Another catchup post -

The weekend before we went to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market, a group of us had our annual retreat.
The peninsula of Whangarei Heads is beautiful, with lots of coastline, and the camp where we stay is a lovely spot with a gorgeous setting. Admittedly we are mostly heads down at our sewing machines but it is always nice to look up and take in the view. There are always some good walks to be had, as well, along the coastline.

Always something happening out on the water.

We had a full house this year (18), luckily most of us have Sew-Ezi tables so
we all fitted in (still setting up and waiting for later arrivals in this pic).

We decided to host a Pink Ribbon morning tea while at there to raise money for The NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.
Prior to retreat we needed to organise a few props -

Using 'breast cancer' fabric we sewed and sewed...

...and made this gorgeous table runner,
perfect for our tea party.

And for a bit of fun, can you spot the
special biscuits I made, keeping to the
theme of the occasion?

We also thought it would be fun to wear a quirky hat. For some reason this hat
won the  most votes as favourite!

This fundraiser carries on until the end of the month. I have a special fundraising page if anyone wants to donate a little ... this year the funds raised go to research. The link is in my sidebar or *here*. I was asked if it is possible to donate via PayPal, this isn't possible. They will only accept credit cards. I haven't reached my goal yet so any further donations, large or small would be gratefully accepted!

This year I took a lot of little projects to retreat so in a way felt that I didn't achieve much, but I guess they all add up!

I did start a new quilt, my new Red and White one for the SewCalGal challenge.
Lots of learning which I will share another time.

I made a recipe book cover for one of ED's friends.

..and decorated a hand towel as a gift for another friend.

A few of us decided to make this bag.
Very cute, a lovely shape.
This pattern is by Gathering Stitchers and can be
found *here*.

All so different!

It was a great weekend, lots of laughs and creativity. Of course we all took far too much food and too many projects. Looking forward to the next one :-)

Today was the first chance I have had to unpack my sewing machine since retreat  - I made a few simple blocks and feel whole again. The days are definitely cooler now so hopefully I can have a few more dates with it!
Have a great week and happy stitching,

 

Our Kiwi Christmas

Thank you all for your Christmas wishes. From the blogs I've read, it sounds like our family wasn't alone in having a lovely day, it was so nice to spend time with our two daughters and one partner.

(Sadly our son and dil weren't able to be in NZ for Christmas).

Allow me to share a little of what our Christmas was like.

~~~~~~~~~~

I thought that as the kids grew up (our youngest is now 21) that Christmases would lose a bit of their magic but that shows no sign of happening!! (Big smiles).

Gift of the day was this outfit being modelled by Oscar-Riley.

He he! Ever so cute,whenever he shook his head the
bells jingled!!
The antlers didn't fit so well and didn't stay on for long!

Most excited pet of the day - Oscar-Riley - loves getting his own Santa sack. Something must have smelled good as one of the parcels had chew marks!!

This little brooch was made for me by a friend - so cute!!
 It was attached to Oscar's stocking so he would know it was his one.
(It's been retrieved and is in a safe spot now!)

Oh Golly!

 Yummy mains of the day - the simplest Christmas Dinner ever but oh so delicious.

Ham, twice-roasted pork belly and the yummiest salad ever.

Yummy dessert of the day

Pavlova, fresh fruit salad and Christmas cake.

~~~~~~

I didn't do a lot of sewing for my gift giving this year, time ran out on me- but I did manage to complete a couple of small things.

I made two of these Gail Pan ornaments. Easy to make and very sweet.

 And I made two notebook covers.

 You probably know by now that I love making these; I love playing around and coming up with a pleasing (to me!!) design -
(the sheep and the dog appliqué are reduced from blocks in the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks magazines)

These are the backs - I had fun with the four patches!!

Wow - I've just realised what the time is!!Way past bed-time!

Thanks for visiting every-one, may all your days be happy, 

A small finish and a nice day

I'm not sure where this week has gone and when I thought back on it this afternoon I couldn't think what I had been up to (apart from farm and stock work that is!)... a peek on my camera put me right...

... I remember now, I finished this book cover for a friend.

I used some of those stars from this post....

And was really happy with how it turned out.

Love the fabrics!! Hope my friend does too!

I can now report that the book arrived safely at it's new home!

I also finished week 2's blocks for Joanne's Threadhead Quiltalong

Churn dash blocks to go with the Star blocks. I'm just doing 2 of each instead
of the 3 she is doing... and having a play with different colour placements
and effects.

On Friday I travelled down to my parent's place (approx 5 1/2 hours from home). I have left the trusty MOML to look after my calves....

Mum turned 75 today. Pretty flowers arrived by courier. Hard case seeing Sunflowers
in Spring! 

This morning I went with Mum to her Embroidery Guild's exhibition. It turned 30 and I have never seen so many ladies wearing pearls at once!!

Without proper  permission to take photos, I didn't. You'll have to believe
me when I say there was lots of beautiful work there!

Walking back to the car I was fascinated with this street art on a wall.

The outline of the design was marked and the general public
could come along and fill the areas with handprints. Then
the black edges of the pictures were done. Very clever.

 While Mum and her ladies in pearl necklaces had a special luncheon, Dad and I went for a walk around his orchard. I'm a bit late for the spectacular blossom show this year, but there are some trees that still look nice.

Nashi Pear under the shade cloth.

Crabapple bossom.

Dad, Crabapple blossom and the sheep.

Rounded off a nice day with a Roast Pork dinner and Lemon Birthday Cake.

Found the photogenic Nigel on my camera!

Tomorrow I head back home. Hope all of your weekends are going nicely too,

Happy creating,

One small finish.

Not too much to show for the 10 days since I last posted, however a small finish is better than none at all!
I made this recipe book cover for YD whose pile of loose recipes was getting scary, and needed a place to put them in (she loved the one I made myself earlier on).

I enjoy playing around with bit and pieces of fabric and see what 'arrangement' I end up with :-)

[The cupcake appliqué came from Bunny Hill Designs, free patterns.]

Something I did/learned while making this which I thought worth sharing was what I did for the appliqué background.
I had some 2 1/2 inch strips cut on the bias which I didn't know what to do with... however I knew that particular fabric would be perfect behind the cupcakes...
so voilà!...I joined them and cut my background square from them...

simple, I don't know why I didn't think of it before.

Last post I was doing happy dances as my son and daughter-in-law were coming over from Australia for a holiday... we thoroughly enjoyed seeing them but of course the time just wasn't long enough...they have left again now...but they did manage to squeeze a lot into their time here.
YD left the tender teens so we had a birthday day at her house while everyone was here;
this is one of my favourite photos from the day —

My 3 kids fooling around.

— oops a serious one —

Left to right - YD, ED and BB!

— and a family shot,  here we all are together —

And we managed to get Oscar-riley to stay in the photo!
(He's the one in the red party-clothes!)

YD's partner enjoys cooking and here is the first course...yes that is a crayfish you can see; he was disappointed he only managed to have one to share (actually he caught 2 but the second one mysteriously disappeared before it got to the table).
So, happy days! Until next time, happy stitching everyone,

Weekend sewing.

I know it's actually half way through the week (already) but I haven't had a chance yet to share what I completed over the weekend.
A group of us got together on Friday night and had a lovely midnight madness sewing session.
First on my list was to make a book cover---

I added the recipe label later on

{YD has put an order in for one of these now-- I have some cup cake fabric somewhere which will be just perfect.}

Next on my list was to complete the first two rounds on my Stay-At-Home-Round-Robin. Sunny over at Quilting Dreams is hosting this and I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to make a quilt for YD... she could help in the planning and picking her OWN colours and I, of course would do the sewing.
Month 1 instructions were for a centre block 12 to 18 " in size.
Month 2 asked us to have a 3 inch border with triangles.

Here is YD arranging the border to get it how SHE wants it!

Complete to the end of month two. She loves the idea of fancy butterfly quilting
 on the white to enhance the centre -- little does she realise Mum has to practise
 a fair bit before that will be achieved!!

My girl  loves her butterflies:-) and a brighter palette than me :-)!!

Our midnight madness ended about then; I know I'm not the only one who did this but I packed three times as many projects to do than I needed and  took most of them home again untouched!

Never mind - it game me plenty to carry on with over the rest of the weekend!

I finished this little stitchery for a friend - it is very cute and fun to do (not a good photo sorry).

A Libby Richardson design from a Homespun mag, enlarged slightly.

And on Sunday I was determined to make one of these (below) --- a gorgeous little Thread Catcher. I have been following the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop and enjoyed reading the posts of the different designers (and checking out the pattern each one offered) ... and wow... the food at their Country Fairs sounds Intriguing!! A far cry from the hotdogs on a stick and candy floss that I grew up on at our equivalent here in New Zealand (the A and P (Agricultural and Pastoral) shows). Anyway Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings offered this pattern which went to the top of my must-do list. It turned out so cool, I made a second, identical, one for a friend.
Unfortunately it was a one day item on her blog so the pattern is no long available.

Perfect for thread scraps when sitting stitching at night.

And - oh dear-Katie Cat had a bit of a rummage in my scrap basket the other day, looking for a comfy place to sleep. She has spurred me on to sorting them out - I know I am supposed to sort and trim them as I go but it doesn't always happen. However, here is the result of her prompting - my first scrappy spool block which will be part of the next border of my Klosjes quilt (untouched for a while now, but definitely still a WIP!)

And one last photo - we had our annual pilgrimage out to the very back of the farm this morning to see the Kowhai Trees in flower - a beautiful sight, as always. The flowers are gorgeous and the trees stunning.

Now I feel caught up - and I can get on with my week; it is Wednesday today so I'd best go make another hexie-flower,
happy stitching every-one,