Sew Wot Tuesday

There were two Sew Wot birthdays to celebrate this time, Mary and Helen were the birthday girls.  I was running a little late so the gift opening was well underway by the time I arrived.  What was in those two big parcels we wondered?  So exciting to see them opened simultaneously.  Inside were plastic baskets and lids holding two big balls of yarn each.  That will keep them busy for a while.

Mary and Helen opening their gifts

Of course there was show and tell as well, sadly none from me this time.  Helen had recently been on holiday in Perth, Australia, but that didn't stop her from knitting up a storm in the evenings.  She had made two baby singlets and a beanie, well done.

Helen’s holiday knitting.

Our hostess Heather had been busy.  First up was a quilt top made with digger panels, made for her daughter and partner.  Rather significant as he is in the construction industry.  Just look at that wintry sun shine was streaming through the windows behind – making the panels a little hard to see.

Big boys toys

Secondly was a very pretty pinwheel quilt which Heather was making for her niece.  Nice and bright with such lovely colours.

Made for a niece

Of course Carol had some knitting finishes too.  There was a doll and an assortment of knitted toys – the soft toys will be donated to Neo Natal for the babies.

Made by Carol

Sandra also had some knitting to show. These baby tops and singlet have all be made for donations.

More baby donations

Heather had something very special to show us – her very first bed quilt, made before she even knew what quilting was, she said.  Made from scraps of gorgeous Japanese brocade, the offcuts from fabric used for smoking jackets. Heather remembers that she got the fabric way back in 1972, and finished the quilt in 1992! 

Heather’s beautiful brocade quilt

Our wonderful hostess had set such a pretty table to celebrate the two birthdays.  We donned our party hats and joined in the fun.

Jude, Carol, Heather, Helen, Sandra and Mary

Heather related how she had a small issue with the cake, but she certainly fixed it with a liberal soaking of American Honey Bourbon!  No wonder the cake tasted so nice.

Way to go, Heather.

It certainly was such a lovely Sew Wot morning, thanks so much Heather, we all had a wonderful time.

A busy Weekend

It seems a bit strange to be talking about going away on the King’s Birthday Weekend, I find.  Especially after 70 or so years of the Queen’s Birthday, but I’m sure we will get used to it.  The particular date is staying the same, and we had a caravan weekend away planned.

But first, we had the firemen come calling.  No, not for an emergency, thank goodness.  They were coming to do several smoke alarm assessments at our village, and we were on their list. And here they come, the fire engine was parked a few doors away from us, and three burly firemen came calling.  They checked and replaced our current smoke alarm as it was out of date, and installed an extra one as well.   Such pleasant young men, and so helpful.  This is a free service, and much appreciated.

On their way again

After lunch we hooked the caravan up and drove away for the three day long weekend.  We were staying at Himatangi Beach Camp, always well maintained, with lovely clean facilities.  Just a small turnout this time, with just three of our vans attending the weekend.  The weather was fine, but that wind certainly had a bite to it, so we enjoyed the first 4zees of the weekend  inside our van.  Being a long weekend, there were plenty of arrivals during the afternoon, and beach buggies rolling in and out of camp visiting the nearby beach.

Staying at Himatangi Beach

How about a visit to Viv’s Kitchen at Sanson on Saturday, we wondered?  That sounded great, but then there was a big decision to make, shall we do morning tea, lunch, or afternoon tea?  We all agreed that lunch sounded a great idea so off we went.  Viv’s Kitchen is well known for Cream Horns which the others enjoyed, but we prefer the big squishy chocolate eclairs.  Two  came home with us for dessert that evening.

The staff at Viv’s Kitchen are dressed in 50s full skirted dresses and are kept very busy in this popular café.  Our helpful waitress very obligingly took a photo of us all, insisting she cleared the table first.  Oh, she said, she hadn't used a camera for a while, young people generally use their phones these days.

Our lunch table cleared away

For lunch the next day I cooked up some tasty little treats.  These are breakfast sausages, wrapped in bacon,and baked in the oven for half an hour or so.  We had some hot for lunch, and they were just as nice eaten cold for lunch the following day.

Bacon wrapped sausages

After lunch we took a drive to Foxton Beach.  The beach was busy, beach buggies were driving around, some people were paddling, and we noticed one brave family sitting on the sand having a picnic.  Goodness me, the wind would have been rather cold down on the beach, I imagine.  Vehicles are allowed to drive on this beach, but at their own risk, I imagine.

Foxton Beach

What better way to finish off our afternoon than an ice-cream back at Himatangi Beach  Store. 

Ice-cream time

At the centre of Himatangi Beach village, by the beach entrance, sits the town’s mascot, a giant sculpture of a buoy, covered in a mosaic-tiled scene of sea life. Each year, the buoy wears a giant Christmas hat to embrace the festive spirit.

Mosaics sculpture at Himatangi

The name  Himatangi stems from a legend about a famous warrior chief, Matangi, who fished and killed a taniwha that was eating his relatives. The verb "Hi", meaning "to fish", was added to create the name Himatangi.  In Māori mythology, taniwha are large supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers, similar to a serpent or water dragon.

Although I had taken both my knitting and stitchery bags with me, neither project got worked on over the weekend.  Obviously we were keeping busy and having too much fun!

An Extra Sew Wot Tuesday

We’ve enjoyed an extra Sew Wot get-together this week, when we joined former member Moira at her new home.  “Come of afternoon tea”, we were invited, “and bring some show and tell”.  It was a very rainy afternoon and we dodged the showers driving to Moira’s home.  All except Jude, who came without a jacket so was a little damp on arrival.

We were taken on a grand tour around Moira’s lovely new home, checked out her sewing room, then settled down to tea and biscuits.  There was a lot of catching up to do, as some of us hadn't seen Moira for a wee while.  “I hope you all bought show and tell”, Moira commented.  Of course we had.  Most of the items we had previously shared between us, but it was all new to Moira, of course.  Only Jude had a brand new finish we hadn't seen before.  This was her floral Snowball quilt.

Jude’s snowball quilt

Carol had brought along a basketful of her knitted dolls and toys.

Carol’s knitted toys

Mary had quite a selection to show as well.  She had brought along some of her recently completed crochet blankets, and we got another look at her lovely batik quilt top.

Made by Mary

Heather had brought along her lovely knitted shawl, using a gifted ball of teal and purchased brown alpaca yarn.  The alpaca was hard to use, and kept sliding off the needles, she said.  But the finished shawl was lovely, and had a fancy knitted lace edging, I wonder how she did that?

Heather’s shawl

I had taken along two baby/toddler quilts to show Moira.  My lime green bordered froggy quilt, together with the cuddly blue flannel quilt.  Both of these will probably be donated, unless I find a family recipient who might like them.  I’m hopeful of becoming a great-granny one day!

My two baby quilts

Moira then bought out what she was working on and asked our collected advice of which fabric to use for the border, the purple, or the black and white print?  The decision was definitely the purple, using the black and white as the binding.  Luckily Moira was thinking the same way too.  She will be donating this quilt to St Vincent’s charity on completion.

Moira’s WIP

Thanks so much for afternoon tea Moira, it was so nice to have a catch up with you.

Helen, Moira and Heather

Slow Stitching Sunday

It’s always nice to get the chance to sit and do some slow stitching.  I’ve just finished another of my Noah’s Ark blocks, and this one was tiny.  Actually, I had doubled the size of all the blocks, because I wanted to stitch mine with Perle 5 instead of stranded cotton.  So you can image just how tiny this pattern would have been in the original size.  This block contains snails, tiny bees and lady birds, and two very small butterflies.

Insects for the Ark

The other slow stitching I’ve been doing is to hand stitch a pair of leatherette elbow patches onto Robin’s’ favourite wooly jumper which features abstract kiwi and sheep.  The stitching took me ages – first I stitched all around the patches, then I added blanket stitch as well.

Patches done

And look how close I came to running out of thread, the little bit remaining won’t be good enough for anything, will it. 

I won thread chicken!

What else?  I hand stitched the binding down on my RSC donation quilt this week.

Binding all done

And I’ve got several knitting projects on the go, I knit a bit on this one, on that one, and a bit more on the other!  No wonder it’s taking me a while to get anything completed.

A Four Patch finish for RSC

It’s always nice to have a finish, isn't it.  This quilt started way back in 2021.  While fossicking amongst some bags tucked away in a crate in the wardrobe, I rediscovered these 4 patches.  Goodness knows what I was making them for, but I had stitched an assortment of green, red and yellow, then added some pink.

It all started with some four patch units

I decided to make two sets of blocks with the four patch units.  The larger blocks are called Colour Chains, I believe, and I borrowed the idea of this block from Mari of the Academic Quilter’s blog.  And I made easy framed four patch blocks as well.

Making two lots each month

The quilt tops were finally assembled late last year, and Colour Chains was pinned up and the machine quilting finally started early this month.  I used my favourite serpentine stitch in the quilting lines.

Machine quilting

Gemma did an excellent job of looking after the quilt when I had finished for the day, making sure it didn't run away somewhere.

Gemma is such a big help

And finally, I was up to my favourite part, stitching the binding down.  This took me a several afternoons, sitting nice and comfy while I stitched away.  I just wish I’d bought those binding clips years ago, they certainly are so much nicer to use than pins.

Binding time

All finished now, this one will be going to Foster Hope.  Many thanks to Mari for four patch inspiration, much appreciated.

Donation Quilt, Four Patch Colour Chains

Sew Wot Tuesday

It was a day out in the country for us on Tuesday.  Carol and her hubby were house sitting at Helen's home, and looking after Ruby the dog.  Ruby barked as the quilters cars arrived, she was only doing her job after all, and then quickly settled down.  Our group was a little smaller with two away, but the rest of us had a nice morning together, as always. 

Down sizing the sewing stash must be in the air as there were bits and pieces for us to look through and take what we wanted.  Heather and Sandra were very interested in a bag of buttons, and I selected some crochet cotton to post up to my daughter.  I sent her a photo to show what I had chosen on her behalf, and she will be thrilled to get them, she told me.  Nicky has taught herself to crochet, and has made lace edging, and a warm wool shawl, what a clever girl, I couldn't get to grips with this craft.

Of course there was some show and tell to share.  At our last Sew Wots morning there was some fabric looking for a new home, and I spotted a little piece printed with trains.  Just the thing to make a draw string bag for Foster Hope I thought, so I stitched it last week to bring along.

Draw string bag

I think we would be surprised if Carol didn’t have some knitting donations to share.  This time she had a baby’s jumper and hat, and a cute pink piggy.

Made by Carol

Heather had a special request from one of her daughters.  Could she make a reversible sun hat with a pony tail hole at the back please?  Of course she could!

Sun hat for a daughter

And that wasn’t all which Heather was making for her girls.  She had made socks, big ones for another daughter, and matching little ones for her grand child.

Mother and child socks

Carol also had a quilt top to show.  This will be a 30th Anniversary gift for her son and daughter-in-law.  Pretty pastel saw tooth stars.

Anniversary quilt

The dining table was set, and we settled down to a tasty morning tea, thanks so much Carol.

Morning tea is served

While we were enjoying our morning tea, the cows outside were happily munching away in the paddock.  They are due to calf soon, so that will make life on the farm busy for a while.

Life on the farm

Then we settled down to hand work again, as it turned out, everyone was knitting.  Carol was starting on another doll, Jude and Heather were making socks, Sandra was getting to the end of a donation baby jumper, and I was working on the sleeves of my navy blue cardigan.

Sandra, Carol, Jude and Heather

It was another lovely morning again, many thanks to Carol for being the hostess.

Out and About, Donations and a Movie

We have been out and about lately.  First we took a trip down to Kapiti to drop of a bag of donations for Foster Hope Charity.  Included in this donation were two draw string bags for the kids pencils or treasures, and two little girls aprons.

Bags and aprons

And quilts, winter is coming after all, and there is sure to be a need for these.  First were two toddlers quilts made from small printed panels – these were finished last year but I wasn't quite ready to part with them, just in case there was a need close to home.  But now I’m finally ready to send them to their new homes, wherever that may be.

Pussycats for a little girl

 

Tractors for a little boy

Plus my two recently completed Flag quilts

So what else have we been getting up to?  Last week we had a movie date, cashing in a Christmas gift card from grand-daughter Emma.   I thought the film Allelujah sounded good.  A bunch of old folks in a small hospital, living and laughing their way through their troubles, so I thought.  That should be good for a laugh – after all, some people would class us as old folks these days. 

The cast was excellent, with Jennifer Saunders, Judi Dench, and Derek Jacobi.  But the story was unexpected, and rather dark.  When the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital is threatened with closure, it fights back by galvanizing the local community. The hospital invites a news crew to film the preparations for a concert honouring its most distinguished nurse.  And what a nurse she was, moving on her elderly patients with an evening cup of hot milk laced with morphine.  Beware of nurses  bringing late night milky drinks!  The film ends with the small hospital closed, the nurse arrested, the patients moved to other homes, and the nursing staff to other hospitals.  The last few scenes show dishy Dr Valentine run off his feet in a Covid Ward, tending to a former patient from Liverpool who loses the battle with Covid.  Not at all the “feel good” story I was expecting, but definitely showing the stresses  that medical staff are battling with these days.

Just as well we decided on lunch out in the movie café, to cheer us up a bit.  Our menu choices were a bit different.  Battered pork belly bites for him, and Asian dumplings for her, followed by a coffee and a Coke, very tasty indeed.  It was a good day out, and we came away with the thought of a couple of other films we would like to see.