A Weekend Away.

As I mentioned last time I wrote, Tony and I had planned a weekend away.

We drove to the very bottom of the South Island, to Invercargill. We planned to spend some time with friends who moved down there just as New Zealand locked down in March of 2020.

It was great to spend time with them and see them settled and happy in their new home.

Clowie is a very clever lady and sells beautifully made and hand painted items at the local craft markets. You can find her here on Facebook, or here on Instagram. On both sites you'll have to scroll down beyond the masks to get to her hand painted goodies.

We had a good chat about our respective crafts, and I showed her the project I had taken along to keep me busy if there was any quiet time.

Jenny's hexes.  I had prepared quite a few before we left as my other hexie project is getting too big to take along now. Clowie seemed interested and asked a few questions. I even did a quick demonstration, showing her how easy it is to glue baste the fabric onto papers. 

Although we didn't make any plans, I did ask Clowie about local craft shops.

 Kitznthingz is open on Wednesdays but will open by appointment at other times, and after a request was made by Clowie, Angela agreed to open on Saturday for us.

From the outside the store looks like nothing more than a shed or maybe a garage to park your car, but once you enter you are met with a profusion of beautiful colours, with row upon row of lovely fabrics. There were kits and patterns, and notions too. It was like Aladdin's cave. 

I still had a small shopping list, even after our days out last week. LOL

First up was some white on white for my Lucy Boston project.

There were only a few in store and Angela was telling us how difficult it is becoming to get some fabrics here in NZ. She had recently been disappointed to receive only a partial order. The first two whites that caught my eye were sadly only short pieces and I settled for my third choice. It's not easy to see here in this shot, it has white dots on a white background. 

Next up was some more Autumnal coloured batiks, these are for Mums animal charms.

Hey look! Another squirrel. LOL

Mum purchased them years ago at the Birmingham Festival of quilts, she loved to come along with me for a look around and enjoyed seeing all the lovely quilts. She would also buy bundles of fabrics and ask me to make 'something'. Sadly for many of those bundles she was gone before inspiration called and showed me what to make. This little bundle must have been a panel at one time, but mum purchased them as you see them here. Minus the thread ends. I did try once before to do something with them, but Jack the ripper got involved as I was not happy. A new plan has come to mind, and I'll try again. But don't hold your breath....

And finally there was a collection of these cute little elephants sitting on the counter, with a box of patterns nearby.

So cute! And Christmas inspiration!

We also had a look at the big blue store, with the red spot.

Where I found a couple more things.

Then it was time to go exploring again. We took a short drive over to the next town.

Riverton, is as the name suggests nestled around a tidal river with a natural harbour. 

Our hosts suggested that we drive out to the headland and visit the beach.

As you can see we had a beautiful day for it.

I collected some pebbles and shells on the beach. Sadly I didn't have the right footwear for beach walking, so we only stayed a short time. Tony and I would love to go back one day, it really was lovely out there.

The next day it was time to drive home.

It was a very short visit, but we packed a lot in and were are very grateful to our friends for hospitality.

I still have a couple of days before I have to go back to work.

Hmmm, what to do?