Family Time

Before I get on with the rest of my news, I'll share a couple of sewing photos, then you can skip the rest of the blogpost if you're not interested!

These two pillowcases are the only real finishes I have for January. I had pulled the fabric and had it was sitting out for nearly a year waiting for some sewing time!

So even though it was January (and not December) it was time to sew them up and get them onto a different pile!

Cute Christmas fabric - I'm not even sure how it came to be in my stash, but it's out of it now —

You may remember that last month I declared my Boxer floor cushion finished. Of course it was - except that it had no inner. I have now made an inner and yaay the cushion is now properly done. It's perhaps a little over full but I think it will squash down with use —

Here is a line up of other cushions I've made over the years —

The Boxer is a decent size; it really was like making another quilt —

I haven't counted up this month's blocks just yet so will need to do that asap, before I forget.

On to other news. Today marks 10 years since Dad died. To commemorate it we arranged a family weekend down at Taupo.

We drove south through heavy rain on Friday. Little did we realise that there was a trail of destruction behind us - flooding, slips, accidents. It wasn't until later that night that we learnt of the horrific wet events unfolding in Auckland and surrounds.

It was wet (but not as wet) in Taupo too but we all managed to have a great weekend. There is a lot of geothermal activity in Taupo so the swimming pools at the resort were delightfully warm and well used by most family members. Indoor activities out and about were frequented too. 

For the most part, umbrellas were the order of the day —

Visiting Huka Falls with the MOML and YD —

Hard to see from my photos that the falls are quite impressive! The colour was beautiful, too.

This was not impressive! We paid to go for a wee bush walk to see the geothermal activity. Considering Taupo produces about 20% of NZ power by geothermal power, we were expecting more than this!

Sunday was our 'official day'. We all went through to my hometown (Tokoroa) and visited Dad.

My siblings, Mum, and I (You can possibly see that Tokoroa has a very colourful cemetery. Bright flowers/colours Everywhere) —

We went to a local park where there is a plaqued parkbench and a grove of Hazelnut trees planted in his memory. As you can see it was getting wetter then. The planned picnic was canned but we did take over a coffee shop for lunch!

Quick visit to Pinetree Man - Dad was a driving force behind this (and a supplier of the shed space for it's construction!) —

 That evening we had a private buffet dinner in the resort, which was a lovely way to end the weekend. 

Nephew getting hounded by his (second) cousins!

It was amazing that most of our family was able to attend, aside from my brother-in-law who spent the weekend pumping water out of his orchard, and my brother's US family stayed home awaiting a new arrival - any day now.

And we all had so much hanging out time, just chatting and catching up with each other. Just fabulous and a great way to commemorate Dad.

It was a long holiday weekend in the Waikato, Auckland and Northland so none of us had to leave until Monday. Us Northlanders were a little concerned about the road closures and detours on the way home so we all took off pretty smartly in the morning. But everyone got home safely and without too many dramas.

Another wave of this atmospheric river is due to hit the northern part of the country tonight and a State of Emergency has been declared for Northland in preparation for anticipated rain overnight. [I have just heard that we will not be getting quite as much rain as they feared.] Here on the farm the river is already well up and our pastures are very sodden so it will be interesting to see what sort of flood we have tomorrow.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 30 of Block a Day December

As I'm generally an early riser I was able to do some sewing before breakfast this morning. Our visitors arrived late last night so I knew that once the day started there would be no time for making my daily block.

And the day turned out quite different to how I thought it would.

Before I knew it, this was happening. My friend and I got busy —

This is how the garden looked in October - really lovely, but that rose had grown everywhere and needed getting under control —

There was also a massive hydrangea that was beautiful when it flowered but quickly turned brown as opposed to slowly fading like hydrangeas normally do.

After a few hours work the men stopped by to help clear the mess —

The final result —

This was the sewing this morning —

Two more temperature blocks to add to November; how boring is that second block - we had very steady temperature that 'week'.

And a wee pile that hopefully will be transformed into blocks tomorrow morning while everyone is sleeping.

Here is another wee gift I made this Christmas. The design is based on a Japanese Rice Bag but I don't imagine rice will be kept in this one. Sorry no link to this but googling Rice bags will bring up a few choices to use if you want to make one.

Turned out rather sweet I thought.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Day 20 of Block a Day December

It was a real effort to get anything done today - it was hot and I was tired after yesterday's driving and general busy-ness, I think.

However Odie had requested his Santa sack and I couldn't let the young fellow down so I got busy.

When YD asked me (on his behalf) to make one, I had grand ideas of using some of the cool ideas I've seen around. However YD asked me to make one similar to his two big sisters' ones.

The story behind them is they were bought when YD and hubby was extra poor so they were cheap and nasty. About 4 years ago, she asked me if I could fix them up, so I pulled off the tatty glued on bits and added some applique. After all, you don't change Santa Sacks mid-childhood do you? Too confusing for Santa, This was how they ended up — 

And here is Odie's after my very slow work today —

I still had the silver and gold ric-rac and the elf fabric to fussy cut, so the three sacks all have a very similar look about them.

After that, it was onto the block for today.
I finished the last block for August (Temperature quilt). The last seven days of August  —

Here are the rest of the blocks for August —

(And what they actually looked like up on the wall - it's turning into a real muddle!)

Here is August sewn together —

Nearly caught up on this project now :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Lockdown quilt and more —

I've made a little progress on my Lockdown quilt recently. You may remember I was starting with a centre block —

This was the centre of a Lockdown pillow offered by Ellie's Quiltplace, who started up a FB group, Lockdown quilters, way back when lockdowns started happening around the world.

This piece actually got thrown in a corner a couple of times. You can see why in the photo below —

On the right of the block, it went really baggy - something to do with a bias stem on bias grain and me not prepping properly.

I kept telling myself I would 'quilt it out' but knew in reality that option was a bit of a cop-out. Finally I unstitched the right hand stem, re-stitched it, and it sits a whole lot better. 

And then I spilt a cup of coffee one evening which splashed all over the place, including the corner of my block. I washed it. And the house fabric ran. Anyway several washing and soakings later, I was good to go!!!

The first border of my quilt has a round of bubbles, to signify the time we spent 'in our own bubbles'. I'd originally thought of doing 49 of them to signify the 49 days we were officially in Level 4 but decided I wanted to change it up a bit.

There is a blank square there which I will fill in with a bit of written info, when I work out what I want to say. And two bubbles in one square signify going into Level Three and being allowed to merge our bubbles slightly.

On Saturday YD and family came out to the farm. I was able to gift baby Odie his latest vest - the same size/style as before, YD wanted one in this yarn as his 'going out' vest.

The next day, he 'went out' and I was dutifully sent ths photo — 

This is a pattern I've made several times before and you can find it on Ravelry *here*.

Later in the day ED and her family came out. George was wearing the vest I'd dropped off at their place the day before —

Lily had claimed it and wouldn't let him near it —

This time he was allowed to wear it —

As with the vest I made for Lily, this one is a Pathfinder vest from Twig and Tale. George's is a few inches longer at the front. Both are lined with brushed cotton/wincyette. George's outer is a wool mix and I suspect Lily's is too. Often these are made from old woolen blankets; I haven't hunted down some colourful ones to use yet, but these ones are actually a good weight for our Northland climate.

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by, once again. I'll keep trying to squeeze it all in :-)

(Oh and PS, I've written this post in the new blogger and it seems to be working!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,