Teddies, and a Giant Moa

 At our last Sew Wot get-together, Heather had a table of free stuff she wanted gone.  I swooped on two teddy bear cushion panels that took my fancy.  Just the thing for a couple of cushions for kids in care, I thought. These are now layered with batting, and pinned up, ready for me to do big stitch quilting around the motifs.  

Two cushion panels from Heather, ready for quilting

I've made a start of Father Teddy sitting on the window seat, reading his book.

Father Ted

I've also hand stitched a label on two secret quilts I've recently finished.  These are secret because the recipients don't know I've been making them, and they are due to be passing by, and meeting up with me shortly.  I'll be pleased to gift them at last, then all will be revealed.

Stitching on simple labels 

I met my daughter for lunch the other day at Sanson, a distance of 50km from home.  We were trying The Wool Shed Cafe, neither of had been there for quite some time.

In the grounds was a statue of a large moa.  These huge flightless birds  used to roam New Zealand and there were other smaller varieties as well.  The moas became extinct between the 14th and 15th centuries, after the Maori people arrived and settled in New Zealand.  Evolving in isolation without predators, the birds were ill adapted to human hunting, habitat burning, and introduced predators like the Polynesian dog.

Giant Moa

Our lunches were nice, the coffee was great, and as usual there was plenty of news to catch up on.  Nicky had brought me down a bag of the last of her feijoas, and a pumpkin/sweet potato pie from GD Emma, and I had some things to pass on to SIL Robert and granddaughter Megan from Robin's shed.  The day was beautiful indeed, sunny with a clear blue sky and reasonably warm for the time of year.  

Today is the shortest day of the year here in New Zealand, which of course means we have the longest night.  On the other hand, from tomorrow it will slowly but surely be counting down till Summer, so that's got to be good!