Anni Downs' Christmas projects

Next term we only have a few weeks of classes as I am going away so we are making some of Anni Downs gorgeous Christmas patterns. I have had fun making this tree recently.

I do love Anni's patterns and had made some for last Christmas. Here is the little bag and the bonbon.

These little bags were a hit as gifts last year and so I made some for me too.

Here are the lovely felt mats. Anni's patterns are so lovely to make. I must dig out the quilt from her Christmas Story book to show the ladies as well.

For those of you who are coming next term, please note that we are starting on Wednesday 27 July, which is a week earlier than in the newsletter.

Christmas class and a little stitching

Last Friday, I taught a Christmas class at Hobbysew. There were 8 ladies but I seemed to have missed one when I took this picture. She must have been shopping! It was nice to catch up with some ladies that I know and also to meet some new stitchers.

Here is one of the ladies busy working on her canvas work...

and another busy beading her felt bird's wings.

I managed to put the borders on June's Tis the Season blocks this week. They were just a little late.

Ma's birthday and some stitching

We have has a quick trip to Sydney over the weekend to celebrate Ma's 80th birthday. We had planned to take Ma and Pa out but poor Pa wasn't well enough so we had a nice lunch together at home on Sunday with some delicious leftovers of Deirdre's and a few bits from the deli up the road. We are having a large celebration in a few weeks but it was nice to be with her on the day. We had a few little gifts for her too. Here she is opening Janelle and Rick's gift. She loved the gift, Janelle!

Paddy sent Ma a gift too and Ma loved it too.

She had knitted Ma a gorgeous scarf.

Ma had received some lovely flowers too.

It is a rainy day here today so it is nice to stay in and write my blog and hopefully get a bit of stitching done. I didn't get around to showing the lovely stitching from last week at the shop so here it is. Coralee has been so busy and has stitched the lovely bag from the stitching day...

and has made the runner too!

Barb showed off her lovely quilt she has finished.

Judy is our hexagon specialist and has been working on another large quilt. All those hexagons are amazing!

Paddy made a lovely pencil case as a gift. The fabrics work so well.

Karen has also finished her Post office from the My Town BOM and it looks great.

Shopping

It has been so exciting to see all the lovely things people bought at the Craft show. I did a fair bit of shopping myself even though I went needing NOTHING! I also had lots from last year that I haven't even finished or started. Oh well...it is fun to see everything and so tempting. I was very impressed with the Quiltmania stall as the books were lovely. I ended up buying this book and the projects are very special.

I bought some fabrics and couldn't resist some more wool for a scarf. Last year's scarf isn't quite finished!

My favourite purchase was Anni Downs' new book. Hobbysew is getting the book soon but I couldn't resist it.

Anni signed it too.

Anni had some lovely kits for the projects in the new book too.

I also couldn't resist these woven wool felt kits.

Then there were a few patterns as well. Just a few of them might be nice for a little person in the future.

It was great watching Sue Daley demonstrating and I bought some of her bits and pieces to do some hexagons and to try her applique techniques. I am fiddling with the papers at the moment for a little project for the next stitching days.

My other naughty purchase was another lovely cardigan from Claire Patterson. I so enjoy wearing these hand knitted cardigans.

Last week...

Because of all the craft fair excitement, I forgot to share last Tuesday and Wednesday's photos. The Tuesday and the Wednesday ladies had been very busy. Sandra has appliqued this lovely quilt. Doesn't the quilting make the appliques stand out?

Josie has made this bright quilt and it has turned out so well with the black sashing.

In the afternoon, Karen brought in her finished block 1 of the My Town BOM.

Karen has also finished this lovely cushion for her granddaughter. She did a great job of the stitching, especially the grub roses.

Bronwyn had finished her stitched folder cover. Looks lovely, Bronwyn.

In the evening, it was lovely to have Audrey back at class. She was working on this gorgeous tree for a gift. It looks so good and is a pattern from Don't Look Now which Audrey has reduced.

Audrey had also finished her felt needlecase from the stitching day.

I just love the way she has stitched with close running stitches around her needle pages. What a good idea.

It is always inspiring to see what the ladies have been making.

Quilts at the Craft Show

We had a quick look at the quilts in between shopping. There were so many beautiful ones.

This quilt was an Australiana one and the applique and quilting was amazing.

There were a few Dear Janes which looked fantastic. I have stalled at 5 blocks!

Just look at the quilting on this one.

I loved the appliqued flowers on this quilt.

This was a large quilt which was all English paper pieced. Amazing.

Wonderful time at the Craft Show

Paddy and I headed up to Sydney on Thursday and had a great day visiting Berrima, Bowral and Mittagong on the way. I was very sad to see that the lovely shop called My Place in Bowral had closed. What a shame. We then headed to the city on Friday to go to the Craft Fair at Darling Harbour. We both said that we didn't need ANYTHING, but we managed to spend plenty of money on lovely things. One of the exciting things that happened was that I was able to meet come fellow bloggers. A lovely lady came over to say hi to me and I wasn't sure who she was but it was Chooky Blue! Here is Chooky next to Anni Downs with some of her other blogging pals. We had of course headed straight to Hatched and Patched as it is one of the loveliest stalls.

Here I am with the ladies.

Anni had her new book called Some Kind of Wonderful there with all the beautiful samples too. The kits were so tempting and several came home with me!

Here is Pete ready to greet the crowds!

Hatched and Patched had these amazing puppets on their stall so I did need a pattern for a couple of these as well. I think my little grandie will like some of these one day.

Paddy and I really enjoyed chatting to Sue Daley and watching her demonstrating both her way of needleturning and her paper piecing techniques.

At lunch time we went to a meeting with some other bloggers. It was so nice to meet the blogging girls "in real life"!