200th Post - Framed Finish - Giveaway!!

18 months it has taken me to reach 200 posts.
In these 18months, I have 'met' such a variety of wonderful people who share my interests and obsessions: cross-stitch, patchwork, thrift stores.
I have learnt and tried new techniques - some that worked for me, others that have turned into something else along the way.
I eagerly check my list of favourite blogs several times a day - and I love being allowed to share in your daily world and family events. At times I feel like a favoured aunt, sitting on the sidelines watching you laugh and cry, sharing the highs and lows.
I've lost track of one or two bloggers, where life has interrupted their online journals, and hope that it is merely the strain of blogging of an ordinary day that turns them away.
It was the intention at the start, that this blog was to be a journal of stitching - recording in picture and print my creative finishes. Along the way, I have shared with you my daily walk - I don't see kangaroos every day, but when I do it's magic and too precious to hold to myself.
In my male-dominated household, I long to visit with like-minded women, and by burying myself in my bloggy friends list, I do. I've met with one or two of you - and would love to meet up with some more of the local lasses for a cuppa, a cake and a good ferreting session in their local thrift shop - (I might make that a springtime project for the Melbourne girls!)

My crafting has expanded - from almost exclusively cross-stitching - with the occasional stitchery thrown in, to pretty much full-blown quilting. There are so many talented bloggers out there who are inspirational and motivational and I seem to add more to my reading list weekly.

Now it is time to show off a finish from last year - the Papillion SAL for 2009 - "How does your Garden Grow?" I stitched it on some lovely hand-dyed evenweave received as a RAK. I used the new DMC variations. I enjoyed stitching this one, however never quite managed to get the 2010 sampler underway
I took a lot of samplers to my favourite framer and picked this one up first. Isn't it devine?? I really love the frame - it was one of the first things I picked out, I just knew one of my samplers had to have it as it's frame! I've tried to show the detail in it. I am so lucky that this works nicely with the colours in my loungeroom. I've decided that my family tree sampler will no longer sit solo on the wall. I'll be putting most of my samplers on it and watch it fill up!

As this is my 200th post - AND as I've nearly reached 100 followers - it is well and truly time for a giveaway.
I've made a few parcels up.....and will have some fun adding more stitchy items over the next couple of weeks!

1. Cross-stitch kit of the Post Office
2. Cross-stitch kit of bluebells & daffodils
3. 3 Patchwork magazines and at least one fat quarter
4. A group of cross stitch charts

My 100th follower will get a stitched/sewn gift.

Please leave a comment on this post, indicating which gift you would prefer. Please feel free to let others know - share the fun!
I'll leave this competition open until I draw a winner from the comments list on the 24th July - (This would have been Mum's 80th birthday - the bowl of destiny will be one of my lovely pieces of pink glass!)

Good luck - and thank you for your inspiration in the past 18 months!