Stitching progress

Going on holidays puts you so far behind when you are making monthly and weekly projects. I always wander why I start so many! The last few weeks have been busy with a bit of secret stitching and kit making for our retreat in just a few weeks. In between, I have been doing a little catching up. I finished stitching and piecing this block of Foxley Village.

 I have also been trying to catch up on my Splendid Sampler blocks.

 My other ongoing project is Anderson's Farm. I have enjoyed appliqueing and embroidering these.

Lovely stitching

It was good to catch up with the social and class ladies over the last few weeks. There was some great show and tell. Jayne has made these gorgeous mats with hexagons and some lovely buttons from Theodora Cleave.

 Lynne has been away for a wonderful long holiday and managed to do so much stitching! How gorgeous are all of these!

 Linda has been busy too and finished her little felt house from the stitching day and made a hanging with the little stamped stitchery.

Stitching on holidays

I did do a little stitching on holidays. I had a bit of a disaster (not really, just disappointing) on the flight home as I left my little zippered bag with my stitching on the plane! Qantas attempted to find it but I think it had been souvenired. I do hope whoever has it enjoys finishing my stitchery. I had stitched a few blocks for a quilt for little Jack so not too much work was lost. I was sad to lose my threads, my little scissors and a few other bits and pieces and my homemade pouch! Thankfully the rest of my stitching was safely in my luggage. I managed to crochet a shawl which was fun and complete a few stitcheries from United Stitches. I also had fun with a bit of canvas work.

Yosemite and home

On Tuesday 6 September we drove through Yosemite National Park. The scenery was beautiful but it all became a bit frustrating as we got closer to the park as road works had begun with very little information given to visitors. We couldn't find parking and only just managed a half hour park to get some lunch. In the end we just left the park in the bumper to bumper slow traffic and headed back out! It was a shame but still a a lovely place to see.

We then had a long trip back to San Francisco.  The next day we had to fill in the whole day till 11.30 pm when we were due to board our plane home. We ended up checking out a beach area of San Francisco, visiting Macys again and finding a patchwork shop. It was a lovely big shop which was a bit tricky to find but it was nice to have a look.

We even managed to find a golf shop and then headed to the pictures to see the new Ben Hur. It was very action packed and filled in another 2 hours. We then headed to the airport with the usual hassle of getting fuel, and had a bit of dinner there and relaxed before our long flight home. Thankfully we both slept which helped greatly with the jetlag!

Death Valley and Mammoth Lakes

On Sunday, 4 September, we travelled once again through interesting scenery, mainly desert, to Pahrump in Nevada. We were heading towards Death Valley but decided to go there on Monday. Had another afternoon relaxing and even visited a Walmart. I was a bit disappointed but it was fun to check it out. There were lots of Halloween things everywhere. We were up early the next day as there were many miles to travel. Death Valley was a strangely beautiful place. There were craggy mountains and salt flats and it was hot. We were lucky as it wasn't as hot as it could have been. In Death Valley we were below Sea level.

 We stopped to take some photos and this coyote was just there on the side of the road!

We then continued our journey to Mammoth Lakes. This is a gorgeous ski resort. We checked out some of the lakes before wandering down to dinner. Our comfy accommodation was just up the road.