Ma's 80th

Last weekend we headed to Sydney to the National Park in the dark and pouring rain to celebrate Ma's 80th birthday. The weir was closed so we winded along a much darker and longer road to get to the Anglican camp site. Thankfully the family all made it safely from far and near to celebrate our very special Ma's birthday. On Saturday the rain had eased and we saw these views from the campsite (we weren't thankfully in tents but in rooms). It was a very special weekend.

Here are Ma and Pa enjoying the sunshine. I love how they wear these thick jumpers that my mum had knitted many years ago. It is a lovely remembrance of Oma.

Everyone gave little talks about their lives which were lovely. Ma enjoyed hearing them. Some of the grandchildren live in far off places and don't see each other much so this was very special too.

Alison actually has 4 kids and we had the two littlest with us at the celebration.

Lyndal and Nick told about their adventures overseas.

This lovely little person is Sophie and she is the youngest great grandchild at just 5 weeks old. Ma enjoyed giving her lots of cuddles.

We had the biggest sponge cake ever seen!

There was lots of this happening all weekend.

We then took some very special family photos. Here are Ma and Pa with their children.

Here they are with the wives and husbands as well.

And this is the result of these two very special people! We are just missing 3 great grandchildren, one grandchild and his wife who are returning to Australia this coming weekend and one husband. What a fabulous family. I have been so privileged to be part of this special family for so many years.

Here is our little family with Ma and Pa.

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged recently and this post is such a happy one but sadly on Sunday night, my lovely daughter and her husband found that their precious baby girl, expected in December, had stopped breathing. We have had such a sad time this week as the babe had to be delivered on Monday. Little Ava was so very wanted and loved but us all. Thank you to those of you who have given me a hug, sent an email, have rung or who have sent up a few prayers and thoughts for us this week.

Stitching on the Bay and some progress

It was so nice to see the ladies on Saturday but also to admire the things they have been stitching. There was lots of show and tell but here are just a few of them. Renate was using this lovely felt pocket she had stitched ages ago. I love the applique and the colours.

Maria had stitched these felt items at classes at Stephs in Moruya.

I think this stocking is Maria's too. The colours she has chosen work so well.

I have been trying to keep up with my many projects. Here are the angels from the Christmas Fun BOM.

I have been struggling with all the needleturn on this fence on block 5 of In my Garden. I have block 6 waiting so must get going!

I had a day at home last Thursday so managed to make up the last few churn dash blocks for this third block of Scandinavian Christmas. I am loving working on this BOM.

Stitching on the Bay

It was lovely to head to the Bay on Friday to set up for our stitching day there. It was a chilly day but the sun came out after we had set up and while we enjoyed lunch outside.

Fiona, Karen, Maree (one of our lovely caterers), David and I enjoyed a yummy lunch in the sunshine.

We headed to the hall early on Saturday to start the stitching day. Here are the samples and the lucky door prizes.

Here we are ready to start. We didn't plan to be colour coordinated!

It was a lovely day of chatting, eating delicious food and stitching too.

Here are Karen and Lynne busy painting.

These ladies enjoyed the painting too.

This very special friend painted several of the houses for her fellow stitchers!

I really enjoyed catching up with everyone from the Bay. Thanks especially to Maree and Lynne who made such delicious food for us. Fiona took some pictures so go to her blog to check them out.

Wonderful lunch, and some quilting

Time to catch up on a few events from last week. I know this picture looks very odd but my bible study ladies had a very special lunch last Thursday (mind you we have yummy morning tea every week and a lunch each term!). We had been watching Babette's Feast so decided to have a feast for our end of term lunch. We had all the courses but didn't really have turtle soup or quails in vol au vents but these little birds did decorate our delicious vol au vents!

It was so nice to see Terri's version of the school block in the My Town BOM. It has motivated me to get going on my block.

On Thursday night, I went to the Canberra quilters meeting and the speaker was Brenda Smith of Serendipity Patchwork and quilting. She is an art quilter and has just taken part in several wonderful collaborative quiilts called Twelve by Twelve and there is a book with all the quilts in it. The quilts were made by 12 artists and are 12" square and are based on a given theme. Brenda had lots of her quilts to show us and pictures of the other artists' quilts too. They were very interesting and used so many different techniques, including embroidery and printing. Here are just a few.

Some stitching

It is about time I posted a bit of stitching progress. I have been busy over the last few weeks working on the designs for our next stitching days in October. Here are some little sneak peaks of two of the projects! I need to be super organised as I am going on holidays before the days and need the notes and kits to be done hopefully before I go.

It was bitterly cold this weekend in Canberra so it was a good opportunity to work on the above projects and to also do a little on one of my BOMs. Here is block 3 of Christmas Fun. A usual it was stitched but need the pieced stars done!

I also had time to get Block 4 ready to applique and stitch and couldn't resist getting started. I gave my little angels some hair and appliqued faces which is a little different to the original pattern.

Stitching on the Bay

Fiona and I are looking forward to Stitching on the Bay next Saturday. We are doing these lovely projects that we did in May here in Canberra so you have seen these pictures before. Here is the stitched table runner.

This little project is the painted button but bring along some fabrics to create the background if you wish.

This little felt needlecase and scissor fob is great fun to stitch.

The next project is this beautiful canvas work pin cushion.

Some lovely embroidery to stitch to make up a useful bag and...

a delightful biscornu with a painted wash and some embroidered flowers.

I am looking forward to catching up with the Bay ladies and also to enjoying the delicious food that Maree and Lynne are preparing for the day.