Finished the Christmas Quilt and visit to a Quilt Exhibition

Seems like ages since the last post, but my energy levels are still rising only slowly.  Here are the photos of Sheryl's Christmas quilt that is now finished.  It came up really lovely and will look great on her wall over the festive season.

Here are a few more photos of the details.

Thanks Sheryll, I enjoyed quilting for you.

Then it was off to Carterton, Wairarapa for the Master Quilters Guild exhibition.  It was a lovely day with the snow on the ranges looking stunning and the feeling of spring in the air. (Pity it didn't last long)  Here are some of the lovely quilts we saw.  I just love the colours of this one made by Noeline.

 An awesome scrap quilt made by Pauline.

 Maria Travers won a Mayor's Choice Award for this beautiful quilt which is also hand quilted.  Stunning and has more colour than this shows.

 The soft colours of this hexagon quilt are quite delicious.  Wish I had the patience to make one this size.

Sorry  my photos are not up to scratch this time around, but there were some fantastic quilts on display.
This is us having lunch with my friend Lorraine from Carterton (and Guild member).  Her quilt took pride of place at the entrance to the show.....ta da....

And here we are...

Okay, that's your lot for tonight.  It's time I got some beauty sleep as you can see from this photo!!!

We are off to Wellington tomorrow to stay with Richard and Kea, Wednesday we fly to Auckland for a Janome day and then stay in Wellington again, coming home some time on Thursday.  Sounds good to me.

Take care you all and see you again soon.

Blessings
Clare

Christmas quilt etc.

Hello again, my goodness I didnt know fuzzy brain would take so long to go.  Hmmm, well we continue to progress in the health stakes.  Back to the Drs this week and pleased I am able to walk a little further now.

In the quilting department, I have sewn absolutely nothing for myself.  Drats, but haven't actually got the energy yet and told you about my mistake with the baby fabric.  Dont want to repeat that. Have been reading and re-reading the baby bag pattern as the fabric Kea bought is so delicious I am determined not to make a mistake!

Quilting for customers has had to go on and I am almost caught up.  This Christmas quilt is a lovely wall hanging and it is almost finished.

 Sheryl has a combination of stitchery and applique in the blocks.  Lovely work

This sashing pattern always looks good. Not very good photography sorry, cant see the border!

I have used Magnifico thread 2063 I think, a lovely gold colour that has gone well with all the different colours in this quilt.  Picked up the stars in the fabric with these pieces.

I will show you some more when it is finished tomorrow.  In my last post I put in the heading about our weekend away, and in the fuzz forgot to actually talk or post the pictures!!!  Must have been away with the fairies again lol.  Here a a couple of snaps I took on our weekend that our children paid for us to have a break plus my birthday/Fathers Day. 

This is our first night and we ate at the Thai Chef's  as I love Thai cooking. 

Our main meals and Kerry looking happy the food has arrived!  It was delicious too.

These are some pics from our balcony.  We overlooked the end of the Ahuriri Marina and had a great time watching the boats and kayakers.

The stretched limo was parked out the back right beside the Mini Golf vehicle....David and Goliath lol.  The Mini Golf was rained out unfortunately. 

Out the front was parked the stretched Hummer and a vintage ???? (forgotten).

Our wee balcony. 

We did have lots of fun brunching in the city and checking out some shops.  My photography is really bad friends, as the brain was still suffering from a lack of oxygen.  We caught up with some friends for drinkies on the Saturday afternoon, dined in the Hotel Restuarant "Salt" that the kids paid for, and then sat in bed and watched the All Blacks beat South Africa.  What more could we ask for? 

On the way home on Sunday we had lunch with our DIL Kea's parents which was thoroughly enjoyable.  We were glad to have the time to be able to catch up with friends.  So often when you are going somewhere there is never enough time to catch up.  Maybe we have to make that time, as it's amazing how short life is.

Philosophy over, I'm off.  Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Thanks for calling in and see you again soon.
Blessings
Clare

Quilting catch up and a weekend away...

Gosh, I seem to get quite exhausted by the end of the day and blogging seemed such an effort so another week has gone past already.  Slowly getting my speed up and ended up having a good week for quilting customer's quilts.  Needed to so I could get back on track as I need to finish two custom quilts by the first week of October!!  No pressure lol.
This is Bev's gorgeous black,white and red quilt that she has made for her grandson.  A truly lovely quilt and it came up really well.

I used So Fine black thread - my favourite thread to use.

The pattern is Cool Beans, a  modern look that is so smooth to quilt.  Love it. The back is actually pure black, it is the lighting that is making it look lighter.

Then it was on to Darrell's scrummy wee cot quilt.

 It is a super simple pattern that really highlights the yummy fabrics.  Love these colours.

 On the back Darrell had a lovely soft flannel with the abc on it.

Used a lovely variegated King Tut that had mix of orange, green and tan.  Thanks Darrell, loved your quilt.
Then it was onto the next quilt.  This is a lovely Holly Hobbie quilt that Linda made.  Brought back memories of my girls!

I used an oldie but a goodie pattern called "Art Deco" which comes up so nice. The thread was So Fine 473 Blue which looked great.

 It looks really lovely on the back which is a tone on tone white fabric.

And last for the week was this lovely pastel pink and grey quilt also made by Linda.
Oops, that's my beloved's lovely hairstyle there!!

 This time I used the pattern "Tickle Too" and another So Fine thread in a medium pink colour.  Looked great.

 Back view on the white quilters muslin.  We were going to use the other half of the white tot used on Holly Hobbie until I spotted a flaw right in the middle of it!  Thank goodness I found it before it was quilted.

 

The first weekend in September is always "The Festival" up at Pukeora Estate which sits atop a very high hill that overlooks the whole of Central Hawkes Bay. I hadn't been for some years so took up my friend's offer to go with her and her hubby Chris.  We had a lovely time and this is the lovely couple at the food stand where we got our yummy lunch.

It was so interesting walking around the large number of stalls and see what wonderful creativity many people have.

Hope you have enjoyed the catch up.  Talk to you again soon.

Blessings
Clare

Friday Fripperies

Wow it is good to feeling so much better.  Life seemed to just mark time for a week or so and I am not a very good patient...too busy to be sick.  Now I am in catch up mode with everything, particularly my quilting.
Last Saturday Kerry took me out for a drive and we had lunch in Waipawa (about 6 minutes down the road), then we walked through Penny Lane to look at all the wonderful handcrafts.  We spotted a stand full of the most delicious children's hats and instantly knew this one would be perfect for Richard and Kea's new baby.  Of course, it may take a year or two for the baby to grow into it...but never mind!

What do you think?  How could anyone resist this...lol.

I was very spoilt last Friday as my sister sent me these beautiful flowers for my birthday.  The perfume has been quite delicious.

The colours are so full of spring.  It has been so wet and dreary here for the past couple of weeks it is lovely to look at these and think that it is not long until spring will burst forth. My children spoilt me too and have paid for Kerry and I to have a night away at a lovely hotel in Napier with dinner all paid for!  Just what we need, especially my dear husband who has been so dedicated at looking after me and doing everything else too.

I did manage to cut out the fabric for the baby quilt.  However, I should never try and do this while the brain is so fogged up.  Whilst they are all lovely squares from 2" to 4 1/2" what I wanted was all the same width and different lengths.... hmmm.  Change of plan for the quilt coming up.  What's that saying...when life throws you a curve, make a quilt!

We bought a new microwave too, but it sat at home for a couple of days before we unpacked it.  It drove Tyson nuts that the box was closed and he tried his very best to break into it.  He is such a nutcase cat.

Once it was open, he had a lovely time going in and out of the box.

I have plodded my way through loading my next all over quilt.  This is a lovely big black, white and red quilt from a customer in Wellington.  Hope to get started later this morning.

Off to get organised to go to work.  Thanks for stopping in.  I hope all is going well in your life too.

Blessings
Clare