What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Robin and I are leading a Caravan Safari with our caravan club friends through coastal Wairarapa.  Taking them along roads not traveled, and places yet to be explored.   The drive took us through some pretty farmland, with plenty of cattle and sheep grazing contentedly.   Our first stop was Alfredton Domain which has overnight free parking.

Alfredton was formed in 1868 and was part of the Small Farms Association.  These days it is a tiny village with a school and a church.  The Domain is an attractive place with ewes and small lambs everywhere.  The calls of our beautiful native bird ...

 We traveled down to Christchurch to spend some  time with my son Michael to celebrate his 60th birthday.  He had a busy week as he had flown up to Wellington to spend a couple of days with his Dad, then flew back down again in time for our arrival in Christchurch.  I had booked a table for dinner on Friday night at the Platform Brew Barn, a riverside establishment in Kaiapoi, quite close to where we are staying at the NZMCA park.

It was time for our monthly lunch with our Super Leisure Group (SLG) friends, and Calvin had arranged for us to meet down at Porirua.  That suited us fine, as on the way I could do a donation drop off at Paraparaumu Beach, on the way to Porirua.  So I packed up some goodies for Foster Hope, and we set off bright and early.  These had been finished some time ago, and were waiting patiently to be delivered.

Three draw string bags for toiletries or pencils

Three toddlers aprons, a woolly beanie and two pencil cases with pencils

Two quilts ...

 What a delightful afternoon we had.  My friend Dot and I attended the Daffodil Day High Tea, a fundraiser for the Cancer Society.

There were raffles on sale, so I purchased tickets in several gift baskets, they always look enticing.  And there was a sales table too, manned by the volunteer ladies from the Cancer Society.  I bought two jars of homemade jam, plus some shortbread biscuits.  All for a good cause.

The beautifully decorated tables soon filled up.  

Fancy cups and saucers were set out at each place setting.  And a little later, the food arrived.  Sandwhiches, and savouries ...

 It seems to have been a long time since I had a RSC finish to share.  In fact, it is a "two for one deal" as it  also ticks the box for the Chookshed Challenge number 3 which was chosen for August.  These selvedge blocks were started in Rainbow Scrap Challenge during 2020 and each month I stitched one in the nominated colour.  I had decided to make these blocks for a tote bag, and also stitched a couple of handles, and sone extra selvedge strips in burgundy for the top of the bag.  Then it was put aside.

Bag ...

 It's been a busy old time lately.  Each month a group of ladies from our village go out to lunch.  It was my turn to organise it this month, and as usual we went to one of the local cafes.  We all enjoyed our lunches and I asked the owner to take a photo for me.  Ooops, the photos seem to be turning out a little fuzzy lately.

Gill, Audrey, Janice, Jan, Jenny and Dot

The cafe has a large collection of English teapots made to look like pretty cottages.  Like most collections, this one started small, then just ...

 You may remember that I stitched pretty little quilt featuring unicorns a while ago.  It started like this, a cute panel that was looking for a new home, courtesy of Sew Wot member Helen.  The unicorns popped into my bag quick smart - I was sure that I could do something nice with them.  Gemma thought so too, as she inspected the panel.

Approved  by Gemma

So I cut the panels apart, sashed them with different fabrics from my stash, assembled the blocks and added a purple border.  Then one sunny day I pinned the three layers together on the patio ...

 The Winter season has ticked over down here in the Southern Hemisphere.  The weather has been fine and sunny, although the temperatures are definately getting much cooler.  We had great weather for our caravan club weekend away.  It was a long weekend with Monday 3rd being a public holiday, King's Birthday weekend to commemorate King Charles birthday.  Although his actual birthday is in November, it is celebrated in June.  Why?  It all goes back to King George 11 and the cold English winter weather, he started this tradition way back in 1748.  He had a November birthday, and announced ...

 We've had a busy old time lately.  Robin had a hospital procedure recently, one of those which require drinking large amounts of horrible liquid before hand - I'm sure many of you have undergone this as well.  Driving up to the hospital early in the morning, he had his paperwork done, changed into a gown, and taken away.  While I waited I spent some time in the hospital cafe with my book, a cheese scone (not the best one I've ever eaten), coffee, my knitting, and my phone, waiting for the call to come and collect him.  The ...

 The last four days have  been spent in our caravan at Napier NZMCA Park.    There was a sad reason for our trip, to attend the memorial service for my brother-in-law Dennis.  My sister Kathleen passed away three years ago during Covid lockdown, and her husband Dennis died last week.  We were pleased to attend and support my niece and nephew, and their adult children.  It was a nice service, sad at times of course, but plenty of happy memories.  Dennis enjoyed writing and several of his poems were showcased, I particularly liked this one, very apt at this stage in ...

 You know what it's like when you set off on holiday - you seem to have all the time in the world and then it's all over.  We were attending our caravan club rally in Napier, with plenty of plans, people to see, things to do, plus a little shopping.  It didn't all fall nicely into place though.  On my "must do list" was a visit to Skeinz, a local company which spins their own wool.  I had found a pretty 6ply cardigan pattern for myself and was after some yarn.   Of course there were several lovely colours ...

We are not great movie goers, but now and again a film grabs our attention, and we just have to go and see it. 

The Great Escaper, starring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson was such a film.  This film is based on a true story about pensioner Bernard Jordan, who absconded from his Care Home in Sussex, UK in 2014, to attend an event in France marking the 70th Anniversary of the D Day Landings.  Bernard missed out on getting a pass to join one of the official groups, so decided to go it alone.

It was an excellent film ...

 Over the last several months I have been stitching away, and had accumulated a bag of donations for Foster Hope charity.  The nearest drop off point was on the way to where we were heading for lunch, so that worked out well.  I collected the bag, and we were ready to go.

 Baby Jack has arrived - the first grandson of Robin's sister Kaye and her husband Jan.  That was certainly exciting news and we caught up with Kaye for lunch while she was staying with the new parents and baby to offer a helping hand.  Luckily I had a baby quilt  tucked away for a new arrival, wrapped it up and took it to our lunch date. 

 Happy Valentine's Day to all.  I had to educate Robin about St Valentine - he didn't realise that there was indeed such a person.  St Valentine was martyred on 14th February in the year 269 under instructions of Emperor Claudius 11 for helping Christian couples wed.

I like to bring out my bed quilt "Hearts of Love" for the months of November, our wedding month, and again in February, for Valentine's Day.  The heart blocks were received some years ago when I took part in a block swap.  Then I assembled the quilt using star blocks as part ...

The  Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for January is green, and I thought I had already completed my RSC stitching this month.  But another project sneaked in.  Hiding in plain sight was a bag of 2.5in squares, and I had thinking of doing a project I had seen in blogland, but that didn't happen.  To be quite honest, I don't really like working with little squares, and was considering donating the bag to the Op Shop.

Perhaps I'll do something with them after all, I thought.  So I rummaged through the bag, pulled out all the soft ...

The lazy, sunny days at Napier were coming to a close.  There really is nothing nicer than sitting under the awning, doing a little knitting or stitching, and chatting away with our friends.  Gemma discovered one of the locker doors open, and wasted no time jumping in to see what she could find.  Sorry Gemma, there’s nothing very interesting in there at all, just a cozy place to curl up.

Gemma in the locker

On our last day in camp we arranged to go out to lunch with Helen and Owen – where to but the Silky Oak Chocolate café ...

We've moved on to Napier to spend several days just relaxing.  But….. needs must, and we desperately needed to go to the laundromat.  There was one close by, and at the NZMCA camp we are staying, there was a huge clothesline to hang it all out.  There’s nothing better than laundry drying in the warm sunshine, is there?  Holiday or not, there’s always plenty of washing to do.

Round and round it goes

Not too far from the camp is the Filter Room which makes cider and beer.  There is also a restaurant attached and we took ...

The caravan was packed, and we were on our way to Kiwitea, to stay with my daughter and her family.  Santa Bear and the Christmas cushions were coming away with us on this trip, and we mustn’t forget the bag of Christmas gifts for the family.

Christmas in the caravan

Expecting the holiday traffic to  be very busy, we kept off SH1 and drove along some quieter rural roads. It’s always good to be safely off the roads in the busy holiday period, and we were soon parked up on the property.  My bacon and egg pie went ...