A brilliant time and met friends old and new

This is what I part stitched on saturday at Clare's get together at Nuneaton. I didn't actually do a lot of stitching there, too busy chatting and getting to know lovely stitchers whom I only knew by name and on blogs, so I'll say here lovely to meet you Clare and Hazel and everyone else too. Thank you Clare for organising it..The stitching on show was fantasic and has spurred me on to do some bigger pieces of work; Today I have ordered a Blue Ribbon design some thing I have thought about for a while and a design from Chatelmaine not sure how to spell that! But Kathy had work there by that designer and I just loved it. I have bought the Convent Herbal Garden... so I think I will not have time for all the exchanges I do at the moment as the gardening season has started too.. but there is always the winter for stitching. Next year I'll stay home and stitch!



This is the beautiful fabric made box (by Clare's Mum) that I won in the raffle.. its just gorgeous and has pride of place on our side board so it can be seen by all when they come in.



And this cyclamen was the most beautiful sight in our conservatory when we came home last wednesday and the scent fills the room, it is so beautiful; I bought it last year for a knock down price as it was past its best and when it finished flowering I stuck it under the stairs to dry out, brought it out in January before we went, watered and fed it and look at it now... the wonder of nature!
It might seem strange to post this photo now but my camera needed batteries when we got home!

Some finishes

This is the mattress pin cushion I did for the Year Long Prairie Schooler exchange for Stephanie


The back


And the sides

This was my first attempt at a mattress finish and I am rather pleased with it! I did the little scissor fob to match the PS design.

This is what I did to take to Australia for my friend Jennie... I took the photo very hurriedly when I was packing it and against the wall in Emily's room doesn't do it justice!



This was my PS from Donna... and I love it, so beautifully stitched and finished

And just look at the back, isn't the fabric beautiful and compliments the colours of the front so well.

Home Sweet Home!

This is Annie and me in Sydney, we met up for a meal... don't we scrub up well!
Annie is in my ladies group, so now I have met quite a few of the group, but Annie is the first in Australia.. our hubbies chatted away too!


Mike and I were in bed sleeping just before 9 we would have gone earlier but Emily phoned. I just said I’d talk this evening as I was just too tired to talk and had a headache!
Anyway consequently we are up at 5, I was up at 4! But at least we are back to the right day and not in Oz time!
The whole trip was wonderful and meeting people was awesome! There were about 80 plus people at the family gathering at Queenscliff and Keen who found me through Genes Reunited presented me with a folder which had 398 relatives all related to me, it even had what each relationship was! We had met Coral and Lance two weeks previously along the Great Ocean Rd as they lived about 30 miles from where we were staying and came with picnic baskets in tow! I loved Coral, she is just a couple of years younger than me and was such a lovely person. She had records of our letters and I was surprised to learn we had been writing for 8 years! I would have loved to have had more time with her, she had brought her scrapbooking pages for each of her 11 grand children and they were wonderful. How I wish I had more time to do all these things. I came home with 4 patch working and quilting magazines and fabric and loads of tips from my friend Jenny! I am going to organise my days better, spend less time on this butt magnet and get up and GO to do all these things! As well as do the garden, as after last years inactivity I have lots of new ideas for it. The tete a tete little daffs are all flowering, some in my plant grave yard! ( its where I throw pots of failed plants!) So it was lovely to come home to Spring sunshine, daffs, primroses and polyanthas all flowering in the garden, not so bad as we thought it might be. And the house as we walked in looked wonderful, worth leaving it tidy!
I loved Melbourne the best!
But the Dandenongs where we stayed with Linda and Idris were beautiful and the setting where their home is was wow! As soon as I get organised I’ll post some photos so you can see some aspects of our visit.
We have both put on a considerable amount of weight so I am off to SW this morning!

‘Its so nice to go travelling, but it’s oh so nice to be home!!'

Australia!!!

This little fellow decided to camp out in the front garden tree where we were staying in Portland on our drive from Melbourne to Adelaide.. he didn't do much just sat there looking down at us and we staring back at him.. but it was exciting to see a real live koala!
Having the most wondeful time here down under and off tomorrow back to Melbourne to meet up with a whole gathering of rellies!
Then Sydney and Cairns and back home in March.. this is a wonderful way to miss an English winter.

from Hong Kong!!!

No Photos but a short message from Hong Kong! Here we are on the first leg of our trip to Oz!
Stephanie has received my Prairie Schooler mattress pin keep and scissor fob so will post pic when I can, she has posted a pic on the Prairie Schooler site

Hope the snow has stopped in Uk it is 70F here and very pleasant.

Some finishes even though I am packing for Oz!

This is a little hanging ornie for my daughter.. I had to use aida14c for this as I have used up my metre of 28c linen! But I wanted to do something for her as she sounded very down when we spoke the other weekend. Work, children and a hubby and a broken dish washer was just too much for her! We have all been there hey??? LOL I have posted it to the school where she works so it will be a surprise for her next week!

And this for my lovely husband Mike!


This is the front of my Valentine Heart for my husband.. it has our initials on it, It is now packed in my suitcasae ready to give him on the 14th as we will be in Melbourne, Australia then.!!
And this is the back:



It doesn't show it at its best lying down as you can't see the little silver heart but I had to photo it rather hurriedly while Mike was in the other room!

Another Award!

Strawberry Jam Anne has given me this award which is lovely... the explantion has to go with the picture so here it is...I have to award this to eight bloggers so I am having a think as all the blogs I look at are so lovely it will be a difficult decision.


These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.


1. Sue- As if by Magic
2. Sharon- Stitching Happy
3. Nic- A girl as Mad as Birds
4. Marion- Villa Kunterbunt
5. Connie- Cootie Bug 2
6. Shellie- Shellie in Sitches
7. Shell- Cross those Stitches
8. Marion- Gumbo and Grits
I love all these blogs and they give me a lift and more importantly keep me away from the ironing!!! LOL
I have to work out how to do the names with links, but please forgive me as time is a bit short at the moment... Australia looms ever nearer!

Blog award

Whoooeeee I have been awarded fabulous blog award by Clare , thank you Clare... I am delighted! Now I have to chose five people who I think have a fabulous blog and list five addictions!

It isn't hard to list my addictions:- but I am afraid they are all very boring... I don't even go a bundle on chocolate! I debated about listing 'you know what as did Elisa and Clare but I am afraid strong cheese melted on toast won!! LOL

# Stitching obviously

# Reading

#Surfing, not the sort you do on the crest of a wave, the sort that ends up with spending money!

# Day dreaming !

# Strong Cheese especially melted on toast

Now Five fellow bloggers:-
Gaynor who grows cabbages as well!
Connie who always leaves me lovely comments
Angela.. a beautiful stitcher and a fellow book worm!
Julie who knits and stitches!
Cindy... that lone star stitcher!

Snow snow snow!!!!

This is what it was like outside at just after 6 this morning!
I leaned out of the side door of the conservatory to get the back garden and its still coming down thick and fast, but as long as we can get to Heathrow for our flight on sunday I am not panicking!!
I have started my BP sal again as I didn't like the colour I was using so changed to DMC 3721, 3722, 233 and perhaps I 'll use 152 as well as it they are all slight colour variations...I shall do a bit more and then take a photo of my progress.
I have sent my Prairie Schooler exchange so when it has arrived I shall post a pic.
Hope where ever you are you're toasty warm!!

A lovely weekend but now Snow!!!!

We had a lovely weekend; On saturday I went to my church's work shop 'Soul Spark' and it was wonderful. It is so nice to be with people who know me as me!
It was the first in a series of 6.. saturday it was:-
* Be still before God... entrust your burdens, concerns and needs to God.
* Remember that God loves you as you are.....calls you by name Isaiah 43.1-2
* Savour the moments.. let it sink into your heart.
* Respond to God from your heart.
The whole thing has given me a new way to read my Bible... and the good thing is they are going to do the rest of the course. I really enjoyed the whole experience



Then sunday after Church we went to visit my daughter and her family in Cambridge.
This is my lovely grand daughter Saskia, My daughter Joanne had had a day off work on friday as she had a sore throat and cough and the extra day home made her look rested... being an Examination Officer in 2 schools in Cambridge is stressful and lately I have seen her look tired so it was lovely to see her looking a lot better. She and Edward cooked a delicious beef dinner and we had apple strudel and ice cream for pud! The diet was forgotten!

Monday we got up to snow, not a lot but it kept coming all day!



I do hope it will get better before sunday as we are due to fly out to Australia on sunday and Heathrow was shut down because of the snow yesterday for part of the day with 100s of flights cancelled!