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

Sky Tower and Sand dunes

Son Phil is in Auckland at present and here are two photographs he sent of the Sky Tower, for non Kiwis, this is the iconic landmark of Auckland.  I think they would make a good starting point for a quilt class - something familiar and then distort it!

First the familiar - this view taken from Albert Park -

cleverly placed so it appears to be growing out of the gazebo.
The second one was taken right there in the city - but reflected in the glass windows -

Full of possibilities, don't you agree?

Recently I went to the meeting of Capital Quilters, it's held in the local school hall and often has interesting things on the walls.  They must have been studying recent history -

Some familiar images but sobering to realise that the period of my school days is the subject of study in the schools today - it's probably not a history lesson though, more social studies which was unheard of back then.

Also at a recent quilt meeting [I belong to three Guilds] were some quilts by Sandy, the queen of scrap quilts; I particularly love this one -

the mixture of piecing and applique works so well.

Back to Capital Quilters and their block of the month - very American I think, maybe because of the red, white and blue..... though it's given the french name spelling...........

Once again, I think this quilt would look extra good on point.

I need to take another photo of my latest scrap quilt, the one I took is too fuzzy for some reason, but I do have the final cut of my Rainforest, made a la jellyroll; I couldn't decide how to finish it, almost cut it in half and made two small quilts but at a friend's suggestion we unpicked the outside three rows and I put them on the top and bottom.

That photo's not the clearest either, however you get the general idea.  I need to get it sandwiched, quilted and off to join the others going to Ethiopia - a project of Pinestream Quilters.  Maybe I'll think of another name too.

I'll close with another photo from Phil's road trip - this time the sand dunes at Bethells Beach -

The people in the distance give an idea of the size!

I'll leave you with this thought, "We live in a rainbow of chaos.  Paul Cezanne

Now back to my hand quilting, we'll talk again soon.
June

Cats, clouds and Christmas

Clouds viewed from Baring Head - aren't they amazing?  Photo by Phil.  It's been a while since I last posted, I seem to have done a lot of running around after my cats lately.  I told you Basil is on a special diet as he has an overactive thyroid which is a bit of a problem, he would far rather steal Floyd's food... but he has found a new place to sleep -

It's a bag full of embroidery wools, left on the floor to remind me to take it back to the sewing room and apparently the very place for him  - with its own backrest too!

Floyd had his check up and he too is on a special diet for kidney troubles - but he also needs medication.  Here I'm going to have a rant at the ridiculous situation where the drug company, I presume, no longer makes his medication in cat size doses, so I was given some capsules -

and instructed to divide the contents into four!!?** and give Floyd one quarter of a capsule each day!.....

The little beads are shiny and hard and bounce all over the place - having caught my medicine so to speak, then to get it into him - I tried to put it onto his cooked chicken but that didn't work, then I had a brainwave; he loves butter so I put a blob onto half a rice cracker and pushed the 'beads' down into it.  However upon inspection, the butter was gone but the beads were embedded into the now moist cracker.  So, using the tip of a very sharp knife, I removed them, mixed them with another smaller blob of butter and let him 'steal' it off my finger.

I now use a small dish, warm the butter and if any beads remain they get smeared onto his paw or he can lick it off my finger - but I ask you, who would come up with such an inefficient system?

Phil has recently been on a trip and sent me some great photos to share with you;  first the Three Sisters looking back to the mountain

This area is only accessible at low tide - do click on it to get a larger view.

This knitting art was on a pier on the wharf at Tamaki Drive - great fun!

I was reminded that Christmas is not far off, and I must look out this decoration - I think my family might have it because it was designed by one of my granddaughters when she was quite young, before she was old enough to think she couldn't !

It was a challenge for Pinestream Quilters where we had to use the border fabric - not the usual red and green - the large plastic bell was actually a container for chocolates as I remember it and the bells are from the Trade Aid shop, as was the little angel -

I will leave you with another great photo, this time of Marokopa Falls on the Waitomo Road, which are 30m high and the rocks at the base are the size of house rooms:

and with the quotation, "We experience moments absolutely free from worry.  These brief respites are called panic." Cullen Hightower

Nice to be back, talk again soon.....

June