"The Craft Group" plus...

[In case you have caught me out, yes, it should say 2015,  but I loved this picture I made up last year and I just don't have time now to make another one, so be assured, the sentiments are just as sincere!]

Nadia has featured many times on this blog. She is the crochet queen. Just put "Nadia" in the search bar on the right and you will see many of her creations. After 3 lovely sons, Nadia has a daughter, Trinity. We love seeing her little face at The Craft Group. No longer is she sleeping soundly on her mum's shoulder, rocked gently by the rhythm of mum's crocheting hands. She is now toddling around in the creche with her brother. You can understand then why Nadia called her collection "Trinity's Crochet Collection". Check it out. She is an artist with wool! Her items are for sale and she does do special orders, so contact her if you are genuinely interested... nadia [dot] alvarez [at] optusnet [dot] com [dot] [au]

Well, the year hasn't ended yet but 'The Craft Group' has ended for the year. We had our Annual Christmas Brunch and again it was such a lovely morning. Craft. Sharing yummy food. Singing a few carols! Hearing Lydia share about "Grace". Lovely memories of 2014. And presents! Here we are in our final craft frenzy...  The table was filled with goodies Check out Georgina's reindeer biscuits at the front and Elly's paint swatch bunting which went around the table.  Our table centre piece was also by Elly and was won by Lyn D who was happy to take home a cute instant Christmas decoration. Gifts! This year we had Elzanne as the 'Gift Creative Director'! (again- yay) We all received a 2 year planner/diary. I have the technology to keep a digital diary but I keep coming back to a real one in my bag at all times. The front of the diary has Hebrews 4:16 on it. A great reminder throughout the year. "Let us therefore come boldl...

This term at The Craft Group we are featuring a project a week. This week we made 5 pointed origami stars. So nice to hang or sit in a nice spot in the house this christmas. I would like to say... honestly , that they are easy! But some of the ladies may not agree! It was just a bit hard to do it as a big group and is SO much easier making it along with the video. You can do it step by step and hit the pause button whenever you like. After you have made 2, you will agree with me that they are really easy. You have to start with a pentagon. This website "Home made gifts made easy " gives a free printable pentagon template , but he also explains how to make a pentagon from any size square paper. Give it a go! starting with A4 paper is OK but I used us quite a few sheets of scrapbooking paper that I knew I would never use. I also used an old atlas and some old books. Here is how to make the star... Have fun with it! all photos on this page are from home-...

Here in sunny NSW, Australia, spring is here and it is so lovely to get out and about. (Not that we can't do that in winter - it's pretty mild!) We mentioned at The Craft Group the other week that there is a Tulip Festival on in the Southern Highlands. Bowral Baptist Church is a good place to start. Harriet went for a day and this is what she said... "Today, Ross and I went to the Bowral Baptist Church for the Artisan Showcase.   What a wonderful exhibition, particularly of quilts.  They did a lovely morning tea and lunch (very reasonably priced).  After that we went to the gardens to see the tulips – what a wonderful display. This event is on each day until October 4 th (except for Sundays) and is well worth going to.  Not sure if any of the craft ladies would be interested in going, but it is well worth the hour drive down." So, if you are in NSW and feel like a nice day out... do it!

Knitting an item takes ages. Stitch by stitch the item slowly grows. Why would you bother? We do it for love! For the love of creating and for the love of the ones who will be wearing the items! So, let's take our hats off to some fantastic ladies in The Craft Group who have made nearly 70 knitted items for charity! I don't want to mention their names (mainly Kay C, Bev G) unless I miss someone but here are their lovely warm creations. We sent them off to Mission without Borders who will send them to those in need in Eastern Europe. They suggest some patterns but are happy with other items such as these...     Thank you ladies, your hearts and hands are generous.

Praying is just talking to God. Amazing. God, the maker of everything actually listens to our words, our thoughts. Sometimes it just blows me away to think about it. Listening to this little girls sing also blows me away!  Here is Rhema Marvanne when she was 7 singing the Lord's Prayer.  Let it inspire you to talk to God yourself. Watch it HERE on You Tube.

At The Craft Group we share craft, life, stories, food, ideas, laughs and faith. We are Women. We are complex! We are clever. We are special. We are loved. Each week we have a little "thought from the Bible". Because there is so much to learn. Because it gives us meaning. Lately we are using the new big screen TV on the wall to look at video clips of songs that mean something to us. This past thursday, Pam shared this song by Jimmy Needham called "Rock Bottom". It's really special. God is Special. You should watch it. Click HERE to see it. Thanks for this song Pam.

I featured some of Lorraine's quilts and toys she made for the playgroup for disabled children HERE. I said I would feature a baby book she made. It is designed to stimulate through as many senses as possible. Such a fun, creative little book for a worthwhile cause! Good on you Lorraine!

I was sure I had posted these amazing projects by Lorraine but I just searched my own blog and I haven't featured them yet! They are so inspirational and such a worthwhile project. Two years ago, we were challenged by a lady who works with families with young children with intellectual disabilities. She said that at their playgroup, one little quilt was made by someone who works there and understands the importance of tactile stimulation for these littlies. The little quilt was wearing out and they wondered if we could make some more. The challenge was taken and some of us put on our thinking caps to start to create. You can see the beginnings of our thoughts and creations HERE. Then you can look at the lovely post of when we gave the tactile quilts to the children  HERE. Since that time, Lorraine has been inspired by the freedom and creativity involved in making these tactile quilts. Her main inspiration has been to make something which has such an positive impact on the ...

It is always lovely to be inspired by different card designs. So, here, to inspire you are some cards by Harriet... So, get out those toothpick knitting needles and whip up a few cards! Too cute!

This thursday, The Craft Group starts again for another 7 weeks of secret women's business (craft, chatting, eating, coffee, chatting, rpt). For now I will Show 'n Tell a "card" made by Elly for my mum, Wil. Yes, it is appropriately a 'W'. (Wilhelmina to be precise). Elly made and decorated the card and on the paper on the back, everyone signed it for Mum's birthday. I thought I'd show you because Mum is on hospital at the moment. Everyone at The Craft Group would have noticed her walking funny last term. Well, it certainly didn't get better by itself and she went into hospital 10 days ago and had a sudden back operation. (Lumbar Laminectomy if you are knowledgeable about such things). She is on the mend which is good. So here is her card... Really special Elly!                                                 

Here is the second version of the "Leanne's House" pattern, this time by Judy K. (Sorry about the wonky photo. I don't like it when my photo doesn't do a beautiful quilt justice!) Wow, there is SO much work in this quilt Judy! It's amazing, well done! You can see Elaine's version HERE

Elaine is our lovely quilting mentor. She is happy to help any of us on our quilting journey. She introduced us to the "Leanne's House" Quilt and a few ladies bought the pattern and made this lovely quilt. Here is Elaine's Pretty version of the quilt. I'll show you some of the other lovely versions of this quilt soon. Nice job Elaine!

Mum & Dad had their 60th Wedding Anniversary this past week with lots of smaller celebrations rather than one big one. For one of the events I thought I would make a cake! Cake decorating is not really one of my things but it is amazing what you can learn from the internet and from talking to the lady in the cake decorating store I found not too far away. I learned a lot from the I am baker blog website which includes a video tutorial. A little tip I picked up… the blog says to use a sugar syrup on the cake first to make the icing stick and stop crumbs coming away from the cake, but the cake decorating shop said to heat up some apricot jam in the microwave and smear a thin layer of that on the cake first. Cool in the fridge and the icing will stick with no crumbs. Yay for easy tips that really work! Happy 60th Anniversary Mum & Dad!

So you took all those paint chip colour samples to paint the bedroom. What do you do with them now? Make lovely cards of course, just like Cheryl did.  The punched flowers (also from paint chips) hide the writing and coordinate beautifully. Great and simple idea Cheryl.