Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that another year is over. 2015 has been a lovely year with wonderful family times, the birth of little Jack, some holidays, plenty of stitching and lots of special times with friends and family. Thank you to all those who have continued to visit this blog. It is a fun way to keep track of the days that certainly fly by!!
It was exciting on Tuesday as Anni Downs' new book arrived! I am heading away in a few days so enjoyed getting some of the stitcheries prepared to take on holidays.

Ma headed home on Monday but it was so special to have her here over Christmas. The great grandchildren enjoyed time with her very much. Alice visited yesterday and wanted to know where Ma was!

Ma also loved having a special cuddle of little Jack.

On Sunday, Ma and I and Paul and Jeni are heading away on a cruise to New Zealand. I am preparing lots of stitching to do and taking some books too! Looking forward to a lovely, relaxing time away on the Dawn Princess!

Holidays

Tomorrow we head off for a very big day of travel by bus to Sydney and then the plane to Hong Kong. We are having a sleep in Hong Kong and then another day flight to London. So much movie watching and stitching time! We then have two days in London (a visit to liberty is on the cards) and then we are off on this ship! We are cruising for four weeks to Iceland and Norway.

Afterwards we are driving to Cornwall for a week from 18 July till 25 July. Can't wait to see all the lovely sights there.

We then have 3 nights in Somerset and then head to Hay on Wye to visit Penny and John. While we are there we are having a little holiday together in Wales from 1 August till the 4 August.

The last big highlight is the Birmingham quilt show on 6 August. Penny and I are staying over and will have 2 days there.

The bags are almost packed and most things are done! Must do a bit of housework before I go.....I suppose.

Hobart and cruising home

We had the best weather in Hobart which was our last Port of Call on our stitching cruise. Those in the know suggested we head to Daci and Daci Bakers for morning tea and it was really good! Even with all the food on the ship, this was a great place for morning tea and lunch. We headed there first and then met again for lunch. It was lovely to catch up with Helen Stubbings there as well. 

 Helen gave Fiona and I a lift to the Quilted Crow shop and it was amazing. The shop, run by Deirdre and Leonie, is in a gorgeous old church and there was so much to tempt us. Lots of beautiful displays of fabric, woven wool felt, patterns and even giftware

 Here we are with Deirdre and Leonie.

 We then headed back to town for lunch at Daci and Daci and then walked to Salamanca and enjoyed browsing the lovely shops.

 After that we walked back to the ship and enjoyed the lovely views.

 The last days on board were a chance to relax and stitch. We did have a show and tell night where each tutor talked about their projects and the students showed what they had been making during the cruise. It was nice for us to see what others were working on. These are Judy's gorgeous, mostly hand pieced quilts. They are so beautiful.

 Here is Fiona showing her projects.

 These are some of Wendy's students' beautiful scarves.

 And to finish off, here is just another beautiful dessert!

The Sounds, classes and desserts

The next day we had a misty day sailing through the fjords. The scenery was spectacular. I have seen it before in sunshine so it was quite lovely to see it all misty and mysterious.

 Here is Fiona teaching her class. These ladies were doing the canvas work.

 These are some of my lovely students. We had a very relaxing time stitching and chatting.

 Alison came along on the second day and had added sequins and beads to her cushion. Looks wonderful!

 One of Fiona's ladies finished her lid for her sewing box. It was beautifully done.

 My last day of classes didn't go ahead so I helped Kim teach her class in the conference centre. I was so glad she was able to come to the class (she had been really sea sick) as the methods and equipment for this project was way out of my comfort zone. I had never even heard about special Angelina fibres you iron to make shiny fabric and hadn't ever used shiva sticks (oil paint in a crayon kind of stick). The ladies had a lovely time playing with these different mediums as well as paint and pencils to colour in.

 We didn't make it to many of the performances on board but made sure we went to the ice skating show. It was amazing!

 Must just finish off this post with 2 more of the delicious desserts!

Cruising ....

After Wellington, we headed to Dunedin. Many people went onto Dunedin but Gail, Fiona and I just went into Port Chalmers. We used the wifi, had coffee/iced chocolate and just checked out the shops.

 I was wishing I had ordered an iced chocolate after I saw Gail's.

 There was a cupcake shop on board and Chrissy bought some cake pops for us to share. Yum!

 Here we all are again at dinner, stitching in the Windjammer and enjoying cocktails.

 

 We did enjoy some lovely stitching times. Jane, from Be Be Bold was teaching a gorgeous zippered purse on board so a few of us bought kits and worked on it when we had time. Here is my little Sunbonnet Sue being appliqued.

 Here is the applique all done.

I did manage to get some of my other stitching done too but it was fun to try a few different things.