Sew Wot Tuesday

 I was looking forward to Sew Wot Tuesday, as I was unable to attend the previous get-together.  But first I had to wrap up a couple of birthday gifts to take, both Mary and Helen had recently celebrated their birthdays.

For the birthday girls

There was a full house at Carol's home, it was so nice that everyone could attend.  Sadly these days as we are getting older, medical appointments and issues seem to pop up regularly.  But we all made it, so that was great.  It was such fun watching both Mary and Helen open their gifts, I'm sure we got just as much pleasure seeing it happen as the birthday girls did opening their parcels.  

Socks certainly featured in show and tell, they were all laid out for a photo opportunity.   Some completed, and some just needed stitching up the side seam, another pair on the needles, plus a pair displayed on feet!  Winter certainly is sock knitting time, and Helen had also knitted a couple of wooly hats.

Cozy and warm for winter

Carol had completed her knitting commission from Heather to knit some garments for Heather's upcoming twin great-grandbabies.  So pretty.

For the twins

And Carol had another lot of baby donations to show, before they are whisked away to the hospital.

Knitted by Carol

In fact, I think Carol qualifies for a Gold Star as she had yet another finish to show us.  She had just completed this pretty embroidered wall hanging.  I love seeing embroidered blocks used in quilts.

Carol's pretty embroidered wall hanging

All of us were industrially knitting  even more socks, except for Jude who was busy with her crochet hook.  She was working on this lovely blanket, so pretty in these shades.

Jude's pretty crochet

Then it was morning tea time, always the highlight of our get-togethers, we always look forward to this.  I know we don't really need such a beautiful spread each time, but as we are known as The Eat-alots, we certainly enjoy it, and appreciate the work that goes into it.  Thanks to Carol for a lovely morning hosting the Sew Wots.

Morning Tea

Sock Knitting

I'm pleased I have a sock finish, this pair seems to have taken ages.  But only because I don't work on them all the time, I tend to flick from one project to another.   These are for my daughter, I asked if she would like another pair for Christmas.  "Yes please" she said, "I'd like pale blue this time".  So they are done well ahead of time, which is good.

  Socks for my daughter

I knit my socks flat, two at a time then sew up the side seam.  You can't feel the seam and it doesn't go under the sole, but up the side.  None of those tiny double pointed needles for me!  This pair was  made using Tootsies 4ply Merino sock yarn.

But wait, there's more, I'm working on two more pair as well, both up to different stages.  These are thick 12ply socks, using double knit together with left over sock yarn, and will be for me.  The heels are done on the dark pair, and the pale ones have more growing to do to reach the heel stage.  I prefer wearing these thicker socks, especially in the winter.

Two more pair on the go

Our winter weather has been very changeable, cool but sunny some days, and heavy rain on other days.  There was a sprinkling of snow on the hills last week, which always looks pretty in the sunshine, but I'm pleased we don't live in an area with snow on the ground. 

Snow on the Tararua Ranges

Colder weather means more soup making, so I made a batch of French Onion soup in my Crockpot.  It was delicious served with some cheesy toast on the top of my bowl of soup.  Nothing beats hot soup for lunch on a cold winter's day.

French Onion soup

Selvedge sewing again

It was time to make another double handed oven mitt with my selvedges.  I had a bunch of brown ones, as I thought, but some were autumn toned with a touch of orange, so that worked well. I always stitch the pockets first, just to see how many selvedges I have to work with.  That done, I had enough  over for the body of the mitt, and used plain orange fabric for under the pockets.  Just as well I have a walking foot as stitching the binding on the mitt through all those layers is quite a job.

Stitching slowly through multiple layers

My nifty little clips are great to use while I hand stitch the binding through the hessian at the back.  I always used to stick myself with pins, no matter how careful I was.

Stitching the binding down on the back through the hessian

Finished, an orange one for June.  This is number six, and I have a few black selvedges left to use for the last one.  

Orange mitt for June

It was nice to attend the Social Sewing Day today (Saturday) with some quilt club ladies.  Just a casual day, where everyone does their own thing.  There was machine piecing and machine quilting taking place, plus hand stitching, embroidery, bindings, and even one of the ladies sewing buttons on jumpers knitted for charity.  I don't bother taking my sewing machine as it is much too heavy for me to cope with these days.  We take our own lunch, and there is always plenty of chatting going on, and checking out everyone's projects.  Many thanks to the two ladies who baked some muffins for our morning tea.

Nine happy quilters today

AGM, Chocolate Cafe and Donations

 On Thursday we had the AGM for the caravan club at Paraparaumu.  Although I am no longer an active member, as a Life Member I am welcome at any functions and get togethers.  The meeting was at Club Vista and the restaurant has views over the sea.  Not much to see as the weather was very wet indeed on the drive down.  Kapiti Island was under the clouds.

View from the restaurant

We all stayed on for lunch and took over two tables in the restaurant.  The meals were very tasty, and rather large helpings indeed.  I enjoyed my Pork Belly, but struggled towards the end, there was just too much on the plate.

Enjoying our lunch

After lunch we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.  Dot and I stopped off at the local shopping mall and indulged in a cup of hot chocolate, from Butlers Chocolate Cafe, a very pleasant finish to the day.

A glass of hot chocolate each

Then today, Friday, I dropped off a couple of donation quilts to Nest Collective, a charity which looks after new babies and their families.  

Pink/grey quilt went today, plus a blue boys one I forgot to photograph

These two quilts were donated earlier but I don't think I blogged about them at the time.

Orange for June RSC

Orange is the chosen colour this month for June and I have to admit it's not really a colour I care for. But I found two shades of orange to stitch up a couple of blocks for my boy's white and black donation quilt.

Boy's blocks

Then I checked through my bag of 2.5in squares, looking for anything orange.  Not a great deal of luck, I only found enough for two of these blocks.

Orange, tan and apricot, slim pickings indeed

As I've decided to split these blocks into girly shades, and other darker shades to make both a boy and a girl quilt, I'll need more blocks than originally thought.  So I rummaged through the bag again, using any colours at all, and stitched up another 15 or so framed four patch  blocks.  Might as well get them done and out of the way, I know I've often said that I don't really enjoy stitching with little squares.  I'll use them up as fast as I can, then they will be gone for good!

But wait, there's more

My crockpot (slow cooker) was full of orange coloured goodness last week when I cooked up some yummy pumpkin soup.  I like to add cooked bacon and oinon to mine, and a little curry powder too.  So nice, and there are several small containers in the freezer for me to enjoy for lunch later.

Pumpkin soup with a swirl of cream

Although it was fine and cool today, the weather this weekend is meant to be very cold and wild.  With the Cook Strait ferries cancelled because of high swells, the weather front is approaching from the South Island with heavy snow down there.  There is a sprinkling of snow on the Tararua Ranges behind my home, it looks so pretty glistening in the sunshine.  I've changed my seasonal wall-hanging to my "Winter Welcome".  Yes, I know we don't get snow on the ground here, but it is cute, I think.  This kit was a gift and I enjoyed stitching it up.

Welcome to Winter

Chookshed Challenge for June

 Goodness knows what happened to May as I didn't even get my Chookshed Challenge out at all to work on.  I'm hoping I will do much better this month.  Had a look through the bin to find number 5, which is a set of small Christmas ornaments.  This kit was a gift from my pen-friend Carol several years ago, and inside was a panel of pre-printed Christmas designs.  Some of them required applique pieces and Carol had kindly added felt as necessary for me.

Gift from Carol

I had stitched these lovely little designs a couple of years ago, and they have been patiently waiting for me to take them to the next step.   I've decided against making the stitcheries into tiny pillows, but instead will use the alternate design instructions to make a wall hanging, or maybe a table mat.  So that is what I hope to achieve this month, wish me luck! 

Going for Green

 The month is coming to the end, and I've been busy stitching away with green for the month of May for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC).  One of my aims is to use up my diminishing supply of selvedges to make double handed oven mitts.  Yes, there are some green selvedges in my bag, so I got busy stitching away.  I always make the pockets first, using what selvedges I have, and if there are any left over, use them on the body.

And there were enough selvedges to apply to most of the body, plus I used a plain green under the pockets.  There is quite a bit of stitching in these oven mitts, as I like to quilt lines quite close together, to give it a longer life.  I use four layers, sacking (hessian) Insulbrite, toweling and the top fabric layer.   At last it was done, and then I stitched the binding down.  

I love my binding clips

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, as I've managed to make one of these each month so far in the monthly colours.  The remaining selvedges in my bag are a pile of browns and blacks, so I will be able to make two more.

Green for May

You may remember I found a green Coin UFO which I worked on last week and got it to a top.  Could I quilt it this month, I wondered?  So I gave it a go, and I'm pleased that I have another green finish.  With the layers pinned together, I got on with the machine quilting, using my favourite Serpentine stitch along the columns and down the centre of the coins.

Quilting time

I used up bits and pieces of browns to make a scrappy binding

All finished, another donations quilt, I'll send it to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.  This one is for a boy, greens, cream and browns, with not a hint of pink or florals.

  

Coin quilt for donation

Six Months On, and a Poem

 Yesterday was six months since I lost my beloved husband Robin, six months of trying to come to terms with my loss, and living my life without him.  Quite honestly, I had a miserable day, tearful and upset, and thinking back to that awful day.  Yes, I have lots of memories, lots of good times to reflect on, but I still look over to his empty chair and empty pillow and wish he was still here with me.  

Friends and family have been kind and supportive, and people often ask, "how are you?"  I wrote a poem recently to express how I feel when I'm asked this question.

I met a friend for coffee, in a cafe yesterday

She looked at me and asked, how are you today?

Asking me that is a trigger, shall I tell the truth this time?

My life has changed forever, and I'm anything but fine

Can't you see that I am hurting, I think inside my mind

I'm full of grief and sadness, and I'm crying all the time

But she doesn't need to hear that, so I turn to her and say

I'm fine thanks, and you, how are you today?

So please don't look at me with pity and ask me how I am.  Any one who has suffered a bereavement, has had earth shattering medical news, is going through cancer treatment, or is dealing with any number of ongoing personal problems can't or won't tell you how they are really feeling.  I'm doing the best I can, but some days are harder to get through than others.  It would be so much nicer to be greeted with, "Hi, it's so nice to see you again".

ICA Rally, Wanganui

Lunch at Viv's Kitchen

On Sunday  I met my daughter Nicky for lunch at Viv's Kitchen at Sanson.  It was a rather cool rainy day, but no wind luckily for the drive up there, a 100km round trip.  Viv's Kitchen is very popular and has a 50's vibe.  The young waitresses are dressed in full skirts, and the cafe looks just like a version of Happy Days.  Where's the Foz?  We ordered lunch, and I couldn't go past a Southland Cheese Roll, delicious.  Viv's Kitchen is famous for their Cream Horns, not that I ordered one.  No, I was after one of the giant chocolate eclairs and took one home for supper.

No photos of the two of us, but there were several interesting ones on the walls that needed investigating.  How about this one?  Guess there has been some out of control little darlings visiting the cafe, who haven't been taught how to behave.

And this one had an interesting story.  That's a placemat from Viv's Kitchen taken to Gracelands, and look, the pink cadillac belonging to Elvis!

Going to visit Gracelands was on our Bucket List, but sadly that won't be happening now.  Can you guess I'm a great Elvis fan?  I've been smitten ever since I heard him singing "Love me Tender" way back when.

I love Elvis

We had a nice lunch together, and the place was really filling up with customers, so it was getting rather noisy all around us.  Maybe it's time to try another Sanson cafe next time, there is another local one based in a church building nearby which looks interesting.

Out in the carpark when we were ready to leave we had a bit of a swap going on.  I had a couple of items for the granddaughters, and Nicky gave me a large pumpkin.  Mmm, I can see some pumpkin soup simmering away before too long.  

And I received a pleasant surprise when a lady customer walked past me in the car park and remarked "I do like your dress".  Goodness me, how often does that happen?  What a nice compliment.

Missing Green UFO

 I knew I had a bag somewhere or other with a green UFO, started goodness knows how long ago.  With green being the RSC colour for May, it seemed a good idea to move this project forward.  The only trouble was, where on earth had I put it?  I searched through a couple of likely places, remembering I hadn't seen it for quite some time.  At last, there it was, a small bag tucked beneath yet more unfinished projects.  As I used to tell Robin, I'll never run out of things to sew!

When I started this, it was to use up some of the many strips/scraps of fabric which never seem to go away.  I concentrated on mainly greens and  browns of different widths, to make a donation quilt for a boy.  This is where I had left it, several short strips of coins, or are they Chinese coins?  What is the difference in the names, I wonder?  I'm sure someone will be able to tell me.

This is where I had left the project

I still had quite a handful of strips in green, brown and cream so laid out the existing strips on my "design bed" and got to work stitching away.  Then slicing my strips to the correct width, and joining them all together.  I decided on six coin strips across, separated with narrower strips of cream and brown dotty sashings.  So many memories of earlier quilts in these scraps, horses, NZ birds, Aboriginal fabric, African animals, and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

Putting the coin strips together

Working steadily this week, I finally put it all together and added the borders.  That's a good job, I'm so pleased I got the quilt top completed.  

The top is done

The next job will be to get this layered and pinned up ready for machine quilting.  The quilting may or may not get done this month, I'll have to see how things go.  But I'm so pleased I've moved this UFO on to the next stage.

Sew Wot Tuesday and Goodbye dear friend

 It was a Sew Wot Tuesday with a difference this week, Helen had arranged for us to meet  at Fox's Cottage quilt shop.  This is my favourite LQS and we are always warmly welcomed once we step through the door.

It was a nice sunny Autumn day

Believe it or not, there was not a single item for Show and Tell this week.  But we made up for it by checking out the shop, and most of us purchased a few goodies.  I had a very small list, I needed more pink thread to continue with my machine applique on my secret sewing project.  And I was also looking for some poppy fabric for a border on a small Anzac wall hanging I'm planning.  I didn't care for the several fabric choices with a black background, they looked much too dark for what I wanted.  And then Helen produced a pretty poppy fabric on a lemon background.  Seems this one had fallen behind all the others and was just recently discovered.  That one will suit me nicely, I decided.

My poppy fabric purchase

The staff at Fox's Cottage love it when the Sew Wots come, as there is always plenty of goodies for them to eat as well.   They sat down and joined us for morning tea.

Plenty of morning tea for all

Here we all all, with one absence

That evening I received a very upsetting phone call.  My long time childhood friend Merilyn had passed away suddenly.  That was hard to believe as I had just been chatting to her on the phone in the weekend, and we were talking about us both turning 80 this year.  We met in primary school, and I remember going away on several Christmas camping holidays with her parents.  We grew up, married and had babies, and then she moved down to Dunedin in the South Island.  Over the years we have caught up when she travelled up this way, or we had a South Island caravan trip, writing letters in the early days  and many phone calls.  When we talked, it was just like we had never been apart.  I feel so lucky to have had such a wonderful friend for practically my whole life, and will miss her terribly.  This really hit me hard, as I'm still struggling with losing Robin too.

Merilyn and I at a beach camping holiday

A lifetime of wonderful memories