"The Craft Group" plus...

Thanks Wendy for showing me this Peony flower pattern! I have attempted to make a big chunky one with a ginormous crochet hook and a huge roll of bias binding I found once on the "Swap shop". I thought it would make it easier to see in my photos. This really is an easy pattern. ch 4, slip stitch to form a circle. Round 1: ch 1, 14 SC into ring, join. Round 2: ch 3, 2 DC into same stitch as 3 chains. 3 DC into each stitch around. Join. Round 3: ch 3, 2 DC into same stitch as 3 chains. 3 DC into each stitch around. Join. Weave in ends. Now do it Diana's STEP-BY-STEP way... click "read more" to see the whole thing. STEP 1: put a slip stitch on your hook. STEP 2: chain 4

I'm always loosing my phone. Especially a black phone inside a black handbag. I bought a new phone when my last one died and decided I needed a bright cover and one that would stop it getting scratched in my bag. I love playing with felt so found some in my stash and made this little number. Here's the front. Here's the back. Here it is in an action shot! Last year I went on a weekend away with some ladies from work. We were at a gorgeous little restaurant on the south coast and a few of us had our phones on the table. When we thought about it, we realised... you can tell a lot about people from their phone cover. We had the creative, 'shop-on-line' Anita with her quirky cassette player look-alike cover. Then there is the diamond covered pink cover for the 'I-hate-boring-things' Christine. Barbara the bushwalker had the brown clip-on-your-belt model. Pink loving Kay had the dark pink, no nonsense, I-hate-to-fiddle-with-phone-cove

Judy shared a great thought about living forever... in Joy!  Read what she had to say... Joy in Eternity As most of you know, last month I celebrated a fairly significant birthday, one with an 0 on the end. I had a great time celebrating with friends and family for nearly a week including lunch at Hazelhurst, morning tea with friends and even a surprise lunch. Soon after I had a reality check when I went to visit my doctor for a check-up. When she found out that I had turned 50 I was quickly handed all sorts of forms and referrals for various screening tests. It was somewhat overwhelming to find that

Bev has made a quilt for her little grandson. How cute is this with all the alphabet blocks.  (Nice machine quilting Bev).  There is a fun little 'multi use' aspect to this cute quilt.  (No, it is not the feet attached to the bottom of the quilt. I guess I should have cropped those feet out!) Turn the quilt over and you have a chalk board! This is special blackboard fabric you can buy and it really works just like a chalk board and is fully washable. So the little man can learn to read the alphabet and write it too using just one handy quilt! Great idea and a lovely quilt Bev!

Hi from your long lost blogger. All of a sudden things get a bit too busy and the blog has to be patient and wait for me! 2 main things have taken my attention. 1- My Dad went to hospital but is OK and getting well looked after there. His sense of humour is in tact so I know he is feeling a lot better. 2- I rearranged furniture. Hmmmm. I LOVE rearranging furniture. It gives me hope that things are going to be super organised with the new look. I knew this was going to be a tricky one though because I was actually going to end up with one cupboard less. Yes... one whole cupboard! Usually when I rearrange things it is to squeeze another space in somewhere to put stuff in. But with my new year's resolution to declutter, I don't want more space to store stuff (well I am trying to tell myself that is not what I want), I am actually wanting to have less stuff . So for a week I have a kitchen table full of 'stuff'. Now and then I attack it for half an hour and decide wh

You don't need a weeding as an excuse to make this flower. It could make a great  table centre piece. You can find the DIY instructions by clicking here. Definitely not to wear behind the ear!

Not to detract from my lovely female friends but I was thinking today that my husband is my best friend. What made me think of this? This GORGEOUS conversation I had today at school while I was outside on playground duty... I was having a lovely chat with a boy in grade 4 about nothing much and then he pointed to the other side of the playground. Mr 9 years old: Hey look! See that girl running there with the red ribbon? That's my girlfriend. Me: That's nice that she is your friend. You don't have to call her your 'girlfriend', she is just your friend.             It's OK to have friends that are girls too. Mr 9 years old: No, she is my girlfriend. (sad face) She said she didn't want to be my friend. Me: ?

What do you do with nylon yarn like this? Years ago people knitted coat hanger covers from it. Someone donated these rolls to our "Swap Shop".  Obviously they didn't want any more knitted coathangers! Ta da! Elaine made a new look coat hanger cover. These are great for hanging a wet stretch item on  to allow it to dry without getting the coathanger stretch marks on the shoulders! Just cut the nylon into lots of equal lengths and knot them onto to covered wire hanger.  Couldn't be easier. Or, as Marion did, you could use the same cut-and-knot method on a round of elastic to make a cute little girl's tutu.

You know how sometimes it is good to give your pot plants a good soaking in a tub and then let them drain a bit? Well it's like that is what happened to NSW! One of my sisters couldn't drive out of her street for a few days. There was a foot bridge that was accessible, so when they saw the road might become closed, they put a car on the other side of the creek and were then able to walk to that car and drive to work. My other sister was stuck for a day, together with thousands of other people, on the western side of the Hawksbury River. But that was a nice excuse to not go out. We had the deluge here in sydney on Thursday and it took my kids two and a half hours to get to school on an otherwise 15 minute bus trip! The traffic was terrible. I went to The Craft Group and arrived 45 minutes late. There were about half the ladies there, others not able or willing to fight the weather and traffic. Click here to read all about it in the Sydney Morning Herald. I do feel

I am keen to try and make this top.  I probably won't have time but I figure if I leave it on the blog here I will be able to find it again if the urge hits me to make it.

Marion's mother-in-law sadly passed away last year. Marion inherited these 2 lovely cushions. She brought them along to show as as she knew we'd appreciate all the work gone into the beautiful  candle-wicking and Hardanger embroidery. I'll put in some bigger pictures so you can see more detail. A special memory of Oma, Marion!

Hello, I would like to introduce you to my friend Ina. Ina is clever and wears many different hats during her week. Here she is with her 'crafting' hat on. Sorry, I cut off the top of the photo, that is probably where her hat is ;) At The Craft Group, ladies bring along any craft they like.  Ina brought her stained glass elephants. She cuts the glass at home.  She brings her pieces along and starts the foiling process. That is a good job to do whilst sitting and chatting. Then at home (and sometimes at Craft) she does all the soldering. Aren't they cute? Now to just hang it to catch the light. Did you see Ina's Christmas Angels and Christmas Trees ?

Are you good enough for God to save you? Guess what, we would never be good enough, but God is bigger than we think and He can save us even though we don't deserve Him. Grace... Mercy... Listen t this encouraging song for those in God's family.

I LOVE this! Turning children's drawings into real life soft toys check it out!

This is a nice and bright cross stitch Wendy brought along to show. Some women off to the markets... Some women at the markets.. The pattern was from Hanne's Needlecraft. You can buy it here You do lovely cross stitch Wendy but you really should frame them!!!