Happy happy mail

 Aust. Post. was very kind to me yesterday, I received a wonderful package from Julie, we got into a conversation a while back about Golly's and guess what turned up in the mail!

Julie's parcels are a work of art in themselves

This little beauty was inside, beautifully made and dressed, look at the shoes!! 

Made with love, sent with love and received with love, and little Suzi will be loved here.

My history with the golly has been a long one, my paternal grandmother used to knit and sew without a pattern, once she knew what she was making off she went. She knitted the characters from the Noddy book series amongst other things.

The first golly she made me, I am told I dropped it out of the pusher and it was never found again. I think this one was fabric and knitted.

My next golly, all knitted, coming home from kindy or school

Dad took lots of photos of us as kids and golly was always there too. I spent many happy day dreamy hours up the grapefruit tree behind me.

This golly I had until is was 21 when my mother decided to throw it out, my Dad got me another one for my 40th birthday 😀.

They might not be PC these days but I have many happy memories associated with my gollies.

Julie also sent me a beautiful Christmas decoration and a NZ magazine which I am really enjoying.

Isn't that so cute? And beautifully made, Julie is so clever. Thank you very much Julie.  I wasn't going to do Christmas decorating this year but I just might now, and bring out the hand made decorations that have been given to me over the years, they also bring back lots of happy memories.

Other happy mail on the same day was this card from my sister in law, she does the most beautiful paintings, takes photos of them and makes them into cards. The has her paintings in a gallery down on the Bass Coast.

Happy mail today were these Tomte who I ordered on line, the family is growing! The two little ones have lights in their hats.

The fat quarter quilt is finished and ready for delivery, I have rubbed at the chalk lines and most have gone now.

Anthology block for this week, I still have over 70 blocks to make!

Progress on the tea and cake quilt top.

To finish up this Tomte came home with me from Van Loons today, they are very popular now and can be found all over the place! 

I had a lovely day today, cuppa with the retreat ladies some of whom I haven't seen all year, some shopping, a browse in the nursery and a chai ( a cheese cake for later 😃) and now it is nearly 5pm. I had better go and do something...not sure what that something is, I will go and look for it!

Have a great evening.

Home again

 I am happily home again, even though I had a very happy time away.

I had two lots of happy mail awaiting my return, well three, but one was the DVD of the NZ movie Baby Done, which I watched yesterday and enjoyed.

This box of beautiful goodies was sent to me by Julie from the beautiful blog My Threadbear Life. It smells absolutely wonderful from the lavender soap and holder. Julie always wraps her gifts beautifully, but I have already opened all these up!

How cute is this mouse pincushion Julie made

I am not sure I can stick pins in it to be honest.

There was also this beautiful fabric

special pins

and quilting themed cards. Thank you so very much Julie, you made my day!

This lovely wrapped bundle was next. I saw these on Instagram and had to treat myself to two, actually they went really quickly once offered for sale.

Two beautiful old spoons with words stamped on them!  Mel of Coastal Market place stamps spoons, knives and forks, they look amazing. Bringing life back to old things that might no longer be used.

I am off to sort out this mess, too many things have been dumped in here to be tidied later...now it is later!!

Happy stitching.

Catching up again

Here we are into another week, the weekend sped by. Saturday I had Guild which was a great day, our speaker was Margaret Rowe Keys, a local lady who writes quilting themed novels set in Australia. They look great and Margaret offered them to us at a very good price, so I have a set waiting to be read. We didn't have very much show and tell this month but I can share one beautiful art quilt a lady made

Isn't that special.

This was the table for the book selling, my books have the blue ribbon and are now all signed by the author.

I joined together four rows of the International Sisters yesterday...that was pretty exciting!! (Mmmmm, what does that say about my life!!)

Today I was the last one at sewing, I was staying until I finished this International Sister block, the fabric came from the lovely Julie, love the retro look of the fabric with the NZ birds.

And I finished this block, made with buzzy bee fabric, an iconic NZ toy. I had one with a string attached and I pulled it everywhere I am told, the wings clicked as they turned and drove my mother mad!! I loved my buzzy bee.I have just realised looking at the photos that the Sisters are undecided whether to have their hands palm up or down...yep I put the arms around the wrong way!! Ah well they will just be a little different to the other Sisters.

I also managed to sew 23 One Block Wednesday blocks part way, hopefully tomorrow will see the corner pieces sewn on.

I received some happy mail today, these beautiful pieces of fabric from  the lovely Michelle, the black and white fabric is from Alice Springs and the red fabric from Darwin. Thank you Michelle, these will make beautiful Sisters blocks.

This was the view from my chair at sewing today.....I stayed on as I wanted to get the Sisters blocks done, everyone else was gone, actually it was quite good as there was no one to talk to so no distractions!

I forgot to share this, happy mail from last week. I lashed out and bought this kit from the Fat Quarter shop, and No I do not need another project, but just fell for the bees and the hive.

I had better be off and sort my bags from sewing today.

Happy stitching.

Moving along

I have spent a few days with Mum, she is much better and seemed to enjoy her birthday.
I have sewn a few more stars

Bit of a dark photo but 5 new stars

Today I drove over the Kaimais to Tirua and met Julie of My Threadbare Life blog. We had a wonderful catch up in a lovely cafe, before having to head on with the day. It is always a treat to spend time with Julie.

A bit up the road I had a quick refreshment break at Matamata and so I went to the info centre, just love this building based on the Hobbit movies.

The rain has been really bad today, driving rain for nearly 3 hours is a bit much to take.  Not to worry I am now in Auckland with Jenny for the night. Moving on to catch up with more bloggers tomorrow.

Happy stitching.

Fixed Up!

 The Doing the Rounds has been unsewn (only 8 circles thank goodness!!) and resewn and eagle eyed Ondrea spotted one rosette was missing, well now that BOM#3 has arrived I have the extra bit of material Sandy kindly sent, the missing hexie has been replaced and rosette is in place.

Today I have been in to Geelong to do Guild stuff, we visited the local politician to see if we could get some financial help with the Rickie Tims event we have later in the year....we have more information to take back to the committee and decisions to make now. They made us very welcome though.

Later this afternoon Cheryl (Guild President) and I went to the Bluebird Foundation to drop off the Book Reading Quilts

Bron and Lucy were very happy to receive them...discussion was happening over which quilts were going where a they work at different venues.

They are lovely ladies and have invited us to go along to one of their sessions next term.

When I got home this amazing parcel was waiting for me on the kitchen bench

Love a surprise parcel, and isn't it beautifully decorated!

Lots of beautiful goodies inside from Julie of Threadbare Cottage. Handmade soap, Kiwiana fat quarters, hand knitted dish cloths, hand made card, tea towel with a beautiful message about dogs on it, a reminder list with a Chow on it and a lovely hand painted heart with the message  "Life is a patchwork of Friendship". Julie helped me out by homing some of my mothers crystal and linen bits, I was so happy  they were going to a loving home and this is Julie's thank you!.

Thank you very much Julie, you have spoilt me!

Love the Chowchow!! The lost on the cover here sound very familiar!!

I had better run, hubby is wanting dinner and I need to rescue it from the oven.

Cheers to wonderful friends.

Wonderful

to be back home again..I have a few photos on the camera to update here. I met up with the lovely Julie of Threadbare Cottage for lunch while I was in NZ. We met in Tirau which is famous for the corrugated iron signs in the town. We had a great lunch and then a wander up to the Christmas shop , which was amazing!

Julie gifted me a lovely goodies bag, which I opened this morning

the bag got a bit squashed in the suitcase

but inside was a beautiful candle Julie made and decorated, even  has my name on it, and a lovely handmade soap. I have had one of these before and they are beautiful to use and smell so good!!

Thank you Julie, you made my day.

We took some snaps of the signs and buildings in the town

  the local mechanic shop, and the Info centre

sadly the buzzy bee is a bit hard to see

Mrs Pukeko looks very flash with her pearls and shoes

Mr Pukeko is plainer just sitting here on the roof.

this shepherd was at the local church, you could put money in a box I was told by a man passing by and he would talk to you, I thought that was a little creepy so declined!!

I headed off and drove back over the Kaimais

I stopped at the top to take a photo out over the Waikato and to search for a geocache!

Later that weekend when I went up to Auckland Jenny showed me a book swap fridge at the end of her street

I dropped off two book crossing books and took a thriller. The contents of the fridge were  mostly children's books. Nice to swap books around.

I did manage to get a few more stars sewn

the star family is a wee bit bigger now

I must say that Jenny gave me a beautiful cup (she has the T-shirt to match)

Halloween Chowdy dogs!!How cute are they. I am very blessed to have wonderful friends.

I am off to rediscover my sewing room.

Happy sewing.