Such a lovely day today....the Supervisor and I went to the park this morning....

the kowhai tree is in full flower in the Botanic Gardens....this brings back many happy memories for me when the tui birds came to a kowhai tree we had in the front yard at home....

another smaller kowhai and the good old cabbage tree.....

the supervisor leading the way.....

a swim on the way back to the car....guess what he will be smelling of on the way home!!

love this old gum tree in the park....

one muddy smelly supervisor....guess who is having a bath now!!!!

Have a great day!

Sit and Sew

This afternoon some of us sewing girls gathered at the Gisborne patchnquilt shop, kindly organised by Donna....I had planned to reveal secret sewing tomorrow but as there were several of us together we went with today when Tania called in after a Dr appt.  I had asked 15 people to make a 14 inch star square, plain in the centre so they could stitch in their name, and in a fabric Tania would recognise as them.
So with in 10 days I had 14 blocks and off we went.  The lovely Tracee came over (secretly) on a Friday afternoon and squared up all the blocks, then we crawled around on the floor for the best part of an hour arranging the blocks in the 'best' way....that is always hard isn't it, deciding where to put things!!
 I then started sewing blocks together and then attached them to the backing and wadding in a quilt as you go method,  then had a play with some free range quilting (secretly) .........Marg popped in to see how I was going as I was finishing the quilting and very kindly cut and attached the binding (secretly).
 I took it to sewing group on Wednesday evening and Donna and I (secretly) did the hand sewing on the binding and then Donna sewed on the label. Tracee emailed me the words for the label, and they are beautiful!!  Tania has some health issues so we thought we could all go with her when she has appointments! I thought I had left my camera at home today (I think it was my brain!!) so Marina kindly took photos and I have pinched some from her blog tonight!  So here we go.....

taking the quilt out of the bag....

one happy Tania......

label on the back....Tracee's beautiful words....

this was the second photo Marina took...I have managed to get them out of order....Tania trying to take it all  in....

she is a bit over whelmed and speechless!!

..this is an amazing machine embroidery made for Marina by a friend, Marina has added the stitching...you can seethe reference to this and her cat Maisie here, isn't it cute!!!

Marg busy stitching names on her last Underground Railroad Sampler block  (that is exciting!!)

Donna stitching away..Marina concentrating on....

what Pauline was saying!

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the wonderful ladies who made a block for Tania's quilt, Pauline, Anette, Jenny (NZ), Marina (Gisborne) Carol, Anne, Annie, Robyn, Marina, Tracee, Marg, Donna, Shez, Chez and of course the lovely Elyte. Thank you for responding positively to my ASAP PLEASE!!!! Makes you realise (yet again) what  wonderful people there are in the quilting world.

I have to say a big thank you to Marg today too...she gave me a beautiful wall hanging...

my very own Chow Chow!!!! I love it Marg, thank you very much!!

Happy sewing!

Today.....well.....

Today has been a tidying day for me....but I don't have a lot of enthusiasm for tidying....I am easily distracted....

.......the kookaburras came in for dinner, and as I didn't see them on the bird feeder this one flew over and looked in the kitchen window at me ....

very handsome bird......and of course I had to go out and put mince on the bird feeder...how could you not???? They only seem to come to the house in the spring so I always wonder if they have babies somewhere...they eat most of the mince, get really rounded under the beak and then fly away.....

Marg dropped in yesterday and helped me with some sewing.......another thing I love about quilting is that you can always learn something from another quilter, even learner ones like us.......Marg does her binding in a different way to how I have been taught...I am trying her way next time!! Marg does beautiful work and I do not think she is a learner.....even is she says she is.....

...and the bunnies are happily munching their way around our yard........

this one was stretched out for a rest in the grass.....

very relaxed over there.....

and the table runner is finished......Yay!!! Love this fabric from Samoa....... ready to be wrapped and taken to it's new home....oops I just remembered I haven't put on a label yet....best do that tonight!

Happy sewing.

Beautiful day

Isn't it a beautiful day today??? So nice to see the sun shining and blue sky and no showers coming in from the west!!

back garden looking reasonable.....still some weeding to do...but I am slowly getting there....

lovely sky....

still a few daffodils in flower....

and yesterday I made a zipped bag!! Woo hoo!! I am pleased with myself!!  You know how you seem to have lots of cords these days for the phone, the camera, the tablet,the kindle....well I seem to be gathering them Lol!!  Anyway I decided it would be easier to keep them all in one place and a fabric bag would last longer that a plastic one, and would look much nicer. I found a tutorial on the computer and sat  down to do it last night.  Apart from a hiccup getting around the end of the zip it went together really well....even managed to get the fabric around the right way!! Lol!!  Only had to do a little hand stitching  to close up the gaps.

Love the blue inside.......oh I am chuffed with this....big smile on face!! Right oh I am off to sew something!!

Happy sewing!

FNSI and Saturday

I am very happy with my 'makings' from Friday Night Sew In.....

got the snacks organised...yum!!!!  Sugar overload here we come! Lol!!

Thursday night I free range quilted this fabric ready to make into a bag...

..but also did some secret sewing....this seam had to be unpicked THREE times!!!! AGHHHHH!!!!....

got the backing and fabric ready for the secret sewing, while avoiding the seam that will not match up....I am the best at procrastinating!! Tee hee!!

DH wandering through while watching the footie.....

third time unpicking......sob!!

but the good news is that I finished the bag, but the nougat is nearly gone.....

and I have pinned this seam again.....enough pins you reckon?????  Going to nail this sucker this time!!  And I am pleased to say it worked!! Phew!!! Finally!!!

And today I finally finished the free range quilting on the table runner and machine sewed the binding on...now for the hand sewing...maybe only in the day time as I find it hard to see the black cotton at night. Very happy to get this finished...now off for the next project!

Oh don't forget to zip over to Wendy's and see what the other FNSI people got up to.

Happy sewing!

Birthday lunch

We had a lovely lunch with the birthday girl today, Tania felt up to coming out for a short visit and Marg made wonderful pumpkin soup, the birthday girl brought a varied selection of bread rolls, some orange cake and bee stings....I hadn't come across bee stings before....kind of a bun with custard and honey???? Not a painful bee sting which is good!! Lol!!  Marg had also made some scones and had jam and cream to go with them....we had a feast!!! I took along the balloons and some chocolates...a must for the birthday girl!!

Let the birthday lunch commence!! Waiting, waiting for the camera to go off....always hard when it is on the timer!!

Any for me????

Or me???? Please.......

So nice to see the lovely Tania out for lunch.....

Yummy soup......

ready to feast.....

Marg was aware of me trying to catch her going for a mouth full of scone, jam and cream...so she waited!! Lol!! She knows me well!! Lol!!

We couldn't get a laughing photo 'cos we were laughing too much so tried for the more serious look....like we were thinking....no, sadly just trying not to laugh and guffaw!!!!!

Happy birthday Tracee...I hope you enjoyed lunch as much as I did! 

FNSI

I forgot to say before it is Friday Night Sew In......I have plenty to do, but will I get motivated.....that is the question!! Signing up with Wendy should get me sewing...

You can sign up over here to join in this evening!

Happy sewing.

Wednesday night

We had our usual Wednesday evening gathering this week but it was special because it was the closest day to Tracee's birthday....which is today .....so you could pop over to here and wish Tracee a great day!

Here is the nearly birthday girl hiding behind a piece of birthday fabric!! She is such a shy retiring wee thing!! Lol!!

cards and presents....

Kaffe Fasset goodies.....Tracee's favourite fabric.....

a bag made of button fabric and guess what????? Inside were lots of buttons!! Lol!!

Tracee and Marg checking out the fabric..

and a lovely wallet from Donna, perfect for a stitcher.....

I was a bit slow taking photos here 'cos the girls are packing up....Carol trying to get just one more bead covered with cotton over the back there....

Marg packing up her bag. As usual we had a wonderful evening, lots of laughter and chatting.

Have a great day.