A finish and a weekend away

Not a quilted piece but something for the bed all the same!

A finish - crocheted Ripple Afghan

A few years ago I fell in love with the ripple afghans I was seeing around blogland. I started collecting yarn for one and LESS THAN A YEAR AGO started making it.
This has been a project I have really enjoyed. It became a perfect project to work on while travelling when I discovered that I could work on it in the car without getting motion sickness!!

It has wonderful memories of a visit to Australia with Mum to see my son and his wife. It brings back memories of my whirlwind trip to America to visit Spring Market. It's travelled within and around Northland. It's been in and out of town on a Friday night with hubby to get takeaways and groceries. I collected the yarn while travelling up and down the island to my parents' when Dad was ill. Stopping and buying the odd skein was a nice break on the frequent trips I was making.

I wanted it single bed size, not necessarily for tucking in, just laying on top, and also a nice size for snuggling in. And it's 100% wool, making it so warm. I'm a natural fibres kind of girl.
I followed the pattern I found *here* It is a straight forward design, making it a pleasureable journey.

Good old photo bombing in action.
I think Paddington was trying to let you know that she knew where the wool came from!

The last trip my afghan made was this past weekend when DH and I had some time away to attend the wedding of a neighbour's daughter. I wanted to finish it on a brown stripe as I had started it on brown... which meant there would be either 57 stripes or 61, depending on how much I got done while away. 57 it was!
And a little more about the weekend. DH doesn't get away very often - he's pretty tied to the cows - but now that calving is over, attending the wedding was a good excuse to book a milker and disappear.

Saturday, wedding day, at Kerikeri.

The wedding we attended in the Bay of Islands was lovely. The weather was gorgeous all weekend and it felt like we were just tipping over into summer.

Sunday was a lovely day at Paihia. I was very excited to see my first Pohutakawa
blooms of the summer,

My blog has been a little quiet lately as I've been working on several secret projects and there's been very little to share. Here are a few sneaky peeks.....

And now it's time to get back to those secret projects...although  my sewing machine is away getting serviced so I'll be doing lots of prep work. And it's far too warm for having the afghan out so that needs to be stowed away safely until the winter.
Until next time, happy creating and thank you for visiting,

A Lovely Day

On Saturday we held The Country Yard's Annual Exhibition.

We had sunshine.

We had music (The Red Arrows).

We had plenty to nibble on.

Even Petanque if you were in the mood....

We had Spot Prizes

We had a Viewers' Choice winning quilt. This was a Gail Pan's Bluebirds and Berries
with Suzanne's special touch added to it!
See more of it *here*

And we had quilts carefully scattered throughout the house. My photos do not do the Exhibition justice, nor did I photograph everything. I meant to come back to get more photos but didn't get the chance. The sale in the Shop kept us busy :-)

Several different projects in this room. The John Deere inspired quilt is all hand
pieced and quilted.
And that's one of Lynette Anderson's Chateau Hexagon mystery quilts at the window.

The Double Wedding Ring was gorgeous and one I wanted a
better photo of. The cat disappeared as soon as people started
arriving!

The quilt on the left is a Bonnie Hunter EZ Street. The one on the right is another
one which has been hand pieced and quilted.
Another Chateau Hexagon on the wall.

On the sofa we have a Barbara Brackman Grandmother's Choice quilt.
Antique Lace class quilt at front of photo.

Here are two more Antique Lace class quilts.
The table centre was also a class at the shop.

Our annual exhibiton is a lovely way to celebrate the year. It's a wonderful opportunity for our quilters to share and display their work.

There are several other posts about the exhibitions. Click *here* for Leeanne's blog and *here* for Suzanne's post.

Thank you for visiting and reading along!

Have a wonderful week

and happy creating!

Sewing and stitching again

Since my last post, when I wrote about being a bit of a ditherer, there's been no time for slacking... Mum was here for a week and she kept the whip cracking as we got stuck into some secret Christmas sewing. Of course, I have nothing to share with you... because it's Secret Sewing(!) but I can share that it involves hours of me sitting tied to the machine with Mum standing over me cracking that whip :-) Actually she was a dab hand with the iron and a pile of pins, together we made a mean team and were the ultimate in efficiency!

But I did get a chance to do a little stitching in the evenings, when Mum decided it was time to put her feet up and rest the whip.
Here is where I am at with the Country at Heart Alphabet. These are a RagTag Stitchin' design by Michelle Ridgeway - I'm continuing to LOVE these :-)

 I've also made a little more progress on the Christmas Sewalong blocks by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs.
These will make a delightful wall hanging for a special friend - I'm looking forward to getting them finished and sewn up for her. (Wendy has a Craftsy store if you are interested in stitching these).

While going through my photos recently, I came across my Spring mini hanging (below) which I had forgotten to share.....I made this as part of a seasonal series for my favourite quiltshop. It's on a 12" stand.

And this was a little belated gift for Mum; she commented once that she had made many scissor keeps as gifts over the years but didn't actually have one herself! (Isn't that the way?) I've remedied that!

Popped some Ric-rac in the seam for a bit of extra charm.

There are a few other things to share with you also.
First up a big Thank You to Carrie of A Passion for Applique. I was one of her giveaway winners after she received and shared a prize after donating a quilt. Carrie is a talented quilter who is currently showing sneak peeks of a King George III coverlet re-creation  - I'm enjoying watching her progress on it.

And I have two new thimbles for my (so far) small collection. The pretty one on the right is a Yoko Saito thimble. Fellow blogger Raewyn wrote about Yoko and her thimbles *here*. I haven't actually got the hang of using a thimble but if I did, it sounds like this one would be an ideal one to use!

 The one on the left is one Mum bought me in Dubai, on her way to Italy recently for a holiday of a lifetime with her 3 sisters. This thimble brings back memories of a photo of the four of them clowning around at the top of  the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa :-)

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Red and White quilt. Did you get a chance to go to SewCalGal's site to what others had designed and made? And did you know that you can vote for your favourite quilt? And that you can be entered into a draw for a prize just by leaving a comment after you vote? This has been a fun year of challenges. SewCalGal works hard to get sponsors and prizes so if you get a chance, please head over *there*, enjoy the eye candy and vote for your favourite :-)

And speaking of eye candy, on Saturday our local quilt shop, The Country Yard, has its annual exhibition. Quilts, a beautiful garden, a band, yummy morning tea and a sale; where else would one want to be?! It's always a pleasant day :-) When I was there at work yesterday the quilts were busy arriving so I'm looking forward to seeing them all displayed in the house. (Hanging them is tomorrow's job!).
I think that's all for now.... I need to sort exactly what I am doing for some more of my Christmas sewing (don't you hate it when people say how many days until Christmas? It always makes me feel panicky!) so I really must sign off.
As always, thank you for visiting, Happy creating,