Home once more

In my last post I was about to leave for Australia to attend our annual Scrub Stitching retreat.

I thought the above (unusual) heart shaped gum leaf I found while out walking one morning was a perfect way to describe my trip.....I had a fabulous time...I loved every minute ♥

I have to start with a photo of kiwikid Sue and I - we travel together each year and have lots of fun. Without Sue, my adventures to Scrub Stitching wouldn't be (as) possible.

This year WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO SIT TOGETHER; however we both survived :-)

For those who don't know, Scrub Stitching is held each April at Camp Cypress, the showgrounds at Baradine, a small town in North Western New South Wales. A group of bloggers (primarily) descend on it and take over the cabins, main room and kitchen with sewing, chatting, eating and sleeping on repeat for the duration.

Sadly, it was looking a little bit dry this year —

Here is the main room on the first afternoon, all set up ready for the invasion —

This is the view (taken another time) from the kitchen on the other side of the room —

Meals, Morning tea, and Fivesies often morph into sewcial sessions —

A fabulous goodie bag is par for the course —

— filled with all sorts of surprises. An Australian coffee mug, sweet treats. Di made the name tags which are actually bookmarks. Brenda made us some delicious coconut ice (again!).

The rulers were pretty cool (and useful), with our special logo on them. Janice made us each a magnetic butterfly, and Jo contributed a wee pouch —

The fabrics and zip in the goodie bag photo were this year's kit for a project - and thanks to Chooky's expert tutelage (hehe) most of us completed a pouch by the end of SS. 

Mine's here with one my pile of pouches from Scrub Stitching.

Jo's wee one; the kit make (top right); one I made; and a special gift from some special ladies —

 - I had asked Jo to show me her special way of making her project bags. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's a step up in 'quality' from the vinyl fronted pouches I've made before.

See that torn serviette Jo is holding - those are her instructions!!

Chooky kindly lent me one of her machines. I took over my Sewing Space Station which proved to be very handy. I worked very hard to try to remember to place everything back in its pocket after I used it, which in the limited space and with my scrappy (messy) sewing, was necessary!

Always plenty to eat. The Coeliac in the group appreciated the GF scones (hehe) —

Fivesies before our party dinner were held outside —

The theme for this year's party dinner was 'A favourite book character'. It was so much fun to see what everyone came up with —

Sue and I went with favourite children's book characters; Noddy and The Gruffalo —

I styled my outfit off ones I'd made for the kids years ago. 

I didn't think to get a photo of the back which showed my tail and purple 'spikes' all over my back.

(I used the Twig n Tale women's Pathfinder vest pattern. Definitely one I would make again- sans ears and horns, of course!)

We gather each year for a Tribe photo. I had just come back from a massage so was feeling very relaxed for the photgrapher!

You can probably tell I've just been grabbing photos and talking about them for this post. I'll sign off now but will organise myself for a follow-up blogpost soon......

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

More travels

 It's been a busy few weeks since my trip to visit our new little grandie-girl. There"s not been much productivity in The Palace. 
I did get my March RSC red block made - 

And made a few more blocks for my Leader-ender project (Bonnie Hunter challenge) - 

I"m getting quite a pile of these blocks now (about 80) and I think there will be a time in the not-so-distant future when this project will morph from a leader-ender project to a full scale full time one!!

I tried to do some preparation for our upcoming Scrub Stitching retreat in Australia. I used this wee bundle as a starting point for going through my stash and cutting strips.

Last year at Scrub Stitching I was entranced by the Luna Lapins that Christine and Sharmayne had made and I decided I NEEDED to make one too.....

Of course I had a year to prepare and it all got left to the last minute.

McGeorgeous helped me with the stuffing-

I fell in love with the pelletised pure wool stuffing I bought at  show last year -

But sadly I decided to leave Miss Luna at home. She was too embarassed to travel with no arms, no eyes and, most importantly, no clothes!! NEXT YEAR!!!

In the meantime there has been a school triathalon-

It was a drizzly day but they all did well.

There have been kids to play - 

The MOML and I spent Easter away. We drove south to Whakatane (and Opotiki) to help celebrate my Uncle's 80th birthday. It was great to catch up with family again; I have so many cousins and it's always fun to see who comes out of the woodwork!

We took the scenic route.

Cambridge - 

Lake Rotoiti-

Happy 80th Uncle Jimmy.

After a 'brunch' back at his place the next day, we spent some bitter sweet time at Mum's place distributing and sorting her bits and pieces. My sister has done a great job of sending out lists for everyone to put their name on, but there are still a lot of things to find homes for. Mum's siblings came around and helped relieve us of random things.

We drove home in pouring rain but thankfully the MOML (and uncle-advisors) had done an excellent job of waterproofing and there was not a drop of water on anything!

And this morning I am at the airport, waiting for my flight to Australia and Scrub Stitching!!!

(None of my photos showed up when I previewed this post so I hope they show for you!)

I'll catch up soon!

Happy Stitches,

Raewyn

Things I couldn't fit in my last post —

I cut some photos and so on out of my previous Aloha post as it was getting too long and wordy.

There were a few crafty things I wanted to include so I have pasted them in a new blogpost and here they are.

Baby Olive's quilt didn't get finished before I went over but I did make this 'Sheep Ragdoll' for her. A pattern I saw and quite liked which I thought would be fun to try out.....

And delivered —

I initially bought the yarn and pattern when spending time with Mum last year. I thought it would be a good project for my itchy fingers at the time but I didn't even get it started then.

The pattern can be found *here*.

Back in 2015 I made a quilt out of my late Dad's old flannel farm shirts. I intended it to be used by his great-grandbabies (none of which he ever got to meet). Here is the post about it *here*. Olive will be the 10th grandie to use it and I was delighted to deliver it to her when I went over.

My intention was that every great grandchild would spend some time with it.

Olive with Pop's quilt —

They don't have a huge need of quilts (particularly flannel ones!) so I encouraged its use as a floor/tummy time (etc) quilt.

Sadly the pen I took with me to add her name was on its way out and I didn't get much further than drawing the heart!

And another historical make is also being used by baby Olive.

Back when I was 16, I spent some time practicing different crochet techniques as the 'hobby' part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.

One of the techniques was hairpin crochet, a technique I really enjoyed but haven't done since.

I made a wee blanket which mostly has been stored away and seldom used ever since.

However I came across it recently and thought it might be a nice weight for a baby in Hawaii to use.

It's now officially Olive's car blanket, a nice light layer over those podgy legs —

You make long strips of the 'lace' on a hairpin shaped 'loom'/gadget which are joined together by hooking the loops at the edge of each strip together. I finished it with a standard crochet edging.

Another crafty Hawaiian-related thing I came across in a tourist market/shop was this lovely Hawaiian style quilt. I really loved it - especially how it had the additional turtles on it. I left it there but half of me has non-buyer's regret. There will be other opportunities I know!

Back home, I've been trying hard to get back into my early morning hill-climbs. After 24 hours of very wet weather, Saturday morning dawned very foggy, which meant I delayed leaving the house until a bit later. I left just in time though, beating the cows as they went up the hill to their new paddock!

The MOML (bike lights) crossing them over the road —

Following me up the hill. I was pleased I was in front of them, not behind them, that would have really slowed me down —

Walking as far as the tape across the race and an open gate —

On my way back, these girls are happy grazing at the top end of the paddock —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn