Merry Christmas

 Here it is Christmas Eve already! I am ready as I will ever be!!I had lots of messages to do yesterday and when I was out I found apricots for $4 a kg so of course I had to get some for jam. So this morning I have made jam and a boiled fruit cake - how is that for last minute!! 😄

also bubbling away this afternoon is a mix of orange juice, marmalade and mulled wine spices to go over the ham, it had another 10 mins to go and then it will be poured over the ham and into the oven. It smells pretty good at the moment.

Thank you to everyone for visiting and commenting on my blog, it is very much appreciated.

Not a lot

 of sewing has been happening this past week, I have been putting hexies together in the evening

these will be going into the Mystery Hexie quilt once I have finished the row I am working on, I jumped ahead a bit with these.

The heart quilt is all together and has a scrappy binding, I have to go over it now and sew in all the little bits I missed with the zig zag, also the endy bits from the zig zag need to be sewn in too, then the binding and it is done.

We have had David's sister and brother in law staying this weekend, we haven't spent any time with them for quite a while thanks to covid so it was good to have a catch up, I forgot to get a photo but did capture Basil the Welsh cardigan corgi

Basil listening and hiding his ears.

We had a good walk along the beach this morning.

The photos have jumped again, I received these beautiful flowers from Tracee

and these beautiful flowers from Margaret.

Here is Basil waiting patiently while I take a photo, he was in a hurry to get back home to see where his family was.

I went over to Leopold last week to do last minute shopping and called in to see Carleen and Des, quilting and geocaching friends. Their front garden is full of rose bushes and the perfume is just beautiful. Des very kindly picked me a bunch to bring home. Their perfume is still filling the house after a few days.

While I was at Leopold I saw this Tomte in a shop window and just had to bring it back home with me, it is so soft and cuddly! I am off to do some endy finishing.

Happy stitching.

The Circle of Life

 The circle for my Mum closed on Monday 14th December 2020. She had been in hospital for two weeks and did not respond to treatment for blood clots in the lungs so was looked after and kept comfortable until she passed. She was in a room on her own at the end with some lovely flowers and constant nurse attention. Mums wish through out her life was to go in her sleep and that is what happened, she was lucky. Mum was aged 95 and had a very healthy life. A little trip down memory lane

Auckland Zoo with Mum's mother.

Family friends and Mum's mother, Mum made our clothes for years so we were often dressed the same, same pattern different colours.

I think this was taken at the Katikati bird park in NZ.

Te Awamutu play ground, we had gone to visit a family friend in a home over there, so stopped to give the boys some play time before the visit. You can see from the photos which son was the listener and which was action man!!

I think this is in Kulim Park, a park down the beach from where Mum and Dad used to live, they often went there in the summer for jazz concerts.

 A birthday celebration at Mum and Dads house with Adam and Shane.

And this lovely photo was sent to me by the activities lady at the home, I found out recently they take a photo each Christmas and this one was from Dec 2019. I am so very happy to have it now.

RIP Mum.

Table mats

 The gods of putting in a safe place smiled kindly on my and I found the table mat I had made,

I like how the colours in the cord have created a pattern

One mat had a more oval start, the top one and the bottom one had a rounder start, hence the difference in patterns.

I used the walking foot and a large zig zag and although it is difficult to get them started, I used my purple "thang" a lot to push the cord where I wanted it, once they get going it just flows along around and around, almost meditative.

this one is made from window sashing cord from the hardware store, I added some 1inch pieces of fabric just for pops of colour.

two nearly finished mats, I hade to tidy off the ends of the cord.

two mats and a bowl

the bowl is made the same way keeping the base flat until you want to shape the sides, then you hold the base on a 90 deg angle (I think) and that shapes the sides up. I am very happy with how they have turned out.

We have had Hank here for three days, he has enjoyed two or three walks each day, has met new dogs, dug in the garden 😒, done mad zoomies around the garden, kept me laughing and kept me awake at night! It has been a joy to have him here.

I think his parents have just driven into the driveway!! I am off!

Happy stitching.

Guess what? Catching up yet again!!

 The last couple of weeks have been a bit up and down, I have been to Gisborne and had a great catch up with Margaret and Tracee, we had lunch and a lots of chat! Marg and I walked over to the cemetery to visit Donna late afternoon

Marg took some roses from her garden to add to the roses already there.

In the evening we had a walk around part of the golf course, we saw lots of kangaroos, ducks and rabbits!

It was a lovely time of the day.

Back at home I have been having phone conversations back and forth between here and NZ, my Mum is in hospital and is very unwell, so waiting to hear. The virus makes it hard to get over there in any hurry.

I finished a Christmas stocking which is now winging its way to NZ.

A little currawond came and shared in the bread I put out for the birds, it sat looking for a long while, maybe it was getting warm in the sun.

The mystery hexie quilt is slowly progressing, I ran out of coral coloured hexies so last night was spent filling the gap in the container.

Hank is staying with us for a few days while Adam and Beth are off camping, so far he has settled well.

I scored some lovely fabric from a lady destashing on IG.

and happy mail today as these applique sheets and tools arrived, something new to try.

The quilting is done on the Storm at Sea quilt, now to add the binding.

I bought some of this synthetic rope at the local hardware last week and made a table mat, which turned out pretty well, but sadly I can't show it to you because it is a safe place and I don't know where the safe place is! It is that kind of week.

I finished this book today and enjoyed the story.

The second avocado seed has sprouted well and is getting leaves.

The orchids inside are going really well and all are in flower

This one has not flowered before so is extra special

This one was white when I got it but since the first flowering has changed colour to this.

This one has had lots of flowers, these are the last two.

This is the first avocado I sprouted, it seems to very happy in its pot.

I had better be off and search for that table mat or sew the binding on the quilt or have some lunch!!

Happy stitching.

Catching up again

                                                                      Today blogger has decided to put the photos in reverse so we will see the week backwards!

A couple of weekend ago we had a visit from Shane, #2 son, his partner Rilla and her Mum Fiona, we had a great visit with them and they were very happy to be out of the city and enjoying the big outdoors after being in lock down for so long.

The Storm at Sea quilt top is finished, I didn't quite have enough for the border so a little extra had to be added in on two sides.

Here are the finished blocks

a block made in the week

I had some wonderful happy snail mail in the week and now need to get pen to paper and write some replies. Mmm blogger has decided to put this photo on its side!

Two Storm at Sea blocks made earlier in the week

This one had to be unpicked and a new piece added, I obviously got trimming happy!!

More hexies have been added together

I brought a heap of these books home from Eve's house and have read this one

Earlier this week I made a book of family photos from the last three years to send to Mum for Christmas, it turned up in three days, very efficient service!

I also received a lovely parcel from Ondrea this week, containing her beautiful stitched book mark, word search to keep the grey matter on the move and a notebook. Thank you Ondrea.

You know how sometimes you see things advertised on Instagram or facebook and you are not sure if they are for real or not?? Well these mugs below were advertised and I thought I would give it a try. The sale was in US dollars so I thought if it gets here it will take forever, but No! The cup turned up in 6 days, despite me misspelling the street address.....😕

here is the back

and the front,,  Jenny and I cavorting off into senility together!! (Hopefully not for a long time!!)

I contacted the makers to explain about the incorrect address, the mug was already in the mail - that was day 2 after ordering. So I contacted the delivery people, it was already in their system in that it had gone from Melbourne to Geelong so could not be changed once it was in the delivery system.

I have had three follow up emails from the seller, they even offered another mug and I just had to pay for the delivery. So happy it has arrived and I am very impressed with the service. Now to send it on to NZ.

I had a walk up around the subdivision behind us in the week and saw the street planted with pohutukawa trees otherwise known as the NZ Christmas bush, was so lovely to see.

The yesterday while out in the garden, I noticed this bush that I hope might have been a pohutukawa covered in flowers and heaving with bees. Very happy to see it in flower. We have planted three small pohutukawas around the garden but they are too small to flower yet I think. This might be a different variety to the ones I saw up the street as the flowers are smaller.

I was over in Drysdale on Thursday evening and noticed this W painted on the wall of the Woolies supermarket, How pretty is that?

Hopefully I have not put you to sleep! 😊

I am off to get some lunch and then it is sewing time.

We had a 31degC day yesterday, today there is a cool breeze blowing up the bay and it has just started to rain!! Yay! I hope it lasts.

Happy stitching.