That was a month, that was!!!!!

Hello all my faithful and patient followers. I am feeling a little guilty that I tell you at the end of May that I will be updating soon and it is July before I get around to it. However I have a reasonable excuse and I know that I will not forget June 2011 in hurry.
To bring you all up to date, as many of you will not know, I had to fly off to the UK in a rush as my mother died rather unexpectedly, on June 2.  I had not seen my mother or been back to England for 13 years, so the whole trip was quite emotional on a number of levels. However, the beauty of England never ceases to amaze me and at that level was most inspiring. My family comes from the heart of Sussex and lives on a hundred acre farm which consists of  about 60 acres of working grain farm and 40 acres of woodland, which, in spring, comes alive with bluebells and primroses. The area teams with wildlife of course, and within the first couple of days I had seen squirrels, a family of pheasant, (daddy, mummy and 2 babies), a couple of foxes, a young deer frolicking through the oats ... .well you get the idea.  Unfortunately I didn't get many landscape photos, but I will pop 2 on here that I took of a couple of fields.

Overlooking a field of young corn to the woods on one side:

and looking over a field of young oats on the other

with a footpath between the 2 that leads through the farm to the village.  It is wonderful being able to go back 'home' and stay in such beautiful tranquil surroundings, listening to the sounds of the English songbirds.  It makes one not want to come back to the noise and bustle of the city.
My mother is buried in the village churchyard surrounded by trees, with birds singing and overlooking a field with grazing sheep.  It is such a beautiful, peaceful spot and I know if she had picked where she wanted to buried, she would have picked it for herself.

 ____________________________________________________

Moving on.  I arrived home to a sick daughter, who, incidently, turned 18 while I was away, and decided to develop a raging temperature withing 24 hours of me getting home ... thank you sweetpea for saving your sickness for mum .... and passed it on to me, though I didn't get whatever-it-was as badly as she did, though combined with jetlag did make me feel pretty grotty.

Then to top it off, I find that Google, in their wisdom (or is that stupidity) had messed around with one of their accounts, of which I, in this instance, am unfortunate to have as it had never supported blogger before. It was set up in a different account but using the same email address, which Google now decided to separate. To cut a long story short so I don't bore you to tears, they requested that I update and move my blog so that I can use it with my account. Does it work? No!!! Everytime I log in it tells me that I am not the author of any blogs and would I like to create one. Huh!!! So I then have to set up a new email address so I can access my blog.  I am telling you all this incase there is anything different about my blog that you notice, (maybe the email or blog address?), and wonder why.  However, now that I am able to access my account again, I will try and update a little more consistently as I know I have been rather remiss recently.

Apologies for absenteeism!!!!

I would like to apologise to you all for not updating my blog for about 6 weeks ... it is not that I haven't done anything, rather that I have been doing so much I have barely had time to keep up with my emails ... or housework ... and certainly very little crafty stuff, though I do have a few bits and pieces to show you, once I upload the photos to my laptop.
However, it appears that things may begin to quieten down over the next week or so and therefore, hopefully, I will soon be able to resume normal activities and get some serious craft happening ;)
So, to all my dear friends and followers, please don't give up on me yet .... I will be back soon.

Giveaways

There are some lovely giveaways online at the moment and I particularly love this one from Raggedy Station ... a gorgeous bundle of Black and White fat quarters and a beautiful lace button.

Mug Wraps and Coasters

Thought it was about time for a post so I thought I would show you the swap I did recently with a friend from the forum.

The swap was a mug wrap and coaster set and I had never made one of these before, so it was a bit of trial and error from a novice.  However, I finally got it together and was reasonably happy with the results.  I used insulbrite as the wadding to give a bit more insulation for the wrap, though I don't know what my excuse is for using it in the coaster ...... just brain-deadness I suspect.  ;D

Here are some pics of the beautiful set I received from Leanne.

 

 

Here is the set I made for Leanne.  It is reversible.

And the winners are .........

Well, it's still Monday. Just. As promised I have consulted Ms Random Generator and she picked out 2 winners for me.

The first winner is:

Quilt kitty

Tracee, would you like to choose which gift you would like
and your fabric choices and let me know.

The second winner is kimba4.

You will receive whatever Tracee doesn't choose, Kim,
but of course you will still get the fabric of your choice.

I look forward to hearing from you ladies and being able to send your gifts to you.

Hugs Terri  :) x

Nearly time for the draw.

Just thought I would remind everyone that my giveaway will be drawn tomorrow.

Here are some pics of what you could win, but to see full details and to comment, read my blog post: 'Giveaway' and/or 'Panic'

(1)Gorgeous Spice Market 

coupled with Metro Mirage from Marcus Fabrics

(2) Beautiful pink Loralie Paris Hats with pink Flutter

 (3)Some fun sewing-themed fabric

Hugs Terri :)

Panic!!!

Oh no!!! What to do!!! I promised myself that I would have a giveaway when I reached 50 followers.  Guess what??? here we are, in the middle of a giveaway and I got home from work today and there it was.

50 followers  :D

Thinking! thinking! Okay, I've thought! 
Here's what we'll do.  

I will draw 2 winners from the giveaway and then the first name drawn can choose between the pattern + fabric OR 4 fat quarters in the fabric of their choice from the 6 shown in the giveaway, and winner 2 can have have what winner one doesn't choose.  Does that make sense? Is that fair?

So, keep commenting everyone ....... oh yes, one more thing. In view of this unexpected happening, I will extend the giveaway and it will be drawn on Monday March 21st ... the day of the equinox and the
official first day of Autumn (in the Southern hemisphere)

Giveaway

Good morning all :D

Well, my blog appears to be running properly again. I will be making some changes to it over the coming days weeks, but for now it is fine, thanks to my lovely son.

So, on to the giveaway.

I have a lovely pattern, which I gave you a preview of yesterday, from Bizzy Bee Patchworks. There are 2 different sized sewing satchels on this pattern. It is to carry your small sewing items with you when on the move.

The satchels use 2 contrasting fabrics in the construction and based on the fact that we all have different tastes, I have chosen 3 different combinations of fabric and the winner can choose the one she/he prefers.  [Trying to be PC here ;-) ]

So these are your choices;

(1)Gorgeous Spice Market 

coupled with Metro Mirage from Marcus Fabrics

(2) Beautiful pink Loralie Paris Hats with pink Flutter

 (3)Some fun sewing-themed fabric

The winner will receive the fabric to make the larger of the sewing satchels.

All you need to do to have the chance to

win this giveaway is to leave a comment on my blog 

and I will pick a day, yet to be decided, when I will consult Ms Random.org 

and see who she chooses to be the lucky recipient.

Hugs Terri :)

Giveaway.

My #2 son turns 37 today, and I was going to have a giveaway.  Unfortunately, my blog seems to be having some commenting issues, and there's no point having a giveaway if nobody can comment.

#3 son is my techno child, and of course the whole family runs to him with their computer issues, me no less than anyone else. So I duly performed as expected, and he is going to have a look tonight and fix it up for me. Thank you sweetie. x x

Sooooooo!!!!!  I thought I would give you all an advance warning of a giveaway tomorrow, March 11.

Would  you like a little preview? Okay then.  Here is part of my giveaway.
I will add the fabric tomorrow.

Now remember, you can't actually enter this till the 11th, so check back tomorrow, and hopefully everything will be all fixed up and organised.

Hugs Terri x x

Andrea's Table Runner

Here is a pic of a table runner I am making for one of my daughters-in-law.  

 It is the first one I have made and I still have to put the binding on which
I am going to do in black.

 Red and black are her favourite colours and she is a Saints (St Kilda) supporter, so she can wear it round her neck during the footy season. ;D

I have backed it with red flutter.

 The same daughter-in-law wants me to make her a bag bag so I thought I would make her one from the left over fabric.

I took the risk of putting this up here because she doesn't go on the net very much, and I don't think she has ever looked at my blog.  Knowing my luck, this will be the first time she does.  Oh well!!!!!