Getting Things Ready

I’m off to a UFO day tomorrow, my quilt club Town and Country Quilters arranges them from time to time.  My first priority is to decide which of my many UFOs I should take to work on.  Sadly, I’ve got heaps, and some of them don’t see the light of day for ages.  I’ve got quilt blocks to put together, an appliqué  border to organise, a couple of wall-hangings to get pinned up ready to machine quilt.  But did I chose any of these projects?  Nope – something completely different.

Decision made,  I’ve been busy getting things ready. First, I decided, I would work on my burgundy and cream log cabin quilt.  I’ve made all the paper pieced blocks for the top, so decided that some mindless sewing on the paper pieced borders would be suitable.  This is just easy sew, flip and press stitching, no hard thinking required.  So I’ve cut some more burgundy strips, and I’m all set to go.

Burgundy strips cut for tomorrow

Maybe I’ll get all those burgundy blocks done in the morning and need something else to work on (she says hopefully).   I need to make some appliqué leaf blocks for the alternate blocks in my daughter’s quilt.  I’ve cut the homespun to size, collected up my greens, fusible web and the leaf patterns, so I can get on with this if I have the time.  Even if I just trace out the shapes and fuse them onto the calico blocks, it will be a good start.

The start of appliqué blocks

I’ll throw in my hand stitching into the big bag too, you just never know how the time goes – I would hate to run out of things to do!  Mind you, with cuppas during the day, stopping for lunch, meeting, greeting, and seeing what everyone else is working on, the hours will fly by.

As well as all this prep work, I’ve been busy in the kitchen this afternoon too.  We’re having roast chicken, roast veggies, stuffing and gravy for our evening meal, followed by apple crumble for dessert.  And I made a batch of Anzac biscuits too.  They are full of oats, so they must be good for us.  There should be plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night as well, when I come back tired from my day out sewing.

Yummy Anzac Biscuits

A little mending – and an Op Shop bargain

“Can you fix this?”, Robin asked in a plaintive voice.  He had been wielding the carving knife and obviously hadn’t been paying close attention.  It sliced right through the cuff of his jumper.  It’s lucky he didn’t cut his wrist.

How did he do this?

So I stitched it up as best I could - it’s not an invisible mend, but at least his jumper is wearable once again.  It’s his favourite, purchased in Scotland during our last UK trip.

I had other mending to do too, once more fix the pockets on a pair of Robin’s shorts.  I did it differently this time, when my neighbour told me how she used to tackle this problem.  Just slice off the bottom of the inside pocket which has worn, use this bit to cut a new piece to shape, and stitch back on.  It worked a treat, and the pocket was repaired in a much shorter time.

Today I popped down to the local Hospice Shop and came across a bargain.  Two bags of knitting cotton at $2 a bag.  So now I will get the needles out again and knit up a few more dusters.  That will keep me quiet for a while.

Knitting cotton from the Op Shop

Sew Wot Tuesday Morning

Another fortnight has rolled around and it was time for the Sew Wot ladies to meet up again.  Heather kindly gave me a lift, and we were surprised to see an errant sheep running across the road.  I didn’t realise that there were sale yards down by the railway track, and this sheep obviously didn’t want to go to a new home.  Just hope the two men running hell for leather after the poor frightened animal managed to reach it before it ran across the very busy SH1 and caused an accident.

As usual, there was plenty of talking going on, and a little hand sewing.  Our hostess Mary was finishing off a pretty pinafore for one of her grandchildren, while Rae and Moira got on with their embroidery.  There was just a little show and tell.  Pam was busy stitching down the binding on a wall-hanging she had just finished for her son, and held it up for us to see.  This panel has been  beautifully commercially quilted by Paula of Rabbits Patch Quilting.  Paula’s quilting really made the horses come alive.

Pam with her horse quilt

Helen had a finished quilt to show us too.  She related how her grandson had been staying and had spotted a quilt on the cover of a magazine which he liked – but not the colours shown in the picture.  Helen sent him along to her stash to pick out which colours he would like.  And this is the result.  For someone so young, he’s obviously got quite an eye for colour.  Helen is a very talented quilter too, and she used variegated thread on this quilt.

Quilt for Helen’s grand-son

Just look at that quilting

I had a little show and tell too, but knitting, not quilting.  Recently I had been given some part rolls of knitting cotton and  have made several cotton dusters.  These are from a pattern I found on the Make it Do blog, an interesting blog which is full of sewing, cooking and household hints. The pattern I used is “Aunt Ev’s Favourite Dish Cloth”.  It is knitted corner to corner and it nice easy mindless knitting which can be done while watching TV without having to concentrate.  This type of cotton knitting yarn is quite expensive to buy here in New Zealand, so I was pleased to make use of the part rolls and give this pattern a try.  The bright pink one is the first one I tried and I used a part ball of acrylic yarn I was given.  Much too nice for dishes, I’m going to use mine as dusters.

Hand knitted dusters

The Sew Wot hostess always puts on a tasty morning tea, so that is a standard I have to achieve when my turn rolls around again.  Thanks ladies, it was lovely to catch up with you all again.

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all Mums everywhere.  We have been away in the caravan this weekend but caught up with daughter Nicky last week for a nice lunch in Palmerston North.  She presented me a pot of lovely fragrant pink hyacinths, so beautiful.  What she doesn’t know is that I was thinking of buying myself some, but decided against it, so I am really pleased with her choice.

Blooming Beautiful!

As we knew we would be away for the weekend, we took Robin’s Mum out for an early Mother’s Day lunch on Thursday. to the delightful Te Horo Cafe.  Her gift was a pot of pretty tulips.

Robin and his Mum

My son Michael often says that he thinks Mother’s Day is a .load of commercial claptrap, but maybe he might remember to give his old Mum a phone call tonight.  And he finally did.  Sometimes I need to phone him instead to remind him it’s Mother’s Day!

Fashion in the Afternoon

There was a ticket going spare to Ballantynes Fashion Parade at Summerset Retirement Home, just down the road from our village.  So I didn’t need too much persuasion to go along with a couple of other ladies and see what was new in the winter fashion stakes.  The clothes were provided by the local Ballantynes shop, and the models and compere were Summerset residents.  Visitors and residents all gathered in the recreation room, eagerly waiting for the show to start.

A nice selection of winter jackets, trousers, knitwear, tops, skirts, scarves and jewellery were paraded up and down the red carpet.  Later in the show we saw some lighter floaty jackets, just right for an evening out on the town.  Seeing the garments modelled on more mature ladies instead of stick thin girls made it easier to visualise if these items would suit ourselves.  Black seems to be very “in” this year, on it’s own or combined with red or white, and lots of teal blue, I noticed.

Models for the day

A short musical interlude was provided by members of the Summerset Choir.  My friend Robyn was involved, she must have been a ring-in as she is not a resident.  A lovely rendition of “Danny Boy” was sung by Brian, with Vaughn on guitar, and the ladies providing the background harmony.

Singing Danny Boy, with my friend Robyn third from the left

The raffles for a $50 voucher were drawn, but it wasn’t my lucky day.  Then a delicious afternoon tea was served, just scrummy.  All in all a very enjoyable afternoon.

Angels in Gumboots

Although I’m on the mailing list for Angels in Gumboots, in Ashhurst, this was my first opportunity to call in and see this shop.  I met up with the owner Tracey who had a stand at the Kowhai Quilters exhibition in Feilding a couple of months ago.  We are currently away in our caravan for the weekend, camping at the Ashhurst Domain Camp Ground, read about it here on our other blog.

I chatted to the friendly ladies at the shop, and was given permission to take photos.  Each quilt shop is different, and has it’s own particular personality.  There is a nice range of fabrics, threads, buttons and such-like, and a lovely large class room too.

Goodies on display

I found a couple of green fat quarters to take home which will work well in the quilt I’m making for my daughter, and bought some fusible web for appliqué too.  There were lots of lovely quilts on display.  I particularly loved this beautiful Lone Star quilt, done in a large floral fabric and a black back-ground.

Lone Star quilt

Colourful row by row quilt

Stitchery Block of the Month

If you are passing by Ashhurst, do pop in to Angels in Gumboots, you will be made most welcome. 

New Book in the Mail

Look what the postman brought me – a new book.  I had only ordered it a few days ago, so was very pleased it arrived so promptly.  My new book is called “Adding Layers”, by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsessions.

Kathy likes to do things big and fast.  Or as she says, quick and easy results which fit into a busy life.  I can see several designs which have taken my fancy.

But……..sadly, there is a downside.  Clearly, I had not done my homework properly before rushing off and ordering this book.  The pattern I really want to make is “Soul Searching”  from another of Kathy’s books, Making Quilts, the Promise of Joy.  This is a delectable mountain type of block, using 4 blocks arranged in groups of the same colour.    I know the block is made up of 2 1/2inch strips.  Can someone help me please?  I just need to know how long to cut each light and dark strip to make a quarter of the block.