The continuing incidence of the dog and the sofa in the night time.

Firstly, you'll be pleased to know (or not) that a certain small dog is still with us, although it was touch and go for a while. I couldn't bear to look at him for 24 hours after the sofa incident, his lip operation has been rebooked and the fate of the sofa lies in the hands of the suppliers and the insurance company. An email was sent with photos of the damage, we await to hear if the sofa can either be recovered or replaced. Once that decision is made then the insurance company will pay out, less excess. Hopefully it won't drag on for too long, this particular sofa was the last one in that colour, we may need to rethink.
A reminder of the sofa

So that's that, now to other stuff. After our Suesday on Friday, I messaged Sue over the weekend and informed her we were having another on Monday. I had showed Joe the photo of the ladder and he said it was cool, now that to me means 'Go buy it!'

So I did, I picked Sue up Monday morning and we headed back to Morrinsville. Ladder purchased, shoved in the car and brought home but not before we went back to the op shop where I found that loved part made quilt. I had no luck in finding the missing block patterns, no problem I'm sure we can work out the measurements. Here's how the ladder looks now, I think I need another one for downstairs now.

 A couple of other finds, 4 bundles of scrap fabrics, $1 each

 and a big pile of sleeves for $2

I've got my crafting mojo back and this last week I've been doing lots of sewing. I've made two Roman blinds, one each for the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms. One is made from the $4 fabric I found at Spotlight and the other fabric was from my stash.

Downstairs bathroom blind

 Upstairs bathroom blind

I just need Joe to be free to put them up for me, who knows when that will be.
I've also been trying to clear my pile of UFO's, the calendar quilt I started 2 years ago, finally got the edges trimmed and two side bindings are on. Top and bottom will have added sleeves for dowling, as it's going to be a wall hanging. I will be embellishing too, so watch this space.

Some time ago I found a lovely, unfinished hexagon quilt, I added some borders and did some basic quilting, Sadly some of the fabrics are very delicate and keep tearing, due to the size of it I think, so I've trimmed off the edging and cut the quilt in  half. A photo of it is in the header picture at the top of the blog. Instead of one big quilt, I will have two smaller ones. I only did vertical quilting lines, I may do horizontal lines too, some more appliquéd flowers or hearts need to be added. then I'll use a bright colour to bind them.

I've bought batting for the two quilt tops I made recently, I've enough backing for them both. So they need to be pinned.

I've got some crocheting on the go too, the huge stripey one still needs more rows adding, 

and in the bottom of my UFO basket I found a scrappy hexagon one I started ages ago

and then under that was a crocheted wrap I made way back when I first learned to crochet, I never really knew what to do with it, it was so long I cut a section off to make a cushion! But then as I laid it on the bed to photograph it, it's only pretty darned near as wide as the big one!

  So maybe I won't need to add more rows, I can can just join them together! Result!

Going back to the sofa briefly, when we saw it in the shop it had cushions and a throw on it

As luck would have it I had some yarn in my stash practically the exact same colour but will I still have a sofa the same colour, that's the question? I work on this in the evening watching TV

 Shell stitch, my go to pattern because it's easy

At craft on Thursdays we all seem to be busy with projects, Ngaire is working on a quilt which is going to look great, Ngaire and Jan colour matching last week.

 There's a lot of fabric in that plastic container. Robyn (right) was busy knitting, I'd taken some crocheting

I like the staggered boxes, I might need to make one

 The challenge in Ngaires quilt is cutting the pieces right, lots of sizes so you have to pay attention.

The project I started this week, (I clearly don't have enough on the go) is this pattern I've had for yonks.

That will have to do for today, Joe's just got home, he was in Auckland watching the All Blacks play rugby last night, then later he's off to Rotorua to watch the Lions play the Maori All Blacks. Currently I am a rugby widow! This evening we are expecting visitors, Joe's mate he played rugby with back in the UK, he and his sister are here for the tour too. So I really ought to get dressed and finish tidying the house!

Until next time, bye x

Some good, some bad, then some good again and a very expensive sweater.

Every once in a while something happens that pushes us to our limits. This weeks limits were pushed by a small dog called Max, who since Thursday evening has been known by a different name entirely, one that cannot be repeated here. But first let me take you back a few days to the beginning of the story.
Last weekend was a long weekend, Queens birthday. Joe had been working on a private job and got it finished on the Monday morning. He arranged to meet the client on the other side of Cambridge where he could hand the job back over. Once that was done we drove back into Hamilton and made our way to The Base shopping centre as Joe wanted to buy a new sweater. We went into Farmers, a department store. While he was looking at sweaters I went upstairs to wander around the home section. I found a rather nice armchair, perfect for the family room downstairs. There was also a matching sofa, both good prices, half price. I dragged Joe upstairs for a look, he thought they were nice but wasn't overly convinced with the quality or comfort of them. Long story short we went to Hunter furniture where they sell a bug range of Lazyboy furniture.
We chose this sofa, also on sale as it was the last one, they were discontinuing the colour.

It is slightly darker than it appears in the photo, I love it and it picks out one of the colours in our wallpaper.

 

It arrived Thursday afternoon, after I got back from craft (I'll come back to craft later)
Also, Joe finally treated himself to a Lazyboy recliner, he's wanted one for ages.
It's this style but in a suede type finish in a slate grey colour, he opted for a swivel base

We were both happy people walking out of the store,we only went out for a sweater lol ;-D Joe less so as he has to wait until December for his chair, custom orders take time, he did get 2 new sweaters though. ;-D My sofa was delivered on Thursday, it was put into position and I enjoyed it for about 30 minutes before we headed out to meet Michael & Tash at the pub for dinner, to celebrate Michael's 25th birthday.

Our pleasant evening was to be short lived, when we arrived home we found Max had been a total shit and had been 'digging' on the brand new sofa!!!!!
He'd damaged all three seat cushions.

I was raging mad, I yelled, I cried and it was all I could do not to throttle the dog. I couldn't bear to look at him until last night. He was due to have an operation on his lip Friday, I cancelled because I was so mad I couldn't trust myself not to make it a one way trip.

Joe phoned the insurance company, they said they would either pay for repair or replace. He also went back to the store who said that there are no more of that colour sofa available, it's discontinued and why it was such a good price. Bugger, so we may have to go for either a mustard or grey colour, either would work. Maybe the bright sunny colour will lighten my mood.

The colours are not true in the photo but it gives you an idea of what we're working with

On Friday the car was booked in for a service and a warrant of fitness, I dropped it off and went for some retail therapy with Sue, I wasn't going to, but the thought of sitting at home with a damaged sofa and a very unpopular dog wasn't doing it for me.
Sue said we were going to see the big cow in Morrinsville, I thought she was being a daft cow, she wasn't kidding about the big cow however

A few more of the cows that line the high street

We had already looked around a very cool 'junk' shop.....

 

...where I saw these (below), I'm after an old wooden ladder to hang quilts on, I thought the barrow would look good in the garden, although I'm not too taken with the wheel on the front. Not sure if either of them are an option now we have a $300 excess to pay out on the sofa.

Next we headed to Morrinsville to check out the op shops, I found.....

I realised that the bottom pic of the pattern is not complete, the pics above it are two of the blocks that I found separately, there are more I didn't buy. I may have to go back and get them, or just do my own stitchery panels.

When I was looking in the craft section I saw the shoe box but didn't ignored it at first, it was on the bottom of a pile

On the second look my curiosity got the better of me and I pulled it out, good decision, inside was a whole host of goodies. At some point it was a block of the month quilt, and most of it is there, some of the blocks are complete, some not, also there are two blocks missing. Another reason to go back and see if they have been put with other patterns. If not then I'm sure the very clever quilters at craft will help me work the missing patterns out. Blocks 7 & 10 are missing.

 Here's the quilt as it is, laid out, the other unmade block sheets I've laid in position

 Here's what it should look like finished

Here's a whole pile of gorgeous fabrics that were also in the box

Oh how I love to find treasure like this. And how much for all that in the box??
$5!!!!!

Other finds as follows

After Morrinsville we went to Cambridge and met Chris (Diet Coke Rocks) and her gorgeous granddaughter for lunch. Nice to catch up, then it was back to Hamilton and Spotlight.

I had seen some fabric, $4, in the bargain bin with which I am going to made a Roman blind for the downstairs bathroom. The other stuff required were not as cheap.

 Then would you believe it!! Some more of those stash buster fabrics hid in my bag!

I don't know how it keeps happening!!!

I think that will do for today, I'll do a separate craft post another day

Off to the pub later to watch the Lions get humiliated no doubt.

I'm thinking of switching allegiance! 

Until next time, enjoy your weekend