Melly & me

Oh what a night!

Sorry for the lateness of this post - we have had all manner of interruptions!  Friday night was absolutely great!  We had such a wonderful time meeting our fellow bloggers.  Of course, we had the advantage of walking in to the shop together rather than some of the ladies who didn't know anyone at all.  We would have loved more time together as it seemed like home time came much too quickly.  We were inundated with beautiful gifts from very talented crafts people.  Please go check out their blogs if you want to treat yourself.  We were joined by the lovely Kirsten, Susannah, Leslie, Joanne, Jhoanna, Dana, Michelle, Tatania, Tina and our lovely co-ordinator Nichola.  Unfortunately Justine was not able to attend but made sure she still sent us all a lovely gift for the night.  We can't wait to meet up again! Just look at our bounty!

And here are the gifts that we gave out to all. 

Rosie tried her hand at some lino print cards..   

And Melly made these fleecy little kitties with scarves.  There were two left over, being cuddled here by Baby Floss, who have made their way into the Etsy store.

Thanks also to all of you who have put your hands up for the scrappy cabin scrap swap.  You will hear from us in the next few days!  How exciting! - Melly & Rosie

12 pretty packages.

Amongst all the sniffing, wiping little noses and coughing that has been going on in this house over the past few days, I have been getting together 12 gifts to bring along to our exciting outing tonight.  This is where we are going..

It is going to be so great to meet some of our fellow bloggers based here in Melbourne!!  Part of the idea of the night is to make a winter themed, handcrafted gift to trade with each crafty lady that will attend.  So much fun!  Here is a little sneak peak of what I have made up - I can't reveal too much to save the surprise!

And here are the wrapped and "ready to go" gifts all waiting eagerly to be handed out.   

Rosie has also been madly working on her gifts and I can't wait to see her finished products tonight - of course, as one of the participants she has to give me one too - yippee!

So all that is left to do today is look forward to a great evening of making new blogging buddies - I think I may need to dose up on some Codral too!  Hope you all have a great weekend!!! - Melly

Yummy, scrumptious, delicious mail!!

We just HAD to share this picture with you of the most scrumptious mail that we received today!!!  What a treat to get this gorgeous parcel that was so beautiful in every detail.  Julie spoiled us rotten and we feel so priviledged to own a piece of her stunning work.  Here is what we found inside the envelope......

A beautiful little package each with bead name tags and one package to share wrapped in a beautiful fabric bag, all smelling so sweet!!

So we opened our packages with anticipation and were so blown away by the beauty of Julie's work in the flesh.

A pink dressed rabbit for Rosie and a green dressed monkey for Melly - so yummy, you could eat them up!!  And look at all the other lovely goodies - we are definitely very lucky flossies! 

If you haven't looked already, you simply have to go to Julie's site.  Her work is amazing, she is simply delightful and we are so happy to have met in the Blogosphere! 

Thanks Julie - you brought huge smiles and squeals of delight to our day.  - Melly & Rosie

Show and Tell.

Thank you so much to every one who emails us beautiful pictures of our designs made up.  We love seeing the different ways you create our designs and get so much joy from hearing your feedback.  We thought we would share some "show and tell" with you all!  

This picture of "My Dolly - Lollie" came in from Heather in Canada.  We love it!  

This "Messenger Birdie" made by Jacky as a gift for her friend - just so cute and the tag finishes the birdie off perfectly! 

And finally this version of our "Sunshine" bag made by Cathy.  She couldn't find enough fabric in the house so decided to use some souvenir tea towels instead - what a cute and clever idea!

We really do love you sharing these photos and your thoughts with us, so please - keep them coming!!

Scrappy Cabin Challenge fabric swap!

We are so excited about all of you who have joined us on the "Scrappy Cabin Challenge" that we have decided it is time for a scrap swap.  Many of you have said that you are new to quilting and don't have a large variety of scraps yet.  We would like to remedy this and spice up your scrap stash!  If you are interested in participating in this swap please leave a comment by the 30th of May to let us know.  We will then collate the interested parties and send you a swap partner via email by the 1st of June.  It will be up to you to swap mailing addresses with your swap partner. 

For this swap you will fill a lunch sized bag with approx 250g (half a pound) of scraps suitable for the Scrappy Cabin Challenge to send to your partner (All 100% cotton patchwork fabrics please).

Please note that this will be open internationally and you may need to post overseas depending on the partner you are given. The swaps will need be sent on the 15th of June at the latest.  Anyone may join even if you are not working on a Scrappy Cabin quilt!  We can't wait! 

Also, thought you might like to see what Black & Spiro have done with some of our Little Kitties.   Cute huh?     

Until next time, happy swapping and may the floss be with you!  Melly & Rosie.

It's official

Today is a very special day, a day where Baby Floss is officially stuck with me as her mummy!!!  Poor little darling, hubby and I definately got the better end of the deal! - Melly

We used to be a woolly coat...

..... but now we are four cheeky bears!!  See you in Etsy!

Mothers

Our love to grandmothers gone...

Grandmothers far away...

And our own unstoppable, vibrant, adorable mother.  Happy mother's day!

Anyone selling time??!! PLEASE?

The last few weeks have been so busy with a number of different tasks and deadlines.  It was only two years ago (with only one flossy at that stage who "was" very non-demanding and only wanted to play quietly with his cars) that I was begging for something to fill my days - a hobby maybe??  Something, anything to keep me occupied.  A far cry from today where I keep looking at this....

..and everyone's gorgeous progress (including Rosie's) and hoping to find some time to convert all of those overflowing scraps into some scrappy cabin blocks.  I can no longer close this draw and you would think that would be enough of a hint to get a move on.

I have spent some of this week making up a new "Sherbet" bag for Julie who we have organised a swap with.  We are so excited about this swap and feel so privileged to be able to soon own one of her wonderful creations that get snapped up the second they are made!  I can't reveal this bag to you to save the surprise but I did make a few extras at the same time to put in our Etsy store as well as a wintery woolen version of Latte.  I just love the purple one which is made from vintage fabric that you may remember from a post a few months ago.

Today I am handing over a "treasurer" role which should give a little more time and sanity, then to make a few Freya's for Meet me at mikes, design a new bag for another project, make a couple of requested fab fishies and make 12 items for an up-coming Melbourne Blog-meet.  Maybe, hopefully, then there will be time for scrappy cabins!! - Melly

Feel your boobies!

Firstly, I have been very inspired by everybody's pictures of their Scrappy Cabins.  I felt a bit silly as I hadn't made very many cabins yet.  Over the weekend I had some fun playing with my scraps and have put my first block of 16 cabins together.  I figure that I only have to make 15 more sets of 16 cabins to have a huge 200cm x 200cm quilt.  This seems doable!

Here are two more pictures to entice you all to join this challenge!  This gorgeous bag by Lisa.

And this delicious version with slightly different dimensions by Kirsty.

Don't forget to look at the side bar to find out how to begin making these scrappy cabin blocks for yourself. Our goal is to have a quilt at the end of the year made entirely from our scrap box. The temptation to delve into my larger fabrics is huge but the sense of achievement when completing this quilt from scraps only will be worth resisting this impulse!

I looked up at my inspiration board in my studio today to see this postcard I was sent in a swap some time ago.

It got me to thinking of my upcoming mammogram. This will be sometime in the next month as it will be a year since I found out that I had breast cancer. I guess I just wanted to ask you all to "feel your boobies". I'm sure that a lot of you do this on a regular basis but I also know there are some of you that don't want to think about such things. If there is one thing I am so grateful for it is that I found out about it before it was in my lymph nodes. If I had ignored the impulse to check up on my boobies I think I would have had much less chance of recovery. I'm not trying to scare anyone, just hoping that if there is even one woman out there that heeds this advice, maybe she too will find out in time. Don't forget that age is not always an indicator. I was 36 and have even met a 19 year old in chemo.

By the way, it is official- THE DIET BEGINS TODAY! I heard on the news last night that overweight is linked to breast cancer. I can't put it off any longer as I really want to beat this thing! I plan on losing 30kg. I should probably lose up to 40kg but we have to be realistic! At this stage any loss is a good loss. I will keep you posted on the progress with monthly loss tallies. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with all the details!  Till next time- May the floss be with you all! Rosie. x x x