The Sew Wots came calling

It was my turn to host the Sew Wots today, a small friendship group which meet fortnightly.  Moving away from Upper Hutt last year meant that I had to leave behind the couple of quilting groups I met with regularly.  So I am very pleased that I was invited to join this small group of friendly ladies who took me under their wings.  Although I joined the local Town and Country Quilters Guild and enjoy the monthly meetings, it is so nice to belong to a smaller group as well.  Thanks so much ladies, I really appreciate your fellowship and getting to know you all.

Pam, Heather, Rae, Moira and Mary

After having a “grand tour” of our new home, everyone settled down with their handwork as we chatted away.  Heather was stitching away on her hexagons, while Rae was working on her stitchery panel to be made into a cushion.  I got my knitting out, and Mary was working away on the prettiest little baby cribs.  She was crocheting around the base of the crib, which extends to a tiny draw string bag, so nice for little girls to carry around with them.  Inside the crib was a tiny little dolly, complete with a knitted dress, hat and panties.  I had never seen anything like it.

 The well dressed tiny dolly

Fast asleep in the baby crib

Moira had finished her sashiko panels with the Maori inspired designs and is now turning them into a set of placemats.  These will be packaged and sent all the way to Nova Scotia for a Christmas gift.

Place mat made by Moira

Some time ago the group took part in making a Row by Row quilt each, with Mary supplying the guidelines for each row.  These ideas could be open to interpretation, however the maker chose.  Two of the finished quilts were brought along today for Show and Tell.  It was interesting to see how they both turned out.

Pam’s Row by Row quilt

Mary hiding behind her Row by Row quilt

Our elderly cat Muffy spent the morning snuggled up on the couch beside Pam.  I commented that Pam should feel privileged, as Muffy decides whether or not she wants anything to do with visitors, depending on her mood, I think.  Pam does not have a cat anymore and really misses her pets, so it was nice that Muffy was happy to share the couch with her.  

Muffy and her new friend Pam

Seeing other peoples work is always inspiring so when the Sew Wot ladies left I had a rummage around through a crate full of UFOs.  There are plenty there, and some I had forgotten about.  One only needs a border added, so I pulled that one out of the crate to think about.  I don’t think I’ll ever run out of something to sew!

Stitching in the Sunshine

Spent a bit of time yesterday as the sewing machine, finishing off the quilting on my eagle wall hanging, then sewing the binding on.  I took advantage of the lovely warm Spring weather today and sat outside at the picnic table pinning then stitching the binding down.  It may be little but it still took me ages to sew right around.  Here’s a peek at what I’ve been working on.

Just a little peek

Backing fabric 

The hanging sleeve and label will be next.  Then I have a few embellishments to add, and I may well need some advice on how best to attach them.  Luckily my quilting buddies,  the Sew Wots  are meeting at my place on Tuesday, so I’m sure I will get plenty of good advice from them.  Guess I’ll need another stint on kitchen duties to whip up a few tasty treats for morning tea for when they come.

Sadly, too busy to Stitch

There hasn’t been much sewing happening here lately, I’m sad to say, I’ve been much too busy to stitch.  Instead, I seem to have been spending an awful lot of time in the kitchen.  I had some very special baking to do yesterday, when I baked a long awaited carrot cake with cream cheese icing for Robin’s birthday.  That certainly put a big smile on his face.  And I also prepared the fruit for a batch of of marmalade yesterday too.  So all in all, I seemed to be standing for hours, slaving away at the kitchen bench.  But all for a good cause.

We took a road trip to Palmy this morning to buy Robin’s birthday gift, a new Ryobi drill.  Plus a few bits and pieces for the back garden, a couple of shrubs, some weed mat and some bark chips to put on top and keep the weeds away.  Hopefully, the garden will get finished in the weekend.  Then in the afternoon I finished off my marmalade, after the chopped fruit had been soaking overnight.  I felt a bit like one of the witches in Macbeth as I stood over the boiling pan of fruit.  “Double,double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

But the results were well worth the effort, as I ladled the golden marmalade into the jam jars, and listened to the satisfying “pops” as the jars started to seal tight.  Doesn’t it look nice?   Not bad for my first effort in the art of marmalade making, I feel.

My first time making marmalade

Read the recipe before starting

It pays to read the recipe first, doesn’t it?  But no, I didn’t bother.  I was all set to make some marmalade, something I had never done before.  Although I’ve made plenty of jam in my time, but marmalade was a different proposition altogether.  We were visiting friends last week in their new house and they had a huge  grapefruit tree covered in fruit in the back garden.  But they, like Robin, can’t eat grapefruit because of their medication.  I don’t have the same problem, so I gathered up a big bag of the luscious fruit to take home, and have been enjoying a nice fresh grapefruit most mornings for breakfast.  And before I ate them all, I decided to make some marmalade.

Robin was sent up to the attic to retrieve my large preserving pan, and I got to work.  Oh no, it said in the recipe to prepare the fruit, add some water and then leave it soaking overnight!  I didn’t know you had to do that – but if I’d read the recipe earlier I would have.

Oh dear - what a mess I made getting it all ready  (I always say I’m a messy cook!)  I had to peel the fruit first, and cut it up.  Not finely, as it said, I like my marmalade nice and chunky.  Then the flesh from the grapefruit, oranges and lemons were cut up and put into the food processor in batches.  By the time I had finished  there was juice everywhere.  But the fruit was ready, and soaking, and I’ll cook it all up tomorrow in my big pan. 

Stage one of making marmalade

I had another job to do in the kitchen as well.  Today is Robin’s birthday so I decided to make him a cake.  Not just any cake, but a carrot cake.  Each year, he trots out the story of one particular birthday some time ago when I had promised him a home made carrot cake, but didn’t get around to making it.  Why?  Who knows, that part of the story is lost in the mists of time after all these years.  But here it is at last, a carrot cake with cream cheese icing, just for the birthday boy.

Happy Birthday to Robin

And finally, he’s got his carrot cake

Colonial Hand Craft at Golder Cottage

It was a step back to bygone colonial years when we visited the quaint little Golder Cottage in Upper Hutt.  This was built in 1876 by John Golder, home to his wife Jane and their 12 children.  Jane was the first white girl child born in Upper Hutt.  John added extra rooms to the cottage as the babies kept coming, and he also made much of the household furniture.  As we looked around the cottage, and climbed the very steep staircase to the two tiny upstairs bedrooms, we wondered where on earth the family of 14 all slept.  A lovely selection of hand stitched clothing was displayed in many of the rooms, such pin tucked and lace adorned garments are always a delight to see.

  Baby’s cot and clothing

The very steep roof line in the upstairs bedrooms

Downstairs there was plenty of hand craft of the period to admire.  A sewing machine and a spinning wheel were set up just waiting for the busy lady of the house to start work.  There were several aprons stitched with glamorous designs.

A hand embroidered apron

This hexagon patchwork quilt,  was stitched by a local lady using remnants of her sister's frocks.

Quilt by Elyse Boyce of Upper Hutt made 1940s

I learnt to sew on one of these

Display of hand made lace

Particularly poignant were the white crotched mantle banners with patriotic wording which were attached to two timber fireplace surrounds, and presumably date from WW1.  One banner said:  “God bless our soldiers in the trenches and our sailors on the seas.  God send them safely home”.  The other banner stated:  “Keep the home fires burning till the boys come home to Bonnie Scotland”. 

Sitting room with mantle banner and family photos

Sadly, John Golder was killed in 1902 when his horse bolted and the trap overturned.  Jane was left a widow with a very large family and there was no such thing as a Widow’s Pension to help out in those days.  Their eldest son Alexander never married, and helped with bringing up the family.  Jane Golder died in 1942, and the cottage stayed in the family for another 40 or so years when daughter Theresa Golder moved into a rest home at the grand old age of 92.  Ownership of the cottage was transferred to the Upper Hutt City Council to preserve it as part of the city’s heritage.  We enjoyed a very interesting morning seeing how the early settlers lived in colonial times.

Golder Cottage, Upper Hutt

Table Runner – finished at last

It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally finished the table runner.  Now I have two for the coffee table, to ring the changes.  I used some of the left over curtain fabric in both, the same green for the borders, but different neutral fabrics and both are made in different styles.  I’m quite pleased with my effort – what do you think?

The new table runner

So now the big question is, what do I work on next?  Go back to my eagle wall hanging perhaps?  Or maybe my Christmas quilt which I’m halfway through quilting?  Or then again something completely different from my UFO pile?  As Alex Anderson used to say on her TV programme, the possibilities are endless!

Quilting Shades of Green table runner

Back on track again with the green table runner, I finished quilting in the ditch between the strips.  Now – what shall I do in the middle square?  Something a bit more interesting that straight lines, I thought.  Perhaps something swirly?  I’m certainly not an expert machine quilter, by any means, so spent a little time looking through some books for inspiration.  After finding a suitable pattern, the next question was how to mark it on the top.  Then I remembered that I had bought a roll of Golden Threads quilting paper some time ago.

Golden Threads quilting paper

This is rather like tissue paper.  So I traced out the design, pinned it in place and quilted around the lines.

Just follow the traced lines

And the bonus was that the paper ripped away easily when I had finished.

The paper half removed

I was really impressed with this product.  According to the instructions, it is also easy to make multiple copies of the same design.  Just trace one, then layer with 5 or 6 other sheets and machine stitch around the lines without any thread in the machine.  How easy is that!

The binding is on the runner, so my next job is to sit quietly and hand stitch it down.  Maybe today, or maybe tomorrow, we’ll see how the day pans out.