Friendship Swap 2013 - Cheryll & Dee

 

Friendship - A way of showing someone how you feel

Communal Friendship - such as ours - Friendship in which friends 'gather' often to provide encouragement and emotional support between two or more people. That's us :)

World Happiness Experts say that people with friends are happier than most.

Empathy, sympathy, compassion and understanding form the basis of all friendships, Here we show the ability  to be ourselves and to select the gifts we think that another would like. Re-read the basics, colour choices, hobbies, likes and dislikes certainly form the ideas we have in our heads. Our common interests can form bonding friendships.



 

 

 

"R"

 

"R" - Rest your Teapot on this (came with 4 serviettes too!)

 

"I"

 

"I" for Ironing Cord Holder in my favourite colour - PURPLES - yey

 

 "E"

 

"E" Enjoy this Owl pattern (You bet I will ) and Enjoy some Chocky & Tea (Nom Nom Yum)

 

 

"D"

"D" - Dry your hands on these - there was a little OWL button on one - HOOT HOOT!!

 

 " S "

"S" Store your bags in this
 

 

Random  - For Cheryll

 

I chose this pic as a random thing for Cheryll to show how much I appreciate her swap ideas.

The Parcels :)

I'm still OOOOing and AHHHHHing

 

 

 

 

 

The Items are truly GORGEOUS

 

 

"F"

 

"F" - FIND your Needles and Pins

 

 

"N" - Notebooks

 

"N" - Note Paper and Sticky Notes with OWLS :)

 

 

Sorry the pictures went on all over the place - having problems with the internet connection this time. So you'll have to go back and forwards to have a look - it's worth it :))

 

THANK YOU Cheryll for sending me this wonderous parcel Khris for organising the FRIENDSSHIP SWAP again this year. It's certainly a wonderful way of expressing friendship.



Watch This Space - More Quilts to Make

How lucky am I? I have two beautiful grandsons and a third is on his way. No secrets here - my family (brothers included) are destined to be male dominated. My eldest brother and his wife have one son - probably thought that was enough and stopped. My own family consists of two boys and then lucky me, I had me a girl. My youngest brother has six - yes that's right - 6 boys!!! And now my own children look destined to follow suite. My father was one of three boys and Mum one of two girls, so you would think there would be some fairness and sharing of sexes. That is, at least some girls would come about - alas - like myself, there is one female per generation. My youngest son has two boys - both pictured, and suprise, suprise, there is another little boy is about to be born. He is coming to us next month!

Jordan's Donkey :))

This is JB - my eldest grandchild, who at 6 - almost 7 (not till December 10th) Nanna. He loves everything his Daddy likes. That is cars and motorbikes. He also loves hats - again like his Dad, and has amassed an amazing collection of them and little cars. The picture below shows him in his bedroom at Dad's. I started him off with some pirate things, and he seems to have got carried away with those too....or more probably his Dad. LOL.  He loves coming to see his Daddy and I think his favourite food is Mcdonalds, though he does adore chocolate milk and icecream. Have all the bits and pieces to do a Donkey quilt designed by Hot Possum for him in his favourite colours. Even though he is a big boy now, he still loves colour and animals !

This cheeky little chap is MJ, who will be two on November 1st. His smile lights up any room, and his enormous blue eyes which are exactly like Mummies, are gorgeous. Not sure why the car is in his mouth, probably cause his Mum calls him motormouth :)) Always welcomes his Nan and Pa will a cuddle and kiss. Runs to the door and swoops on us - just lovely !! The photo above shows him in his element, he also loves cars and is always mucking around with Daddy while he paints and fixes up mini-trucks. Dad is like his own father - they both love motorcycles - seems to be a thing with all the makes in my family! Think little MJ may talk his Dad into getting him a motorbike, quicker rather than later. This little man loves his food - anything at all - and everything is his favourite. The kind of kid everyone loves to have around too. If they can make more like him, I'll take six - LOL. MJ's new quilt is half way finished and features stars and stripes in the brightest of greens, blues and a bit of red thrown in for impact.



This is the latest little man on the right in his latest scan. Due in August and we can't wait to meet him! We may not be able to wait, but mother nature says we have to, so we will wait till Mummy obliges. In this image he is waving to his Daddy LOL. Now I will have to get busy and design another quilt for this little fellow. Have pretty well decided on wild animals. Have a great quilt to complete and a Giraffe Sketch to embroider on another blanket. Any ideas on some simply made toys would be appreciated as I know little presies from the baby to the big boys will make having a new member of the family more welcome by them. Have thought of toy bags, but maybe someone has some other great ideas they want to share with me.

Chat again soon - Quilty Hugs - Dee :))

Happy Birthday to Self - LOL

Who said birthdays are fun? Some certain hubby rubbing extra year in face at every occasion - wait buddy cause you've only got a few more years till your next large milestone birthday - OKAY !!! Hear me buddy!! And I WILL write about it on my blog in October - hear me? Anyway at least he remembered and left my birthday presie I selected and laybyed for him to go get so he could say he bought it, only to have to go and pay and collect - then he leaves it in a drawer at my Mum;s home !!! So I did a little retail therapy of my own, some nice new sheets - in a lovely purple shade of course, chocys, oil burner, neck pillow and a yummy mega chocolate birthday cake later - I came home :))

Had just spent a couple of nights with my daughter as her navy hubby was away and had a little girl time with her and hubby just had to go to his sports club on Saturday - my birthday - so I said, go - stuff around and I will go visit my nephew and nieces (adopted by me by choice) and have a cuppa with their Dad as well, Mum was at work :(( shame that - we always have a great chinwag. Then the shopping where I bought an enormous amount of fruit and veg :)) Except when I got home and opened the apples - there was mega soft bits on them - shame veggie shop - shame !!

I had a presie from my bro and sisinlaw - gorgeous stuff she made me - decorated a bag, a triangular doorstop and a hand made wood and glass display for my wall :)) Thanks Nique & Baz. Funniest thing is - we are decorating the same bags :))) So much of our craft at the moment is exactly the same and we live hundreds of kilometres away from each other - amazing again that soe of the items are so close in making its scary lol

This pic is sooooo true LOL

My kids rememberd me this year too - thanx for the sms's - I am soooo worthy of them. Hubby came home and rushed off to have a shower - let's go out and have dinner and go to the movies - so I checked the movies - went through them and stated them out loud - nup not that one - his Lordship says - nope that;s a kids prgram - funny that since it's school holidays again - nup, nup, nope, oh yeah that one - Snow White and the Huntsman. Soooo grown up. So dinner we had - lovely steak and a beer at the pub - yep - the pub and then went to check in at the cinema - WT????? A two hour wait, so we headed back to the pub, which is closest to the cinema and waited for a bit before deciding that 9.25pm was another 1..25 hours away and journeyed home. Have tried again to see it - another two hour wait - must be my old bones - can't walk quick enough to get there so miss out LOL



I particularly like this one - thanx a lot!!

A great quote I like is - The best way to remember your wife's birthday is to remember it once !!

One I made up is - Your birthday lasts 366 days a year - as you never age a day till the next birthday !! Who goes around saying I am 50 years, 8 months, and three weeks and 4 days ???? So 50 for all that time is very good huh? And once you reacdh 50 you are legally allowed to go backwards My choice and I am sticking to it !!!



Am so lucky to have friends, personally, on Facebook and via my Blog. have have heaps of well wishes - it's been awesome - so thank you all very very much -  mwah !!!! Life isn;t so serious when you can chat to a friend. I wrote to a lady only a month or so ago - and feel we have a lot in common already. I know when I am writing I can share funny anedotes, stories and read what you say and hope I respond with care, lightheartedness, fun, concern and all the emotions I feel from your notes.





Well it's time to be off and enjoy another round of cr** on the television and then off to bed.. Am doing some craft whilst I 'watch; - can cope well that way. That's a noisy square shape with pictures flashing on and off in it - at the moment there is a cougar that just caught a large bird and is crunching on it - lovely - :( glad I have already eaten my dinner.......



Dee

Day One of " The Trip"

Leaving Sydney at 8am

Silly really. Fancy leaving from the Sydney end of the expressway at almost peak time. Soooo much traffic boths ways - going up to the expressway to travel toward the City and Coast or southerly to places like Epping  and Parramatta (no way) . Thank goodness we had to turn off onto the M7 to go south after what we saw and sat in below. This, the shortest of trips took over an hour when normally its about 15 minutes travel.

Bumper to bumper, pouring rain. What a way to start a holiday. Figures though for the Lord and I to always pick such glorious weather to travel in. Should we be lucky that the weather would grace us with a peak of sunshine? Maybe.

We luck out most times - Hurricanes in Queensland - Bush Fires in Perth (never got there), chose Hamilton in New Zealand - earthquakes, Kobe in Japan - tsunami and Fiji - flood time but before we could book on our first ever (never gone now) holiday overseas, Mother Nature took her temper tantrums out in mega style. Sigh. Is it our lot in life to stay close to home?

Well not this time! It can rain all it likes. We have umbrellas, warm Ugg boots, jackets, and many layers of clothes to see us through whatever Mother Nature wants to send to NSW and Victoria. We even have a gas stove, kettle and tea bags so we can have a cuppa whenever the time arises that we require one.

So many photos to share but thought you would like to see what happened when we stopped at a little town called Jugiong in NSW. There had obviously been a flood in the township in the prior few weeks. The barrier rails had been lowered. This is to facilitate any debri being able to float across the bridge without etting stuck on it and the railing that normally protects cars from driving off it!

Bridge to Jugiong.

Before we actually got to the bridge we happened on a man riding an unusual mount !!!!!

Jack on A Roo :)

A rather old rusty man and his mount - a very large red kangaroo. The original Jack on a Roo..... a pun here ok??? Jack a roo.. Okay some won't understand but those who do should have a great laugh.

Happy Oxen :))

You can see the grass on the legs of these 'oxen' how far the water rose from the river to the old Truck Service Station.



I am sitting in a motel room at the mo, with the air conditioner on warm - actually very warm. The dial says 30 degrees celcius. Methinx not. We also have the advantage of electric blankets - something I normally don't use. Overheats moi and his Lordship. So I may have to turn it on to warm those blinking cold cotton sheets as the temperature is supposed to be zero tonight. But as the ever so bright and cheerful if somewhat unhelpful (Paris Hilton type) weather girl stated tonight - bright and sunny tomorrow at 17 degrees. Haha. Thanks for that - we are travelling farther south tomorrow.

I had to go out from the motel to purchase a meal. Round and round a growing city - that is Albury.

As I was driving I happened to glance to the left - a sign said PATCHWORK !!!! My 4WD took itself around the road to the left and then up Macauley Street, Albury to the patchwork shop - Avonleigh Country Quilting.

I just happened to 'require' some fabric to do some hexagons with while I am away - uh huh - and purchased three fat eighths of pink and rose print type quilting fabrics for $9.00. Served by a lovely lady who gave me their business card. 

If you would like to see more have a read of their BLOG at http://www.avonleighcountryquilting.com.au/

Had to add the following pic for all to see. This is the Albury Information Centre. Very helpful staff :)

And the very beautiful and well looked after Albury Train Station in its sunny glory. Gorgeous huh.

Now this weary traveller is off to shower and have a well deserved rest. Goodnight and Adious till the moro my friends - Dee

Swaps - For Friendship and Kinship Patchwork

I have always wanted to be involved in a swap with someone else. Maybe even become great penpals or rather emailbesties :)
One I have been reading quite a lot about is Sew Phrim Khris.
Khristina - Khris has been doing this for some time coming up with words which initials are used as things to swap.

For example :-
C - Chocolate - this can be chocolate coloured fabric, chocolates themselves,  always appreciated by patchworkers/quilters alike, chicken - a pattern perhaps
B - bag pattern, blue fabric, bugs

You must be vigilant though - because YOU chose to join a group means YOU must follow through. Swap packages must be sent by the dates given, Packages themselves to include useful and thoughtful things that YOU yourself may like to receive from someone.

I can't wait to 'meet' my swap partner and have already got great ideas for this years SWAP :)) So excited

You can follow Khris's great blog for yourself even if you don't wish to join a Swap Group - you might like to purchase one of her patterns, read her blogs or just write a note and say Hi!

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I am off to Victoria's Great Ocean Road tomorrow - we have waited so long to visit. After cancelling a time or two, we get to actually travel together. So close before yet so far .... could have travelled by myself but what fun would that be when two people have been waiting to do this trip for quite some time to do this together. Would be a little cruel to blab about the great time one's had - would it not?

Great Ocean Road - towards Lorne

Aerial View - Great Ocean Road

Hope I can get some great photos like the above ones from Victoria Tourism :))) Looking forward to seeing whats left of the Twelve Apostles before there isn;t any left to see.

And whilst travelling, t'would be a true shame not to stop and peruse some Patchwork shops - now wouldn't it? LOL. I beleive there is 180 shops throughout Victoria.  Threadneedle Craft at Daylesford,  The Patchwork TeaHouse at Warburton,  South Fabrics at Euchua, Riviera Patchwork at Bairnsdale, and any others I am almost driving past - watch out - I'll be visiting :)))))

Till I'm back to you - Cheers Dee

Bags from Fat Quarters or Fabric Scraps

My friend D and I had some left over strips we had cut to make something or rather for and D decided to give me a quick and easy idea for a lovely bag.. What do you think of this one?
I have another almost completed that my friend Jo and I started together in peach colouring :))
I love all types of bags, have designed a couple and just sold my very first KIT !!!!

Quilting Books from Amazon n more

September is Spring in Australia

And Spring starts an onslaught of birthdays.. My daughter has her birthday next Wednesday 14th - Happy Birthday KB. My adopted 'granddaughter' Stephanie is 5 two days later and I have made the little lap quilt in the picture for her. I was to have finished it ages ago - but she had a thing for Dora Explorer so my quilt idea didnt fit in at the time. The red and white theme came about because thats one of her favourite colours. The little Redwork ladies where done by a lady named Maureen from eBay. I should have asked my Mum Anne to do them I suppose because she has embroidery sewing machines that would have done these. She is so busy making things for her market stall , ahe doesnt have much time. I hope she will soon complete some so I can sell them on http://www.ebay.com.au/ or http://www.oztion.com.au/.for her. As you can see they are so appropriate for a little girl. She has had a party every year - as an only child her Mum spoils her so much lol - so I will give it to her on the 18th, If you have an queries on how to obtain the pre embroidered machine stitcheries - please dont hesitate to contact me.. Again I did some stippling at the Quilting Mouse at Worrigee Nowra.

Until tomorrow - nite all Hugs from Dee

My Quilt Diva Wall Hanging

This is m,y beautiful Quilt DIva made in my image LOL. Made with purple hair, pink glasses and many add ons not originally on the pattern - thats poetic licence for me :) Found some wonderful charms in the shape of hands with Hand Made wrtten on them, these can be bought from me on http://www.ebay.com.au/ under my.hummingbird.   I managed to track down some extremely small cotton reels too from http://www.oztion.com.au/ for the necklace, the smallest buckles ever from a quilt shop in Nowra, NSW for the shoes and a gorgeous badge stating I Love Quilting which I found on eBay too. I did all the stipple quilting at The Quilting Mouse in Worrigee, NSW. You can contact Di via http://www.facebook.com/ under the Quilting Mouse for costs.
The designer of this ecletic wall hanging is the wonderfully talented Amy Bradley at http://www.amybradleydesigns.com/. There are many quirky and fun projects for you to enjoy, so please have a look on her website for more. You can follow Amy's pages for photos of the same hanging in other quilters interpretations. Amy would love to see what you have come up with.       
Chat again  soon - Hugs Dee

A New Beginning

The very first blog for Quilt n Craft Diva starts today - a glorious Spring day in the mountains of NSW. Hello and welcome. My name is Dee (Diane) and I love crafts of many kinds. I have so enjoyed reading some wonderful Blogs by amazing Craftswomen on the internet and wanted to be able to share some great links, ideas and craft that I have found by sharing what I have learnt and I am learning all the time! I have wonderful friends who love their crafts and have great creative abilities, and hope they will add their tidbits to this blog as we go along, I love to learn and believe we can all learn more each day. I have resurrected my knitting skills and am currently knitting Boottees and Beanies for our two local hospitals premature 'Premmie Babies' wards. My current patchwork creation is for a 9 month old boy's cot - a quilt and cot liner in stars, stripes and dots in a lime green base. As I go along I will take photos of the fabrics I am using and share the design with you as well. My Bead work is fairly new as I have only used this medium as an add-on my wall hangings so far. I also do stitcheries too and love the idea of a single colour being used as an emphasis. Freebies are another fav and I hope to offer them from time to time.