Happy New Year

Happy New Year

In a few more hours we (in New Zealand) will begin the countdown to the new year. 2009 is going to be a year of new beginnings, lots of art quilting, a new job and a new me. This year has been a sabbatical in which I have managed to do lots of sewing. I have 2 more stamp challenges for the Wellington Symposium at Easter finished. Here is a small close-up of both of them:
this is inspired by a 1960 issue 3d pictorial, and this one is from the same series but the 4d stamp.

The middle colour is actually teal, not green. I will need to take the photos with natural light for it to show well.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

to one and all from a summery New Zealand.
Today is also Rebecca's birthday. She was Christmas Day baby at North Shore Hospital 28 years ago, arriving at 3:27am. We celebrate her birthday first with a lovely family breakfast which includes birthday cake (she loves home-made ice-cream cake) but yesterday she had some friends around for lunch, so I made her an old favourite:

After cutting the cake for everyone, she then toasted some of the marshmallows!

Organising the Christmas Food

I made the Christmas Cake last weekend - it's a fruit one in the shape of a tree - very large and un-iced because then you can easily keep it moist with Brandy! These little Christmas fruit mince pies I made yesterday - a cooler day for rolling out pastry - and when I had finished they all arranged themselves on the cooling rack for a dusting of icing sugar, then wanted to show off on the 3-tier biscuit plate. They are very yummy because I made the fruit mince last Christmas, and as it has alcohol in the mix, the fruit is fat and tasty! Unfortunately, they won't keep for long unless I hide them!
Bevan, Rebecca's partner, has been waiting for 2 years for his own Christmas stocking, which this year I finally got around to working on. I tried to 'foil' his name, but the foil paper I was using had to be glued down eventually (an experiment that didn't go right, but looks OK).
The back is a simple crazy patch with beads and star embellishments. So just in case everyone else wants new stockings (the ones I made for the girls are now 20+ years old and should be kept as 'vintage' decorations), I've been working on more with slightly different colourways.

Something to Share

I have been able to enjoy the Pohutukawas (New Zealand Christmas tree) coming into flower the last few weeks on my daily walk, so today I took the camera to share these photos with you.
This is the flower unfurling:

In all it's glory:

Here is a tree (a very young one) with more flowers opened - just in time for Christmas!

And here is a yellow one, which I haven't seen before. It doesn't look as dramatic as the red, but still pretty.

8 Sleeps to Go

I thought I'd share a couple of photos of the decorations in the dining room. I cut the evergreen the other day between rain showers. If I cut it too early it browns off in the heat, but I do like having natural greenery with the lights. The buffet this year just has the Santas in the sleighs and one set of Advent Candles.

This is the other wall of the dining room with the small sideboard. The heart wall hanging was my first attempt, many years ago, at needle-turn applique - needless to say, it took me ages to finish and I haven't done any since!

There are angels, elves and a couple of snowmen with the lit candles on the Advent Log. The Christmas tree is just about finished, but in a couple of places the bulbs have 'gone' so I need the ace Christmas light man (Derrick) to fix it.
Everything has been 'spring cleaned' before all the decorations went up, including washing sheets from the hot water cupboard, where I discovered mouse droppings! What is the point of having 2 cats I wonder? All I have to do now is vacuum the daddy-long-leg spiders when I see them.
Hope your Christmas preparations are going well!

What The?!!

I had a lovely day in Wellington today and met up with Sarah at Schoc Chocolaterie because they apparently have the best hot chocolates in town. She had orange and cardamon and I had the chilli dark - I liked hers better than mine, but I'll be back to try something different, another time.
Anyway we had the little table in the window, when suddenly a loud bang and a quick stop for this truck (and car!). The car had been parked back about 20m and fortunately there was no-one inside. The number plate also read something like "Looks Great" - how ironic now!

The New Machine is Finally Here

WooHoo! today I went into the store to find out where my prize winning sewing machine was - and they had one to give me - it doesn't have a plaque on it, as you would expect after all these weeks, but it has that new smell and lots of things for me to try out. For example, I've not used a knee lifter before, and I'll HAVE to read the manual, even before turning it on.
So, see you around!!
:-)

A Retirement Quilt

My friend Gendie turned 60 this last September and retires from her workplace after 15+ years. I figured that she deserved a quilt especially for such a significant birthday. So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that I have made this lap quilt in a week and that I can present it to her at the 'retirement afternoon tea'. It's called Sudoku and measures 49.5 inches square (126 cm).