Catching up with Family

 My children don't live on my doorstep, so it is always so nice to see them when I can.  Son Michael lives in Christchurch, in the South Island, and was up in Wellington recently to stay with his Dad.  We arranged to meet for lunch, I drove down to Otaki, and he drove up from Wellington.  Just as well I got there early, as there was no parking close by, it was a matter of driving around till I found a park in an adjacent street and walk back.  

While I was waiting, several groups of older cyclists arrived.  This cafe is obviously on their route for lunch when they are on their bike rides.  Good crowds in a cafe always means that the place is popular and the food is sure to be good, I feel.  Michael duly arrived, after finding a handy car park non existent too and walked back around a corner or two to reach the cafe.  We ordered lunch and settled down to catch up with the news.

Michael

I had taken along some computer stuff which Robin had tucked away and I didn't know what it was or what to do with it.  Michael took a couple of packets of discs off my hands, so that was good.  There is a lot of stuff at home I'm still trying to sort out, so this going to a good home is a bonus.  As far as computers go, I know what I know, and that's not very much!

I didn't even know what these were

My daughter Nicky came down to see me on Sunday, and we had lunch here at home.  I made some parsnip and bacon soup, it is always very tasty.  Then we sat and chatted.  I showed Nicky a project which had been stalled for a while.  It features three snow people and I mentioned how I hate making and stuffing toys.  Her response was, why did you buy it in the first place if you hate making toys?  The answer was that I bought it very cheap in a sale, and I enjoyed making their easy felt outfits.  But when it came to the bodies I put it away.  Luckily I had stitched up the bodies and arms, and had the stuffing handy so she sat and stuffed them for me.  

Snow people bodies and arms, don't they look weird!

Gemma checked them out too, and was soon rolling around and giving one of those legs a good beating with her back feet, she must have thought it was a type of mouse.

What's all this, she is thinking

I'd better get the heads stitched up, and then maybe Nicky can stuff them for me as well next time she comes visiting.  And I've got no idea how to attach the arms.  Maybe I will need to read the instructions.  Did I mention how I hate making toys?

So it was nice that I spent one on one time with both of my children lately.  It is the school holidays here in New Zealand, and I remembered our outings from Hutt Valley to Wellington on the train each holiday, to see whatever film we had picked out.  And having lunch as well in the Pancake Parlour (now long gone) was another school holiday tradition.  Those were the days.

Sew Wot Tuesday

 It was a rainy old Tuesday when we all gathered in Carol's home this week.  It's Spring here in New Zealand and the weather is always temperamental during this season. It was nice to catch up with everyone again, with only one absence this time.   I had taken some old quilt magazines around to share, and some of them found new homes.  The rest will be donated to the Op shop.

Of course there was show and tell, with several pair of nice warm socks making an appearance.  Helen had knitted these two pair and during the morning she completed sewing up the side seam on yet another pair.

Helen's socks

Mary had been knitting socks as well, and had completed two pair of blue toned socks.  Plus a little flower we had been shown how to stitch at our last quilt club meeting.

Mary's socks

Sandra made a very pretty pansy quilt from the fabrics she had collected over the years.  This is for a special friend, isn't it lovely.  This design is called "Plaidish" and there are lots of pretty pansy fabrics in here.

Sandra's pansy quilt

Our hostess Carol had been rather busy, with several quilts to show us.  The first one was made with fabrics purchased in Vancouver on her 70th birthday, showcasing lovely tall flowers.

Carol's quilt made from fabrics purchased in Vancouver

Then, in the never ending quest to use up fabrics in the stash, she whipped up these two delights, in pinks and Autumn tones.  But we all know we will never use up all those fabrics stashed away, don't we?

Two more quilts from Carol

After all that excitement it was time for morning tea.  The "Eat a Lots" eat again!

Morning Tea is served

Many thanks to Carol for hosting Sew Wots this week.

Off to Feilding

The caravan club was having a weekend rally at Feilding over the weekend.  My friend Dot is a club member too and has a small motor home, but wasn't attending the rally, but she asked me if I would like a ride up on Saturday to catch up with the members. Yes, I certainly would.  The boot of the car was packed, we needed a folding chair each, our lunches, and a coat in case it was cold and windy up there.  But surprise, surprise, the day turned out sunny and wonderfully warm, no complaints about the weather at all.  

Here they all are

We arrived about 11ish to find most of the members off on a scavenger hunt, and taking it very seriously too.  They has their list of things to find, a plastic bag to put them in, and who knew what wonderful prize there might be for the  winner to collect?  After setting our chairs up in the sunshine, and a quick meet and greet, I took off to snap a few photos. 

The club was staying at the Coach House Museum, which boasts a wonderful collection of horse gigs, carts and carriages, farm equipment, and a very impressive John Deere tractor collection too.

Coach House Museum, Feilding

Under the verandah at the entry was this rustic old cart.  And even more interesting was a photo of the same cart, horse and driver at work in Wellington City in 1935.  As a child in the 1950s I can remember our milk was delivered by horse and cart.  All the fathers used to rush out with a bucket and spade to collect the manure for their gardens when the milk cart passed by.

Those were the days

There are lots of agricultural implements dotted around on permanent display in the grounds and the outside of the building has a plethora of paintings, just is just a taste up where the caravans were parked.

Everyone eventually wandered back clutching their scavenger hunt goodies and we settled down to our picnic lunch.  There was plenty of news to catch up on, and it was nice to see everyone again.  Robin and I were very keen caravan club members back in the day, and now he has passed away I do miss the caravan weekends.  But there was no way I was ever going to tow a caravan, or purchase a small motorhome, so it is nice to catch up socially when I can.  President Owen wanted a photo of all the ladies, so here we all are.

Helen, Dot, Jenny, Maureen, Eileen and Sue

Dot and I left about 2.00ish for the trip back home, stopping off at the Robert Harris Cafe at Foxton for "thank you for the ride" afternoon tea.  No, we didn't really need that cake each, but it really was delicious.

Robert Harris Cafe, Foxton

Yes, it certainly was a lovely day out, the weather was perfect, and many thanks to Dot for the ride.

A Probus Day out

 Recently Dot and I went on a bus trip organised by our Probus Club.  The day was cold and wet and we waited in the cold car park wrapped up in our rain jackets and scarves, together with the rest of the group  for the bus to arrive.  Once onboard, we were soon on our way.

Our bus for the day

One of the highlights  of the trip for me was to travel across the newly opened "Te Ahu a Turanga", the new 11.5km piece of State Highway 3, between Ashhurst and Woodville.  This replaces the old Manawatu Gorge Road which closed in 2017 after slips.  I used to hate driving on the Manawatu Gorge road, narrow and winding, with heavy netting doing it's best to keep the rocks from falling onto the road.  And on the other side of the gorge we could see the single track railway line clinging on as it wound around this corner and that.   Only freight trains and excursion trains now travel through the gorge, not any scheduled passenger services.  And far below the Manawatu River flowed on.   A train fell into the river back in 1946, with two engineers losing their lives.  And two trucks have crashed into the gorge in 2010 and 2016 with loss of lives.  No wonder I always felt apprehensive traveling this dangerous stretch of road.

The new highway took us across the Parahaki Bridge, then over the Eco-Viaduct which crosses an ecologically sensitive wetland.  Our poor old bus struggled on the climb up the Ruahine Range, making us wonder if it would really make it.  "Of course I can, of course I can"  the wheels told us and we were soon up the top by the wind turbines.  There was a path off top the side for walkers and cyclists and it was lovely to see so many native plants alongside the road.  A staggering 1.8million trees, shrubs and flaxes have been planted in this project.

The new road, up amongst the wind turbines

Our first stop was at the Woodville Organ Museum, which has a collection of over 150 reed organs.  Some huge, some quite small, and all very interesting.  We wandered around, checking them out, there were so many we had to squeeze around to see them.  It was interesting to hear other Probus members saying that their parents and/or grandparents used to have an organ at home.  

Then we had a recital of church hymns, with the owner and her daughter playing several different organs to show the variation in the sounds.  Hymn books had been handed around and many joined in with the singing.

Lunch was at Masterton Club, which started life as an exclusive club for men in 1877 as a Gentlemen's Club, but now admits women members.  The club rooms certainly have that exclusive men only feel, with large leather sofas in the reading room, several pool tables and mounted stag heads in the timber framed and  paneled pool/billiards room.  Very masculine indeed.  

We enjoyed a delicious buffet roast meal, with roast beef and hot roast ham, followed by dessert.   The bar was open for those who wanted a drink, but sadly, tea or coffee was not part of the meal.  That was a shame. as I'm sure many of us would happily have paid for a nice hot coffee.

Lunch is ready to be served

Fully replete, we all climbed back in the bus and headed out to visit Stonehenge Aotearoa.  Their brochure says "Stonehenge Aotearoa, like the ancient stone circles around the world, is a complete and working structure designed for it's precise location on the Earth.  It is a window into the past"  When we arrived the weather was awful, so we were happy to go into the theatrette and sit down for the slide show.  This was very interesting and told about the history, and the reasoning and precise location of the structure.  Our guide for the day was very enthusiastic and then invited us outside.  But it was freezing cold and raining so no one wanted to linger too long.

This plaque was in the centre

Stonehenge Aotearoa

Yes, it was interesting enough, but I have to say nothing like the ancient stone circles.  Robin and I have seen Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles in England and they really have an atmosphere of wonder, mystery and ancient secrets.

Our group was happy to climb back onboard to get out of the freezing weather and start our journey back home.  We drove south down the Wairarapa, over the Remutaka Hill, then back up the motorway to Levin.  I'm sure a few of the group nodded off as the bus trundled back to Levin.  It was great to have my first ride over that part of the new motorway, and I had not been to the Organ Museum before.  Yes, I had been to Stonehenge Aotearoa quite some years ago, on a brilliantly sunny Wairarapa day, and had a leisurely look around back then.    It had been a long day out, but very interesting indeed.

Off to the Quilt Show

I had to make sure I was up bright and early on Sunday morning, because I was going to a quilt show, how exciting!  My quilt club had hired a mini bus  and 11 of us climbed aboard, settled down, and we headed south to Otaihanga to Southward Car Museum.  The morning started off well when the bag of lollies was passed around.  "Lollies at this time of the morning?", someone asked.  And why not!

We've arrived, and that's our little bus in front

The ladies taking our entry fee warmly welcomed us, and then we checked out the raffles.  I do love those gift baskets full of quilting goodies, maybe I'll win one of these, that would be so nice.  We admired all the Community quilts that the Kapiti Coast Quilters make, and then headed inside to the adjacent hall to see the exhibition.  Where to start?  I wandered up one way and back the other.  Here are a few quilts which took my fancy.

"Lulu the Elephant" was stitched and beautifully machine quilted by Sue Elliot.  Such a beauty and I loved the intricate machine quilting, this is not something I am capable of doing myself.

Lulu the Elephant

I do love big, beautiful bed quilts.  "Bedroom Garden" was made in Kaffe's World class by Belinda Nixon and Felicity Neate, and quilted by Bobby Duncan.  Just look at all those lovely fabrics.

Bedroom Garden

I rather liked this quilt, titled "No Dogs on the Bed", possibly because I've stitched something similar.  But then, who doesn't love cats?  This was made by Pat Webster, using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and quilted by Suzanne Sage.

No Dogs on the Bed

After wandering around a while, I took myself upstairs to the cafe for morning tea.  The cafe looked down onto the car collection in the museum.  We had visited the museum in earlier years and there are lots of interesting cars on display.

Bright and shiny cars on display

Downstairs again, and I checked out some of the many vendors.  Although there was lots of lovely fabric on display, I only like to purchase for particular projects these days.  

Ladies checking out some of the vendors

So I was very restrained but fell in love with this gorgeous  printed panel full of native wildlife.  I have plans for this.

My only purchase of the day

We all met up again upstairs in the cafe at lunch time and I was thrilled to win one of the raffles from our little group.  There were some pretty floral fat quarters, and two lovely hand made greetings cards, many thanks to Sandra and Lois for organising this.  I've yet to hear if I won one of those lovely quilters gift baskets from the show, so I guess I haven't.

My raffle prize.

Downstairs again, and one last look around the quilts.  There were several ladies gathered around this gorgeous wall hanging, so I stopped to have a look too.  "Bygone Era" was Di Barnden's way of show casing her collection of doilies set between Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  Such a beautiful setting and this was my favourite quilt in the show.

Bygone Era

Thanks so much for the friendly blog reader who approached me to say hello, so nice to meet you.  And I also caught up with several members of my former quilt club, Pinestream Quilters, of Upper Hutt.  Seems that  several of these ladies have moved north from Upper Hutt, and have joined the  Kapiti  Coast Quilters. 

We were all getting a little weary by this stage so agreed to leave a little earlier than planned.  But first the friendly bus driver had a very important job to do, we asked him to take a photo of us all.

A happy bunch of quilters

I have to say that some of the ladies had more shopping than others.  We climbed aboard the bus, the bags of shopping were tucked away safely, and we traveled north back to Levin.  It was a lovely day, and thankfully my back wasn't too bad after all that standing around.  Thanks so much to the committee for organising our day out for the members.

How many RSC Projects? And a special birthday.

 I thought it was time for an update on the collapsed wardrobe fittings.  You may remember that I had to get a workman around when the wardrobe rails came away from the wall and had to be replaced.  But first I had to take everything out of the wardrobes.  The back bedroom/sewing room wardrobe was the most difficult, with everything from winter coats, crates full of whatever, and innumerable bags of projects.  So much stuff!  And it all spent quite a bit of time on the floor of my sewing room.  It wasn't easy, but I managed to still sit and stitch at my sewing machine, surrounded by all that clutter.

There are piles of it

Where to start?  I really wanted to check through those crates and  bags so I knew what was there before putting them all back in the wardrobe.  I started with the multitude of jackets, I had forgotten that Robin had so many tucked away.  Six were donated to the lady who deals with refugee families, and she was delighted to take the men's jackets off my hands.  A couple more were donated to the Op Shop, and Grandparents raising Grandchildren were happy to take two bright yellow vinyl rain jackets for their older boys.  Plus  I sold an oilskin, warmly lined sleeveless vest, practically new,  from Robin's 4 wheel driving off road club days.  It had been many years since he had belonged to that club, and we had  certainly enjoyed some fun trips driving up in the hills with the group.

Two crates were quickly replaced  in the wardrobe, one with batting, and the other holding quilt backings, flannels and fleece.  That was easy, but what about these other crates?  I pulled everything out and looked in the various bags, finding some long forgotten projects tucked away.  One crate now contains groups of fabrics, not yet started - you know how we often have ideas for future projects and gather things together.

Projects not yet started

Into another crate went another lot of bags, these contained block sets waiting to be constructed.  Most of these are Rainbow Scrap Challenge  (RSC) monthly blocks from previous years - Happy blocks, framed four patches, Hollow nines, string pieced blocks.  Also some appliqued scotty dogs, and another bag of appliqued butterflies I had worked on.  It was so easy to stitch these blocks each month, and then they got left.

A whole lot of RSC block sets

There were plenty of  finished quilt tops in various places  these are now residing on the spare chair in front of the wardrobe.  A couple are pinned up, ready to quilt, others have the backing folded up with them, and I had planned ahead and  made the bindings for several of these quilt tops too.  

Waiting to be quilted

You may remember that I have often stitched simple draw string bags for kids in foster care.  I found a bag full of bits and pieces to turn into bags, colourful kids fabrics and linings, pigs, monsters, lots of novelty fabrics here.  There are probably enough for about 20 small bags here.

A bag full of bag makings

So..... where to from here?  I've decided I'm not going to count up all these projects waiting for me, I really don't want to know the answer.  First of all I'm going to make three children's quilts for a special family, more about that later when I've finished them.  I've still got a quilt to make for my  great niece from her beloved Pop's clothes - I made one for her brother earlier in the year.  And I have two big bed quilts of my own I'd like to finish one day.

After the three special quilts are done I've decided that I'll start on this bag, the first one pulled from the crates and examined.  It contains string pieced blocks, and chickens, both long forgotten.  And I'll leave the bag full of draw string bag pieces out and work on two or three regularly in between other projects.  

Chickens and string pieced blocks

Then I think I'll alternate between machine quilting and piecing blocks together.  Guess the point is not to get too stressed out about it all.  

I did sell some special fabric online.  Who can remember the pretty Flower Fairy range from many years ago?  I purchased some to make my granddaughters a quilt, but they were both much more interested in horses than fairies.  I also had two Laurel Birch fancy cat panels, that was snapped up too.  And as I find it too difficult to take my heavy Bernina to classes these day, I was happy to let my Bernina trolly case go to a new home.    So at last the repair and tidy up of the wardrobe is complete, thank goodness, it has certainly been a bit of a challenge.

Yesterday was my beloved Robin's birthday, he would have been 78.  That was a sad day for me, and yes, there were tears shed.  As everyone knows after a death, there is a year of "firsts".  First Christmas, first birthday without him, and then my birthday and our wedding anniversary to come.  Friends have been kind and thoughtful with messages, so that was very nice.  It's not the same without you, Robin.

NIcky's BIrthday Quilt

 My secret sewing is completed, I've finished and gifted the birthday quilt to my daughter Nicky for her 60th birthday.  Nicky had quite specific ideas for her birthday quilt, nothing sharp and spiky such as stars, she wanted 9 patches.  And in pinks and greens.  I could do that for her.  I had started the quilt some time ago, gathering up fabrics in the required colours, cutting and assembling the nine patch blocks.  In between times of course I stitched away at other projects and challenges.

Slowly the blocks were completed.  I stitched pink nine patches with a centre green square, and green nine patches with a pink centre square.  Webbing them together, I assembled the top.  What about the border, I pondered, and decided on a curvy ric rac with appliqued flowers and leaves.  That was a bit of a disaster, I didn't have enough ric rac!  All those curves were using up much more of the trim than I had calculated.  There was nothing for it but to drive down to Pete's Emporium in Porirua and hope they still had it in stock.  Luckily they did, so I purchased some more, and stopped off at a local cafe for a coffee and cheese roll as a reward, and thanking my lucky stars it all worked out.

I'd run out of this

Then I set to work on the borders, cutting out flowers and leaves, and then machine appliqueing them in place.  Gemma checked them out for me, she is such a big help.

Mmm, what's this, flowers and leaves.

The applique took me quite a while, then at last the top was finished and I dropped it around to get it commercially quilted.  But there was a problem, Deborah wasn't happy with the ric rac on the borders and was worried that the foot on her long arm would get tangled up on it.  The weeks were ticking by, and I was getting concerned about the timing.  Luckily Jacqui took the job on for me instead, and sketched out what she planned to do in the blocks, sashings and borders, all free hand guided quilting.

One step closer, quilt top and backing

I got the quilt back in time, and got on with the binding, stitching it on by machine, then turning it to the back and hand stitching it down.  I really enjoy this part, knowing I'm almost at the finish line.

Binding time

I used a pretty doiley for the label

So here it is, all finished.  I'm thrilled with it, and Jacqui did such wonderful quilting, it really makes the quilt come alive.  It's  on my bed while I took some photos before it was packed up and given to my daughter.  There were spare blocks so I made two cushions as well.

Not too bad, she's thinking

Last week the quilt was packed up into a bag, and traveled with me on the bus to Palmerston North.  These twice weekly off peak buses are great, and are free to oldies like me.  I really appreciate them as it saves me driving up there.    Nicky had taken her birthday week off work and met me at the bus terminal.

Birthday gift for Nicky

She had a quick peek in the blue bag, then put the bag in her boot to take back home.  Morning tea was first on the agenda, I was looking forward to a coffee by this stage,  then a little shopping to get some necessary items, and before we knew, it was time for lunch.  This was a "new to me" place that Nicky sometimes goes to.  I enjoyed some yummy prawns, and another cup of coffee.

My lunch

By this stage it was time for her to drop me back to get the bus home.  It was a lovely day out, catching up with my daughter and delivering her gift, spending time together and enjoying a tasty lunch.