MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS

Well Christmas time is here again and our family couldn't be more excited.  We have all been a bit creative.

E made a LEGO reindeer and sleigh.

Baking apricot balls.

 T with his painted nutcracker

 and well, I haven't made anything this month.  Maybe in the next week???

So from the Outback Crafter Family, we wish you Merry Christmas and I will see you in blogland in 2012.

Black & White Plus 1 Reveal and winners

You may recall I have blogged a couple of times about the Black & White plus 1 Challenge issued by my patchwork group.  Yesterday was the reveal and 'judging' day.

First up let me show you my 3 Entries.

"Rubies and Diamonds" as blogged about back in July  .  This quilt is 70" square and I love it.  The colours work together really well and it is striking without being overpowering.

 

Entry 2 - a Needle Tin.  Made from an Upcycled macaroni tin & a little yellow crochet.  (Turn your head sideways, the photos have gone crazy - again_

And entry 3 was to push the boundaries of "Plus 1".

This is my black & white button necklace with 'rainbow" flowers.  I wanted to argue that Rainbow was a colour so I made a flower in each of the colours of the rainbow.

Now to show you some of the other entries.

23 Items in Total made by 15 people

 Maibry's quilt.

 Assorted objects

 Cecily's Silhouette bag, Peg's cat runner/ wall hanging, Bev's 'scrap' bag

 Carol's smocked coat hanger

 Maibry's fabric postcards.  (It would be quite a treat to receive one of these in the mail.)

 Gayle's ribbon box.  Even the ribbons were black & white plus 1

Olivia's stunning black white & Purple quilt.  About 50" square. Reminiscent of a Jacob's well, but all with jelly roll strips.

Drum Roll Please.................................

Now to announce the winners..................

What we have a 4 way tie (organiser's nightmare - aka my nightmare)

Well, we will draw the winner out of a hat from those  4 entries.

Drrrrrummmmrolll...................

1st place goes to Peg & her Black White and Pink scone basket

2nd goes to Maibry and her Black, White and Red Quilt

3rd Goes to Jill and her Black, White and Mustard cushions

I was so impressed with the entries we received and the ladies who had a go even though they 'hated' black & white.

 

 So now we will decide what to torture challenge them with next.

A UFO Farewell

Last Tuesday night saw our UFO group farewell one of our founding members.

The wonderfully funny and inspiring Colleen and her hubby have decided to move to new pastures.  As a group we were quite upset about this and made Colleen a UFO inspiration quilt.

 Here she is with her best 'surprise' face (I didn't have my camera out when I gave it to her to get a genuine reaction, but Colleen was amazed and shocked.

 You see......  welll........... we made Colleed do some work for her own farewell gift, but she didn't know it was for her.  Each of our group made a block with a UFO phrase on it, Colleen included.  We told Colleen it was to hang in the patchwork room as a fun reminder to not take ourselves or our quilting too seriously.

Imagine Colleen's surprise when we gave it back to her in a quilt.  Now we are going to make one for the patchwork room, but it won't be finished until the new year.

You will have noticed in the above photo that is isn't bound yet, that is because I thought I had one more week to finish the quilt, I was wrong and we presented Colleen with her own UFO to finish.

The phrases say

"Finished is better than Perfect" - Marilyn

"I'm not messy, I'm creative" - Emily

"May your bobbin always be full" - Gayle

"UFO or PHD that is the question" - UFO Crafters

"MY Quilt MY Rules" - Colleen

"Craft fills my days not to mention my cupboards & benches" - Becc

"A fat quarter is not a body part" - Cecily

"Three little words - Quilt and Bind" - Debra

"I have UFOs I haven't even thought of yet" - an original quote by our own 13 year old Rachel

Enjoy Colleen & we will commence our UFO blog soon.

The postman has been

Look at the wonderful parcel of goodies I received from Lisa of "The Red Thread"

 

Lisa hosted a give away on her blog and asked which designs we would like to win.  I was the lucky winner & now have a great reindeer to make and some adorable iron on motifs.

Thanks Lisa. They are awesome.  

Go and look at Lisa's blog The Red Thread.  She is one talented AUSTRALIAN designer.

A SUCCESSFUL CRAFT FAIR

Well the dust has settled on the 2011 Emerald State School Craft Fair & we had a blast.

This is the Bindi Taneal Photography & Outback Crafter Site.

 This is 'teacher' corner.  The rulers and hangings sold like hot cakes.

 These adorable horses made by Bindi also 'ran like the wind'

 much to my delight, the car bags were a hit too.

 Here is the beautiful Bindi & I

 and the beautiful Bindi & Raelea (Bindi's Mum)

We had a successful and enjoyable weekend.  Thanks for the great time Bindi & thanks to the help of our support crew (hubby & my boys) it went off without a hitch.

See you again next year Bindi?

Another Surprise for Me

A few weeks ago while reading the blog "The Morning Latte" I entered a giveaway for a gorgeous pincushion Owl.

Cheree of The Morning Latte asked us what we would name the owl.  Now I said that the little blue owl in this photo (from Cheree's blog) would have to be named "PEEP" as he looked shy.  Don't you agree.

Well much to my surprise Cheree emailed me saying I had won.  Peep was going to fly to my place.

That is a long way for a baby owl as Cheree lives in the USA and I am in Australia.

This is what I saw when I opened the box.

 Then a little bit of movement and...

a little eye peeping out from behind the packaging.

And after a little time, our shy little "Peep" came out to say hello

 Isn't he gorgeous and looks so cute and young.  I am not sure if he understands my Australian accent yet, but he seems to be settling in just fine.

Thanks Cheree

Special Delivery and more Bindi Taneal Photos

On Friday the post man left a lovely little parcel in my mail box.  It was from Lynda.  Over on her blog Heavens to Bettsy  Lynda was giving away some adorable Giggle Buttons to be used in the FREE Red Brolly Christmas Stitchery.

Now I had completely forgotten that Lynda had emailed me to tell me I had won, so it was a lovely surprise when they arrived in the mail.  Thanks so much Lynda.  Go pop over to Lynda's blog to see what she has been up to and over to Red Brolly to see what I should be stitching. 

If you click here, you will see a photo of the finished design.  So once again thanks Lynda, I just need to get stitching.

And onto my other finises for the weekend.  I have used more of the photographs from the lovely Bindi of Bindi Taneal Photography to create coasters for the upcoming craft fair (on This weekend).

The coasters are in 3 sets

"Views from the Farm"

.

 "Objects from the Farm"

(Sorry about the sideways photo, I don't know how to fix it)

"Animal Life on the Farm"

Bundled up and ready to go.

I am really getting quite excited (and nervous) about the Craft Fair now.  It is literally only 4 days away.  Friday 25 & Saturday 26 November, Emerald Town Hall, Emerald Queensland.

Crafting, Crafting, Crafting

While wandering our local 2nd hand shop the other day I stumbled across these sad looking lamp bases for just $5 each.

They both decided to follow me home with hope of becoming something greater.

 When they got home they found some thumb tacks that wanted to be with them.

 and after some magic PVA glue and spray paint look what they became.....

a perfect stand for my latest OPAM and Craft Fair finishes "Car" bags.

I am so excited about the stand.  I am excited because it worked and I am excited because it looked like what I had pictured inside my head.  I love it when things just work.

A "secret squirrel" reveal

Tuesday night saw my UFO Craft Group reveal a wedding present to our lovely Becc.  

Becc and her fiance Luke were married on 11.11.11 and we had sneakily planned this quilt for them and made it in the last month. 

If you want the whole wedding story go visit Becc's blog

Here is Becc unwrapping the quilt

 Becc loved it and I have it on good authority from Luke that it is a cosy quilt.  We appreciate the irony of a quilt in Australia in summer, but the symbols of a quilt are far greater than any season.

The quilt was accompanied by this exquisite card by Gayle who is also a UFO Crafter

 Here are some close ups of the quilt.  I have no idea why the photos are sideways, just tip your head, 'cause I can't fix them.

11.11.11

 Becc

 

Forever

and the whole quilt

 We hope it brings Becc and Luke much joy in their married life.

Congratulations!!