I am on a roll!

I have joined the "one project a month challenge" (see side bar - cute little green teddie) for a good reason, that is what I tell myself anyway. The idea of this challenge is that everyone involved encourages others to complete projects, simply by leading by example, and we can all check out each others blogs to see what we are all up to. What a wonderful example I am! LOL indeed!

This week, at my Thursday quilting group - which has now moved to alternate Mondays so technically speaking we should now be called the Monday night quilters - we worked on row 3 of a mystery quilt that we are all working on together as a group project this year. I have chosen these soft fabrics...

yes they do look really lovely, and I am really very pleased with the way that they are shaping up. Everyone is using quite different fabrics, we have a real assortment of colours and patterns, it is very interesting to watch them all develop, and look at the many interpretations of the same quilt!

And...I have done a bit more stitching on my "Flowers & Flutterbuys" quilt by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House. I only have one little (almost little),corner left to stitch, so really I am very pleased with my progress, not sure if I will manage to finish the stitching by the end of the month, but that is certainly my goal...

I am going to send this one off to the quilters, so cheating a little bit, but I like to think that I know my limitations; Ali Bufton is a marvellous lady from Ashburton, she does some of my quilting for me, (the more adventurous stuff - she has a long arm quilter and that makes a lot of difference), and she does such an absolutely wonderful, amazing job... so I shall send this one off when I have finished the stitching..

...and yesterday when I picked up the most recent Homespun magazine, (again, I have told myself that enough is enough and I will limit my magazine purchases this year - yeh right. Quilt magazines are like shoes - you can never have too many!!), I saw Janelle Winds beautiful quilt, and just couldn't resist.

As luck would have it..right beside the bookstore is a quilt shop called "Threads", so I just had to peak, and lo and behold, what do you know!!! I just happened upon some fabric that I thought would be pretty perfect for this quilt. They(several, or should I more accurately say many fat 1/8's), very quickly found their way into my possession, and last night I put a few blocks together....

I have felt like doing a nice bright quilt for some time, and it is really great to have some straight quilt piecing, whilst I really love the stitching, it is great to have some other stuff to do as well.

What a contrast these 2 quilts are huh?

This edition of Homespun has some really neat projects in it, some cute little bags which may make quite nice little gifts, so I may have to investigate those a bit further.

Anyway, my whole point about this post, is that the "one project a month challenge" is all about finishing projects, and here I am starting 2 more...

I couldn't resist these 2 fabrics either..

















nor these...









and I have a couple of little (well maybe not literally so little) projects in my for my partner in the Spring Swap that I will be working on over the weekend...


Have fun, Shiree

and how does the garden grow?

well, I did manage to get out in the garden very briefly today before the rain came, and now just look at it! This weather looks like it is really set in, and whilst it is very good for the garden, I am not so sure how we will all manage the 24 hr walking relay starting tomorrow??? We will be wet little bunnies I expect. and will need all the wet weather gear we can find, and I think tHAT will need to go and find the gumboots..

it went from this ..
to this in about 15 minutes...
and now it is getting dark I think that I will head inside, time to get my self ready for tomorrow, I really need to get some stitching organised to take with me for the down time, along with a good book, camp stretcher, sleeping bag, thermos, ..... A girl can never go anywhere without a little something to do... you just never know when you will get a spare minute, and what a shame to waste it.

OOPS!!

that's what you get for trying to write a blog post AND talk to a friend on the phone!!!

Can you spot the mistake.. I mean project.. NOT reject!! sorry guys...

As if I wasn't busy enough....

how often do you catch yourself saying this, why do we do it to ourselves huh.. well because it is just so much fun and we do all enjoy it so much!!

I have really committed myself now, just look at my sidebars. What was I thinking of... I do not know. What I do know is that I have committed myself to the next couple of months of wonderful exciting fun...

I have finished another project for the one project a month - Ben's quilt. I cannot believe how many unfinished projects I have, but certainly I am now on a roll! Cakegirl, I hope that you are reading this!and I have really been working hard on my stitching.. when we were away at Christmas time, I did quite a bit of stitching on this reject from a pre-Christmas Homespun magazine. I am getting in early for Christmas 2009!! and these are some of the stitching that I did in-flight en route to Paris and Canada. still working on this one..and still needing to finish this one.. can you notice the bead work on Santa'a beard?

and on this one also...
and this one still needs a little finishing off stitching ... poor lass has no hair!
and I am sure that I can find some fabrics from here for this Christmas quilt...and I have these fabrics (below) to work with on the calendar quilt challenge 09! I joined this one rather late, and need to do quite a bit of catching up.. so maybe this is my weekend project after the 24 hr relay 4 life walk that I am participating in for the local regional cancer society fund raiser...
So I do have lots to do, isn't it really exciting then... and did I tell you that my garden needs some attention too!!

Aren't swaps such fun!

I have had just the most wicked time,... I took part in this wonderful swap hosted by Heidi over at http://foxglovesfabricandfolly.blogspot.com, she is the most wonderful swap host. This is the 2nd of her swaps that I have participated in now, her earlier "Very Vintage Christmas Swap"was lots of fun also. Anyway, this parcel arrived from my swap partner Shannon, from California, USA, who does not have a blog unfortunately, so I cannot send you over there to check her out, no mind! This rose box is just so lovely huh..
....and all these lovely goodies inside, the heart shaped soap right in the centre just has such a divine fragrance, and it just wafts all over my lounge room so that you instantly notice it when you walk into the room,And isn't this just too cute, I shall have such a lot of fun finding homes and uses for these I am sure,This is what I sent Shannon, I think that I am safe posting this, as she should have it by now, I do hope that she enjoys opening it as much as I enjoyed opening mine and discovering all the goodies and treasures - THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH Shannon!

I visited my friend Robyn at the weekend, she has such a lovely garden, her home is a delightful 150 year old farm cottage, and it is just so quiet and peaceful, she gave me these lilies - aren't they just so beautiful.. the photo does not do them justice really, it is quite late at night (half midnight actually) and the light is not really so great to show them off so well.


Rowing man is away for the week, he is spending the week in Twizel - yep - rowing AGAIN! And I always have such trouble getting off to bed and sleep for the first night that he is away! It is the week for the National Championships, so he is off to win some gold. His first race is at 7.25 am, so by the time I get myself settled into work tomorrow morning, he should be at the start line just getting ready to take off.. I think that this race is a singles, but he is also competing in the doubles and quad (4 man) events over the next few days, with the finals on Friday and Saturday. He says that he will be home later n Saturday evening, in time to come and cheer me on as I walk around the track for the Relay for Life -www.relayforlife.org.nz/ - this is a magnificent, fun-filled overnight (24hr) event that brings people from all ages and walks of life together as teams of friends, families, colleagues, sports or community groups and take on the challenge of raising FUNds to raise awareness and celebrate survivorship.

Well, best of to bed if I think that I am going to get up at 6am tomorrow!

Have fun!

Shiree

Let's Celebrate!!

We have wonderful news, the Saturday before Christmas, my dear
son - rowing boy- popped the question to his girlfriend of 5 years. And what I really find amazing is he did it all by himself, we were all quite taken, and completely unaware that he was even thinking about this. What a surprise for us all, including Christelle, rowing boy's now fiancee.

How exciting is that. SO now we have a wedding to look forward to, and lots of planning, and arrangements and decisions etc although it is quite some time away. Christelle has family in France and she would love for them to have the opportunity to come out to New Zealand, hence the wedding date has been set for 27 November 2010. YES, a long time away! I am sure that it will be no time tho before their big day is much closer ...

They had a Christmas party with a few close friends and during this, rowing boy stopped the music, got done on one knee - the romantic wee soul - and did the proposal thing! WOW, I cannot believe that he managed to keep the ring buying and all this a complete secret from absolutely everyone.

So we have duly celebrated with a bottle of champers...

I cannot believe how organised she is, already she has a wedding planner/diary. And a great A4 ring-binder that she has pictures of dresses that she likes, and ideas for the cake, photos, venues etc etc. She is going to make this all so so easy.
Their engagement party is set for March 31st, as we also have some family coming from other parts of NZ, and Perth, Australia for the event. It will be wonderful to catch up with family and friends again, some of whom we have not seen for some time.


And today it is Valentine's day , so HAPPY VALENTINES DAY everyone, wherever you may be, and whatever you may be doing I hope you have a very enjoyable time with your loved ones,

cheers, Shiree

Melbourne fires

What a great tragedy this is, and I am sure everyone reading their newspapers or listening to the news unfold on tv or radio or whatever news media, are as horrified as I am that something of this magnitude has occured, and taken so many lives. The disaster area encompasses more then 20 towns north of Melbourne, and it is really hard to imagine just what this may be like.

There are many stories already emerging about the horror, courage and luck of the many many people involved, my daughter in Perth (Chatty Girl) has been telling me that her workplace has taken up a gold coin collection, and also a practical support measure of asking all their employees to sort out clothing and bedding and similar to be transported to the area for use by those that have lost homes and posessions, as this is what their local Red Cross has asked for. Good on them I say. And we have in our local papers a website to make donations so I am off very soon to contribute to this very worthy cause.

We were away in Twizel for the weekend, so were not aware of this disaster until our return on Monday morning, apparently the glow from the fires could be seen in the Dunedin sky, and many that saw this did not immediately link it to the Melbourne fires, even if they were were aware of them. That is some distance, and indicating how huge the area of fire must be.

It is humbling to see so many rally and provide support in so many necessary ways. I cannot begin to imagine how it may be for those that have lost loved ones, family, friends, homes, pets, businesses etc, and I am sure it will be a long road to recovery and rebuilding. I am also sure that they will be touched and remember these acts of kindness from strangers who felt their pain in very differnt ways.

Regatta weekend

my the time does disappear all too quickly, February already.

we had another wonderful weekend in Twizel on the shores of Lake Ruataniwha (which in Maori means 2 monsters).

The lake was built specially for rowing regattas in the 1970's when they were putting in all the canals and hydro electricity dams in the Waitaki Valley. Bit of an eyesore, but they do provide the means for the necessary comforts in life.

Anyway Rowing man was in fine form again this weekend, he that he is a master and competes against young 18-20 year olds. But he manages fine, and was the proud recipient of gold medal this weekend for the club quad event. (we have drawer full of these things!). It was a very close finish! (They are the middle crew - that's rowing man at the back in the grey cap/blue singlet with white stripe -just as they cross the finish line)
He didn't do quite so well in the single sculls however, but he is lucky to have his boat row worhty as when out training the other week, it got rammed by some novices in a double, and sadly was very worse for wear. Thanks to club captain John, who ran a very quick repair job!
hmmmm, I don't seem to be able to upload photos this evening for some reason, and I had some good shots to show you too. I am a bit of a nana at these events, and when not helping with rigging, derigging or getting on or off the water,

I have quite a nice spot right close by the finish line where I sit and stitch. Get quite a bit done really, and I have manged to get 2 little bags and a very nice little cushion

- these are Sally Giblin designs, which she had in a slightly older edition of Patchwork & Stitching, which I believe is an Australian magazine.

And I managed to get a bit more stitching done on my WISP ... my version of Leanne Beasley's Flowers & Flutterbuys. So it may not be as far from being finished as I had thought. Yay!!

I am quite lucky, as I can stitch while we are en route in the car, and it doesn't bother me at all, so this means that I get nearly 3 hours of stitching every time we head to Twizel for the weekend.

Photos uploaded now as you can see!

We are off again this weekend, long one as Friday is Waitaingi Day (New Zealand Day) and thus a public holiday, lovely long weekend to look forward to. T

The Twizel weather has been really lovely, and oh so so hot, temperatures right up at 38-42 degrees, and such a very dry heat also. Later on Saturday afternoon we were all swooning and looking for shade, or shutting ourselves in the house with the air conditioning on!! .