Sunday Stash #30

Wow...I can't believe that this is post #30! 

Arriving at the post office this week was Aneela Hooey's first book called 'Little Stitches'. It is my first embroidery pattern book purchase and I have been keeping my eye out for its release since she blogged about it earlier this year.

I did the maths with both The Book Depository and Amazon simultaneously and found that the best deal was with The Book Depository's FREE postage. For just $4 more than the Amazon total I could get another book from TBD.

I also purchased a couple of larger embroidery hoops, a purse frame (for the Zakka coin purse) and a ribbon to fix a fraying princess skirt from Spotlight on Thursday. Their cotton batting was 20% off and so I bought 3m as I have run out of yardage.

Also I had been pricing Aneela Hooey's 'Cherry Christmas' on a couple of overseas stores and Etsy but with postage sitting at $17 from the US, I had not hit the 'pay' button.

Thankfully my call, put out on QCA, yielded fruit when Jane of 'Want it! Need it! Quilt! let me know that she had some pre-cuts just in. So I ordered a Fat Eighth Bundle and few charm packs of this delightful line. Postage was a lot cheaper but also the fabric was cheaper too! I love Australian fabric businesses.

I also ordered a couple of other charm packs of Sweetwater Designs' 'Lucy's Crab Shack' and Lily Ashbury 's 'Gypsy Girl' for a future charm pack Travelling Stash called Drover. It's our first male travelling stash - wit woo!

And if we can get 10 of you to link up for Sunday Stash today, or any Sunday, I will put you in the draw for one charm pack of Kate Spain's 'Serendade'. The prize will lay over until we get 10 linkys. I have been suggesting to a few nice ladies on Flickr that they should link up some of their photos or posts. Please pass the word on to your bloggy or Flickr friends.

Oh and don't forget that I have an almost give-away of some Kaffe Fasset charms if I can get 15 more people to 'like' Grandma Macs Quilts (my mum and I) on Facebook. Don't forget to make a comment on this post to be in the running. I really want to complete this give-away soon...been outstanding for far too long.

So what is new in your stash this week? Please link up below.

Gabby the Travelling FQ Stash

Just a reminder about my 'Summersville' charm pack give-away here.

At the 11th hour someone from QCA offered me their place is Gabrielle (Gabby), the little sister to Farrah and Sasha the Travelling Stash. She is less than 500g which is great to keep postage costs down.

She only has 1 more stop before she returns to her birth mother Lauren.

Anyway I picked her up from the Post Office this afternoon.

Top L - How Gabby arrived. 
Top R - out 
Bottom L - in
Bottom R - How Gabby will leave

Slash the Sasha Stash

In about April or May this year I was introduced to the concept of the Travelling Stash through my online Quilt Club Australia. Cassie from Cass the Coolest was brave enough to start the first one. Her nickname is Sasha. Well Sasha turned up at my Post Office today a naughty 20g over her 3Kg weight limit. And when I opened her up she was bursting to the seams with stuff. 

So like a rabid Michelle Bridges I went to work on her weight problem. Like Kelly I had trouble with selecting and exchanging 'like for like' items. I had saved this  great item to put in but it weighed over 300g and that was 100g over what I had already chosen. It would have put Sasha over the limit for sure. With some rethinking and tweaking, I eventually came up with a selection.

What I took out                                                                              
3 FQs - cute country quilty print, one reproduction Windham, one pale brown floral
1 variegated purple thread - not a colour in my thread stash
1 quarter inch quilter's tape - never tried this but it has to be better than masking tape eh?
1 turning tool - I may find this very useful for future Zakka projects
1 finger seam presser - helpful for paper piecing
1 packet of anti-slip ruler dots - I was hoping a packet of these would slip through the cracks to me.
1 embroidery pattern called 'Dragonflies' - my mum would like this style
1 embroidery book - also for my mum

What I put back in
3 FQs 
5 skeins of embroidery floss
1 packet of small metal make-your-own fabric buttons
2 packets of large make-your-own fabric buttons
1 packet of long quilter's pins
1 pkt seam rippers
Copy of 'Handmade' magazine 'Christmas Special'

 to cut down her girth I removed the two embroidery items and put in a magazine 

And now Sasha is a respectable 2.86Kg and a much slimmer version that is able to be slipped into a prepaid satchel. I am just waiting on Cassie to find out who I address her to next. 

Finding Farrah

Some of the ladies in my online quilt group Quilt Club Australia were inspired to start some Australian Travelling Stashes earlier this year. Basically a travelling stash originates with someone who puts some craft supplies together, it travels around the country courtesy of our expensive Australia Post system and folks take out what they want and replace 'like for like' until it returns like a boomerang to the originator (hopefully with not the same items returning).

'Farrah - the Fat Quarter Stash' was the brainchild of Bronwyn of Stop that Owl. She weighs just under 3Kg and is pregnant with about 40 fat quarters of all descriptions. 

Farrah arrived  at my Post Office, from Kelly of Made By Kelly... , yesterday afternoon. I was pretty impressed that she could fit into a 3Kg satchel to be honest. Kelly was wise enough to put her into a giant snap-lock bag first. It did not take me long to make up my mind about what to take out. Actually 2 of my choices were ones that Kelly had just put in!

I already had 5 replacement FQs ready to slip back in. A couple of refolding of some and she was back ready to be posted again. 

The next lady on the list is going to be thrilled when she sees some of the prints inside.