Bouquet for a Golden Wedding

We took a caravan trip to sunny Hastings for a very special mission, to hand over the gift of a quilt.  My sister Kathleen and her husband Dennis will shortly be celebrating their Golden Wedding but unfortunately we will be away travelling on the actual date.  But there is nothing wrong with an early gift, is there?  50 years together is certainly a wonderful achievement and I have been quietly working away on a shaggy quilt for them both.  “Bouquet for a Golden Wedding” features all sorts of soft floral fabrics set against green, to give the look of a cottage garden.  And for a 50th wedding anniversary touch, I added golden  flowers appliquéd against a white background.

Kathleen and Dennis with their anniversary quilt

I made the appliqué blocks first, then a whole heap of the three layer floral blocks, floral square on top, then a  winceyette (flannel) square, and a green background square, all secured with two corner to corner quilting lines.  All these blocks were laid out on the living room floor while I crawled around arranging the blocks.  You know what it’s like, you just can’t have two pinks together, and perhaps I  need a bit more contrast just there.  Rather than sewing the squares together in rows, I tackled the construction by stitching a series of 9 patches together.  With a shaggy quilt, there is no extra quilting to do, but oh my, all that snip, snip snipping that has to be done! 

Time to snip some more seams

A quick wash, and the quilt was hung up outside to dry on a breezy sunny day, and finished off in the dryer to make sure those snipped seams are really fluffed up.  Stitched the label on and there, all done and ready, with plenty of time to spare.  That’s certainly a good feeling!

50th Anniversary quilt

Thanks for calling

We were spending the weekend at a caravan rally in Clareville, just north of Carterton, in the Wairarapa.  A car pulled up in the grounds and a young woman with a big beaming smile asked me “Are you Jenny?” It was fellow quilter and blog reader Helen from the Wairarapa who read that we were staying “over the hill” and called in to say hello.  What a lovely surprise!  Helen said that she felt she knew us, as she keeps up with both our caravan adventures and my quilting life through our blogs, and the pair of us had previously exchanged several e-mails.  She kindly brought some home baking, still warm from the oven, and smelling divine.  We spent a lovely time chatting, swapping stories, and getting to know each other.  Thanks so much for calling Helen.  It was so nice to finally meet you, and spend some time together.

Not once, but twice!

How did he do it?  Robin had caught the pocket of his shorts on a protruding part of the caravan, and ripped a right angle tear in his shorts.  Never mind, I told him, I’ll probably be able to fix them for you.  He changed his ripped shorts for another pair, and blow me down, but he did it again.  How did he do it - not just once, but twice?  He was mortified, and really wasn’t quite sure how it had happened.

  Two pair of ripped shorts

After I  had partially unpicked the pocket to give me room to manoeuvre, I put a patch behind the rip and zig zagged it securely in place.  Then stitched the pocket back, and threw the shorts in the washing machine.  The mend should hold just as long as he doesn’t do the same thing all over again!  What is a wife to do when mending is required?  It makes me appreciate sewing for pleasure the next time I sit at the sewing machine.

My birthday is finally over

Two more parcels arrived from overseas from my quilting pen-friends and now my birthday is finally over.  It is so nice to get parcels in the mail, instead of bills!  Rose from UK sent me a parcel containing several interesting things.  She had made the lovely little purse, using floral  fabric that is very similar to our native pohutakawa blossoms.  Here in N Z  we call the pohutakawa tree the New Zealand Christmas tree, as it is covered in red blossoms tipped with yellow and always flowers in time for Christmas.  Inside the purse was a brooch and a charm, and Rose sent me a lovely Christmas panel as well.  We have been lucky to meet Rose and her beloved Bill (now sadly passed away) on our two trips to England. 

Goodies from Rose in UK

My last parcel came from Carol, in South Dakota.  Carol and I have been corresponding for many years, in fact she was my very first quilting pen-friend.  We have shared such a lot over the years, letters, photos, news of family and of course our quilting stories too.  Carol sent me a half metre of fabric showing all the States, plus two pins.

From Carol, USA

It has certainly been an exciting few weeks with several parcels arriving for me.  But my extended birthday is finally over, thank goodness says Robin, I'm sure he thinks it has gone on much too long! 

Out with the Cats and in with the Hearts

It was time to change the quilt.  Our winter quilt has nice cosy wool batting and is so deliciously warm over the cold months of winter.  With fluffy flannelette sheets on the bed too I am toasty warm, just as I like it.  With the weather warming up it was time for a change.  The winter cat quilt in pink and grey was getting grubby and needed a wash, especially as our cat Muffy liked to snuggle up on the same part of the bed  night after night.  As soon as a nice breezy day came along that quilt was off the bed, carefully washed, and flapping in the breeze.  The pale pink background fabric has faded over time, as have some of the cat blocks, but this quilt is just so lovely and warm with the wool batting.

My favourite winter quilt

Our anniversary is 5th November, so I like to have our special anniversary quilt on the bed  by then.  This one was made three years ago for our 25th Anniversary, and is full of hearts in various sizes and shapes and stars.  It always looks so fresh and bright after all those different hues of grey cats on the bed over the winter.

Anniversary quilt

Then after a month or so I will no doubt have yet another quilt change.  That’s what happens when one has an assortment of bed quilts, after all that work that goes into the making, we want to give them all a turn.  What do other quilters do?  Do you ring the changes with the seasons too?

Christmas Tree Decoration exchange

Names were pulled out of the hat a couple of months ago at my “Friendship Group”.  The criteria was that we had to make a small  decoration to hang on  a Christmas Tree, for the person we were allocated.  For a procrastinator like me, that was rather daunting!  First step was to browse through my collection of Christmas magazines.  Mmmm, how about this, or maybe that?  Perhaps this other one will be better?  I had about a dozen projects earmarked, then it was a process of elimination.  And as I kept looking, the time was steadily ticking away.  With two weeks to go, I finally started work on my secret project.  I knew that “my” person liked the traditional dark red and green of Christmas, as I had previously seen her working on a quilt in these colours.  So I cut out the fabrics, and diligently stitched away.  The finished item didn’t look too bad, but I felt it needed a little something extra.  The addition of cording made all the difference, but it took an absolute age to stitch on.  At last it was finished, with a whole week to spare.  Thank goodness for that.  I do hope Helen likes it.

Christmas Heart I made for Helen

We met last evening for our November meeting.  Happy chatter filled the room as we caught up with everyone and did a little hand stitching.  After “show and tell” to see what had been finished during the month, the little gifts were exchanged.  As each one was opened we all shared in the excitement, oohing and aahing as the Christmas tree ornaments were opened, then held up for us all to admire.   There were hearts, Christmas stockings, angels, a Christmas ball, Christmas pillows, cute little mice, and something I’d never seen before, a set of delicious smelling cinnamon tree ornaments.  Every item was personalised to the recipient, and they were all beautiful and gratefully received.   We laid them out on the table so we could have a close look, and take photos.

Look at all these lovely Christmas decorations

Cheryl’s gift to me, to be filled with choccies, she suggested

It was a lovely evening, and we all took home a very special hand made gift made “just for us”.  Thanks so much, ladies, they will all be treasured, I’m sure.

More birthday gifts in the post

My birthday has been and gone, but a few more gifts have arrived in our letter box from quilting friends overseas.  How exciting!  Two parcels arrived from Australia.  Elaine sent me a very pretty magnetic notepad, decorated with “Wedding Ring” quilt blocks.  Elaine and her husband are fellow caravanners and she often says that she is now a quilter because of my influence.  So of course I am very proud to have brought another quilter “into the fold”.  The other parcel to arrive from Aussie is a machine embroidered cloth from Janet.  I’m fairly sure that the design she embroidered is a native called a Desert Pea, please feel free to correct me if I have the name wrong.  She also embroidered the name of her home town,  Murray Bridge, in South Australia.

Quilt inspired notepad and embroidered cloth

Also in the post was a CD of designs, full of stars, geometric patterns, and other designs which have an Art Noveau flowing look to them.  These are quite inspirational and could be adapted quite easily to quilt patterns.  Thanks Judy, for this.  I’ve been told that there is one more parcel heading my way from England, so my birthday isn’t quite over just yet, lucky me.