Chookshed Challenge for April

The  number for the Chookshed Challenge in April was number 4.  Which was........a baby quilt featuring houses. This was a bonus quilt top stitched during the 2024 Chookshed Challenge.  I made a bigger house quilt and had some left over blocks, just enough to whip up a cot quilt.  The houses were my own design, made from 2.5in strips several years ago, and I also made a few tree blocks as well.

I'm pleased I had prepared the backing and the binding last year when I completed the top, that's always a bonus.  So I found some wadding, and took it outside onto the patio table during a lovely Autumn day, and got pinning.

Pins galore

Then came the quilting, serpentine stitch around the sashings and in the borders, and I did straight stitching around each house.

Machine quilting

Another sunny day outside, and I was happily stitching the binding down, I really enjoy doing this part. It's a very soothing and fulfilling pastime indeed 

And here it is, eight little houses and a couple of trees.  Another one to be donated, and I've finally used the last of the little house blocks up.

Baby quilt for donation

What's on the Table?

 There is a pretty hand embroidered tablecloth gracing the table this time.  Lovely floral embroidery worked on linen.  I collected this pretty cloth from my MILs linen cupboard after she had passed away.  I really didn't want it to end up in an Op shop and wanted to give it a good home.

I'm not sure who worked on this cloth.  As far as I know, Robin's mum Bonnie didn't do needlework.  I suspect it may have been passed down from her own mother, Robin's grandmother.  Bonnie already had some things from her mother, pretty plates and cutlery.  Whoever made it, I'm delighted to give it a new home, and enjoy using it, especially as it seems likely there is a family connection.

Embroidered table cloth

Day out - Mt Lees Reserve

 Not quite a caravan trip, but the next best thing.  I went to visit the caravan club who were away for the weekend at Mt Lees Reserve.  On the way  I stopped off at the very popular Lewis Farms to buy some strawberries.  These are grown in huge tunnel houses so the growing season seems to last for ages.  I bought myself a nice hot coffee too before I continued on my drive north.

Yummy strawberries from Lewis Farms

I arrived at Mt Lees Reserve in time for morning tea, just as well I remembered to pack my folding camping chair for the trip.  Delicious Easter buns were passed around, yummy, and we sat outside in a circle enjoying the pleasant weather.  It was good to catch up with everyone, it's been a while since I have seen them.

The caravan club at Mt Lees Reserve

After morning tea I asked Owen if he might be able to change the clock in my car for  me, now that daylight saving time has ended.  He called up U Tube on his phone and listened carefully while a heavy accented man told him how to go about it, it wasn't easy but after a couple of tries Owen finally got it done.  I thought it might be helpful if I could find the car manual book for him.  But it was nowhere to be seen, although I did find a bundle of petrol vouchers tucked away that I didn't know were there, so that was a bonus.  Mt Lees Reserve is a very pretty place with native forest and very popular with walkers, families and people exercising their dogs.

Lovely surroundings

Then we all drove to Feilding for lunch, to the very busy Rose Bowl Cafe, a place I hadn't been to before.  Most of us ordered from the menu, and there was a huge range of cabinet food available too, plenty of choices to suit all tastes.  I chose a bacon and avocado sandwhich, very tasty indeed.

Rose Bowl Cafe

My daughter Nicky arrived, so we said our farewells to the club members, and moved on to another local cafe to spend an hour or so with her.  By this time I was all coffeed out so ordered a nice tasty honey and ginger drink while we sat and chatted about this and that.  Before we parted company I gave Nicky a punnet of strawberries and she had a bag of feijoas for me.  Not everyone likes the taste of feijoas, but I love them.  They can be eaten raw, and are also nice as stewed fruit - in the past I have also made feijoa jam.

Feijoas are in season

It was a pleasant day out meeting up with the caravan club members again, and then catching up with Nicky.  My little car performed well, it was about 130km for the round trip.  Gemma was pleased to see me when I finally returned home in the late afternoon, and was looking for a cuddle.  Perhaps it's time for her dinner, she was thinking.  No, it was a little early, so I gave her a few treats to nibble on instead.

Sew Wot Tuesday

 The Sew Wots gathered at my home this time.  All except Jude, who was away on a family holiday.   Heather arrived and presented me with a nice little bunch of flowers, such a lovely thing to do.

Flowers from Heather

Just a little Show and Tell this time.  Helen started with some baby knitting, a little singlet and three small hats.  All to be donated and she was happy to use up some of those small balls of wool which seem to hang around.

Helen's baby knitting

Mary had completed the lovely crochet rug she was working on last time we met.  This will be donated to a friend, it's so pretty.  Mary is a whizz with crochet, and can whip things up in no time at all.

Mary's crochet blanket

And I showed my recently completed burgundy red double handed oven mitt, using up some more of my selvedges.

Another oven mitt

Gemma thought having these visitors was great fun.  She wandered here, wandered there.  The ladies  all had bags at their feet, just waiting to be explored with a sniff test.   Then she jumped up on the wall unit, I'm not sure you should be there, Gemma.  But does she listen?  Of course not.

I'm a good girl really

We were all busy knitting away.  There were 4ply socks and thick bed socks being worked on.  And several little baby jumpers too, I noticed.  Heather has a lot of knitting to do, with twins arriving soon in the family, so she's been busy knitting two of each  item.

Heather, Sandra and Carol

Helen and Mary

Then it was Morning Tea time.  Hot drinks were made, and the food was set out on the coffee table.  The "Eat a Lots", the named coined by Helen's hubby, indulged again.

Morning Tea

There is always plenty of food, so I packed some up for the freezer, and took some up for my friend Dot and her hubby, he's not too well and has got a bit of a sweet tooth so always enjoys a few goodies.  It was so nice to take my turn hosting this time.  Next time, we were told, we would be gathering in Foxes Cottage, our LQS, that should be fun.  

Final red stitching and Happy BIrthday

 Each month for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) I've been stitching up oven mitts in a bid to finally  use up my decreasing selvedge collection. The RSC colour this month is red, and I had a small group of red and mostly burgundy selvedge strips to work with.  There were just enough of these to make the two outside pockets on my double handed oven mitt.  There is quite a bit of stitching in these, but at last I was up to stitching the binding down.  I started this job last night, and finished it outside under the Archgola this morning.  Today the weather is nice and warm, hard to believe that sub tropical  storm Tam had been lashing Northland and causing a lot of damage.

All clipped and ready for stitching

It was pleasant sitting outside, working away, with a cuppa to hand.  Gemma was outside keeping me company too.  And here it is, all finished.  This is the fourth one so far, I've made one in pink, dark blue, yellow and now this last one.  These will probably be gifts later in the year.

Burgundy/red this month

Yesterday Gemma celebrated her 7th birthday.  Goodness, time goes fast.  I can remember when we collected her as a kitten, all those years ago.  Birman kittens are born white, and their colour points come in as they are growing.  Gemma is a Seal Point Birman.  She spent part of her birthday in her tower, laying on the pretty pink blanket I had recently knitted for her.

This is the life

Cats really have the best lives, don't they.  Gemma lounged about all day, then decided to tell me it was close enough to 5.00pm so it was her mealtime.   Of course I gave her some of her favourite food for her birthday dinner, a nice helping of Jimbos.  Then more snoozing after she had eaten her fill, cuddled up to the opossum fur cushion on the sofa.

My tummy is full and I'm sleeping

And another one, just because.  I changed the quilt on the bed today.

Purple Haze

 My purple clam shells are finally finished.  This quilt started way back in May 1993 when I attended the 5th National Patchwork and Quilting Symposium in Upper Hutt.  This was a very exciting time for New Zealand quilters.  Big name American quilters like Caryl Bryer Fallert and Ruth McDowell were taking classes, along with Australian and New Zealand tutors.  Sadly, I can't remember the name of the tutor I had for the clam shell class.   We were shown how to cut out the clam shell shapes with an acyclic shape and a small rotary cutter, and how to stitch them in rows.  I had selected a range of purple fabrics, and wanted to arrange my rows in  lights and darks.  I got this far, and then it got put away, lost and forgotten for many years.

I made a start way back when

The  bag of purple clamshells finally surfaced and I decided to  just get on and get it finished.  Needed lots of pins to get those curved pieces in place before I stitched.  This must be why the project got put aside, presumably.  But I persevered, and slowly, row by row, the clamshells were stitched in place.

I needed plenty of pins

In between times, I had lots of other stitching taking place.  The monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks to make in the nominated colour of the month, the monthly Chook Shed Challenge, donation quilts, and knitting to do.  But I pushed on with the clam shells, finally completed the top, and added a light border.  As for the quilting, what to do?  Big stitch hand quilting, I decided, was the way to go, and I used a variegated pastel thread.  I don't do a lot of hand quilting, but really enjoyed working on this quilt.

Big Stitch hand quilting

Stitching the binding down, and adding a label is always the best part, in my view.

Binding time

Finally, I added a hanging sleeve, and there she is all done, hanging over the sofa.  What's 32 years in the scheme of things between starting and finishing?

Purple Haze, 32 years in the making

Red Sewing for RSC

 The colour red has been chosen for April for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  After a couple of weekend trips away, I've finally stitched some red blocks for my projects.  First were my easy black and white blocks for a boy's donation quilt.  With four done in red, I decided I liked the way they fitted together, so that's how I will assemble these blocks.  Originally, I had thought about having the colours scattered about the quilt top, but I think I like them better this way now.

These didn't take long to stitch

The second RSC block set I'm making is framed four patches, trying to use up my bag full of 2.5in squares. The bag is not going down much at all, and I found some red and burgundy squares to use this month - made three blocks from these.

 One red and two burgundy blocks to add to the pile

So I just have my red selvedge double handed oven mitt to stitch now, I'll get on to that shortly.

There was a bit of excitement here at home this week.  I came home to discover the small front window was smashed.  Goodness knows how that happened and I went and asked a couple of neighbors if they had seen or heard anything, I was worried about someone wandering around the village and smashing windows for fun. Seems it happened when the lawns were being mowed, and a stone had been flicked up by the lawnmower.  The stone made a hole about 6 inches across, with cracks running off it, but didn't smash through the internal glass pane.  After a bit of searching the stone was found in the grass.

Oooops

Being double glazed, the glass company had to purchase a complete window set, which took a couple of days to arrive.  But it's all fixed now, thank goodness.