A very long post about WONDERFUL POST!!!

Today has been a VERY good day!

It had a frustrating start when my gazillion phone calls to the local Royal Mail sorting office went unanswered and my visit to the local post office resulted in me discovering that first class mail can now take from 4 - 9 days and they wouldn't consider an item missing until 15 days had elapsed!

But finally, around 12.30, the postie arrived - with a parcel!!!!!

Not one of the three UK ones though!

This one had come all the way from Leanne in Australia (who is my official swap partner!) - and was posted a day later than the 3 local ones!!!!

Look what was inside

The most gorgeous quilt in these gorgeous colours - and I love the saying!

And the back is almost as beautiful - I wish I could display both sides at once

She also included these lovely goodies

the card is one of Leanne's own photographs - I can never get over the fact that these are the normal garden birds in Australia!

There was a lovely message and saying inside the card too


Thank you so much Leanne - I absolutely love my quilt - your stitching is so incredibly neat and the colours are so happy! I must get your quilt started - I know what I want to do but actually achieving it is the scary part!

The fact that this parcel had come all the way from Australia in less time than my three UK ones prompted me to go down the whole Customer Services line with Royal Mail even though all their recorded messages told me I had to fill in a form and they wouldn't consider an item lost until it had been missing for 15 days! I persisted until I finally got through to a real live person, explained the problem, explained that I had a friend in the village who was also waiting for a large number of parcels posted last week, and was immediately put through to the local sorting office (who I had been trying to phone all morning!) and the really helpful man there found my parcels one of my friend's and said they would be with me within 2 hours!

Persistence clearly pays off!

Because 2 hours later look what arrived

All three of my missing parcels!

The first one was from Barbara at Ring a Rosie and contained the lovely wool that I had won in her "Name the Ted" competition


Isn't it gorgeous? I don't know which one to play with first!

Thank you so much Barbara - it is a really kind gift, especially as you had two winners!!

The second parcel contained my wonderful mini quilt from Anne

I knew what style of quilt it was going to be because Anne had already told me it would be one of her heart quilts but I wasn't expecting it to be this gorgeous - I just love all the colours and those beautiful little buttons and the different white on white prints in the background!

It is so neatly stitched and the different fabrics on the hearts are really lovely! Thank you so much Anne - I love it!

The final parcel was from my lovely Lesley-friend

beautifully wrapped in this gorgeous green tweed and some very pretty GING-GUM tissue paper!

And my quilt isn't purple with orange Yaks on like Lesley threatened - in fact it is absolutely gorgeous!
It has my allotment in the middle complete with one of Lesley's chickens-to-be and is made up with some of Lesley's very favourite new fabrics! Thank you so much for using your special things in my quilt.
and I love the recycled pocket on the back - that made me laugh!

Lesley was also very naughty because she included all these wonderful goodies

fabrics and felted blanket pieces, ribbons, a very silly card and the very very wonderful tortoise that she needle felted recently!

Look at his gorgeous little face
Lesley you are an absolute star! Thank you so very, very much!

And here are my new quilts up on the wall


Doesn't it look fantastic?

This is what it looks like as I come down the stairs


I am so pleased I came up with this idea!

Thank you again to all my wonderful bloggy friends!

Lucy x

P.S you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see my owls as there is no way I could match up to the wonderful creations that have arrived today!