Noah’s Ark Stitcheries and Knitting

I’ve finally found time to work on my small Noah’s Ark stitcheries, these are designed by Lynette Anderson-O’Rourke.  I took these away on our South Island trip earlier in the year, and worked on them at various stops on our holiday.  Sadly they have been “out of sight, out of mind” for a wee while.

The first small block completed were a couple of very friendly penguins, holding hands as they walk into the Ark.  Aren't they cute!

Penguins

Next were two strange looking blue birds, clutching a silver fish in their beaks, while each were astride a tortoise.  Two by two, they enter the Ark.  These blocks may be small,but they take a while to do.

Birds on a tortoise

As for my knitting, I have now finished the fronts of my navy blue cardigan, but still have the button bands to knit.  And I’ve started the sleeves.  Just like the fronts, I knit these at the same time on the needles.

Two fronts done

Happy Mother’s Day to all those who celebrate on this Sunday.  My daughter Nicky sent me a parcel containing home made chocolates and a pretty pink crocheted book mark.  My son Michael gave a call later in the evening, so that was nice too – especially as he usually ignores Mother’s Day.

Hand made gifts from Nicky

I’m cooking up our own Mother’s Day feast for dinner.  Corned beef, carrots, parsnips, and cabbage in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, mustard sauce, and some Spicy Apple Cake I had tucked away in the freezer.  Sounds good to me!

More Orange RSC Blocks

Very simple sewing,  I stitched another group of Horizon blocks, designed by the very talented  Lynn Dykstra, check out her blog https://kleinmeisjequilts.blogspot.com/2022/04/horizon-quilt-completed.html.  I had to go shopping for some more pieces of grey and orange, plus some black and orange yardage too.  The orange yardage will also be used in another half done project,  in the future. 

These Horizon blocks are quick to make, always a good point when making RSC blocks.

Orange Horizon blocks

I've also been working on machine quilting one (of two)  of my RSC four patch quilts.  This project has been carried over from 2021 when I discovered a bag of four patch units I had stitched up for another project, whatever that may have been.  The quilt was assembled mid 2022, and I’m only now getting on with the machine quilting.  Lots of lines of serpentine stitch here, I find this much easier than stitch in the ditch.

Four patch quilt

I try not to sit too long at the machine at one time, and when I've finished for the day, Gemma likes nothing more that to settle down nice and comfy on top of the quilt on the cabinet..

Don't disturb me, I’m snoozing

It’s been a Busy few Days

It certainly has been busy, starting with the Coronation on Saturday.  Or in our case, living in New Zealand with the time difference, Saturday night.  The TV coverage started at the very civilized time of 7.00pm, and we settled down to watch.  With a glass of Kahlua and milk in my hand to toast the momentous occasion.  And what an occasion it was, full of pomp and ceremony as only the Brits can do.

The Coronation ceremony stretches back more than one thousand years and represents God's blessing. The ceremony progressed, finally arriving at the most sacred part, when the King is anointed behind screens.  Following the anointment, the King is then prepared for the crowning, which is carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The oil was consecrated by the patriarch of Jerusalem and the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem.

The screens were designed by  Aidan Hart and worked on by the Royal School of Needlework, the designs taking inspiration from the stained glass sanctuary window in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, which was gifted by the Livery Companies to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee in 2002. According to the Royal Family, King Charles personally selected the design.  With the monarchy’s cipher at the bottom—to represent the king’s position as servant to the people—the screen boasts 56 leaves to pay homage to the British Commonwealth’s 56 member states.  And New Zealand, together with Australia, had a part to play in making the screens, the wool for the backdrop was sourced from both Australia and New Zealand, but was milled in the United Kingdom. 

It was a long night indeed, and after watching the balcony appearance, we finally made it to bed at 2.00am, tired but so pleased to be able to witness this historic occasion.  I was around for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, a young 8 year old,  and there was no TV in our country way back then.  My first fleeting brush with royalty came during the Queen’s tour to New Zealand.   All the children from my school were given flags, and we lined up along the main road waiting till she drove past, frantically waving our flags.

Rising a bit late on Sunday, Robin still did the honours and produced our usual Sunday morning cooked breakfast.  Later in the morning I used up the last of our feijoas to make some muffins.

We’ve been cooking

Just as well I did make some muffins as we had a visit from grand-daughter Megan later in the afternoon.  She had driven down to Wellington to help her friend who was looking for a wedding dress.  Not an easy task, it seems, and the prices are horrendous.  Not only that, but the bride-to-be had to pay a fee at the shop for the privilege of trying some dresses on.  I had never heard of that.  Megan stopped and chatted for an hour or so, before heading back home.  She reminded me that it had taken some persuasion on her part before I finally knitted her a pair of socks!  So we checked through my sock yarn and she has selected what she liked for her next pair of hand knitted socks.  No promises when they will get completed though.

Me with Megan

Tuesday was Sew Wot Tuesday again, and we met at Mary’s lovely home.  With everyone having a tidy up in their sewing rooms lately, I took along a little something lurking about in my sewing cabinet drawers to see if Mary was interested.  It was a needle holder with pockets to slip needle packets in, and as Mary was the only one in our group who seems to do hand quilting I thought she might like it, as I had never used it at all.  Yes, she was delighted to take it off my hands.

This found a new home

Of course, there was show and tell as well.  Carol started this off showing Emily, a beautifully knitted doll and clothes.  Emily will be staying with Carol for a while, I think.   Plus two small knitted teddies which will be going to the Neo Natal unit. 

Emily and teddies

Heather had brought along a pretty knitted blanket.  This started last Christmas when everyone at the Spinning and Weavers group she attends brought along a wrapped ball of wool for a Christmas swap.  Heather’s gift was a ball of teal wool, and she added the brown alpaca yarn to knit her blanket.  Each of the teal blocks has a different pattern, and she finished it off with a knitted lacy edge. 

Heather’s knitted blanket

Heather is an avid sock knitter and had just finished a pair of socks for her grand daughter, nice and colourful, aren't they.

made for Heather’s grand daughter

Jude had been knitting socks too.  Not one, but two pair of socks for her son. 

Lucky boy, two pair of hand made socks

Mary had a top to show us, made with beautiful batiks.  Called “Skipping Stones” it is made up of nice big blocks with a partial seam.. Not too hard at all, Mary said.

Skipping Stones

Mary enjoys crochet too, and brought out her gorgeous Pandemic blanket to show us.  Made in shades of white and grey, it is wonderful.  I really admire people who can crochet with ease, it’s something I cannot do.

Pandemic blanket

There were a few WIPs brought along too.  I had taken my purple clam shells to show the slow progress I had made, pin, pin, pin, and carefully stitch along the curved lines. I’m still getting the occasional tuck which needs to be fixed, but not as bad when I first got back to this project.  It I can do several rows each week I’ll be happy.  And Sandra had brought along two WIPs to show us.  After completing a pansy quilt for her Aunty, she decided that she should be making one for her other Aunty too, and decided on star blocks.  The other blocks are inspired by a quilt Jude had made featuring 1.5in strips, so Sandra is working on that design too.

Sandra’s WIPs

We spent a lovely morning together, morning tea was served, but no photo was taken, obviously we were all enjoying it so much.  Thanks to Mary for being hostess, and she had a little surprise for us when we were leaving.  Her garden had produced several pumpkins, so Mary chopped one up into pieces for us to take home.  So nice, I love pumpkin.

Orange RSC Sewing

I’ll be honest and say that orange is certainly not one of my favoured colours.  But I did my best and went hunting for a few scraps to stitch my orange blocks for the month, luckily finding a few bits and pieces.  Mmmm, think I need to take a trip to my LQS, as well as a little orange fabric to add to what I have I need sewing thread, black and grey fabric and more batting.  And, just because I could, I added a new magazine too, I hardly ever purchase these.  It was a very wet drive along a busy road and I was pleased to get back home safely.  You don't want to know how much this little lot cost me – but good quality quilting fabric is very expensive here in New Zealand, as was the quilt mag.

I needed a few items

I’m one of those quilters who always washes my fabric first, so once that was done, dried and pressed I was ready to go.  First up was my Little Bricks blocks, six little orange ones, using up some odds and ends of fabric I had to hand.   Oh look, there is some butterfly fabric, from my 2022 butterfly blocks, still not assembled.   I love these cute little bricks, thanks to Sylvia for sharing her pattern. 

Little Bricks in orange

Happy blocks are always fun to make and I found four little boys squares which will do for orange.  Teddys, bouncing balls, animals all dressed up, and space aliens.

Boys Happy blocks

Four Happy blocks for a little girl too.  I found a square of the cutest little frogs in a flower garden, blackbirds, poodle, flower pots and birds.  I’m getting quite a stack of these Happy blocks now.

Happy blocks for a little girl

No doubt we will be glued to the TV watching the Coronation tonight.  We are 12 hours ahead of London time so I’m not sure if we will stay up till the wee hours.  I can remember Queen Elizabeth coming out to New Zealand in 1953, when I was 8 years old.  All the children from my school were given flags, and we lined up along the main road waiting till she drove past, frantically waving our flags.  I’m not sure what I expected a Queen to look like, but she was there and gone in a flash.  Goodness  me, that’s a long time ago, isn't it.

Autumn is here

Autumn has well and truly arrived.  Cool mornings and evenings, the sun is rising later and setting earlier, but we are still enjoying nice crisp sunny days.  It’s time to ring the changes and hang my Autumn quilt up.  I love the rich golden colours in this quilt.  The centre baskets came in a kit sent to me from my pen friend  in South Dakota.  I wanted to make it bigger so put the baskets on point and added borders to make it a wall hanging size.  This was the first time I tried circular spiral machine quilting.

Baskets of Blessings, made in 2015

Autumn is a time of plenty, with feijoas and apples in abundance.  We have been gifted bags of feijoas, which I love, but Robin is not keen at all.  There are some left over, so I’ll probably use them in baking, perhaps some muffins and fruit loaf.  And Mary gave all the Sew Wot ladies a bag of super sized wonderful cooking apples from her own garden, thanks so much Mary.  These have been put to good use and enjoyed.

Feijoas and cooking apples

So what else have we been doing?  We had a busy day of medical appointments last week.  First, we had a 10.00am appointment at the hospital, and you can imagine the scarcity of parking at that time of day.  The car park was full to bursting with everyone attending a multitude of clinics, so round and round we drove.  Finally we spotted a spare car park, thank goodness for that. Inside the hospital it was a matter of masks on, sanitize hands,  and follow the orange line on the floor. 

 

We were here to see the orthopaedic surgeon who had done Robin’s knee replacement.  But first  Robin was whisked away for a couple of knee x-rays, then  we were ushered in to a consultation room and the surgeon breezed in.  The x-rays are fine, we were told, Robin’s previous knee replacement has healed well, and the surgeon could see the up-to-date state of the other knee.  Mmmm, that needs replacing too, we were told, probably get done in a few months time.  Documents will be sent out shortly with all the details.  So that was great news all round.  One knee done,  one to go.

Leaving the hospital we went to find the Covid drop-in clinic where we could get both the flu jab and the Covid booster at the same time.  Giving our details we sat and waited our turn, and before we knew it, a friendly and very informative nurse took us into her room.  There she went over details, answered questions, and delivered the flu jab, followed by the Covid vaccine.  All done quickly and efficiently, and we hardly felt a thing.  Such excellent service indeed.

Vaccinations done

With the medical business taken care of, we went for a quick lunch before traveling back home,  we’ve got a weekend caravan rally to attend.  The caravan was packed and ready, and we set off to Shannon School, not too far away from home.  When we arrived and were set up, Gemma found the caravan wardrobe door open.  Just the place to explore, she thought.  She loves little hidey holes like this to settle down and peep out of.

Can you see me hiding in here?

On Saturday afternoon of the rally Robin and I had planned a mystery tiki tour of the local area, to conclude with a BYO afternoon tea.  Cars were shared and off we went.  First stop was quite a marvel of engineering, the Moutoa Sluice Gates.  These were built in 1962 as a flood protection measure.  The Manawatu River here runs very sluggishly, and when in flood the river would overwhelm the stop banks and flood farmland.  The sluice gates cause much of the river flow to take a short cut, bypassing 30km of low capacity river channel, directing the flow down the 10km Moutoa Floodway.  The holding area in front of the gates was very wet and muddy and the gates had been in opened earlier in the  week.

Moutoa Sluice Gates

Continuing on our mystery trip we back tracked down the road to stop at the site of the WW11 Whitaunui Military Defaulters Camp, one of two in the area.  Sadly, nothing to see now, but in it’s time the two camps housed 250 conscientious objectors. The huts used to house the men were built by the Public Works Dept., mostly two men huts measuring 8ft by 10ft together with some single men huts.  The unheated huts were furnished with beds and straw mattresses, a pillow, and old army blankets.  The men were also provided with a small table and stool.  You could imaging how cold the winter conditions would be.  The men were required to work in wet conditions, cutting flax.  One of the more famous detainees was Rex Hillary, brother of Sir Edmund Hillary, hero of New Zealand.  On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Housing for conscientious objectors

Back in the cars again we headed up to the hills for our final stop, the Mangahao National White Water Centre.  No races down the river this day, of course, but we could see the overhead rails all in place.   Over the years the park has been upgraded to international standards, and training takes place here by locals and international teams.  We have watched competitors battle the river at another venue, paddling hard as they maneuvered the coloured hanging poles - green (downstream) or red (upstream).  There were handy picnic tables on the river bank so we settled down to enjoy our afternoon tea.  Out came the thermoses, the coffee and biscuits, and we all soaked up the peaceful atmosphere.

The river looks calm today

I took a short walk up the road and over the bridge to the nearby power station.  The Mangahao Power Station was opened in 1924 and although very small by todays standards is still operational and continues to provide power to the National grid.

Mangahao Power Station

That was the conclusion of our mystery trip so we made our way back to the school.  Although some of our caravan friends who live locally were aware of one or two of the attractions where we stopped, not a single one were aware of the Military Defaulters Camp, and some had not been to the other two sites either.  It’s always interesting, I think, of how much history there is to be discovered as we travel around. 

Last sunset of the weekend

Sew Wot Tuesday

Our Sew Wot Tuesday rolled around again and this time Sandra was the hostess.  The mornings are getting chilly and we were welcomed into her home with a lovely warming  fire crackling away.  There is something quite comforting with the smell of a wood fire and seeing the flames crackling away.

Sandra had some show and tell.  First up was a partially completed “quilt as you go” quilt for  her aunty who now resides in a rest-home.  Sandra used up some of her long hoarded pansy fabrics for this special gift.

Sandra’s pansy quilt

Next she showed her gorgeous hand knitted shawl, which just needs to be stitched up.  This is another family treasure, made for her sister who will be welcoming her first great-grand child.   This truly is a labour of love,  and was certainly admired by us all.

Sandra's baby shawl

Carol had been super busy and had a lot to show.  Two sets of baby singlets and hats, plus nine knitted toys, all for donation.  “Do you knit in your sleep?”, she was asked.

All knitted by Carol

I took along my recent finishes, a cozy pair of wooly socks, and my bright and happy froggy quilt.  Originally made for donation, I love this little quilt, so may well keep it for a while, just in case

My show and tell

Mary didn't have any completed projects this time, but I rather liked her pretty little work bag, so I took a photo of that.  She completed the stitchery on the front first, then turned it into this pretty little draw string bag.

Mary’s draw string bag

I needed some advice with this years old project so took it along knowing these clever lades would be able to help me.  Way back in the past I went to a class and started this purply clam shell quilt, then bundled it away.  Not quite forgotten, because I knew it was there, it kept calling me to get it out and do some more work on it.  Constructed diagonally, I now wanted to make the rows shorter, but why would I be losing those pretty scallops edges when I started stitching the shorter rows, I wondered?  Was there a trick that I didn't know about?  Seems that’s what happens in this case, and I will have to carefully trim the edges straight when I get to the end.  Thanks for the advice, very much appreciated.  I find this curved machine stitching slow and rather trying, but have to decided to leave this project out on my sewing cabinet and work on it some time each week.  That’s the plan, anyway.

Purple clamshells

Before we knew it, morning tea was served.  And the sun was streaming through the windows onto the coffee table, so not a good picture at all.  But take my word for it, the morning tea was delicious, as usual.  Thanks so much Sandra.  .

Morning tea time

Most of us spent the morning knitting.  Carol was working on another baby toy, Sandra was doing a pretty yellow baby jumper, Heather was knitting a Peggy square, and I was knitting a striped baby’s jumper.  Mary was doing some embroidery, working with a kit which was a gift from one of her grand-daughters.

Carol, Sandra and Heather

Many thanks to Sandra for a lovely morning, I know we all enjoy these Sew Wots get-togethers.

A Knitting Finish

When we went down to the South Island for our ten week caravan trip over Christmas/New Year I wanted to take a knitting project or two with me.  But not my two pairs of thick triple knit (12 ply) socks, they stayed home.  I've been working away slowly finishing up one pair, knitted with lavender double knit wool and using up odd and ends of purply/blue/grey sock yarn from another project.  Knitting the heels always has me sitting quietly by myself, marking off rows in my notebook.  That done, it was straight knitting again till I reached the toes, then the notebook came out again.  Before I knew it, the socks were done and all ready to stitch up the side seam.

Stitching the side seam

I’m always so pleased with how these socks turn out.  They are nice and cozy and fit so well over the heel.  And knitting them on two needles is nice and easy and certainly suits my abilities.  I always knit two socks at once, so no second sock syndrome for me!

All ready for winter

My holiday knitting is growing too.  I started a navy blue double knit (8 ply) cardigan and have finished the back.  Now I’m up to the armholes on the front, so this project is coming along well too.  I don't plan to have this completed for our soon to arrive winter, so will just plod away with it, no pressure to get it finished quickly.

Up to the armhole shaping