A finished charity quilt

I finally finished this quilt while on retreat. Ages ago my sister and I worked on getting this together. It was an unfinished piece I found in a charity shop (Op Shop) and paid $5 for. I had sandwiched it at home ready for some mindless quilting. So on Friday night it went under the machine and I just stippled it all over. So after sewing on some binding it was done. Great to have a project completed in the first night.

This quilt is also heading off to Hope Homes International in Eldorat, Kenya. The pile is slowly growing.

Linking to these places and crazy mum's finish it up Friday.

Messenger Bag

Eli saw a messenger bag in the shop and fell in love. I did not at $159.00!!!! So I bought some black drill, a chunky zip and some thick cotton for overstitching and set too. A couple of D rings from an old bag that had fallen apart and it was all done.

Eli has taken it everywhere since I came home from retreat having finished it. I now want one for myself!!!

Linking to these places and crazy mum quilts.

Op shop success

Today I had various appointments to attend but managed to get a bit of op shopping in.  (Charity shopping for those overseas). The wedge heel boots were $5. The dress and tunic were $7 each.  Both are quite diaphanous but absolutely gorgeous.  Ages since I had such a good score.

A finished boys quilt

This quilt is finally bound and finished. I put it off as I just could not find a binding I was happy with in my stash. In the end I decided it didn't matter as whoever is the recipient of the quilt will love it for being theirs, not for the binding I do. Slowly getting my charity quilts done for Hope Homes International. There are now four waiting to send and I pinned out another one last night.

The quilting on the back

All ready for a boy

It has sat on the floor of my sewing area for about three weeks. I am finding it a bit difficult to get things done these days as so procrastination is at the fore.

But next weekend I am off to my yearly five day quilting retreat. This is my time every year. I have now been going for 13 years!!! So not much sewing this week but a pile of decision making. What to take is always a problem. I get there and have to have a huge variety of projects otherwise I find I am not inspired.

High Tea with Anna

A lot of birthday activity happened in our house. Eli and my birthdays are only four days apart. 

Linking up to Crazy Mum Quilts and others here.

Jakob and me at my birthday dinner

Aaron trying on glasses to see if he is good looking

Good old faithful has been replaced

With  a title like that most people would think I was referring to a car. Nope. I am talking toasters. I used to live by myself in Oamaru in my when I was 19-20yrs old. During that time my father would do motorbike trips every year around the South Island. He would visit us all. The first year we all received parcels once he got home. Yes we all got a toaster.

I knew it would be the best toaster on the market for the money. My Dad researches like crazy before purchasing anything. We always got Consumer Magazine. This toaster is still going strong and is now 29 years old. But.... yes here comes the but. Crumpets, nice bread etc get stuck as it was really just made for toast bread.

The old toaster has lived for 8 years in storage on a farm. Moved from pillar to post. Been in flats and three houses. Now it is being relegated. I am not normally sentimental, but for this I am.

So for safety and cooking sake I bought a new toaster. Same brand and looks, just a much wider area for toast.

I still have the present from the motorbike trip the next year, it was done in the winter and we all got a heater. The heater now graces our caravan. 

Pickled onions

Not too sure about these. I love pickled onions and they were a pain to peel.  I decided to use Barry 's pickle for beetroot.  I also cooked them a bit.  They smell great but could end up too soft.

A boys quilt for charity

Getting a boy quilt done for an orphan at Hope Homes International. The panel was given to me either by Val or Hazel, with some scraps of matching fabric. Not normally my thing but great for a wee boy and easy to put together when it is going to be gifted.

I had a quiet Sunday getting ready for some investigative procedures in Hospital. Didn't manage to do anything else but at least this is sandwiched together ready to put under the sewing machine.

A refashion - Merino Swing Cardigan

From This

To This

I bought the long cardigan from an Op Shop (Charity Shop) for $9 as I loved the colour. But I did not like the fact that it was made to have a big gap at the front. Winter here is too cold for that. And the length was just not right for me. I love the gather on the sleeves. So I chopped. Jakob was horrified and told me that I should not and then I realised I chopped it too short. So out came an old grey jersey which got sliced and diced too. I have been really inspired with my overlocker being fixed. Though it took ages to get the tension right when I changed threads. Why are those machines so hideous??!!! I follow a blog by Jody Pearl about reinventing fashion. She had a fabulous tutorial on how to make a small cardigan into something funky that fits. So I followed that and inserted triangles of Merino under the arms, then put on the grey border and finished it with a doubled over merino strip. I love the length.

From this

To this

Linking up to these places and crazy mum quilts

A merino poncho in just 30 minutes

I was in Fabric Vision the other day purchasing interfacing and the assistant behind the counter had the most gorgeous merino poncho on. When commenting she advised the pattern was free if you purchased some merino.

Talk about a simple pattern. Just put right sides together and sew up to 30 cm on one of the non selvage sides. Hem it etc and voila. I love the combination of pink and grey and copied the assistants idea of putting a grey stripe at one end. So instead of it taking 20 minutes it took me about 35. I love it. Warm and smart but casual.

I used my overlocker for the the first time since purchasing new blades and getting it fixed. Thanks to Graham it is working beautifully. I also purchased a pile of rotary cutter blades. Wow wonders will never cease with how amazing it is cutting with new blades. Just sliced through it. mmmmm.

On the weekend Eli's rugby game was in the country so we decided to go and watch the game as a family and then have the day at Hamner Springs. The weather was fantastic, Eli won his game and we had a great walk, a lovely soak and gorgeous food.

Linking to these place and Crazy Mum Quilts.

A finished noughts and crosses quilt

 I have been concentrating on completing this quilt. I am not good at finishing but am fantastic at starting. 

Once I decided that this quilt was going to be mine and not given away I got a bit more inspired. All last term I studied and found that really hard not having time to sew. But it only took half an hour or so for a block, so I started by just doing a block on a night I had time. 

A block turns into a quilt and then it was put together. I finished my exam so it was time to sandwich and quilt it all. None of these photos really show the quilting as I used red on red and grey on grey. But there is some half inch crosshatching and then some squiggles.

 I was stuck with what quilt around the border, so you can see some writing as I quilted the prayer of Aaron : Numbers 6: 24-26 "The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

In amongst all of this we have had the most awful flu go through us. Aaron and I got it from Eli. Terrible temperatures and sick for quite a few days, then turning into an awful cough. My sister in law was so lovely and left a care package. My sister was amazing and really helped me the day we had to call an ambulance. Wonderful to have such fantastic family around.

Linking to these places. and crazy mum quilts.

Saturday night stitching

Sandwiching my quilt while watching the thrilling All Black vs Wales on TV. Great game and I got the quilt all pinned together. My parents were meant to be staying with us but with Eli really sick they resided at my sisters. I felt quite bad about that so made Dad's favourite biscuits to take over on Sunday afternoon.

Hmm there is a big gap on the trays of Afghan biscuits.