It was so lovely to see all the ladies again on Wednesday as the classes started again at Hobbysew. There was such lovely show and tell! Jill has been very busy creating this great bag to take with her later in the year when she goes to Africa to see the elephants and all the other animals.
She used this special button given to her by Paddy. Looks so good.
Jill had also completed her stitched and patched needlecase.
In the evening, Barbara had her stitchery all framed. Looks great.

A wonderful parcel arrived last week when I was in Sydney. It was from Hatched and Patched in Bathurst and had my border and some more stitching fabric for the Gardener's Journal quilt. That means I can choose fabrics and perhaps get my first block done before the end of April...perhaps in the first week of May.
I pulled some fabrics out of my stash. The photo was a bit dark so the colours are a little wrong but I think they might do.
In the special package were the kits and pattern for Annie's beautiful scarves. They are so lovely.
I have been stitching a little and have been working on this sample for Hobbysew. It will be part of a wonderful, new BOM that the shop is launching soon designed by Laraine from Up in Annies room.

Fiona and I are so excited to be able to show you some pictures of the projects that we are offering for our days next weekend. Here is the felt bookmark with a special flower button to paint. Thanks to Laraine from Up in Annie's Room, for cutting the flower buttons.
This is the lovely stitcher's cone filled with your useful stitching equipment. This would make a special gift for a fellow stitcher.
Lastly, here is the felt wallet. Just the thing to keep a small stitching project in.

I have just drawn the winners of the two "Trees" sampler patterns. The winners are Heidi and Meredith. Please email me your address and I will put them in the post on Tuesday. We have a public holiday tomorrow because today is Anzac day. It is a special day here in Australia where we remember those who have fought for our country.
I thought I would share a few more photos of Sydney. On Friday we caught the train into the city as Ma and Pa were meeting some special friends for lunch at the Wesley Centre. Janelle and I went too and we had a few hours of shopping in the city which was fun. I took some photos quickly of the lovely tiled floors in the Queen Victoria Building, which are so like patchwork.
This is the clock in the Queen Vic Building.
We also enjoyed looking at the lovely things on display at the Wesley centre. This is a beautifully embroidered tablecloth with many names embroidered on it. See the close up below. They had many special memories framed in simple deep white frames like this cloth. There were old bibles, keys, cutlery, notes that people had written and many other things.

Janelle and I headed off on Wednesday to visit Ma and Pa. We had to have a little visit to Berrima Patchwork on the way. Isn't the tree a lovely colour?
We enjoyed watching the birds in Ma and Pa's backyard. They just love splashing in the birdbaths.

We also HAD to have a shopping trip, actually two on the same day, to Roselands. We went in the morning, went home for lunch and then went again later in the afternoon. We kept Ma out till after 5pm which is something she hasn't done before! We also had morning and afternoon tea the the Cookie Man. They make yummy coffee there and you get two little biscuits too.

Here are some pictures of the class projects for this coming term. We are doing this felt bookmark.
This is a lovely canvaswork project which I did with Fiona years ago and only recently had framed.
We are making the "Basket of Flowers" bag over a two weeks.
The new sampler and cushion pattern is part of the class too.

I have managed to fit a little bit of stitching in over the past busy week. I have finished block 6 of the Crazy Christmas BOM by Lynette Anderson and am pleased with the result. I did rush the needleturn this time and that is not a good idea! I couldn't bear to undo it so continued on and it is OK.
The "Plant Trees" sampler and cushion pattern is now ready to go to Hobbysew. We are doing this project in my "Stitching for Pleasure" classes but there have been a few people interested in the pattern. The samples can be seen at the shop. The pattern will include one of "Up in Annies room"s lovely willow tree buttons and the buttons are also available individually.
Here is a close up of the painted tree and the house on the sampler.
And here is the lovely button.

Fiona and I had the pleasure of meeting a new group of ladies at the stitching day at Duntroon on Saturday. It was a lovely day of meeting new friends and sharing a great day of stitching and just a bit of eating and socialising as well. These are the projects.
Here are some of the ladies busy at work.
Here is the other table. They do look like they are concentrating very hard.
Here is one of the painted hearts ready to be stitched and then made into a pincushion.

Gwen shared this beautiful silver thimble and holder with us on Wednesday. Her dear husband, who is sadly missed, gave her this special gift. It is a very lovely keepsake.
After going to stitching for a short time (and not doing a stitch), I met up with Di and Karen from the Bay for a quick shop, lunch and a visit to the Art Gallery. They were going to the Masterpieces of Paris and as I had already been, I went for a wander in the Gallery. I found this exquisite bed covering which had been beautifully embroidered many years ago. The tiny silk stitches were unbelievable.

It was also very large! I sneakily took these few photos to show you.

There hasn't been much time to stitch lately as I have been very busy making kits for the Stitching on the Lake day and the Queanbeyan day happening in a few weeks. Such a relief to get most of them done.
I did manage to finish the fourth block of this little Christmas quilt by Cinderberry Stitches. I had to wash this block as some of the iron on transfer was still visible and the DMC thread bled a little. I have never had that happen before! I think it will be OK but it was a little disappointing. I did stitch on patchwork fabric instead of homespun this time and perhaps that made a difference.
I also managed to stitch together my last project for the stitching day and here is a little glimpse. I just had to use the lovely sampler fabric by Blackbird designs.

It was so nice to have a quieter weekend so that I could catch up on some stitching and some kit making. The stitching days are on soon and it is nice to have some of the kits done already. There are other things to organise but the kits take the longest time. I also needed my samples finished and notes written for my classes next term. It was good to get the lovely tree button from Up in Annies Room stitched onto the sampler.
Then it was even better to get it framed ready to take to the shop tomorrow. It was a relief that I had this frame hidden away that was the right size.
I also managed to get the stitched version (the tree is stitched on this smaller version) made into a cushion as well. I then made myself complete the notes and that felt very good.
I did manage to applique the next Crazy Christmas block for this month. I am looking forward to stitching it now.