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

Green is for May

The chosen colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) for May is green.   First I stitched my easy peasy black and white boys blocks, using two shades of green.  I had run out of the original black and white fabric and couldn't find any more at the LQS.  So I compromised, and I think the newly purchased fabric will work fine if I mix the blocks up when they are assembled.

Green  blocks for May

Next I stitched some framed four patches, using up the 2.5in squares that I have in a bag.  Despite stitching Hollow Nines last year, and framed four patches this year, there are still lots of those little squares left.  But I'm doing my best to make them all go away.

Framed four patches

Checking through these blocks which I've stitched so far, there are lots of pink and floral fabrics.  So I've decided to split the blocks into two groups, one for a girl using the pretty ones, and the remaining group for a boy.  That will use up even more of those pesky squares.

I've also been doing some secret sewing for a birthday quilt, using greens and pinks, and cut out some applique shapes for the border.  Gemma is always interested in anything put on the floor for a photo shoot, and checked them out for me.  Yes, she decided, they look OK.

Gemma approves of the flowers and leaves

Work has started on the applique borders, guess it will take me a while to stitch all these down.  And it's just as well that the birthday girl shows no interest in the blog, otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise.

Here we go, around the border

Out and About

 I've been out and about lately.  The other day I traveled down to Waikanae to visit my friend Trish who had recently moved from the Hutt Valley to her new home.  Rather than drive I took the bus down, which is free for oldies like me.  This bus route only travels on Tuesdays and Thursdays, departing from my home town at 9.00am then leaving Waikanae Railway Station  at 3.00pm.  Many locals take this trip down to Waikanae to then get the train into Wellington.

Trish collected me from the station and drove me back to her  new home.  Being brand new, everything is fresh, bright and airy, it was lovely indeed.  After a look around, we had coffee outside on the patio.  The day was glorious, fine, warm and sunny, a very pleasant  Autumn day indeed.  The village Trish has moved to is still under construction, and we watched as builders were climbing up and down the scaffolding with ease, obviously all fit young men with good balance, well used to working at heights.

New Summerset Village

Trish was keen to take us out to lunch at the cutest little pink bakery/cafe I've ever seen.  You could tell it was very popular with the locals as there was a steady stream of workers coming in to get their pies, bread rolls, sweet treats and coffees to take away.  This business was close by the beach so I could imagine workers sitting in their work trucks enjoying their lunch watching the waves roll it.  

Olde Beach Bakery

We sat in the courtyard to enjoy our lunch.  I was going to have a bread roll but they were huge, big man sized rolls for a hungry workman to devour but I didn't think I could manage one at all.  So we both ordered a French pastry and a nice hot coffee, chatting away under the shade outside.  Several customers had their dogs with them in the courtyard, the animals were well behaved sitting quietly at their owners feet and no bother at all.

Al Fresco lunch on a lovely sunny day

Then we drove down to Paraparaumu to the Mall to have a look around the shops.  Goodness me, a nice light jacket jumped into my bag and came home with me!  This is the same shopping mall I got lost in and couldn't find the correct exit last month when I took the coach tour trip to overnight in Wellington for dinner and a show.  Luckily Trish has a better sense of direction than me and we made it safely back to her car, and then drove back to Waikanae for me to get the bus home again.  I had a lovely time out and will certainly use the bus again in the future.  I may even hop on the train for an adventure, next time, that would be exciting!

The previous week I booked a seat on the Health Shuttle to Palmerston North -  it was time for my annual mammogram.  I was a little early so I sat and did  some knitting to pass the time.  These thick wooly socks hadn't seen the light of day for quite some time, so I was pleased to progress them a little further.  

Cozy socks for winter

Once the mammogram was done, I just sat and waited a short time till the shuttle collected me to take me back.  This is a wonderful service to get to health appointments, most people go to the hospital, but drop offs are made to other health venues as well.  All for the price of a donation.  Robin used to have a regular slot on the Heath Shuttle timetable and really enjoyed his time there.