A Heart from Chiara

A while ago I sent a magazine and some fabrics to Chiara in Italy ..... and this is what she sent me as a thank you. Isn't the sheep adorable? ... and I love the wire hanger with it's little bow. I wonder how she knew I liked red and white? Thank you Chiara - it's perfect.



Yesterday when I was trying to catch up on some blogs I found that Helena in Sweden is celebrating the opening of her new quilt studio. Lucky lady! She has giveaways each day and a free pattern. Pop over for a look.

A Sally for Tali

My niece Tali recently turned eight and this is the Sally doll I made her.



The pattern is from Rosalie Quinlan Designs, although I did simplify the applique. Of course, the moment I took her outside to be photographed Oliver appeared to fulfill his quality control inspection. He seemed to approve!



Tali's favourite colour at the moment is purple. I'm pleased to say I found all the supplies to make Sally in my stash, including this ceramic button. I even managed to needleturn the heart ... it's not too bad if you don't look too closely!



I choose this muted green fabric for the pantaloons and used purple DMC thread to quilt the pinafore.



The 'scariest' part was doing the face ... I was very relieved not to mess it up!



Before she went off to live in Tali's bedroom, Sally spent some time hanging out with the first Sally I made back in February. Sally No 2 was painted with tea to give her a more aged appearance.



I also gave Tali this tin I found at Spotlight ....



and filled it with lots of crafty bits and pieces. Tali loves to create too and is gradually building up a nice little stash of supplies.

A Few Thank You's

I have been very slack in not showing these goodies sooner. A couple of weeks ago a very intriguing parcel arrived from Sweden and my blogging friend, Stina. Inside were all these lovely Tilda items ... Stina knows I adore Tilda and that this brand is not available in Australia so I was 'over the moon' to receive them. I love the Vintage Angel and will enjoy doing the delightful stitcheries. Thank you so much, Stina. (Click on the picture for a closer look at all this gorgeousness.)



Oliver and I were recently nominated for the Brillante Weblog Award by the 'quirky quilter' and her cat Lestat and also by Leanne of Lizzie's Page. Quirky is a blogger from Western Australia, a primary school teacher and a new blogger to me. These are the kind words she wrote:

'Christine’s blog makes me smile. I enjoy reading what she writes and looking at all the eye candy she posts…whether it is something she has made, a WIP, somewhere she has been and especially Oliver. Nice to know that I don’t have the only crazy quilting cat in Australia! This blog has Lestat’s vote too…besides being a quilting cat, he is a bit of a blogger, too!'



Thanks Quirky and Leanne. I am supposed to nominate 7 more blogs but just 7 is impossible for me. If your blog is listed on my sidebar consider yourself nominated. I love visiting you all ... blogland is so inspiring.

Last night I signed up for Chookyblue's 2008 Secret Santa Christmas Swap. I enjoyed following this swap last year when I was just a 'lurker' ... this year I will be part of the action! I imagine it will fill up quickly so get on over to Donna's blog if you want to be involved.



Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Peg's Challenge Summary

Peg has asked that all the participants in her challenge do a post showing the projects they finished in July. I managed to complete four things ... I guess that's not too bad.

1. Christmas Ornaments .... these were sent to Kymberly in the US.

2. Christmas Wallhanging ... this was made for the Material Girls Christmas in July swap. Dianne stitched the sweet little snowmen and I had to finish them into a wallhanging for her. The light fabrics look much crisper in real life.

I enjoyed working with the blue and white palette ...

and found this card with snowmen and quilted stars to accompany the gift.



3. Stina's PIF Tablerunner ... this is the PIF gift I made for Stina. Sorry it's such a yucky photo. Will show some close-ups of the stitcheries in a future post. It is a Viv Robinson design from a Country Threads magazine and I used Simplicity charm squares.



4. Redwork Tablerunner ... my redwork version of Rose's Summer Garden tablerunner.



Thanks to Peg for organising the challenge .... it was obviously very popular and inspired/motivated a lot of bloggers. Good luck to everyone in the prize draws