Mopping up...

I'm calling this a mop-up post as I am attempting to tidy up some loose ends before I go away. More on that shortly!

Lately I have been asked to test a couple of patterns for Juliet, of Tartankiwi. Long time followers may remember that I love to test her foundation pieced patterns; I never know what journey they will send me on. I enjoy making something completely different, hunting out fabrics that might work and I actually enjoy writing the feedback on the pattern for her! So when Juliet sends out an email to her group of testers, I usually try very hard to squeeze her request in.

It has to be said though that I have a very healthy pile of blocks that I have made/tested that haven't eventuated any further, in spite of my best intentions. So when the latest calls came through I tried to be very realistic and thought very carefully about the end product.

Accordingly the fabrics I chose were possibly a little different to what I usually choose but they will work perfectly for the grandies who hopefully will all end up with cushions this year!

I decided to make two of this design, they will be for the big girl twins - 

This pattern is called Grumpy Cat. Very cute, I think, and fun to sew.

And next came Grumpy Bun. He will be for their brother and I think I will possibly make another of him; depending on what other Grumpy designs Juliet comes up with.

While the patterns come in a variety of sizes, the ones I sewed finished at 12 inches square, bigger than some of the others I've sewn for her, but a useful size for making cushions from. Both patterns have now been released. Visit Juliet of Tartankiwidesigns *here* to have a look.

Other sewing recently includes these harem pants for 3 year old Odie.....even if you look twice you probably won't realise that these started off as one of YD's dresses! The dress had a drawstring/elasticated waist which I shortened for his waist. It still has the (perfect for small boys) side pockets. I shaped the legs ever so slightly and finished the bottom with elastic. Very satisfying and extra cute!

Now onto my traveIs.....I have started my pilgrammage to Scrub Stitching. This is a (sewing) retreat held in New South Wales, Australia, near the home town of Chooky. These have been held for a number of years, disrupted, of course, by covid. I attended in 2019 and am excited that I can finally go again! Chooky has been instrumental in bringing a large number of (mostly) bloggers together - via the retreats but, in more recent times, via regular and, at times marathon, Zoom sessions. It's been a lot of fun getting to know other quilters and I'm so excited to be joining in again. My first Scrub Stitching blogpost is *here*, and I'll try to write posts while I'm away.

This afternoon I flew down to Auckland and I will be flying to Melbourne tomorrow morning (Easter Sunday) - Kiwikid Sue is meeting me at the airport and we are roadtripping up tp Baradine, arriving there, ready to sew, on Wednesday morning.

I was disappointed though to miss a bit of excitement at home tonight.....our son-in-law decided it would be a good thing to put a hangi down on the farm for a shared family meal.

A hangi is a traditional maori method of cooking food. Of course it has been adapted over the years with the use of some modern materials, but it's basically the same technique.
Rocks are heated until they are white hot. We used empty molasses drums to build the fire in and used hot burning and nice flavoured Manuka firewood. While the rocks are heating a pit is dug; then the rocks are tipped into the pit.

Straight away (so they don't cool) the food goes on top of the hot rocks. The basket of food is covered with hessian or muslin cloth or whatever is available. You don't want dirt in with the food!!!

Here is YD preparing the basket of food. The basket was lined with banana leaves, then the meat was put in. Ours had two chickens (no, not my babies), a leg of mutton and also some mutton flags. Then a layer of banana leaves and the vegetables are layered on top. She put in pumpkin, potato, kumara, cabbage, and also made a bread stuffing, and topped it off with more banana leaves.

The hangi was left for about 4-5 hours. Not sure how long ours cooked for as I had left home by then.

Apparently is was really delicious. hangi food has a really distinct flavour! The kids had a great time eating and playing so it was a success all round. Now that we have the stones and setup at our place, I look forward to the next one, and actually partaking!! Handy that there was plenty of food so the MOML will be fed for the next few days while I am away.

I apologise in advance if the formating for this post is all over the place... I'm used to using my PC for my blogposts and can't find some of the buttons I'm used to using! (I started this at home so part of it is 'controlled'!! (Actually, now that it's published, it's not too bad!!)

'til next time,
happy stitches,