New Zealand Postcards Quilt

Another WIP - Works in Progress - that I have finished, yippee! This top I made about 3 years ago after I made the same quilt for my best friend's 50th birthday. I liked it so much I had to make another, but it's taken this long to quilt it.

This is the backside of the quilt. The central design is a feathered Silver Fern, then there is a fantail, a Maori fish hook, tree ferns and korus. Click on the photo to get a better view.

If You Need a Smile, Watch This Video

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Thanks to Judy Coates Perez for drawing attention to this.

Isn't He Just Wonderful?

A few weeks ago I asked my Dad if he could write some plans for me to make a new chook house - he makes 3 different types when he has the energy and time. I needed a new house for the Blue Andalusian's. About a week later he rang to say that he couldn't do the plans, but he would make me one! How about that! Last week I got a phone call from him to say the house was finished and he was going to take it to Picton to see about getting it on the ferry to Wellington. On Friday a txt came to say that it was going to be in Wellington Friday night at 5:30pm. Talk about things happening fast! Sarah and I had a lovely road trip in the ute. The guys on the ferry lifted the complete chook house(no, not in kit set as I somehow thought it was going to be) onto the back of the ute - it fitted perfectly. We tied it to the deck, said our prayers and set off back to Palmerston North. The traffic was amazingly light for a Friday evening and there was no wind, so we didn't get blown around.
Here's the house on the back on the ute the next day:

This is the inside. See the nesting box with lovely wood shavings and the self feeders and water bottle. All so snug and dry for them.

What a well made house. Thanks so much Dad!

As an aside - here's a photo of the runoff stream that divides our property when it rains - this is today's rain.

Winter Solstice

The winter solstice was here this weekend with perfect weather - the moon and Venus were very bright, heralding longer days for us in the Southern Hemisphere. Saturday I was out planting the garlic in a special garden and to keep the chooks from scratching the bulbs everywhere, I laid down newspaper under some grass clippings. Boy, am I glad I did that! We have had so much rain today the bulbs would be rotting away before long. This week is supposed to be very cold too - so I think lots of sewing will be done!

I Have Been Working On ...

a quilt for the Stamp Challenge for Quilt Symposium 2009 in Wellington. I've been obsessed with it lately, and I needed to get it finished so that something else could be started or even finished. Here is a teaser:

I have also finished quilting a couple of quilts for other people as well as working on a couple of pages for Sue's 'Wine' Art Journal. I'll show you some pictures when the pages are all finished.

The Best Fruit in Autumn

Yesterday was an ideal preserving day - overcast, sometimes raining and not too cold. So I set about making Feijoa jam. From 1.5 kgs of fruit I got 5 jars of jam - mmmm! yummy! Fortunately half the bushes we planted are the 'Mammoth' variety so some of the fruit is much bigger than what is sold in the supermarkets. Best source of vitamin C for this time of year.

New Lap Quilt

This past month I've been working on a new lap quilt. Nothing fancy, just traditional 12 inch blocks using what was in my stash. All I've had to buy (well at this time, 'cause I've had to buy the material at some stage in the past) to make this are 3 reels of thread (600m). I'm pretty pleased with the quilting and the colours are just right for a Crusaders/Canterbury rugby fan.

Here is the back view. You can see that I've used variegated red/cream/black thread. Finished size is 50 inches square.