Gift Swapping Day

It was time to swap the Christmas gifts – we won’t be seeing the family on Christmas Day.  So they were loaded into the car  boot and off we went.

It doesn’t really matter how old the grand-daughters get, they are still excited about Christmas.  And there is nothing wrong with that, is there?  We took the parcels inside and arranged them around the tree.  She commented that that big brown parcel with her name on it looks like a cushion – she will get a surprise when she opens it on Christmas Day to discover her horse quilt inside!

Emma is waiting for Christmas to arrive

Both girls are good cooks and Emma had a batch of decadent Chocolate Brownies in the oven – what a lovely chocolatey smell was wafting around! And a batch of chocolate peppermint fudge in the fridge too.  After lunch we had to go and say hello to Fire Dancer, Emma’s pride and joy.  She was just like a proud parent as she told us all the good points about her foal. 

Robin feeding Fire Dancer a carrot

We spent a lovely day with them, and came home with pressies and a bag of that delicious fudge.

Two Birthday Cushions–Delivered

It was a day out in the country for us on Sunday, when we drove up to the tiny rural hamlet of Kiwitea to have lunch with the family.  Passing by paddocks (fields) of bright yellow flowers – we presume that this is a canola crop.

Out in the country

The two grand-daughters were celebrating their birthdays, and I had a big parcel for each of them.  Almost too big to carry!

All wrapped up and ready to be delivered

Emma’s birthday was a few days ago, and she happily ripped the paper of the parcel.  I think she likes it!  What she doesn’t know is that I made the cushion from extra blocks from her new horse quilt, which is currently getting commercially quilted at the moment.

Happy with her large cushion

There is no doubt that Emma is a horse lover – wonder how many horse photos she has on her bedroom wall.

New cushion on Emma’s bed

Younger grand-daughter Megan came home for lunch and although there were several days to go till her actual birthdate, she just couldn't wait.  Off came the paper in a flash.  Yes, another happy birthday girl.  Megan flats in the town, and has since sent a “snap chat” photo showing her new cushion on her bed.

Megan likes her cushion too

After lunch I had to borrow a pair of gum boots (Wellingtons) to walk over the squelchy paddocks for a meet and greet with the horses.  This is always a requirement when we come up to the family small holding.  First we said hello to Fire Dancer, Emma’s foal.  We took carrots out for the horses  and they were gently taken from our hands.

Emma with Fire Dancer

Then to another paddock to check out Fire Dancer’s Mum, Sonata.  She had recently torn her leg but seems to be recovering well now.

Emma, Sonata and Robin

We had a lovely day catching up with them all, and a tasty lunch.  The bags of licorice we took up were pounced on with glee, not sure how long they will last.  Then it was time to say our goodbyes, and head back home.  Another lovely family day in the country.

High Tea at Kiwitea

It was time to deliver the pressies to my daughter and her family, who live in the tiny rural hamlet of Kiwitea, so we drove up to spend the day with them.  We exchanged gifts, with the proviso being that they were not to be opened till Christmas morning, despite the half hearted pleading from the grand-daughters.  My daughter Nicky told me excitedly that we were to have a High Tea for lunch, and she was busy putting the finishing touches on the table.  Knowing I like coffee she asked me, “You do drink tea, don’t you?” Of course we do (occasionally) I assured her, after all, the table was already set with dainty tea cups and saucers.  It wouldn’t have looked the part with some big chunky coffee cups towering over the pretty bone china cups and saucers.  Our lunch was lovely, and the three tiered cake stand was full of bite sized goodies.  We enjoyed asparagus rolls, small lady-like sized egg sandwiches and dainty little savoury muffins served with smoked salmon and cream cheese.  We followed these with scones topped with jam and cream, then nibbled on chocolate truffles and whole strawberries.

   High Tea, Kiwitea style

The Christmas decorations were out, and I noticed several which I had previously made for the family.  There was my “Countdown to Christmas” quilt hanging on the wall, and I certainly remembered making the red Santa with a bell on his hat, plus a couple of other items that I had given to the family over the years.   It took a little persuasion to gather the two girls for a  three generation family photo – I’m sure they weren’t quite this difficult when they were youngsters!  Finally everyone was in place, and we managed to snap a few photos for posterity.

G-D Emma, Jenny, daughter Nicky and G-D Megan

We had a lovely day together and caught up with all the family news.  We won’t be spending Christmas together but both families will be camping at different campsites.  Here’s hoping for warm sunny weather over the holiday season.

Hand made for Christmas

There was a huge pile of gifts under the Christmas Tree, all nicely wrapped up in festive paper.  Our family at Kiwitea like to start Christmas early.  Grand-daughter Emma woke up early and banged on the caravan door at 6.15am.  After all, there are presents that need unwrapping.

All the presents under the tree

One by the one gifts were passed around and unwrapped.  I had made several gifts this year and was interested to see how they would be received. 

Emma unwrapped her gifts and here she is with the Christmas Bon-bon on her knee, full of wrapped sweets.  I also presented her with a festive Kiwi, complete with a Santa hat on top of his head.  What did she think of these hand-made gifts?  I’m not too sure.  These were not my original choice of gifts for my grand-daughter – I had earlier made two items for her beloved little puppy.  But sadly the puppy met with an accident and passed away just prior to Christmas, so I had to quickly find alternative gifts for her.  

Christmas Kiwi

I stitched a Christmas apron for my daughter with a large appliquéd old fashioned Santa on the front.  With bright red ties I thought it looked very festive indeed.

Nicky’s Christmas apron

And how about a nice new oven cloth to go with that apron?  This is stitched with Christmas strips, has heat resistant wadding in the middle and backed with hessian.  “Oh good”, she said, I could do with a new one of those”.

Christmas oven cloth

Nicky wasn’t the only one with a Christmas apron, I decided to make one for myself as well. 

Nicky and Jenny modelling the Christmas aprons

While I was happily doing my Christmas stitching the last week or so, my daughter and grand-daughters were busy at their own hand made gifts.  Nicky makes and packages the most divine Russian fudge,  Emma made everyone chocolate fudge, and Megan made peppermint chocolates for us all.  Of course hand made is best!

Black & White and a Splash of Lime

We had lots of family celebrations in the weekend, including the 25th Anniversary for my daughter Nicky and her husband Robert. I had been working away for some time on a black and white, with lime accents quilt for them. To be honest, I had finished most of the top some months earlier and it was sitting there just waiting for me to add the black border. Time was marching on, and there was a bit of a last minute rush. Julie Lister, of Coastal Quilting, did a marvellous job and I collected the quilt with a couple of weeks spare to complete the binding and label. As we were spending the weekend at Himatangi Motor Camp, it was just a just an hours drive to visit the family on their small farm at Kiwitea. Several new horses plus Henny Penny the chook had arrived since our last visit so of course we had to walk over the paddocks to admire them. Emma proudly led her very pretty filly Saffron out to meet us.

Emma with Saffron

The working farm dogs were not terribly impressed with Emma’s new puppy Sasha, a foxie cross, who seems to be hyper active. A couple of nips from the big dogs soon put Sasha in her place, but her puppy brain soon forgot and she was rushing around all over the place again.

Jack and Sasha

After our delicious birthday dinner we collected the quilt (hidden away in the car) to give to Nicky and Robert. They had no idea that the quilt was coming, so it was a nice surprise. Nicky has commented some time ago that I had made the grand-daughters three quilts each and she only had one! So now she is up to number two.

Robert and Nicky admiring their new quilt

This quilt started with a collection of black and white squares that were swapped at the Southern Cross Quilters Retreat in Auckland way back in 2004. What to do with them? I decided to keep it simple and not to cut them up but to make dark/light 4 patch units and sash these together with lime green. It was soon apparent that my collection of squares would not be enough to make a queen sized quilt! No problem, I already had some nice black and whites in my stash and went shopping for others. To give even more variety, I asked my overseas quilting buddies if they could send me a few squares too. Quilters are generous people and always happy to oblige and I received a nice assortment from friends in England, USA, Australia., and not forgetting Canada. There are NZ and Aussie feature fabrics, spots, checks, stripes, cats, music, florals and goodness knows what else.

Black and White and a splash of Lime

The quilt had a life of it’s own and turned out quite large at 106 inches long by 90 inches wide. The photos do not show a true colour as the lime is much more yellow/green than is shown.

To all those Squilters who attended that long ago Retreat, thanks so much for swapping. And special thanks to my quilting pen friends who generously chopped bits off their own fabrics to send me. Now. that’s one UFO finished, which one shall I work on now?