Our holiday

On the week of the 16th Lance and I travelled through Castlemaine and Daylesford and ultimately ending up in Ballarat for four days.   Can highly recommend the Menzies Suite at the Quality Inn on Humffray St Nth The owners were very friendly and provided us with a rather large box of Darrell Lea chocolates and some lovely French champagne on arrival and their cooked breakfasts were beautiful too.  

Right next door to the hotel was a large antiques centre and dinner most nights was in the Leagues Club on the opposite corner.  Can also highly recommend the 'Steak house' and 'Pipers on the Lake' too.  I think we might just have to win this years footy tipping so we can go and do it again next year lol.

Botanical gardens

Some gorgeous buildings

Anglican church

The art gallery was also a must see for us.

'Pipers on the lake' is a must for anyone visiting Ballarat.  I should have taken a pic of the interior because it is absolutely stunning.

These are two beautiful dishes Lance found at a place called 'The Mill'.  Its another huge complex filled with antiques, vintage and retro things.  These were from the one just outside Ballarat and there is a much bigger complex in Daylesford that we visited too.

Some sock wool and threadworx to try.  I thought the thread was rather expensive at $6.60 a hank but when you think that it is twice the amount as on a DMC skein its not too bad really lol.

Misti baby alpaca.  Now this was an extravagant buy!  Its a two ply and so very soft.  Will take a fair while to knit up as this is what I attempted in one night on 2.75mm needles.  It will be totally worth the effort though.

We also found a gorgeous print with a little girl surrounded by Jack Russell's which I haven't hung yet.  Will take a pic later to show you.

Not a lot to really show for the fortnight really but might have some progress next weekend on some knitting and the family stitcheries.

Thanks for stopping by.....

FNSI results

Well I had planned to sew during the day and knit at night but just did the sewing.  I also managed to frame some embroidery I completed last year.

As you can see from the picture in Homespun magazine I have changed colours of some blocks.  Basically I did all the prep for the applique blocks yesterday with the exception of the family and togetherness blocks which I had already started to stitch.  I am also considering moving a few of the bottom blocks shown in the magazine around to separate those dresden plates.  I chose not to do needleturn but will do a tiny buttonhole instead.  During the week I will start on the stitching of the panels as picking thread colours will now be so much easier with the colours of the patchwork to draw from.

Now off to visit some other FNSI blogs ......

FNSI is here!

As hubby is home for the day he has taken over the roll of kitchen staff for the day so I can get some sewing done.  I am going to get the fabrics out for the family stitchery quilt and actually do some cutting and sewing on them first. Then maybe start another stitchery later today and even do some knitting tonight.  LOL  as you can see I am going to try and make a day of it.  So off  I go and see how far I get before being interrupted lol and will take pics too for tomorrows show and tell. 

FNSI

I have also noticed that it is FNSI this Friday too.  I might not start a major project like last month though lol.

Finished!

Couch is all finished now.  Well until I locate my staple gun to attach the fabric to the framework lol.  Its here somewhere ......... Just got everything back onto it and Merlin moves in.

Stitchery and knitting

Well I did finish the back of Lances jumper and started on the front then got busy on the stitchery which is almost finished.  Mind you I am not all that sure about the red bow so might actually pull it out and do it another colour yet.  I also finished off a pile of hand towels and passed them on to my mother for finishing off.  When I get my half back I'll share a pic.  

Marmalade

First off this week I have made a couple of different batches of marmalade.  Firstly was the orange and ginger.  Then later in the week I did a couple of batches of mandarin.  The house smelt wonderful with all the citrus smells.

A funny thing happened ....

well something I would not have expected but apparently the post of my stitchery blocks has attracted the attention of the deputy editor of homespun magazine.  Really never expected such interest lol.  They would like me to send some pics through when I finish it to the readers page.  I thought it was a hoax but double checked the name in the front of a magazine.  Looks real enough lol.  Has anyone else ever been approached like this though.  I certainly hope I don't pass on any spam or virus's to everyone.

Handtowels

These are the beginnings of some hand towels for the kitchen.  I bought a couple of bundles of hand towels from Aldi a few months ago and mum found up her pattern so I can make them up.  Once they are constructed I am sending them back to Mum so she can add the button/velcro and some wide ricrac she has.  It is a bit of a joint effort and then we will have 8 new ones each.  If anyone has an Aldi close by these kitchen towels and their linen tea towels dry brilliantly and they are cheap too.

Family quilt stitcheries

I have also over the last couple of weeks started the stitcheries for the family quilt featured in homespun magazine.  For those familiar with it you can see that I have changed the block to suit our family and instead of a big family tree I will do the grandparents that should have been in this block down there instead and include their names perhaps too.  There is also a pic showing some of the fabric I have chosen to use for the patchwork too.

Knitting

Here's the knitting.  I am hoping to get the back finished and start on the front this afternoon.  Lance is at work this morning so I have spent time on the machine instead making some hand towels.

Pretty china, sewing area and some older work

As you can see I have a love of old china and cant wait to get the boxes out from under the house and restock the crystal cabinet lol.  I've left it as a school holiday job because everything will need to be unwrapped, washed, dried off and the placed in their rightful homes.  I also want to get the old dinner sets and china cups set back up in the kitchen as well.   It will be a big task but one I am looking forward to.  I use a lot of pieces regularly too and have missed having them about for the last 12 months.  I really have too much but Lance finds things occasionally and brings them home from his weekend work so I suppose it doesn't really cost us to have them.  One day I will have to sort through our lovely old linen collection too and make sure it is travelling along ok too.

There's also some pics of the cottage and some ribbon embroidery I did years ago.  I still love looking at them lol.

You can also see my little sewing area set up at the end of the kitchen.  We have an old house and the kitchen is separate to the living areas and its the way I prefer it too.   Not a big fan of open plan living I'm afraid.  Just next to the table is the entrance into a small utility room which houses the upright freezer and shelves full of my sewing and knitting stuff.  In the cabinet is my scrapbooking things and button collection.  Its only a small table for the machine but I can use the 7' x3' table when needed.  I sometimes miss having my own room like I used to but as the girls got older I needed to change it into a bedroom.  Might get it back one day lol. Thankfully I can get to it today and do some sewing as Grace has almost finished putting all her books back on her bookcase.  There were 8 52ltr tubs of books just from her room!   Not to mention our books lol.