With eleven colours to choose from now, we thought it was a great excuse for a giveaway. Buy two or more 219 metre spools and we'll also send 5 metres of each of the other colours.

 Offer ends this Saturday, the 31st of March.

Meg x

I love chairs. Ask my husband. He doesn't share this love, last year asking 'why do we have 84 chairs in this house??!'. So I said goodbye to a few. Husband happy. What he didn't realise - it was only to make room for a few more.

Children's vintage chairs are a particular interest. I have numerous NZ school chairs through the decades, Coolie chairs....

I was thinking my children's collection was complete when I spied these.

Rescued from a schoolhouse in Lille, France the chairs date back to the 1950's. Oodles of history before they even arrive at your door. Then it's your turn to add to the history - these are chairs to be passed down through generations.

 Available in Blue, Yellow and Green.

Meg x

OK, that's not entirely true, on two counts. I have made other patchworks but always for others (and nothing too big, or fancy), and secondly, well, it's not finished yet.

But hey I'm going to show you anyway. And making it public is a good incentive to get it finished. And this is big. Up until now it's been all about cot sizes.

 Yes, it's pink. I didn't set out for it to be quite so pink but that's the nature of patchwork, at least my patchwork. 

I have the most beautiful memories of my mother, who would have been about 25 at the time, making two matching patchworks. The fabric was left over from the clothes she made both of us so they have a gorgeous nostalgic pull for me. Not just because they were my bed covers as I grew up but also the memory of the sweet 70's frocks I wore.

I'm pretty sure we owned a sewing machine but for some reason the quilts are made by hand. I'm not sure what the system is called but Mum tacked the cut fabric onto card templates and then hand stitched the squares together before removing the card.

While visiting Mum a few years ago I noticed they were being used in a way less than ideal. One as a painting drop cloth, and the other I found in the dog basket, happy sleeping pooch on top. 

Successful rescue operation. Both are safe and sound in our house.

 They make great picnic blankets.

So my patchwork. It's now at the quilting, backing, binding stage, hand it to the experts stage...

Here it is half completed.

 xMeg

And so we ate. We lit the fire, we watched movies, and we ate. Oh, and a little sewing but I'll tell you about that later.

Scott and I were given Al Brown's new recipe book, Stoked, for Christmas. It's great. And although it's mostly meat and savory recipes it also has a good baking section. I made these chocolate chippie biscuits from it, with 1 and a 1/4 cups of butter - they taste great!

The gingerbread is a recipe I have been making for years. I noticed there's one is the Stoked book, but you know when you've been making a recipe for so long, it's difficult to change.

But the eating didn't stop there. Here's Sunday morning coffee.

 And then there were the cupcakes....

I did walk the dogs too. 

Meg x

We thought we'd show you a custom order we made a few weeks ago. Special cutters and interesting storybooks were selected and little piles of hearts were all through the workroom. There's that special feeling that accompanies anything to do with weddings isn't there. We were thrilled to play a part - ok a very minor part - of such an important day for the couple and their friends.

A fabulous idea surrounded the garlands. While the bridal party were having their photos taken, a polaroid was taken of all the guests back at the venue. By the time the bride and groom arrived, the pics were displayed on the garlands. Isn't that a sweet keepsake for them.