A BIG BIG "Thank you" to Jacquie!

Thank you kind people, for popping by!

A few weeks ago, when I was visiting one of the blogs I follow regularly, My Journey I found Jacquie was offering a Mystery Giveaway, and I commented, as many of you did .... never thinking I'd win!

But, boy was I lucky! As, when I looked back at Jacquie's blog, I found I was the winner!!!!

Imagine my surprise the day Jacquie's wonderful parcel arrived:  I'd just been hanging washing out, and returned to the front door going back into our house .... a delivery van stopped near our front gate .... and the smiling driver called out "Barrrrbara?..... Barrrrbara?" in a foreign accent, obviously unsure how to pronounce my name ..... he trotted down our front steps, now grinning broadly and very politely handed me the parcel.

Here it is opened:

On opening the ordinary looking cardboard box I was delighted and excited
 to find these beautifully wrapped packages.

And, because they looked so pretty, here is another view!

That is one of Han's sweet greetings cards, with a lovely message inside from Jacquie.

Jacquie' daughter, Han blogs at NylonToast, and has recently started a greetings card business on Etsy. Do pop over and have a look at her blog and the great cards she is selling.

Doesn't the wrapping look pretty! Almost too good to open!

I opened the package to find:

not only did I find some of Jacqui's wonderful stitching ....

but also ..... more packages!!!!!

On opening the ornate, olde worlde box, I was astounded to find even more pretty packages. In my excitement I quickly opened two packages to find scissors and buttons, and then realised there were still four more packages to go!

So I stopped to take pictures as I opened them, to show you how pretty they looked!

A mini hoop ... right up my street ....
have I mentioned I love tiny stitching?

Did you see that piece of Aida fabric? I haven't measured it, but it looks to be a metre at least!

There are some patchwork squares in there too, aren't they pretty!!!

The lovely mug, with witty comments!

The picture doesn't quite show, due to light reflecting, it states "A cut above the rest!"

A wonderful fat quarter!

Something to stitch for "Gifted Gorgeousness", perhaps!!!!

I love the white lace ribbon Jacquie used for wrapping her packages, and will certainly find a use for it!

Had you noticed .... I love lace .... I'm so excited,
coz now I have so much to play with!!!!

I feel so fortunate, because if I had gone round a shop these are the sort of items I would have chosen for myself!

I felt overwhelmed by Jacqui's generosity, and so moved by all these lovely gifts that I wished to send a token of my thanks in the form of flowers, although she flatly refused the first couple of times I offered, saying it wasn't at all necessary as she was "Happy to have put a smile on my face"! It was only due to my persistent insistance that she finally consented (under duress though, I think) to allow me to send them.

With regard to "putting a smile on my face" .... boy was I smiling, my husband was astounded by the number, and quality of the gifts, and our two cats were most interested; and our large male cat has somehow managed to make the empty cardboard box they came in, his bed, in preference to the expensive igloos we have for them.

It only remains for me to say once again, a great big "Thank You" to Jacquie for her very generous Giveaway Gifts.

Next time I hope to share some stitching progress photos.

Sorry to have taken so much time to show you Jacquie's gifts, but you know how it is, there always things getting in the way of blogging!!! 

See you all soon.

Thank you for visiting.

Look after yourselves everyone!

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

WIPs - Quilted Purse / Pastel Dye Sticks and The Splendid Sampler

Hello Dear Friends,

If you have visited me before you will probably realise by now that I love to stitch when I am traveling, and, for me, every train journey is the perfect excuse for stitching!

For my latest train journey I prep'd my fabric, and wadding, backed with muslin and searched out a wavy lined stencil I'd made some years ago. I've recently bought some long pins with beads on their ends and found it was possible, with these long pins, to keep the stencils in place on my fabric while I stitched.

This WIP is a tiny purse, from a tutorial by Svetlana, who said "don't use polyester wadding", but I  love the puffy finish polyester wadding gives!

Back home again, I selected some monochrome heart patterned fabric I'd found when I last visited my local quilt shop, which, of course, I couldn't help but buy for my lining, and then I couldn't resist colouring in the hearts with my Pastel Dye Crayons. (In case anyone is wondering, the selvedge said "Hearty 2 You + Me 15.02 by www.Stof.dk). My scrap was approximately 1/4 yard .... so you may well see this one again! This pretty fabric was in a "Scrap Pack", so, haha, I had to buy the whole pack .... consisting of another 4 different scraps! No I won't show you the rest now ... I'll save that for another day!

Lining cut ready for boxing the corners.

Another of my WIPs is the Splendid Sampler block .... "Sewing Machine" by Pat Sloan. 

I know I'm rather late mentioning it (oops, sorry Lara), but I was very lucky to win a signed copy of Lara Buccella's book - "Crafted Appliqué .... New Possibilities" by commenting on her blog hop .....

 and here is the first block I've made using her appliqué method... Sewing in progress.

Is it just me, or do you  find it hard to take pictures of small blocks too?

And what Summer post would be complete without at least a couple of  photos from the garden!

These lovlies must be at least 8' high

Our neighbours have been admiring our Hollyhocks and asking for seeds

And today I am linking to Esther's WOW WIP blog party. Do pop over and see what wonderful creations others are stitching!

As always, thank you for visiting me.

I hope you find time for stitching this week!

Have a great week!

Barbara xx

Summer Stitching Link Up

Hello Dear Readers,

Today I'm joining in with Jo's  "Tenuous Shoehorn blog party"! A week long party, starting Monday 8th August, where the theme is, .... My Summer Holiday ... and, guess what.... we link our Summer stitching posts! For more detail visit Jo's blog.

Many years ago DH and I went away with lovely couple of friends to a really old traditional country  cottage.  It was a beautiful place with a real old-fashioned English Country Garden!  I don't recall any photos in the album of this holiday, so I was delighted when I realised there was a picture in Mary Hickmott's "New Stitches" magazine (issue 1) which was the spitting image of that holiday home, and I just had to stitch it!  The magazine called the picture "Bridge Cottages" but the place we stayed in was Walkmill Cottage, hence I labelled it so:

To date this is the only picture I've ever had framed (although I have a couple of others, finished before this one, that I really must frame soon) its also my one and only Summer Cross Stitch picture!

Do pop over and see who else is joining in with Jo's Summer link up!

Hope you are all enjoying your Summer!

See you soon.....

Barbara xxx