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