My Quilt Ladder, and Christmas Slow Stitching

Just in time for Christmas, I've received my new hand crafted quilt ladder.  Robin had found a plan to make one of these on the internet, and asked his Menz Shed builder friend for advice.  While he was in hospital getting his second knee replacement, and the subsequent eight weeks recovery time, Brian the builder took the job over for him.  He measured the timber, cut and assembled the ladder for Robin - how kind of him.  Once Robin could comfortably stand on his knee again, he took over the sanding and the wood staining.  And then brought it home to me.  As you can image, I was thrilled, I’ve wanted one of these for such a long time.

Christmas quilts on the quilt ladder

I haven't any slow stitching this week to show you, so I thought you might like to have a closer look at my Christmas Alphabet quilt which is displayed on the quilt ladder.

Alphabet Noel

Alphabet Noel was designed by Australian Michelle Ridgway, and I enlarged the designs.  I also changed a couple of the pictures on the alphabets to better suit me, and added four more of of Michelle’s designs in each corner.

So  what else have we been doing?  We received another Covid booster last week – no trouble at all afterwards, luckily.  And we had our final pre Christmas get together with friends.  We met our friends Calvin and Helen at Boulcott Golf Club Café in Lower Hutt.  The large car park was very full indeed, and we drove slowly around looking for an empty car park.  As well as people coming out for lunch, there were obviously plenty of golfers out enjoying their time on the golf course.

We pursued the menu and checked out the cabinet food.  There were several large tables full of other pre Christmas diners too, so the service was a little slow as the staff worked hard to serve the meals.  What to have – I chose Bubble and Squeak (don’t often see that on a menu) with a side of sliced salmon, and Robin had fish and chips.  With so many people dining, I decided not to ask the busy staff to take a photo, so we did it ourselves instead.  As always, there was plenty to chat about, our plans for Christmas, family, and our absent friend Trish, who sadly had just come home from a week in hospital.

Jenny and Robin, Helen and Calvin

This area is of historical significance from the early years of settlement.  The golf club is situated off Military Road and there is a large stone memorial on the corner of the road marking the site of Boulcott’s Farm Stockade.  This tells the story of the attack on the stockade during the Maori Wars.  On 16th May 1846 over 200 Maori warriors from Wanganui attacked the stockade and were fought off by a garrison of 50 men of the 58th Regiment.  The bodies of six Imperial soldiers who fell were buried nearby.

Memorial Stone

With just one week till Christmas I’m pleased the social commitments are over.  I can do with some spare days at home to get ready for our time away, do some baking, and pack the caravan.  The countdown to Christmas is always very busy, isn't it.

The Prettiest Quilt Shop in Town

There’s no doubt about it, as we drove past this cute little shop on the way to Greymouth, towing the caravan behind us, I remarked that we would have to return to this shop the next day.  Bright and colourful on the outside, I was sure it would be just as nice inside.

Pink Possum Quilt Shop

I was after some backing fabric for my second piece of traced out stitchery.  Yes, Sue had some of that and cut me a piece, then I had a look around the shop to see what else took my fancy.   There were plenty of fabric, samples, panels, notions, and lots of kits, I noticed.

Lots to inspect and admire

Yes, I did make a couple of other purchases.  I found an easy bag pattern, and of course I couldn't walk past  this little caravan kit.  Designed by Wendy Williams, all fabric, thread and felt pieces are supplied.  There was also a bin of $1 fabric pieces, so a couple of those were added to my purchases too.

These came home with me

Not far from Greymouth is the Runanga Miners' Hall.  The current structure dates from 1937, and replaced an early miners' hall from 1908 that was destroyed by fire.  The hall is notable for its place in  history of the organised labour movement in New Zealand, and was granted Historic Place Category 1 status by Heritage New Zealand in 2013.  Although looking rather worse for wear, it is currently being restored.

Getting a spruce up

Greymouth is the largest town on the West Coast, and was founded during the West Coast gold rush of the 1860s, but for 150 years after this its economy was based on coal mining and native timber forestry. These brought prosperity to the town which at one point had 47 hotels.  The central part of Greymouth was regularly flooded when a high tide coincided with a flood in the Grey River.  A flood wall (locally known as ‘the great wall of Greymouth’) now protects the town, and provides a pleasant walk along the south side of the river.

On the great wall of Greymouth

After a couple of rather hot and sticky days here, the rain has now set in.  But we’ve had time to do copious amounts of laundry, restock supplies, refuel the Jeep, and have a quick look around town.  We are moving on tomorrow, where to, I wonder?

Church, Chocolate Fish and Monsters

During the week we joined 40 or so members of our Probus Club for a Big Day Out in Wellington City.  The alarm clock was set bright and early as we were having an early start.  I’m pleased I decided to take my walker with me as we were to be on our feet for hours, and I didn't know how my back would cope.  I don’t use the walker much at all these days, but for this outing it was worth it’s weight in gold.  It folded up and tucked neatly away in the baggage compartment, so it was no bother taking it al all.

Our coach awaits

The bus driver maneuvered the large bus around the narrow Wellington streets, and our first stop was a short but rather steep walk up the hill to Antrim House in Boulcott Street, thank goodness for the walker.  Antrim House was built for Robert Hannah (of Hannah’s Shoes fame) for his family back in 1904, and the surrounding area would have been quite different back in those days.  The views down to the sea would have been spectacular with no high rise buildings crowding the view back then.  The interior is a warm glow of polished kauri and totara paneling, and features a lovely kauri staircase.

Antrim House

Down the hill we walked to our next stop of St Mary’s of the Angels Church, built in the Gothic Revival style, and opened in 1922.  I can vividly remember my previous visit to this Catholic Church.  It was way back in October 1962, the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the world waited with baited breath,  we thought we were on the brink of nuclear war.  A group of my office workmates and I decided to attend a church service here, to pray for peace, I was 17 years old at the time.  Even down here in far away New Zealand, we felt threatened by the unfolding events.   An American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba.   President Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba, to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address.  What on earth was going to happen?

No one was sure how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and US demands. But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba. In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than twenty-five years, the United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, the arms race was not.  How many can remember living through this troubling time?  The interior of the church is very peaceful, with many beautiful lead light windows.  After looking around, many of us were happy to sit and reflect awhile, after all, the world is still troubled by unrest in many countries and an unjust ongoing  war in Ukraine.

St Mary of the Angels

The bus was waiting outside for us, we climbed aboard and drove through the city streets.  The conversations were interesting, as people exclaimed of the new buildings erected since their last trip, many years in some cases, replacing the places they knew in earlier years.  We drove around to Shelly Bay to our lunch stop, Chocolate Fish Café.   Our group was ushered into a covered courtyard, the heaters were glowing to keep the chill at bay, and we sat and pondered the menus.  Whitebait fritter sandwich was on the menu and it seemed that this was the most popular choice, with seafood chowder coming a close second.  Whitebait is a real delicacy, and can be rather pricey, so how often do we have it?  No wonder it was so popular – however Robin bucked the trend and went with a steak sandwich.  After our meals were cleared away, the staff returned with little dishes of chocolate fishes for us to enjoy, that was an unexpected touch, and very welcome.

Robin with Bruce and Julie, our neighbours from the village

The highlight of the day was our 90 minute tour of Weta Workshops, of Lord of the Rings fame, both of us had been wanting to come here for ages.  Kevin, our very enthusiastic host, took us around the display rooms, explaining how the film props were made going through many stages  from conception to the finished products.  And those heads and bodies which the actors wore, turning them into monsters, all these took an awful lot of time to make, and to get in and out of for filming  As Kevin told us, since starting Weta Workshops, technology has come a long way in making these creations. 

Kevin, our host

Interesting to find out that there is a full time sword maker on staff a required, and his original work of art is used in close ups by the hero and copies are made from this for the crowd scenes.  All very interesting and absorbing, and we were pleased to be able to handle examples of exquisite leatherwork, chain mail, and weapons as they were passed around.  Taking photos was limited to the reception room, and masks were required during our time here.

There’s a monster behind us!

It certainly was a great day out, we were on the go all day, and pleasantly tired enough on our trip home for many to nod off in the bus.