10 October, 2025

Christmas Hoops

Three presents ready for gifting.
These Christmas hoops are by 
Leanne Knell of Petals and Patches
The little mouse is my favourite!
How cute are the gingerbread house boxes the kits came in!
I actually finished them back in August 
but hadn't had a chance to post about them. 

09 October, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, I attended  
Chrissie's Timeless Treasures Mega Grand Gathering 
at Myrniong with Silvia and Sharmayne of  
Country Fragrance. Sharmayne came down for the 
weekend and we had a fabulous time.

There are always a couple of pop-up 
stores at Chrissie's stitching days. 
Dawn from Kitty Rose Cottage and 
were this month's visitors. I thought I'd taken a 
photo of Linda and her goodies but turns out I hadn't! 
 
Dawn and I had met back in 2014
 at Let's Get Stitched. 
It was lovely catching up with her.
 
On Monday, Sharmayne and I spent the day 
with a little retail therapy. Sharmayne can't come 
to Melbourne without a trip to Patchwork with Gail B! 
We also visited Winterwood in Warranwood 
where they specialise in felt, 
Bella Fabrics in Canterbury and a yarn store just nearby. 
There is no photo evidence of any purchases 
that may or may not have been made! 
 
All too soon it was time to say goodbye.
Kade says hello!
It's hard to believe he is 7 months old already.
 
 

18 September, 2025

Silver Threads & Golden Needles!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend 
three days in Ballarat attending the 
Silver Threads and Golden Needles Sovereign Hill Retreat 
hosted by Chrissie of Chrissie's Timeless Treasures 
with my sister-in-law Silvia.
 
We received two kits to work on.
  
The first project was a Christmas bag. 
My bag is the one on the right.
 
 The second was a pins and needles case. 
I managed to get the stitching part done.
  
My finished pins and needles case.
 
 In between stitching, we would explore 
different parts of Sovereign Hill.
 My favourite place is the Criterion Store. 
 
There were so many lovely goodies here.
 
 Silvia and I thought it would be fun to 
have an old fashioned photo taken. 
We just had to pose stitching!
Don't think I'd really like to wear 
these dresses everyday!
We also made some little lavendar bags like 
they would have made back in the day.
I celebrated my birthday on Saturday 
and Noel surprised me with a special 
delivery of these beautiful flowers.
 
I was also lucky enough to win this sewing case 
(on my birthday too!), together with a toffee 
apple that are a specialty at Sovereign Hill. 
Mitchell has claimed that! LOL!
Before dinner on Saturday night, we walked 
the whole way around Lake Wendouree.

For my birthday dinner, we decided it 
would be nice to go to 
Craig's Royal Hotel which was built in 1853.
How beautiful is this staircase!
They were booked out for Saturday 
night so we went on Sunday.
Ballarat has beautiful gardens along the 
main road. I really liked these butterflies.

We had a fabulous time.  
There was lots of laughter, chatting, eating, 
exploring and shopping and we even managed 
to get some stitching done too! 
I'm actually surprised with how much we actually 
got done as we kept wondering off.

17 August, 2025

A Special Gift

When we were in Glen Innes we visited the 
Knick-Knackery antique store. There were some ladies 
sitting out the front in the sun stitching, 
one of them being the owner. She was working 
on a doily quilt. We got chatting, as you do, 
and I mentioned that I love vintage linen and have
 been collecting doilies as I want to make a
 doily quilt myself one day. The owner got up and said
 she had something to show me. 
 
She went inside and came out with these 
three beautiful Irish linen tea towels.
They are quite large - 75cm x 54cm. 
(Sorry. I really should have given them a press!)
 
   The colour doesn't show up but 
they are a very pretty mint green. 
 
The owner (unfortunately I didn't get her name) 
was given these many years ago from a lady 
who had purchased them in 1945. At some point 
she had to go to hospital and unfortunately, got 
an infection and lost her sight. 
Hence she never got to do the embroidery.
I asked how much they were to buy. 
The lady told me that they were now mine. 
They weren't something she wanted to do but had 
hung on to them. She said one day the 
right person would come along 
who was meant to have them 
and that person was me!

It was so lovely of her to give them to me. 
She had never met me before but she knew 
I would love them. I plan to do the embroidery. 
Hopefully, the lady who originally purchased them 
will be looking down when I'm stitching 
and she will have a big smile.
I also wanted to share this gorgeous vase I bought
 at the antique store in Hartley Historic Village, NSW. 
"Miss Daffodil" is a Lefton ladies head vase 
from the 1950s and is about 5 inches tall. 
I just fell in love with her and 
had to bring her home.

16 August, 2025

Road Trip Rug #4

As you know I like to crochet in the car on 
our road trips as it's too bumpy to stitch.
Road trip rug #4 finished.
Onto road trip rug #5!
 When we were in Cairns, I bought some more wool
 as I knew I would finish the stripey rug along the way.
I did extra crocheting when we were 
relaxing as I had finished the
stitcheries I had taken to work on.