Geraldine Brooks at the National Library

One of my favourite authors gave a lecture at the national Library last week. Geraldine Brooks is an Australian who now lives mostly in the US. "Year of Wonders" , below, is a fabulous book and one of my favourites. She has also written "March", which is about the civil war, and is the story of the "Little Women"s (another favourite of mine) dad in the war. Her latest book if called "The People of the Book" and it was another great read. Her lecture was so interesting.

Geraldine later signed books.

Here is my daughter, Lyndal, getting her books signed. I had left mine at home!

After the talk there were drinks and nibbles and it was all free. It was a lovely thing to do.

More of Carol's finishes and some painting

I told you that Carol has been a busy girl. Here is her lovely embroidered stocking from the stitching day.

We couldn't believe all these bags! We all thought she should do a few more so that none of us would miss out! Ha Ha!

This is Carol's beautiful stitched and patched bag from a design by Vivien Robinson. I love the fabric choices. We all wanted the lovely button too. This is one side...

...and this is the other.

Here are Linda and Margot busily painting the wooden buttons. They did a great job.

Gorgeous stitching by the night girls

It was lovely to see all the stitching the "ladies of the night" have been doing. This stitchery is VERY small, measuring about 2" x 1 1/2" and is so beautifully stitched by Audrey. It is a "shrunk" version of a design by Annie Downes.

Carol has been so busy finishing things over the break. Here is her lovely Needle book by Hugs and Kisses.

Here are Carol's finished stockings.....

...and her wonderful nativity hangers by Nancy Halverson. They will look so good on her walls this Christmas.

Last Wednesday's class

I haven't had a chance to share the photos I took last week at my classes at Hobbysew. The ladies have been very busy. Ann brings along this lovely bag each week. She didn't make it but is such a lovely bag made in felt.

Marianne has done very well with her stitching. She is working on the floral runner and hadn't done some of these stitches before.

This is Vicki's embroidery for the same runner. Wait till you see her lovely bright fabrics. Her runner will look stunning.

Sue is working on the cushion from "The world as it should be" and her choice of fabrics for the applique is fantastic. She searched her stash to get just the right fabrics.

A bit more of Melbourne

We wandered over to Southbank for morning tea.

Then a bit more walking and chatting to catch the next tram.

We ended up at Docklands and here we are still chatting and catching up. We had at least a year of catching up to do.

Glynn and I spent an hour shopping at the DFOs at Docklands while the boys checked out the bike shop and enjoyed watching the boats.

A quick visit to Melbourne

We had a very quick visit to Melbourne this weekend. We set out on Friday and drove down and had time in the evening for a wander around the Royal Botanic Gardens. We were staying in St Kilda so walked here.

This used to be the caretakers cottage.

On Saturday we caught the tram into the city and met up with our special friends, Glynnis and Ian, who had caught the train to town. We had a lovely day catching up over coffee, cake, lunch and afternoon tea.

We thought we might go and see the Pompeii exhibition near here, but as it was the last weekend. the wait to get in was far too long. We had never been to this part of Melbourne before and we were very impressed with this building, which is the exhibition centre.

Tuesday and Wednesday at the shop

Everyone at social stitching on Tuesday were so impressed with this wonderful hexagon quilt being made by Judy. There is so much work in these fiddly hexagons which are all hand pieced. There are so many hexagons in this quilt! Well done, Judy, and I wish I was related to you. Judy is giving this amazing quilt as a wedding gift.

Di is working on her Santa and he is looking very good.

In the afternoon, Maxine has been appliqueing the front of her cushion. She has chosen her fabrics very carefully.

Maxine has also finished her lovely felt strawberry "cutter" keeper.

Stitcher's Angel projects

Time has certainly flown since I signed up for this Stitcher's Angel swap earlier in the year. Now it is a bit of a rush to get them together to send next week! I WAS organised and made this book mark earlier and did stitch the other 2 projects but didn't make time to sew them together.

This is the needle book stitchery.

And this is a stitchery and applique designed by Jenny of Elefantz but it needs to be made into something....possibly a bag. Oh dear, I must get going on these.

Fiona's Giveaway

Fiona has reached her 300th post and is having a giveaway. She is giving away a lovely biscornu stitched in beautiful variegated thread. Head over to her blog and leave a comment to be in the draw. I best comment too! This is the prize! Hope I win.

Stitching update

I have been stitching lately and trying to get these appliqued blocks ready for the lovely quilt in Anni Downes' book, "The World as it should be". There are lots of flowers, birds and sheep to applique and, though I love the look of needleturn applique, I don't find it as relaxing to do as embroidery. I have one fish to complete and the house block and then I can attack the patchwork.

We are heading to Melbourne next weekend so thought I had best prepare some stitching to do in the car. I am getting this BOM pattern by Lynette Anderson and thought I might start stitching the blocks. SO.... I had to needleturn some more.

The pieces are very small and fiddly but the result should be good. I think I will piece it, eventually, with simple borders instead of the crazy patchwork.

What I should be doing is making up my Stitcher's Angel projects as they are due soon. Perhaps later today!

Ma and Pa's garden

Ma and Pa have a lovely back garden. Here is a bit of it. They look out from their family room and can see the Georges River between the trees. It is a lovely outlook.

These visitors come every day to drink, wash and paddle in the water.

I was "forced" into going for a healthy walk down some very steep steps and along beside the river. Sadly it was necessary to go up some more steep steps to get back to Ma and Pa's. As you walk along you could have been anywhere in the Australian bush.

Here is the proof that I did go for the walk!

Here another view of the river.

Afternoon tea at Oatley

On Friday, we headed up to Sydney for a quick visit with Ma and Pa. It is always lovely to spend time with them. We decided to go out for afternoon tea and came over to Oatley to this delightful restaurant called "The Avenue Cafe". It was so lovely and warm (after such cold weather in Canberra) that we sat outside.

Here are Ma and Pa waiting for their iced coffees and cake.

Doesn't Ma look good in my hat?

This is the side of the restaurant looking back to where we had been sitting. The gardens were so lovely with herbs growing and lots of flowers. There were little rooms inside too for groups with old furniture and lots of character. The cakes and coffees were very good too.

Sue's gorgeous stocking

My friend Sue was able to get to Wednesday stitching this week as it is still school holidays in NSW. She was working on this delightful stocking for her newest little grandchild, Tex. She has made 4 different Shepherds Bush stockings already for her other precious grandies. Her lovely scissor keeper is in the photos too.

I have a few of these patterns in my cross stitch stash to do one day. Sadly, I am not too motivated to cross stitch anymore. Also sadly, I left my camera on the charger on Wednesday night and my night class had so much to show and tell. I do hope they bring it all again next week so I can share it here.