What a weekend!

what a wonderful weekend of celebrations! We had lots of family arrive from around NZ, and some from Australia to help us all celebrate rowing boy's (Cam), engagement to French Chic (Aka Christelle)we started off the weekend festivities with a family dinner on Friday evening at our favourite restaurant "Ironic",
.....where we took over the whole restaurant for the evening, it was wonderful having everyone there together, Jan (youngest daughter & sister) came from Perth, WA.... pictured here with me...
and Fiona, older sister (and No1 daughter) came from Wellington....

as did one set of grandparents, the other living here in Dunedin.The food was absolutely delicious, and as for the wine..... what can I say!

It was a great time for family photos..... and boy were those cameras flashing! This is me, Janet, and my youngest sister, Vicki...
and French Chic's mum, Jean, sister Jacqueline, and Jean's partner Rob... and French Chic of course...
and this is more family from Wellington & Wyndham in the deep south..... Nana, Aunties and cousin
I'm about done here, I don't know how many times I have tried to upload photos tonight, but things are just not working so well, and this has crashed twice, getting tired, frustrated and annoyed so will stop here - you get the idea of what a fun time we had, will be back tomorrow with photos from the Saturday night engagement party which was just as much fun!

have fun!

Shiree

old favourites past and present.....

I have corresponding via e-mail with a few other bloggers about some of the quilts that I have done in the past, so thought that I would add some pikkies so they could see what we have been talking about, as several of them are making the same quilts now, and I really had such fun doing these.... (feels a little bit like showing off really, but honest, that is not what I am trying to do, I get SO much inspiration from other bloggers, that I really only want to share some of my quilts with you...)

This quilt is Village Green, which we all did at Thursday night quilters, Michelle led us through this quilt, and it was the first time that I did any foundation piecing, and I really enjoyed it. This was hanging on the wall at Rowing Man's surgery for ages, and many of his patients really enjoyed this one. I am really lucky to have somewhere like this to display my work, kind of like my own informal exhibition really... I cannot locate the pattern for this quilt so I am not sure where it came from, will need to think about this some more....

This quilt is from Natalie Bird's book "from the heart". This was hanging on the wall at Rowing Man's surgery until they started renovations recently,

...now it is in on the back of a sofa in our lounge until I can find somewhere else to display it. Rowing man has put in an order for something new, which of course I am working on, and will likely be another OPAM challenge.

This is another quilt that is currently adorning a sofa in our lounge - this is my interpretation of Rosalie Quinlan's "Love Is"...
and this is a better view if you want to see this whole... (although this photo looks like it was taken before it was completely finished - no binding etc, in fact it looks like it is not even completely pieced in this one )....

Cathy from the Highland Quilter is making this quilt in very pretty pastel colours. Go over and have a look.....
This is a Leanne Beasley quilt (Living the Dream) that was so much fun to do, and I used some lovely moda fabrics for this, not sure what range they are, but I am sure that some of you may quickly identify these quite easily. It is currently sitting on our bed in Twizel (holiday home) as a comforter. I mostly stitched this last summer whilst sitting lake side at Ruataniwha watching the rowing regatta's.

This is another Leanne's House quilt (below), which we also did as a Thursday Quilters Group, and I never cease to be amazed at how different each of our quilts turn out - especially given that we all start with the same pattern, but use different fabrics, and usually our own little quirks and details which individualise & personalise it as our own...

Isn't it so much fun creating.....

have fun, Shiree

Rainbows 'n' things

I saw this on Deb's blog and it looked like it might be fun,

She saw this at Jo of Tas:

Rainbows - so my rainbow is intensely shaded yellow, white, and blue.

What this says about me: "You are a tranquil person. You appreciate quiet moments. People depend on you to make them feel secure. You're good at getting people to like you".

I did this twice, this first time I shut it down without saving the attributes, then had to do it all over again and obviously did it slightly differently as I got a slightly different answer, all in good fun huh!

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

so try it out - what are you then?

Well there are certainly no rainbows in the sky here - it is pelting down one minute then a little bit of blue sky peaks thru, and then raining cats and dogs again. Apparently the met service is issuing storm warnings, with very high winds, particularly along the coast. And there are snow warnings down to 500m. Lovely weekend ahead of us, which is not really what we want at this time of the year - just a bit early!

Rowing man and I have a medical student from the UK staying with us at the moment seeing what rural general practice is about, so he is second shadow to rowing man for the time that he is here. Actually I think he has graduated but not yet practicing, so technically not really a med student. A very nice young man, and very bright! That will keep rowing man on his toes then or at the very least on the right end of his stethoscope!

Anyway, we plan to take him to Twizel for the weekend, and hope to go through to Mt Cook for the day, weather permitting - it is not always possible to get a good view of Mt Cook - as the mountain is often shrouded in mist. There are a lot of good walks up that way, and with luck we will trek one of them on Saturday. Wish us luck!

Rowing man and I were really fortunate to have a helicopter ride up the mountain in the week prior to Christmas - a trip that we won when we did the Dusky Trail Mountain Bike Trail at Labour weekend last October.. and there had been a fresh dump of snow that week, so it was absolutely magical -

see our snow angels.....


My youngest daughter, Janet, arrives from Perth tomorrow evening, for the much anticipated engagement party of rowing boy and fiancee Christelle, this big event is on Saturday 21st March, preceded by a big family dinner on the Friday evening prior. It is a pretty big do (the party) with about 160 people coming along, (50 odd attending the dinner), so it should be a lot of fun, and it will be really good to celebrate this with so many of our family & friends.

No progress photos tonite, it is lateish, and I have promised myself early nights this week - (haven't gotten around to taking any photos truth be known, and I am a bit too lazy to get up and do it now), actually been quite tired over this week burning the candle at both ends- work is busy, home is busy, life is just busy - but ain't that great!

Have finished off some little projects, so next time will show you some sneak peeks, and add them to my OPAM challenge list.

catch ya later, have fun!

Shiree

March already....

Well, another month has come and gone oh so very quickly, and we are heading into what is supposed to be autumn. It is really hard to tell exactly what season we are in as last week we had a full week of rain, yes everyday it rained - so no washing on the line, no gardening, no cycling - I mean this was consistent downpour. It has gone as quick as it come, and today you could be forgiven for thinking we were in the middle of summer. Lovely hot sunny day, people in shorts and t-shirts, ... and stuck inside at work! Come the weekend who knows what the weather will be doing.

So I have found this basket of goodies, the dining room table has been taken over again, much to rowing man's horror. but isn't that better then being in his study, which I have largely taken over anyway and he is pushed into one tiny little corner. When we eventually build our dream home (hope to do this in Twizel in about 2 years), he says that we must include a study for him AND a largish workroom for me, quite separate from each other... hrmphhhh... but at least it looks like I shall have a good planned space of my own! The lighting is not that great in rowing man's study anyway...

A friend at work gave me some old vintagey buttons that a very dear old friend had given to her. I love rummaging around with old buttons and playing with them, sorting them into shapes, and colours and sizes...something really therapeutic about this activity. They.. the buttons that is, have been out on the table for 3 days now, just waiting for me to decide what I may do with them. Of course the same old lady that gifted the
buttons, made the button tree that you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the top picture, and I have a full picture of the button tree a bit further down also. This one is quite old, but I think that I will do my own version of this and see what I can come up with. And I found this fabric to start making into some goodies also, they are actually some very pretty dainty teacups, and I don't think that you can make it out, but the border is a very soft baby blue self spot


... And this is a stitchery that I did a few months back, this needs finishing off and some fabric borders added, so it will soon be another completed project. I have a number of these and I am very grateful for the "one project a month challenge" that Kris from Tagalongteddies has organised with May Britt. These 2 clever ladies are really responsible for my recent burst in action, to get a few of these things finished. Long may it last ....


This is the older version of the button tree that I talked about above, the photo doesn't really do it justice as it is much prettier then what is actually shown here. It really is rather cute, but very old, and unfortunately, just a little bit stained.

And wahoo, I have finally taken the time to figure out how to make a blog link, and as you can see above (I hope you can), it is actually working, YAHOO!


....... and this last one below is a stitchery called "Two Brown Chickens" this is a pattern from Leanne Beasley. I have an old 2 seater wooden sofa/chair thing, that is currently sitting at the top of the stairs on the landing area. I want to restore and repaint this, and it will be just perfect place to rest the cushions and right beside it I will hang the framed stitching. I have some lovely red and yellow fabric, which is ideal for this project and should look pretty darn Perfect!

When we were in Paris recently at New Years, we found a really very lovely quilt shop just around the corner from Notre Dame (yes rowing man came to the Quilt shop too! - helped by the fact that the Quilt shop, Le Rouvray, was very close to an internet cafe and computer shop) - and I did see some very similar red and yellow fabric there, but there was quite a bit of it and at the time I though that it was too much and as I didn't really have a specific project in mind, I didn't buy it. How silly of me! (I am sure that I really might bought it if rowing man had not been with me, and I wasn't trying really hard to live up to my "I am really going to save money this year" throw away stupid stupid random comment. So I left it on the table and have regretted ever since. No use crying over spilt milk so they say... and I more then made up for it a week later in Canada at this shop in a lovely little place called Salmon Arm. We were stranded about an hour up the road overnight, (actually more like a day and a half!), waiting for the highway to open.We were stranded with a hundred or more other motorists after an avalanche and mud slip closed the road when we were heading to Revelstoke for some skiing. But that is a whole other story.. maybe for another time....

So.... if find some spare time this weekend, in between all the odd jobs and tasks that I have listed in my head to do.. then I might just try and tackle this one too.... the wooden sofa that is....



and the cushions and frame the stitching and hang it on the wall.... so, watch this space!

have fun all,

cheers, Shiree

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...