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Happy Birthday hand made card from Dot

My birthday week started well.  I'd just returned home on Sunday from my 10 day coach trip up to the Far North, avoiding all those coughs and sneezes  I could hear on the coach most days.  Or so I thought!  By Monday afternoon I was coughing and sneezing too, my throat was burning, I had headaches, and I didn't feel at all well.  So much so that I told my Sew Wot friends that I wouldn't be joining them the next morning.  So I stayed tucked up in bed, sipping ...

 The RSC colour for this month is black or brown.  Great, I'll get on with stitching the last of my selvedge strips and make a final two handed oven mitt for the year.  You may remember that I have been on a quest to use up my remaining selvedges.   But where was the bag with the selvedges and the hessian for the backing?  It should have been hanging up on the coat rack with various other bags of stuff, but no, it wasn't anywhere to be found.  Perhaps it was in the crates in the wardrobe, where I ...

The caravan club was having a weekend rally at Feilding over the weekend.  My friend Dot is a club member too and has a small motor home, but wasn't attending the rally, but she asked me if I would like a ride up on Saturday to catch up with the members. Yes, I certainly would.  The boot of the car was packed, we needed a folding chair each, our lunches, and a coat in case it was cold and windy up there.  But surprise, surprise, the day turned out sunny and wonderfully warm, no complaints about the weather at ...

 Recently Dot and I went on a bus trip organised by our Probus Club.  The day was cold and wet and we waited in the cold car park wrapped up in our rain jackets and scarves, together with the rest of the group  for the bus to arrive.  Once onboard, we were soon on our way.

Our bus for the day

One of the highlights  of the trip for me was to travel across the newly opened "Te Ahu a Turanga", the new 11.5km piece of State Highway 3, between Ashhurst and Woodville.  This replaces the old Manawatu Gorge ...

 My secret sewing is completed, I've finished and gifted the birthday quilt to my daughter Nicky for her 60th birthday.  Nicky had quite specific ideas for her birthday quilt, nothing sharp and spiky such as stars, she wanted 9 patches.  And in pinks and greens.  I could do that for her.  I had started the quilt some time ago, gathering up fabrics in the required colours, cutting and assembling the nine patch blocks.  In between times of course I stitched away at other projects and challenges.

Slowly the blocks were completed.  I stitched pink nine patches with a centre ...

I've just come back from an overnight stay in the capitol city, Wellington.   As I was away a little less than 24 hours, Gemma stayed home alone.  She was left with dry food, wet food, fresh water, and a nice clean litter box.  As she tends to snooze most of the day, I was sure she would be fine.  Although maybe her pussy cat brain would wonder where I was at bedtime?  My blue overnight case was packed, and I was ready to go.

Saturday was quite a busy day.  The caravan club was spending the weekend at the Manawatu Caravan Club grounds, and I drove up to join them for morning tea, about a half hour drive away.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and as a bonus, one of the member's was celebrating a birthday so cake was provided.  The weather was fine and clear, cold overnight and frosty in the morning.

Joining the caravan club for morning tea

I left the camp ground after morning tea, and drove up to Sanson, another half hour drive away, to meet ...

 On Thursday we had the AGM for the caravan club at Paraparaumu.  Although I am no longer an active member, as a Life Member I am welcome at any functions and get togethers.  The meeting was at Club Vista and the restaurant has views over the sea.  Not much to see as the weather was very wet indeed on the drive down.  Kapiti Island was under the clouds.

View from the restaurant

We all stayed on for lunch and took over two tables in the restaurant.  The meals were very tasty, and rather large helpings indeed.  I enjoyed my Pork ...

On Sunday  I met my daughter Nicky for lunch at Viv's Kitchen at Sanson.  It was a rather cool rainy day, but no wind luckily for the drive up there, a 100km round trip.  Viv's Kitchen is very popular and has a 50's vibe.  The young waitresses are dressed in full skirts, and the cafe looks just like a version of Happy Days.  Where's the Foz?  We ordered lunch, and I couldn't go past a Southland Cheese Roll, delicious.  Viv's Kitchen is famous for their Cream Horns, not that I ordered one.  No, I ...

 I've been out and about lately.  The other day I traveled down to Waikanae to visit my friend Trish who had recently moved from the Hutt Valley to her new home.  Rather than drive I took the bus down, which is free for oldies like me.  This bus route only travels on Tuesdays and Thursdays, departing from my home town at 9.00am then leaving Waikanae Railway Station  at 3.00pm.  Many locals take this trip down to Waikanae to then get the train into Wellington.

 Not quite a caravan trip, but the next best thing.  I went to visit the caravan club who were away for the weekend at Mt Lees Reserve.  On the way  I stopped off at the very popular Lewis Farms to buy some strawberries.  These are grown in huge tunnel houses so the growing season seems to last for ages.  I bought myself a nice hot coffee too before I continued on my drive north.

Yummy strawberries from Lewis Farms

I arrived at Mt Lees Reserve in time for morning tea, just as well I remembered to pack my folding camping ...

Yellow is the RSC colour of the month, and I've done a little  stitching for my  block sets.  Not much yellow at all in my bag of 2.5in squares to make my framed four patches, but it just had to do.  I'm using those squares up, not cutting new ones.  And I cut some yellow strips for my black and white blocks.

Yellow RSC blocks

I enjoyed a lunch out with friends this week, I have known these ladies for over 40 years, so we go back a while.  Robin and I have been meeting up with ...

 I've finished the last of the blue sewing for RSC this month.    I'm on a quest to use up the last remaining few selvedge strips this year and found a small handful of blue ones.  So, another double handed oven mitt was created.   Just like the pink  ones I stitched last month, there were just enough strips to use on the top of the pockets, and I used dark blue fabric for the rest.  Insulbrite and toweling in the middle, and hessian (sacking) on the back.

 In Rainbow Scrap Challenge land, a new month means a new colour.  And blue it is.  I looked through my small bag of 2.5in squares and selected some with blue tones to make more framed four patch blocks.  That bag doesn't seem to be going down at all, but it must be, ever so slowly.  I know I've said it before, but I really don't like working with 2.5in squares, they just seem so small to me.  And yes, I know, some bloggers delight in working with even tinier 1.5in squares, how do they ...

 The Hawkes Bay is generally sunny and warm, and although we had a couple of chilly nights, the days were glorious.  We spent a couple of days at Napier NZMCA Park and our neighbours were intrigued that we travel with a cat and came over to say hello to Gemma.  

At Napier NZMCA Park

These NZMCA parks always have a book swap and I found this helpful book there, Crafty Girls Road Trip.  Although 10 years old, there is still plenty of information that will be relevant.  I'll keep the book in the caravan for when we are tripping ...

 It's our 41st anniversary so we decided to go out for lunch.  Thanks Dot for the lovely hand made card.

We decided on Speights Ale House in Palmerston North, setting off on a rather drizzly morning.  As the ads say, real men drink Speights.

Speights Ale House

We were soon seated, and checked out the menus.  What to have, that's always the question.  Although I love pork belly, I decided to go with something different, and chose  bacon wrapped chicken stuffed with pesto and cream cheese, and cherry sauce, very tasty indeed.  Robin couldn't go past the ...

 Last weekend we were getting ready to leave for a caravan rally.  Gemma decided to make life difficult for us, with all the hustle and bustle of packing the caravan going on.  "Why not give my people a hard time and hide for a while", she thought.  We were all ready to go and searched here, searched there, to no avail, then searched again.  Robin finally found her curled up and keeping low in a place I had already checked twice!  I don't know why she acts like this, after all she goes away in the caravan once a ...

 We have been busy lately, tooing and froing all over the place.  Last week we met our caravan club friends for lunch down at Denny's in Porirua.    Denny's is a casual, family style restaurant, with quite an extensive menu, something for everyone's tastes.  Our group of 20 was spread out over three tables, and the restaurant was fairly full with other family groups too.  Our members are spread out geographically, some driving over the hill from the Wairarapa, some from the Horowhenua, Kapiti, and the Hutt Valley.  The serious business of checking out the the menus took ...

 Watch out - the pirates have arrived, rattling their cutlasses and flying the Jolly Roger Flag!  These pirates were a RSC start in January this year.  I had a piece of pirate fabric and cut it into squares to make Happy Blocks.  All the colours of the rainbow were not represented in this fabric, so I made blocks bordered with green, red, yellow and light and  dark blue.

Pirate blocks bordered in green

As the  months rolled by the other blocks were made in the appropriate colours, and then I had fifteen.  It was time to assemble them this month, I ...

 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 ...