Mama Mia

I've just come back from an overnight stay in the capitol city, Wellington.   As I was away a little less than 24 hours, Gemma stayed home alone.  She was left with dry food, wet food, fresh water, and a nice clean litter box.  As she tends to snooze most of the day, I was sure she would be fine.  Although maybe her pussy cat brain would wonder where I was at bedtime?  My blue overnight case was packed, and I was ready to go.

All packed for an overnight trip

The coach collected me outside the village, with the next stop being Coastlands Mall for lunch.  Previously, I would have gone to my favourite Butlers Chocolate Cafe, but this chain of shops has now been closed, so I made do with an ordinary cafe instead.  I felt a bit rushed in making my choice as there was a long queue behind me, so missed the fact that there was nice hot soup on offer.  Never mind, I made do with a coffee and cake.  Next time I'll take my time to read the board properly.  After lunch I was taking a photo of the coach, and the driver offered to take one for me.

On the way to a big night out

Our hotel overlooked Oriental Bay, which is named after the ship "Oriental" which arrived in Wellington in 1840.  It was a cool day, with a light breeze, and there was an hour or so to settle down and relax.  The sun was streaming in the windows.

My room for the night

The view out the window

Dinner for the evening was at the very busy Dragons Restaurant.  Our coach group was seated at tables for 10, and the food just kept coming, it really was delicious.  Then it was just a short walk to St James Theatre in Courtney Place.

We walked to St James Theatre

St James Theatre was built in 1912, and is full of wonderful decorations.  However, it fell into decline and was very nearly demolished when the owners placed a destruction order on the site.  In 1993 Wellington Council purchased the property and handed it over to St James Theatre Charitable Trust, and restorations began.  

Inside St James Theatre

The show started with a hiss and a roar and continued non stop throughout the evening.  Song after well known song was belted out and had the audience clapping along.  It was very enjoyable and at the end of the show, the whole cast came back on stage and performed an extra rendition of several of the favourite songs.  It was a great evening, full of energy and feel good entertainment.  But I must admit I was feeling a little upset during the show.  Even though I enjoyed the music, I thought to myself, what am I doing here, surrounded by all these strangers, when I really want nothing more than to have Robin by my side, sharing this experience with me.  Alas, it is not to be.   We boarded the coach for the short drive back to the hotel. and I'm sure we all retired with the words of Abba running around our   heads. 

View from my hotel window at night.

After a reasonable night's sleep, I woke early, made a cuppa to take back to bed, then caught up with the news of the day.  Then it was time to shower, dress, and head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  Mmm, I decided on pancakes, yoghurt and fruit, washed down with orange juice and coffee.

Sunday breakfast

With the bags loaded in the coach, and all the passengers on board, we headed north.  The coach dropped me back at the village, turned around, then continued on the journey.  It certainly was a great experience.  Gemma barely stirred when I opened the door.  She was tucked up in her tower and went back to sleep, finally getting up, stretching, and coming to greet me after an hour.  Perhaps she didn't miss me at all!

Oh, you've come back, have you.

Sew Wot Tuesday

 It was so nice to join in with the Sew Wot ladies again, as I had missed the last two get-togethers.  This time, we met at Jude's home.  Our numbers were down a little, with two of the ladies unable to join us this time.  The family dog was not at all happy to be locked up in the back yard.  He really wanted to come and meet all those visitors, and let his displeasure be known!

I had taken along some knitting patterns which were no longer required, and several found new homes.  The rest will be donated to one of the local Op Shops.

As usual, there was an interesting selection of Show and Tell.  Helen had recently made herself a knitting needle holder, a very clever idea, and it all rolled up neatly with a tie.

Helen's knitting needle roll

There was quite a bit of knitting on show.  Mary had made a pair of green and cream socks.

Mary's socks

Jude showed us her knitted scarf and a pair of socks.  The scarf has been knitted in a lovely manly shade  and will be donated - one of the knitting shop chains had put a call out for woolen scarves for veterans.  And the socks were knitted in such a pretty yarn, featuring cream, orange and yellow.

Jude's knitting

Carol had knitted three lovely baby sets, singlet, hat and soft toy, to be donated to the Neo Natal Unit for babies.  So nice.

Carol's baby knitting

As for me, I had taken along two recently finished quilts.  My embroidered Christmas wall hanging, and a boy's quilt for donation.

My show and tell

Then it was morning tea time and the tea trolley was wheeled out.  Cups of coffee and tea as requested, fancy plates and serviettes and some delicious food, we were certainly spoilt.

Morning tea time

Many thanks to Jude for being hostess, we all had such a lovely morning.  And we will do it again in two weeks time.

A busy Weekend

Saturday was quite a busy day.  The caravan club was spending the weekend at the Manawatu Caravan Club grounds, and I drove up to join them for morning tea, about a half hour drive away.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and as a bonus, one of the member's was celebrating a birthday so cake was provided.  The weather was fine and clear, cold overnight and frosty in the morning.

Joining the caravan club for morning tea

I left the camp ground after morning tea, and drove up to Sanson, another half hour drive away, to meet my daughter Nicky for lunch.  This time, we were trying a "new to us" cafe.  The Church Cafe, as the name suggests, was a former church, and has a lovely calm ambience.

The Church Cafe

With paneled walls, and wooden tables and chairs, it was a warm, cozy and peaceful place to enjoy our lunch.    I had some tasty leek and potatoe soup, and Nicky enjoyed a bowl of wedges.  And with coffee to follow, of course.

Inside The Church Cafe

We had plenty to chat about, what we had been up to, and our sewing projects.  Although Nicky doesn't do quilting, she is a keen dressmaker and creates one of a kind outfits for herself.  And we had things in the boot to swap over when we departed, Nicky had some fruit for me, and I gave her some fabric she had shown an interest in, plus a big bag of coathangers.

On my drive back home I stopped off at Fox's Cottage, my favourite local quilt shop.  I needed another lot of batting, it's interesting how much of this gets used when you are making donation quilts.  And I spoke to Jackie in the shop, who will be free hand quilting my secret birthday quilt for me.

Fox's Cottage

Last stop on the way home was to top up the fuel on my trusty Corolla, I don't like to let the fuel tank get too low.  It was a good day out.

On Sunday I took myself off to the local movies, I was keen to see Jurassic World.  There were only about 8 patrons in the theatre at lunch time, not that it mattered, as we were all engrossed in the unfolding story.  The storyline is "An exhibition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a ground breaking medical breakthrough".  A family group gets rescued by the exhibition when their boat is overturned by one of the prehistoric sea creatures, and they end up on the island too.  Surround sound in the theatre made the roars seemingly coming at me from all sides, as the dinosaurs wrecked havoc on the visitors to the island, tracking them, tossing them in the air, and chewing them up!  It was a lose yourself in the moment sort of movie, and yes, I did enjoy it.  

Chookshed Challenge for July

 It's been a bit of a rush, but I'm pleased to say that I've finished my Chookshed Challenge this month.  Number 10 was chosen for July, which was my jungle panel quilt.  This panel was donated to me from my elderly neighbour's stash when she went into a rest home.  I received a lot of children's fabrics, and I'm slowly working my way through them, although there are plenty more tucked away.  There was no piecing involved with using this panel, so it was just a matter of smoothing the layers out and pinning them together.  I took advantage of a glorious sunny but cool winter's day and pinned it up on the patio table outside.  It's hard to believe that the weather would be nice enough for me to enjoy sitting outside at this time of the year.

Pinning the layers together

How to machine quilt this panel I wondered?  I had though of outlining all the animals, trees and flowers but......  In the end I stitched gentle curves across the quilt, then straight lines around the borders.

Easy quilting lines

A scrappy green binding was next, using some left over strips from my secret sewing project, stitching the binding on the front by machine, and hand stitching it down on the back.  I do so enjoy this final part.  I spent another sunny afternoon stitching away on this outside on the patio.

Binding time

This little baby quilt didn't take me too long at all to complete.  And it was practically free.  The panel was donated, and I got a part roll of the apricot backing fabric at no cost when a local company was closing down.  This is the last piece, I had used some previously, and given most of it to my daughter.  There was "frankenbatting" in the middle, when I had several strips that I stitched together.  Quite a  bargain really.

Baby animals jungle quilt

The weather has reverted back to winter, and it's cold, wet and miserable today.  The heat pump is keeping us warm, and Gemma is relaxing on top of the donation quilts, folded on the coffee table.

These look soft and cuddly, Gemma is thinking

The donation quilts were ready and waiting to be shown to the Sew Wot ladies yesterday, but unfortunately I got sick and couldn't host the get together.  Many thanks to Mary for taking over at short notice.  Goodness knows what laid me low, but I feel much better today, thank goodness.

Out and About

 I've been out and about lately, going here, and going there.  I was at a craft group last week, and we meet in a beautiful old property called Thompson House, home of a former doctor who lived and worked here.   I believe it has been gifted to the community and groups can hire the rooms for meetings.

Thompson House

 One of the ladies there that afternoon teaches bobbin lace.  She had all sorts of exquisite samples on display.  It's such beautiful fine work, but not something I would have the patience for.

Lace samples and bobbins

Melanie had been working on signs of the zodiac and had one for Libra, the Scales of Justice.  That's my sign, I told her, so she very generously gifted it to me.  Here it is at home, pinned up on one of the spools on my thread spool wall hanging in my sewing room.  

Libra, the Scales of Justice

I'm a member of Age Concern, and go there weekly for my easy balance and exercise class.  They also hold meetings about various subjects of interest to older people, and last week held a movie afternoon, free for the members.  That was fun, there were decorations and balloons galore in the room, and we were treated to bags of popcorn or chippies, tea, coffee and juice was available, and we were presented with  small bags of liquorioce allsorts and jaffas.  The film was called "Thelma" and told the story of an elderly lady who was scammed into sending money, supposably to help her grandson, and the police couldn't help her.  So Thelma took matters into her own hands, and with the help of an elderly friend and his mobility scooter, tracked the scammers down, got into their computer, and with telephone help from her grandson, managed to transfer her money back into her account!

Don't mess with Thelma

And to help with me getting out and about, I'm pleased to say that I passed my 80th driving assessment, I was able to apply a couple of months early.  Here in New Zealand drivers have to get a medical clearance to keep driving at 75, 80, and every two years after that.  I went to have an eye test at the opticians, then had an appointment with the doctor, who asked me questions as he filled in several pre printed pages.  "I know you don't have diabetes, and your heart is good", he said as he worked his way through the form.  That was good to know.  Tick, tick, tick, he went through the questions, then, "all done", he told me.  At my 75th assessment, our previous doctor had asked me all sorts of questions, including counting back from 100 by 7, and other general  knowledge questions, so I was a bit worried about what my current doctor would ask me.  "I know you", he said, "and I know there is nothing wrong with your memory".  Whew.... all that worry about nothing!

I've had to do some car stuff this month, things that Robin used to take care of.  Such as apply for the annual car registration, get a Warrant of Fitness, and the car insurance is due as well.  And last time I filled the car up, I wanted to use up some of the petrol vouchers I have, so called into one of the local service stations.  When I went in to settle up, the attendant was rather worried.  "Did you know you've just filled your car with diesel?" he asked.  I assured him that everything is fine, my little car runs on diesel, which is quite unusual here for small cars.  Although Robin used to top my car up for me, he impressed on me not to put petrol in the tank, which would ruin the engine!  Just as well I took that lesson to heart.

Purple and Teal

 It was time to stitch up my purple block for Rainbow Scrap Challenge for my boy's donation quilt - that was easily done.  I laid them out on the bed and had a count and discovered I only needed one more block.  So I made an executive decision and made the final block, this time in teal.  Surely the colour teal will be selected in the next month or two, I reasoned.

Purple and teal blocks

With these two last blocks done, I decided I may as well  assemble the quilt top.  I don't have room for  a design board and often use my bed to lay blocks out and rearrange them.  A couple of afternoons at the sewing machine soon had the black sashing in place.  Then the black borders were added, and voila, the top was finished.

The top is finished

Part way through making these blocks I had run out of the original black and white fabric, so had to go to my LQS and buy some more.  I couldn't get exactly what I was using previously, but thought the black and white polka dots blended in quite well.  Hopefully I will get this layered and pinned up shortly.

Gemma has been curled up some days in her little hidey hole in her cat tower.  A good place to snooze on these winter days, especially when the rain is pouring down.  She is not too keen on going outside then, she hates getting her little paws wet and doesn't like the wind in her face!  She's such a diva.

She's all nice and cozy in here

The Keeper of the Quilt

 My niece Lisa called in for a visit the other day when she was passing by on a holiday trip.  I had asked her if she would like to become the "keeper of the quilt".  This is a family quilt, one I made for my mother for her 80th birthday back in 2002.  I had sent pieces of fabric out to everyone and asked them to write, embellish, or embroider something of themselves as a message to go on the 80th birthday quilt.   It was exciting to see all the individual blocks being returned. Lisa was delighted to take the quilt into her safe keeping.

Lisa and the family quilt

There were blocks from us four siblings, two son in laws, and all the grandchildren, and a very special nephew.  The youngest grandchild had his baby hand traced.  I added extra blocks in the names of my mother's sisters.  There were several photos printed on fabric, a special one of my grandmother who sadly died when my mother was about 8 years old or so.  The largest photo is of my mother and hung in the family home when I was growing up.  And underneath are three smaller photos of her over the years.

The 80th Birthday Quilt

I really enjoyed putting this together and making extra blocks to fill in spaces as required.  We had a family get together for this special birthday, and the quilt was presented.  All those very special family blocks were inspected, oohed and ahhed over, and admired.  

Sadly, as often happens, this quilt was deemed "too good to use" and was folded up and put away.  Many thanks to Lisa for taking care of the quilt now, and she told me she plans to use it and snuggle under it.  That's a nice thought, knowing that Lisa will be surrounded by all those family members, some have passed away and all the little ones are now well grown up.

And now, 23 years later, I will be turning 80 this year.  Goodness me, how did that happen?