Xmas Day

It was a very hot day in Wellington on xmas day luckily we were organised and keeping out fingers crossed it was going to be a good day as there was going to be 15 of us for dinner.
It was a good day lots of fun and laughter the only complaint was the heat.
Which has gone now back to the jeans and a cardigan

Easy Street Part 5

I have managed to keep up with each step of Easy Street this morning instead of cleaning and putting fabric away in my sewing room I completed step 5.
Then I did manage to get the sewing room fit for my youngest son to sleep in. My parents are arriving tomorrow and the room he has been sleeping in has to be made habitable for them. Poor Josh was moved out of his room last week as his elder brother has come to stay for a couple of weeks before he goes to Vietnam to live. There is so much stuff around this house it is incredible I am looking forward to having a clean up of what is left behind when Michael leaves. The local hospice shop will be getting a big donation of things.

Easy Street

I did give in and started Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery. Here are my steps number 1 to 4 I'm using the same colours as Bonnie has as I love the way her mystery quilts turn out. And I do think this quilt is going to be stunning

Xmas finally has come here

While I was out last night Kylie put up the Xmas trees here is miss Tabby enjoying Xmas again

Oh my goodness

I came across this blog today http://gritslife1.blogspot.co.nz/ and Ithink this has to be added to my to do list.
This quilt is so lovely each hexagon is 4mm I was thinking I might do 1/4 of an inch.
Hubby of course is not intersted in my new project just wondered how many more I want to make. And how much more room I am planning on taking up. I had to point out to him the rooms that do not have my quilting things in. Which was good for me as there is more room for me.
Tomorrow whem I am out I think I'll be looking for hexagon papers And I don't have enough big pieces of blue.Add caption

December already

I have been making a few quilts just haven't blogged about them. I quilted this quilt on Monday I had thought I would make it for us but its too pink for me let alone Bob. I'm going to donate it to the childrens ward at the hospital. While I was quilting this one the other machine was empty so I thought I'd do another one of the many hospital quilts waiting to be quilted and picked this one. It is lovely and really well made sits so nice and square on the frame something my quilts never seem to do

 

and lastly Freddi likes to sit on these nice ward towels straight out of the dryer I hope she gets off before Bob arrives home. He doesn't seem to believe you can't catch anything from a towel that a cat has been sitting on

 

Quilts

These 2 quilts I finished a while ago for the children's ward at Wellington hospital they have been sitting around waiting for me to take photos
And this is kylie being very helpful I don't know why she didn't want to help right now!

Back again

 

We went to The Gold Coast for a weeks holiday had a lovely time this is the view from our apartment on the 19th floor just stunning. The apartment was beautiful far more luxurious than we have experienced before. I did mention to my hubby this is what I expect now lol.

The the family went home I went to my online yahoo group C.R.A.F.T retreat at Mount Alford. Had a wonderful time just wish it had been longer so much laughing. What an amazing group of ladies they are.

 

 

 

Our guests of honour Marilyn and her daughter Joelene  in the front came all the way from USA they enjoyed themselves too.

And look we even saw a kangaroo. There were kaolas in the gum trees but they were to high up to get photos.

2 surprises for me

As usual I have been absent for a while but have been busy had 2 quilts to get organised for 2 different shows.



This quilt which was called Antique Sampler Blues from the pattern by Antique Sampler by Sue Daley entered into the Pinestream Quilt show at Upper Hutt.It won Best Machine quilting so that was a surprise as I had used Sue B's longarm machine. But really exciting as I loved every minute of making this quilt. Actually I am wrong because adding a hanging sleeve and putting on the label are really boring and might be why a lot of my quilts do not have labels.

This week was is Wellington Quilters guild Exhibition I spend Wednesday helping to hang the quilts what a fun day that was it is so lovely seeing all the beautiful quilts go up on the walls.
I entered The Dutch bastard which is in another post I had to rename it so we came up with De Dutch deliquent.

 

And look what it won

So it has been worth all the blood sweat and tears. The last tale of this quilt was I tried to block it as there is a bit of a wave on one side and blow me down the ###### red ran. After a bit of a panic I remembered that I had some colour catchers that I had bought a few years ago in the states and surprising enough even knew where they were. They saved the day and collected the reds and saved the quilt from the rubbish which is where it was going to go if the reds ran.

 

My Day

I spent all day today quilting my Antique Sampler that will be going in a quilt show next month. I do love this quilt and need to make a hanging sleeve before I can put the binding on tomorrow.

Catching up on what I've made

I have been quite busy making quilts while being missing in Blogger Land. This was such a fun quilt to make I did a class with the lovely Cathy Doherty from Material Obsession a while ago I quilted it on Monday using my friends long arm.Tabby is modelling the quilt for us

Walking round Wellington

Yesterday I had to go across the other side of the city. I'd seen signs to this park and thought it a good time to explore. Bolt had a wonderful time running along the track while I just enjoyed walking somewhere new. Certainly bets walking round the streets of Island Bay.

Queens birthday weekend baking

As it was a long weekend here in New Zealand my parents drove down to stay for a few days. My youngest son is taking an interest in cooking and loves the shortbread my dad makes. So he asked for a lesson in shortbread making much to his grandparents delight. And it was good

My busy week

I have spent the last couple of days doing a class with Cathy Doughty of Material Obsession what a fun few days I've had. The first 2 days were the quilt Soul searching which is a real exercise in colour. The yesterday I did just one block of using templates a very accurate way of cutting blocks. Also have a look at Cathy's blog materialobsession.typepad.com
I hope the link works I don't know how to copy and paste on an ipad

Home now

Well I've arrived home safe and sound came home to a welcome home sign and a lot of cleaning which will keep me quiet for a while. I couldn't resist this photo of Freddi cuddled up in some batting

Paducah

Time has gone by so fast and this is our last day in Paducah. It's been an amazing time so many wonderful things to tempt us to buy. Of course I have tried to be careful as its very expensive to post home which so far I have managed to avoid. Last night we had an evening with Ricky Timms it was a great experience he is quite funny.

LA sewing

Having a good time in Los Angeles with Marilyn yaresterday we went to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and heard Laura Hillman talk on her experiences as a Schindlers List survivor. What an amazing story. I was also lucky enough to meet Marilyn's lovely friends Linda and Robin.
Today we've been to The Farmers market in long Beach had a drive around and made these cute little bags.
I'm off to Paducah tomorrow

Back again

I was having problems accessing blogger on my laptop bit now have a lovely new iPad and phone so should have no problems.
Last year I'd also lost the quilting mojo so didn't make many quilts I have made up for that though this year.
I finished this quilt last week for my son Michael and his partner when he complained he was cold. What else does a mother do