October 2019 round up

I've lots to share so I'll get on with it 😉👍

The weekend after my last post we drove out to Tamahere Artisan market, there was a good mix of arts, crafts and toiletries.

I could have bought so much more but I was restrained,  Joe was with me 😉

We bought a selection of soaps and a body butter, made with booze! Just had to....

The weather is definitely improving and the garden is starting to look great, the dogs have been enjoying the sunny days

We were lucky enough to have use of the Karakaraki Christian camp for three days of crafting. 

I've been crocheting too, I finished the scrappy big granny square and sewed in all the ends. Earlier in the year I finished the cross stitch tulip rug, there was loads of yarn left, so I used it to make a wall hanging, the rug will be hung too.

Sue brought over a crochet magazine with a couple of really nice projects, I bought some brights colours and made a start, it's still a work in progress, just the flowers to do. I had intended to make it longer to fit on my chair, I didn't like the dimensions of it as a throw, but when I worked on another square I thought sod it! and I left it as it was. It's bright and makes me eyeballs ache! 😋

Our house is built into a slope, which makes some areas rather interesting. Outside our front door there is a tiered garden, it's in the shade from mid morning on-wards. It's had numerous things planted there, but how it is how I like it best. We have hellebore's and hosta's, and a few ferns that come up, they get huge so we cut them back regularly.

More of the rose arbour, each morning I am treated to more blooms on the Dublin Bay rose, the lavender is covered in bees. My limes have gone past the lime colour stage but are perfectly fine in a gin and tonic

One g&t coming right up!

I re-organised the pantry and gave the booze pride of place, all ready for summer drinking in the garden

I've been making good use of the new bread maker, lunch times are good

Spring always sends people into spring cleaning mode, not me! However we did have a trailer load of stuff to go to the dump, and while Joe was unloading it all I was in the dump shop looking for more crap to bring home! I found an old trolley calling out for a revamp, at $30 it was coming home with me. I may start it next weekend, I already have some chalk paint and some antique wax

Last weekend saw England playing the All Blacks, New Zealand, in the rugby world cup semi final. It would be an understatement to say we were happy with the result!

Michael was extremely happy, he'd been getting a lot of stick before the game. It's always good to beat the All Blacks. And while Michael sang his heart out there were some very quite Kiwis!!

 

The 27th was our 29th wedding anniversary, we took Michael and Natasha out for dinner at the Furnace in the city centre, my dinner, photographed, was delicious

There were a couple of scary moments with a Lime scooter, I thought me life was over people!

 

Last Wednesday I went with Sue who is a  member of Hamilton Gardens, to a preview of a new garden opening this coming Monday. It's called the Picturesque garden, I didn't take any photos because I shall go back when there are less people and better light. After our walk through, we had wine, ham off the bone in rolls with salad and chicken kebabs, there were also fruit kebabs. We all were invited into the Pavilion where Dame Malvina Major talked of her career and of the opera Magic Flute by Mozart. The Picturesque garden walks you through the story of the opera.
Needless to say neither of us lasted more than 10 minute of the rather poor movie of it!
I did take photos of my fave gardens though....

At that point I shall leave you there 

and go pour myself another glass of bubbles, 

have a great weekend xx

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

A whole lot of craftin' goin' on........

I've been knitting....socks!! 

Easy peasy and so warm.

I don't knit very often, my hands and fingers don't like it much.

My tootsies do though. I made these for me, 

and another pair in the same yarn for Joe

I made the sides on mine slightly longer than the pattern

I get cold ankles too.

I'm currently working on a pair for Natasha

As well as knitting I'm still crocheting the bed blanket

The first two photos were taken last week....

These two today, so slowly but surely it's growing

and my stash is slowly reducing.

It has to be right!

You get a general idea how much further I need to go.

I'll stop where the pillows start

I took my camera to craft yesterday but left the SD card in the computer!

So these are of last weeks craft session

Ngaire (right) had started another quilt, a log cabin this time. You won't believe it but this week she had another one started, a black and white.

The woman's a machine I tell ya!

And Jan has got her Calendar quilt blocks together and her quilt top is finished. Of course it needs batting and backing on and quilting. Another year in the finishing perhaps.

Some time ago Sue found this rather cute chook quilt in an op shop.

I liked it so much I borrowed it, traced it and made it.

I finished it today.

I used some Aboriginal fabrics in my stash, found in an op shop no doubt, and scraps from my box of scraps, perfect for appliqueing

I rather like it.

Remember if you click on any of the photos they will get bigger!

And that's it for today.

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It's a long weekend here, Queens birthday weekend

The plan is to wash the outside of the house

Have a lovely weekend

see ya soon