Looking back to Christmas Eve, 2014...

In the post Christmas period, I had a number of posts organised ready to insert photos and publish, but as you know there were a number of alterations to those plans DH, the family and I had had. :-).

For a number of years, we have had the family (plus friends) come for a Christmas meal and present giving on Christmas Eve. Some years, the number of guests was over 20, but this year, we were down to 6. No we haven't been deserted by our loved ones, the girls and nephews are all grown up now; some were spending time with their partners' families, some were working and some are overseas.
Having such a small number meant that I was able to attend an early evening service at our church which had always been difficult for me to attend as I would be putting the finishing touches to the big meal...and last minute cleaning. It's a Family Service and the local children help to 'dress the crib'/manger/nativity scene.

I arrived early but within 15 minutes the pews were filled...
Young O, who lives with his family in the old rectory had been helping set up the projector and had a bit of fun with making shadow animals with his hands! lol

During the ceremony, all the children selected a figurine from the table at the back and walked up the aisle to place these figures in the 'stable'.

Then it was home ready to celebrate with 2 of our girls and their partners. Before dinner though, we had a special call on Skype from DH's youngest who is working in Canada. She is spending this season in Ottawa so that she can experience a White Christmas, something very alien to Aussies! lol. She had set her alarm for 4.30am after a late night, so was very sleepy.

Her sister told her that I had made potato bake and zucchini slice, two of her favourites...so I held each one up in front of the iPad camera! lol. We really are fortunate with how modern technology allows such wonderful and easy communication.
Proud dad taking photos of the Skype session...I had already been taking pics with my phone...

Miss Nikki had sent back gifts with a friend who had travelled back to Brisbane from Canada earlier in December...one of DH's gifts was a Santa hat...but it was so hot...too hot for a Brisbane Christmas! lol

We may have been small in numbers, but we had a lovely evening. Later, when DH and I were seeing the young people off, DH noticed there was something in our letter box...it was a parcel...all the way from eQuilter in Colorado.

I opened it before the evening ended. It was a Xmas present to myself...4 knitting themed fabrics to add to my stash :-)

The tally of blog posts show that this is post #1001. So my last post about our calendar was #1000 and I hadn't even noticed! lol. However, I have done some 'reruns' (at least 9) of posts over the years, describing them as 'Encores', so technically I guess the 1000 post milestone still is a little way off.  

Customer Service...

Recently I was with a group of fellow crafters and the subject of buying online came up. As one lady commented...'It's just so easy to buy online'...and we all agreed! I think that I bought my first quilt fabrics online about 6 years ago and I bought them from eQuilter which is a huge US business operating out of Colorado.  They use large ads placed in craft magazines and that's how I found out about them. I bought quite a bit from eQuilter, not only for myself but also placed large orders for my friend who was a bit scared about buying online. :-) Then a stallholder at the Stafford heights markets told me about Quiltshops.com and I trawled that site with its huge number of shops when I wanted some fabric in particular.

But in more recent years I'm buying less (so I tell myself :-) ) and I'm supporting Australian online fabric shops and there are a lot around who have amazing stock and not really over the top prices at all. However, in January, I trawled the various sites looking for some fabric with knitting designs on it. After a lot of looking I ended up placing an order with eQuilter as they had all the selection that I wanted, not just one or two like the other retailers. I placed that order on January 23.  

By mid March, when the parcel had not arrived, I got a bit concerned. I wondered whether eQuilter would take the attitude ' Too bad, so sad. We sent it; too bad it didn't get there. Nothing we can do about it.'  But remember this is all in my imagination...the reality was somewhat different...

With postage, the parcel represented about $42USD, so I wrote them an email, saying I was worried that the parcel was taking too long to arrive and was maybe 'lost'. Well within a day there was a reply giving me the details of what happened to the package on its journey from Colorado to LA where it had passed through their customs and had left the country by air. But there could be no tracking after that. So I was asked to do a few things from this end. I  received a set of steps to go through to satisfy their insurance. So I contacted Australia Post, asked my neighbours did any of them collect a parcel for me and sent a query to Customs.

When that all came back in the negative, eQuilter then lodged what they had to, and I was told it might take a week or two. While that was being sorted, stock was checked and all but one fabric could be replaced. I could get a credit or I could choose something else as a replacement. I did the latter. Throughout all this my eQuilter contact was a lady called Dana...and she was wonderful! It wasn't long before I got another email from Dana saying the claim had been approved and my parcel was on its way. She just asked that I let her know when it arrived...my goodness it was the least I could do after all her efforts.

Here's the photo of Dana from the eQuilter website; her bio says that she is a keen quilter :-)

Two weeks later, the parcel was left on my front steps...not as usual,on the ground beside my letterbox or put under the house...it was on the top step!! So here they are...my 'knitting' fabrics...

The red fabric with the knitting terms is the substitute for the one in the 'Ewe' series that I had originally ordered. 

So sometime soon, I plan to make a another knitting project bag and also make a storybook bag for the children's book, 'The Story Blanket' which is the sweetest old folk story.

Babba Zarrah has a beautiful woollen sitting blanket, which the children sit on to listen to her stories. When she realises the villagers need new clothes, Babba Zarrah begins to unravel her blanket in secret to make them. But when the villagers discover Babba Zarrah's secret, they decide to give Babba Zarrah a surprise in return.

So you now know what at least one of my great nieces will get for Christmas this year! lol