What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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 ...

Any Homer Simpson fans out there?  We stayed the night at Springfield, a small town in Canterbury, at the foot of the Southern Alps.  Believe it or not, Springfield is famous for a large pink donut, but where did it come from?    The  movie studio 20th Century Fox presented a giant pink donut to the town in 2007  to promote the premiere of The Simpsons Movie.  We are not really Simpson fans, but even we know that Homer Simpson loves donuts.

That’s a very big donut

Just 10km down the road was Sheffield, home of the world famous in ...

There is an awful lot to see down here in the South Island, as we are traveling around.   We spent several days in Blackball, an old mining town.  The most famous building here is undoubtedly the pub which has an interesting story about it’s name,  called “Formerly the Blackball Hilton”.  Built in 1910 it was named The Dominion.  In the 1970s the owners changed the name to The Blackball Hilton, as the main street is called Hilton after one of the early mine managers.  However, a threat of legal action from the overseas Hilton Hotel chain caused the name ...

There’s no doubt about it, as we drove past this cute little shop on the way to Greymouth, towing the caravan behind us, I remarked that we would have to return to this shop the next day.  Bright and colourful on the outside, I was sure it would be just as nice inside.

Pink Possum Quilt Shop

I was after some backing fabric for my second piece of traced out stitchery.  Yes, Sue had some of that and cut me a piece, then I had a look around the shop to see what else took my fancy.   There were ...

We have moved on to the tiny settlement of Barrytown and I had an hour or so sitting under the shady awning doing a little stitching. We are camped up on a hill and have a wonderful sea view.

Not only did I finish this tiny little dove from Noah's Ark stitchery, but worked a little longer to start the next design – two kangaroos waiting to hop onboard the ark.

Just a small finish

Sitting outside in the balmy evening with our camping neighbours, we were chatting away and waiting for the sun to go down into the horizon ...

It’s been much too hot and sticky lately to do any hand stitching or knitting, so nothing to report on that.  But we have been having a great time driving around and exploring on our South Island Trip.  Here’s an update of our adventures.  Boxing Day at the Beach is a Kiwi institution.   The day was hot and sunny, but the cool sea breeze cooled the temperatures down while we were sitting on the golden sand at Marahau Beach .  There was plenty of action happening off shore.  Several people were enjoying para-sailing, with the wind carrying them along ...

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 ...

We have moved on to Kaye and Jan’s home for Christmas, Robin’s young sister and hubby.  They have bought a delightful small holding on rural Richmond a couple of years ago, so this was our first time visiting.   The home is surrounded with lovely gardens, and plenty of fruit trees.  They are fattening up a couple of beef cattle, and Kaye is the proud owner of five hens, two different breeds, white and brown.  The birds have a cozy custom made hen house, and provide daily eggs.

Two brown chooks

Gemma has been having a fine old time ...

I've spent a little time on my first Noah’s Ark Stitchery, and finished one.  It’s only small, but after all, every little bit helps.  I had to go shopping the other day to buy some black Perle no.5 thread as I had run out.

Two rabbits, done

So where have we been on our South Island trip these last few days?  St Arnaud was on my wish list for this trip.  I remember travelling through this tiny alpine village back in 2018 and remarking that I would like to stay here for a night or two ...

Black thread  - that’s what I needed for my traveling stitchery project.  Luckily we found out where the LQS was and I made a quick visit.  I was after Perle No 5 in black, and luckily they had some.  Then while browsing around,  found some nice stripy fabric which could work well as the borders on my Noah's Ark stitchery.  Or not, perhaps I should have waited till this project was completed to see if it would go well with the stitchery blocks.  Never mind, I’ve bought it now.

My purchases

I’m not expecting to make our ...

While packing for our South Island caravan holiday I had to make sure I had plenty of hand work to do.  First, some knitting.  I quite enjoy knitting on car journeys, so I cast on a double knit cardigan/jacket for myself.    I bought the big cone of pure New Zealand navy  8ply, double knit wool at a good price so I’m very pleased with that.  The design is reasonably plain so should be fine for car knitting.

A cardigan for me

And just in case I feel like a change, I gathered up some part balls of yarn ...