What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 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 ...

 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 ...