Vignette block one done!

So very exciting to share my block 1 of the Vignette BOM. I have found that joining the Vignette blog has really inspired me to get going with this block. I did love the stitching though there is a lot of it and I am very glad that the magazine only comes out every 3 months. I am using Nancy Halverson's Angels Among Us range as I wanted slightly softer colours. I also changed the thread colours to suit the fabrics.

I do love Leanne Beasley's flowers.

Stitching Show and tell

So good to catch up with the social stitching ladies this week at Hobbysew. On Tuesday, Shirley brought in her beautiful "Starry Starry Nights" quilt. It has been professionally quilted by Robyn and it looks wonderful. Shirley chose to have plain outer borders instead of stars all around and I think the result is great. Also it would have been a lot less work!

Barbara has been away on a lovely cruise and managed to get lots of stitching done. Isn't this a lovely Christmas stitchery?

On Wednesday, Paddy had two amazing quilts to show us. She has been making this village quilt as a BOM and it looks so lovely. Paddy needleturned all her houses and they are so special.

Paddy has also finished her owls Mystery quilt too. It looks so wonderful. I am amazed at how much Paddy is able to achieve! It is a lovely BOM designed by Cathy Stevenson and you can get the patterns from Hobbysew.

Paddy also received this beautiful stocking for Christmas. I gather it had lollies in it! Yum.

I had to get the paints out yesterday to paint some buttons for a cushion we are making in Term 1.

Here they are all painted and ready to stitch onto the cushion. The buttons are from Laraine at "Up in Annies Room" and we have them at the shop.

Sashiko, a finish and some gorgeous decorations

I made it to stitching last week and Angela was choosing fabrics to complete this amazing sashiko quilt. It started as a panel and she has hand stitched all the sashiko and it is looking fantastic.

I can show a little finish. This is the lovely pouch by Leanne Beasley that I started at the Immerse stitching day. It is looking a little pink as the lining was quite a bright pink!

Popped in to see Adrienne yesterday and enjoyed seeing her lovely Christmas decorations. These caught my eye. Here is a whole tree full of Mill Hill cross stitched ornaments. Don't they look wonderful? Adrienne has stitched them all!

Here are some closeups.

It was lovely to see her felt bird and the felt pear from the stitching days as well. I do love the way Adrienne has done the bird's tail feathers.

Happy New Year

I have so enjoyed reading and seeing the 2010 year summaries on several of my favourite blogs that I thought I would look at the photos and make some collages. It had been a really healthy and happy year for us. We have been blessed with some wonderful family and friend times, two fabulous holidays, some great outings and lots of stitching.

The year started with Amy and Gav buying their house and then ended with them moving in recently just in the next street. We enjoyed James and Sarah's wedding as well as Emma and Sarah's engagement parties and Christmas, of course. Always lovely to spend time with the family. We also had a very special time visiting the Murrays in Victoria.

We were very blessed with 2 fantastic holidays. Our first was to Europe and England which was wonderful. We toured Kent, visited the Winters in Cambridge and then we cruised to Greece, Dubrovnik and Ephesus.

We also spent time in Italy enjoying the wonderful sights and food.

Our second holiday was a cruise to New Zealand with Ma and Pa and Jeni and Paul. We had such a special time.

In between all these events, I had plenty of time to stitch. Karen and I had a wonderful time at the Immerse Stitching Day, I went and had a great shop at the Sydney craft show, the Hobbysew classes were fun and Fiona and I ran quite a few stitching days. It was a very busy year of stitching with several BOMs, My Garden and Crazy Christmas on the go, and all the fun of making the Gardener's Journal with the Stitch-a-long girls. I do hope to finish those soon as there are some others I hope to start in 2011!

I have so enjoyed blogging and sharing my stitching life, and other things too, again this year. Thank you for coming and reading my ramblings and for filling my life with so many online friendships. 

Some stitching

It is hard to believe that Christmas is over but it is nice to have a few quiet days at home to get onto some stitching. I am busy at the moment preparing some projects for my classes in February. Not much to show yet but there will be soon. I am finding it hard to get motivated as I would rather be stitching on my other Vignette block. Here is the shorter one and I am about a third through the longer one. You will be pleased with me as I have almost made the 7 patchwork blocks (I am up to number 6).

I also finished stitching the 6th block in the My Garden BOM. Just needs its patchwork done and I will be up to date. Today is going to be hot so might be a good stitching day inside in the cool. It finally feels like summer here is Australia.

Christmas!

We have had a very lovely Christmas which seems to have gone on for days! We celebrated with our kids on the night before Christmas eve and then enjoyed leftovers with Lyndal and Nick and some of us enjoyed watching "Love Actually" again. It is a wonderful movie. We went to church on Christmas day and then headed to Sydney for a yummy lunch at Ma and Pa's place with just some of the family. In the afternoon it was lovely to catch up with my brother and his wife and family for afternoon tea. We haven't had Christmas together since 2008 so it was very special. My photos weren't great but here are a few of the tree and this gorgeous gingerbread house.

It was especially great to see and get to know their grandchildren as we don't see them very often. Thankfully hubby took some better shots.

There is a third little one but she was asleep for most of the time as she is only 3 weeks old. In the evening we went to Deirdre and Paul's house and had another wonderful meal with some of the Frazer clan.

Here is Pa checking out this hamper.

Here are the kids with Ma and Pa.

And here are the oldies as well. It was just a little family this time with a few members elsewhere.

It was a wonderful evening for dining outside.

Bruce and I stayed in Sydney on Sunday and had a relaxing time with Ma and Pa. On Monday we headed to Camden for another extended family "do". We have always had this special gathering on Boxing day and it was sad this year as Auntie Dorothy wasn't with us. Here are Uncle Allen and Auntie Shirley, the oldest members of the family. Ma is the youngest sister. It was fun to catch up with the cousins that could make it this year.

What a busy time and what a lot of eating!!!! It is so special to spend these times with the family.

Vignette blog for those stitching along

Just noticed Fiona's post about the new blog for those stitching the Vignette Mystery BOM. I have stitched some of the first block and hope to keep up with this BOM and being part of a group really helps. Check out Vignette in stitches and you could win a copy of Leanne's magazine.

Here is one part that I have stitched. My colours are a little softer.