreat. Maddy had knitted me a pair of slippers and they have been on my feet ever since (well, when I'm inside). They fit nicely into my other slippers which were actually a little big. Now my feet are always so warm and cosy. The added bonus of this is that the slippers won't wear out on the slate floor. Maddy also gave me a ruler holder (it is folded in the photo) in colours I love. Thank you so much Maddy. You certainly spoilt me and it was so lovely to see you again in person.

I only did a little shopping. A couple of fat quarters, some homespun, a reel of white thread (not pictured) as I didn't have any to sew my blocks with and two mini charm packs of Bonnie and Camille's new Scrumptious range. I am in love with this range. Can't wait for it to arrive in the shops.

 Mel and I also went to an antique store in Ballarat. 

I found this lovely doily holder from 1930. 

It was in such a good condition.

 Only that one little mark on the inside lid. (The doily is one I picked up at an op shop the other day for 50c!)

 This is the back. 

Last Sunday Mitchell's team won and are now straight into the Grand Final next week. 

Unfortunately Nelson's team lost the Semi Final but being second on the ladder means they have a second chance. Tomorrow they play the Preliminary Final. 

Good luck Nelson!

Back From Retreat!

 

What a wonderful time we had. Friday Night With Friends kicked off early Friday morning when I picked up Mel. We headed up to Ballarat for a day of shopping before heading to retreat. I'll show you what followed me home in another post. Uploading the photos, I've realised I didn't take very many. What a bad blogger I am! I was having to much fun to think about it.

What do you think of Melody's new do? Princess Magenta was having a wonderful time!

In fact, she was having such a great time, she lost concentration and stitched her ear plug cord to her project!

 Those owls are made by Maddy of Woomba Woomba. That's Adrienne concentrating hard!

 Of course, retreats are all about the food and we were certainly well fed. Saturday we had white chocolate and raspberry muffins for morning tea.
I think Mel got a photo of those!

 Sunday was scones!

 Claire (Matching Pegs), myself and Mel
enjoying morning tea.

This is what I worked on. I put all the blocks together for my Great Granny quilt. I didn't have enough of the white fabric for the sashing. Silly me had been using the tutorial by Lori Holt. I bought the amount of white she suggested. But when I looked at her quilt, Lori had made nine blocks. I made sixteen! Once I get some more white, it shouldn't take me long to finish the top.

I worked on a bit of stitchery on Sunday.

I think this sums up the weekend!

 

Thank you Mel for being a great travelling companion. Thank you also to the wonderful committee who made the retreat the great one it is. To the NOTY girls, thank you to you all for your friendship over the weekend.

Friday Night With Friends!

It's Friday Night With Friends time again hosted by the lovely Cheryll (Gone Stitchin'). But my FNWF is going to be huge this month. It will start Friday morning and finish late Sunday afternoon!

 

I'm off on the North of the Yarra Quilters (NOTYQ) retreat with my lovely friend Mel and all the other ladies at NOTY. So in between all the shopping, chatting, laughter and eating, I hope to get lots of sewing done.

I'm all packed. That box has all my projects (along with the munchies) for the weekend. Don't know how much I will get done but I do plan to work hard. Now stop laughing. I can still sew while talking and eating! LOL!

This is Mel's first time coming on retreat with us. I'm know she is going to have a wonderful time. We'll have lots to show you when we get back.

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop!

Welcome to my day at the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop. A big thank you to Madame Samm (Sew We Quilt) and Carol (Just Let Me Quilt) for organising this fun hop.

 For my project, I thought I would give it an Aussie touch. Kookaburras! When we were kids, we would sing the Kookaburra song.

 

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra.

Gay you life must be!

 

For my international visitors, this song was written by Marion Sinclair in 1932 for an Australian Round Song contest being held by the Victorian Girl Guides. Her Kookaburra song won. (Those were the days when gay meant something else!).

We often get kookaburras in the trees around the house and I still love to hear them "laugh".

I've been wanting to make this stitchery for such a long time and thought this was the perfect opportunity to make it. I had thought about giving this hanging to one of my Christmas swap partners but I've fallen in love with it! So, sorry girls. I'll be making you something else! LOL!

Let's have a little giveaway to celebrate!

Two Christmas ornaments with an Aussie theme. If you'd like a chance to win just leave a comment below. If you are a follower or become one, let me know in a separate comment for a second chance. Everyone is welcome to enter. I'll draw the winner at the end of the blog hop. Good luck!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my project. Pop over to today's blogs to see some more fun Ho Ho Ho projects.

Vroomans Quilts

Abyquilt

Life and Everthing Around It

Hill Valley Quilter

Traveling Quilter

Quilting Lines

The Reluctant Quilter

Pig Tales and Quilts

Teatime Creations

Ravelly1

 You can see the full schedule here.