Making gifts - such fun

I have been a follower of Rachael's Blue Mountain Daisy's blog for a long time. ( bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.co.uk)
Last month my husband and I visited Sydney to see friends and do some sightseeing and I had hoped to meet Rachael in person. We made arrangements to meet - all very exciting - but unfortunately they didn't work out as unexpectedly Rachael had some work offered her.  I had made a little gift for her but as I couldn't hand it over at the coffee shop I posted it instead.  I had a lovely "Thank you" email from Rachael which I very much appreciated but then then a few days ago I discovered that she had included my little present in her blog post.  I was thrilled!  Even more pleased as Rachael's photo of my drawstring bag and needle case was much better than the ones I had taken for my Flickr page!

Here's my gifts:

 

Check out Rachael's super blog if you haven't had the good fortune to read it yet.  You will love her quilts, photos, flower arrangements and quirky posts and stories.

I have been looking at binding clips for a while as they kept popping up in lots of blog posts.  The ones I saw all seemed rather expensive but then whilst I've been in NZ I found a real bargain at Spotlight.  I bought the last two packets in the shop - one for me and one for a quilting friend's birthday gift.  I have just used the clips for the first time, binding this String quilt:

 

 

What a fantastic idea they are.  Simple to use, no scratches and blood spots on the quilt from using straight pins. Definitely the way to go!

Coincidentally, Rachael said that she was going to use the drawstring bag for storing her clips and lo and behold, they are the same ones that I bought - Rachael's were from Spotlight too. So, if you live in NZ or Australia, check out your nearest Spotlight store.

If you haven't tried clips yet to hold your binding, I definitely recommend them.

Off to embroider the label for my quilt.