We returned yesterday from a lovely weekend down the coast at Lake Tabourie for the church camp. Lots of fun, chat and good food made for a great relaxing weekend away. It did drizzle all day on Saturday but it didn't seem to matter as it was possible to remain dry. I did a little stitching, some read the newspapers, many people did jigsaw puzzles and played games and the kids just went out in the rain and had great fun anyway. Sunday was a lovely day and hubby took some great photos.


 There was some amazing frisbee action!




 The sea was so big and wild! I am not much of a swimmer but I did venture in for a while as the water temperature was good but it was so tiring as the waves were so big that there was a lot of going under them and trying to jump over them (sometimes unsuccessfully).

 There was a bit of sandcastle building fun too.

In between stitching day organisation and normal life, I have been stitching away. I am so enjoying stitching these lovely pictures from Anni Downs' new book, The Story of my day.



 Yesterday I had some spare time so put together the patchwork block that goes with the bird block in the Homespun BOM, Foxley Village. I just love these Tilda fabrics. This is a big block compared to the 6" ones below.
 Thes little blocks are part of the Splendid Sampler quilt and this one was very fiddly on the machine! This is block 2.
 Block 3 was tricky too and there was a little unpicking!
 I am loving block 4 as it is applique. Thanks Jen Kingwell for this block.

Fiona and I had a lovely day on Saturday at our first Stitching on the Lake day of 2016. It was special to catch up with many familiar faces and to meet some new stitchers too. We were very spoilt, as always, by Lynne and Sammi as the food was delicious! Here is the room all set up for another fun day.

 Here are our projects on display ready for the stitching girls.
 We were ready for another lovely day.
 Hobbysew came and set up a wonderful stall with all sorts of goodies for the ladies to enjoy and perhaps, take a few new projects or fabrics home with them.





 Great to see the little basket being made in lovely bright colours.

 As always, it was great to see the Show and Tell. Karen brought along her wonderful Birdsville quilt to show the ladies
 Michelle has been busy and has completed this wonderful celebration mat using an Anni Downs' pattern.
 Laurelle made 2 of the lovely canvas work projects from last year as well as the little zippered bag and the cross stitch decoration. They all look great.
 Jo has been busy too and finished her Santa bag and these star decorations as well. The Show and Tell is always so motivating.

Lovely to see some great show and tell on Wednesday. Lesley has had her gorgeous Christmas quilt quilted and it is all finished. Looks wonderful. Lesley. It is a Hugs and Kisses BOM.
 Jayne has been very busy too. She has enlarged the little bag in the The Story of My Day book and it looks so good. It fits her book and ongoing projects in perfectly.
 Marlene has finished her verson of the stitching bag too and made it into a zippered pouch! Looks so good.
 This is the back all covered in 1/2" hexagons. I think Marlene is hooked on hexies now!
 I have been stitching too and have been very naughty and have now started 3 big projects once again. I wonder when my UFOs will ever get done. I appliqued the first block of Foxley Village in the Homespun magazine. Now to do the piecing.
 I also finished the first block of Lynette Anderson's Mystery button club, called Anderson's Farm. Hobbysew has the patterns if you are interested in joining me on this journey.
 Lastly, I joined the Splendid Sampler stitchalong!!! There are 2x 6" blocks to make each week. Here is block 1.

 Have some fun stitching with thicker thread on this candlewicking project. Your kit includes the background fabric and the perle thread. You can make either the bag or the small cushion,

 This little basket is appliqued and stitched using your favourite fabrics and threads to match. The DMC threads I have used are green 3012 and 3012, pink 3345, blues 3325 and 931, yellow 676 and red 3722.