Lynette Anderson Designs

Fiji, we have arrived...

Arriving on the island by boat we were greeted by this singing trio, once the singing welcome had come to an end we walked up the gangplank to the sound of "Bula Bula" this is the traditonal 'hello' from the Fijians. After a refreshing glass of iced passionfruit tea we made our way to reception.

We headed off to our overwater Bure which is to be home to us for the next 6 nights.

This gorgeous leaf and flower 'welcome' was waiting for us on our bed along with a very nice plate of canapes and a chilled bottle of bubbles....

The tide was out when we arrived at our Bure and these and many more wonderful fish were swimming amongst the coral in the water right below our deck.

Despite the cloudy sky it was still humid and quite warm but with the lovely sea breeze it was perfect. The sun looked fantastic across the ocean as it started its perpararion for sunset. 

Happy Dogs...

Much to the dogs delight on Christmas morning there was a very high tide, with water coming into the garden what dog could resist a paddle and a bit of a play!!

They were exhausted and cool at the end of a very playful romp in the water! The humans had a lovely day together and tomorrow Vince and I are heading to Fiji for a week of relaxing, I am taking my camera and clever Vince has found an affordable underwater camera, it goes to 3m deep and since I dont plan to get my hair wet while snorkling it should be fine!...I'll be back in the new year sometime after the 5th with some holiday photos x x be good while I am gone.

Happy Christmas 2011...

Its early christmas morning here and although the cats and Hugo are up with me everyone else is still sleeping so with my hot cup of tea in one hand I am writing to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope that you will all have a lovely day filled with family, friends, good food and laughter x x Thank you for your friendship over the years and I look forward to next year x x

Lunch out...

To celebtate the end of a great year we decided to treat ourselves to a little retail therapy and a nice lunch out up in Montville.

Lyn, Emma and I are sitting is a very pretty shaded area thats full of topiary trees, maybe this area was the inspiration behind the stitchery 'Our Home'.

The gardens around all these lovely shops are just lovely, Mum, Lyn and Emma are leading the way to the next must see shop.... the giant agapanthus in this section of the garden were superb.

After a wonderful lunch during which I forgot to take any photos (sorry, the food was lovely) a visit to the chocolate shop was a must, needless to say some of these goodies came home with us.

Secret Garden bag

I finished the remodelling of the Quilt Shoppe pillow and I love its mauviness...

A little while ago I sent some of my Secret Garden fabrics to a friend in the UK whom I met a couple of years ago when I was teaching at Quilters Haven in Suffolk, UK. I had twisted Nicola's arm via email to make me a gorgeous bag using my fabrics, I saw the bag on her blog when she made one for herself. Can you imagine how excited I was when I checked my post box this morning... the bag pattern is by a Norweigian designer and is called Mathildes Summer Bag by AnnAKA...I love it...

I admit it I am totaly spoilt, apparently there were some left overs and Nicola has alos made the nicest washbag I have ever owned. Its a great size and has a million inside pockets and if you could see my very aged washbag you would understand just how delighted I am with this x x 

Tomorrow the girls and I are going out for our christmas break lunch and some shopping...I will take my camera just in case there is something I need to share with you all x x

Christmas, stitching and halloween...

My  Christmas Fun quilt greets everyone as they come in my front door, its on the wall above a rather nice old meat safe cupboard that we picked up a few years ago. As you can see from the wooden pole thats sticking out each end at the top the quilt that normally hangs here is slightly bigger, so when I go to the hardwear store next I need to buy a shorter stick or visit a quilt shop and find a nice quilt hanger!

I am so enjoying working with fabrics from my new fabric collection 'Secret Garden' that I am rennovating 'Quilt Shoppe' pillow. The orignal pillow had a blue gingham check for the borders and backing for this version I have used the little mauve bug print for the roof and am using the dusky mauve fishnet (as we are calling it) floral for the borders and backing and its going to look gorgeous. If you want to see all the different fabrics that are from the 'Secret Garden' fabric colelction you can see them here on Leciens website.

I am also busy working and I have to say it feels weird with christmas just around the corner on the embroidery/stitchery parts for next years 'Happy Halloween' fabrics that I designed earlier this year. Its a very sweet compact collection with just 19 different fabrics, I have only created one really Hallloweeny fabric the rest are little filler type prints, the colours from this collection are designed to work with any 'Secret Garden' fabrics you may have collected.....

Halloween is not as big a holiday here in Australia as it is in the US but as each year goes by I notice that we are starting to embrace it. I must admit that working from home it does me good to move the furniture around and to change my decorations with the seasons/holidays, otherwise I find I dont notice things in my own home until a visitor comes and points it out, are you like that??

Win a pattern set...

How exciting, yesterday the delivery man brought me a box three boxes filled with bolts of fabric from my new fabric collection 'Secret Garden'. Today we had fun patting it and cutting it and making some sweet fat eighth bundles for you.

The fabrics are so gorgeous, tiny prints, pretty flowers, bugs and I just love them I hope you do too. I have very limited amount of bundle's of my new fabric available in my online shop . There are lots of lovely things you could make using one of these bundles, or perhaps we can tempt you to a limited edition kit to make 'In Full Bloom' my new six part BOM.

In Full Bloom kits contain, the yummy yarn dye stitchery background fabric, 16 different prints and the pattern set.

Now for the fun part..... 

I also have one pattern set of In Full Bloom to give away to one lucky blogger, simply leave me a comment for your chance to win....

Congratulations to Linda Smebakk... you have won a In Full Bloom pattern set. Please be watching your inbox for my email. Thank you to everyone that left me a comment.

Going to Tokyo...

Fatcat is helping today pack boxes of fabrics, patterns and kits that are coming to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival with us in January. Emma and I are very excited about our coming trip and a little nervous at the same time. Fatcat thinks he is coming too....

Just in time for Christmas....

These cuties have just arrived and in perfect time for Christmas...

They would all make perfect pressies for your sewing friends or an early present for your self.

Visit my online store to see all our sewing accessories.

Decorating in full swing..

I love this time of year, although I have to admit it seems to creep up on me these days and then I have to rush! However my gift shopping is done and I have a frozen turkey in the freezer ready. I have been reading my recipies so I know I have all the ingredients and the last couple of days in between working I have been decorating some of the house....

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Oh, I almost forgot I posted my Christmas cards on Monday. Lets hope they get where they are meant to be before the big day as there is nothing more dissapointing than cards arriving after the event.

Are you ready for Christmas?