A Quilt Show

As I have mentioned once or twice already, while we were in NZ I visited a town called Geraldine. They were having their annual Craft and plant fair, part of which was an exhibition of quilts. I took my camera along and snapped a few photos.

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These three....

'Kinky Ladies'
were sewn by a lady named Janis Kearns, who created and embellished them using an embroidery pattern as inspiration.
I thought they were great fun and just a little difficult to photograph because of the glass!

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'Autumn in Geraldine', was the first piece which really caught my eye as we walked through the door.
It was created by a lady named Marie Temple during a class.

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This beautiful black and white piece simply entitled 'Quilt' was created by Georgina Whitchurch. My sister in Law Lee particularly liked this one.
'Butterflies' was made by Micheline Soufflet. You know I'm a sucker for butterflies!
I love this one, 'Christmas Bargello' was made by Alice Jones, she used it as an example in a class she taught.
This one named 'Mums Quilt' was machine embroidered by Joanne Mitchell, and it has butterflies! The rhyme in the centre panel begins.....Happiness is like a butterfly.
'Colourful Rectangles' was made by Julie Stevens for her son, she says she was using up her scraps! This is the type of pattern I wanted to use that big bundle of Kiwi fat quarters for, that was, before I found the kit!
There was a whole collection of these little Christmas tree quilts, they were made with all manner of bits and pieces, scraps, selvedges and lace were just some of the components I saw. This particular one was made by Pamela Rafferty.
There were many more quilts, all lovingly made, Lee and my nieces enjoyed the show with me, the girls got very excited at times and wanted us to hurry because there was something we just had to see around the next corner! LOL.

If anyone form Geraldine is looking in, I thoroughly enjoyed my day, especially the quilts, thank you.

Got New Stash!

I found time to visit several quilty shops while we were away. Some have websites and some don't, but I do remember them all!

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This pretty little bag I purchased at Obsession 2 Quilt in Temuka,

It contains all I need to create a beautiful Kiwiana quilt.The shop itself was wonderful, as it was only small every corner seemed to be packed with quilty goodness in fact, there were so many goodies crammed in that the shop samples had to be pinned to the ceiling!

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The Timaru sewing centre, (No website) was worth a visit, though I only bought two fat quarters in there. Both pretty batiks. You can't see it here, but the greener of the two has Kiwis on it. Cute!
This next batch of goodies I purchased in Oamaru. I'm fairly sure the store was on Thames street. It was packed with all kinds of fabrics from dress making to quilting to upholstery. What a great place. 11 more kiwiana fat quarters.
The very first place I found and visited was Needle and Thread at Geraldine. The ladies there were very helpful and offered to mail my purchases home to me. Sadly they don't have a website, but I'm guessing they supply these ladies!
Two kits were waiting for me when I got home.
The one above is a single panel with borders, batting and backing all supplied, all I have to do is decide how to quilt it.

The one below is an appliqué quilt, no backing or batting supplied. All the fabrics to create the individual elements are bagged separately within the kit and there seems to be plenty provided.

I went back to Geraldine later during our holiday, Lee and I took the girls to the Geraldine Arts and Plants festival. A quilt show was a small part of a long weekend celebrating all manner of wonderful crafts and the Kiwi love of gardening.

My lovely sister in law Lee purchased this sunflower fabric some years ago, with the intention of making some pretty sun tops for her girls. I'm sure we can all remember doing something similar! LOL
On our visit to Dunedin we went out onto Otago peninsula to visit with the albatross and have a look around. I knew about and planned a visit to a place called Happy Hens. I knew about the chooks, and was delighted to find Happy Hen fabric too!
On our very last day, as we were heading to the airport, I spied out of the corner of my eye a place called Annie's Country Quilt Store. Heaven.
Every inch of the place was packed with patterns, samples, items for sale, she had a whole room dedicated to Christmas quilts and decorations. I was spoiled for choice and spent more than I should have. But who cares, it was my last day of my holiday! LOL

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At every opportunity I looked in the shops for magazines and books. I brought home about 10 quilty and crafty magazines. I think it's safe to say that I came home with plenty of inspiration and more than enough fabric and kits to keep me busy for a year or so! LOL

Home again.

We're home, a little later than planned, but home safely. A three hour delay in Sydney meant that we missed our connecting flights to Manchester and then the Island, so we had an extra night away! We stayed in Manchester and enjoyed a relaxing evening and morning in our hotel recovering from our huge journey. It began at about 11am Friday in NZ and ended about 6am Sunday NZ time. We actually finally made it back to our own home at about 6am Monday NZ time!

It's cold and wet! The wind was blowing all night long and guess who couldn't sleep? So, I spent some time sorting out photos and doing a few other jobs.

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I thought you might like to see a few more wedding pictures.

Our celebrant Wendy opens proceedings.
Tony's bro signing the license.
My bro organised a surprise for me.
Just one of the reasons I love him! ;-)
We took a stroll through the expansive gardens, stopping here and there for a photo.
Lee was in charge of the camera. Thank you Lee. XX
A very special lady, Tony's (Grand Mother) Nanny. She was born here in Britain and moved to NZ after the war.
Steve and Lee. Lee was not only the photographer she was also my brides assistant for the day, she took me shopping for the dress etc I slept over at her place the night before, she did my hair and probably stacks of other stuff I just don't remember.
Steve, Lee and family.
Hunneys sister Lisa, her husband and their family.Brothers!
Hunneys mum and his sister Lisa again! Shh! Don't tell either of them we managed to get a picture!
Uncle Tony with the children.
A special guest, he was invited, I had a word over the fence the day before. LOL
Our wedding cake.

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Thank you to every one who has commented while we were away especially those who left good wishes before and after our wedding, you helped to make the day special too.

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I have loads more pictures to show, you'll see them in the next few days.

I came home to a pile of mail including two very special packages. More about that next time.

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Gratitude's

1) I had a great holiday.

2) I became a member of a lovely family.

3) I have more wonderful memories.

Last Days

Tomorrow is our last day in New Zealand. We have spent time with all of Tonys nieces and family members. It's been great to see them all again.

Still catching up with one or two last bits of essential shopping. Today we visited another quilty shop, there have been a few! Todays was Obsession 2 Quilt in Temuka. Yes, I spent more money and I'm the proud owner of one of their Kiwiana quilt kits. The ladies were very friendly and I enjoyed my time in their shop.

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Can't have a post without a picture so I thought I should show you another postcard picture. This is Caroline bay. The land has been made into a beautiful park area, with a skate park for the big kids and a swing park for the little kids, a boardwalk along the sands and lots of room to play or relax. We spent a lot of time down there. There is also an aviary, a fair ground which opens soon for the summer holidays, an open air theater and some beautiful rose gardens.

I have lots more pictures of the area and will share more another time. Tomorrow we have a round of goodbyes to do and hopefully a good nights sleep before we fly out on Friday evening. I can't believe how fast the time has gone, I've enjoyed my time here and just don't want it to end.

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Gratitude's

1) The sun is still shining.

2) A wonderful holiday

3) Lots of lovely people.

Otago Museum.

On our travels last week Tony and I visited the Otago Museum in Dunedin. I was particularly keen to visit the Discovery World Tropical Forest. The place was full of beautiful butterflies.

I can't help feeling just a little jealous that Hunney got better acquainted than I did.

I thoroughly enjoyed it though and after a look around the rest of the museum, I insisted that we go back into the tropical house for another look.

Just a couple of days left here in New Zealand, we're spending as much time as possible with our nieces and catching up with some other relatives too as well as some last minute shopping.

It was much more than a quilt show.

I didn't realise it until we got there, but there was much more than a quilt show on at Geraldine yesterday! There was a whole village show on.

Amid all the hundreds of stalls, the girls and I found a face painting place. Meet Katherine on the left and Laura on the right. Aren't they just too cute!

Look at the crowds of people, it was very busy and the sun was shining.
You know me, I didn't just get my face painted, I also bought a bag. At the quilt show I took a few pictures too. There were some beautiful and inspiring quilts on display. I'll post piccies of those another day.

Gratitude's

1) Another sunny day

2) Beautiful nieces.

3) Still having a wonderful time.

From the Honeymooners!

Remember I showed you some pictures I took on a previous visit to New Zealand. Included in them was an image from Lake Benmore? Well we revisited. Although it was blowing hard I felt the same sense of peace, it's such a beautiful place.

We have just a week of our visit left and I feel like I haven't been here for five minutes. Spending the day with Lee and the girls today, we're off to Geraldine to see a quilt show! Really looking forward to that.

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Gratitude's

1) A lovely holiday.

2) Lots of happy memories.

3) It still didn't rain on us.

Wedding Pic.

Thought you may like a quick peep at one of our wedding pics. My sister in law Lee took most of them for us. Including this one. Here we are cutting into our Pavlova wedding cake.
It was yummy and gone in seconds!
Thank you to Tonys mum for making that, thank you to Tonys dad for all of his help and especially thank you to Lee and Steve for all their help and support.
Who could forget all the kiddies? They were great too. Thank you Katherine, Laura, Courtney and Ashleigh. Thank you also to Alex, Brooke, Tarris and Aleigha. ((Hugs))
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It's Monday today, after a lazy day at home we're off to Dunedin today for our Honeymoon, we'll be visiting TeAnau later on in the week too. I'm sure there will be lots of photographs.
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Gratitude's
1) It didn't rain on the day!
2) My sweet Hunney Tony.
3) I still have half of my holiday left.