Christmas Party 2009..........

...........Wow, what a lunch Sheila and her trusty band of helpers arranged for the rest of the group today, there was a beautiful spread of cold meats and salads, followed by ...............yep you guessed it GAMES!.......ha! you thought it was Chrissy pudd, didn'tcha?

Of course the games were quilting based and the disagreements were many................Sue was telling Betty to do the Maths twice, Betty called on Heather to use her phone calculator and it was a good thing too.........

'Cause Sue won, just how many pieces are there in a Jacobs Ladder block?

Bettys antlers had a little sticker at the front 'try me' it said.............well you can imagine the comments and suggestions, so Table Hostess Janice pressed the button, and lo and behold, lights! and singing too!, everyone wanted some of those antlers.

After following tradition and telling us a 'Blonde Joke' which I shall try and remember and pop it at the bottom of the post Sheila then called on each table to choose someone to be a tree, we then all had to decorate our 'tree'.

Talk about innovation, lateral thinking and competitive spirit, we got to see it all, everyone got stuck in and worked in teams.

While others were busy, captured Julie in her Christmas Hat and pinnie,  what a beauty, yeah and the hat's pretty cool too.

Now what on earth are Marcia and Wendy up to? hacking into the tissue paper with scissors......

Why this of course, can't have a christmas tree, without.......well a christmas tree...

those naughty girls in the background were making smart comments about Wendy and the pinning of the top of the tree...........really, your mind wouldn't wander down that track now would it?

Marlene told me not to take this pic, she was up the back doing secret things to the foil baking dish.

So wandered off and snapped some of the merriment and mayhem.................

and the process that resulted in some pretty flash 'trees' oh yeah, forgot to mention, the theme was Angels........

And this is what Marlene was working on up the back, a Star, yes it is........squint........see, its a star!

There was a bit of bother getting it afixed to Winifreds Head, but the clever girls got it there in the end with the help of a little curlsheen.

Time for Sheila to make a Judging, note the green curlsheen that solved Winifred's star problem

First we had the rotating, musical singing tree, imaginary winder in the back was cranked up nicely by Marcia

With Musical Tree, finally coming face to face with one of her makers.

And the Winner is.................

Winifred and her Christmas Star.

A great time was had decorating our individual trees, and a terrific appetite was worked up for......yep, at last, the Chrissy Pudd and Custard, great sloshes of custard, the only way to eat your Chrissy Pudding. Yum, although naughty Sue, who was helping dish up dessert, found to her delight that some of the Pud stuck to the bottom of the tin, so quick as a flash she scooped up and into the gob, but not quick enough, she got caught!

Nobody seemed to miss that tiny little bit (Sue's words) enourmous gobfull, (someone else's words).

The delicious Pudd was followed by plates of grapes, and of course tea and coffee.........................
A Wonderful Christmas Party. 

Off they Go............

..........pressies all ready to pop into the post, of the 10 winners we were advised of 7 addresses and of course Wendy who will get her pressie at the Christmas Party next week.  2 winners have not advised their addresses, if nothing is heard from them by next Monday there will be a re-draw at the Christmas Party.


Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and especially those lovely ladies who have decided to follow our blog.  We now have 20 followers, thank you and welcome.  It is a treat to visit you on your blogs, and I for one am enjoying 'getting to know you'.

Christmas Fair 2009......

was a huge success, all the groups raised lots of lovely money to spend on 'tools of the trade', tutors and books for their respective libraries, but oh heck, busy just doesn't cover it, work, work, work, but at the same time, fun all round, chatting to other group members that you may not have seen since Easter Fair, greeting long term return shoppers, meeting new community members and even the odd person being inspired to join our Cottage..........odd as in number......not odd..........lovely people all, really.

Had just finished my little stint being 'dish pig'  gawd I hate that term, I think dish picker upper and table wiper is better, longer, but better...........sorry I digress, handed my apron and dishcloth over to the next volunteer - Hi Barbara - and was just standing there - having a little nanna nap with my eyes open, as you do, when I focused on a beautiful smiling face before me, it was Joy!, from Joypatch, the 1st prize winner of our Birthday giveaway.

She and her Darling, Darryl had come up from Brisbane to visit our Fair.  It was so lovely to meet them both, and of course we then had to go meet Sheila and the other girls.

 No sooner had Joy and Darryl left than the Grandies arrived.  I've always let them loose at the Fair's saying 'You can have anything you want', feeling quite safe, little boys aren't going to want expensive things now are they?  Well this year there were a couple of narrow escapes, think I will be using different words next Fair day...smile..

Still, we managed to do some serious damage to the plastic, the eldest choose these items to decorate his bedroom for Christmas

and the youngest choose these, he particularly loved the bird on the day but I hear that the mouse, aptly named 'mousie' is now the favourite.

but the Rudolph finger puppets are a must for the car, so if you see a little boy, sitting up in his car seat, with Rudolph on his finger, he is saying Hi and showing you his puppet.

Still waiting on some addresses for the giveaway winners.  Have decided to post those that we do have.
The mailing addresses for the other winners need to be sent to buderim(dot)patchwork at gmail(dot)com

And guess who Fran met? Fran and her novelties table are always stationed under the trees by the pathway , and Carl, our new 'Buderim Police Beat' policeman was doing the rounds and dropped in to say Hi and meet some Buderim faces, well Fran certainly saw that he did, Carl was taken through the Cottage and met everyone there from the Groups.

 Pic taken with my phone, from shade into the sun, sorry not a lot could be done.

The Novelties table is stocked chock-a-block with small items made by the Needlework Group with the younger set in mind, Fran attends that stall all Day Saturday and Sunday - a marathon effort, one of many marathon efforts from a core of hardworking Cottage members.

Our Birthday Party and giveaway winners

There was so much excitement as we started to gather for our Blog Birthday Party, we had all been in to have a look at the Sales Display and give a big thumbs up and thank you to the wonderful job of setting up that the Thursday night girls had done.

And what do you think Janet is smilingly casting her eye over?

Why this luscious cream sponge of course, complete with sparkler.

 As luck would have it, there was quite a stiff breeze blowing yesterday, making lighting that sparkler quite the challenge.

Lorraine and Sheila, snaffled the sparkler and used the building as a windbreak, and success was theirs.

 

There was much singing, of happy birthday, and then a resounding rendition of 'for he's a jolly good fellow', words slightly changed to 'she' and 'blogger'...........it was a bit overwhelming actually...........but greatly appreciated.  Thank you Sheila and everyone there yesterday for your very kind words of support, but really, our blog is only a success because of the fantastically talented work that you girls do.

Lorraine then kindly cut the cake into pieces for us all to tuck into, and Sheila and Patricia, poured us tea and coffee and just generally worked hard at making the day a wonderful success.

And so home to await 5 o'clock and have a go at the random number generator. 
It worked beautifully, I took a pic of each and every winners number but folks, I hope you will forgive me, I'm just loading the one, after all, with all those lovely goodies to drool over on yesterdays post, who wants to scroll down past 12 pics of basically the same thing............so without further ado............the first prize winner is................

the 16th comment from Joy of Joypatch, a Gum Tree Designer...............wow!, Joy was one of the apron winners just recently. Wow again!...............oooh I can see giveaways being addictive!

The other winners are ..........................
first commenter - Theresa from Theresa's Blog - no posts there, perhaps a private blog?

Jennifer (Wombat collector extrodinaire) from Bronze Wombat

Loralyn from My Art, My So Called Life, who has the funniest thanksgiving joke on her blog, thanks Loralyn you made my day.

arlette from rincon de arlette who has the cutest little quilt of ginger jars on her blog

Gloria JW from Airdmillan Ayring the Quilts and things Gloria has a really amusing story of her first quilt on her blog........such a laugh, making those awful mistakes we all make when first taking off into the quilting world.

Wendy B from Sugarlane Quilts.  I've been following Wendys blog for a little while now, she has the most amazing pic of a sugar cane fire as her blog banner.

Dianne from Dinky Di Quilting & Craft who grows amazing vegies, the pics are mouthwatering.  BUT, the big thing to go see on Dianne's blog, scroll down past the reno's, past the vegies to an amazing contraption for sandwiching quilts, her friend Robyn is the proud owner..........go see.....wonderful..........no floor crawlers here.

Wendy...........a non bloging member of the cottage.............hey Wendy, don't need your snail mail ..smile..

Vicki from Tozz's Corner Vicki is another of the Gum Tree designers and among other things, has been working on the Breast of Friends BOM in Homespun..............go check out the knots, squillions of 'em.......very pretty, but wow, knots galore!

Betty and Wendy won 2 giveaway prizes at the Birthday Party yesterday, making a total of 12 give-aways............yeah.........the same Wendy that won via e-mail above..........some people are just lucky like that.

So there you go folks, send me your snail mail addy and next week goodies will be winging their way to your door.......

Well folks its 6a.m., gotta be at the Cottage by 7, looking forward to the start of the Fair Fun.  Its been great being part of this celebration and giveaway.  Thanks to all for your support.........you know who you are.
Andrea

Christmas Fair Goodies.........

..........for you to view, drool  or even sigh over ..........just a sprinkling of the lovelies available tomorow and Sunday.

 

Judy was so funny, look at how oblivious she is to all around her, she marched straight in and up to the table and said, " This table, I had nightmares all night"................funny thing was, a couple of the set up girls knew exactly what she was saying!

 

The only long shot of the room, there are soo many goodies, and here's the secret, there is still a little stuff in boxes under the tables, not a lot mind, but a little.

 

There are cushions, wall hangings, stockings that have taken a step away from the traditional,

 

Aprons galore, table runners and strangely enough even quilts,.... smile...

Just had to show you a close up of this stocking, the Santa print was given to Sheila, who created the rest of the stocking, but just look at that row of tiny little red bells, a fancy stitch on her new machine!

Not sure why, but this pic will not load on large, but isn't the quilt stunning?  Lots of goodies on the table below the quilt, including the cutest little string of fabric apples..........now where did that close up go??

There it is, a lovely string of apples, held aloft by two happy volunteers.

There are even the cutest little dress-up skirts, fairy? ballerina?

Stunning colours in this quilt, its hanging right by the entry, you know the place, yeah right there where there is no light, and no room to step back for a good shot, 'spose on reflection, I could have stood in the cupboard....oh well, maybe next time.

Judy and Lorraine, shopping for a new bag, these girls will know exactly where to head as soon as the doors open - gotta be some benefits to being a helper.

Machine Embroidery girls were justifiably proud of their new banner.

Need a new peg bag? this is just the ticket.  Patricia from Patchwork makes a peg bag or two every year, although a couple of years ago, she missed making the bags, you have no idea the disappointment!, one lady almost wept, no peg bag, she gets a new one every year!

Marcia was told by the photographer.......no, not me, the other photographer to either smile or say 'sex', well that was a silly thing to say, she couldn't keep a straight face from that moment on.

 

  A collage of three of the really pretty sections of Marcia's quilt.  I always find it hard to take a pic of an all white or cream quilt.  The collage shows more of the beautiful details

The most beautiful light summer nighties from some of the Needlework ladies, so romantic.  The nighties, really can't say about the ladies, they would bean me if I made that kind of comment!

 

More needlework, a beautifully embroidered brush, the cutest hangers, these hangers are a must for any slippery top, cardigan or dare I say it 'ball gown'............do you remember ball gowns?? gosh I had a couple or two or.......yeah, I know, really showing my age.

Beautifully embroidered potpouri bags, journals, tissue covers, journals, and jewelery pouches.  You name it these girls have got it for sale.

Lorraine spotted these hair slides and ties and very kindly modeled one for me. Cute as buttons, the little girls will love therm.

Dorothy had just finished setting up the Spinners and Weavers display and kindly let me take some pics of their beautiful work, that shawl on the stand at the back is as light as a cobweb, and beautifully soft.  Wonderful wearables and some of the lovliest little toys for the youngest set.

Another so soft shawl, more toys - Koalas seem to be the toy of the day but check out the Nativity Dolls! Wow! Fantastic.

And lastly a pic of Sheila, wearing her apron, she made the cupcakes for Sapho's quilt and ended up not using them.........what to do with 3 delish cup cakes? pop them on a pocket and onto an apron of course.

Sheila worked very hard to make our blog party such a success this morning, with the help of Patricia they served us all our cuppas  while we gobbled up beautiful cream sponge washed down by tea - or for some coffee...........it was a wonderful morning and a terrific celebration with some giveaways for the non bloggers of our group.  I will post pics of the party with the winners of the Blog Birthday Giveaway tomorrow....just gotta go see if I can make that random number thingy work now... wish me luck!

Thank you Sheila for a wonderful morning.