Stitching and our retreat

So lovely to see some wonderful stitching over the last week. Heidi has finished this beautiful hanging from a pattern by Anni Downs.

Anni's patterns are being made by quite a few people at the moment. Roni has just finished her gorgeous woven wool felt bauble.

 Jayne is going away next week and made herself a little zippered pouch and a lovely bag to take with her. These are from another Anni Downs pattern that were in the Homespun a while ago.

 I have done a little stitching. Nice to finish another little stitchery from Rosalie Dekker's United Stitches patterns and to finish the LAST block of Scandinavian Rose!

Other than that I have been busy preparing for our retreat, Stitching in the Hills, that is on this weekend. Looking forward to a lovely weekend of fun, laughter, friendship and some stitching with lots of lovely ladies. The kits are ready and I know Fiona is on her way so we are almost ready.

Here is a picture of the Saturday night frivolities from last year when we all dressed up in orange. 

Celebrations

We headed to Sydney last Thursday to celebrate Paul's special birthday and then to have a "room warming" for Ma as well as a get together with all the cousins in the "Goss" family. It was a lovely though busy time of celebration. Firstly we headed to breakfast at Carss Park on Saturday morning for Paul's birthday. After a delicious breakfast we took a few family photos.

We then had afternoon tea with Ma and Uncle Allan and all the cousins. Ma did so enjoy opening her  new room. Ma has moved into the large room in the back of her house and had it all done up. So exciting for her to get new cupboards. carpet, paint and just to enjoy the views from that room. Paul and Jeni have also moved into the front of the house so it has had a major redecoration too.

 Here are all the family. It was very special  as all the cousins and their wives and husbands were able to attend. We haven't all been together for a very long time.

 Here are the cousins in age order!

We did so enjoy catching up on everyone's news over a lovely afternoon tea.

Stitching

I did manage to stitch a little while I was away. We were busy most days but there were long flights and some quieter days to stitch. I took quite a lot of prepared work but here is what I achieved. I started with some of Rosalie Dekker's United Stitches projects. They were easy to take as they were already printed on. I just needed to choose my threads.

 These two are from the Scandinavian Rose BOM and the last block is almost finished!

 This block of Nature's Journey was only completed last night and at 10pm! It needed to be finished in August so I just made it in time.

Lovely work

It was great to catch up with many friends at social stitching and at classes over the last few weeks. Karen has been working on her gorgeous Birdsville quilt. Looks wonderful.

 Jayne has been very busy too and has finished her beautiful runner from the lovely pattern by Anni Downs.

 She is also hooked on foundation piecing and completed both of these projects from last term.

On top of all the normal chores, I have been busy with kits and pattern making for our retreat which is less than 2 weeks away! Fiona and I are looking forward to a lovely weekend of stitching, laughter and catching up with good friends.

Busy times

We have been home almost 2 weeks and things have been very busy. So nice to have a day at home today to catch up. We are minding the little men on Mondays for a few months and they are lovely boys but are we tired on Monday night. Going to work at the shop on Tuesday seems easy in comparison.

Lovely to catch up with this little miss too. She is taking a few steps now and is into everything.

Last week was a week of celebrations too. On Thursday I went to a lovely birthday afternoon tea to celebrate Jan's birthday. 

On Friday, we celebrated quite differently as we farewelled a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Gwennyth lost her long battle with cancer and her funeral was such a wonderful celebration of a life well lived. She and her lovely family have a wonderful faith which helps so much at times like these.