Day 4 Let's get Stitched; The stitching day!

When we entered the big room on Sunday, we saw all these beautifully decorated bags on the tables...how exciting! We were given a little bit of time to look through the bags...

And it was announced that in one of the 50 or so bags there was a voucher from Dawn Hay for a quilting service (by Dawn) for a quilt up to 80 inches.
Look what I found at the very bottom of my gift bag...what a surprise!!

Then it was time for our wonderful organisers/designers to speak to us about the day and show us the samples of the items we could make with the patterns etc in our bags.

Dawn, Joy, Vicki and Fiona...

Now those 4 designers are joined by Jenny, Marilyn, Vikki and a big surprise guest on the end...Rosalie Quinlan!

The tables along the side of the room were groaning with samples and also supplies we could purchase...

Now where to start...many of us chose Rosalie's design that she had drawn up especially for LGS...
How many designers stand at the ironing area and offer to iron on the design? ...not many I reckon, but the lovely Rosalie did...

We had been told to bring certain coloured cottons and I started stitching Rosie's design...but I didn't like what I had done. When I had a peep at Sharon's stitching next to me, I decided to use variegated thread like she was. I was happier with that!

Ladies busy stitching away at the table behind us...

Our table stopped for a photo...

So now for a closer look at the goodies in our bags...
Patterns from Jennifer Reynolds aka Jenny Elefantz

 A pattern for a retreat bag from Fiona (Designs by Fee) and a kit to make sweet little pin cushions...

The bag also contained a pack of charm squares...

A beautiful pattern for a project bag designed by Dawn Hay...

 A magnificent table runner/centre pattern designed by Vicki

Next is a pattern for a beautiful projects' book cover designed by Vikki Collumbine

 Blogger wants this lovely pattern designed by Joy to be on its side!

 And this lovely pattern by Marilyn is also on its side too! lol

 We also got a lovely vintage look tin for our pins

 Some how I got 2 snail tape measures!

 And this sweet keyring was attached to my gift bag...

 This little bag was attached to the front of our bags and had some sweets and some raffle tickets...

We thought that these were also lollies but on closer inspection we found that they are actually each a charm square wrapped up...how clever!

We each received a copy of homespun which features a quilt design by Dawn...

So you can see why we were quite overwhelmed by the generosity of those 4 ladies who did the organising and also those other wonderful designers.
No event like this is complete without the obligatory photos of the group...Narelle took on the role of organising us for the first group photo of those who went on the Friday bus trip...

Then when Narelle was satisfied with the composition of the group photo she quickly joined us...

heh  heh!! Love it!

Then there was the group photo of those 50 or so of us who were there for the Stitching Day...many locals joined us that day...

It was a wonderful day; the organisation was excellent and the catering was scrumptious. A very fitting finale to what had been such a great weekend of friendship and fun with like-minded people and the outcome of many months of planning and working by our 4 organisers.
Let's get Stitched 2015 was announced at the end of the day...and it will be in Brisbane. Start saving girls! lol

Let's Get Stitched...

On Thursday March 6 I'm heading off to Melbourne for the Bloggers' Meet known as Let's Get Stitched'. A number of things have been planned for this weekend, starting with a bus tour of a number of craft/quilt shops in and around Melbourne on the Friday. There is the very popular Pizza and Games Night on the Friday evening and Saturday night is the Let's Get Stitched Dinner. Sunday is the stitching day and there are a number of designers who will be unveiling new projects to us that day. This will be the  first time that I have attended this event and it's quite exciting! I have noticed on some of the designers' blogs photos appearing of piles of fabrics and packets containing patterns...just to tease us I think! 

There are 2 items that all attendees have to make; one is a mug rug, the back of which will be signed by everyone  and will be a great souvenir of the weekend. Last FNSI, I started work on my mug rug but didn't get very far that night...

 For the very first time I had printed some images on fabric that I planned to use in my mug rug...

I stitched the sewing machine in a red/orange as I once saw a photo of one of Bonnie Hunter's vintage machines and it was red! It looked so cute. Also on the last FNSI, I got out my bag of sewing notions fabrics. So all the 'raw materials' were there, I just had to work out how I was going to put all this together...so it looked ok! lol

And this is the finished mug rug..ta dah!

The other item that we each have to make is a name tag for the name tag swap. We have all been given the name of the person for whom we have to make a name tag. We were invited to give details of favourite colours etc on the group's Facebook wall, to help match the tag to the intended recipients. My swap partner said she didn't like pastels etc but liked black and white and also jade green. This nametag will be worn on the bustrip on Friday.
And this is what I've come up with...
Not more hexies you say? But of course! lol. The name tag is just over 3 1/2 inches at its widest point...so hopefully not too big! The name is hidden with a strip of wadding as we have to keep the name secret until we hand them over on Thursday night. 

I also have a list of items that are required for the stitching projects, to gather together to take with me...from the listed items it sounds like some lovely projects that we will get to do.
 Yesterday I went shopping to buy some threads which are on our 'to bring' list and took the opportunity to buy some new pins. In that 'black hole' where pens and socks disappear to, I think many of my sewing pins are there too. :-)

Of course I've also been gathering items that I already have.

So next Thursday I will be meeting up at the airport with some fellow bloggers from around SE Queensland. We've managed to get tickets on the same flight. Should we warn Melbourne that Let's Get Stitched is on next weekend?? Needless to say, I will take lots of photos.