Vignette progress

We had a wonderful day today at the first Stitching on the Lake day. I will post some photos tomorrow.
I wanted to post my progress with blocks 2 and 3 for the Vignette quilt but Blogger wasn't working! Anyway, here are some pictures of my blocks. I decided to take 3 of them as it is such a long piece of stitching. I have started to stitch the flowers on the patchwork.

Lovely old stitching and BOM progress

Naomi brought in some amazing clothing that had belonged to her relatives. Check out this amazing underskirt! It was quite old but in great condition.

This gorgeous embroidery was on a beautiful cloak. It looks like close chain stitch but may have been done with a tool of some kind.

Karen came in with her cushion all finished. Looks great, Karen.

I have been stitching, whenever possible, trying to keep up with my many BOMs this year. Do remind me not to attempt so many next year! I am loving the results though. Here is block 3 of "In my Garden" by Anni Downs.

I have also stitched and appliqued block 2 of Christmas Fun. These were fun to stitch but now I need to do the piecing!

Mother's Day and a celebration

I completely forgot to mention Mother's Day in all the excitement of sharing the stitching day projects. I was very spoilt with a delicious breakfast at Amy's house. Here I am as I open some lovely presents. I received a lovely teapot and new pepper grinder. Mine were very old! Lyndal made delicious pancakes with blueberry sauce! Yum.

At lunch time we were invited to a wonderful celebration for the wedding of Danny and Ayesha. They were actually married on Saturday but as the family is Indian they wanted to celebrate with their "village", or their friends again on Sunday. It was very special. Ayesha's family is partly Indonesian and so there was a small traditional part and Danny's family welcomed their new family members with a gift of silk scarfs. The backyard was beautifully decorated.

Here are the happy couple surrounded by their families. Some of Danny's family came all the way from India to be here for the wedding.

It was a very lovely afternoon and the food was wonderful. A few of us helped with dessert and it were delicious. I wish I had taken a picture as Shirley did such a wonderful job of decorating them.

Stitching on the Lake

Next week is our first Stitching on the Lake day for this year and it is very exciting to post some pictures of the projects that we are doing this time. Here is the Garden Table runner with a lovely stitched garden at each end of the runner. The thread colours have been matched to the fabrics which were chosen from the Wild Rose range from Blackbird Designs. Please note that there was a small error in the list of colours on your original list. It is 3721, not 3781! Sorry about that.

Those coming on the day will be able to enjoy painting this wooden house button and perhaps prepare a background for the house. Thanks to Laraine from Up in Annie's Room for cutting the buttons.

It was great fun to stitch this needlecase using felt and then to make the little matching scissor keeper.

Here are the three other projects that we are doing !   This canvas work pin keep was great fun to make!   The colours used are - DMC 3740, 3041, 3348, 415, 3346, 3042 - but the choice of colours is entirely up to you!!

This useful sewing bag is great for your current project and uses a variety of stitches.  The colours used are 3012, 932, white, 223, 225, 3771, 3776, 931, 3840 - but again the colour choice is up to you!   

Here is the embroidered and painted biscornu pin cushion which will again test your embroidery skills!  Just use your favourite thread colours to create these beautiful flowers. 

Fiona and I are so looking forward to seeing everyone over the next two Saturdays at the stitching days. The kits are almost ready and we can't wait for next week.

Wednesday stitching

We had another lovely Wednesday of stitching at Hobbysew this week. Donna has stitched some amazing embroidered flowers onto a dressing gown for a friend's daughter-in-law who is expecting a baby soon. What a special thought to make a gift for the mum!

Isn't Donna's stitching beautiful? She stitched on the pockets, lapel and even a few bits on the tie.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of Donna's gorgeous wrap! These lovely flowers were stitched all over it!

While we were at the shop, there was a presentation of a machine prize to Karen! She had gone into a competition which made blocks for a good cause and ended up winning this lovely Elna machine. Karen was very excited.

So good to see the afternoon stitching girls again after our break over the holidays. Karen came and had finished her beautiful pouch made using the pattern by Leanne Beasley.

In the evening, we were so pleased to see Barbara's "Tis the Season" all pieced and ready to quilt! It looks so beautiful. Barbara has used some French General fabric for her borders.

Afternoon tea and a finish

I had a very lovely time on Sunday afternoon at afternoon tea with some of the Friday night stitching girls. Thank you for taking me out for my birthday! I am feeling very spoilt, again. We went to Benedict House which is an old Refectory in Queanbeyan.

Here we are.

Here is the front garden.

There were little red berries or fruit on this lovely old tree.

I finally finished this delightful cushion which is a design by Lynette Anderson. As usual, it had been appliqued and stitched for ages! Just realised that I need to add a button on the ark.

Other than that, I have been busy making kits for the stitching days that are coming up so soon. Looking forward to seeing all the ladies at Stitching on the Lake.

Danni's wedding

It was so special on Saturday to head out to Gundaroo and watch Danni's wedding. She looked so beautiful and we had such a lovely time saying hello to her as she arrived in the limousine. It had been overcast in Canberra but the blue skies could be seen over Gundaroo. The wedding was held in the grounds of "Grazing", a very special restaurant in the old Royal Hotel.

Here she is with Dad ready to walk "down the aisle".

It was perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. It was even quite warm in the sun.

Congratulations, Danni and Aaron.
We peeked in the reception marquee and Margaret, Danni's Mum, had made a beautiful, stitched banner which was hanging on the bridal table. It looked beautiful. Margaret looked so lovely in her outfit that we thought she could have gone to The Wedding that was held in London the day before.