Bag swap arrives!!

Wow, have I ever received good mail. I went in Linda's bag swap and this beautiful bag has arrived here in Aussie for me from Betsy at Quilting Fiesta.

I love the card from Betsy, she said she read my blog from start to finish (whoo-hoo, poor Betsy!!) and that she thought this pattern was right. Too true, Betsy, I love it and my girl also thinks it's gorgeous. (High praise indeed!)

The bag hanger is an antique wool bale hook-wooden handle.

Hand pieced hexagons and all!

-and beautifully quilted!

-with a pocket that has a little purse and needle case. too spoilt!

My swap bag isn't quite finished. It has been little bit of a stitching marathon, but the end is looking well worth it. I am dying to share, but a full photo would really let the cat out of the bag (get it...out the bag!!) so you only see this very uninspiring snippet.

I also have a huge confession to make now-I'm in love.... and look how cute he is!!!

He goes to my Bible Study and seriously distracts me.

Thursday is his first birthday and his name is Clancy so I whipped up this little naive stitchery for his wall. I am about to go and attempt to add in a horse seeing he wasn't at Bible study today so I have a few more minutes up my sleeve-also think I may tidy up the "at" on closer inspection!.

This is from the classic Australian poet, Banjo Patterson's "Clancy of the Overflow". Banjo's poems are very much perpetuators of the Australian legend, the Australian bushmen....usually compared to their city counterparts. This one is written from the perspective of the office clerk who would like to "take a turn at droving" (walking sheep and cattle through the bush for long periods of time) rather than stare out of his office window.