The Little Peach House Goes To . . . . . .

 

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway to celebrate the 5th birthday of MacDonald's Patch.

I decided to draw the winner the old fashioned way. 

Everyone's name was put into a crystal glass bowl.

 Nelson then picked out a name.

 And the Little Peach House hanging goes to . . . . . .

 Maddy!

Maddy was the first to comment. 

So it just goes to show that number one can win!

Congratulations, Maddy.

FNSI And A Prize

 I didn't get to sew last night as I was running Austin and Nelson around but did get a little done in the car park at school.  I appliqued this little fellow onto his background and prepared it ready for making an ornament.

I plan to join the girls in the Northern hemisphere 

today and work on my Dresden plate cushions.

 Kim from Wisdom With Needle and Thread had a 200 follower giveaway recently and I was the lucky winner.

 It is the sweetest little Limoges box 

that Kim has decorated herself.

 

Look at the detail.

 Kim also added some extra goodies into my package. You can see how small the box is compared to the threads.

Thank you so much, Kim. 

Now to find a special place to keep it!

Tomorrow is your last chance to enter my giveaway. 

You can find it on this post.

A Finish, A Day With The Girls, Austin and A Giveaway!

A finish to share with you. It's one of Gail Pan's designs called Little Blue House. The thread I used was Cottage Garden Thread "Mill Rose" so it's a Little Peach House!

 We had a wonderful day with the Mill Rosie Friends yesterday. I'll share some more of that tomorrow.

 Austin headed off this morning for the second day of a driving course. His mate Will's dad was doing the drop off.

We laughed when Tom and Will turned up in their army vehicle. This is how Will gets to practice his manual driving.

Why am I having a giveaway?

MacDonald's Patch is 5 years old today!

On the 16th November, 2009 this is what I wrote:

Welcome to our Patch!

Hi Everyone. I've decided to join the blogging world. It may take me a while to get the hang of all this blogging business but hopefully I will conquer it!

Wasn't very exciting, was it!

I think I improved a great deal as I went along.

This is my 608th post (never thought I could write so much!), I have 194 followers (maybe I'll get to 200) 

and had 134,513 page views.

Anyway, I guess you'd like to know what the prize is.

Yes, I am giving away my Little Peach House.

You don't have to be a follower to enter, although I'd love to get to 200 and anyone can enter. 

Just make sure you aren't a no-reply blogger.

My giveaway finishes next Sunday, 23rd November, at 8.42pm AEST. That's the time I published my first post.

Good luck everyone!

Friday Night Sew-In and My Giveaway Winner!

I managed to get a little stitching in last night between running around dropping off and picking up the boys! 

The third elf on my stitchery is just about finished. 

Hopefully, I'll finish it off today. Head over to Wendy's 

to see what everyone else got up to last night.

I still can't work out how to do a copy of the Random Number Generator to go onto my blog so I took a photo of the screen. The RNG selected number 9. 

And the winner is . . . . . . . . .

my lovely friend, Melody 

from The House on the Side of the Hill. 

Congratulations Mel.

Thanks to everyone who took part in my giveaway.

I'm sorry I can't give you all a prize.

Another Finish and FNSI!

Yesterday I had a play in my sewing room and made this Christmas table runner. I used the fabrics I won from 

Sandi of A Legacy of Stitches last year.

The border fabric is so pretty.

I'm linking this up with Anthea for 

Christmas Through the Year.

And Elizabeth for A Stitch In Time. 

Tonight is Friday Night Sew-In. Head over to Wendy's (Sugarlane Quilts) to sign up.

Today is the last day for my 500th Post Giveaway.

You have until midnight tonight (Friday) to enter.

Runners Up and a Giveaway!

Last night was the second day of play in Mitchell's cricket Grand Final. Unfortunately the boys weren't able to make the runs. They did their best while playing against a very unsportsmen like team. At times it got quite nasty but our boys can hold their heads up high. They did not retaliate at anytime and played the game in the way it should be played. One of the opposition was reported for a nasty incident. I've never seen someone be reported in a cricket match before!

As Mitchell's coach said, he would rather have these boys as runners up than the other team who won 

in the way they did.

Congratulations on a great effort boys.  

You should all be very proud of yourselves.

Now I mentioned a giveaway. This post is my 500th one! 

I can't believe I have managed to write that many posts
and you still keep coming back!

The lucky winner of my giveaway will receive A Stitcher's Priority pattern by The Birdhouse, buttons and DMC threads to get you started on the wall hanging.

Just leave me a comment to go into the draw. If you are a follower, leave me another comment for a second chance. The giveaway is open to everyone. My giveaway ends at midnight next Friday (AEST) and I'll announce
the winner on Saturday.

Good luck in the draw!

By the way, do you live in Western Australia? Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches is hoping to arrange a blogger get together for all the WA girls in Perth. Anthea is hoping to arrange a meet up at the Craft and Quilt Fair in May.
Here is the link to find out the details.

Grow Your Blog Party Giveaway Winner!

 Today is the day to announce the winner of my 

Grow Your Blog Party giveaway.

I used the Random Number Generator and it came up with the number 43 (I haven't worked out how to post 

a copy of it on my blog).

Congratulations to Cheryl of Cheryl's Stitchings!

As we'll be seeing each other at our 

Mill Rosie Get Together next week, 

I'll bring it with me. That way I can personally hand it to you!

 Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. A special thank you to Vicki for organising this blog hop.

Vicki must have spent hours linking everyone's blogs 

onto the list, over 600 of them!

Grow Your Blog Party and a Giveaway!

Today I'm joining the Grow Your Blog Party
hosted by Vicki of 2 Bags Full!

If this is your first visit to MacDonald's Patch,
I'd like to welcome you. Hello to everyone who has visited before. For first time visitors, I'd like to tell you
a little about myself.

The MacDonald Family - Nelson, Noel, me, Austin and Mitchell

My name is Christine and I've been married to Noel for nearly 19 years. We have three gorgeous sons
(perhaps I just may be a little bit biased!),
Mitchell 17, Austin 15 and Nelson 13.

Brotherly Love!

I started my blog back on 16th November, 2009. I can't believe that I've been blogging for over four years.
After discovering blogs, I thought it would be fun
to start one of my own.  I chose the name MacDonald's Patch as our surname is MacDonald and I love patchwork.
Seemed like a good idea to me!

 "Intriguing Illusions", my first quilt made in 1993.

 My blog has become my journal of quilting and my family.

Little did I know how much I would come to love blogging and that I would make so many new friends
from all over the world and get so much inspiration. 

Devonshire Tea anyone?

It was through blogging that I met Melody from
The House On The Side Of The Hill. It turned out Mel
only lives a few minutes from me!

It has been wonderful to be able to meet quite a lot of bloggers in person and we have become such good friends.

My Double Wedding Ring quilt that I AM going to start quilting this year!

Life before patchwork consisted of cross stitching!

My 2nd cross stitch. Not really one for a novice!

"Sexy Rex"

A recent photo so you can see what I look like!

I hope you've enjoyed learning a little about me and my blog.

To celebrate Grow Your Blog party,  I'm having a little giveaway. Just leave a comment and tell me where you are visiting from. You don't have to be a follower but I'd love it if you do decide to follow. The giveaway closes at midnight (AEST) Friday (31st January)
14th February and I'll announce the winner on the 15th February. (I missed the part where Vicki wants us all to announce the winners at the same time. Oops!
Lucky Mel was on the ball!)

Good luck in the draw.

Head over to Vicki's blog to see who else is joining the party.
There are over 500 bloggers taking part!

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop Giveaway Winner!

 Well, the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop has come to an end.
Did you enjoy it? I certainly did. 

Thank you to Madame Samm (Sew We Quilt) and Carol (Just Let Me Quilt) for organising this hop.

 I was so surprised with how many of my international visitors knew the Kookaburra Song!

Now for the giveaway. I listed everyone's entries and had Nelson pick a number between 1 and 145.

The lucky winner of my Aussie Christmas ornaments is

Sharon of Vroomans Quilts.

Congratulations Sharon! I have sent you an email.

Thank you to everyone who left lovely comments.
Sadly, quite a few of you were "no-reply" bloggers so I wasn't able to reply to your comment.

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop!

Welcome to my day at the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop. A big thank you to Madame Samm (Sew We Quilt) and Carol (Just Let Me Quilt) for organising this fun hop.

 For my project, I thought I would give it an Aussie touch. Kookaburras! When we were kids, we would sing the Kookaburra song.

 

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra.

Gay you life must be!

 

For my international visitors, this song was written by Marion Sinclair in 1932 for an Australian Round Song contest being held by the Victorian Girl Guides. Her Kookaburra song won. (Those were the days when gay meant something else!).

We often get kookaburras in the trees around the house and I still love to hear them "laugh".

I've been wanting to make this stitchery for such a long time and thought this was the perfect opportunity to make it. I had thought about giving this hanging to one of my Christmas swap partners but I've fallen in love with it! So, sorry girls. I'll be making you something else! LOL!

Let's have a little giveaway to celebrate!

Two Christmas ornaments with an Aussie theme. If you'd like a chance to win just leave a comment below. If you are a follower or become one, let me know in a separate comment for a second chance. Everyone is welcome to enter. I'll draw the winner at the end of the blog hop. Good luck!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my project. Pop over to today's blogs to see some more fun Ho Ho Ho projects.

Vroomans Quilts

Abyquilt

Life and Everthing Around It

Hill Valley Quilter

Traveling Quilter

Quilting Lines

The Reluctant Quilter

Pig Tales and Quilts

Teatime Creations

Ravelly1

 You can see the full schedule here.