Slow Stitching and Knitting

Well, we certainly can't complain about the weather today.  It was warm and sunny enough to get the washing dry outside.  And pleasant enough for me to sit outside on the patio, under our Arch-gola.  It's hard to believe it's almost the end of May, and it makes me wonder just what Winter will have in store for us all.  Just have to wait and see, I guess.

So, this afternoon, I took my New Zealand panel outside for a couple of hours to do some more big stitch quilting.  Today, I was working on a heron, slowly stitching away with a cuppa and biscuit to help me along.  This is such a soothing a meditative pastime.  and I thought about this and that.  Gemma was curled up inside on a dining chair, with the sunshine coming in the window.  You know what cats are like, sleeping is their number one hobby!

Hello heron

I need some more colours of Perle no. 5, in particular a couple of shades of teal/turquiose and some blues.  Although my favourite quilt shop has a good range of colours available, I couldn't get everything I needed last time.  Guess another trip is in order to see if they have restocked again.

This is the state of the bag I keep my threads in.  I tend to rummage around, looking for something in particular, and I suppose that is why it is so messy.  Oh dear, I think it could do with a good tidy up.  I'm sure most of you wouldn't put up with this!  I cut and plait my threads, that was always a job Robin helped with.  He would happily hold them for me while I got busy plaiting.  

It's a bit of a mess

After been put into time-out for a while, I retrieved my cotton summer top which I'm knitting.  I'm up to the front neck and had to figure out what to do, as the actual pattern is a cardigan, not a jumper.  With the help of a notebook and a pen, I made a few notes and luckily my calculations worked out fine.  I'm pleased about that, as it had been worrying me for a while.  So that is the back and the front now finished.

The front is finished at last

So now I'm ready to cast on the short sleeves, I'll knit both of them at the same time.  

Sleeves are next

I've just finished reading another book.  This one was about the secretive Bletchley Park and the important work taking place there.  It tells the story of three young women from quite different backgrounds who were recruited because of their knowledge of the German language, decoding intercepted Luftwaffe messages.   This novel was quite a different read for me, and I really enjoyed it.

RSC - Just a Touch of Orange

 Orange is the colour of the month for RSC stitching, not my favourite colour by any means.  I'm not too keen on bright red either, wonder what that says about me?  I'm still working on my baby quilt and found a scrap of yellow with orangey coloured flowers - just enough for a corner block.  I was looking for something more apricot, but nothing was to be found.

That will do

I laid the blocks out on my design bed, to see what else I needed.  Yes, there were a couple of spaces that needed filling, so I stitched up some three purple blocks, and a teal for the other corner.  

On the design bed

The blocks were then webbed together and I contemplated what to use as a border.  And finally settled on a pale blue.  There, that's the top done and dusted.  Plus I made the binding, I always like to get this done early.   The next step is to get it layered and pinned.  Perhaps next week.

Finished the top

A local charity had put the call out for warm winter things recently.  I hadn't heard of this charity before, but thought I would like to donate a couple of things for local children. 

Donations needed

 You may remember the crate of knitted items I retrieved from the loft recently, full of things for future great-grandchildren?  I could pass two jumpers on, I decided.  Two boys jumpers, one about age 4-5, and the blue hooded one for a toddler.  Seems like there won't be any family babies for a while, I'm told.

Two jumpers for little boys

And I always seem to have a couple of donation quilts waiting to be passed on, so delivered these as well.   Both of these were RSC quilts finished last year.  And they both have a touch of orange too.

Off to keep some local children warm

And speaking of warm, we have been enjoying some lovely, sunny, Autumn days lately, beautiful and calm.  Not today though, it's cloudy,  cool, and getting colder.  The heat pump is on, luckily it doesn't take too long to warm things up.  Guess winter will show it's teeth here soon enough.

Just Me and the Sheep

 Yesterday was such a foggy morning, when I looked out the window at 7.00am.  I don't recall this happening here before at all.  You could hardly see a thing looking down the road in our village.

A very foggy morning

Once the sun came up it chased all that fog away.  It reminded me of Kathy wandering around the foggy moors, calling to Heathcliff!  It turned out to be a beautiful sunny Autumn day in the end.

Later that morning I took myself off to the movies, I was keen to see The Sheep Detectives.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I'd either enjoy it or hate it.  But there was only one way to find out.

I was the only one in the theatre, (there are three picture theatres in this complex) so I could sit anywhere.  So it was just me, the sheep, and Hugh Jackman.  It was a gentle story, albeit being a murder mystery, set in a picturesque English Village.  When the shepherd was found dead, the sheep, remembering all the murder mystery books he would read to the flock each evening, did their best to solve the crime, leaving clues for the rather bumbling  local constable.  I must admit, I didn't guess which one did the deed, which probably means that those sheep are smarter than me.  The film was light, and enjoyable, and who doesn't like Hugh Jackman, and Mr Google told me he is an Australian, I didn't know that.

Since I was in town, I went to the local quilt shop and found a few things I was after.  A refill cartridge for my Clover chalk pen, and a couple of hanks of Perle no.5 cotton.  Not every shop stocks the no.5 so it can be  difficult to find.  I had an appointment as well, it is good to combine what's on the shopping list these days, with the fuel prices being so high.

Sew Wot Tuesday

 It was Sew Wot Tuesday today, I had missed  the previous get together.   Mary was the hostess today, we hadn't seen her for a while with several appointments scheduled on  Sew Wot Tuesdays in a row, so it was lovely to catch up with her again.

Mary may well have been missing in action for a while, but she had plenty of show and tell for us.  The first one was a lovely colourwash scrappy quilt made by Mary's daughter for her own daughter's birthday.  Mary was keeping it under wraps till the big day.

Made by Mary's daughter - who loves working with little scraps

Mary had two pretty little bags to show us.  This one is a pretty stitching bag, you can't have too many of those for your various projects.

Embroidered sewing bag

And this beautiful blue satin one was made by her grand-daughter using scraps from the school ball gown Mary had stitched for her last year.  Such a lovely idea.

"M" for Mary

Mary loves embroidery and rescued this pretty tablecloth from an Op Shop a while ago.  She finished off the embroidery, and added a crochet border.

Embroidered tablecloth

But wait - there's more.  Mary had also knitted all these socks!

Carol had knitting to show as well, two sets of tops and hats, very cozy in double knit wool.  These will be donated, very timely this time of year, to keep some little ones warm.

Carol's knitting

And Helen had finished a pair of socks too, and was busy knitting yet another pair.  There's nothing nicer than hand knitted socks!

Helen's socks

"I'm wearing my Show and Tell", Heather announced.  She looked really fetching in a lovely warm vest made with her own hand spun wool, and knitted in a lacy pattern.  

Heather in her hand spun, hand knitted vest

As usual, there was a lot to chat about, and before we knew it, morning tea was served.  Delicious, and we all loved the toasted asparagus rolls with cheese on top, I thinks we will all be making this tasty idea at home  when visitors arrive.

The Eat-a-Lots morning tea

It was Mother's Day here recently, and Mary showed her bouquets, a gorgeous one with beautiful blooms, still lasting well.  Plus this one, quite different, a bouquet made from tiny balls of wool.  How clever is that!

That's a clever idea

Many thanks to Mary for hosting a wonderful morning, it was so nice to catch with everyone again.  

Slow Stitching a Sea Bird

 My quilting club had a "Stitching Day" and I tool along this big bag of slow stitching to do.  I made this bag in a class  many years ago when we lived in Upper Hutt, and I think it might be called a pumpkin bag.  I can't manage my heavy sewing machine these days, it's much too heavy for me to unplug, put in the case, carry it to and from the car, then the return trip home.  So I always take some hand stitching along instead.  Plus a packed lunch - that's most important too.

  Mmmm, what's in here

After quite a long time I decided to work on my Land and Sea Panel, which I am big stitching.  I really like this panel, and plan to hang it above the sofa in the sitting room, where I rotate seasonal quilts.  It really doesn't matter how long it takes me to stitch, I'm enjoying the process.

Land and Sea panel

There was plenty going on during the stitching day.  Two of the ladies were finishing up their table runner tops from a recent club class.  Another was hand stitching a Sue Spargo design bird using wool, so pretty.    Hexagons were tacked up ready to stitch, and as usual there was plenty to chat about.  

I finished stitching the sea bird, he might be a gull, I think, then stitched some of the surrounding background.  It certainly was slow stitching,  but peaceful and enjoyable.  The gecko will be next, I think.

Big stitch quilting

It was a lovely day indeed.  One of the ladies brought along some freshly baked muffins to share at morning tea, and another had a big bucket of feijoas to give away.  How kind.  As for my hand quilting project, I'll have to make sure that it is not tucked away, out of sight - out of mind, again.

Donation Time and Mother's Day

 It was time to send a few more items off to new homes.  You may remember the crate of knitting my granddaughter got down from the loft for me, it contained knitted jumpers I had done for future great grand children.  It was time to let two of them go, plus a several knitted hats I had finished recently.

Off to new homes

The pink jumper was knitted recently with yarn I had purchased from an Op Shop, and the navy one is a reknit of a pattern I made for my first baby Michael many years ago.  He is now 61 years old!  And the little hats were made from ends of yarn I wanted to use up.

What else?  I sent along this little blue and yellow cot quilt too.  I think it is so pretty, cot quilts are quick to stitch and enjoyable to make.

Cot quilt

I took these along to show the ladies in my monthly knitting group.  Not everyone knits, some have hand issues and come along for the company and a chat, which is nice.  We meet in a local church, which collects donations for The Nest Collective, who distribute items for new mothers and their babies, a New Zealand wide organization.  A very worthy cause and one I'm happy to support.  

Today is Mother's Day here in New Zealand, and I met my daughter for lunch.  I drove up to Foxton and she drove down from Kiwitea.  It was just as well that she had booked us a table as the cafe was really busy.  Mind you, that cafe is always busy, the food and service is great, but today it was especially busy with families out celebrating with their Mums.

Out to lunch

Nicky had brought me a gift.  What's in here, I wonder

It was some pretty sock yarn, self striping in pink.  "Breast Cancer Awareness Special Edition".  I had only just thought of starting a new pair of socks for myself, so this is very timely indeed.

Sock yarn from Nicky

After a delicious lunch, and coffee each, plenty of chatter, we went back to the cars.  As usual, there was a bit of swapping to do.  I had two good quality travel bags found in the loft which Nicky was taking off my hands, so they went home with her.  These had only been used a couple of times, and as  I mentioned to her, we purchased these for overseas travel as cabin bags, before we realised that pull along small cabin sized suitcases were so much easier to cope with.  And I had found a pair of hedge clippers in the shed which I was donating to granddaughter Megan to use in her  garden.

Nicky had things in her boot (trunk) to pass over to me as well.  A bag of lemons from her tree, and a big bag of feijoas, much appreciated.  The two granddaughters had sent along a little something - one of Megan's butternut pumpkins from her first crop, and a pumpkin pie from Emma.  Didn't I do well.

Pumpkin and pie

So I had a lovely day.  And I've had a phone call from my son Michael too, so that was lovely.   Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful ladies too.

Two Orange and a Yellow

That's all I needed for one of my current RSC projects.   Just two orange blocks, the colour for May, and one extra for the corner, which I stitched in yellow.  Nice bright colours to go with the black on grey  funky dinosaurs.

The last three blocks

That was nice and easy, so then I set about webbing the blocks together.  Somehow I got one row tangled up and around the wrong way, goodness knows how that happened.  It all worked out fine in the end though.  The borders were added over a couple more days, as I don't want to spend too long at the sewing machine at a time.  And finally, this afternoon, it was all done.  Here it is on my display bed.  This will make a nice donation quilt for a boy, eventually.  

The dinosaurs are now a top

Luckily I found two pieces of batting which I stitched together today which will be big enough.  And I'll probably use some more of the dinosaur fabric as the back.  This started life as a duvet cover which I rescued from the OP Shop, so there is plenty of fabric left.  The next step will be to layer it all together, and make the binding, maybe not this week, but shortly, I imagine.  I like to have the binding prepared before I start quilting a project.

The Autumn mornings and evenings are certainly getting cooler, but we are still having quite nice days.  It's time to start wearing my wooly socks.  I like to hand wash these and lay them across a couple of lines to dry outside.  

Sock washing time

I've got plenty of socks, but that won't stop me knitting myself a few more pair, it is such an enjoyable project.  But I haven't got as many as a knitter I was reading about on the internet this week.  After she has changed her socks, she wrote that she puts them in a bucket and has an annual sock wash, and showed long lines of socks hanging outside to dry!  I couldn't do that - I've got a reputation of being a bit of a washerwoman, I love doing the washing!