Saturday, September 27, 2014

Whale watching in Merimbula

After the class on Sunday we headed to Merimbula to stay the night and then to go whale watching on Monday morning. It had been a busy weekend as the little men came to have dinner and sleep over on Saturday night (I get a little worried about them and don't sleep as well as normal), I went to the class and then the 3 hour trip to Merimbula. It was definitely worth it as the whales were amazing and so were the dolphins and the weather was perfect. It was a wonderful experience. Thankfully I don't get seasick but some people had a rough time.



 There were so many dolphins showing off around the boat. They are such gorgeous creatures.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Class with Helen Stubbings

Last Sunday, I attended a delightful class at Hobbysew with Helen Stubbings of Hugs and Kisses. It was fun to try some new techniques for needleturn and paper piecing using Helen's special applique paper. We were making this lovely bag.


 Helen was a lovely teacher and it was great to catch up with her again.

 One of the very special treats was seeing all the lovely samples that Helen brought with her to tempt us. A few patterns came home with me! Hobbysew also has a wonderful selection of Helen's beautiful fabrics.


 This gorgeous quilt is going to be offered as a BOM at the shop soon.
 This lovely quilt has been coloured with Helen's colourque technique of colouring with pencils.
 The quilting was beautifully done too.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Embroiderer's Guild Exhibition

Sue and I visited the Embroiderer's guild exhibition on Friday. It was a really lovely display. I especially liked the WW1 displays of lovely old embroideries stitched in the early 1900s. I didn't get any photos of those. I am not sure I am really allowed to show you these ones but here goes. It is always inspiring to see all the lovely hand made items.



One of my favourite displays was this amazing band sampler which is huge and has the most amazing variety of embroidery. It also has many of the important events in the owner's life and also events that have occurred at different times around the world. This picture tells you about the making of the band sampler.





Friday, September 19, 2014

Some stitching, a camel and grandies

I have been stitching but the needleturn on these blocks (and these are the smaller ones) takes quite a long time to do. Here are the houses done on Block 3 of the Yoko Saito BOM.
This gorgeous camel was made by Heather and she has done such a lovely job. It is an AK traditions pattern. I just love the embroidered blankets. I am just starting one of these for me.


 Little Alice came to visit recently and I just love her little crocheted hat.


 The little men came too and had a lovely time playing with the old toys.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Stitching....

There has been some stitching happening here! I have also been crocheting my scarves slowly and am just working on some secret stitching for our Stitching on the Lake day in November. I also want to do block 3 soon of the Yoko Saito BOM. Here is block 2 with the pieced ground.
 The little men like to wear shirts with pictures on them so I appliqued 2 car ones and 2 dinosaur ones for them.

 Finally after many slow stitches, especially on the satin stitch border, I have finished block 6 of Scandinavian Rose! I have prepared block 7 to start soon.
 Yesterday, at class, it was lovely to see some more finished work. Jayne enjoyed making these felt decorations by Marg Low.
 Great to see Lynn back and she has finished some gorgeous things too. This lovely mat from a pattern by Helen Stubbings.
 Lynn has also finished these two projects from our stitching day earlier this year.
Roni has also been busy and finished her little felt mat. Looks great, Roni.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Little ones...again

Couldn't resist showing you a few more pictures of the little people. Alice came to visit recently and Pa caught some lovely photos. She is almost 3 months old!

 We celebrated Father's day here in Australia on the weekend. On Saturday we went to a church nearby where the boys do a little music session on a Tuesday. I have never been as I work on Tuesdays so it was fun to see what they do there. They have a wonderful program of music and then have morning tea and the grown-ups even get a frothy coffee! It was a special fathers and grandfathers morning and luckily I got to come too!




We then had a lovely afternoon tea with the kids on Sunday afternoon and there was lots of cake....."more cake" (our boys love cake!).