Diamond Jubilee

This weekend is a very special one here in the UK. We are celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the throne. An amazing feat. Congratulations Ma’am.

When we celebrated the Golden Jubilee 10 years ago, I was living in Singapore thousands of miles from home, heavily pregnant with my son, my first child. I missed home so badly and watching the celebrations on tv from so far away was difficult. Now we are back in the UK, in Wales infact, we have raised the Union Flag today and decked the front entrance with bunting. This feels much better.

Even if the weather tries to dampen our spirits, Gary Barlow will surely lift a nations.

Enjoy

 

I must be feeling Patriotic

Do you feel you are surrounded by red white and blue at the moment? Well I suppose it depends where you live. In the UK currently, the shops are full to the brim with patriotic goodies. Not only are we hosting the Olympic games this summer but the Queen is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee; so union jacks at the ready folks.

I have been surrounded in my sewing room too and have been filling up my etsy shop. Take a look if you have a moment. thanks, Anita x

On My Sewing Table

This is on my sewing table at the moment. The house sewing box is from Cath Kidston. The crocheted jam jar cozies are inspired by the talented Lucy at Attic 24. And finally the pin cushion was made by me!

It certainly brightens my day.

And the raffle winner is….

Jo – the Crafty Nomad who said :

Wonderful, so pretty!

Congratulations and thanks to everyone for donating to such a good cause.

 

Congratulations also goes out to Toni who organised this, so much money was raised!!!

Flood Appeal Raffle

I am sure you have heard about the devastating floods occurring in Queensland, Australia and other areas at the moment. There is nothing that I can say to add to what you already know.

Thanks to Toni of Make It Perfect, who has organised a huge master list of all those participating in auctions, raffles and giveaways to help raise money for those in need.

I am holding a raffle, because I felt it meant that more people could be involved.

Please read carefully: 

• This giveaway is open to everyone no matter where you live.
• I will cover all postage costs.
• To enter this giveaway you must donate $5 Australian Dollars to the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal.
• You may enter as many times as you like but each entry / donation must have a separate receipt number. (eg: donate $5 ten times if you want to donate $50- then comment ten times with your receipt number) After you have done this , return here and leave your comment with your receipt number.
• The raffle begins from today and will end at midnight (Netherlands Time) on Monday 24th January 2011. Extended by Toni’s request until Midday Wednesday 26th Jan 2011

• At the close of the raffle, I will contact the winner (please make sure you put your email address in the form when you complete your comment, so I can contact you if you win!)

I will be raffling some pretty summer bunting, made from pretty dutch fabric. Perfect to hang around your home at any time of the year to add a bit of sunshine. The bunting is nearly 3 metres long and has 10 double sided flags on it.

FLOOD!

Queensland Australia is being battered and washed away by terrible floods. We have been lucky enough to visit Australia 3 times and have loved every visit, it is a wonderful country of extremes, and this is such a tragedy.

Toni is organizing Flood Relief Auctions and I’m going to host one here on my blog.

Stay tuned later this week for more details – I am going to auction off some handmade goodies with all proceeds going to the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal.

You can make a difference

Thanks

Featured

I am thrilled that my christmas stocking is featured in an Etsy Storque article amongst such lovely items. I am feeling a lot more christmassy now after looking at all those gorgeous things. Go take a look!

Christmas shop update

I have been at a couple of fairs over the past few months selling my creations. It has been great fun to meet customers and realise that there are people out there with the same style and tastes as my own! I make things I love and hope others do too.

I have just updated my shop with some new items if anyone is looking for christmas stockings.

Or somethings to fill those stockings.

Or there are little gifts to give to teachers or as a gift for a hostess.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for all your support. x

Catching up with the bees

The Around the World Quilting bee is drawing to a close. This is the last block that I needed to make, so Tanya’s quilt is winging its way to Australia ready for her to make up. I think my quilt still has a way to go, so I will just have to wait to see what all my blocks look like together.

Below is the blocks for Tacha as part of Bee Europa. I liked these blocks, they were time consuming because there was a lot of ironing, but apart from that I think they look quite effective.

Finally Aprils blocks for Bee Europa for Muriel. I loved these blocks from the simplicity of the wonky log cabin block pattern to all the gorgeous fabrics. Brilliant.

Bee Europa

These blocks were a little tricky. I was a little daunted by the long list of instructions, but ultimately I was quite pleased with how they turned out. I hope the recipient does!