More about the Bee.

 The Bumblebee cross stitch I picked up at the Altrusa sale has turned into a bit of a squirrel. I didn't do a great amount of anything stitch related except the Bumblebee this week. 

He has grown somewhat.

I have to say I am really enjoying stitching him and have only one wing and his head left to complete. 

I really need to get back into my sewing room, but it is cold in there this time of year. Much better to be sat in my arm chair with some hand work. 

I've also been busy in the kitchen and have a recipe to share soon. The feijoas are ripening on our trees. Today Torstein and Charmaine crawled about under the trees and collected two big bowls full. We made muffins, and Torstein and Grandad think they might like me to make some 'joa jam. I guess I'll be busy in the kitchen for a while making jam and discovering other ways to use up feijoas.

That's my news. I'm going to make a cuppa then get back to my bee. 

How did your weekend go?

Some slow stitching.

Well I've been called lightening needle in my time, but it was slow for me.

After the Altrusa sale on Sunday I settled into my armchair and worked on the bumblebee cross stitch that I had picked up in the morning. It came to me with grid lines stitched all over it, they were held in place with green painters tape.

My first task was to remove those and give the fabric a good press.

Then I got onto google and looked for design information, as it came with a colour chart and I prefer black and white if I can have it. I soon found out this bee is designed and sold by an Etsy seller.

CrystalFeathers sells PDF downloads so I was able to get a B&W pattern almost instantly. I could have chanced my arm and asked for a freebie but opted to pay, I don't mind supporting good designers and I wanted to get going, I'm excited by this piece.

Chart at the ready I set about popping the bee into my hoop and got busy. I sewed all of Sunday afternoon, made some time to do a little more yesterday and have spent quite a few hours today sewing some more.

Today I completed the right side of the bee, there was a little wing, some flowers and one side of his head left to stitch on that page of the chart. Then I went on to make a start on the other page.

It is a delight to stitch and the black and white chart is much easier to follow than a coloured chart.. 

While I was out getting groceries and a few other bits and pieces yesterday I spotted some cute toiletry bags in the pharmacy. I know of a perfect use for one of those.

It's just the right size to hold my charts, threads, hoop and fabric. My bee might not have a hive, but he does have a cosy nest. There are even wee zipper pockets inside that I can tuck my scissors and a pen into.

And it was at a special price too.

I'm off to make a cuppa, then stitch some more.

Aquisitions.

Yesterday I attended the annual Altrusa craft sale.  It's always a good sale with lots of bargains to be had. I was lucky and found one or two items to keep me busy.

You know I'm not afraid to adopt abandoned projects. And for $3 I wasn't leaving this one behind.

Someone had started to cross stitch a bumblebee.

About a third of it had been stitched.

Everything was in the bag, pattern, thread, even some needles.

I'll share more about him soon.

As the label says, this cute wee basket was $5.

The contents were a bonus. It was the basket I was after.

But old wooden reels and tape measures are welcome.

There were some pins and tatting shuttles in there also.

I emptied everything out and put the basket to use already. LOL

The next bundle was also $5. Another adoption.

Someone had kitted and started this cute little wall hanger.

It's difficult to see in this image, but in between those stars there are cute wee Christmas trees.

Most of the trees seem to be made already and more have been cut out ready to sew.

There is plenty of fabric to make the stars, some of that is also cut ready to go.

And look at the lovely tin that was tucked in there.

I've never heard of the Silver Crane company. They have a very high opinion of their tins. LOL

It is pretty and I'm sure I'll find a use for it. It came with pre cut Christmas trees inside.

I'll tell you more about this one when I decide to finish it.

A bag of mixed embroidery threads came home with me.

These two might get used somewhere along the way.

These are the bundles I was really after. They will be used.

I really don't need another Christmas Wall hanger, but at $2 I couldn't leave this Birdhouse pattern behind.

I could tell there was fabric inside the bag and was delighted to find preprinted fabric, a big piece of red for the borders and backing and even a skein of red thread to stitch the design.

This was the original price.

What a bargain I got at $2.

A dollar for a by Annie bag pattern.

A complete Christmas ornament kit.

Two dollars.

A bag of pretty lace trims. I have a use for the cream pieces, not so sure about the black.

Another two dollars.

And finally a pair of linen serviettes with a pretty rose design.

For twenty cents.

If you were totting up as you were reading you'll know that all of that came to the grand total of $23.20.

What a bargain. I was a very happy shopper.

I could have purchased a lot more, believe me I was very tempted. As I mentioned at the top of the post, it is always a great sale and very well supported. There were a lot of folks there, buying fabric, yarn, linens, haberdashery of all kinds, patterns and craft books.  There was also a jigsaw table, all puzzles were $5 each according to the sign.  I didn't even look, I have plenty of puzzles to keep me going for now. I'm off to stitch a bumblebee.

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show.

 Yesterday myself and some other ladies from our local club hopped into a mini bus and headed to Christchurch for the day. The Great New Zealand Quilt Show is normally held on the North island, making it an expensive overnight trip for any one from the South wishing to attend. So it was great to have it local. We had a good day, the sun was shining and the trip up really didn't feel like two hours.

The show is curated and judged, so not every piece that was entered was on display. Two of our club members were lucky and has pieces selected.  At times it was difficult to get good images as I just couldn't get far enough away to capture the whole thing. That or folks walked in front of me at the wrong moment. I didn't even try to get images of everything, just those that caught my eye and of course the information cards next to them. Because of the way I saved them to my laptop the info card shows first then the quilt. But you can live with that right? The images should all be clicky for a closer look. Enough from me, you want to see quilts.

This polar bear was needle felted and was 3D.

The Ocean series was from a European quilters exhibition. They were stunning, my photos don't show their full beauty.

There were very few EPP quilts this year. Loved this one.

If you read the info card you will know that the blocks here were hand pieced while she was travelling. I couldn't get far enough away to capture the entire quilt, it was huge.

That's all the quilty photos I got. There were more quilts there of course. A total of 125 local pieces were on display and I think around 20 from Europe. 

There were about 20 vendors tucked around the walls of the hangar. (The exhibition was held at the Air Force Museum. So there were planes and helicopters too!)

I visited a few of the vendors but was very restrained.  First I found myself a new clover thimble, the kind I like with an open back to allow for a longer nail and it also helps to stop my finger from sweating when I wear it for a long time. At the same kiosk I found some felt and chenille needles.

Next month at club we are having a door stop/pincushion sew along using wool felt. 

At another kiosk I found some more smaller felt pieces and some milliners needles. Finally at another kiosk I got two pairs of embroidery scissors and two more thimbles. In a very pretty titanium, but still with that open back. I have a tendency to leave thimbles in work boxes, and when you have several work boxes it can mean a lot of hunting for a very small object. LOL

It was a good day out, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Some like myself were very restrained in the spending department, others.... not so much. But what happens on road trips, stays on road trips right?