Stitching on the Lake - first week

It was so lovely to catch up with lots of fellow stitchers today at our first Stitching on the Lake day for this year. We even  met Consie and Kirsten who live in the USA. They were here visiting friends and came today even though they are on their way home tomorrow! It was another lovely day of stitching, chatting and delicious food. Thanks again to Lynne and Sammy for the great morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Fiona and I enjoyed meeting new stitchers and catching up with many old friends.
Here is the room all ready for the day.

 The samples plus a few of the lucky door prizes all ready for the day.

 Terrie and Najelle had set up the Hobbysew stall beautifully to tempt the ladies. There did seem to be quite a few having a lovely time at the shop.

 This packet of Anni Downs fabrics was very tempting!

 The food was delicious as always. There was lovely morning tea and afternoon tea but I only managed to get a few photos of the yummy lunch.

 The day few past and everyone was very busy stitching, painting a little, fusing little houses, counting threads and having fun with hexagons.

It was lovely to see all the gorgeous show and tell! Karen has finished this lovely project from Urban Stitching a few weeks ago.

 Martha has been very busy and has been using her table runner for ages.

 She had also finished her little painted wooden house and scene

 ...and this lovely Bareroots pattern as well.

 I just love the colours that Audrey has chosen for her Red Home bag. It looks wonderful in these lovely fabrics by Lynette Anderson.

 Pat had lots of these absolutely amazing stumpworks to show us. These are just 2 of about 10 lovely embroideries.

I am feeling very tired now and might just have to put my feet up and have a little stitch. Looking forward to doing it all again next Saturday! 

Stitching on the Lake

The time has flown by and out first stitching day is on next Saturday! Fiona and I can't wait to catch up with everyone again and to share a day of stitching, yummy food and friendship.It is now time to share some of the projects so you can look in your stash for some favourite fabrics and also decide which project you might work on first. This is the Applique book cover and it is fun to make with some lovely hexagons to applique. I made a little error with the colours in the original letter. Those colours would certainly work but the ones I actually used were red 816 and greens 3012 and 936.

 Here is the little felt mat. It is so lovely to work in felt once again.

 This picture has a painted background and then is appliqued and embroidered. It was framed or could be made into a cushion or hanging.

There is also this beautiful tall mug bag...or you could make it shorter.

This is the useful and decorative thread catcher and pin cushion.

And lastly a beautiful canvas work. To complete this piece Fiona has used 7 different DMC stranded threads. You can use your own choice of colours. The ones has used are 991, 992, 3042, 3727, 3740, 3834 and 3835.

Stitching day kits and old tools

I am heading away this weekend but don't have much to post about stitching progress as I have been working on a few secret projects for later in the year. I have also been making lots of kits like these for the stitching days coming up in just a week or so. There are still some places on the 20 April if you want to come. The first day is fully booked. We will be posting the pictures of the projects on Monday.

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday and will post about that next week.
Just thought I would leave you with these lovely images of Bruce's grandfather's tools. He was a builder and these were his precious tools.

 Hi made 2 of these buses for Bruce and his brother Paul.

 If you look carefully at the handle of this saw you can see Bert's name.

Best go and pack lots of stitching and even a little crochet to take away. I am hoping to get lots done.

Easter

We have had a lovely Easter weekend here. I hope you have had a happy weekend too. We went to church and enjoyed 2 special services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday remembering what Easter is all about.

We definitely enjoyed some chocolate too! These were for the whole family....not just us!

On Saturday I had a wonderful day at the Folk festival as usual. I just loved this concert with Fred Smith and the Spooky Men but here were lots of other really good performances as well. There was also lots of delicious food and I enjoyed my German kransky, Gozleme and some Profetjees (dutch pancakes) very much.

On Sunday we (note it says we) went for a ride with friends. I am trying (stop laughing) to get used to riding as we are going on a Bike and Barge holiday in France in June. I rode 18 kilometres!!!! I am very achy and glad I made it. Thank heavens for the flat and downhill sections.

 We stopped along the way for coffee and these little fellows just needed an icecream! The rode in the box on the back of Lyle's bike!

We also saw a bit of these gorgeous little fellows to celebrate Easter and for an early birthday celebration for me on Monday.They are growing up so much. Benny is now sitting really well.

 Sammy isn't sitting but is commando crawling everywhere. He now scoots over for you to pick him up. He is so busy and active it is hard to hold onto him!

The Urban stitches kit....

It was exciting to open our pink bag on Saturday and to find the 4 patterns and kits as well as an Inspirations magazine and a wonderful stitch guide book. There were even some needles and scissors. Here are all the things that were in our bag. The stitcheries were also screen printed onto the fabric.

                                       

These are the patterns by Ric Rac and May Blossom.

These are the ones by Melly and Rosalie.

I worked on this one by Rosalie and here is my progress so far. There are quite a few more satin stitch circles to stitch!

Urban Stitching in Sydney

It was good fun to head to Sydney and go to the first Urban stitching day held in Sydney! It was held in Darling Harbour and this view was just lovely. We even had wonderful views of Darling Harbour from our hotel window. We did enjoy it all but missed Fiona this time, though she was in just the right place for their family at the moment.

 On Friday we settled in after a long, hot walk to the hotel! If only we had realised that the light rail goes right there. It wasn't that far but it was very confusing as to how to actually get to the Novatel! Thankfully we worked it out for the way back to the station as our bags were just a little heavier after a bit of shopping. We headed into town and browsed the shops for a while and then had dinner. On Saturday we were very excited to see the projects and to stitch for the day. These are the four lovely projects. Our bags had fully kitted patterns for each one of these.

 This was Melly's lovely little toy and stitchery.

 The one I started was Rosalie's little felt applique and stitchery p.ocket

 This little scissor keep is just lovely too.

 Simone Gooding was ill which was a shame, so we didn't get to meet her this time. The other tutors were Jodie from Ric Rac, Melly and Rosalie. We were also lucky to have Sandie from Winter Wood with her beautiful wool felt.

 There were gorgeous displays all around the room.

 Here are Allyson, Karen, Adrienne and Audrey stitching.

 This is what the room looked like during the day with everyone busy stitching.

 There was Show and tell too and here is Karen showing her lovely Red Home bag.

 Here I am with Barbara, Karen and Allyson ...just to prove I was there!