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?