A few new projects

Here are few things I’ve been working on this week.

The first blocks for the Beatnik Bee, these are for Heidi.  The fabric is just lovely.

Some blocks for a new baby quilt for the shop (the zigzag quilt is SOLD).  These are on hold as I need to get more red fabric for the sashing. I got 4 out of 9 done though.

Some blocks using my Amy Butler stash and the gorgeous gold linen I scored a while ago.  This pattern has been haunting me ever since I made it for a Cottage Bee block.  I upsized it from 5 and a  1/4 inch squares (cut into triangles) up to 8 and a  1/4.

This was a quarter of a block………..

This is a whole…………

I decided instead of making 3 more of these for the main part of the top, to use the other triangles to make a border instead.  It’s still very much a work in progress and I’ll make it up as I go along (as per usual).   I do  like to take a pattern and make changes to it.  This is sort of how it might look.

It’s difficult to show the true colour of the gold linen.  Its is lovely in real life, and really soft.  I love it.  This quilt will be staying here

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Wacky weather !

Funny Summer we are having this year.  Heaps of rain, we’ve only had to water the garden a handful of times so far.  Things seem to be about 2 months behind where they should be.  I did a bit of weeding and did find 2 massive gherkins hiding under the weeds.  We have zucchini, but nothing else to harvest really.  The corn is just starting to flower now, so that is still some time away.

We’ve had lots of Thunderstorms is the past few weeks.  On Wednesday we had about half an hour of thunder, but no rain.  Bizarre.  Yesterday we had another, unfortunately yesterdays one was not just thunder, lightning and rain, but hail too. Not your average size hail either, marble size hail. (insert swearing here).  It lasted about half an hour, and the rain for about an hour.  The driveway was a lake.  Here’s some pics.

This was the sorry state of the sunflowers and pumpkins after the hail.

Bugger !!  Oh, the other big downside to the rain yesterday, it was coming from the east, which is not the prevailing weather side and I didn’t realise that Cam’s window was open.  There are no eaves over his window, so 2 thirds of his room was wet.  Wet carpet, wet bed, wet toys.  Aargggh. It’s all dry today, but wasn’t much fun.  Half an hour after the rain stopped we were back up to 26°C again.  Not bad today though.

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Hello, is it me you’re looking for??

I can’t believe the Summer school holidays are almost over.  Lilly and Nathan are both back at school on Tue / Wed next week.  I’m not really looking forward to it at all.  We’ve had a nice routine of getting up at 7.30 for the last few weeks, now we have to go back a 7am start and chaos.

We went and got the school essentials today.  School bags are so expensive :-0

I was lucky that they both only needed a few uniform items, shoes and sandals and a few things from the Stationary Warehouse.  I will wait till Nathan knows his optional classes before getting his books and Lilly’s stationery is issued at school on the first day. Even so, the coffers are few hundy less after that shopping.

Check out this score from the local library.

A whole $5.50.  What a bargain.  I’m tempted to go back and get a few more

Here’s pics of the two quilts I’ve been working on………..

Tadpoles and Frogs….front

Back……

Close up….

Any way up Allstars……………. front

back…………..

close up…………..

If you want to take one of these lovely quilts home, you can find them in the shop.

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Lucky Number 13

Congrats to Kylie, lucky number 13, winner of the orphan block, which will now be made up into a cushion cover.  Kylie, check your inbox

Back tomorrow with a crafty post.  Got 2 new quilts to show off

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Anyone up for a bee?

Jo (aka sparklygreenknickers) is starting a quilting bee specially for us Down Under.  Of course I have joined  

If you’d like to join too, here is where you should go.  Then send Jo a flickr mail. 

It would be great if you would join us !

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Time for a giveaway !

This orphan block needs a home.  I think it wants to be either a mini quilt, or a cushion cover. (edited to add the size – 16 inches by 16 inches (40cm x 40cm).

So, make a choice, mini quilt, cushion cover, or as it is (so you can make it part of something bigger).  Winner by random number generator, or other random drawing.  I’ll make it up into whatever you choose and send it on it’s way to the winner.  International entries welcome.

All you have to do to enter is comment.  Want an extra entry?  Blog about it, come back and let me know in the comments.  Winner will be drawn Sat 23rd 8pm (NZ time).  Good luck.  Thanks for reading.

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Here we are

I know I hardly ever post pics of me here, these ones are okay, nothing too close up

Taken a couple of weeks ago at Avalon park.

Nathan and Lilly up the hexagon.

Of course what the big kids do, Cam has to have a go at.

Fun !!

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Slack again

I know I should be posting more, but I’m having a bit of a crisis about what to post about. 

Should I be posting about the craft?  I do sew nearly every day and I have joined several new groups and I haven’t blogged about any of these.

Should I post about going to see the Steam Train last weekend?  Cam had such a good time.  But is it what you want to hear about?

It was a quiet week.  Ian was working in Blenheim.  I was a bit peeved that he has to work so far away, but it turned out ok.  It’s not like I can’t cope, I guess I’m just used to him being there.  Now he has two weeks in Christchurch, with the weekend in between home.  The big kids are all going to Auckland for a few days, Cam and I will find it very quiet.  I kind of wish were we going too.

I finished the big purple and gold quilt, just need to add its label and maybe do some hand embroidery on it.  I got a quilt front and back finished and sandwiched tonight, so will try to do the quilting and binding tomorrow so I can get it in the shop asap.  It will be the first boys quilt I’ve listed in the shop.

I made a list of quilts I want to make this year, but it keeps growing, now I’m up to number 28.  Do you think that’s a realistic number??  I’d like to get a job instead, but unless I work fulltime it’s not financially viable, and my heart feels like it’s being squeezed when I think of putting Cam in fulltime daycare. What to do???????

Oh well, guess I’ll be back again tomorrow with some pretty pics of things.

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Family stuff

Thought it was time to post about family stuff, just in case people other than my Mum are interested in what things are like here.

I only have one half decent pic from Nathan’s birthday (can’t post the one with his mates, privacy issues etc), but he had a great day.  14 now, and counting down the days till he can go for his learner drivers licence (I’m hoping for a law change to raise the age before his next birthday).  The beauty of having a spare sleepout now that Matt’s out flatting, you can chuck the teenage boys out there and not hear them up all night talking and playing on the computer.  Nathan has nice friends though, so it wasn’t any effort to have them over for the night.

A few pics from our visit to Staglands……………….

We never did find out what kind of bird this was.

A new artificial lake they have created since we were last there.

Cameron really enjoyed feeding the animals.  That’s the bonus of going on a not very sunny day, that animals are hungrier.

Feeding the trout was awesome.  They are massive, imagine the meal from one of those.

No more pics after that, the camera ran out of batteries.

Jack (the cat) managed to kill a Stoat a few days ago.  It’s the first time I’ve seen one up close.  vicious little buggers they are. Vermin.  Pity they are so cute.

Cam dragged it round for a few hours before forgetting about it.  Not scared of dead things here.  It didn’t have any obvious injuries so it was a bit like a soft toy.

The two hens having chicks has had a big impact on Cameron.  He’s made himself a few nests and pretended to hatch eggs, so when I took the Christmas tree down I gave him the stuffed birds from it so he could have chicks to play with.

Last night we had dinner out a friend’s place.  They have a pond of tadpoles and frogs up the back of their property, so we traipsed up to have a look.  It was an adventure crossing the river to get there (read water over the tops and filling the gumboots), but heaps of fun.  There were lots of frogs.  They still had their tails on, but had legs as well.  It was neat watching them come up to the surface. 

Oh, forgot to mention that Cameron locked me out of the house yesterday morning.  I left him inside while I went to feed the critters and the little bugger got his stool and locked the door.  Lucky Lilly was still inside.  Time to make sure we have a spare key outside somewhere.  Climbing fences is a favourite pastime now, playing with the outside taps, and climbing into the car if it’s not locked.  Oh the joys of a 3 year old.

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Dye candy, eye candy!!

Lookie what arrived in the post today.  The most gorgeous hand dyed fabrics from Dye Candy. Chris has a blog about dyeing fabric and a shop to buy her lovelies from.  I’ve been an admirer of Chris’ hand dyed fabric for a long time, but never got around to getting any.  It was on my to-do list to get some this year, so after the sale of the last Mermaids quilt I decided to get some.  Now i have 36 stunning colour graduations.  Chris was fantastic to deal with and picked out just what i needed.  I have a special project in mind for these.

I love the barter system.  I got these lovely fat quarters from Amy in exchange for a service that Ian did on her sewing machine.  Very handy being married to someone who used to be a Bernina Technician. 

Last week I actually sewed up a top for myself.  Turned out so well that I made a second one.  I don’t usually post pics of myself (you know that wanting to be 20kg lighter before having pics taken thing), but I was so pleased with the top I thought I should show you.  Lilly kindly took a pic for me.  It’s really comfortable!!  The other one was the short version, this is the dress version (though I will wear it with pants underneath as it’s a bit see-through).  Next one will be the in between length.

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