A finish, a launch and 2 winners

I optimistically thought I'd do a quick photo shoot the other day to celebrate a finish. I don't usually have to factor in the wind when I go out with my camera as the valley we live in is reasonably sheltered. However the weather was on the change (yaay! bring on the rain!) and I had a wee breeze to contend with. The photo shoot took quite a bit longer than I had intended!

This Kiwiana Delight quilt was fun to piece. It's a Jaybird pattern called Delight using her Hex-n-more ruler and it went together really easily. As soon as I saw the fun and whimsical kiwiana fabric range I knew I Needed to make something with it.

I quilted it very similarly to the sample quilt on the pattern cover; although I think there were areas of fanciness which I didn't do - it was a bit hard to tell from the picture.

This was one of the quilts I wanted to get finished for the New Year's launch for The Country Yard. We always try to have fresh samples, programmes and so on.

We had a big day last Friday rearranging fabrics and quilts within the shop and then on Saturday our launch was held.
Although it was a drizzly day, we had a nice turnout of visitors who seemed to enjoy a look around the freshened up shop, a cuppa, and a good chat with friends. I took a couple of photos before it got busy.

In the photo below you can see the other quilt I made for the shop. Well it's a quilt top actually; I just didn't get the time to quilt it for the shop but it still displays pretty well :-)

'Pieceful Pines' using the range of the same name by Pam Buda.

This was another enjoyable quilt to make, although I did change my mind half way through as to how the quilt was going to look. The courthouse blocks started off being either red or green but I did some unpicking —

 

 — and made them red and green instead. I am really happy with the effect in the finished quilt - the unpicking was worth it!

Giveaway winners

Apologies for taking such a long time to get back to you all with the drawing of the prizes in my previous post, where I showcased a block and quilt pattern from Teresa Mairal's new book, Turnabout Patchwork. February was a month where life got in the way, and there was only so much that could fit in my head.
However, without further ado, here are the winners —
The winner of the electronic copy of Teresa's book, Turnabout Patchwork is —
Lisa J
And the winner of a pattern of choice from Teresa's digital shop is —
Cynthia

Congratulations ladies - I hope you enjoy your winnings!

And on that happy note, I will sign off,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Happy New Year

2018 has got off to an interesting start for us.... we managed a few days away....our 'summer holiday' as the kids tease us. Special thanks to ED and her hubby who offered to milk for 2 days and pushed us out the door, taking care of the cows, dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and pig for us!

We headed up to the Far North, to Taipa which is rapidly becoing a favourite spot of ours. An interesting drive not toooooo far away, beautiful uncrowded beaches and somewhere to stay that is on the water's edge. Perfect to just chill out with enough around to keep us just a little busy, but not too much. Friends live nearby too which is a bonus and a further excuse to visit the area.

You can see how un-crowded the beaches are - not bad, especially for
the summer holidays!

While we were away a storm was approaching NZ so the weather started deteriorating ... planned fish and chips on the beach became fish and chips outside our unit.

Dinner for night #2 gets the thumbs up from the MOML.
The ocean is just beyond the trees, not that you can see, it was starting to get
a bit grey and 'a storm is coming' looking.

As always I planned to do a bit of knitting (or crochet) in the car. Last year I made a wee vest for needy children during a car trip so I thought I'd do the same again... but I got thwarted with the knitting in the round - I couldn't remember how to get the first few rounds done.....

Knitters who knit in the round may understand my dilemma..how to join these
without doing knitting gymnastics. I've since found out, I should have had a
Double Loop thing going with my needles....

and didn't get any further. For the trip home I googled a simple wee hat and easily got that knitted.

It seems far too tiny to fit a baby but is newborn size so we'll see...!

We got home before the storm hit....a reasonable amount of rain but not a flood-amount for us. Our sheltered valley got a good battering from the wind though, as did a lot of the region.
We had our fair share of trees and branches come down...this Poplar caused the worst damage, taking out the power line to our pump shed on its way down.

It was a huge tree, we cant believe it was snapped off like this!

Fortunately we have a backup water supply so we could still milk and the cows could still drink... we weren't sure how long the springfed dam and siphon effect would last but thankfully the power crew were here to do repairs before we ran out of the reserve water supply.

I've read a lot of inspiring posts lately with New Year goals, words of the year and so on... I'm still in catch up mode so am holding off any planning until I feel caught up.
It does feel good though as I have a couple of finishes to report - wow, so early in the year Raewyn? - awesome!!
Well, a couple are Christmas presents so they are rather late... and another is something not finished at work (The Country Yard) last year...all catching up stuff....

This Kiwiana runner just needed the quilting and finishing done when I brought it home —

I'm trying to show the quilting here but it doesn't show up as well as I thought.
I did continuous curves in the squares and crosshatching in the borders/sashing.

Although it was started at the shop I'm still calling it a finish for me as that is what it is!

Then there is this Christmas (2017!) project I cant show just yet —

And this one too!

The 'proof it's finished' photo :-)

So I've been having lots of fun quilting - I've been using my quilting rulers quite a lot and have enjoyed the practise.

Just to give you a laugh I thought I'd share this photo... the MOML decided it would be a good joke to give me some bright pink farm overalls for Christmas!! Those who know me well know that I am not a pink girly-girl. However being the good sport that I am, I wore them the other day and made his day.

Don't tell him but they were actually very comfortable;
they are the first Women's fit overalls I have had (ever) and
weren't baggy in all the wrong places as my other ones are!!

I may even wear them again :-)

With four finishes to start the new year I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. Long may it continue!! (ahem!) I have a bit more catch up stuff to do though...in the meantime,

Happy stitches,

My Easter -

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and were able to spend the weekend doing things that make you happy.
I spent Easter with my son and his wife, who live in Queensland, Australia. It was great - I cant say we did lots of touristy things but I really loved spending time with them and enjoyed the outings that we did do.

Me and my boy ♥

As our dil is halfway through her first pregnancy there was plenty of baby talk and baby related purchases... I spent some time sewing up fitted cot sheets after we found some wide flannelette on sale and have some lovely bamboo towelling (also on sale) to play with; maybe bibs and burb cloths - and whatever else we think of :-)

I had a special time on the first day I was visiting - I got to meet and spend the day with Michelle Ridgeway.... I have followed her blog and loved her stitchery designs FOREVER so I was tickled pink to actually meet her!
She is such a lovely person - after swapping gifts —

A lovely bundle of Aussie goodness from Michelle, including some of her
designs :-)

we shopped a little —

and visited Ipswich's Queen's Park where we drank coffee and talked for ages and found their small nature reserve where quite a few happy Australian animals lived —

If you look closely you will see the croc in the stream... and the only barrier there
was a rope fence!
If you look even more closely you'll see it's just a floating head! hehe!

I've borrowed this photo from Michelle; the Wombats' burrow was up against
the glass so we got an awesome look at them.

There was also some mosaic work, Aboriginal style, gorgeous!

and sheltered from the pouring rain —

The lovely Michelle

...... and all too soon it was time for me to to be dropped off and both of us were off on our merry ways. Thank you again Michelle for a lovely day :-) I hope we can do it another time!

My son and dil are still unpacking after moving house but they did make sure the wall hanging I made them was unpacked and up for my visit! This is the very first project I made when I first discovered The Country Yard and started attending Stitch and Chat Thursdays. I made it for their first Christmas in Australia. I think the design was in The NZ Quilter. I smile when I see it, I'm sure it would look a little different if I made this up now but it is still fairly cool!

The label says something like
"a bit of New Zealand to remind you where you come from" :-)
Pretty certain this was made about 7 years ago.

I had some special mail waiting for me when I arrived back home .... I'd taken part in another postcard swap recently, hosted by the lovely Sheila of Sheila's Quilt World. This time I swapped with Annette of in stitches and seams and this is the card she sent me —

Isn't he sweet? He is beautifully embellished!

Annette enclosed the postcard in a clear envelope and also sent this special card
commemorating the 50th anniversary of their flag.

Here is the card I made and sent to her —

Thank you Annette for the lovely swap and also of course to Sheila for organising us all!

I haven't had a chance to do any sewing since I've been home - roll on the weekend! - but did sew up these booties last night... I knitted them while at my son's but we kept forgetting to buy a darning needle when we went out. I had to bring them back home to complete!

This is the same pattern I knitted up *here* and found on Ravelry *here*.

That's me about done for the night I think...sorry, I do seem to have rambled on a little :-)
Thank you for visiting and taking the time to read (or look at the photos!),
Happy creating and have a lovely weekend,

Flowers and pets, mostly...

Gosh over a week has passed since my last post. It's been busy around here but I don't have very much to show for it.
Today is Wednesday, One Flower Wednesday in fact. I'm happy to have made a couple of new hexies; I haven't done any for a little while but I do enjoy them so much. I'm still with my NZ theme and this week I made a slightly smaller one too.

(Again the Tui graces my post. He also showed up  last post)

I've also made a couple more sewing pouches, similar to the one I made here. I had fun making the spool blocks for the bigger one, and really love the look they give it.

Spring is definitely in the air here, (although there is a bit of a nasty spell of weather happening down country at the moment) and the Magnolia tree has been looking -and smelling- wonderful. It's really starting to get some height on it now.

Check out the lovely blue sky!

The spring weather seems to have really affected the animals. Yesterday I caught Timmie practising her hunting skills.....

BEFORE shot....

...AFTER shot
These birds are an easy catch :-)

(The grey bird block she is hunting is another I have tested for Juliet of Tartankiwi. More about it another time.) (Judging by the size of Timmie in these photos I really think it best she sticks to hunting fabric birds and not the real thing!!)

In spite of the spring weather, Oscar-Riley was feeling a little chilly and decided he really liked my Temecula Baskets quilt.

Now I know why I  make small quilts....

A perfect fit :-)

 Thank you for visiting, happy stitching, and have a lovely day,