What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 I've been sitting doing some slow stitching this afternoon, on a rather dreary day.  It's grey outside, and showery.  Not that it matters, I'm nice and cozy inside, happily big quilt stitching one of my two teddy bear cushion panels.  And I've finished.  Gemma gave Teddy the once over.  I wonder if she noticed the little brown bird in the tree?  These will be made into cushions for foster kids when they are completed.

Is that a birdie?

 At our last Sew Wot get-together, Heather had a table of free stuff she wanted gone.  I swooped on two teddy bear cushion panels that took my fancy.  Just the thing for a couple of cushions for kids in care, I thought. These are now layered with batting, and pinned up, ready for me to do big stitch quilting around the motifs.  

Two cushion panels from Heather, ready for quilting

I've made a start of Father Teddy sitting on the window seat, reading his book.

Father Ted

I've also hand stitched a label on two secret quilts I ...

OK --- you know how it is when you come across a new word, and you wonder about it, and then POOF -- that word comes up again! In this instance, the word is actually a name - Eilidh - pronounced like Hailey, but without the H. I thought it was a strange spelling, but it popped up this morning on something I was researching, and what are the chances of that? I'll probably see that name and that spelling in many more places now. That's so weird. 

It was a decent day - I managed to solve some of the problems that ...

 I've been slowly hand quilting these three panels of teddy bears sitting around enjoying watermelon in the sunshine.  This fabric panel was looking for a good home at one of our Sew Wot meetings so I took it home.  The quilting had already been started so I worked on it off and on, a little time here and there when the mood struck me.  The idea was to finish the quilting then make three cushions for donation.

Three teddy bear panels quilted

Planning ahead, I had three cushion inners ready and waiting for this project.  A quick look through ...

 I recently made my daughter a special quilt for her 60th birthday, pink and green nine patches, as requested.  And with extra blocks, added two cushions as well.

Plus two cushions made with spare blocks

Nicky asked if I had any of the green ric rac left as she wanted to embellish the cushions.  Over the last couple of months she has been busy hand stitching all sorts of bits and pieces to her cushions, and sending me photos of her work.  She has recently met up with a group of stitchers and enjoys going ...

I've been working hard to get a birthday quilt finished.  It all started with a bag of shirts I received from my niece Lisa when my brother-in-law Dennis passed away.  Dennis was  my late sister Kathleen's husband, and I started to make a quilt for their grandson Adam, in memory of his Poppa.  Just a simple four patch, I decided, with red and black frames.  Then my beloved Robin passed away late last year, and this got put on the back burner.

18 months ago we moved into our newly renovated house and had a lot more space.  We had spent all of our money on the renovation so we were not in the market for buying furniture.  Some people set aside money for doing that but we just don't do that.  So I kept my eye our on freecycle for furniture.  We had only been back in the house for 6 weeks when an advert came up for two two seater sofas, and they were only about 2 miles away.  I asked for them immediately.  It wasn't that surprising ...

 I've been (slowly) knitting beanies using some donated wool from a group which does knitting and sewing for those in need.  Beanies for men were needed so from the big box of wool I chose some brown and a smaller ball of cream.  This group does good work for the community but the day of the week they meet doesn't suit me so I've decided not to join them after all.  But of course I needed to pop in and return the beanies to them.  I managed to get three large and one child's beanies out ...

 My great niece Kate is turning 25 and having a get together to celebrate this milestone with friends and family.  Sadly we are unable to travel up to Hastings to join in the fun, as we had planned.  My son Michael turns 60 this month (gulp, how did that happen?) and we will be having a short caravan trip  down to the South Island to see him.  

I made Kate a cushion for her birthday and sent it up by mail.  She received it the following day, that was really quick, I though.  Kate likes blue, and she is one ...

We have moved on to Christchurch, mainly to catch up with my son Michael, and also to see what changes had been made since our last time here in 2018, when the city was still in recovery mode.  On February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused severe damage in Christchurch and Lyttleton, killing 185 people and injuring several thousand.  This earthquake occurred on a shallow fault line close to the city, and the shaking was particularly destructive.  The earthquake brought down many buildings damaged in the previous earthquake in September, especially older brick and mortar buildings,  and two-thirds of ...

Now that Christmas Day has been and gone, Merry Christmas everyone, I can now show some hand made Christmas gifts which I made for family members.  Firstly, a set of cushions I made or my horse mad grand-daughter Emma.  These were made from a set of panels donated to me.  I machine quilted around the outline of the horses, and around the circle, to make them stand out a little.  Emma’s life revolves around her horses, so I thought they would be right for her.

Emma’s horse cushions

Younger grand-daughter Megan is the proud owner of Gracie, her ...

This weekend we enjoyed our last caravan club rally of the year, which was held at Rangiotu School, now decommissioned and gifted back to the local community.  A soon as we had arrived, Gemma ran from the car to the caravan, plopped herself on the bed, and was totally relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

She’s happy to be a caravan cat

After lunch we had to make a mercy dash into Palmerston North as one of the arms had snapped off my reading glasses – a bit of a disaster as we were travelling down to the South ...

It was our friend Dot’s 75th Birthday today and a several of us were meeting her for a birthday lunch.  Now, where was that parcel I had wrapped and carefully put away?

All wrapped up and ready for gifting

We met in a local café, four of us.  Dot as the guest of honour, Thelma, Annette and myself.  Sadly,I forgot to get a group photo of us all.  Here is the birthday girl with her goodies.  Dot was a little overwhelmed but as I said to her, turning 75 is certainly something to celebrate!

Happy 75th Birthday, Dot ...

We were lucky to spend some more time with my late sister Kathleen's family before we moved on from Hawkes Bay.  After a lovely lunch of home cooked roast leg of lamb we retired to the sitting room for coffee.  There I spotted a cushion I had stitched for her some years ago.  Kathleen was a real homebody, and devoted to her family, so I thought the wording was quite apt.

Made for Kathleen

Then one after another came a parade of quilts from the bedrooms.  The burgundy and cream cobblestone quilt was made for my niece  Lisa’s ...

We had beautiful warm weather for our caravan club Christmas Rally, for the most part, anyway.  As often happens, the heavens opened and the rain came down on our last day.  But never mind, it didn't dampen the Christmas spirit.  Our caravan was decorated with the Christmas Cushions, and Santa Bear was perched on the corner of the sofa.

Christmas Cushions and Santa Bear

I found my Christmas Coins tablecloth, safely tucked away, and this was inspired by Jocelyn of https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/   I made this when I saw something similar on her blog some time ago, using ...

We enjoyed lunch out with friends yesterday, thanks Trish for planning the day for us.  This entailed a drive down to the Hutt Valley, about a 90 minute drive.  But of course we had to allow more time, in case our trip was slowed down with the ever present road works.  I was born and brought up in Lower Hutt, and lived there in a former life with my first husband and two children.  Later when Robin and I married we moved further up the valley to Upper Hutt and resided there for 30 years or so. So you can ...

Our beautiful Birman Gemma, like most cats, snoozes away during the day tucked up somewhere nice and comfy.  If not in front of our big windows in a sunny spot, she could be found on the sofa, and she rather likes our bed.  It’s all about comfort, isn't it.  Here she is, on top of my winter cat quilt, with her head on a pussy cat cushion.  She doesn’t know it, but the cushion has a photo of our previous Birman Muffy on the front, and was a 65th birthday gift from my penfriend Dianne from USA ...

You know you are in rural surroundings when you see hay bales stacked on the road side.  Purple ones, at that, and some sporting funny faces!  Always good to stop and check them out.

Purple wrapped hay bales

We were visiting daughter Nicky and her family for lunch, and they live on 10 hectares or so in the Manawatu area.  Driving onto the property, we were challenged by Noodle, the dog, he obviously didn’t remember us from last time.  But once we were  settled down inside, he decided that if Nicky was happy we were visiting, he was too ...

I don't have any slow stitching to show at the moment so thought I’d share my Give Thanks cushion which I stitched a coupe of years ago.The words sum up what I've been feeling lately after my spinal surgery.

In Every Thing Give Thanks

I’m thankful that my spinal condition was diagnosed by MRI, the only way to find it, I was told.  If it hadn't been found I would have ended up in a wheelchair.

I’m thankful that here in New Zealand hospital care is free, and I’m thankful for all ...