Back to work....

 My seven whole days off have come to an end and today I must go back to work. So, what did I do with all of that time? Not as much as I would have liked.  You know I made great progress on the memory quilt and even got it loaded onto the frame. Then things went wrong and it came off again. I have spent many, many hours unpicking good, mediocre and very bad quilting. There is still a little more to go. That will have to wait.

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After I had gotten my machine quilting nicely again, I put a scrappy quilt onto the frame and quilted away, nervously to start with, then with growing confidence finished it. Too confident. I bashed a pin with my needle right in the very last corner!

So, another test piece will be required before I put the memory quilt back onto the frame.

Hmm, blogger is making my images weird again. If you click you will see a much better image of my Eye spy in the clouds quilt, still in need of binding. I really must have a word with the resident IT guy, maybe he can help with image quality?

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I couldn't find the border fabrics for my Down in the Garden quilt top. I hunted high and low, no sign. So, I shopped around and was able to find something that will work. This was a BOM many years ago and I count myself lucky to have found anything at all. Maybe I'll get that on soon and actually have a finish to show you.

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Saturday, I went to club and took along my strawberry cross stitch. I was very happy with the progress I made. Yesterday after lots of chores I sat down and finished it.

I have half an idea for this one, we'll see if it eventuates. LOL

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Thoroughly enjoying the stitchy way of life at the moment I got busy and kitted up two more smalls to take along, wherever I need an easy to take project.

This one I photocopied in a very old cross stitch magazine. I can't even recall which one or when. It will end up on the Christmas tree, though maybe not this year! LOL

And this one was a used chart, purchased at an Altrusa sale, or maybe an op shop?

There was a list of thread names, but no corresponding numbers, so I winged it and pulled out what looks right.

The plan is to finish it as a Needle book. 

We'll see if that happens. LOL

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And finally, more progress has been made on Winter Fairy.

It's such a huge piece that it will be a while before you really see anything exciting. But Gus now has a windowsill to sit on while he and his friend gaze at the night sky.  It must be cold; there are icicles hanging down from its edge. (((Shiverrr))!

I really do need to come up with a name for the fairy and the wee girl who will one day be peeping out of the window. 

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And that has been my creative efforts for seven days off. 

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

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Good Days and Bad Days...

 Today was patchwork and crafting club day. I was so looking forward to it, hoping I would have the memory quilt all quilted, with the binding on ready for hand stitching it closed, while at club. Alas it was not to be. I was at the quilting frame early on Friday morning, bright and eager I turned everything on before eight. Right from the get-go I had issues. 

Sigh.

I tried everything I could think of, change the needle, try again. Thread and rethread, try again. Pop out the bobbin, swap out the bobbin, try again. Tweak this and try, tweak that and try... 

I was at it all day, researching the problem, ripping out poor quilting and trying again. Nothing worked. By the time Tony got home at 4 o'clock I was ready to throw the whole lot through the big window, not out of the window. Through it!

With Tony's calming influence at my side, I showed him what was happening, tried again and again. Then we walked away. We went out for tea and came home to watch a movie.

It was a soul destroying and very disheartening day.

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So, no completed quilting, what to take to club?

I settled on my wee strawberry cross stitch. 

🪡🪡 Before. 🪡🪡

🪡🪡 And after.  🪡🪡

Not bad for four hours, interrupted by all the usual things, show and tell, inspecting other projects and progress, lunch break and of course having my work inspected too. LOL

 🪡🪡 It was a good day. 🪡🪡

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And, as I don't have much of my own to share, here is todays show and tell.

Nola used her friends favourite colours to make this one.

They are not her colours and she said it was quite challenging.

I seem to think there was no pattern, she just made blocks and fitted things together.

Lynda had fun using scraps to make this flotilla of yachts.

Paula has been making baby quilts. 

This one features some beautiful kiwi fabrics.

Sorry about the poor image, as you can see it was a beautiful sunny day.

The back of the kiwi quilt had kiwi fabrics too.

Paula's other baby quilt came out of the UFO pile, so she was happy about that.

President Ann quilted both of them for her. 

Sandy had put together some kits she found while having a sort out. We all agreed the needle book and scissor keeper are very cute.

President Ann had two of her own projects to share. 

This stunning hand embroidered fish, for her fisherman husband's birthday.

And this lovely cot size Sashiko quilt.

That sunshine again! This really is a stunning piece, and my photo does it no justice.

And last but not least Marike has been busy with potato chip pieces.

She was busy making binding for it today but brought it along for show and tell today as by next month's meeting it will be on its way to her sister in the Netherlands. 

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After getting home from club, it was back to the mystery problem with the quilting machine. Tony had been into town and came home with some different needles for me to try. No change....

Next, we decided to take the machine off the frame, of course the quilt had to come off too. While it is off the frame, I'll pick out what little I managed to get done, I'm not happy with it.

So, I set the machine back to normal sewing. That went fine, there were no problems, no shredded or snapped threads.

Next, I tried free motion quilting. That worked, no thread problems.

Next a proper quilt sandwich, made with spare blocks from the memory quilt and an off cut of the same weight of batting. No problems.

So tomorrow I will get Tony to lift the machine back onto the frame and I will load up a practice piece, I could use one of my scrappers or I could dig out my old practice piece and work on an empty corner. 

Fingers crossed all will go well.

All of the issues and frustrations yesterday brought about an oft visited conversation. I'd love an upgrade, to a proper quilting machine. The Janome 1600 is a great work horse, I've had it a long time, but also had issues with it almost every year since it became the quilting machine back at Christmas time 2014. 

In two weeks, we are off to Christchurch, for symposium and a couple of days looking around. I had already mentioned that I wanted to visit a certain store, in order to top up on quilting threads. I think I'll be looking at their quilting machines too. I'll have a list of questions to ask, and my fingers firmly crossed. 

Wish me a modest lottery win and luck.

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Memory Quilt update.

 I said yesterday that I wanted to find the border fabrics for Down in the Garden and get them on or get the border onto the Memory quilt and make progress on that. The memory quilt won by default.  I had a busy, but fantastic day in my happy room today and the fun machine got to play for a while too. 

I used some of the wide backing to add a border around those clothing patches.

Then I got busy with the remainder of the wide back and clothing patches. I forgot to get a photo, but I used the left over blocks and a hankie to make a panel to set into the backing fabric.  Next, I traced a label onto the hankie. A bit backwards I know, but I was waiting for Annabel to get back to me on the desired wording and decided to carry on. I guess we should have had that conversation sooner. LOL She let me know her choices while I was sewing, so I was able to get it embroidered today. 🪡🪡

It's kind of hard to see in this image, those flowers are getting in the way, so I'll help out.

🪡 These are clothes I used to wear,
When you hold them, know I'm there.
For Tyler, in memory of mum.
xxxx xxxxxxxxxx
Feb 1963 0 Oct 2025 🪡

Next, it was time to get everything loaded onto the frame. The afternoon sun was lighting up the trees in the garden.

The wedding cake tree is awakening from its winter slumbers and the cherry tree is laden with blossom.

It was nice to work in there on such a lovely day.  I had everything loaded and was selecting a quilting design by the time Tony came home.

All ready for tomorrow.

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Do you remember Gus?

 Late in 2024, about October time I started a very large Cross stitch project.  A kit Tony had gifted to me for Christmas back in 2014!

Winter Fairy is a full coverage design by Elana Krumina. I think she is Lithuanian, but don't hold me to that.  For some reason after only a short time, I put her aside in January of 2025. She was never put away, but sat here in a dust cover, behind my armchair whispering to me often. As I completed the stitching on Down in the Garden her whisperings grew louder and today, they reached a yell. So out she came. I pulled out my Gus frame which had been put away. It takes up rather a lot of space.

It does a great job of supporting my roller frame. There is no way I could cope with this big piece in a hoop, I need the extra help. 

You can see where I left the design back in January last year with the Fairies furry friend almost completed. I stitched for a while this morning, then got on with some chores and the grocery shopping. Once I got home, I settled into my chair again, looking at the kitty I decided he should be named Gus, taking his name from my frame.

I spent the whole afternoon sat here stitching away. Gus is completed he now has his legs and paws, and I stitched a little more too. It's difficult to see, but I've also worked on the Fairie's white dress hiding Gus' rump and tail. It's showing up as a creamy yellow patch on the next image.

I think it would be good to have this as my hand working project here at home, at least until I get the first page of the chart completed. Once that is done, I'll decide whether to continue or have a break and do something else for a while. I don't want this lovely piece to be forgotten for another year and worry that might happen if I decide to rest it.

Watch this space.

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I have a whole week off work, starting today, so plenty of time to get some things over the line, I hope.  There are two possibilities for tomorrow, find and add the borders for Down in the Garden. Or add the borders to the memory quilt. I'd like to get the memory quilt onto the frame before I go back to work next Wednesday. We'll see how that goes. 

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A little progress.

 Life has been busy, so there is not much to show for a week. But I have made progress and any progress as we all know, is better than no progress.

One big boost was completing the stitching on Down in the Garden today. 🪡 As soon as the last stitch was made I set about removing the calico I had added around the edges to keep things tidy, then laid all nine blocks out onto the floor. They look good together. 

A quick tidy up to neaten the edges, then sew them together and add some borders. LOL I'll have to find the fabric first. It's been so long that I have forgotten where I stashed it.

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I moved swiftly on choosing not to go hunting for border fabrics today, instead I pulled out another project that has been languishing, albeit nowhere near as long. 

I started this Lanarte cross stitch back in January, it went with me to Okiwi bay. It did not see light of day there. It did come out of the case while we were on the Isle of Man, and progress was made.  The last progress image I captured was in January, when I first started. 

While on the island as the berries were completed and today, I worked on the bowl.  🪡🪡

It is a cute wee design, with a border. Though I may not bother stitching the border. I think I have a plan for this wee piece, and a border is not necessary.  Hopefully I can get it completed soon. I have Quilting and craft club this weekend; I might take it along. It's easier than packing up the fun machine and fabrics etc.

 I have a few other smaller pieces that might make good take along projects. I also have a very large piece tucked away behind my chair here. It's not whispering anymore, though obviously it's not quite yelling yet either. LOL

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And finally, the cherry tree has come fully to life. My neighbour who sends me a photo every year has moved away, but I did my best to reproduce it. I captured this image standing at my washing line the other day.

Not quite the same, but still very pretty. That is big cherry in full bloom, little cherry comes to the party much later and will have blossom in a while. Usually just after winter has one last gasp and blows away all the blossom on big cherry. LOL

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A rescue job and lots of life interruptions.

You know in a recent post I mentioned that my hands were ready to be doing something other than stitchery? I should be careful what I wish for.

I had big plans for my two days off this week, but very little of what I wanted to happen actually happened.

I came home from work on Saturday with a crochet blanket. It belongs to a resident but was falling apart. Just simple Granny Squares, surely, you can fix it Lou?

Well, I did. There were several squares that needed attention some more than others, and after some messing about I settled on a good method of rescuing them.

I also had a good look at the joining, several of the squares were coming adrift from each other. Then as there was no border, just a bunch of joined squares, would I be good enough to add one? 

It's quite a nice blanket, and hopefully my attention will see it last a while longer.

So that took care of my weekend evenings and also my free time yesterday.

The rest of yesterday was taken up with chores and errands.

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Unfortunately, today has been pretty similar and throw in a training thing for work this afternoon. There really hasn't been much time for my things. That said, I stopped for a while at lunchtime and picked up my stitchery. Down in the Garden has progressed a little more. As it was time to move the hoop, I decided that it was time for an updated photo too.

Oh dear, Blogger is doing that thing again. Click on the image for a clearer view. Though even if you don't, you can see that the coloured border is almost complete. I can see the end of this one. Then it will be time to sew all the blocks together. 

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And just before I return to my stitching, a quick look at what a friend of mine has been up to. On Friday Tony and I went to a Wearable Arts show here in town, our friend Ange had an entry which her daughter Ree was modelling for her.

Sadly, Nature's Palette did not win any prizes.

It was an amazing show with some stunning pieces. 

Even Tony was impressed.

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Back to my needle and thread now. 

Then back to work tomorrow. 

A New Recipe.

 I promised you a new recipe and here it is.

Creamy Peppercorn Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken breast, sliced
Broccoli
1 leek, sliced
1–2 tbsp peppercorns in spring water, with some lightly crushed
100–150 ml cream
2–3 tbsp cream cheese
Salt and black pepper

Method

Brown the sliced chicken in a little oil or butter, then remove it from the pan.

In the same pan sauté the sliced leek in butter until softened.

Add the peppercorns, crushing some against the side of the pan to release their flavour.

Stir in the cream and cream cheese. Let it gently simmer until the sauce starts to thicken.

Return the chicken to the pan and simmer until cooked through and the sauce is lovely and creamy.

Season with salt and black pepper to taste. 

Serve with steamed broccoli. I stirred mine into the sauce.  

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You could use any veg you like with this recipe. I've had broccoli and leeks in the garden over winter. The broccoli has gone nuts and I need to use it up. The leeks are still small, I'm hoping they bulk up a little and don't go to flower. I just pulled the largest while I was out there the other day.

Tony loved this meal and announced that this invention test is a keeper. 

Though I think I would use less peppercorns next time.

It's Spring, Down in the Garden.

 It's only just the third day of the month and already one of my goals has been achieved.

My Christmas ornaments are all completed. No photo though, you know I like to keep them secret until after delivery. Though I probably should take photos now, before I forget and give them all away without doing it! LOL

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I've also been making good progress on my Down in the Garden stitchery. Picking away at it here and there.  Here is where I left it last night.  🪡🪡

Blogger really does not like the images of these stitcheries. It is clickable if you would like to see a clearer image.

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I'm at the three days off point in my roster. Yesterday was taken up mostly with chores and errands which included a haircut. While I was awaiting my turn I looked out of the windows in the upstairs salon. It's in a corner building and has wonderful views out over the bay area and also toward the mountains.

It wasn't the brightest of days and the views over the bay weren't much to write about, but looking inland, to the mountains....

The camera sees things differently. Yes they look majestic rising up beyond the back of town, but in real life, I felt like I could just reach out and touch them. They felt so much closer than they appear in this image.

Speaking of views, looking out of our own dining room widow I can see that the big cherry tree has blossom.

Spring is in the air.

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Back to my goals. 

A little more of my time will be about fun today, though there are still other less exciting things to do.  Hopefully I can make some more great progress on the stitchery. I'm ready to have something else to do with my hands. My cross stitch is whispering to me from its resting place behind my armchair. But there are other projects vying for my attention too.  A decision will be made once this one is complete. 

Maybe not today, but I do need to add a little stitching to the memory quilt, once I work out what that is, I will let you know. Then maybe it can progress its way to the frame for quilting. 

And finally for today.

There has also been a new to us recipe. I'll share on another day as it was good.

Now I'm off to peg washing out. Then the fun can commence. 🪡

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September Goals.

 A new month. 

A not so new list of goals.

I plan to keep it simple for September.

1) Progress the Christmas ornaments.

It would be nice to finish them, but if I don't that's ok, just so long as they move along somewhat.

2) Progress Down in the Garden.

Blogger what have you got against this project?

The image should be clicky. It's not the latest block, but it is pretty. 

Getting the last block stitched and all the blocks into a completed top would be ideal, but I will be happy if I can complete the stitchery on the final block.

3) Complete the Memory Quilt.

That should be doable. Maybe one more border.

I have the batting and backing fabric.

The frame is empty at the moment.

4) Progress Lest We Forget/ The Poppy Quilt.

It needs some more hand and machine quilting.

An opportunity to try out my new quilting hoop and stand.

5) Try out and share a new to me recipe.

I have a few lined up to try, hopefully I'll find one to share. 

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That should be enough to keep me busy for a few weeks. 

August Achievements and Acquisitions.

Well here we are at the end of August. Time to have a look back and see how I got on with my goals.

I was late posting goals, they didn't appear until the 10th, but here they are.

1) Make progress on Lest We Forget/ The Poppy quilt. 

I wanted to make progress. And I did. I got a lot of hand quilting completed and also the applique flowers have all had some machine quilting added to them. 

I still have a way to go with this one, but I am happy with the progress I have made.

2)  Make progress on Down in the Garden.

It would have been good to have made a little more progress on this one. But I am working on the last block. It is all stitchery, no pretty fabrics.

All of the words are stitched and about a quarter of the floral border. 

Ugh! Blogger what did you do? The image should clear up if you click on it. 

3) Make progress on The Memory Quilt.

This one made the greatest progress. I cut the feature fabrics/clothing into big blocks, so that helped to speed things along.

It now has one narrow border in the same lilac/pink as the sashing strips. I'm undecided about adding another wider border before quilting and finishing. I might also add some hand stitched details to the two school badge blocks. 

4)  Christmas ornaments.

I made good progress on these. I only needed four more, then added an extra. So I now have five under way and need only to add some details and finishing, and they will be done. Plenty of time.

5)  Get a quilt onto the frame.

Done. I loaded my latest scrappy hexagon quilt onto the frame and got busy.

It was quilted and bound in just a couple of days.

Yay!! A finish.

So there it is. Five goals.

One finished and four with great progress.

All achievements in my book. 

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It was also a good month for acquisitions.

I had some amazing acquisitions in July, all from the same lady who was sorting her mother's stash. The money she made was going into the great grandie's bank accounts. They did very well out of me in July, and August saw me making another deposit into that same account and acquiring two more big supermarket paper sacks filled with fabrics and UFOs. 

It took me quite some time to sort and find homes for all of these new fabrics, many of which are quite large, big enough to join a couple and use for backings.

And of course UFOs are a great head start when it comes to quick finishes. No patterns though. Some will be easy to complete, some will require a little thought.

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A more recent acquisition is exciting for different reasons.

Do you recall I brought home a quilting hoop on loan from the club? I wanted to try it out before making an investment in one for me. 

Last week a friend tagged me on one for sale in Christchurch. Oh my! A bargain!

Tony said go for it!

The vendor had family visiting from Timaru and if I could wait, he could get it to Timaru on Sunday.

For that price, yes I can wait!

So yesterday I got the message to say the vendor's brother was home here in Timaru and expecting me, I hopped into my car.

Not just the hoop, but also the stand.

And a half hoop.

All for $75 NZ

Delivered to Timaru free of charge.

I didn't try out the hand held hoop from club yet, and now possibly won't, 

but I am very much looking forward to trying out my new Hundred Acre Wood hoop and stand.

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I have had some incredibly lucky finds recently.

I thank whatever lucky star it was that sent them my way. 

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And finally, last time I wrote, I mentioned that Torstein and Charmaine were coming for a visit yesterday. They enjoyed a BBQ lunch and as the weather was so nice, they asked if they could build a playhouse. Out came my Grans old wooden tri fold airer which we covered with a big table cloth.

Add a pile of Nannys quilts and blankets and some cushions off the garden furniture and you have a very comfortable playhouse. 

While we were out in the garden the children spotted this visitor.

He doesn't look like much here on the fence. LOL A furry caterpillar about 1 inch long.

They had fun letting it crawl over their fingers and were then persuaded to put it back onto the fence and allow it to get in with his day.

As I said it was a warm day and after the BBQ had gone cold, Charmaine asked about the 'lovely smell'.

The sun was warming the violets, just below where they were playing.

What a beautiful scent they give off. 

That's my news for August.

Time to plan for September.