I'd like to Introduce You to . . .

First I'd like to introduce you to the lovely Jess who blogs at The Elven Garden.  She lives in Tasmania, where huge areas have been devastated by some huge bushfires in the last week. Many, many homes have been completely destroyed and families have lost everything. The latest report is that about 200 homes have been either destroyed or severely damaged in the bushfires.

There are appeals for money, but Jess is arranging for donations of baby's and kids quilts to pass on to the families who have lost so much in the fires.   If you can help out with this, please click to go to this post, and you can contact her for more info.

I'm in the UK, and as Tasmania is half a world away, the cost of sending a full quilt will be expensive -  but Jess has though of this - she says "If you have quilt tops that just need backing and quilting, I'd be happy to accept these too and quilt them up myself to give to the families who've been affected"

Remember those two pink and turquoise and black quilts I mentioned yesterday?  I think they have a good home to go to!

Just need to finish them

I'd also like to introduce you my real life blogger friend, Annabelle, who blogs at Annabelle Serendipity. Annabelle cooks and blogs and patchworks and quilts and blogs and knits and crochets . . . lives life to the full, being a tourist both home and abroad!  She has this fab looking book to give away - with birds, butterflies and beasties to knit or crochet, so go and visit her [here].

I cant knit or crochet but [look away Lisa] I have a daughter who can crochet, and who has a birthday coming up soon - hum, actually, I rescind the suggestion that you enter the giveaway: please don't go and enter Annabelle's giveaway, as that reduces my chances!

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that

I wish I hadn't typed that post title, now I cant get that song out of my head - serves me right!

A few random photos for today's post.  After meeting Annabelle recently the sneaky lady posted a photo of mum and I on her blog (right at the end of a long post), so I thought I'd return the compliment - so here are Annabelle and I in her sunny conservatory - and yes we both have uncontrollable grey / white hair!

I'm now taking you from the Home Counties over the sea to Portugal.  Just two photos from my recent girly weekend to  Lisbon: I love these window decorations - buttons strung onto fishing wire

. . . and when the waiter asked if we wanted a pitcher of beer rather than 6 medium glasses we never expected to have one of these brought to the table!!!  It was fab, and the centre column of ice kept the beer ice cold even in the direct sunlight (I want one!)

And finally, two lizards for Jen from the African Bee swap.  I tried to make one out of hot dots: I cut the lizard shape out of the dots and ironed them onto the fabric, but couldn't work out how to get the foil to then stick to the dots, so I abandoned that plan, and simply bond-a-webbed another one onto fabric, and stitched around him in a green blanket stitch in Lisbon (a well travelled lizard!)  Apologies for the rubbish pic, I thought it was better, and he's been packaged up now ready to continue his travels, this time to Jen's in California, along with a budgie and a hedgehog!

However, in the mean time, Jacqui emailed me with the instructions on how to use the hot dots - doh, I had to melt them again with the foil on top!  I did a positive, and a negative, and although I have sent both, I have only taken a pic of the negative one as I think he's the better one.  I did embroider around his body as one of the Pearle cottons that Plum sent me was the perfect colour, so Sparkles is on his way with Boris!