Wonderful weekend

Just finished the nicest weekend with Stephanie in Sydney. Really relaxing time and not a lot of anything done except a Busy day on Anzac Day with parade watching in Sydney, ferry to Manly for lunch, cruising around the town for the afternoon then dinner at Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour. Friday was spent going to the Blue Mountains and doing the explorer bus. We did all the scenic skyway, cable car, etc and a couple of walks as well as Devonshire tea. It was fabulous and the weather was stunning so could see for miles with only a distant blue haze.
Saturday we wandered around the city doing window shopping and looking at the cupcakes but decided we didn't need one so had chocolate waffles instead for lunch. We then did a couple of ferry / train rides to use up our ticket and queued for Jamie's Italian restaurant. Waited an hour for our table, while the queue outside seemed just as long. Had a trio of starters then entree sized main dishes and shared a dessert of lemon meringue pie. Felt that we had to waddle home afterwards the one block.

Busy weekend

It has been a busy weekend and although wet and rainy on Saturday, Sunday has been a nice day.


The weekend started with Stephanie arriving on Friday night to stay for the weekend and also getting tow birthday presents (cups from Harrods and England with 2012 / Stratford on them). Thanks guys it was great and the chocolates have been tasted by Stephanie and myself. Saturday I spent the day the Regional Embroidery retreat in Eltham with mum and about 35 other stitchers so caught up with a few friends and finished my patchwork placemats for the arts festival. Also stitched a couple of mittens for Christine for the arts festival. Dinner at the retreat was wonderful and I finished with the most delightful brownie but paid for it in the middle of the night as it was very rich.

On Sunday Stephanie and I started off with a nice breakfast in the conservatory before we were overtaken by the Nintendo fans. Luke, Callum and Virginia came to visit so the boys tried out the Nintendo Treasure Hunt game which was fun.

I took Stephanie to her mum’s after lunch then came home to stitch and complete some of the projects needed for the arts festival in two weeks. I have sewed handles on my tote bag, made another snappy bag after undoing it as I sewed the wrong seams first, made my mittens and nearly completed my fabric brooch for the arts festival. Also here is a picture of my latest two swaps – tea cups and mitten so enjoy them.

Stitching on Christmas tree is coming along but unfortunately I have not done any more on Pot Pourri but hope that Thursday will see more samples done.  Sorry about the sideways photo but I cannot turn it around today. Think I will have to go back to taking the photos with the camera not the ipad.

enjoy your week.
Diane

A busy month.

Life seems to have got very busy and I am not sure where the time has gone. March was a busy month with a weekend trip to Wellington with Stephanie encompassing a visit to the zoo with Loreece, dinner with Alice and seeing David's party flat. On the way home an overnight stop with Liz was a welcome break, before seeing Jennifer on the way home.


Christmas in the Heartland.



Night class has been busy with most of the class working on a linen piece. Below is my start on the piece "Christmas in the Heartland". I am working on Florence linen, using a Kathy McLauchlan red silk, Gloriana green silk and Kreinik copper blending filament with some #15 beads as well as Corticelli silk for the finer stitches. I am really enjoying this piece and looking forward to the end result. Sorry about the photo but it won't turn around.

Our embroidery guild have moved locations so it was nice to be in a smaller room that will be easier to heat. During the last month I also received this package of wonderful silk ribbons from Trish http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog which was a real surprise.

I am also doing a cyber class with SHEAR Creations and have stitched the first two samples so need to get on with the next ones so as not to be too far behind. It is called Pot Porroui and through the shining needle society which has lots of interesting classes. It is a study of 12 stitches using some interesting threads and I am stitching extra samples using the extra threads. It will look good with my thread notebook.

Ashley's quilt.



Our chicken dinner.



Christmas wreaths sent on swap-bot.



Easter has just been and I had a visit from Liz and family as Ashley wanted to make a quilt of her travels. It was fun to talk about places that she has seen and done with so much changed since I was in the same part of the world. She has been in some random places due to her time with the Royal Navy. Also this weekend I had dinner with Cheryl and Maree, with a lovely roast chicken dinner. Good night watching twilight movies, and did a bit of knitting. I am making a couple of entries for the Institute Arts Festival so need to get the knitting of dolls clothes, placemats and fabric brooch finished so I will have at least three entries. Also I have a picture of my Christmas wreath that I swapped with Swap-Bot. It was well received by Brenda so I was pleased.

Below is my latest christmas decoration design. This is for the ANZEG embroidery conference in 2014 so I am hoping it gets selected. Otherwise I will have a new decoration to teach next year and several other ideas for decorations to make.

My latest ball design.