Red Brolly

Life :: Come and say hello at the AQC in Melbourne

Life:: A stunning Easter sideboard

      
    Just a minute- the phone's ringing. 

    It's SJVH! (my sister-in-law).

    She's having a pre-Easter morning tea - AND a big reveal of her just -     decorated Easter Sideboard!

   Can't wait- if you can hold on a minute - I'll tidy myself up a little.

  That's better.

  Hop in the car and off I go!

   Camera in hand.

   I'm now at SJVH's house- she's saying "Come in and have some Scones and cream!"

  Oh my goodness- the scones are hot out of the oven- and she's made tea!

  And home-made stawberry jam!

  I'll just load up this fluffy little melt-in- the mouth scone with some jam and cream.........

   You'll have to excuse me while I indulge.

   Have a look at the photo's of SJVH's absolutely stunning Easter  Sideboard ("yes thanks- just a tad of milk in the tea")  while I'm .......busy!

 

 

   I bet you now have lots of great ideas for your very own  Easter     Sideboard! And don't forget the scones!

 

Life:: My little secret revealed

Great news!   I've been very busy working on a little secret project.

TA-DA!!!!

Something I've been wanting to do for ages. It's taken me a lot of work to get to this point...but I now have my very own online shop. You can purchase your Red Brolly patterns here as well as little bits of exciting sewing related goodies. I'll also be distributing my own patterns for wholesale! Which is very exciting. Lots of goodies to come...but it's a start. If you'd like to check it out, click here or on the shop button above.

Let me know what you think.

Life's a Picnic..would you like to come?

I had a lovely summer holiday. I had lots of time to spend with family and friends and catch up with everyone. It was a hot summer here in Australia and there's still some glimpses of summer days remaining, but you can feel the weather starting to slightly turn into autumn. One of the things I've decided to do on the blog this year is to do craft and stitching projects around particular themes. I thought it might be something fun!

So to start the year off and remind us of the summer almost gone, will be the theme...."Life's a picnic!" Don't you just love going on a picnic? Time to just watch and chat, eat, enjoy the company and just "be." Anyway, I've got lots of lovely sewing projects, delicious recipes, craft ideas, paper craft projects and lots of inspiration for your next picnic. Would you like to come on a picnic with me?

Over the break I had the opportunity to spend some time with the family and one of the fun things we got to do together was go berry picking. It's been ages since I went and picked my own berries. You don't see the "Pick your own Berry" farms around as much any more.

So I grabbed the grandkidlets and off we went. We had a really enjoyable morning at Montrose Berry Farm, a gorgeous heritage listed sandstone house set in beautiful gardens and surrounded by the working berry farm.

On what was a rather warm day, we grabbed our hats and our containers and we first headed towards the blackberry patch.

Lots of yummy blackberries, and the girls were very good...they hardly ate any, though some taste testing was required!

Unfortunately we had just missed the loganberry season and they had a bad season with the blueberries, but we had a great morning none the less.

With our containers full we headed back to get our berries weighed. Whilst we were there, we discovered a cute little kitchen selling jams, vinegars, sauces and ....berry tarts! Small, rustic, freshly made berry tarts. They were the perfect treat to have after a busy morning picking. We just had to try them.

Ok, maybe just another bite...
Now, what should I do with all these berries? Have you any ideas?

Hope you decide to come on my picnic with me. See you tomorrow.

Red Brolly returns next week

 

Dear Hearts,

I've had a very relaxing yet busy holidays. The Red Brolly blog will return next week and will be starting the year off with a super stitching project for you. Lots of new designs, tips, hints, craft and sewing to come. Here's a hint as to what the first theme of the year will be.

See you next week.

Lights, music, markets, marching girls and tulips

I spent a lovely weekend in Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW, celebrating it's annual Tulip time festival. Something I've been going to with the family since the beginning. It was lots of fun...marching bands, a main street parade, open gardens, tulips, markets, shopping, buskers, lunching, shopping, spring weather, high tea and tulips after dark. A fab weekend was had by all! Here's a snap shot of the weekend...

(please note some photos are courtesy of Southern Highlands News as my camera battery died!...Who hasn't had this happen at a crucial time?)








This spot here holds a special memory...in my son's younger years, he fell in the water! I had to jump in and rescue him. Something we've never let him live down.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

My purse patterns

Have you seen this months issue of Australian Homespun magazine? Look who's on the front! Little ol' me and my purse pattern.

If you haven't already gone out and purchased this month's copy- in it you'll find the instructions and patterns for making 2 ...yes 2, of my purses! Here's what they look like...

This is the cute little purse that made it onto the cover.

And here's the other design...

Both equally as cute I say. Would make a great little gift for a stitching friend.

Which design is your favourite?

What about moi? The Blueberry Girls get huffy.

 

Remember my Blueberry Girls? With all the fuss going on with "The Wish" Christmas Quilt giveaway, they think that they've been forgotten. I just wanted to pop in over the weekend and share with you this fabuous finished Blueberry Girls quilt by Cat Nix who is the wonderful lady behind the blog, "Crazy about Quiltin."

I must admit that I've had these photos for a little while and have been meaning to share them with you. Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did. The Blueberry Girls quilt she made has turned out beautifully don't you think?

Did you see all the teeny-tiny beautiful stitching? Great job I think. If you'd like to see more then head on over to Crazy about Stitchin'. Fingers crossed this will keep the Blueberry Girls quiet for awhile.

Hopefully you're all busy stitching this weekend. I'm about to release another part of the Wish Quilt, I'm just waiting for a few to catch up- so get ready.

These are a few of your favourite things

Recently I have been looking at my blog and reassessing things...you know what works, what doesn't, what all of you like and what has been absolute flops! So, I thought that I would go through and have a look at what's been the most popular free Red Brolly projects over the years. So I judged them according to the projects which have had the most number of page visits. Let's have a look (it's a little bit like walking down memory lane for me)....

Here are your top 10 (starting from the bottom right and working your way to the left and upwards)...

10. "Laverne" my Easter Chicken

9. "Sisters" stitchery

8. "Let your dreams take flight" butterfly stitchery

7. Free printable decorative tape and tutorial

6. Three Bears Toybag- A project I did for Australian Homespun magazine

5. Printable OTT Cupcake Toppers of the Blueberry Girls ("Yes Girls...I know you were hoping for #1!")

4. Christmas Sampler

3. "May all your weeds be wildflowers" needlekeep

2."The Wish" Christmas Quilt

And...drum roll please......

The most favourite Red Brolly project and tutorial has been........

 

My embroidered felt flowers tutorial!

Thank you everyone for visiting my blog, for your lovely comments and feedback and being interested in Red Brolly. All the above patterns and tutorials can be found in my sidebar under the various headings. If you're new, or haven't been for awhile, take a look- you might find something to make this weekend!

The Winners of the Natalie Bird New Books and French General fabrics Are.....

Sorry for the delay in putting up the winners of the Natalie Bird/ Birdhouse competition.

  I've been madly working on a new project that I think you'll like to go up on the Blog next week.  Keep tuned for that one!

 

  Here's a quick round-up of the Wonderful Natalie Bird and French General Competition prizes.. .

 

 

 -The New Book by Natalie - Tis the Season, with 15 selected French General Fabrics.

  As you know-I just love the colour red- and this little book is full of designs with my favourite colour.

Thirteen Christmas stitcheries you can use to decorate so many things.

Besides the thirteen stitcheries, Nat's also designed some really lovely Christmas projects just in time for you to make for Christmas.

  I love her "Chilly Penguins Bag" and the "Tis the Season Quilt" is just to die for.

 

 

-Red Home- another new book by Natalie, also teamed with 15 selected French General fabrics.

    This book has ten gorgeous red themed projects that you can make to decorate your home.

My personal favourites are the Little House Pincushion and the Red Home Applique Quilt.

 

 

And of course to go with these beautiful books- each winner will receive 15 selected French General Fabrics.

 

 

                                           And who are the two winners?

                         They have both been notified by e-mail.

The winners are:

 

 

 

Congratulations to you both! Your prize will be in the mail as soon as you send you're address details.

 

   Thank-you to everyone that entered the competition.

                       This competition is now closed.

 

    I'm madly working on the Wish Quilt ( I have to re-write it)- and the next section with Santa and the Reindeer Sleigh should be on the Blog later this afternoon or early tomorrow.

                               So keep checking Back.

 

 

A day spent stitching with friends- is a good day!