Waving the Flag

 This little corgi is waving the flag for Great Britain.  I had stitched three of these, and made two into place mats for my corgi owning grand-daughter as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago.  Why I stitched the third one, I've got no idea.  But I found it hiding in a basket full of stuff recently and thought it was time  I did something with it.

So I decided to make myself a new apron and use the corgi stitchery as a pocket.  I've got lots of aprons, but some are getting rather tatty and should be replaced, so a new one is a good idea.  Full disclosure, I'm a messy cook, and always use an apron when I'm cooking.

Included in a recent parcel of donated fabric was a length of red and navy checked fabric.  I would have preferred to make the apron a little wider, but was working with what I had.  A simple sew, with the pocket stitched on the right hand side, and purchased red tape for the straps.

My new apron

Another recently finished project was a winter cowl neck top, made from cream stretch fabric with a little wool in the mix.  Many years ago I used to do "Knit Wit" stretch sewing, it was very big here in New Zealand and Australia in the 80s and early 90s.  I'm not sure if  this franchise made it's way to overseas countries as well.  There must be former Knit Wit ladies out there, I'm sure.  Luckily I had some stretch machine needles to use, and remembered to pull the fabric slightly while sewing.

New winter top

When my grand-daughter pulled down some crates from the loft for me a wee while ago, there were two full of stretch fabric that I had almost forgotten about.  Some I will use, there are a couple of pretty lengths to make new summer nighties, some I have already sent to the Op Shop, and goodness knows what I will do with the rest.  Years ago I got rid of most of my patterns, just have a couple left.

The Polar blast has moved away, the temperatures are slightly warmer, but it is still winter here, of course.  Rain is forecast now.  Winter weather is not so bad for retired people who don't have to brave the winter weather too much, and at much more civilised hours than workers.  But I can remember my working years, out of the house by 6.30am, travel by bus and train from Upper Hutt to Wellington, work all day then repeat the trip home.  Always traveling in the dark during the winter months, and coming home to a cold house, light the fire, cook a meal, and repeat.    Life is certainly so much simpler now.

Mellow Yellow, and the Fire Brigade

The last remaining dinosaurs have been chilling out with me in the sewing room.   There was just a limited amount of fabric left, enough for a toddler quilt I decided.   And I liked the idea of using yellow as accents, the RSC colour for August.

Here are those funky dinosaurs again

I couldn't match up the dinosaurs, so cut the fabric into four, and added sashing in the middle.  Then yellow and grey borders with nine patch corners.  That's the  top done, it doesn't look too bad, does it.

Dinosaurs roam again

And I always like to get the binding made at this stage so had a look through the stash for something suitable, choosing a white, black and grey print.  Luckily, there was sufficient to make the binding.

Binding prepared

Hopefully I will get this layered and pinned up this week.  There is a nice piece of grey fleece which should be big enough for the backing, otherwise I'll have to come up with Plan B, whatever that might be.

The local firemen came calling on Thursday, at the request of the Body Corporate of our village.  They were here to test the fire alarms in our homes.  One engine came in the morning, and had to rush away to answer a call.  Later on, another engine and crew arrived to complete the job.  Knock, knock, on my door, they poked a pole up into the ceiling alarms to set if off and make sure it  was working, then off to the next house to repeat the operation.   Such a nice bunch of fit young men, and a couple of them  were happy to pose for a photo.  They enjoy getting out in the community, they said, talking to the people.

Helpful and  friendly young men

My Robin used to work for the Fire Service back in the day.  Not as a fireman, but he worked in the corporate office as a Contracts Manager.   One of his major jobs was purchasing new uniforms for the whole country when they changed from the previous ones, this involved a lot of fire testing of the various fabrics used in the articles of clothing.  I remember him commenting that the front line staff  were provided with head to toe clothing, including socks and shoes.

 

More Happy Mail

 I received a message last week telling me that my parcel was on the way.  What parcel, I thought, I'm not falling for that, next they will be sending me a message asking for payment for delivery.  So, thinking it was a scam, I ignored it.  Imagine my surprise when a parcel was delivered to my door.  Obviously it wasn't a scam at all, as I recognised the name of the sender.

The parcel was sent by Jo from Australia who blogs as ButterZ, she had seen the tiny stockings on my blog I had recently stitched.  Then remembered these ones in a box, they had been hanging around for 10 years or so, and she wanted to pass them on, to be completed and put to good use.

Sent all the way from Oz

The parcel contained  such a wonderful assortment, with fused decorations and a band to finish each stocking, with a few being started.  Wow, what a bounty.

This one is almost completed

Stockings of many colours

Thank you so much Jo, I will enjoy doing some slow stitching on these.  I may even learn how to do blanket stitch properly.  Such a lovely variety of colours and decorations, and I'll pass them to a suitable cause when done, although it will no doubt take me a while.  But that is what slow stitching is all about, isn't it.

We have had some lovely days lately, along with plenty of warnings about a polar blast traveling up from Antartica, and forecasting the coldest overnight temperatures the country has had in several years.  Roads over the mountain passes have been closed in the South Island, schools closed for snow days down there as well.  And snow fall in areas not really used to snow at all.  Keep off the icy roads unless your trip is really necessary, we have been warned.  Gemma has been tucking herself up nice and cozy in her cat tower, the heat pump has been going all day long, and I've been making soup.  Broccoli and blue cheese is my latest culinary adventure,  so delicious.

Gemma is nice and cozy in her cat tower

So I hope everyone is keeping themselves safe and warm in my part of the world, and it seems that the heat wave is still around in the Northern Hemisphere too, that must be so draining to cope with, together with the threat of wild fires in some areas.  Lets just keep stitching on!

Tiny Christmas Stockings, and Darning

 I've completed stitching three pair of tiny felt Christmas Stockings, which were handed out at last month's quilt club meeting.  Each set of stockings came with an extra strip of felt.  These will be hung on the display of Christmas Trees in December, our club's entry in the Avenue of Trees.

Red, white and green

After putting my thinking cap on, I had worked out how I wanted to decorate them.  They are tiny, so keep it simple, I decided.  Sadly, I failed miserably with blanket stitch, so just did running stitch instead.  I'm sure it's not that hard, but I just couldn't get my head around it.  Maybe I'll ask the Sew Wots to show me sometime.  With a bit of simple stitching, a couple of buttons, and ribbon hanging loops stitched on, they were done.

White, green and red, and I found one tiny Father Christmas looking for a new home

I can't remember when I last did some darning, but I had a hand knitted sock emergency.  Most of my cozy thick socks are knitted with 8 ply wool, ply 4 ply sock yarn, and these are hole free, so far.  But I did knit a couple of pairs using 12 ply wool in the early days,  and one of these pairs developed a hole under the heel.  There was only one thing to do, try to darn the hole up

That's no good, is it.

I had a very small ball of grey acrylic which toned in quite well, and  used that.  No darning mushroom though - I can remember these from my childhood when my Mother expertly darned socks.  I improvised and slipped a glass into the sock, and started working.  I don't think I'll win any prizes for my darning prowess, but it did the job, so I'm pleased with that.

Finished is better than perfect!

I've just finished another library book, Fallen, by Karin Slaughter.  I've read a lot of her books, but missed this older one somehow.  It features one of my favourite detectives, Will Trent, together with Dr Sara Linton, Will's partner Faith and boss Amanda Wagner.  This was such a gripping story, and I hadn't worked out the who and why as the tale progressed, as it hurtled to the climatic ending.

Just finished, I could hardly put it down

I have seen the Will Trent series on TV and was quite disappointed with the casting.  According to the books, Will is white, tall and lean, with a runner's body shape, and the TV show featured a darker, maybe Mexican character.  Rather like casting Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, readers all know Jack is a big, powerful, strong  man, so I refused to go and watch the two movies featuring  the much smaller Tom Cruise.  Guess I like things to stay the same.

A Finish - String Blocks of many colours

 This project resurfaced after my great wardrobe malfunction last year, and I was determined to work on it once I had completed my secret quilt sewing.  It started out like this, a bunch of multi-coloured string blocks, which I had started sewing burgundy batik sashing strips on.

String blocks

The top was completed in June, then it was  layered and pinned up ready for machine quilting.

Pinning up the quilt outside on a sunny winter day

The quilting took me ages, with stops and starts along the way.  Some days I was busy doing other things, and some days I just  couldn't face it.  The quilting was finally completed last week.  Then I settled down to stitch the binding on, always my favourite part of quilt making.  

Binding time

And here it is, finished at last.  It always makes me smile when a non quilter asks, "how long does it take to make a quilt?"  The answer of course is, "as long as it takes!"  Some of my finishes are very long winded indeed, in fact years old, while others are relatively fast from start to finish.  All sorts of reasons about the time taken come into play,  and for my projects, they are often put aside and forgotten about for no particular reason, and other things can take priority.  No apologies or excuses, that's just the way I am.  I had one string block over, so made a little draw string bag to go with the quilt.

A little draw string bag to go with the quilt

This project was practically free to make.  The string blocks were stitched from left over strips from years ago, and the sashings were left over strips from a quilt I made one of my grand daughters way back.  The blue border fabric was left over from the memory quilts I recently finished for my niece and her daughter.  The batting was "frankenbatting", leftover pieces stitched together, and the backing was a large floral piece I received from my neighbour Dorothy.  So all in all, a great lesson in using up what you have.

This will be donated to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.  The co-ordinater Fleur will be the speaker at the next quilt club meeting, so I will pass it over then, together with the dinosaur quilt.  It will be so nice to see her again, and to hear about the special work she does with families.

There was another project bag tucked away with the string blocks - chickens.  I would like to get on with that one next.  As I used to tell Robin, I'll never run out of things to do!

What's this in the Mail?

 It's always exciting to get unexpected mail, isn't it.  First to arrive was a postcard from France, showing a beautiful mademoiselle smelling the roses.    This was sent to me by my daughter's best friend who is having a marvelous long holiday traveling around several countries with her husband, they are currently enjoying a River Cruise.  It is so nice of Heather to think of me.  In fact last year when they were in USA, she sent me a postcard of Elvis from Gracelands!  I know I'll never get to Gracelands, so that was really special indeed.

Postcard from France

The other exciting mail was a bag stuffed full of quilting fabrics from blog reader Karen from Christchurch, for donation quilts.  There are smaller pieces to make drawstring bags, and yardage to turn into quilts for kids.  It was so exciting opening the courier bag, and checking out each piece.  Thanks so much Karen, I really appreciate you kindness.

So many goodies here

I haven't told you what I've been reading lately, as you know, I am an avid reader.  First was a book by Karen Rose - I've always enjoyed her writing.  Cold Blooded Liar debuts a new woman detective, a couple of phycologists and a sneaky serial killer.  I'll certainly be looking for the next one in this series.  The Final Diagnosis is written by Palmerston North Pathologist by Cynric Temple-Camp and relates some of his interesting cases using  the science of pathology.  This author has written two more books so I'll be ordering these from the library too. 

Interesting reads

Being mid winter, the temperatures have been c hilly, so I've been enjoying making even more soup.  My latest has been a crockpot full of ham hock, veggies, split peas and lentils, so yummy and filling for winter lunches, plus some tucked away in the freezer.

I do love soup for lunch

Bus Drama and Embroidery Exhibition

 It was another  big day out yesterday, when I boarded the "free for seniors bus" and traveled to Palmerston North. The weather was a nice sunny winter's day, and I hopped aboard with about a dozen others.  I noticed that most of the other passengers were all wearing winter jackets, I had decided not to as I would be spending most of my time indoors.  But I did wonder if I had made the right decision - Palmerston North is well known for it's wind, but I didn't really want to be lugging a coat about with me all day, if the weather stayed as mild as I hoped it would be.  

On our way

The bus ride took us through plenty of farmland, and after a while we could hear an alarm buzzing intermittently, mmm, I wondered what that's all about?  Then the alarm was going non stop, and the bus driver started looking for somewhere safe to pull over.  He really didn't want to drive the bus anymore, so put a call through to the supervisor.  A replacement bus for the passengers another driver and a mechanic were on their way, and we all sat tight for half an hour while we waited.  Then at last a new bus and a car pulled up behind us, we could finally get on our way again.

On our way -  again

The remainder of the trip was drama free and we all went our separate ways at the bus depot.  My first port of call was to a nearby cafe, to have a coffee and relax.  I don't remember being on a bus breakdown before.  Robin certainly had, he spent several years as a bus driver after being made redundant from his corporate job, driving in Wellington, Wairarapa and the Hutt Valley, and often came home with interesting tales to tell.  Like the time he ran over a metal tool left behind by the roading crew which pierced the fuel tank, and the diesel flowed all over the road!

I was making this trip to Palmy especially to see an embroidery exhibition I had read about.  "Threads of Connection", a national exhibition by the Association of NZ Embroiderers Guilds was showing at Square Edge Arts Centre during the month of July.

This is the place

It certainly was very interesting, comprising of three sections.  Stitched Art, both modern and traditional, created by members, Challenge entries, and works by young embroiders 18 years and younger.  I certainly don't consider myself a "proper embroider" as I only do very simple stitcheries, so it was nice to see these beautiful works of art up close.  Let me show you what took my fancy.

First glimpse of the entries

I enjoyed looking at the entries in Te Wero Tuia - The Stitch Challenge.  Embroiders had the choice of depicting the given rose design exactly, in whatever technique or colours they chose.  Or - be creative, using the design as a starting point, and creating their own work.

This rose in red

And this one in gold

I liked this creative one, with stitched borders

There was such a variety in the Stitched Art section.  This one was lovely, showing the flora and fauna in the life of an "English Kiwi", with the beauty of butterflies, birds,  plants, and flags  from both countries.  

Two halves of a whole

And what is more Kiwi than a Kowhai tree in bloom

"I stitch, therefore I am",  we can all relate to that

How about a pair of embroidered boots?

There was a local club member, Robyn,  on duty so I stopped and chatted for a wee while.  I told her I do quilting, and  that the only embroidery I do is with the thicker number 5 Perle thread.  Look at this, she said, showing me what she was working on.  Robyn had found a length of damask type fabric in the  Op Shop, and she was embroidering over the design.  How clever, I would never have thought of that.

Robyn and her embroidery project

I really enjoyed the exhibition, admiring all that gorgeous tiny stitching.  And entry was free, so that was certainly a bonus.  From there I went and had some lunch, then pottered around the shops till it was time to board the bus.  And you wouldn't believe it, there was drama on  the homeward journey too.  A very large young man got the bus, and part way through the journey, the driver braked heavily, and the young man fell on the floor!  Not only that, but his seat was  twisted from the fittings and completely broken! He wasn't hurt, but I wondered if he had not been sitting straight, grabbed the seat, and wrenched it off when he started slipping off?