~Catch up after the Show~

It's hard to believe that this time last week I was down in Auckland at the Festival of the Quilts and run off my feet at The Country Yard's booth. It was a new experience working at such a big show, a lot of fun and I really enjoyed soaking up the buzz that happens when you're at a quiltshow.

Setting up the day before was a big job!

But it finally all came together.

A bird's eye view - the netball centre was a spacious venue.

I was just working on Friday so on Saturday I treated myself to a 'play day', and spent my time having a good look around. There were lots of gorgeous inspiring quilts and lots of gorgeous inspiring booths :-) so it took me quite a while!
I had read that any photos of the quilts could not be posted online so didn't take photos for my blog... instead my photos tended to focus on a clever bit of quilting, great block, colour and so on...however there was no signage or notices about this so there are a lot of blogs showing pictures so if you're interested in seeing some of the variety there was, have a browse through the Kiwi blogs listed on my sidebar. Hopefully the Auckland Guild will have some photos on their website sometime soon.
I can say that Best of Show went to a Dear Jane quilt. I thought it was beautiful and a well deserved win - such a lot of work goes into a quilt like this... who knows maybe I'll have to pull out my DJ book one of these days!
I was delighted to meet some bloggy/online friends while at the show. One of them, Linda of Koka Quilts, has introduced me to a new hobby... a while ago she offered me her mother-in-law's loom. She'd seen that I was learnng to spin and thought I might like to give weaving a try as well!! The show was a good place to meet up so that I could collect it. Once I have mastered the spinning I will play with the loom. Thank you Linda, it was lovely to meet you :-)

Another plus for me during my few days away was that I got to spend time with YD and her hubby. They live only 5 minutes away from the venue so that was great :-)

And isn't it nice to see things we do rubbing off on our children? I felt very welcome when I saw this small bear sitting on my bed waiting for me ♥ YD made this wee fellow a few years ago.

Since the show I haven't had a chance to turn my sewing machine on - apart from giving both machines a good clean, needle change and oil at the start of the week. I have squeezed in some evening handwork though —

Another one of my Country at Heart stitcheries, isn't she a sweetie?!

And I've been hexing a bit lately [not related to Halloween or Guy Fawkes :-)] 

Some of these may or may not be part of a new project.
Some of these may or may not be part of my Chooky-blue SSCS gift.

Rounding the week off nicely, we had a skype session with our wee family the other night. Our son has bought a new web-cam - wow what a difference that made.

Finally, last post I mentioned the super-dooper Ganma cotsheets I've been making. Below is a picture (an old one apparently) showing the sheets in action. A noodle fits in the flap and keeps the girls close but with no roll-together :-)

hehe a good excuse to show a baby photo!

Till next time, 

happy stitching,

Babies and hexagons...

What do you do with the nervous energy you have when you know your daughter-in-law is in labour, and you're just playing the waiting game?
You sew of course!!
So do I talk about the sewing first or do I talk about the babies??
OK - babies win!!

Kaliah and Saydee entered our lives this week, two darling wee bundles of bub - check out the cuteness :-)

Saydee Anne on the left, she has the slightly chubbier cheeks!
Kaliah Maree on the right.

I totally get the grandbaby thing (phenomenon?) now - I thought I did before but -wham- it's hit me right between the eyes; cant wait till calving slows down and I can get my hands on our lovely wee girls :-)
And while I am tempted to go on about them a little more, I won't, so it's back to the sewing.

At the top of my list of things to work on was my Tuesday Mystery Medallion quilt ... I first mentioned it back *here*. Each month a set of rules is given and as long as these are met, anything goes for each round of the medallion quilt. I fell behind slightly. The trouble was I decided to make hexie flowers for month 4 and that took me a bit longer than I planned.
So while waiting for updates on the labour pains I got stuck into it.

I had done my centre block applique using the invisible machine applique
method so decided to do the hexie-flowers the same way.

I joined the sides of the hexagons in the usual way (by hand) but stitched
 the centres on by machine.
Probably would piece the whole hexie-flowers the normal way next time as it
was hard to get the centres lined up perfectly.

But I was pleased with how they came out in the end. Sewing them on by
machine was definitely a lot quicker!

This was how I had prepped the hexagons. I didn't bother turning under one side
since I was joining in the centre differently.

This is my medallion quilt so far, now to decide what it needs for the next
border.

When I was trying to photograph the quilt I had a hard time finding somewhere to pin it that was in the right light and so on...sometimes I wander around the garden for a while trying different spots. Yesterday I decided the stable wall was the perfect spot... but look at the uncropped picture below...the wall is grotty, and our 'affectionately' called mud-yard is muddy — just as well I didn't drop the top while I was out there!

Behind the photo!
Where would I be without the crop tool in Photoshop?!

I had a couple of finishes last month which I haven't shared yet.
I finished the scarf I'd started a couple of posts ago. ED is now enjoying it down in Wellington. This was a fun easy make; by using a large crochet hook it grew really quickly.
(Ha! All three photos are of the same scarf, different lights!)

The darker 'flecks' are from the possom fibre in it. Possom is a very light hollow
fibre which is very warm. 

And another pair of Happy Pants has been posted off, this time it's to keep YD warm.

Love these prints my big kids choose!

To finish I'll pop in one more baby photo.... I just love the look on my son's face here, he is one proud Daddy!

They are all home now and doing well.

And on that happy note I shall say good night. 

Sending you all warm wishes 

and many creative moments, 

  

The same but different

I received a sweet comment from my sister-in-law the other day, which has prompted me to pull up my socks and write a post. Her and my brother have just been over to New Zealand for a visit, and our family had a belated Christmas (see *here*) together.
I hadn't finished their present then but when I saw them a few days later I had;  - here is the comment -
You can post a photo of MY Christmas present now too!!!!!!!! Because mine is gorgeous so you should show it off!
(Thank you Sandie).  So here is the picture!

Yes, you may recognise it, I have shown a VERY similar one recently, however, the quilting on this one is different :-)

I was inspired by a book I have called "Quilting Makes the Quilt" where the author, Lee Cleland, makes 5 identical quilts and quilts each one very differently, amazing the differences between them all. (She did this 5 times!). Anyway, I decided to do my two identical quilts sort of differently, a nice little challenge for myself.

Both had pebbles in the white hexagons, and the actual hexie flowers
were mostly untouched .

I went a bit fancy in the corners of this one.

This was the first one, I gave this to my sister and her hubby.

While my sister-in-law was here we were able to compare the applique project we are both working on, the Quiltmania mystery.
It was so cool to see Sandie's - I was going to take photos of them side by side but mine looked quite insipid next to hers!!
We've both only done the first two blocks but it is a nice feeling to be stitching this alongside each other.

Raewyn's block 1

Raewyn's block 2

Sandie's block 1.
Sandie is using Kaffe Fasset fabrics - can you tell :-)

Sandie's block 2

Photo not in focus but I love that she has chosen to use
the little buttons on her boys.

What a difference the fabric makes, huh?!

Our summer is whizzing by, we have had plenty of visitors lately and all the holiday makers have been enjoying the sunshine. While we are worrying that our farm is rapidly drying out, there are diverse and perverse weather situations happening all over the world. In particular, I have been really disturbed to see the severe drought situation in parts of Australia. The world has shrunk due to blogging and it hurts to see fellow bloggers hurting so much. I have had a feeling of helplessness here in New Zealand but I was pleased to see a link on facebook which directed me to Buy A Bale... a donation (easily made through PayPal or Visa) buys feed (bales of hay) for stock, or other needs. Just imagine, even if we all just bought one bale of hay, the difference we could make.

I'm feeling a little caught up now, I wouldn't have thought I would go for 3 weeks between posts but oh well, I made it back :-).
Happy stitching everyone,
Have a Great Day,
Raewyn.

Monkeys, Birds and a Hop!

There's been a bit of top secret activity in The Palace lately...
We were being invaded by critters but now that they have been re-homed I can share about them :-)

They started off looking very odd — take Dad's old socks, sew and stuff —

Is there hope?

Add a muzzle made from one of his favourite woolen jacket's/zip up cardigan — 

Printing got a little difficult ....

Next came dressing, using Dad's old shirts, lined with fruity fabric leftover from the quilt I made him.

Dressed and ready for a photo shoot

You cant quite see but they are also wearing lapel badges, little souvenirs Dad collected in his travels. One even needed mending - you can see the patch on his head!

Some fought a little when it was time to be bagged.

This guy tried to escape (several times).

 We've just had a family weekend at Mum's, marking (nearly) one year since Dad's passing with a headstone unveiling and scattering of ashes. It was special to be able to give each of the grandkids a "Pop Monkey". Even though they are all mostly in their 20s I think they really appreciated them and I hope they will treasure their little piece of their 'Pop'.

Off to his new home.

[FYI the tutorials I used for my Sock monkeys can be found here and here. The first one was very detailed but had too many pages to scroll through once I got the hang of what I was doing!]
FOOTNOTE - I meant to give Mum the credit for the great stuffing job she did while she was up over Christmas. Thanks, Mum :-)

~~~~~~~

We also had a sprinkling of Christmas over the weekend as my brother and sister were both here from overseas.

This is a belated present for my sister.

Table topper using hexie-flowers from NZ fabrics.
Something to remind them of home.
(Should have taken a full photo sorry, it's roughly the size of a
 FatQuarter)

Had fun of course with some quilting!

~~~~~~

This week SewCalGal launches 'A Year of Red and White Challenges', which is something I am excited to join up for. Click here to find out more about it.
She starts the series of challenges with a Bloghop to, hopefully, get the inspiration juices flowing. The hop is based around using EQ7 to have fun creating red and white quilt designs. I am sure that even if you don't have Electric Quilt software and are interested in the challenge, you will find them interesting.
Here is the schedule for the Bloghop —

 Monday, January 27th

- SewCalGal 

- Behind the Mouse, the Electric Quilt Blog

Tuesday, January 28th

- Kissed Quilts

Wednesday, January 29th

- Freemotion Quilting By The River 

Thursday, January 30th

- Beaquilter

Friday, January 31st

- Love to Stitch

(that's me!)

As always, SewCalGal has got sponsors and prizes for this year's series of challenges - always a good encouragement to take part :-) And a great way to stretch yourself and learn/try something new!
Until then,
Happy Stitching everyone,
Have a great day,

A New Year!

It is still that time of the year where I lose track of what day of the week it is but already it is 10 days into the New Year! Christmas is well and truely behind us but summer is in full swing here in New Zealand.
And the new year is a time for promises and resolutions and maybe even a bit of soul-searching. I"m steering away from a resolution this year as I truely don't know where to start! Other bloggers have been coming up with words to help them guide their year...all the words that I have seen I've been able to relate to, thinking 'oh yes, that would be a good word for me!' But I've tried to be original and come up with my own word and it hasn't quite happened yet.
So I am wordless and resolutionless. But I have plenty of goals and personal challenges so I will work with those and see what 2014 brings.

***

I've been working on a few things lately —

— the final block of Birdy Love a quilt-as-you-go project I've been doing for my favourite shop —

... still need to do a photo shoot of the final quilt...

— I've been making hexies again —

Yes, more of my 'NZ series'

 — I've been stitching —

[I need to keep quiet on these projects for now.]

I recently won some 'leftovers' from a cute quilt Sigrid from sigisart has made .... they zoomed across the world really quickly..turning up on my doorstep only a week after they left Germany.

They are such happy prints and I love the special packaging they came in
- very fun and very cool. Thank you again Sigrid.

***

I recently plunged feet first into the swapping universe, with two swaps at Christmastime. (I have swapped occasionally before but never on this scale!). Cheryll, who ran the Santa Sack swap, is encouraging those who take part in her swaps to 'take the pledge'. I think the sentiments are perfect for any swaps we do, so I am happy to pledge as well.

MAKE THE 7 STEP PLEDGE

I, Raewyn, will try my utmost...

·        To always swap on time.

·        To always email a THANK YOU to my partner.

·        To be considerate and thoughtful when choosing a gift.

·        To give my partner the quality of gift that I would like to receive.

·        To communicate when it’s required.

·        To NEVER over commit and let a partner down.

·        To advise the swap mama when I receive my gift.

This I sewomly pledge....

***

Cheryll is also hosting Friday Night with Friends tonight so I'm going to join in that too. A simple tea is in order and I have found a yummy sounding biscuit recipe that will be perfect for sustanence. I'm looking forward to a productive evening, thank you Cheryll! {To-Do list for this afternoon, bake cookies, decide which project I want to work on!}
Click here if you want to join in as well, it's always nice to put aside a little 'me' time, and share it with others around the world.

***

Now, we all blog for a reason... today, the photo below shows the real reason why I came along to My Palace when I did ... I couldn't bear to watch and listen to the MOML across the road mulching the hillside. It doesn't look so bad but believe me it is pretty steep and although he tells me he knows what he is doing, I fret like anything when he is doing stuff like this!

Ok, now to start on my 'to-do' list ; the baking will wait till the MOML is off the hillside as you can see it from the kitchen, so I will rummage for a project instead!
Happy stitching everyone, have a great day,