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.  

Sew Wot Tuesday

 Our Sew Wot morning started with a severe weather event.  Heavy rain was pouring down, the wind was fierce, and the fire sirens were sounding.  What on earth was going on, a bit of flooding, I thought.  But it was much worse than that, a small tornado had struck town, very close to me indeed, but I didn't realise this till later in the morning.  Roof damage, fences down, trees uprooted, flooding, dear me.  

I drove through the heavy rain passing a group of work men dealing with tree damage at a nearby park.  Jude was the hostess this week, and when I settled down, the others filled me in on what had been happening.  The wonders of the internet make accessing information so very easy indeed.

We could all make it to Sew Wots this time, so that was nice.  Appointments, family  and holidays sometimes take precedence.  Just a little Show and Tell this time.  Carol had a couple more teddies and baby singlets to be donated to the Neo Natal hospital ward, all nicely packaged up in cellophane bags.  Helen had brought along her pretty Ohio Star top last time.  All finished now, quilted and bound, she is keeping this one for herself.

Helen's Ohio Star quilt

Mary had a  crochet blanket to show, such pretty colours, made to use up her leftover yarn.  I really admire people who can crochet, it's not a skill I have myself.

Mary's crochet blanket

After knitting three kitten blankets to donate to the SPCA I decided to knit one for Gemma, using up two balls of cotton yarn I had.  I made it to go into the cat tower, she sometimes likes to snooze in the middle section.  It's hard to see her when she is tucked up in her tower hidey hole.

Gemma's new blanket in her tower hidey hole

As usual, there was hand work being done, knitting and stitching.  Plus plenty of chatter as well.  Then out came the morning tea trolly, we are always so spoilt.  There was plenty there for the "Eat a Lots", as Helen's husband calls us.

Morning Tea

Thanks so much to Jude, it was indeed a lovely morning.  And we get to do it all again in two weeks time, when everyone will gather at my home.  Mmm, what shall I bake?

On the way back home I stopped off to purchase some fresh fruit and veggies at the local growers.  And also came away with two pumpkins.  I love roast pumpkin, and can also see some pumpkin soup happening very soon.  With the weather cooling down, it's time to make soup, that's my idea anyway.

Ready for pumpkin soup

End of Summer Time

 I've just had a weekend away with a difference, and it was such fun.  I joined a bus tour (door to door pick up) for a night out for dinner, on to Circa Theatre and staying in a rather posh hotel.  The hotel put the very tatty Hasting motel from my last trip to shame, but then as I said before, you get what you pay for.  As I would only be away for a little less than 24 hours, I was happy to leave Gemma at home.  Loaded up with plenty of food and water and a freshly cleaned litter box, I reasoned she would be fine.  After all, she does sleep most of the day away.

Before the trip I had to get the overnight travel bag down from the loft.  You may remember that our loft, with the pull down ladder, is always rather scarey for me.  I asked my friend Dot to come down while I climbed up the ladder, just to be there in case I slipped.  Dot insisted that she climb the ladder instead, and handed down two suitcases to me.  Thanks Dot, you were a god send.  My blue cases hadn't been used since our last rail trip through Australia, some years back now, and I found photocopies of our passports safely tucked away, just in case of loss.  

Packed and ready to go

The bus tour started from Hastings, and collected me outside the village.  I was soon onboard, and settled down.  We stopped at Coastlands Mall, Paraparaumu, for lunch, this was at our own cost.  People did their own thing, there were several cafe options at the mall, and I wandered through to Butlers Chocolate Cafe, always a favourite, and lunched with one of the passengers.

I love it here

I enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate and a ham and cheese toastie and chattered away to my table mate. Full disclosure, I may have purchased a few chocolates to take home.  My travel companion went off checking out some shops, and I decided to make my way back to the entrance where the bus was parked.  That didn't go well.  I walked this way and back, just couldn't find the correct exit.  Finally I spotted a lady in a Fire Service uniform and asked for help.  She walked me around yet another corner, and yes, that's where I needed to be!  Goodness knows what she thought of me, I've mentioned before that I'm often navigationally challenged.  

The rain was coming down again as we drove towards Wellington, finally arriving at the Copthorne Hotel, on Oriental Parade.  A helpful staff member came out to greet us, but the umbrellas she was carrying were soon blown inside out, we were in windy Wellington, after all.  We were given our door cards and went upstairs to find our rooms.  And what a lovely room it was, very nice and comfortable indeed.   After all those years of caravanning, it is always a treat to stay in a hotel room.  All to myself - it's just a shame Robin was not here to share it with me

My room

View from my tiny balcony, wet and misty

Later we were collected and drove to Dragons Restaurant for an early dinner.  Our party was split into two groups, and the tasty food kept arriving.  Mmm, it was certainly delicious, but I did pass up the wiggly squid.  There were dishes of  chicken, pork, fish,  dumplings and spring rolls, plenty for everyone.  Dessert was ice-cream with chocolate sauce.

Dinner at the Dragons Restaurant

Then it was a very short drive to Circa Theatre, on the waterfront.  Robin and I had been here many times in the past when we lived in Upper Hutt, and always enjoyed plays and live shows.  The building has been expanded since the last visit, and now consists of two studios, a bar and plenty of lounge seating.

Circa Theatre

The play was "End of Summertime" written by Roger Hall, always a favourite New Zealand playwright.  It continues the story of Dickie Hart, played by Gavin Rutherford, the sole performer, relating his thoughts in a stream of consciousness.  Previously a farmer, Dickie and his wife moved to a retirement village in the big smoke of Auckland, that was certainly a  big change in his life.  And then Covid hit, and Auckland went into Lockdown.  It certainly was a great night out.

The following morning the rain had stopped, and it looked like being a nice day.  It was  a leisurely morning, with our departure  time being 10.00am.  Plenty of time for a cuppa in bed while I caught up with the news, have a shower, pack my overnight case, then amble down to the restaurant for a buffet breakfast.  We then boarded the coach for our homeward journey.

Our coach and hotel

First stop was at Kapiti Chocolates in Paraparaumu.  I was on the lookout for peppermint marshmallow Easter eggs, impossible to find in the supermarkets this year.  Yes, I did find some, so that was lucky.  By all the bags coming onboard, it seems that most of the others made purchases too.

Kapiti Chocolates

Heading north, we soon arrived at Levin.  The driver drove through the village and parked right outside my home, that would have given the neighbours something to talk about.  Then the coach was off, heading back to Hastings.  It was a great trip and I would certainly consider another one in the future.  Gemma still had food in her bowl, so she wasn't starving.  She jumped up on my lap for a pat and a cuddle, we had a little talk together, then she decided enough is enough.  I think she was happy to see me.