My Easter -

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and were able to spend the weekend doing things that make you happy.
I spent Easter with my son and his wife, who live in Queensland, Australia. It was great - I cant say we did lots of touristy things but I really loved spending time with them and enjoyed the outings that we did do.

Me and my boy ♥

As our dil is halfway through her first pregnancy there was plenty of baby talk and baby related purchases... I spent some time sewing up fitted cot sheets after we found some wide flannelette on sale and have some lovely bamboo towelling (also on sale) to play with; maybe bibs and burb cloths - and whatever else we think of :-)

I had a special time on the first day I was visiting - I got to meet and spend the day with Michelle Ridgeway.... I have followed her blog and loved her stitchery designs FOREVER so I was tickled pink to actually meet her!
She is such a lovely person - after swapping gifts —

A lovely bundle of Aussie goodness from Michelle, including some of her
designs :-)

we shopped a little —

and visited Ipswich's Queen's Park where we drank coffee and talked for ages and found their small nature reserve where quite a few happy Australian animals lived —

If you look closely you will see the croc in the stream... and the only barrier there
was a rope fence!
If you look even more closely you'll see it's just a floating head! hehe!

I've borrowed this photo from Michelle; the Wombats' burrow was up against
the glass so we got an awesome look at them.

There was also some mosaic work, Aboriginal style, gorgeous!

and sheltered from the pouring rain —

The lovely Michelle

...... and all too soon it was time for me to to be dropped off and both of us were off on our merry ways. Thank you again Michelle for a lovely day :-) I hope we can do it another time!

My son and dil are still unpacking after moving house but they did make sure the wall hanging I made them was unpacked and up for my visit! This is the very first project I made when I first discovered The Country Yard and started attending Stitch and Chat Thursdays. I made it for their first Christmas in Australia. I think the design was in The NZ Quilter. I smile when I see it, I'm sure it would look a little different if I made this up now but it is still fairly cool!

The label says something like
"a bit of New Zealand to remind you where you come from" :-)
Pretty certain this was made about 7 years ago.

I had some special mail waiting for me when I arrived back home .... I'd taken part in another postcard swap recently, hosted by the lovely Sheila of Sheila's Quilt World. This time I swapped with Annette of in stitches and seams and this is the card she sent me —

Isn't he sweet? He is beautifully embellished!

Annette enclosed the postcard in a clear envelope and also sent this special card
commemorating the 50th anniversary of their flag.

Here is the card I made and sent to her —

Thank you Annette for the lovely swap and also of course to Sheila for organising us all!

I haven't had a chance to do any sewing since I've been home - roll on the weekend! - but did sew up these booties last night... I knitted them while at my son's but we kept forgetting to buy a darning needle when we went out. I had to bring them back home to complete!

This is the same pattern I knitted up *here* and found on Ravelry *here*.

That's me about done for the night I think...sorry, I do seem to have rambled on a little :-)
Thank you for visiting and taking the time to read (or look at the photos!),
Happy creating and have a lovely weekend,