Winner of blog hop give away

There is a winner for the 8 fat quarters, this goes to Lynne from Never 2 hot 2 stitch, congratulations Lynne you can now start another project!!
Hope you had a merry christmas, the photos are from Hearst Castle in San Simeon, it was impressive :)

Shopping mecca !

Well window shopping that is! Rodeo drive prices are not for the faint hearted!  I got a cheap T shirt there, it was $50! LA is a blast, loads of fun things to do, we saw The Hobbit at the Chinese theatre and had dinner at Hooters ! The boys liked that ! I could spend a lot more time in LA :)

Blog hop party give away

Michelle from Quilting Gallery is having a birthday party blog hop and we are hosting a give away to celebrate, yay! 

I have some delicious goodies that you can have a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment and click the follow button, that's it and you are in ! This should be fun :) 

I have 8 lovely charm squares that are just waiting to be made up into something beautiful. 
Good luck and dont forget to check out the other party goers at Quilting Gallery :)
 the larger font is a result of my deteriorating eye sight, dang it ! 

I'm still here !

I am still here, I am wondering if I will be able to work out how to do this move properly, I think I will need someone to help me! In the meantime I have had a busy week with work and there has been a couple of xmas parties, we had our sewing group lunch at the shop, it was lovely to see all the ladies together. Tomorrow afternoon our ICU has a boat cruise down the river, so that will be a lovely way to     celebrate :) So not a lot of time left for blogging! I am putting together some pinwheel squares in some fresh coloured fabric, so that will keep me busy also :)
Anyway hope you are having a great weekend and find! some time to relax before the xmas rush!

I am moving

Its official I am moving to word press, I have set up the migration, but just need to tweak a few things to get it right, so you still get my posts, and I keep my reading list, but then I am done :) hope you will be patient with me while I do this ! I may need some tech help ! Anyone ?
Its hot as hell here, yesterday topped 40 c even the hospital air con didn't cope to well in the corridors, thank god the patient rooms were fine. Its a bit cooler today, 35c and tomorrow will be a chilly 28c !
Hope your day is going well and hope to see you over at word press soon :)
The address is http://ablogstar.wordpress.com/
i hope this will work

AWOL

Oh dear its been too long since i was here, life does get busy especially this time of year although I am not xmas shopping for the first time ever! I have made a few gifts, and have a few more to go :0
In the meantime I have bought more stash and then I had to take something out to make room, so another project is on the way :) its got summery colours of orange and green, which is fresh and bright, not sure what it will be yet! I cant upload another photo as I have apparently used my limit of free space on picassa and need to purchase more, I will see about that! Grrr.

picture supposed to be here ...

The gardenias are in flower and their perfume is so lovely, I wish they lasted longer, if I could bottle the scent for the rest of the year it would be divine!

What have you been up to? I will have to go and read a few of your posts to catch up!

FNSI

I did manage to get one of my cushion covers done, yay ! Hopefully the second one will be done in the next couple of days :) Thanks to Heidi for hosting, where you can see the beautiful projects.

the back has a concealed zipper, which was easy and looks neat :0

I used one of our other cushions to fill it for the photo, 

so it wont have this as its filler as it shows through !

I still have a quilt to bind, more projects planned and the trip away is fast approaching, any recommendations for accommodation in LA would be great ! 

Hope you had a great FNSI :)

Tag your it !

Michelle from Love Chinook Winds has tagged me and has these questions
1. Do you like to travel.
2. What is your favorite travel destination spot.
3. Where do you sew.
4. How much time do you spend sewing during the week.
5. Have you ever been on a sewing retreat.
6. Do you have an etsy shop and or do you sell your crafts at fairs.
7. What other hobbies do you have.
8. What is your favorite charity. 
9. Do you quilt or knit for charity.
10. What is your dream sewing machine if cost was not a problem.
11. Be honest. How big is your stash.

 So I guess its fun sharing some things about each other, I will answer them in context rather than order.

Of course I love to travel hence my blog address of travelling holycow ! Although I don't particularly like the planning phase so I am a last minute person and sometimes just wing it. In fact I am travelling to the USA next month and have only partially booked accommodation. I figure there will be somewhere to stay even if it is crapsville! 
I can say that after stepping out onto the cliffs of Sorrento, Italy with its jaw dropping scenery would be hard to beat, its my header photo.  Italy is fabulous :)

But my favourite destination is London, I love everything about this city and wished I lived closer. 

I sew on the dining table, its a perfect size and we usually eat at the kitchen island bench which just feels comfortable for us, so I dont have to tidy up which is great! I did have my son's room but he moved back in :0  Sometimes I get a couple of hours a week to fiddle around with my fabrics, but I dont always get any sewing done! I was invited to a retreat but wasnt able to make it there, so maybe next time.  i dont sell my quilts, I usually give them away as gifts, or worthy causes. I support various charities here, and have a regular donation to world vision. I did dabble in art work for a while, and may go back to this one day.

My Bernina 820 which is my dream machine, is fabulous, I figured the benefit greatly outweighed the cost! I just organised my stash which has taken up a considerable space in my laundry and I still think I can't find anything !

So if you would like to participate, go on give us a story about you, and leave me a comment so I know you would like us to visit :)  

FNSI time !

Yay its FNSI !

So I have to confess that for me it will be a sunday sew in here in Oz as I am working Friday and Saturday till late, but I have the time difference advantage :)
I have a project that needs finishing, well actually there are a few that need finishing but I will focus on the one that I can do in a day! I'm a puddler when it comes to finishing things at times, its almost like I want to keep things just not quite done for some odd reason.

Anyway you can join in on the fun here at Heidi's, hope you have fun !
See you on Sunday for all the lovely posts :)

UR Priceless Coin Purse

A while back I signed up for  a blog hop hosted by  Sew We Quilt  to make a coin purse. I loved the ones featured, and so I thought  (in my deluded state) that I would be able to make one of these without too much fuss! Firstly and most importantly read the pattern, I think thats where I went astray. I couldn't find the email that Katherine had sent me with this, so I made do with my own invention! It was all going very well until the frame was to be attached, i discovered the frame is larger than the purse. Groan. So I can either find a frame that is the right size, or make another bag. I might do both, but until then this is the sad result, go ahead and laugh, I bet you have done something similar once!

I still like it frameless!

This is the inside although I could still make it the outside

Bugger 

Ah well back to the shop to find another frame, and the sewing machine to make another purse!
Hope your weekend is going well :)