A busy Weekend

Saturday was quite a busy day.  The caravan club was spending the weekend at the Manawatu Caravan Club grounds, and I drove up to join them for morning tea, about a half hour drive away.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and as a bonus, one of the member's was celebrating a birthday so cake was provided.  The weather was fine and clear, cold overnight and frosty in the morning.

Joining the caravan club for morning tea

I left the camp ground after morning tea, and drove up to Sanson, another half hour drive away, to meet my daughter Nicky for lunch.  This time, we were trying a "new to us" cafe.  The Church Cafe, as the name suggests, was a former church, and has a lovely calm ambience.

The Church Cafe

With paneled walls, and wooden tables and chairs, it was a warm, cozy and peaceful place to enjoy our lunch.    I had some tasty leek and potatoe soup, and Nicky enjoyed a bowl of wedges.  And with coffee to follow, of course.

Inside The Church Cafe

We had plenty to chat about, what we had been up to, and our sewing projects.  Although Nicky doesn't do quilting, she is a keen dressmaker and creates one of a kind outfits for herself.  And we had things in the boot to swap over when we departed, Nicky had some fruit for me, and I gave her some fabric she had shown an interest in, plus a big bag of coathangers.

On my drive back home I stopped off at Fox's Cottage, my favourite local quilt shop.  I needed another lot of batting, it's interesting how much of this gets used when you are making donation quilts.  And I spoke to Jackie in the shop, who will be free hand quilting my secret birthday quilt for me.

Fox's Cottage

Last stop on the way home was to top up the fuel on my trusty Corolla, I don't like to let the fuel tank get too low.  It was a good day out.

On Sunday I took myself off to the local movies, I was keen to see Jurassic World.  There were only about 8 patrons in the theatre at lunch time, not that it mattered, as we were all engrossed in the unfolding story.  The storyline is "An exhibition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a ground breaking medical breakthrough".  A family group gets rescued by the exhibition when their boat is overturned by one of the prehistoric sea creatures, and they end up on the island too.  Surround sound in the theatre made the roars seemingly coming at me from all sides, as the dinosaurs wrecked havoc on the visitors to the island, tracking them, tossing them in the air, and chewing them up!  It was a lose yourself in the moment sort of movie, and yes, I did enjoy it.  

Chookshed Challenge for July

 It's been a bit of a rush, but I'm pleased to say that I've finished my Chookshed Challenge this month.  Number 10 was chosen for July, which was my jungle panel quilt.  This panel was donated to me from my elderly neighbour's stash when she went into a rest home.  I received a lot of children's fabrics, and I'm slowly working my way through them, although there are plenty more tucked away.  There was no piecing involved with using this panel, so it was just a matter of smoothing the layers out and pinning them together.  I took advantage of a glorious sunny but cool winter's day and pinned it up on the patio table outside.  It's hard to believe that the weather would be nice enough for me to enjoy sitting outside at this time of the year.

Pinning the layers together

How to machine quilt this panel I wondered?  I had though of outlining all the animals, trees and flowers but......  In the end I stitched gentle curves across the quilt, then straight lines around the borders.

Easy quilting lines

A scrappy green binding was next, using some left over strips from my secret sewing project, stitching the binding on the front by machine, and hand stitching it down on the back.  I do so enjoy this final part.  I spent another sunny afternoon stitching away on this outside on the patio.

Binding time

This little baby quilt didn't take me too long at all to complete.  And it was practically free.  The panel was donated, and I got a part roll of the apricot backing fabric at no cost when a local company was closing down.  This is the last piece, I had used some previously, and given most of it to my daughter.  There was "frankenbatting" in the middle, when I had several strips that I stitched together.  Quite a  bargain really.

Baby animals jungle quilt

The weather has reverted back to winter, and it's cold, wet and miserable today.  The heat pump is keeping us warm, and Gemma is relaxing on top of the donation quilts, folded on the coffee table.

These look soft and cuddly, Gemma is thinking

The donation quilts were ready and waiting to be shown to the Sew Wot ladies yesterday, but unfortunately I got sick and couldn't host the get together.  Many thanks to Mary for taking over at short notice.  Goodness knows what laid me low, but I feel much better today, thank goodness.

Out and About

 I've been out and about lately, going here, and going there.  I was at a craft group last week, and we meet in a beautiful old property called Thompson House, home of a former doctor who lived and worked here.   I believe it has been gifted to the community and groups can hire the rooms for meetings.

Thompson House

 One of the ladies there that afternoon teaches bobbin lace.  She had all sorts of exquisite samples on display.  It's such beautiful fine work, but not something I would have the patience for.

Lace samples and bobbins

Melanie had been working on signs of the zodiac and had one for Libra, the Scales of Justice.  That's my sign, I told her, so she very generously gifted it to me.  Here it is at home, pinned up on one of the spools on my thread spool wall hanging in my sewing room.  

Libra, the Scales of Justice

I'm a member of Age Concern, and go there weekly for my easy balance and exercise class.  They also hold meetings about various subjects of interest to older people, and last week held a movie afternoon, free for the members.  That was fun, there were decorations and balloons galore in the room, and we were treated to bags of popcorn or chippies, tea, coffee and juice was available, and we were presented with  small bags of liquorioce allsorts and jaffas.  The film was called "Thelma" and told the story of an elderly lady who was scammed into sending money, supposably to help her grandson, and the police couldn't help her.  So Thelma took matters into her own hands, and with the help of an elderly friend and his mobility scooter, tracked the scammers down, got into their computer, and with telephone help from her grandson, managed to transfer her money back into her account!

Don't mess with Thelma

And to help with me getting out and about, I'm pleased to say that I passed my 80th driving assessment, I was able to apply a couple of months early.  Here in New Zealand drivers have to get a medical clearance to keep driving at 75, 80, and every two years after that.  I went to have an eye test at the opticians, then had an appointment with the doctor, who asked me questions as he filled in several pre printed pages.  "I know you don't have diabetes, and your heart is good", he said as he worked his way through the form.  That was good to know.  Tick, tick, tick, he went through the questions, then, "all done", he told me.  At my 75th assessment, our previous doctor had asked me all sorts of questions, including counting back from 100 by 7, and other general  knowledge questions, so I was a bit worried about what my current doctor would ask me.  "I know you", he said, "and I know there is nothing wrong with your memory".  Whew.... all that worry about nothing!

I've had to do some car stuff this month, things that Robin used to take care of.  Such as apply for the annual car registration, get a Warrant of Fitness, and the car insurance is due as well.  And last time I filled the car up, I wanted to use up some of the petrol vouchers I have, so called into one of the local service stations.  When I went in to settle up, the attendant was rather worried.  "Did you know you've just filled your car with diesel?" he asked.  I assured him that everything is fine, my little car runs on diesel, which is quite unusual here for small cars.  Although Robin used to top my car up for me, he impressed on me not to put petrol in the tank, which would ruin the engine!  Just as well I took that lesson to heart.

Purple and Teal

 It was time to stitch up my purple block for Rainbow Scrap Challenge for my boy's donation quilt - that was easily done.  I laid them out on the bed and had a count and discovered I only needed one more block.  So I made an executive decision and made the final block, this time in teal.  Surely the colour teal will be selected in the next month or two, I reasoned.

Purple and teal blocks

With these two last blocks done, I decided I may as well  assemble the quilt top.  I don't have room for  a design board and often use my bed to lay blocks out and rearrange them.  A couple of afternoons at the sewing machine soon had the black sashing in place.  Then the black borders were added, and voila, the top was finished.

The top is finished

Part way through making these blocks I had run out of the original black and white fabric, so had to go to my LQS and buy some more.  I couldn't get exactly what I was using previously, but thought the black and white polka dots blended in quite well.  Hopefully I will get this layered and pinned up shortly.

Gemma has been curled up some days in her little hidey hole in her cat tower.  A good place to snooze on these winter days, especially when the rain is pouring down.  She is not too keen on going outside then, she hates getting her little paws wet and doesn't like the wind in her face!  She's such a diva.

She's all nice and cozy in here

The Keeper of the Quilt

 My niece Lisa called in for a visit the other day when she was passing by on a holiday trip.  I had asked her if she would like to become the "keeper of the quilt".  This is a family quilt, one I made for my mother for her 80th birthday back in 2002.  I had sent pieces of fabric out to everyone and asked them to write, embellish, or embroider something of themselves as a message to go on the 80th birthday quilt.   It was exciting to see all the individual blocks being returned. Lisa was delighted to take the quilt into her safe keeping.

Lisa and the family quilt

There were blocks from us four siblings, two son in laws, and all the grandchildren, and a very special nephew.  The youngest grandchild had his baby hand traced.  I added extra blocks in the names of my mother's sisters.  There were several photos printed on fabric, a special one of my grandmother who sadly died when my mother was about 8 years old or so.  The largest photo is of my mother and hung in the family home when I was growing up.  And underneath are three smaller photos of her over the years.

The 80th Birthday Quilt

I really enjoyed putting this together and making extra blocks to fill in spaces as required.  We had a family get together for this special birthday, and the quilt was presented.  All those very special family blocks were inspected, oohed and ahhed over, and admired.  

Sadly, as often happens, this quilt was deemed "too good to use" and was folded up and put away.  Many thanks to Lisa for taking care of the quilt now, and she told me she plans to use it and snuggle under it.  That's a nice thought, knowing that Lisa will be surrounded by all those family members, some have passed away and all the little ones are now well grown up.

And now, 23 years later, I will be turning 80 this year.  Goodness me, how did that happen?

A Knitting Finish

 Just to show that I do knit other things than socks, I have finally finished the little cream toddler toddler jumper.   This was started many years ago  by my friend Eileen for her grand daughter.  The girl is growing up fast so I suggested to Eileen that she pass the knitting over to me - I can finish it and donate it to somewhere worthwhile.  There was only about six inches done on the back, and because our tensions could well be different, I unraveled it to start over again.

This is what I received from Eileen

I've been working slowly away on this project over the last 6 months or so, knitting a little here and a little there, in between other things.  The design has a pattern on the front and back shoulders and I wasn't too sure how complicated that would be.  It wasn't too bad at all, I just needed to concentrate and read the pattern carefully.  The sleeves were easy to knit, then the neckband and the button facings and I was all done.  This is a nice design, and I would like to knit it again, sometime in the future.

Finished at last

Gemma likes it too

There was a small amount of wool left so I cast on a hat and started knitting away.  No, that's not going to work, there's not enough left to knit a hat.  So I cast on a pair of booties instead, believe it or not, I can't remember ever knitting booties before, so this must be my first pair.  This is a nice pattern, knitted flat with a seam up the back, and a little folded over cuff.  So cute.

My first booties

These items will be donated.  I plan to knit a couple more pair of booties and pass them on to The Nest Collective, a charity which supports new mothers and their babies.  And the jumper will find a good home too.

Finished - A Touch of Orange

 It's great to have a finish, isn't it and just today I've just finished my donation quilt featuring string pieced neutral blocks with the feature fabric being strange creatures, half insects and half machines.  I'm sure this will appeal to a young boy.  A couple of weeks ago I had completed the top.

Top completed

Then it was layered and pinned and I started machine quilting.  This always takes me longer than I think it should.   I don't like to sit at the sewing machine for hours at a time as it hurts my back, so I spread my machine time out making sure I get up and move around every half hour or so.

Machine quilting

The binding was stitched on, folded over and clipped in place.  Stitching it down was a job to do when I went to my quilt club's sewing day today.  

Binding time

It was a lovely day out, I was busy with my binding, someone was making crazy patchwork, while others were busy working on donation quilts using gifted fabric.  There was plenty of friendly chatter going on, and with stops for morning tea and lunch, the time just flew by.  I had taken some home made pumpkin soup for lunch, and snap...... one of the other ladies had pumpkin soup as well.  

I keep my binding clips in a lovely little box, a gift from my daughter Nicky.  Several of the ladies came over to see what I was working on  and were most intruiged with my box.  I'm pleased that I put the last stitches in the  binding  just before I left to return home.  It's always so satisfying to get this job done.

My lovely little box from my daughter

So here it is, back at home, all rolled up and showing the cozy fleece backing.  So nice and cuddly and  will keep some child nice and warm.

All done, and ready for donation