It's Christmas again..... and again.... and again.... and again....

Yep, Christmas 4 times over! When hubby asked me what I'd like for Christmas, I sent him some links to a few of my favourite online stores and he chose to buy vouchers to all 4 places! So, not only did I get surprise vouchers for Christmas, I got to shop 4 times, and look forward to 4 packages in the mail. First to arrive was this lot of monaco from Fabtastic Fabrics:

Indian Paintbrush, Wicked Brew, Berry Frost & Hollyleaf Cherry

Next came my order from 123 Stitch:

Mantel Mischief by Imaginating, Gingerbread Street by Sue Hillis & Bear Christmas Ornament by Dimensions

Then I got my order from Steph's Fabbys:

Butterfly by AAN & Lady of the Lake thread

Then finally my order from Colour Cascade Fabrics, again both monaco fabric:

Pink & Purple ice dye & My Island Home

Some Christmas stash - for me!

I recently took advantage of a Christmas ornament fabric pack sale from one of my favourite hand dyed companies - Fabtatstic Hand Dyed Fabrics. Joni started up this company not long ago and has built her business up to a very high standard in a very short amount of time. I do believe I was her very first customer and will continue to buy from her as long as she can feed my addiction for hand dyed monaco fabric - my absolute favourite fabric to stitch on. Oh, and she is super friendly to deal with and will do her best to dye something to your specific needs too. Anyway, enough advertising for now :-).

The ornament pack was $12 US, plus very reasonable postage, and in return I got 6 pieces of mystery hand dyed monaco in sizes suitable for ornaments. Here they are, I am very happy with all of them and will use them all at some point.

Another craft show haul

I heard the original "Stitches & Craft Show" was back at Caulfield racecourse so decided I'd go, but with low expectations as I had seen the list of vendors and they were mainly patchwork/quilting ones. I was still disappointed with the number of stalls - they only took up one level and even then it seemed a smaller area than past years. I didn't bother to look at any of the quilt displays or check out the "make it and take it" area or any seminars - I went purely to shop. Even though there was only one cross stitch shop, I still managed to get some bits and pieces. Oh, and at said cross stitch shop, the very first chart I saw was for the hibiscus flowers I'd just finished! I didn't even know a hard copy existed. Anyway, here's my haul:

I really should learn to take good pics, but it would eat into my stitching time! I got a 3D card kit, 4 pieces of fabric - including 2 Batman ones for my Batman mad 16 year old son, a karate scrapbook cutout, black & white beads by the roll, 3 rolls of ribbon, black and red ruched edging for ornament finishing & 8 rolls of fancy sticker edges for scrapbooking/card making/to go into my stash and never been seen again ;-)

Fabric for sale!

I have cross stitch fabric for sale if anyone is interested. Aida, evenweave, linen, small, large, white, cream, colours & hand dyed. Actual postage costs are extra. I accept cash from Aussies, paypal or gift voucher to my choice of online store. Take a look if you like. Thanks.

Fabric stash :-)

Just a little stash purchase this time:

This pretty piece of fabric came from fellow Aussie Dyah Baiton - I came to know about her fabric through a facebook group she is a part of. She has her own facebook page where she sells her fabric, although I think it's a bit of a hobby more so than a business. As far as I'm aware, she doesn't have a store but will do a big dying session every so often then offer her fabric up for sale, or in this case a type of auction. It seems a few dyers do this - they will post pics of each piece with details, including price. If you are interested in going into a draw to win it, you just make a post indicating such below the picture. At the end of the sale period the dyer will choose a random winner to purchase the piece. You can add your name to as many or as few pieces as you like and if you happen to win a heap, you have the option of saying no to any/all and then she will do a redraw. I think I put my name down for a few, but this was my favourite and I happened to win the draw! I paid $12 plus $2 postage for it - very reasonable for a piece this big being shipped from an Aussie as we pay a fair bit more to get supplies here. Definitely check her out - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Stash haul from the Craft & Quilt Fair

I was in two minds about going to this and finally decided to go on Thursday - however Thursday turned out to be the next level of the inter-school t-ball competition and my son wanted me to watch him play again. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not but he was chosen to be in his school's "A" team for the inter-school competition. On the day they played 7 games against local schools and blitzed all 7 to win very comfortably overall. This meant they were the only team to go on to the next level, where they played one match against the winner of a nearby region. The blitzed this game too - something like 23 to 14 so they now go on to represent our region at the next play-offs with the winner going on to the state championships - fingers crossed! My son played really well both times, in fact the opposition's teacher made a special mention of his ball skills. He played on 1st base and his team worked really well together, the "pitcher" or short stop would retrieve the ball and throw it to him and they caught out several kids in this way.
Anyway, I'm getting distracted - today was my only real chance to go to the craft show so I made a last minute call to go after taking my son to karate. I'm glad I went as I bought more than I thought I would and my son was awesome despite the fact it was so not his thing. Here's my goodies:

 And a few close ups:

guitar & sort of snowflake earrings, "bottle brush" opalescent fabric

"uluru" opalescent fabric, "pond ripple" valdani thread

lime green evenweave banding, 2 x mini pom pom trims, small q-snap

leopard & guitar key rings

"orange blossom" valdani thread

mauve & pink scissors, white "snowflake" print evenweave, dusty pink evenweave banding

Birds, Bees & Butterflies exchange

A while back I joined a secret exchange - meaning the person I sent to didn't know who I was, and the person who sent to me was someone different. The theme was "birds, bees and butterflies" - we had to send one stitched item and 6 other things, a mix of cross stitch and general items on theme if possible. I had trouble finding things with birds on them - my partner really likes birds - and things in blue or autumnal shades - her favourites. I did however seem to find some things pertaining to the theme.

Here's what I stitched for the exchange. I could easily have stitched a butterfly, as I love them and there's so many pretty patterns around, but I chose to incorporate all three creatures. This pattern is a "cut & paste" mix of 4 different ones - a series of 3 from an old copy of "Cross Stitch Crazy" magazine, and a flower I found *somewhere* which I tweaked a little. Here's the end result:

Here's a pic of all the other bits and pieces I sent:

I included some gold plated needles, 2 skiens of variegated thread in autumn colours, a bird/autumn chart, some bee embellishments, butterfly ribbon, butterfly notepad, butterfly stickers, butterfly cake decorations, an owl pendant & some writing paper & envelopes featuring birds.

Stash purchase #3 of 3

I was worried this one might not make it as it took 3 weeks in transit from the USA. That's Australia Post for you. Also, I've also long suspected our postie just delivers when it is convenient as we don't get anything for days on end then suddenly quite a lot of mail all at once. Anyway, here's some beautiful silk floss from Carrie's Creations. From left to right is "aquamarine", "love always", "electric blue", "bubblegum", "cherry", "lagoon green", "boysenberry" & "orange zing". I'm pretty sure each 8 yard skein is only $2 USD - how cheap is that?

Stash purchase #2

I'm really pleased with this one, it's so pretty and will work perfectly with my blackwork butterfly finish. Be sure to check out Barb's great sewing, she sells tucks of various shapes and sizes - filled and unfilled, q-snap covers and bits and pieces.

Stash purchase #1

of several ;-). My credit card and stash pile were both feeling neglected so I decided it was time to splurge a little. Oh and it was my birthday so that's as good an excuse as any, right? The first package arrived today, 5 pieces of gorgeous fabric from Joni's new venture. I ADORE monaco fabric, I discovered it by accident and have gone out of my way to find suppliers of hand dyed monaco ever since. Enchanted Fabrics was one of them until they closed and my hunt began again - enter Joni. However, she has been having supply issues - from the manufacturer - so I stocked up just in case. Here's what I got:

From top to bottom, left to right, is:

• Bubblegum - a pretty mottled candy pink & white
• Cotton Candy Swirl - a pink, white & blue creation
• Poison Berry - a lovely wine/burgandy/claret kind of mixture
• Sea Mist - a lightly mottled minty mix
• Moroccan Clay - a terracotta/clay creation

Stay tuned for the next stash installment ;-)

Stash acquisition

Just a quickie - I wanted to share some pretty monaco fabric that found its way home to me recently. The large orange/pink piece is a facebook "daily deal" from Youthful Hands Needle Crafts. The 2 shades of purple are from Joni at Fabtastic Hand Dyed Fabrics. The lighter one was a solo piece and the darker one is called "The King's Threads".

Stash heaven!

I went on a little online shopping spree recently and the goodies are starting to arrive :-). Some of them were stash, others were stationery and of course some "bling" on ebay - earrings & charms. Here's the stash I got:

I got 8 Easter egg shaped tuck ornaments and 2 each of 3 different heart shaped ones. They came at just the right time as I have finished my latest project and was wondering what I could do while I waited for these to arrive. I am hoping to do some egg designs to fill the Easter ones, as gifts. These tuck ornaments came from Amy at Coloured Strings. I also got 5 skeins of silk thread from Carrie at Carrie's Creations.

Don't forget my yearly blogoversary contest is still running. The year long prize has been drawn but you can still enter the monthly one. You just need to be a follower and make a comment on any post in that month to win. Enter every month until you win!

Fabric acquisition

OK, so I've mentioned I don't sew before, right? So why do I find myself buying a remnant pack of fabric? Regular sewing fabric that is, not cross stitch fabric. The fact it was in pink tones? The fact it was only $7? Who knows! I seem to think that even though sewing machines and I don't mix, I will find a way to finish off my cross stitch pieces using fabric and other embellishments. Now I've made my first mini pillow, the sky just might be the limit. I'll keep you posted on that one ;-)

We have a winner! Or two!

Thanks for all the comments on my posts, I appreciate you all taking the time to post something nice. I had around 25 entrants for the competition - more comments than I usually get in 6 months! :-)

OK, so I've trawled through all those comments and put together a list of followers who commented, put the numbers into a random number generator and come up with the 12 month winner and the January winner. I wasn't sure that everyone who commented was a follower, and some didn't appear to be in my followers list, but their profile said they followed my blog so I'm not sure the best way to check. I just put all the names in anyway - if you can tell me the best way to check I'd be grateful.

Anyway - the winner of the 12 month prize was Carissa and the winner of the one-off January prize was Lori  - congratulations! I will contact you shortly, or you can email me with your full name and mailing details, and preference for fabric (aida, evenweave or linen) should I want to include fabric in your prize. I've yet to determine what they will be.

Don't forget it's another month - ARGH, already? 11 months to Christmas people ;-) - so another chance for the monthly one-off prize. Comment away!

Last day to enter my year long blogoversary contest!

Just a reminder to everyone that today is the last day to leave a comment for the chance to win the year long blogoversary contest I'm having. After today you can still enter the draw each month for the "minor" prize so don't forget to leave a comment each month. Take a look at the original post for the rules and info.

I will post the year long winner, as well as the monthly winner, late tomorrow as I will be a little busy with work and school going back.

Some Stitchy Bits & Pieces

Here's a progress pic of "Sweety", which I started on the 3rd of October 2012. It's working up quite quickly. I'm toying with the idea of stitching "Kim's Kitchen" under it, framing it in a white frame and hanging it in my kitchen.

On another stitching note, I took advantage of a sunny dyes fabric sale at youthful hands needle crafts  recently. I got the following fabrics, including this cute winter print. I can just see a snowman or two on it.

Stash Blowout

I recently heard about a massive sale on Imaginating charts at Colours Down Under - they were going for just $1 each! In fact, the sale is currently still on if you're interested. I bought 10 charts, and with $6.35 shipping, I paid a whopping $16.35. Bargain! I calculated the original price of all the charts and it came to $87.35, a saving of $77.35. Can't blame me for buying up big, can you?

Bargain Imaginating Charts

Colours Down Under are having an impressive April sale. All 6 pages of Imaginating charts are a whole $1 each. I bought 10, and would have bought more if several of them weren't out of stock. Shipping was reasonable too at $6.35. I bought the following:

CODE Product Amount Unit price Subtotal IMA-1904 Imaginating - Snowmen Gathering 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-1990 Imaginating - Cardinal Blessings 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-1991 Imaginating - Fun-Loving Fellows 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2560 Imaginating - Stacking Snowmen 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2559 Imaginating - Snow Babies 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2570 Imaginating - Jolly Snowmen 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2616 Imaginating - Another Day In Paradise 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2655 Imaginating - Music is Love 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2699 Imaginating - Keep Friends Close At Christmas 1 $1.00 $1.00  IMA-2704 Imaginating - Holiday Tweet Hearts 1 $1.00 $1.00

 

Not sure if/when I'll get around to stitching them, but who can pass them up at only $1? That is such a bargain for us Aussies.

Stash buying :-)

Just because it's Christmas and the season for giving, I gave myself a gift! Or 5 actually. But hey, I'm worth it ;-).
The three fabric pieces across the top are "Sunny Dyes" from Youthful Hands Needle Crafts. I had never heard of them until recently when they had a sale so I decided to try them out. I got "Coven", "Very Snowy Night" & "Strawberry Orange Sorbet". I also picked up a skein of this pretty green variegated thread at a quilt store I was browsing in recently. It's called "Sea Change" and comes from Cottage Garden Thread. Better still, it's an Aussie company! Last, but certainly not least is my favourite piece of fabric. So much so, it's probably going to sit in my stash because it's too nice to stitch on! I came across it on Stitchitandie's blog and fell in love. Turns out it's from a UK company I've ordered from before - Sparklies. This gorgeous opalescent piece is called "Innocent Princess". Merry Christmas to me! :-)

Colour Exchange

Recently I participated in a colour exchange that was organised by a message board member at 123 stitch. My partner was Amy in the U.S.A and her favourite colour is blue. Mine, of course, was pink! Here's what I sent to Amy:

* A patterned piece of fabric

* A magnetic snow globe that you add your own photo to

* A notebook

* A candle

* A packet of beads

* A pair of buttons

* A body sponge

* Do-it-yourself earing kit

* An insulated bottle cover

Here's what Amy sent to me:

* A polka dot photo frame

* A cupcake photo frame

* A couple of stamps 

* An ink pad

* Cupcake holder

* 10 skeins of thread

* Printed ribbon

* A cross stitch chart

and all the items came in a pretty box :-)