Marching on to April

Life has settled down a little since last month, the party was great, it's wonderful seeing old friends and talking over old times. There were quite a few laughs about some of the things we used to do when we were teenagers, not all of which I would put into a blog!
The garden was looking great for the day!

 

 

Here is the before photo from last December when lawn and gardens were ripped out and we started again.

 

 

Sewing has not been on the agenda for a while but I finally got into March's One Block Wonder. I used fabrics from my stash and played with the setting a bit, here is the result.

 

 

 

Not a great photo, the pink is actually a bit brighter than it looks.

Looking forward to April's block, thanks Sandy up there in Canada for all your hard work designing these blocks and providing me with motivation to try new things.

 

We are moving towards winter here in New Zealand, the nights are cooling down and everyone is out gathering firewood. I guess this means that those in the northern hemisphere are moving towards summer, I wish you all as good a summer as we have had this year.

Hot, hot January!

Wow, the weather has been so hot and humid. We have been painting the house with a lot of help from the kids and grandkids in preparation for celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on the 12th February. The newly sown lawn is green and lush and the garden is generating weeds as fast as they are removed. A garden party is planned for Saturday the 13th, the food is ordered, sun umbrellas are hired and all RSVP's have been received. My bridesmaid Pam is arriving from Australia with her husband on Thursday and we are getting excited now!
All of these preparations haven't left much time for sewing but I managed to spend a day making these blocks earlier in the month. I love this block pattern and got quite carried away until hubby walked in and I suddenly realised that the evening meal was completely non existent! Oh dear, never mind, that's why takeaways were invented!

 

Thanks Sandy for such an amazing block, I am very tempted to turn this one into a quilt for the spare room.

Demented December!

What a busy month December has been, shopping, eating, socialising with a smidgen of sewing mixed with sowing a new lawn, developing new gardens and painting the house!!! The heat is on to prepare for celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in February with friends a family invited to an afternoon/evening  garden party.
I have only completed the one block for December, there are however more cut and prepared and these will become cushion covers on the outdoor furniture. (Deadline to finish for the party)

 

 

 

What a surprise on Christmas Eve when the mail arrived; a parcel from Calico Cat Fabrics! For my prize I chose three charm packs, some Benartex Fossil Fern precuts and some Darlene Zimmerman Hints of Prints. A huge thank you to Sandy at Upstairs Hobby Room.

 

Happy New Year to everybody, may 2016 be peaceful and bring you all that you desire.

 

 



Where did November go?

Gosh, what a busy month November has been! I got lots done in between a busier social life than is usual: Christmas cards all hand made, two donated bridal gowns cut and sewn into angel gowns and some, but not all, blocks sewn for the November challenge.
I have joined the local Red Hatters which also meant making a red hat! 
The One Block Wonders have so far been a major learning experience for me, I can no longer hide within my comfort zone of applique and hand and paper piecing. I have had to struggle with the flipping points, lining them all up, fighting in built leanings towards perfectionism! How easy it is to tell myself that its not perfect so chuck it in the corner and stick with what I can do well! No, no, no............... To make matters worse, I love bright clear colours.......so, I chose to use more muted colours way out of my comfort zone! I am working on the theory that what doesn't kill me makes me stronger!  Yes, of course I have my tongue in my cheek a wee bit but I appreciate that every month I am achieving better accuracy in both cutting and sewing seams.

 

First block completed!

 

 

 

Four blocks together!

 



Hubby and I are off tomorrow on a rail excursion south to the centre of the North Island, New Zealand, then a night in a lovely hotel with a sumptuous pre Christmas dinner and home again on Sunday. I am looking forward to that.

Cheers from Julie

The urgent need for a blog!

While trying to join the One Block Wonders Viewing Party I was having terrible trouble linking to Sandi's blog. I have thought about starting a blog  to share what I do to fill my time now that I am retired after a lifetime of working, and it just happens that this may solve my linking problems. So, here I am, a very simple start with the thought of flashing things up later!

Two blocks completed of what may turn into a table runner. I had a lot of fun playing with different fabrics and decided that I liked this layout best. Looking forward to next months blocks!