WOYWW...

My post today is a big thank you to a friend I've never met.  Monday morning saw me suffering big time still with my sciatica and I was generally feeling very sorry for myself.  I do my best to not make a fuss or moan so was here in my sewing room twiddling my thumbs with no customer's sewing to do when my postman knocked at my door.  He handed me a parcel from a special friend called Catriona from Scotland.  She and I have been in touch for years, she follows my blog and we have emailed etc.  She had seen that we had bought a motor home and just decided to share some of her stash with me....so that's what's on my desk today.

In my parcel was....

3 large pieces of fabric with camper vans on them.

A gorgeous bag that she had made...she says she uses one when going across the camp site to the showers....and that's exactly what this one will be used for.

A bag full of lavender....because when I had spoken to her last I had mentioned I was looking for ideas to use my Laura Ashley fabric samples for.

A bag containing tiny hearts with 'made with love' on, a Scottish badge and a roll of tape with 'handmade' on......just because.

I was completely blown away by her generosity and I have to say she couldn't have chosen anything better or sent it to me to arrive at a better time.

All I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart Catriona....and I will look forward to buying you that coffee when we meet in real life.

So on my desk now is....

Fabric chaos....I've sorted out all my fun, colourful pieces of fabric and have now cut out enough squares to make two quilts to go in our motor home.....there really is no better therapy is there?

The other thing I've made from the Laura Ashley samples Margaret sent us is this set of 6 coasters....I've machine embroidered each one and quilted them.

That's all from me for this week.  This blogging lark really is a wonderful thing and this week has really proved it to me.

Hugs,

Annie x

The postman has just called....

My postman has just called with two amazing parcels from a very special lady.  Most of you will know Tricia from Tricias Confetti and my parcels are from her today.  I have filled my ironing board to overflowing with all she has sent us.  It includes.

• 14 Pillow cases
• 2 Double quilt covers and
• 3 Double sheets

to be used for the little dresses we are making for the Dress a girl around the world scheme.  It is such a truly generous donation and we will make big efforts to get little dresses cut out and made as soon as we can....life just seems to have got in the way for me lately but I promise it will all get used in time.

What gorgeous bright colours too.  Thanks so much Tricia.

Also as promised here is a quick snap of the 5 little dresses that I managed to make on Wednesday

Numbers 81,82,83,84 and 85

The lighting was poor this morning but you will probably notice I am certainly in the pink  :-)

Yesterday was spent filling my 'to do' rail with work while I had special 'Nanny Annie time' with M and her gorgeous twinnies so today is a catch up Friday to clear my sewing mountain.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

Hugs,

A x

Oh no it's happened again.......and a latest update

Yesterday Twiglet popped down to help me cut the fabric for a curtain for one of my customers and while she was here we had another little dress cutting and preparing session.  We only turned our back for a few moments and look what happened!!!!

 

Yes folks they started to take over my little sewing room again.  As you can see they covered every surface and hung around in every possible hanging space. It was like an invasion so we had no choice but to attack the problem.  We parcelled all 49 of them up [another 17 made by me and 32 made by Jo] and have posted them to Louise.  Doesn't it have a wow factor just seeing them all together like this?

Here are my latest two [numbers 66 and 67] that were popped in the parcel.  They were both made with some of the lovely material Sue sent us.  Thanks so much Sue for sending us such lovely material to play with. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Today's update

The postman has just arrived with yet another wonderful parcel.  This time it is from Julie from K C's Court blog .  Thank you so much Julie....I can't wait to get cutting out dresses using all this...such pretty colours.  We are still happy to received parcels of any pillow cases/ bedding or cotton /poly cotton fabrics and will keep making little dresses whilst ever we have material to use so please email me if you have any you would like to donate to the great cause.

The parcels keep coming and this is why we are making them....

It's just like having all your birthdays and Christmas come at once here.  The postman seems to bring a parcel to my door nearly every day.  Yesterday was no exception.

This was sent to me by Elizabeth over at The Silver Scrapper's Craft Space.  As you can see it's full of lovely pillow cases to make our little African girl's dresses with.  Elizabeth was bothered about them being so plain but as you will have seen in other parcels we have had lots of gorgeous smaller pieces of materials that will trim these up to perfection so thank you very much Elizabeth for sending us them.

Yesterday I managed to finish all those b****** curtains I had to make and clear my heaving 'to do' rail of all my customers sewing [and there was a lot] and before the end of the day I managed to make my dress number 61 .  This was made using some of the fabric Tammy sent us and I have to say it was gorgeous fabric to use and it is my favourite one.  I really love the colours so thank you for sending such lovely material for us to work with Tammy.

Lots of you have asked where the little dresses were going to and I've promised as soon as Louise put photos up on her blog I would let you know.  This morning  Louise has posted the first set of pictures of little girls wearing some of the dresses over in an orphanage in Malawi so please pop over and check them out.  The joy on the faces of those little girls is what make our efforts all worth while.....so you keep sending me any spare pillow cases/bedding or material and I promise we will keep sewing.
http://sewscrumptious.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-makes-it-all-worthwhile.html 

Saturday's post....

I've had two more wonderful donations of fabric today

This parcel is from Sarah from La-De-Da blog .  Sarah lives about 20 miles from me so it's really lovely to link up with a local blogger like this....though as yet we haven't met.  Thank you for this gorgeous pack of Dutch fabric Sarah....such gorgeous bright colours and they will really brighten up our little African dresses a treat.

This gorgeous ironing board full of scrummy fabrics was sent to me by Sue from ScoopyStuff blog.  Sue has been begging any spare fabric for us from friends and relatives and this is a beautiful parcel full that she has sent us.  We will have such fun making little dresses from this lot so a huge thank you Sue for your efforts.

Blown away with the generosity of others....

Yesterday I received yet another parcel full of gorgeous fabrics.  I had had an email last week asking for my address but I didn't recognise the name as a blogger I knew.

This was one of the biggest parcels I've had and I'm certain you will all agree with me that the fabrics enclosed are all really gorgeous.  There was a card enclosed [also gorgeous] and the lady had written me a message to explain that wasn't in fact a blogger [yet] but just followed our blogs and felt she would like to donate some fabric to the great cause.  I'm sure a lot of you will understand why I was moved to tears to receive such generosity from a 'stranger'.....Isn't the world a wonderful place.  The news seems full of nothing but trouble and riots....why don't they fill their pages with wonderful uplifting stories like the generosity of others?

All I can say is a huge Thank You to CM and to say hope you start blogging soon....I'd like to 'get to know you'  :-) :-) :-) [So far all I know is you are a really generous lady and your favourite colour is pink  :-) ]

The other thing I want to share is the latest pic I have taken of my youngest daughter A.  Both my girls like to sit crossed legged so their baby bumps sit in their laps and last night I snapped a quick pic of A doing just that....I tell them they look like little pixies  :-)  Doesn't she hide her bump well?..... and she is nearly 33 weeks pregnant! Thankfully she keeps really well and manages her two busy little girls to perfection....I'm so proud of her cos she is a really good little Mum.  

Twiglet joined us last night for an evening of fun with A and her two gorgeous little girls.  A fab evening of proud moments and special memories.

The good and the bad of my Saturday morning....

My life seems to be a balance of the highs and lows of life....I guess we are all the same.

Today I woke early and treated my darling hubby and me to our breakfast in bed....not something we ever do to be honest so this was a real treat.

We are always up with the lark and aren't folk to lie in bed so were soon up and ready to start our day.....and guess what I did?  :-(  :-(  :-(

I fell down the b****** stairs ! ! !....don't worry I haven't broken anything but I was made well aware of the saying 'the bigger you are the harder you fall !'  It shook me up and I've twisted my replacement knee and the ankle on the same leg but I will live....I bet I find bruises later that I didn't know I'd got  :-)

So, that's the bad news out of the way.

Here is the good news.  My postman has just been with another amazing parcel from Twiggy at The World of Twiggypeasticks

Just look at it all...there is the most gorgeous fabric to make several dresses and lots of smaller pieces to trip up others plus trimmings, buttons and even a cow and sheep we can applique onto others.  I am really so blown away at the kindness of others and both Twiglet [that much older sister of mine  :-) ] and I are truly grateful at the support of each and every one of you who has been kind enough to support this wonderful cause.....we will keep sewing and making as many dresses as we can in the spare time we have....Promise  :-)

Thanks Twiggy for this wonderful selection of materials.

Also I just want to show you the three little dresses I made yesterday.....numbers 33, 34 and 35.

These two little dresses were made with the gorgeous material Anne sent us.  We have made smaller dresses with this so we get the full benefit from the gorgeous teddy panels.

This is also a dress made from Anne's pretty material.  I've trimmed it up with a little of the fabric Wanda sent me and added a little appliqued dog on the front.

Can you tell just how much fun I'm having putting these little dresses together.  Thanks to all who are supporting this wonderful cause.  We will soon be ready to send Louise at Sew Scrumptious. another parcel of dresses [the last ones we sent her should be put on her blog soon  :-) ].

Another wonderful parcel....

I am genuinely blown away by the generosity of our blogging friends.  This morning the postman has come knocking at my door with another wonderful parcel...this time from the lovely Karen over at Karen's Carry Ons.

Ooer I do love getting parcels.  :-) :-) :-)

And look what was in it...

6 gorgeous pieces of really pretty fabric...enough to make lots more little dresses  :-)

And what a pretty card too  :-)

Thank you so much Karen xx

It feels just like Christmas.  I have no doubt Twiglet and I will be busy cutting out the dresses on our Funday Monday morning and if she's really good I might share some of it with her so she can enjoy making dresses from it too  :-)

Friday night's fun time...

As I said in one of yesterday's posts Twiglet was coming down for a fun evening last night and the plan was to parcel up the dresses we had finished to send to Louise at Sew Scrumptious.  Twiglet had managed to make three more dresses in the afternoon taking her total up to 9 and I managed another one yesterday afternoon to take my total to 21.

Here is the last one I made to go in this parcel.  It's made from material from a double quilt cover with a pretty little pocket on the front....so plenty more fabric left to make other.

We then parcelled up our 30 little dresses and I will post them later this morning.  It was such a thrill to see them all together and we would really love to see Louise's face when she opens the parcel.

Twiglet then lifted down my boxes of stored fabric pieces and we found enough fabric to make 5 more dresses and many more other pieces to trim up others.  Probably the next time you see these pretty fabrics they will be trimming up lots more little dresses cos we will be making the next batch very soon.