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I've been slow stitching on my pair of elephants  for my Noah’s Ark stitchery project.  Such magnificent animals indeed.  Now this block is completed, I only have one more block  to do, so that’s exciting.

Elephants, walking two by two

Goodness knows how I’ve come to be working on three pair of socks at the same time!  This is all secret knitting for gifts so I’ll have to keep knitting away.  Guess all this knitting cuts into my hand stitching time, but never mind, variety is the spice of life, so they say.  As a ...

Sunday mornings here always start with a cooked breakfast, which is Robin’s task.  This morning he cooked up some bacon and eggs.  Always a good start to a lazy Sunday morning when things aren't too rushed.

My stitchery block of Noah and his giraffes needed finishing, so I sat and stitched for a wee while today.  There, that’s one more block from my Noah’s Ark stitchery completed.  I had a count up and there are only two more blocks left to do.

Hello Noah

I’ve also been plodding away on my navy cardigan, I’m ...

It’s always nice to get the chance to sit and do some slow stitching.  I’ve just finished another of my Noah’s Ark blocks, and this one was tiny.  Actually, I had doubled the size of all the blocks, because I wanted to stitch mine with Perle 5 instead of stranded cotton.  So you can image just how tiny this pattern would have been in the original size.  This block contains snails, tiny bees and lady birds, and two very small butterflies.

Insects for the Ark

The other slow stitching I’ve been doing is to hand stitch ...

I’ve finally found time to work on my small Noah’s Ark stitcheries, these are designed by Lynette Anderson-O’Rourke.  I took these away on our South Island trip earlier in the year, and worked on them at various stops on our holiday.  Sadly they have been “out of sight, out of mind” for a wee while.

The first small block completed were a couple of very friendly penguins, holding hands as they walk into the Ark.  Aren't they cute!

Penguins

Next were two strange looking blue birds, clutching a silver fish in their beaks, while each were ...

My Noah’s Ark stitcheries have been on holiday down to the South Island with me, and have now returned home.  I’ve just completed the black and white Friesen cow blocks, complete with a rainbow, one of the girls is happily munching on buttercups.  Plus  another small rainbow block to go over the top of them.

Happy cows

In fact, I’ve completed six of the stitcheries so far.  I thought it would be easier for me to trace the designs on to one larger piece of fabric, and this way has worked out well for me.

Noah’s ...

These little faces have been watching me for a while and I think that was a way of reminding myself I had to get them, and their clothes, finished.

They are a knit pattern from ak traditions. I have made some other patterns from them a long time ago, but found these and thought they were sweet.

The body holds its shape really well as there is a separate fabric insert made to go inside ( like in a cushion).

And then there are clothes to knit.

There are dozens of outfits in a separate pattern book, so I can see ...

A week on from Cyclone Gabrielle's arrival in New Zealand, there are still communities cut off and towns struggling for food, water and communications.  Auckland was hit hard, the wind and rain compounding problems wrought by the floods two weeks earlier - but the brunt of Gabrielle's power was felt mostly by the eastern North Island, in particular Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.  Roading, railway lines  and bridges are damaged, houses and farmland  have been flooded, cars washed away, landslides, power and internet  is still out to many thousands of households, and the pictures on the news are full ...

Slowly but surely, my Noah’s  Ark stitcheries are coming along.  In between traveling and sightseeing I’ve enjoyed some stitching time outside in the warm weather.  Or I should say “hot”, as some of the afternoons have been very hot indeed.  Here is my latest little finish, two lions and two blue birds  waiting their turn to climb aboard the Ark.  I must say that they seem to be a pair of rather strange looking lions indeed.  But Noah chose them, so they must be OK.

Stitching outside in the afternoon

The lion block is the fourth one I ...

Where have we been since we last chatted?  Moving on from Christchurch we traveled south to Ashburton, a nice straight drive down SH1, and we drove over the longest bridge in New Zealand at 1.7km over the Rakaia River, another braided river.  What is a braided river, you may be wondering? A braided river consists of a network of multiple shallow channels that diverge and rejoin around  braid bars.  This gives the river a resemblance to the interweaved strands of a braid.  This part of New Zealand, Canterbury,  contains 60% of the braided  river habitat in New Zealand.

Driving ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

My slow stitching lately has been working on Hello Spring.  I wanted to stitch a small seasonal wall-hanging – I already had one for Autumn and another for Winter and they hang on the wall by our front entrance.  The words were originally stitched in a springy yellow colour, but it didn't really show up enough.  Nothing for it but to remove them and re-stitch with black thread.  The stitching is done on a pale green fabric, which doesn’t really show up in the photo at all.  This design is an adaptation of something similar which I found on ...

My slow Sunday stitching got a bit of a hurry-up today as I really wanted to finish this small corgi stitchery.  I had already stitched two of these to put on a secret Christmas gift, so no pictures just yet.  Then I thought, why not make one for me as well, I’m sure I’ll use it some time, perhaps on an apron pocket or a tea towel.  This lovely free pattern is from https://jacquelynnesteves.com/blog/ and she designed this stitchery in honour of Queen Elizabeth when she passed away.

Royal corgi

Over the last few months ...

Spring has sprung here in my part of Paradise, and last night was time to turn the clocks forward one hour for Daylight Saving time.  Our evenings will be  little longer, more time to enjoy the balmy early evenings.  It must be said that I love Summer.

I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately with several appointments in the lead up to Robin’s knee replacement, and his operation last Tuesday.  It went well, I’m pleased to say, and he was home within a few days.  He wasn't allowed home until he could get out of bed and ...

Our weekend was spent in Woodville (about 90km each way).  We were invited  to attend a caravan rally (with a different group) and it was nice to catch up with several couples we had met up with over the years at different rallies.  One of the highlights for me was the craft display.  Although I didn't know it was happening ahead of time I had several hand stitched items in the caravan, so I could take part too.  There obviously is a lot of talent in this group, with everything from knitting, quilts, toys, hardanger on show.  I certainly ...

Yes, I know, I’m plodding along with my apron stitchery, but that’s no reason not to trace off and prepare a new stitchery project.  I've decided I want to do this freebie from Stitch Doodles.

New pattern

Because I wanted to stitch something with a Spring vibe, I changed the words, and traced the pattern onto a very pale green fabric.  So far, I’ve made a small start. Sorry, but this didn't photograph terribly well, but I’m sure you get the idea.

I've made a start

I needed my helper to hold the ...

My slow stitching this week has been a little work on another apron.  Once again, I’m using a design from Stitcher’s Revolution “Cute Kitchen Sayings”.  This one is Be Grateful.

Another apron

I’ve also been working on another pair of socks.  These were the very first pair I ever knitted, but I’ve found them much too short, the pattern has them finishing just a couple of inches above the ankle.  I wasn't happy wearing them, so decided to unravel the rib down from the top and lengthen them.  That was easier said than done, I ...

The gift to my granddaughter has been posted and received, so now it’s time to show it.  Megan and her boyfriend have recently bought a home, and we are very proud of their achievement.  Of course she needed a house warming gift – luckily I had already started an embroidered tea towel for Megan and her sister, so I was half way there.  With the embroidery complete, I added fabric borders to finish them off.

Ready for the top and bottom borders

How about a matching double handed oven mitt to go with it, I thought.  I used up the ...