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

Plenty of Slow Stitching Here

I was thrilled with the birthday gift I received from my daughter Nicky.  Several years ago I had purchased  a partially completed embroidered tablecloth with unused threads from a fabric fair. That would be a good project to finish, I thought.  But…… time went by and I didn't do a single stitch, so asked my daughter Nicky if she could complete it for me – sometime.  Out of sight, out of mind, and I truly had forgotten all about it.  We got together for a birthday lunch on Thursday and Nicky presented me with a parcel, it was the completed tablecloth!

Opening the parcel

The amount of stitching she completed was phenomenal, finishing the cross stitch and very close stitching in the figures.  There are big burly Scots in the Highland Games, girls dancing, and kilted gentlemen playing the bagpipes.  And as well, she taught herself how to crochet the pretty lace edging from tutorials off the internet.  I am so proud of her – it really was a big ask.  Nicky told me she was determined to finish it for this birthday.

Such a lot of work in this

My birthday was today, Sunday, so Robin and I discussed options on how to celebrate.  Out for an evening meal, or perhaps lunch?  In the end we decided on a Birthday Breakfast and went to a “new to us” café, Gorge, in Otaki.

Gorge Café

There was an interesting feature wall inside the café, driftwood from the local beach.

Wall art

The café menu had us pondering for a while, perhaps I’ll have the hot cakes and fruit?  But a little further down I saw kippers on the menu, that will do me, I thought.  Robin couldn't go past the Big Breakfast.

That looks nice

The kippers were advertised as locally caught, but I was sure that we don’t have herrings in our waters.  So I checked with the serving staff to find out.  Yes, the fish, Kawhai,  was caught at Waikanae Beach, then smoked.  I had tried “real” kippers in Scotland at a B&B while travelling around the UK, and this Kiwi version was just as tasty. 

I asked the young staff member if she would mind taking our photo and handed her my camera. Click, click, click she went, then handed it back.  But……on checking there were no photos there at all.  Rather than call her back and maybe embarrass her, we each took a snap of the other.  This reminded me of another occasion when we were out and another young lady had no idea how to work a camera.  She had to sent an older staff member over to our table who had no trouble at all.

Finishing off our breakfasts

I’ve had a lovely day today, breakfast out, phone calls and messages from friends and family, and no cooking all day!  That’s always a bonus, isn't it.

Camping and Embroidered Curtains

We spent last weekend at a caravan rally in Carterton, a 150km trip from home.  Passing through the town of  Featherston I noticed a new art installation.  The $600,000 Paul Dibble sculpture, designed to remember New Zealand's largest ever military camp, was dedicated late last year and is now on display in the town's centre.  Paul Dibble said the concept represents the WW1 soldiers'  marching from the camp through Featherston and up and over the Rimutaka Ranges  through the Hutt Valley and into Wellington.  Here they boarded the troop ships which took them off to war.  This is a wonderfully evocative sculpture, showing all those young men proudly marching off to answer the call, with so many of them not returning.

Sculpture in Featherston

Our weekend rally was held in Carterton School grounds and one by one the vans arrived and found a place to park.  Friday night was freezing!  You can’t say we weren’t warned!  The local campers told us that the overnight temperatures for Friday night would drop to minus 1 degrees – and it did!  Brr, it was certainly cold!  But a cold chilly night is generally followed by a nice sunny day.  Thank goodness for fluffy winter sheets on the bed and bed socks to keep me cozy!

Staying at Carterton School

Over the weekend the activities took place in the school hall, with plenty of room inside for us all.  I was intrigued with the embroidered curtains covering the windows.  Sadly, I couldn’t find any information in the hall about these curtains, when they were done, or who designed them.  They appear to be a snapshot of earlier pupils.

Embroidered curtains in the school hall

We all ate together in the hall on Saturday night, cooking and eating our own main courses.  This was followed by a shared dessert, with everyone bringing their contributions.  As always, there was a great selection on the table.

Desserts to share

After the tables were cleared and the dishes done, we played several games of “Card Bingo”,  with Harry doing a great  job as Caller.  Sadly, neither Robin or I had a win, so didn’t get rich with our gambling.  But never mind, it was quite a fun game to play.  We are not card players at all, but this game doesn’t require any great skill.

My cards for Card Bingo

It was quite a busy weekend,  so very little hand stitching got done.  Always great to socialize and catch up with friends. 

Something for the Ladies

Looking through Transport World  museum packed full of cars and trucks was only mildly interesting to me, so I was delighted to discover other exhibits aimed at the female customers who accompany their husbands.  Such as a range of “Wearable Art” upstairs.  Here are some which took my fancy.  First was “The Phoenix” by Claire Maley-Shaw, and is made from fabric, feathers, sequins, beads, and interestingly, pipe lagging!  A little “over the top” for my taste, but certainly an eye catching outfit.

The Phoenix

And in keeping with the transport theme, I thought these next two certainly fitted that theme.  On the right is “Are we there Yet?” – and how many times have the kids said that on a road trip?  Made by Patricia Munro from a recycled mattress topper, polystyrene wrap, felt, buttons and various other bits and bobs.  And the pale two piece creation “Journeys” was made by the HWR Richardson Group staff using copper wire and thousands of Road User Charge labels and Vehicle Relicensing labels.

“Are we there Yet?”  and “Journeys”

I was really interested in all the lovely exhibits in the Vintage Vault, some rather old fashioned and homely, and some absolutely exquisite.  For those of you who collect old doilies, how about making a doily dress like this?  Don’t like the hat, but the dress is certainly interesting.

Dress made from dollies

Beautiful old clothing and embroidery

Vintage Singer sewing machine and washing machine

Rag rug with a difference – made from strips of woolen blankets

Even the bathrooms in the museum were themed.  Robin told me the male toilets were decorated with car memorabilia, while the ladies I went in to was much more feminine.  It was fitted with pretty pastel hand basins and had a selection of hand mirrors on the wall, just like Granny would have displayed on her dressing table.

Ladies bathroom

Robin and I met up in the café for lunch, once he could tear himself away from looking at cars, trucks and tractors.  As expected, the café had a motorized theme too, the table numbers were made from old number plates, as were the light shades.  And who would have known that there was once a thriving canned rabbit industry?  During the late 1880s and throughout the 1900s, rabbits rampaged through the country.  Bluff had a canning factory for their meat which was shipped overseas and there were also rabbit processing plants at Woodlands and Gore. Rabbit fur was also shipped back to England to be made into felt hats.

My pretty lunch in the Café – Cauliflower Soup with Beetroot Crispy Curls on top

A visit to Bill Richardson’s Transport in Invercargill was a big “must do” for Robin and he really enjoyed his day.  And I certainly enjoyed mine too, checking out some of the old vintage cars, but I gave the tractors a miss.  But there was plenty for me to see, so I was perfectly content too.

Quilt Shop Tote Bag

This bag had a rocky start, when I had stitched the handles on incorrectly, and didn’t realise the error of my ways until I had finished the last line of top stitching.  And telling myself how clever I was with my first finish of the year.  Out came my trusty unpicker, and slowly all the lines of stitching holding the lining in place was undone.   The handles were stitched down in their proper place, and I was ready to start assembling the bag for a second time.

The embroidered panel was a gift (several years ago) from my pen-friend Carol who lives in South Dakota.  She had stitched a design of a quilt shop onto thicker needled batting, and I thought it would be perfect for the front of a tote bag.

And look, I nearly made another mistake earlier on.  Just as well I noticed before I stitched that I was all set to sew the top of the bag up, instead of the bottom!  Out came those pins, and they were soon put in the correct end.  What was I thinking?

That’s not right

I’d forgotten how to stitch the lining in the bag – you know, that tricky way with an opening in the bottom of the lining.  But after a quick check on Google I was headed in the right direction.  With right sides together I stitched around the top of the bag.  Then came the fiddly bit, pulling the bag through the lining, and hoping it was all going to come out OK.  And it did – then the lining just needed a little hand sewing to fix up that opening.

Getting tricky with the lining

I gave the top of the bag a press, and after a lot of careful pinning I did a row of top stitching.  All done – how does that look for a second time remake?

 

All done

I’m really pleased with how the bag turned out, and it lovely to finally use the embroidered panel which Carol had so kindly stitched for me.  Both the blue floral fabric and the pink lining fabric have been in my stash for ages, so I didn’t have to go and buy anything especially for this project.  That's another UFO to tick off my "List of Six".  And you can never have too many bags!

Ready to take shopping

Finished in time for Christmas

The “Great All Breeds Horse Show” quilt is finished, in time to get it wrapped up and delivered for Christmas.  The last remaining side of the binding has been stitched down, and the heavy quilt was lugged outside for a few photos.  A bit difficult as it is too long to hang nicely on the clothesline so I had to drape it over the fence, and it was still too long.  But at last it it finished – oops, haven’t stitched the label on yet, but that will only take five minutes or so.

Great All Breeds Horse Show

I’ve made this for my grand-daughter Emma, and it will be a surprise for her for Christmas.  We talked colours last year about a future quilt I might make her “sometime” and she wanted black and grey.  So black and grey was what she got, nine patch blocks all with a plain black homespun centre.  But I decided  to add the raspberry batik sashing to give the quilt a pop of colour.

Emma lives and breaths horses and has several on the family small holding.  So she will love the addition of 18 different named horse breeds, with everything from an Appaloosa to a Welsh Pony.  These exquisite embroidered horse head blocks came from Kings Treasures.

And the beautiful freehand machine quilting was done by local quilter Paula of Rabbit’s Patch Quilting, didn’t she do a marvelous job!

One last photo

Family Catch-up

Sunday was time for a family catch-up. The table was set with one of my pretty hand embroidered tablecloths.  This one was rather special and has a bit of a story to it.  I had purchased it as a kit many years ago.  Don’t ask me why, I don’t really know how to do fancy embroidery.  After it had been hanging around for quite some time, Nicky claimed it and took it home.  Some time later, she gave it back to me for a birthday gift, all beautifully embroidered!

Tablecloth hand embroidered by my daughter

Delicious smells wafted in from the patio as a Robin had a leg of tasty New Zealand lamb sizzling away on his Weber Baby Q barbecue for Sunday lunch.  It was a rainy day, so the BBQ was tucked away under the eaves.

Yum, yum, lamb for lunch

Slathered with gravy, served with roast veggies, and a selection of greens, it was a delicious lunch indeed.  We had home made apple tart with whipped cream for dessert, plus a pavlova and strawberries, so no one left the table hungry.

Presents were swapped – Nicky had recently celebrated her birthday, and I received a belated Mother’s Day gift.  Which was a lovely bright souvenir tea towel from their travels.  And a lovely Tudor Rose pin – Nicky knows I love that period of English Royal history.

Happy Mother’s Day to me

Daughter and son-in-law Nicky and Robert had recently returned home after four months travelling around England, with a quick whizz-bang trip through France, Venice, and Switzerland.  So we spent a very pleasant afternoon looking through their travel photos, played through our TV.  Grand-daughter Emma soon got bored with this, and took herself off with her computer.

Emma found this much more interesting

Soon it was time for the family to head off home, but not before the obligatory family photo.  It was lovely to see them, and catch up with all their news.  Next time, we can bore them silly with our holiday photos!

Nicky and me – oh dear, I’m looking old!

Emma, Robert, Nicky, Megan and Robin

Once we had waved them off, the house returned to its more usual “quiet mode”.  Goodness – those girls are noisy!

A Herd of Horses

Finished at last – it was time to take the horse quilt to get commercially quilted.  We dropped the “Great All Breeds Horse Show” quilt off at Paula’s quilt studio, Rabbits Patch Quilting.

We discussed what sort of quilting I wanted and tossed around several ideas.  Paula does marvellous custom quilting so we went with that.

At the studio

Paula had just returned from a Long-Arm Conference in Adelaide, and was buzzing with all sorts of new ideas.  I’ve decided to give my grand-daughter Emma her new quilt at Christmas, so there is plenty of time to get the quilt back, and sew the binding and label on.

“Great All Breeds Horse Show” quilt

Emma loves horses, and requested black and grey, and with the addition of 18 embroidered named  horse heads, I’m sure she will love her new quilt.  These beautiful embroideries of realistic horse breeds were purchased from King’s Treasures, a great on-line shop in the USA.