A Gift from Madame Samm

How excited am I... I have a personalised stitchery from Madame Samm yep that's right THE Madame Samm she very kindly posted on her blog, Sew I Quilt, this design, and offered to personalise it if people wanted one.... IF!!  of course we do, how generous is that... so here is mine, this will be stitched and put on the wall in my sewing room.

Now I have to decide, do I use the  fabic or the sewing machine..mmm...fabric or sewing machine - or both! Guess you will just have to wait and see.

Thank you so much Mme. Samm.

Hugs Linda xx

Brocante Finished

Hooray, I have finished Brocante and I love it..... here are a few pictures.  This is going to be a wall hanging for our bedroom but as I  haven't got anything to hanging it on yet, (big hint to Hubby) and, as it has been such a lovely sunny day, I took some pictures outside.

Look what I won from Sharon at Vroomans Quilts  

Sharon is having a few giveaways through May so I was able to pick what I wanted... I decided on 8 FQs of Buttercup in blue, thank you Sharon.

And look what I saw when we were out shopping yesterday, these lovely little scissors, and somehow they just jumped into my hand and said "take me home with you"...... so I did!!!

Hugs Linda xx

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I decided to enter the quilt I made for Mimi into the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

As my followers will know this is the second Heart quilt I have done.  This one was made for my neighbour. Mimi, who was diagnosed with  breast cancer last year.   This quilt means so much to me as it was made with love for her, even though she doesn't speak any English and my French is limited we have become very good friends.

Here it is quilted.....

washed and crinkly.....

folded ready....

to tie up with ribbon.....

You can see all the other entries here, go put the kettle on there are some lovely quilts to look at.

Oops that turned out big but I don't know how to make it any smaller LOL.

Hugs Linda  xx

The Super Duper Duper Super Giveaway

Hi everyone, glad Blogger is back was feeling lonely..... LOL.  I have a giveaway to tell you about but not just any giveaway this is a SUPER DUPER DUPER SUPER GIVEAWAY (Shawna's words not mine).  The place to be is 1Choice4Quilting , anyone who knows Shawna knows how generous she is and this is no exception she has fabric and other gifts donated by friends, and there are TEN yes you read that right TEN winners, Oh hope I am one of them......   The winners will be drawn on Sunday 29th May.

Good Luck.

Hugs Linda

Giveaway at Needles and Lemons

Judith at Needles and Lemons is having a giveaway, and it's a good one..... you can win a fat quarter set of the entire new Denyse Schmidt range Picnic and Fairground and also two coordinating solids.  The giveaway ends on Satuday 14th May and is open to everybody.  Good Luck... though don't know why I am saying that because I don't really want anybody else to win it....:)

Hugs xxx

You have Mail

I love it when the postman has some lovely squashy parcel, you just know there is going to be something lovely inside.

Well I got a lovely squashy parcel this morning and here is what was inside

Look how pretty it's wrapped up and with a lovely card.

Julie at The Intrepid Thread gave me my choice of 3 FQ  for being brave and commenting first on her giveaway... how nice is that... I chose 1 FQ of the dog print and 2FQ of the other print.  Thank you Julie.

Now because we Brits like to talk about the weather.... here are some pictures of a hail storm we had the other day

I know I said the garden needed some rain.... but not this much!!  It rained so hard and for so long after the hail storm the gutters and the drains couldn't cope with it, the road outside was like a flowing river.

I am pleased to say we haven't had any since.....

Hugs xxx

Tuesday's Treasures - Our Pets

Today I just happened to find this blog The House on the Side of the Hill.  You all know how mad I am about my two dogs so how could I resist taking part.

From my previous post about Lady you will know she was rescued, but not many of you will know Sam's story.

In 2002 we decided to rescue another dog, we went to various animal shelter and had a look around, picked a couple of dogs we liked, but unfortunately Lady didn't!!  We couldn't take another dog without Lady's approval.  We finally found Sam in a local animal shelter, he was in a small cage that was on top of another two cages, all containing little dogs - he hardly had room to turn around or stand up- it was awful yet his little tail was wagging furiously at us.  We took him out for a walk with Lady and it was an instant success.  We had to wait another week before we could take him home with us... it nearly broke my heart leaving him in that tiny tiny cage.

We think he was about 6 months old when we got him but we have no papers so don't really know.  He was a funny little thing, we use to throw the ball for him and he use to stand there and look at us as if to say "yes well what do you want me to do now??"   we had to show him how to play.    He was quite ill the first month we got him so had to spoon medicine down him..... he bit both me and my husband in the process, which was such a shock for us, we had never had a nasty dog before.  However, it soon became clear to us he was doing it in defence.... he was getting in first, before we hurt him.... what on earth had his previous owners been doing to him!!

It wasn't long before this little dog knew he was on to a good thing living with us, he knows we would never hurt him and if we do have to do things to him, it's for his own good, he has never attempted to bite us since.

Last year was a wake up call for us, as my regular readers will know, Sam had a tumour which turned out to be cancer, we think the vet got it all out and Sam isn't showing any signs of being ill and there are no more growths, but it has made us think about how much longer we have with him.  

Lady has just celebrated her 18th Birthday

so every day with her is a precious day, the first thing I do every morning is check on her......though most days she is up and walking around waiting for me to open the door for her.

Sam will be about 10 we think this year. Having a pet is a life long commitment, yes they do stop us doing things like being able to just pack a bag and go away for a few days, everything has to be planned around our dogs, but the joy and the pleasure they give us makes up for that.

Life would be very quiet here without The Lady of the House and My Little Man.

Hugs Linda xx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well,no,  it's not really my Birthday today, it was last week, my lovely lovely friend Diane from Sideroad Stitcher sent me a Birthday parcel 6 weeks ago and I was so disappointed when it hadn't arrived for my birthday....by now I thought it was lost forever, but today it finally arrived and look what I got:

You are lucky to get these pictures because I was so excited I just wanted to rip that paper off immediately!!

There was so much I couldn't get the all in one photo!!

Diane made this label for me....my dream is to own a caravan and tour around France before we get too old to be able to do it !!   How cute is this little car and caravan.

Found the middle one of these a bit hard for my teeth though!!

I am going to look for a nice quilt hanger for this - isn't it just beautiful and you should see the stitching, so neat and even...I just love it... love it... love it.

and here is a better picture of my bag... 

How lucky am I.  Thank you so much Diane I absolutely love everything, you are a truly wonderful friend.

Oh and Sam says Thank You too.....

AND

as if that wasn't enough excitement for one day I also received a giveaway that I won a few weeks ago from Sandi at Piecemeal Quilts.  My prize was 5 FQ well let me tell you Sandi needs to go back to school to learn Math!!!  I got way more that a FQ in each of these fabrics.... how kind of her was that.  Thank you Sandi I really appreciate it.

Now, don't they say things come in threes????  Right then I am off to check and see if I have won any more giveaways........  

Catch ya later    xxxxx