Saturday, September 17, 2011

Raffle Quilt






My camera went missing a while ago had some friends over and somehow tidied it away into the tidy hole. But then it turned up in the drawer of the coffee table now I did look there but it must have been a man look. Anyway its here again had a few photos on it to catch you all up on so I am going to start with what I took last week.


I donated this quilt for Kylie to raffle fundraising for guide jamboree she is a leader and its in January in Hamilton (I think)


So she raised $47 luckily the lady who won was delighted but I did say to her I think it would have been cheaper for me to donate $50 next time. It certainly didn't cover the cost of the quilt.




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Friday, July 8, 2011

Lyall Bay Beach


Yesterday was such a beautiful winters day that after I had taken my 16 year old son clothes shopping. I don't know why clothes shopping for someone else is not as interesting as looking for fabric. Anyway it wasn't too bad he has grown out of all his tee shirts and hoodies, the sales were on and I got off lightly 3 tee shirts and a nice hoodie later we were able to escape the shopping mall.
Poor Bolt had been locked in the kitchen all morning waiting for her walk since I had the car she is allowed in we went around to Lyall Bay Beach which dogs are allowed on about half the beach. You can see ti is a beautiful beach we are so lucky that dogs are allowed on this beach as there are not many beaches in Wellington dogs are allowed to run freely.

And yes I think she enjoyed herself luckily there were quite a few other dogs to play with

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Mums 80th




Posted by PicasaI've just come back from another quick trip to Hastings where my parents live and remembered I had these wonderful photos we took at the beginning of June when it was my mother's birthday.

We were so lucky it was a lovely day rather hot which is very unusual for June in New Zealand.


The first photos is the birthday girl and my youngest son Josh. Then a family photo which hasn't got my middle son Michael in it as he was unable to come with us.

And the last is the Mission vineyard where we went for lunch such a lovely spot.

Retreat weekend


Had another productive weekend last weekend at our guild retreat managed to finish 2 of the top quilt they are both the same using a Kiwiana panel cut up, sashed with bright colours and black and white sashings. One is going to Korea to my nephew's baby its not due till January I am so organised.!!! This time anyway. I made another just because I had 2 panels so will either give it to the hospital for the childrens ward or keep it myself.

I got the top together well almost for the Block of the month from the Fatquarter shop I have enjoyed working with the bright colours and another early one as its a xmas quilt.

I actually managed to workout the layout for this muddle with a lot of help but forgot to take a photo anyway this quilt was a challenge that was meant to be finished in May 2011 I'm getting there. For some reason I have not enjoyed making this quilt it has been a struggle all the way through.

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Just a quick post for the aussie girls these bananas were $4.08 not bad compared to what you are paying over in Australia. And they are delicious


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Thursday, June 23, 2011

I am here

last night when I was at our guild meeting I saw fellow blogger Jenny of http://www.romanyquilting.blogspot.com/ and she mentioned in passing my blog hadn't been updated for 4 months. Thanks Jenny for the reminder it has been at the back of my mind but managed to not do it.
I've had a wonderful few months been to Kiama to the Southern Cross quilters yearly retreat. I do enjoy going to these retreats they are always such fun.

This year it was held in Kiama New South Wales what a beautiful spot.


I was very fortunate to be able to do a class with Merelyn Pearce who this week won Best of Show at the Sydney Quilt Show. She was a wonderful sharing teacher. Here is the link to the winning quilt. http://www.quiltersguildnsw/quiltshow.com/

While on Sydney I also made the bus trip to Rookwood cemetery where one ofmy great grandfather's is buried. It was such a hot day hunting for graves what not the best decision. Anway here is a photo of how packed the cemetery is and the grave where my great grandfather Edward Arthur is buried in an unmarked grave with his sister.






No visit to Sydney is complete to me without a wonder around circular quay it is such a beautiful spot and yummy pizza for lunch.

I came home for 10 days then off to The Quilting Symposium in Queenstown I decided to drive down as I wanted to do some family history research at the same time.
I was lucky as my hubby drove down with me to Dunedin flew home then flew back down to Queenstown to meet me after the symposium so I didn't have a long drive on my own.
Our first stop was Oamaru what a pretty town we were able to fill in the morning wondering around waiting for their little family history centre to open. There wasn't much there on my great uncle he had been fostered by a family there and I was hoping to find a bit more information which I didn't but as he was killed in WW1 there was a cross with his name on it in Memorial Drive. It was amazing how many young men were killed from a smallish place like Oamaru and what a great memorial to them all. It was very sad though looking for his cross there was so many and lots of families lost more than one son.
The good news was even though I didn't find out what the relationship was to the family that fostered him I did discover he was a much loved member of their family.



Next stop Dunedin, I was born in Dunedin and haven't been back for many years not as an adult anyway. I meet a cousin I hadn't seen since we were children and that was interesting we found lots to talk about. Her mother was my mothers sister who died in her early 30's. By this time we had moved to Hastings in the North Island and sort of lost contact which is very sad as I discovered my cousin did not have a very happy time after her mother died.



After that I went to Gore I was lucky enough to stay with my friend Jackie. I was hoping to find out some information on anoither great grandfather , I'm not too sure when he moved there from Dipton but I know my grandfather grew up in Gore. The house is still standing how lucky was that.
I loved Southland what a beautiful part of the country. Certainly going back again.

Had to add these photo's Dipton memorial hall and Dipton cemetery where the family are buried. Dipton was a small town in lovely country side. The cemetery was in a lovely quiet location with lots of birds chirping away.


And then the reason I went down to the South Island Queenstown Symposium.


Queenstown was just beautiful as it was autumn and all the leaves were turning and falling off the trees.
I did 2 classes there, one with Noeline Johnston tumbling blocks the photo was the class sample. And a portrait class with Jocelyn Leath from Western Australia. They both were wonderful tutors and I learnt a lot from both of them. Need to finish what I Started in class
.

In my next post I'll show you what I have been making in the 4 months of no blogging.

Friday, February 18, 2011



Earlier this evening we wondered down to Island Bay beach to see the Queen Elizabeth sail past the Island a very popular event there was 20 people there including us. And I learned that with my camera if you keep pushing the button its actually got a good zoom.
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Monday, January 31, 2011


Yesterday 5 of us went to Upper Hutt for a class on Diagonal Madness by Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Marbly we had a great time the day just flew by. Kaffe and Brandon wondered around the classroom giving suggestions to us all, and tempting us to buy fat quarters from Sharon at Thimbles and Threads who had organised the day for us.



The person who had their cut fabric nice and tidy like this shall remain nameless but I am so envious what a great idea.

My quilt on the wall with Kaffe Fassett at the end of the day when we all looked at all the quilts and he said what he liked about each quilt. He was so positive about all our quilts had something different to say about each one. What a wonderful day.
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Monday, January 24, 2011

Here it is my completed top in blues, with white strips for the rainbow scrap challenge on So Scrabby's blog. I really like it. So now thinking what I will do next month with the colour. Might not go for something so big!!
The ghost behind is josh my 16 year old. He's always willing to hold up a quilt for a photo.
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Friday, January 21, 2011

Rainbow scrap challenge

Posted by PicasaI've just started this months challenge which was using blue scraps from
I layed out a few blocks so I could get an idea what the quilt was going to look like so far I like it and it won't take long to get the entire quilt top finished which will be by the end of the month.