A Glimpse into a Thursday

It's raining yet again, but I walked Chloe when it was warmer and drier earlier, which makes it more enjoyable.
I finally got around to preserving some of the limes

made 2lb of tamarillos into chutney

 which unfortunately got a little burnt on the bottom of the pot, because I was distracted by this

and then there is one hogget on the wrong side of the fence - she knows that the grass is not only greener, but lusher, and I can't get her back with the others!

Take a look at the expression on her face - defiant!

Beautiful Blue Flowers

I need to share this photo I took of the Chatham Island Forget-me-knots in my garden, which are coming into flower.

Chatham Island Forget-me-knots

We have had so much rain that the leaves are huge, too!

Birthdays and Rainbows

Sunday was my birthday - yes, I know I kept quiet about that, but ONLY because I've been busy, truly!
Sunday was also spring forward New Zealand daylight saving changeover, [groan]. Don't get me wrong, I love changing to daylight saving and this year was earlier and has worked out well - it's just that it takes about a week to catch up sleep-wise.
So Sunday, we loose an hour's sleep, and I was getting up early so that my friend Pam and I could go to Wellington. We had tickets to the 5:00pm session of WoW (World of Wearable Art), the STAR package no less, so we had some munchies from Ruth Pretty's kitchen, a small bottle of bubbly, programme and vouchers. I still have to vote for my favourite, but it's a hard decision this year, just so many beautiful costumes.
Why did we have to leave so early for an evening session? Because the Italian community in Wellington was having a festival at the Westpac Trust Stadium! Food, gelato and opera! What more could you want on a Sunday? Heaps of people, but we went at a good time, had space for a rest before heading to WoW. Afterwards, we met up with Sarah (she had been a dresser for one of the WoW models), Derrick and Andy and had a lovely Malaysian dinner. Sarah had baked a lovely carrot cake so that was dessert later.
Into bed just after midnight, phew!
Rainbows
Last night was the September meeting for Rose City Quilters. I very rarely buy raffle tickets, mostly because I'm busy before the meeting and I forget, but last night I bought 3 and won a prize. I had been envying the thread box prizes for ages and even though my ticket was the last one drawn, my choice (not!) was this:

Also, my very talented art quilter friend, Rhonda Ellery, gave me her Celebration of Quilts Challenge entry, which is this:

She has used different fabrics for texture, painted, stamped and just played, as she does. I so love it. Thank you Rhonda, you are so generous!

Stormy Weather

Last Friday the weather forecast for the weekend was not looking great, so it was time to organise the food and what to do inside and IF the power went out. Well, we have had buckets of rain (as if we need any more!), fantastic forked lightning and the southern part of the country had a heavy snowfall. That's not very nice for the newborn lambs - so I really pity the farmers.
Our land is very much in a swampy condition - I need thigh waders to get out to feed the hens - but here is a family that is just loving it!

Quietly Plodding On

It's been a week since I last posted and what have I been doing? Well, from the outside it doesn't look much, but I've been sorting and tidying the sewing studio. After putting up the shelves I decided not to put everything back as it was. So that's what I've been up to.
The wardrobe is organised and I can easily find things. But in saying that, I found fabric and blocks stuffed in all kinds of places.
I have made a firm decision to either use stuff or get rid give it away.
I have a pile of blocks cut out, or made up, which I either won or swapped. So a couple of small (lap size) quilts are being made.
Here's one, which I quite like, and I'm still deciding on what for a border:

Also, I'm not allowing myself to buy any more fabric to finish these quilts. The only thing I can purchase is the batting.
Now, where did I see that green?
Have a great weekend - if the weather is bad stitch or read!

Quilt Finished for Earthquake Relief

Last night I finished a quilt I whipped up to send to Christchurch. It is very simply squares (the odd nine-patch) and straight line quilting. There is a mix of very old fabric and new, but hopefully someone will like it and it will give them comfort. It measures 54.5" square.

Relief quilt for Christchurch

Now onto sorting/tidying the sewing room and some housework!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

We have had a huge amount of rain in the last 18 hours. I had to be careful going to work this afternoon - some places I was almost aqua-planing!
This is the Turitea Stream down the road from me. Our street is one of many that empties into it, but this is near the beginning of it's journey. This is dairy farmland and the stream sits about 3m below the carpark I'm sitting in taking this photo:

Turitea Stream in flood

Bead Candy and New Shelves

This is a much better solution! Having the beads in drawers was not very user friendly - plus who wouldn't want to look at THIS calorie-free candy?

calorie-free bead candy

The other shelf we put above the sewing table and I have the cones and larger spools of thread on it - still have the wooden spools for the rayons and embroidery threads.

Now have the rest of the room to tidy/sort - again!

Another Virtual Quilt Contest Entry

Oh yeah! It's almost addictive, I've entered another quilt in the Quilting Blogger Weekly Themed Quilt Contest. Check it out here to vote.
This is my quilt - it is in my bedroom on the wall opposite my bed - I still love it!

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

Statistics

I have just noticed the "Stats" button on my dashboard - it's fantastic. I can see where you have been visiting from, looking at which posts, graphs of times, etc.

I LOVE it!

Thanks Blogspot.com!

A beautiful flower for you.