Lunch and Shopping

Had a lovely birthday lunch with the Birthday Girl, Matt and Mum.  Elizabeth took us to the sweetest cafe in Kensington:  it is so pretty inside with delicious food.

Mum is always up for a trip to Ikea so we called in on our way home.  This is a little bedside table that I'm using in my "office" as a stand for a filing box.

Saturday night (don't ask me why) I felt the urge to clean out the pantry.  All sparkly clean now.

Sunday my brother came over and I convinced him to come shopping with me.  I came home with a new computer,

tv and dvd player

and also bought a tv cabinet, which will be delivered in 10 days.

A sort of stitching finish - this is the label for Gingham Girls ready to be written on when the quilt is actually finished.  Still plenty to do on the final block.

Beautiful spring weather at the moment - it is definitely the best time of the year.

Not Much Stitching Happening

No progress at all on my Gingham Girls and very slow progress on my BFF blocks.

The canvas collage of Elizabeth and Matt's wedding photos arrived a couple of weeks ago - it's turned out really well and looks great on the wall with Michael and Peta's wedding photo.

 Had a quick shopping trip with Elizabeth two weeks ago - came home with a new handbag for summer.

And I've bought luggage for a holiday next year - a little wheelaboard bag is inside this large bag.

No 1 Baby Girl's birthday tomorrow, so am looking forward to lunch with her tomorrow.

Bag Swap

An extra-special person had a birthday this week:

There she is on the left with a fellow-teacher/friend who shares the same birthday.

Our on-line group had our bag swap opening on Friday night.  We had to make a bag and include 5 things that would be found in that type of bag (2 to be hand-made).  I received some beautiful presents from Leanne:

Sewing Pouch - Photos from Leanne's blog

Needlebook

Pincushion

Chocolate, threads and trim

The fabrics, stitching, sewing and quilting and beautiful - Leanne chose so well for me.

My other partner was Vicki - Vicki and I are long-time internet friends and I have met up with her a few times over the years.  I asked Vicki if there was a particular style of bag she would like and she said something to take to the gym that she could throw her towel, sunglasses and keys in.

I made Vicki a bag from last year's bag series in Homespun using Amy Butler fabrics and bag pattern.  The sunglasses and keycases are from "Zakka Style", the makeup purse is a Sue Daley design and the purse is a new pattern called "Flower Garden Wallet" designed by Pretty by Hand.

This photo shows the inside of the purse

The bag has a clasp for the keyholder as well as loads of inside pockets

I really enjoyed making some new-to-me designs.  I will definitely be making one of those purses for myself (one day) - they are large enough to hold an i-phone in the outer zippered pocket.

I need to start some more secret sewing in the next couple of weeks.  The last "Gingham Girls" block is coming along so very slowly and I'm not doing much lunchtime stitching at the moment either - too busy at work and on weekends.  2 weekends of the eisteddfod to go and it will be over for another year.