Kapiti, cactus and hottie

Kapiti Island, such a distinctive silhouette, the photograph taken by Phil from the hills above Pukerua Bay, just north of Wellington.  When we first moved to New Zealand I was amazed at how the sheep moved around the hills, making tracks that looked to me like intricate terracing.

And in the garden I have more pink flowers -

I don't think this winter cactus comes in any other colour, does it?

I'm continuing hand quilting the picture quilt, not a great deal of progress but I make sure I do at least a few stitches every day.

I've also started some simple knitting so I have hand work to take out to meetings.  I remembered the call last year for hot water bottle covers to be given to children and though this winter, so far, is being very mild [touch wood] I'm sure I will be able to pass one or two on.

I have lots of thick wool, but in somewhat dull colours, so as there's some bright wool left over from the blanket I knitted for Africa [sounds like a bad joke!] I'm combining the two -

That's the ribbing for the top but once I get onto the stocking stitch, I should be able to knit and read at the same time - the book's a rattling good yard so just right for multi tasking.  My first by Stuart Macbride.

I've also been playing around with more strips,

in this case the dark has a light on one side and medium on the other, then cut into squares and pick a feature colour fabric to do a sew and flip on opposite corners -

Cut between the sewn lines - which look a trifle undersize here, and you can use the resulting half square triangles for another block.

The bright star really pops - interesting possibilities I think.

Thursday was the Wellington Quilt Guild meeting but I just couldn't make it, much to my regret.  The speaker was Adrianne and I would love to have heard what she had to say.  As I follow her blog, I've read and seen all about her Juki Swiftquilter - she gives a most comprehensive report on it and her reasons for buying this one.

I'd not slept well, then I went into the office for the morning and in the afternoon Catherine, who also teaches at Arohata,  and I went to the other side of Wellington to visit a church group where I recently gave a talk about the Shut-in Stitchers.  They had a donation for us, some fabric and an old sewing machine.  We were offered a cup of tea and then sat down with the ladies to help them stuff the toy pigs they were making, we had a lot of laughs and also got some work done!

For the second photograph, Phil went further north so he was opposite the island, still on a hill -

Isn't that just beautiful?  No wonder the island is painted and photographed many, many times.

This quote reminds me of the builder who did my renovations, "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can'  Then get busy and find out how to do it." Theodore Roosevelt

Thanks for stopping by,
June