Over the hill!

No, not me - over the hill I mean :) a couple of weekends ago we, the family, went over the Rimutaka Hills into the Wairarapa to visit our only other relatives in NZ and celebrate with them the fifth birthday of their son.  Phil and I went together and he showed me this spot, near Featherston - you might recognise it from other photos I've shared.  The lake is shallow and this is all that remains of a pier the local yacht club built.

By the sounds I hear from outside, the much anticipated storm has arrived; we've had tropical type showers on and off all day, very warm temperatures and now the wind.  I've moved anything I thought might be at risk....

I've not done a great deal of quilting this week, but I have, finally, finished crocheting the bands of knitting to make a blanket for Africa, seventy inches long by about forty five takes quite a bit of knitting!

Well, they did say they wanted the blankets to be bright!  I just have the ends to finish off and it's ready to take to the next Pinestream meeting.

While we were in the Rapa we went to Martinborough where they are many good vinyards and interesting shops, one I wandered into thinking it was an antique shop, only to find it was an upholsterers - serendipity! I have been dropping hints to my sons for some while that my wooden chairs need re-covering and fixing up - they squeak so much when sat upon I was beginning to worry that one day one of them would collapse.

So now, I have eight fabulous looking chairs -

Not a matching set, four are oak, two kauri and two I'm not sure but they have interesting carving in an art deco style on the backs.  They are now unified by this beautiful fabric and are so comfortable to sit on.

At the last Capital Quilters' meeting, I told you I was presented with a different bouquet -

The delphinium is merging into the blue of the block, sorry,  - a most unusual bouquet, isn't it!   That block of the month was fun to do and I didn't win it.  In all the years belonging to three clubs I have only ever won one block of the month - I wonder what the odds of that are?  funny isn't it, how sometimes you get a run and one person wins several times......

I want to share two more photos from Phil, the first one taken at Baring Head on that extremely foggy day recently,

Just the hills rising out of the sea, and this one of a boathouse down at sea level near Eastbourne,

Phil said he often wanted to photograph this but the background was pretty 'messy' - the fog took care of that!

I've been very busy sorting more donations of fabric for the Shut-in Stitchers, washing piles while the weather held and trying to arrange it into some kind of order - no visitors at present, I can hardly get into my spare room - not that I'm complaining but it will be good when the redecorating is finished at the prison and we have access to our Fabric Storeroom again and there will be a place for everything and everything will be in its place!

Nice talking with you, thanks for stopping by - remember, "the surest way to be late is to have plenty of time", Leo Kennedy.

June

Jump right in!

Glorious photo, isn't it?  Another of son Phil's of course........ shades of 'silver linings', but perhaps a reminder of the weird - and not always, wonderful, weather we've been having lately.

Remember the fogs? Wow, Wellington isn't known as Windy for nothing, and fogs don't usually hang around.

Trust Phil to go chasing off after the unusual weather -

I love the way it looks like a wave - which I suppose it is, just cloud, not water.

Do you use Twitter?  I've started following a couple of interesting [to me] people; Stephen Fry, Anthony Horowitz, Alan Davies - and then recently as Shut-in Stitcher tutors we were invited to meet Ann Tolley, the Minister of Corrections, at a morning tea at Arohata.  As we left the Minister said she would be tweeting one of the photographs !!

This one -

That's me on the right, we're holding a quilt made by one of the prisoners - the postcard block is very popular, as are the paua colours.

We sat chatting and looking over some of our photograph albums before going into the classroom where several of the prisoners were gathered, along with their quilts.  The Minister spoke to each woman, both Janet and I are so proud of the lovely quilts they have made - my grateful thanks to everyone who has supported this programme.

I went along to Capital Quilters recently and the lovely ladies gave me a different kind of bouquet - it comprised three pot plants! which my h-a-h has planted.......

I'm looking forward to seeing them fill the spaces!

I have been doing some quilting, but bearing in mind that "the artist finds a greater pleasure in painting than in having completed the picture". Seneca - I'm taking my time...........

In the foreground is a block of the month for Wellington Guild which I forgot to take last month, then a pile of ironing and a glimpse on the design wall of my next quilt - I just fancied doing something with the pastel coloured five inch squares I came across when I decided to sort two large containers of them....

Thank you all again for your supporting messages,

We'll talk again soon,

June

Floyd

This is about how I feel inside - big ups and downs lately.  The publicity following the New Year honour has brought letters and cards from far and wide - friends from long ago including someone who had the flat under ours back in 1960! how great it was to make contact again!

There was an amazing ceremony at Arohata Prison when prisoners and staff showed their appreciation to all of us involved in the programme.  I was just so sorry that many of the quilting tutors work full time and couldn't come along to enjoy the speeches and singing of the kapa haka group - including members of my class who hadn't breathed a word on the Saturday, we had been told it was for afternoon tea with the Manager.......

.................it's no good - I have lots more to talk about with you, but  I can't do it tonight - on Friday I had to make the call and ask the vet to come round to euthanase Floyd.  She was so kind and gentle, both with me and Floyd and I know it was the right thing to do but I miss him so much.........

You can understand that I couldn't resist this little scrap when he chose me at the SPCA way back, January 1998,

Taken just before he became so ill, rest in peace.

We'll talk again soon

June

Just do it!!

This photo was taken by Phil on a recent visit to the South Island, what glorious colours of a storm approaching.

Three weeks since I last blogged - I am feeling like the queen of procrastination, so had a discussion with a good friend today who did some straight talking - I shall reinstate my black board [which is dark green] and list what I want to get done - and just do it!

Admittedly it's been a strange time in many ways; there was the excitement of being awarded the Queen's Service Medal and all the publicity around that - interviews and photo in the papers, then the television interview - and the really lovely part has been the letters and cards from friends, many of whom I haven't seen for a long time.

We've also been contacted by people wanting to donate supplies to the quilting programme in the prison, or who are interested in volunteering - it's been such a busy time but I don't feel I've accomplished much.......

But all that will change - I went for a walk today! I need to regain my albeit limited fitness and shed a few kilos.

Floyd likes to join me in my sewing room, he can always be relied on to find somewhere to curl up.

On a recent visit to the city I saw these items in a furniture shop - had to look twice at the chair -

As you can see it's a metal chair that has been wrapped with strips of fabric!  and nearby was a quilt

I'm not sure that it was actually three layers, but it definitely had big stitch quilting on it.   I wonder how much the maker received for her work?

The final photo for today was also taken by Phil near Kaikoura - 

The unsealed road reminds me of the roads back in the village where I was born, in the UK - the lupins too were in abundance, but not the rest of the vegetation!

I'll leave you with this quote from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, "Seize this very minute; what you can do, or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

Wow, that's spooky........Off to the sewing room!
We'll talk again soon
June

More sunsets, strings and mysteries

Isn't this beautiful?, Petone wharf where Phil said this light lasted for about three minutes, it was very windy and not warm!

Here's another bouquet, posted especially for you Linda - my friend Karen brought this round to me

yesterday - she too is a fan of pink!  Actually it's a beautiful plant, quite tall and elegant looking - with a very strong perfume. I photographed it from the top to get the full glory of the blooms!

Do you read much?  This last year I've got out of the habit but I've made a few changes to my routine and am back into it.  I also decided it was way past time I had a big sort out of my bookcases - in such a small house I have four, mostly with double rows of books.

I've kept a book diary since 1972 when I joined the Doubleday Book Club - I've gathered them all together and put them onto the computer - there's a gap of three years in the mid eighties, maybe I'll find the diary when I do more tidying up but even so, the one I read this week - Morse's Greatest Mystery and other stories, by Colin Dexter is No. 1037.  I've loved the Morse television series and have several on DVD - but this book was a disappointment; I felt the stories tried too hard to be clever and complicated - however, I did learn a new word - steatopygous - used to describe the odd-job man.

I showed the start of my string quilt, made using pages from the local telephone directory; I sewed them chain piecing, remembering to alternate the direction of the strips.

With the large bag of strips beside my chair I pulled them out, one after another, and just kept sewing......

When they were all sewn and trimmed back to size, I auditioned them on the design wall -

Finally I had them all on the wall -

I tweaked it a bit to get better balance and then sewed them together - after that was the tedium of removing the paper - next time I shall remember about the seam allowance!

I've dithered about borders or not......... think I know what I'll do -

I like this fabric - one of my vintage remnants - as a large binding; I've cut it ready - but you can't rush these things!

The forecasters were right about the weather today, boy did it blow! and the rain!!  at one stage the chairs on the pebble garden by the front window were standing in several inches of water.  A couple of very good results though, I shan't have to water the garden for some time, and the windows are washed clean!  How's that for a bonus?

Here's another beautiful photograph taken by Phil, a different angle on the wharf,  and such a different mood....

I'll leave you with the thought, "Go out on a limb - that's where the fruit is."  Will Rogers;  and my gratitude for all the wonderful emails, phone calls, comments and visits; thank you.

Oh, steatopygous means fat-buttocked!

June

Happy New Year!

This is the bouquet I received today from the Wellington Quilters' Guild to congratulate me on being awarded the Queen's Service Medal "in recognition of my services to prisoner rehabilitation programmes" - in other words the quilting programme at Arohata Women's Prison.

Janet Forbes and I are both recipients of the award, Janet runs the programme in the Drug Treatment Unit - and of course, we both acknowledge the fact there is a team of people making this possible; other tutors, people who keep the fabric storeroom organised and others who do the fund raising plus the quilters from all over the country who donate fabric so generously - I just happened to be the President of Wellington guild all those years ago when it was suggested that we offer to teach at the prison.  I recall that after just three weeks of the proposed six week course I realised I couldn't just walk away and I made sure the incoming President knew that I was happy to carry on.  I confess to feeling a bit of a fraud being rewarded for doing something I'm passionate about!

Anyway, Leeann, bless her, posted this news yesterday, so again, thank you Leeann.  I also want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and being a superstitious soul, can't do that before midnight!  Comes from celebrating new year for so many years in Gisborne with some wonderful Scottish friends; many great memories there!

I have managed a small finish, my little white and bright strippy is now quilted - finally - by hand, using white in the white strips, it even has the binding on.

It won't have escaped your notice that the Guild got the colours just right  - here's another example of my non-pink garden -

It's been an expensive time at the vets lately, both cats are on special diets, Basil for overactive thyroid and Floyd for kidney trouble - they don't think much of their food though, this is the look I get now when I fill their bowls -

It appears I have seen in the new year, so I'll get off to bed it's ten to one on New Year's Day! and to close, here is a photo taken by Phil on Boxing Day out at the Wainui coast just before the rain and winds came back.

Happy New Year, good health and happiness to all.

June

Gannets and garden

Photo taken by Phil recently, do click on it to enlarge.  I think the colours and patterns are beautiful.

I've been doing some piecing, more strings when I seem to remember congratulating myself at finishing my supply of them.......... well, after some more tidying, there's enough to half fill one of those big striped bags that are so useful when carrying quilts around.

I made a top using the pattern from a block of the month at Capital Quilters, I debated whether to border the quilt and then this fabric leapt out at me!

I found a couple of old telephone directories in a drawer, so decided to use the pages for my next string quilt - the books are quite small, so I left the pages whole.  This is the first one I stitched and then trimmed -

A fairly eclectic mix of fabrics, and I'm happy with them - but, I made such a basic mistake, I could kick myself.

I should have cut the pages to the required size, then covered them and trimmed the fabric - but should have left the seam allowance free.  It makes joining and removing the papers so much easier.  I haven't made one like this for some while so had forgotten.

One of the reasons I haven't posted much lately is that I was having problems with the pills which seemed to be producing some unpleasant side effects.  Once more the doctor has altered what I take, and I'm so happy to be sleeping better and having more energy.

Not enough to want to do the gardening however, and my Hire a Hubby is working wonders - if it doesn't rain tonight, I'll be out there watering tomorrow - the newly planted hebes, manuka and cabbage tree need some tlc with our lack of rain and strong winds lately - Wellington was "well ventilated" today according to the weather reporter on the TV!

I mentioned once before that my garden had a lot of pink flowers, well one of the hebes is also pink but I couldn't resist one named Audrey Hepburn! and the orange monsters are putting on a good show -

The sorry state of the lawn is because Peter (the hire a hubby) has sprayed to get rid of broad leafed something or others - and the hanging bird feeder is a recent purchase - which I had thought was a waste of money as the birds ignored it for weeks, now the smaller birds are making good use of it.

I'll leave you with another photo, this one is Maori Bay which is just north of the Gannet Colony - you can see it in the distance.

Will I post again before Christmas Day? well now, I braved the dreaded Mall today - fairly early and with the help of some very pleasant people I found just what I wanted in a short time - if we have cold weather from now on, it's my fault - I bought three lightweight summer blouses - how could I resist the "buy two get one free".

As Robert Block once said, "The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on."

Thanks for stopping by, all the best for Christmas!
June