The ship and Maui

We are in Maui in Hawaii today. It is so lovely and warm! We have had 4 days at sea. It has been lovely and smooth with hardly a wave. It has been so relaxing. I have read 2 books, watched a movie, stitched and eaten too much! The food is great. Great to be able to cheçk the emails and blog a bit. Will try to add some pictures tomorrow.

San Francisco

We have just competed day 2 of our time in San Francisco. We have had a lovely time! We had managed to sleep on the plane so we were able to do a bit sightseeing on Tuesday afternoon before an early night. We didn't do the sightseeing bus but it sets the scene for too many pictures of a great place to visit.

 We couldn't resist having another go on the cable car down to Fishermen's wharf.

 This is the view of one of the hills as I hung onto the side of the cable car.

 Fishermen's wharf is touristy but always a nice place to visit.

 Today we headed off to the bike tour we had booked. It was really good even though I had to ride a bike! We only had 4 people in the group which was good. We went to a wonderful market with delicious fresh produce. Tried some muscat grapes which were tiny but delicious.

 Here is our group in the Mission area which is where the settlement of San Francisco first started.

There was some amazing street art.

 Here is proof that I was there riding the bike. It was a very good bike as it was small and I could reach the ground very easily!

 That is me going down that hill! I had to walk up a few of the steeper ones.

 We saw lots of sights which we hadn't seen before. There was a group of art students here drawing this lovely old building based on the Brighton Pavilion.

 It was fun to see these lovely Victorian buildings, the painted ladies. You might recognise them from the show that my girls used to love called Full House.

 After the tour we walked back to our hotel and walked through the markets again.

 We also saw some of the buildings we had zoomed by on the bikes so it was nice to take some pictures.

 After all that exercise, we needed some lunch and we found this restaurant with a lovely courtyard out the back. The food was great too.

 We then headed back to Union square. This was a cute shop window on the way.

We then spent the afternoon shopping. The kids' clothes here are wonderful and very cheap so we stocked up on some bigger things for the little boys at Macys. What fun! We did look for us too and enjoyed the Skechers shoe shop. I also enjoyed looking at the fabric shop called Britex and stocked up on a few bits and pieces. We have a bit more time in the morning and then we get on the ship!

Leaving on a jet plane....

We are heading off on a jet plane tomorrow and then sailing on this ship all the way home, well almost. Getting exciting now! The bags are almost packed and there is just a bit of tidying and organising to go before we can head off. It will be very relaxing time! I have lots of stitching packed ready for the sea days.

We will miss these little fellows though and our kids as well. The boys will be quite a bit different when we get back!

I hope to get a chance to blog while away so I can share our adventures with all of you.

Gorgeous quilts and a little finish and little boys

Paddy and I headed to Tuggeranong on Thursday to visit Robyn with some quilts that need quilting. I took my Some Kind of Wonderful, my daughter's pieced quilt and Paddy took her beautiful stitching quilt by Lynette Anderson. It is always nice to catch up with Robyn and she had so many finished quilts to show us. Just check out these lovely quilts.

 This is a Blackbird designs quilt and it is really beautiful and I would love to make it one day!

 Robyn made this amazing quilt for her son. What a lucky boy.

 I finished off this little zippered case from Anni Downs' book, The Simple Life, this afternoon. It is very cute and will be really useful.

 Couldn't resist showing you a few more pictures of the grandies. Here they are sleeping together! I gather it didn't last long as Sammy doesn't look too happy.

Here they are all dressed up in big boy clothes to go out the other day! 

They just popped in with Daddy for a little visit! We have to make the most of these few days as we are off this week on our holiday. They will have changed so much in the time we will be away! We will miss them. I have started to pack now, the list is printed out and the stitching is prepared. Getting excited now!

Lovely quilts and some stitching

It was so exciting on Tuesday to see Roni's quilted Red Home quilt. It looks so good! Can't wait to make one....maybe next year.

 Jude came in a few weeks to choose some thread for this amazing "Tree of Life" quilt. She has painted the black fabric and then machine quilted all over it. It was so special to see it finished. Jude did a class at the shop with Helen Godden to learn the techniques.

 I have been stitching a little too in between some secret preparation for Stitching on the Lake. This was the Rosalie Quinlan project at Urban stitching in Melbourne and it is nice to see it stitched.

 I have been wanting to do some of the gorgeous projects in the Simple Life book by Anni Downs so started the pencil case the other day.

 I also won a giveaway on Dzintra's blog! Lucky me.

 It was this very yummy looking cooking magazine. The chocolate pudding on the front looks amazing!

 Dzintra also sent a delicious chocolate with the magazine. Thanks so much, Dzintra.

Fiona and I have had an amazing response to the Stitching on the Lake days in November. The first day, on 17 November is full. The second day, on 24 November still has places if you are planning to come and haven't booked yet.