Slow progress on the stitching front...

..this piece has progressed a little..still some work to do on it though..

..I haven't been stitching too much lately..we spent a couple of days in the garden digging out some shrubs that were past their best (gee some of those roots were hard to get out) and then did some replanting.. must have been too much for my stitching arm..I was getting a pain in my elbow as I was stitching afterwards..so have given it a rest...now I feel the need to get on with some projects that are waiting for me..

A Friday spent with Friends

One of the good things about being on holiday is that I'm able to spend Friday with a very special group of ladies who make up the stitching group I attend.  Usually I just get to call in after school each week.  Last Friday was special though, as we made a whole day of it.
We went out to a special little place called the Crafty Byre.  What a little treasure of a place it is, they run some classes, have a lovely selection of fabrics to tempt you,  and from this week the Christmas Shop will be set up..with even more lovely things to buy.
We all took a plate and had sorted things so we had morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea covered as well as some nibbles to keep up our energy!
We had a mystery bag waiting for us...

It was a great day with lots of talking, lots of eating...this is the first time I have worked with felt and this is what I achieved ...

 I had a fabulous time.  It wasn't too hard to see who had been distracted by talking and who was able to multi task and keep stitching at the end of the day ( not me!).

FNSI catch up..

Here it is Sunday night and I haven't been back to update my progress from Friday night.  I got out my piece of  bobbin and worked a little more on it..with one eye on the rugby and then the rugby league on TV and trying to keep track of what I was doing..so no guarantees that there aren't any mistakes in this piece.
Besides FNSI my motivation for working on it was that it was our little lace group's get together on Saturday.  We now meet on 2 Saturdays each month (and since some times in the past I haven't been organised with a project  and have thus taken along some stitching to do, I thought I had better have some lace to take this time!!)

I crocheted a few bands to hold the bobbins in place when I am not working on it.. and that is why there is the brownish band around them...here is a piece of another one I made..quick and easy really.

I'll have to make some time to visit and see what everyone else got up to on Friday night..so that might be a task for tomorrow..

It's on again this week...

so pop on over to Wendy's blog to sign up if you want to join in..

Winter Mini Quilt Swap...

I was in Cheryll's Winter Mini Swap.  I received the most gorgeous little quilt from Carin in Sweden.   It has the cutest little cross stitch centre with tiny birds on the branches..just beautiful...

also in the parcel was a bar of Carin's favourite chocolate..yummy..which is not available here in NZ as far as I know (such a shame!)...and a lovely bookmark..

The mini I made was sent to Carin, so unknown to us (because it was a secret swap) we were swap buddies.   Since winter is yet to arrive in the Northern hemisphere Carin will be able to hang it before the year is out. 

I added some beads to the snowflakes and snowman. which are easier to see below.

What I've been working on...

this month for FNWF.  After a couple of weeks with not much stitching being done (too busy with school 'stuff' ), Friday night was the perfect time to knuckle down and finish the stitching on this piece.

Then yesterday was a gathering of our little bobbin lace group (6 of us were there) and that saw me beginning this new piece.  I had ordered some new bobbins and thread from England and lucky for me they arrived on Friday..just in time for me to use them..now to see how much I get done before the next meeting in a fortnight.

Now I'm off to watch a bit of the NRL, which has just started,  and a bit of 'popping around' to see what everyone else got up to for FNWF...

It's the first Friday of the month..

and that means that it's time for Friday Night With Friends again.  I've been over to sign up and am now looking forward to stitching away with you all tonight.

It has been a busy couple of weeks so I'm looking forward  to sitting back and relaxing tonight.