Chook Shed Stitcher's Challenge April and Finn

 

April has come to an end and so too the challenge for this month.

My challenge was to work on the Sashiko panel, I had to stop stitching a few days ago as I ran out of thread, but more turned up in the mail today so stitching can continue.

the whole panel

and blogger has turned this  on its side for some reason

and this one! But these are the sections I have done.

Now we wait for next months number to see what gets worked on in May.

Last Sunday we went over to Queenscliff with Adam and Finn

Looking over to the ferry wharf

I took my camera with us, Finn was fascinated and wanted to have a go

Rabbit

The mirror he has in the back was a good thing to have a go with, with GaGa's help to hold up the camera!

Rabbit again

In the mirror again

Hand over the camera!!

Legs and feet and there were many, many more that were out of focus blur. Finn has a great time until the battery went flat - turning on and off will do that!! 😁

Finn had a great time at the park

Fun on the swing with Dad

waiting for GaGa to finish with "MY" camera!!

Oh dear she has the camera out again.

Down the twisty slide.

Time to head home after a play, walk to a cafe for a milkshake and biscuit, hot drinks for the big people, a visit to the bookshop, back to the park....I think we all need a rest now!

Later in the afternoon I got my act together and sandwiched a quilt

The sun was going down

all done and ready for quilting, which I did today.

the desert rose plant has grown well this summer and has had 3 lots of flowers. I missed the first one but got these, I am so happy it is still going well as it is a tropical plant and we do not live in the tropics! This plant must be 18 years old now.

OK enough from me for now

Happy stitching.

Mosaic class

The class has finished for this year, we resume on Feb.

Mine is not finished,  I can only do a small section and then have to wait for the glue to dry.

We had lunch over at the fish and chip shop at Queenscliff to celebrate David's birthday

There go my sunglasses into the mouth!!

Beth, Finn and Adam

cute hat and overalls on Finn

We did part of an Adventure Lab on the way home, it was about surf life saving clubs, so we had to go to the beach  it was a beautiful day

The young surf club members were out practising

These beaches were at Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale, so good being near the waves.

Last Saturday was returning Reverse Advent boxes day, the church that was giving out and collecting boxes gave out 700 boxes and got 661 back in, they said that represented $55000 in food!! 

I pinched a photo from their fb page.

Then it was the Guild Christmas meeting

I forgot my phone so was sent this photo from a Bellarine Quilter friend. Our table was very festive but we didn't win best decorated table. 

Monday we got the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento and went to the Sorrento pub for lunch, the food was good but very expensive, next year we will find somewhere else.

Docking at Sorrento

Was a good day, although tiring for the hubby.

I have been doing some sewing  I made a bag and sent it off and forgot to take a photo 🙄 i have made two backings for quilts and hope to get one sandwiched tomorrow. 

I am off to think about something for dinner

Happy stitching.

Progress and heading home

We left Merrijig not long after 9am and headed for home.

We had a stop on Hay to find a geocache here

I have huge difficulty with these but the hint helped greatly here.

The PO is a lovely building, there was flooding here, the river was very high and the surrounds covered on water from the rain we had the day before. There was also heavy rain and trees down in Merrijig, we were blissfully unaware! We did see one car on its roof over off the side of the road, no idea what happened there either. 😳 

We arrived on Sorrento in good time and met Carleens hubby at a cache there I hadn't been able to find and he has. After a few minutes I could see it thank goodness, it took longer to get the lid back in place !

Looking up the street from the cache site 

Carleen and her hubby headed for home,  I decided to try for another cache I hadn't had luck with years earlier

I found it no problems this time 😄 this is the view nearby 

The cache is just near the railway line, this us part of the railway from Drysdale to Queenscliff,  often steam trains run along here. The rail line Drysdale to Geelong is now a walking/cycling path with lots of caches.

I did do dome stitching when we were away, this is the progress I have made with Tea and Cake a Judy Newman pattern.

I have reached the ends but there is still filling to do on the sides and another row of hexie flowers. Was great to get a second floor view.

I went out to get something from the car and saw these visitors

Back home now, did some weeding today and finished reading this book

Was a good read.

There was a wonderful  bookshop in Mansfield, I'm an old building with a bay window and creaky wooden floors. They has a set of books I have mostly read, I bought the last 2 in the series and then went back a few days later and got the rest!

A little extravagant but I enjoyed these and hope to read them again.

Happy stitching. 

A long catch up....

The renovations are all done, just one bench top to be replaced

this used to be an open space above the fridge, now we have a cupboard, we asked for doors

we now have doors and three shelves. I am thinking the rolls of batting I have downstairs could fit up there 👍

Bathroom all done and plants installed, it is a lovely relaxing place now.

we have had some beautiful days, with amazing clouds about.

I went to a Wendy Williams workshop two weekends ago and stayed the Saturday night before with Tracee and Phil,

here is Justice getting some loving from his Mum, he is a beautiful dog.

This is the Wendy Williams project I am making, it is going to keep me busy for a while!

The workshop was at Daylesford at 320 Create, the retreat owned by Mary, who has the quilt shop in Gisborne. I didn't see any kangaroo around this time, but did hear many kookaburra's.

One of Wendy's beautiful quilts

some instructing happening

Wendy was giving tips on how to make the quilt behind her.

Last week we had Adam and Beth, Hank and Tira staying as their new doors were being painted and made the house really smelly - oil based paint can do that!

we walked the dogs most mornings

the love being down at the beach, but are not happy the grand parents will not let them off the lead - maybe if we were sure they would come back things would be different.

Another beautiful morning at the beach.

My usual walking view, bringing up the rear with Tira trying really hard to get in front.

the wattle is coming into flower.

Last Tuesday I went with some of the Bellarine Quilters to the Portarlington Golf Club. They had advertised they were giving grants to a local community based group that gave back to the community. We were very luck to win a $2000 grant to go towards our Quilts of Comfort, so it will be used to purchase wadding and maybe backing fabric. Some of the donated quilts were taken along to show what we make.

One cheque presented

Beautiful view from the function room out onto the golf course.

Miss Tira visited again on Saturday evening, she is now 1 year old.

This is what happens when you give Shane, #2 son a camera to take a group shot!! Love that happy face and that of his brother in the background.

Here we all are. Shane and his partner Rilla are off to Canada next month, so they came down to visit and to bring some things to be stored. Hopefully we get to see them again before they head off.

One the way home we had to stop for a photo of the moon over the Bay, luckily Shane and I love taking photos, so we leapt out to have a look while the others stayed in the car.

The dogs enjoyed wrestling with Shane

I have been doing a little sewing, mainly hand sewing, it takes a long time sewing the cropped diamonds to have anything much to show!

My sewing room is still not completely unpacked and reorganised, but hopefully soon.

I had better away and hope to do another post a little sooner and not have so many photos!

Happy stitching.