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.

A bit of kids time

 A few weekends ago we had my wee niece and nephew for a long weekend. We had forgotten how different it is to have little ones in the house and how much fun it makes. Our boys took them under their wings and had a great time.

Both the kids were seriously into making food. It does mean they eat really well as they want to show that their food is delicious. It is a technique I always used with my boys when they were little. If they chop the veges, they will eat them! We made their favourite cake - spiced apple - and both days we had to make bread. Alex made vegemite and cheese swirls and Mieke made cinnamon and brown sugar.

Lots of mucking around and staying in jammies. A mattress on the floor created a great gymnastics display area. Spades for some outside time, until a certain young girl found a snail and squealed her way back inside, sigh.

All in all, a fantastic weekend.

An Alpaca Hat

Well here is another thing that has taken a long time - 8 months!! It is just a Alpaca Hat with earflaps and lovely and warm. It was meant to be done for Christmas. Now as it is an extra I am going to put this into the caravan for those cooler nights. I finished it while watching Downton Abbey with our boys. They are 10 and 13 and saw the last few episodes. They got hooked so we have started from the beginning as a bit of family TV time.

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts

My latest upcycle

I am thrilled with this upcycle but when I went to show it to Aaron....hmm...how many ways can a husband be polite when he just isn't riveted? How can you not be excited by an amazing travelling ironing board?

I found the small board at our local dump shop and paid a huge sum of $2. I need a board for my yearly quilt retreat. I added two layers of wool batting as it was sitting on metal mesh. Then I raided my canvas fabrics. Drafted a pattern sewed and Ta Da! I love it. The fantastic thing about it is that the legs fold away and it has a hanger. So when not in use you just hang it in the cupboard.

Looking forward to being fully equipped on my next travels.

Linking to these places.  and Crazy Mum Quilts

What to do with the finished quilt?

Well I finished it. Memory verses from Jakob's first year at our current school.

Practised heaps of different quilting techniques, trying to be more like a professional. BUT - no one wants it!! Moral to the story, don't do a quilt unless someone has specifically given instructions. So although it is about our journey, I think this will travel to far off lands. Into the bundle for the orphans at Hope Homes International.

Being the long weekend and the last long holiday before the end of winter. We dashed off to Mt Cook / Aorangi for the weekend. Wow - COLD. The bottles of water in the car froze solid!!

But we had an awesome time. Did some walks - though really they should be calls skids, it was either in gorgeous soft powder snow, or massive ice. We all skidded and slipped.

Lots of selfies

And some amazing views from the Hotel room.

Linking to these places.

Trying to be more adventurous

A long time ago I started embroidering squares with my boys memory verses from school, thinking it would make a great quilt.

I then patched it all together with scraps that were given to me or left over from other things. This was August 2015 by now and then I parked it. Too difficult to quilt, so I put it in my pile of things to finish.

This is where being adventurous begins. Normally when quilting I just do an all over pattern, as fast as possible to get it done.  

But this time I decided to try new patterns as I really need to get better at quilting than just using it to keep all the bits together. So I used a Koru style pattern around the embroidery. A clamshell pattern in each of the teal flying geese, no matter the size. So some of the quilting is tiny!!

Then I got stuck. The borders where there is no patchwork I tried a more flowing style of quilting. Not as good as I have seen others do but I know that practise makes perfect and it fits really well with the fabric choice.

Then I resorted to a general stipple on the rest. So this is quite heavily quilted.

As usual Morris managed to photo bomb. I have no idea what I am going to do with the quilt. It is a single bed throw size. So trimming and binding to do. But then it is not relevant to give to the orphans as it relates to our school. I thought one of my two boys would jump at it as they are both quite sentimental. But no. 

Anyway, pleased to have pulled this out and finished the quilting.

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts.

A small giraffe

Well I have finally finished. This giraffe is a Melly and Me pattern that I shrunk by 50%. I started it before Luca was born and he is now six month old!! Not good.

I have a lovely book called "Giraffe's can't dance" that originally inspired me to start making these as gifts for newborns. Baby's can clutch the legs and necks with their tiny hands. 

Now I need to find another copy of the book and send it off.

Linking to these places.

A finished quilt for charity

Well this week I posted my last huge university assignment onto the website, so to celebrate I sat at the sewing machine. I could not work out how to quilt this together without affecting the look of the cats. So I just did an all over stipple.

The original quilt top was sent in by Jennifer, my sister then sewed borders and I sandwiched, quilted and bound it. All ready for the orphans at Hope Homes International.

The high winds we have been having stopped us going out in the caravan this weekend so I took Eli out for a date night. We both had a blast. For a total of $40 we went to the movies, had dinner, bought a gift each and rode on the coolest things in the mall.

This finish has gotten me inspired to get on with stuff, so I started finishing a giraffe. Then it stopped hmmm.

Linking to these places

A bit of outside time and a new seat.

When Eli and Aaron were away in Kaikoura Jakob and I went and purchased a huge slab of Macrocapa. Aaron had made two Gambian squares as legs. But now we needed to take off all the bark and start sanding to make it gorgeous.  Chisels and hammers being wielded. 

The weather has been so good we have been able to do this after school one day. Of course the mucking around then starts!

Then the boys tidied up all the prunings I was making. Try spotting the boys!!

A Whole lot of unpicking going on.

Well I have been redoing a quilt for Hope Homes International. I had pinned this out but when basting (stitching in the ditch) the back all puckered, the front tucked up. Disaster. So I took a deep breath and seam ripped the whole lot. Re pinned and now stitched in the ditch all over to secure. But am struggling with how to quilt it. Hmm.

Linking to these places.