Stitching on the Bay

I will continue the holiday photos later as I need to share our lovely day of stitching in Batemans Bay. Fiona has some lovely photos on her blog too. I headed to the Bay on Friday afternoon and we set up ready for Saturday. Here are the kits and the tables ready for the ladies.

We then had a delicious meal just near the church and this was the view from our seats on the deck. I can't believe that I used to live here!

Here we are ready for the day.

Rebecca from Cute as a Button came down to the Bay with her wonderful Nancy Halverson goodies. They are just too tempting.

It is always lovely to see what the ladies have been stitching. This was a very special sewing bag.

Here are Martha and Lyn making the curly tails for their felt birds.

Here are some of the ladies busy stitching. It was a very hot day and I must admit that I don't cope well with the humidity these days.

Maree and Lyn did a fantastic job catering for the day. We were so spoilt! There were delicious scones and muffins for morning tea, a lovely chicken salad for lunch (perfect for the hot day) and the most amazing pavlova roll and lemon cakes for afternoon tea. There was even homemade chocolate. Fiona has put the recipes for the pavlova roll and the lemon cakes on her blog.

Sunny Wellington

Our next stop was Wellington. It is supposed to be windy and cool but we came on a wonderfully sunny day with hardly any wind! How lucky were we. Even better, we were picked up by Jenny and John who have moved back to Wellington this year. It was wonderful to see them and they took us on a lovely tour of the city.Our first stop was high up on an amazing hill overlooking the city. The views were spectacular.

Here we are at the lookout.

Thanks, Jenny and John, for a great day out in Wellington.

 

After yummy morning tea, we went for a walk right over on the other side of the harbour and the view was wonderful. In the distance you could see snow covered mountains which are on the south island and hundreds of kilometres away!

We also visited the rose garden at the Botanical Gardens and loved seeing the plants in the greenhouse.

Lastly, we went up to another lookout.

It was a very special day thanks to Jenny and John. Hard to believe that the weather is often so windy and chilly!

Best get organised as I am off to Batemans Bay this afternoon to get ready for "Stitching on the Bay" tomorrow. I am so looking forward to a day of chatting, stitching and eating delicious food with the Bay ladies.

Auckland to Napier

After the Bay of Islands we headed first to Taurunga. It was a chilly day so we just headed into the town to check emails and the shops. Paul and Jeni had a great day at Rotorua. We didn't go this time as we went last time. They saw some amazing hot pools.
We then headed to Auckland and had a look around the city. Then we took the ferry over to a small town on the other side of the harbour with the most loveliest houses. I am sure it is a very popular place to live. This is the view of the city from the ferry.

Napier was the next port of call and some of us went out to the Mission Winery. It is such a beautiful place to visit.

It was also lovely to wander around Napier too with all the Art Deco buildings.

A surprise meeting and the Bay of Islands

We were floating around on the ocean on the first day of our cruise when a lovely lady recognised me! Dianne is a reader of this blog and noticed that I was coming on the cruise and looked out for me. How amazing is that! We organised to catch up so she could show me her lovely stitching. Margot, from the Wednesday night class, was on the ship too so she came and met Dianne too. Sadly it was a little dark and I don't know what I was doing with the camera but the photos aren't wonderful though the stitching was. Dianne loves crinoline ladies and was stitching this beautiful piece. Checkout the closeup below.

She was also using felt to make a lovely bag.

Dianne had also beautifully embroidered this little house pincushion. The stitching was tiny!

She is also making a lovely bag using a doiley. Both sides were stitched beautifully.

This is Dianne's needlecase! Too many long and short stitches on the roof for me! I didn't see Dianne again after that but hope she had a lovely time on the rest of the cruise.

Our first stop was in the Bay of Islands and here we are with the ship in the background. We hired a people mover and explored a little. It is a very beautiful part of the world.

We visited a delightful town called Russell and checked out the lovely shops and the beach.

I'm home again and Stitching on the Bay

I am home after a lovely holiday cruising around New Zealand. It was a very special holiday with Ma and Pa and Jeni and Paul. We had lots of laughs and really enjoyed spending the time together. We also ate far too much, enjoyed good weather and saw lots of great sights. I will share some over the next few days. Firstly I need to show the projects we are doing for Stitching on the Bay on Saturday. You will have seen them in my earlier posts and Fiona has some nice pictures of them all on her blog as well. So looking forward to seeing all the Bay girls on Saturday. Here is a collage of the projects.

Now to share just a little of our holiday before I head off to get ready for work. It was a very relaxing holiday as all the work is done for you! I didn't stitch as much as expected but enjoyed reading some books and just relaxing. Here are some pictures of us leaving Sydney.

Going under the bridge is a little scary! It feels like the ship won't fit.

Check out the Bridge climbers waving to the ship! What a great sight for them to see from way up there.

A bit if stitching

Just thought I would blog once more before we head off on our adventure tomorrow. I have been rushing about to get some stitching prepared and have some Christmas decorations to applique and stitch, some canvas work (can't wait to make Fiona's little stocking from the stitching day), a few stitcheries and this lovely Noah's Ark cushion by Lynette Anderson. I had to find time last week to applique the ark etc.

I have also stitched block 4 of the My Garden BOM. Haven't had time to do the applique and patchwork.

I also managed to get October's block made for the Gardener's Journal BOM but must admit to doing it weeks ago as I knew I would be busy.

And lastly I fused this little owl gift card for my niece and her fiance. Her invitation had this cute owl on it so I thought it would be fun to use it as a card. He is a bit cute, isn't he?

Busy packing!

I know many think I am very spoilt and that it is unfair, but I am going on another holiday on this ship tomorrow! This is the Sun Princess and hubby and I, his parents and our brother and sister in law are all going to New Zealand tomorrow. I am battling with the packing as the weather is a little unknown as it is likely to be  both cool and warm. Still it is worth packing because I am looking forward to it all very much.

I am not sure how often I will get to blog while away so just thought I had best catch up all the Show and Tell from last week. Cathy, at Hobbysew, is creating this wonderful mystery quilt. It isn't so mysterious now as they are getting close to finishing but here is one of the "Mystery" ladies' quilt so far.

Naomi shared this beautiful quilt with us on Wednesday too. I love this quilt which is one of Leanne Beasley's lovely BOMs.

Margaret had finished her little felt decoration last week.

A lady came into the shop to choose some fabric for this wonderful quilt. She is doing a class at Addicted to Fabric. The photos don't do it justice.

In the evening, Linda had made this great pirate quilt. The fabric collection is so special and she was able to make a simple and quick quilt focussing on the beautiful fabrics.

Aren't the pictures great?

Linda had also finished 3 gorgeous wraps for gifts! You have been a busy girl, Linda.

I have also been trying to organise some stitching to do on the ship. I am sure there will be lots of time to relax, read and stitch.