More wonderful stitching

Here are some more wonderful pieces of stitching from Wednesday night. It is so inspiring to see all of these special projects. Carol has finished her woven wool applique bag from Anni Downs' book "the World as it should be".

She has also finished quite a few of these great bags from a Nancy Halverson book. You use 1/2 a teatowel to make these lovely bags.

Audrey has been busy too. Aren't these cross stitched pictures beautiful?

Audrey has also finished her woven wool pin cushion from a kit by Anni Downs. I think I might have one of these somewhere!

Audrey has also finished this gorgeous pin cushion from another of Anni's patterns. I love the tea dyed fabric.

So much to show and tell

I had a lovely Wednesday again with social stitching and then classes in the afternoon and evening. It was so good to see everyone and to see what they have been stitching. It might fill a few blog posts! Donna does the most exquisite wool embroidered blankets and she is working on an Australian native one and this is the centre so far. It is worth clicking on it and making it larger to see the detail. She designs it all herself using some embroidery books for inspiration.

This is in a corner of the blanket.

Jan has been making the loveliest shoe bags to use when travelling. I think you would have to have very beautiful shoes to put in these bags! After stitching some of us went out to Gold Creek to have lunch at the gorgeous tea shop out there. I really had dessert only and had the yummy dutch profetjies and they were so good. It is well worth a visit and I hope to go again!

Sally, in the evening class, has a brand new grandchild and has made this lovely bunny quilt for her.

Carol came to class last night with a whole bag of finished things. Fantastic work, Carol. We thought she might not miss a few if they jumped into our bags! Here are just 2 of them. This is a Nancy Halverson design and doesn't it look great on the wire stand. I wonder who has one of those stands hidden in her cupboard without a hanging on it?

Carol has also finished her little chocolate basket from one of my patterns from an earlier stitching day. Looks great, Carol. 

You will have to wait till tomorrow to see the rest of Carol's and the other girls' lovely stitching.

Special Celebration

We had a lovely day last Saturday celebrating the return for a week of my nephew, Stuart, and his wife Cherie. They live in Korea at the moment and were married there last year and are here for a week's holiday. We didn't get to go to the wedding so it was special to have a family celebration for them in Sydney. They came dressed in traditional Korean clothing and then changed later.

Here are some of the cousins enjoying each other's company. They were able to sit outside as it was so much warmer than here in Canberra.

Here we all are. We are very blessed with such a special family. I am not sure that wearing red was such a good idea! I didn't match with everyone else.

We had yummy desserts cooked by Auntie Jeni and Ma.

Ma had fun icing the cake. Deirdre is showing us how lovely it is! I gather there was some trouble with the icing equipment.

Stuart and Cherie didn't mind cutting it and we all enjoyed eating it.

Friday's Christmas class

We had a lovely day on Friday at Hobbysew for the second Christmas day. Here are the ladies busily concentrating on their stitching.

Several of them had really lovely scissor keepers on their embroidery scissors. These are, obviously, Naomi's.

Natasha had this little canvas scissor keeper.

I think this lovely beaded one was Barbara's.

Natasha rushed home to get this wonderful quilt to show us. Isn't it beautiful? I would love to make this one. Natasha did it at a class at Calico Patch at Gold Creek, a few years ago. 

Haven't had much time to blog lately as had a quick visit to Sydney over the weekend for a family celebration and then went to school to teach yesterday. I am rather out of practice and it does make me tired! 

More Wednesday night Show and tell

Danielle is our youngest evening stitcher and she is expecting her first baby! We are all very excited for her. She has made this lovely quilt ready for the "little one".

Her mum, Margaret, has made this great baby bag from the Winsome Baby book by Nancy Halverson. Aren't the fabrics wonderful?

Judy has been very busy and has finished her felt pin cushion and...

her felt bookmark from the stitching day.

Judy has also been working on this lovely runner. The stitcheries look really lovely.

She has also been making this lovely quilt as a gift. It has some lovely embroideries and patchwork on it and Judy's choice of blue fabrics look great. It is so inspiring to see all the lovely things the ladies are making.

Lots of show and tell on Wednesday

It was great to catch up with most of the stitching girls on Wednesday. Some of them had been very busy over the break. Margaret finished her Starry starry quilt and made her squares much bigger which was a great idea. Doesn't it look terrific?

Margaret has also finished her felt pin cushion.

In the evening, Linda was binding this fabulous flannel quilt. It was a mystery quilt designed by Cathy Stevenson and it is so lovely. Linda is showing it off in Canberra at the quilt show in a few weeks, so go and check it out if you are going to the show. Here is one block.

Here is the whole quilt but it this picture doesn't do it justice as it is very large.

Not too much to blog lately

I am glad that my classes start again today as it will be lovely to see all the girls after our few weeks break. I don't have enough to blog when I don't get to see what they have been up to.I had to borrow some of hubby's photos! We had lunch with friends on Sunday and this one of the the views from their lovely apartment.

Hubby has been playing with his many lenses to get the light right and took this picture of one of my little cluttered corners. I don't think I could ever be a minialist as each little item brings back lovely memories. The old Ikea chair and one of my favourite quilts, some old cross stitch, and my little Amish corner. We had a lovely holiday years ago and visited the Amish area near Lancaster and I enjoyed making the dolls and quilts. My friend Karen made the little Amish house one for me as a gift.

Here is one of hubby's misty pictures taken one night recently. It was a very chilly evening.

Two blocks done, some canvas work and some cushions

Over the past few days I have managed to finish my first My Garden block designed by Lynette Anderson. Here it is.

I also finished the 9th block of Lynette Anderson's Crazy Christmas BOM too.

Fiona gave my her lovely pattern for this little canvas work humbug. I am pleased with the result and know that some of my class girls want to make one of these this term so I had to make one. It was fun to stitch.

Visited Adrienne on Friday and she had finished these lovely stitchery cushions recently. They have turned out really well, Adrienne.

Lovely visit to the Bay

I headed to Batemans Bay on Wednesday to catch up with some dear friends. We met at Barbie's place and she had made a delicious cake, slice and her very special Latvian savouries (can't remember the name or how to spell them) for morning tea. A few of us stitched but we mostly chatted, ate and caught up.

We then went out for a delicious lunch in the Bay. We didn't really need lunch after that great morning tea but we managed. This is the view from the restaurant. It brought back lots of memories as when my girls were small we sometimes came to this spot, before the walkway was there and had morning tea or lunch  in an earlier restaurant. The water used to come up to the Peppercorn tree.

Karen was using her needlecase and I admired it and she reminded me that I had made it for her as a gift! I hadn't remembered! It is one of Lynette Anderson's designs.

Karen was binding this lovely quilt. 

I stayed till Thursday and Karen and I went into town for a delicious breakfast prepared for us but her lovely daughter, the chef, at the restaurant where she worked. It was so sunny and mild we were able to sit outside! Couldn't do that here in Canberra!

Some progress...and a quilt finally hung!

I finally found time to hang my lovely "Your home or mine" quilt, a design by Lynette Anderson, (I have added that for Deb as I was unable to access your profile to send you an email) on the wall. I had my Leanne Beasley's Journey of a Quilter here and it was hard to take that one down. It is in the sewing room so I can still see it! This quilt does deserve to hang in pride of place in the entry and I am pleased with how it looks.

I am enjoying working on this "My Garden" block. I had to take my time with the satin stitch but am very pleased with the result.

My scarf is growing slowly too and is now 38" long! I thought it looked much longer than that. The pattern says to knit it 80" long! Luckily, I am short so mine won't need to be that long.

I did finish the weeding the garden block. I stitched her dress in pink instead of blue accidentally. I should take more care reading the instructions. I had finished the dress when I discovered my mistake so have decided to leave it pink.