MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY EARLY RESOLUTION!

Merry Christmas, everyone. I have been a bad blogger this year. Too busy reading all of the many blogs I follow! Well I am determined in the New Year to blog at least once a fortnight, and hopefully be able to show you what I have been sewing.

Once all of the festivities are over and we are into 2012, I will make sure to have a nice giveaway to celebrate my return to blogging, and of course it will be open to everyone, no matter where you live ( as long as it is on Earth!!-LOL)

I wish everyone the most wonderful Christmas, and hope you get to spend it with your loved ones.
To those who have had a difficult year with illness and such, my prayers for a return to good health in the coming year.
Christmas Hugs from Sandy.and Honey Bear -aka Honeybunny.

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY

Hi Everyone, thanks for you lovely comments.
I am about to draw the winner, here goes........

5

Random numbers generated Apr 15 2011 at 5:55:33 by www.psychicscience.org
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magi

Number 5 is Karen from Karen's Korner!!!
Congratulations, Karen, I will email you for your snail mail address.
Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and entering. hugs, Sandy.

you will notice that the blog post has 14th April but this draw was done today 15th as shown by the random number generator. :)

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY.

Hi Everyone! Well, as promised I am having a giveaway to celebrate my birthday this month.
I have a lovely bag pattern "Dizzy Dizzy Dragonfly" by Natalie Ross, a very talented Aussie designer. I will also include a fat quarter in a pretty aqua design, along with the DMC threads required for the stitchery, and maybe a couple of little surprises as well! :)
No tweeting, facebooking etc, requires. If you would like to blog about it and tell your friends that is great! Otherwise, just leave a comment. I will  randomly draw form comments from now until midnight AEST Thursday April 14th and will draw a winner on !5th.
This giveaway is open to anyone no matter where you live! Good luck, and thanks for visiting my blog.
Hugs to all, Sandy.

BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY.

Hi! Well the blog hop was a great success and we have a lot of lovely new members on Our Craft Forum. The winner of my giveaway, Clare of Clares Craftroom has chosen the FQ and surprises.
I have several new followers all thanks to the blog hop so I decided to have a draw of just my followers there are really 37 but as my daughter does not do crafts (just wants to know what DM is up to, hehe) I drew from 36 and would you believe it was a low number again? here it is, I wrote them down as they appeared on the followers pics on my sidebar :)

1

Random numbers generated Mar 1 2011 at 13:26:13 by www.psychicscience.org 
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.
 The winner of the tea for two panels is Wendy B- I will send you an email  now for your snail mail addie.
Thanks to everyone who is a follower, I will have another giveaway in April.

BLOG HOP IS OVER AND A WINNER.

Hi Everyone! Thank you for all the lovely comments, and also my new followers. It has been a wonderful experience, being part of this blog hop. I am fairly new to the blogging world, and I have learnt a lot in the past few days. A big thank you to Gail ( miss-nance) for organizing everything, stay tuned, there is talk of it becoming an annual event. :)
It is the wee small hours here, but I decided to do the draw for my giveaway as I need to go out early in the morning.
I would like to let you know that I have read every comment, and even if you didn't leave a separate comment to let me know you joined the forum, as long as you mentioned it in the single comment, you have been given an extra entry. They are numbered in order of being received, and I noticed that a couple of you thought you were first to comment, but that was only because the comments were waiting moderation before they appeared on my blog page.
I don't know how to put the random number generator on this post, so I used another site for the random draw that I am hoping I can copy and paste here, so here goes:- there were 75 entries.
2

Random numbers generated Feb 28 2011 at 2:16:21 by www.psychicscience.org
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic. The winner is number 2  that is Clare from Clares Craftroom.
Congratulations Clare, I will contact you regarding your choice of prize. :)

I will be having a giveaway in April to coincide with my Birthday, so please come back and visit again.
I will try to visit  all of your blogs in the near future and look forward to getting to know all of you who are our new forum members.
Hugs to all, Sandy.

OUR CRAFT FORUM BLOG HOP STARTS TODAY!

Thank you for joining Our Craft Forum's blog hop!. So what is " Our Craft Forum"? a craft forum for like minded people who love crafts. mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It's a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some fun and a little bit of laughter along the way & to join in on swaps of all types.

This weekend is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and invite you to be part of our forum.

Several of the members will be offering tutorials, giveaways and some tips of the trade.

The blog hop starts at miss-nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to

   http://missnance.blogspot.com/ and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.

Each person who joins our forum from this blog hop will go in the draw for a craft pack. So to join our forum, please go to

http://ourcraftforum.freeforums.org/ and register.

Entries close at MIDNIGHT EDST (Sydney time) Sunday 27th February.

So join in the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog and new friends along the way.

You never know, you may even learn something new or win a great prize!

I have a little hint to share with you, it is not my own idea, I have read it somewhere recently but can't remember where otherwise I would give credit to the person who posted it.

A temporary design wall can be made by attaching a flannel backed tablecloth to a door ( flannel side out) -I have not tried this yet but it sounds a good idea.

I am offering a giveaway on my blog. The winner will have a choice of a panel called ' Tea for Two" by Yuko Hasegawa for RJR fabrics,

there are 8 separate cushion sized prints all different featuring, tea cups, mugs, glasses etc. would make great placemats, runner, little hanging etc, OR a choice of a surprise pack which would include a pretty FQ and ? and some? and perhaps a ?.

The winner can let me know what they would prefer. Please do not comment BEFORE midday today, as only the comments after that time will go in the draw.

If you join the craft forum and let me know I will give you an extra entry, please make sure I am able to contact you.

I hope you enjoy visiting all the lovely ladies in this blog hop and hope you become one of new friends on the forum.

Thanks for visiting my blog I hope you come back again.

Your next stop on the hop is over at the lovely Norma's blog at  

    http://normascraft.blogspot.com

OUR CRAFT FORUM BLOG HOP

This weekend Our Craft Forum is hosting a blog hop, from Noon Friday 25th to Midnight Sunday 27th February. EDST. So what is " Our Craft Forum"?- a craft forum for like minded people who loves crafts. Mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It's a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some fun and a little bit of laughter along the way & join in swaps of all types.
This weekend is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and to invite you to be part of our forum.
Several of our members will be offering tutorials, giveaways and some tips of the trsde.
The blog hop starts on miss-nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to
http://missnance.blogspot.com/ and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.
Each person who joins our forum from this blog hop will go in the draw for a craft pack. So join in on the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog and new friends along the way. You never know, you may even learn something new or win a great prize!!!

BLOG HOP

Hi everyone. Just want to let you all know I am participating in a blog hop with some lovely ladies from our craft forum. It starts on Friday 25th Feb, and there will be giveaways. so stay tuned. :)

SO PROUD TO BE AN AUSSIE!!!!!

Hi everyone, well what a beginning to the new year! Floods, fires, cyclones. So many tragedies. To watch the aftermath of the Queensland floods was heartbreaking. My hometown of Ipswich suffered badly. I have not lived there since I was a young girl, but have relatives there,  a couple  of them who are very elderly and I am so grateful that they are safe.
Then to see the awesome rescue people, and the ones that sheltered, clothed and fed everyone, you are truly Angels on Earth. I think you are just awesome!!!! no praise would suffice!
I also know that things have not been so good over there in the U.S. in fact I have a penpal (several in fact for nearly 20 years) and my friend in Georgia has had snow for the first time in 128 years!!!!!
It is just so wonderful also to see the help from bloggers, not only in Australia, but overseas-( Cyndi at bluebirdswing) is one I know that has made and donated a quilt and many others have helped out too! you are so kind and generous, and I am sure there are many others. All of us Quilting/Craft  people really know how to pitch in and send help and love to those in need!!! You are all wonderful.
There have been collections of soft toys (hugglies) from  Leanne at stittchselection.blogspot.com and also there  are many ladies  making up sewing kits, in a drawstring bag, which will include perhaps, a couch companion, scissors, threads, needles, FQ's, pins and so on to at least let our fellow stitchers have start on perhaps keeping their minds off their problems even if for a little while. I am sure, even knowing that there is someone thinking of you and your plight must be a great help.!
A lot of ladies also had online auctions of their quilts!
You probably know that I am quite new to blogging, just finding my way around. I have no grandkids living near here to be the experts-lol. so I am just muddling along..... I,  however am following a lot of blogs. and enjoying them  so much.
 Gail ( missnance.blogspot) is setting something up, which might end up with myself and others having more lovely followers., through a blog hop.Anyway, I have decided after going in so many giveaways on the many blogs I visit, that I will have a really nice giveaway in April, to coincide with my birthday, and because of the generosity of most bloggers, it will be open to anyone anywhere  in this big wide world.  Blogging has opened my eyes to so much and the creativity and generosity of my fellow bloggers. For anyone who is interested in donating/ sending sewing implements, etc fot the sewing kits,  please contact
jennyof elefanz(at)yahoo(dot)com  or
purpleflowerpatch(at)gmail(dot)com

Thank you fellow bloggers, you are the best. Hugs to you all!  Sandy!!!

Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Xmas, and that this year will bring good health, happiness and of course, lots of time to pursue your favourite hobbies.
Thanks to a very special person who has helped me sooo much, I have a lovely new header! Isn't it pretty?? I am chuffed!!!!
There is a great giveaway by Vicki of thepickledishpatch.blogspot! with lots of beaut stuff to be won by some lucky person. Good luck!
Not much happening at the moment with my sewing. I have found that making paper pieced hexagon flowers is very addictive, and I have a Bronwyn Hayes stitchery ready to start! Then there are some fab free BOM's again this year so there will be so much to choose from! and I won't even think about those ufo's that are lurking around the place!!! Where to start?.................
More next time! happy stitching. hugs from Sandy.