Baby Quilt Top Completed.

With the weather being so changeable this week I have got quite a bit done, by mainly staying inside. Here is one of the lovely Laurel Burch panels I got last Friday with the first border attached. The fabric is actually mauve not blue - strange how the camera sees it.

 This is how big it is going to be - just baby size. ( about 36 by 38" ) I have yet to decide if I am going to give it to someone I would like to make one for  or as I intended sell it on the sales table at our Exhibition that is now only just over a week away. Out on the clothes line flapping madly is a very bright purple moda marble that I will put on the back. ( I washed it cause it is very bright and I just didn't quite trust that it wouldn't run with washing. ) It didn't so that's good.

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All my seeds that I planted and are INSIDE the garden shed are up. The ones in the garden could be anywhere - washed away possibly. The wind sure battered my anemones that are just out. R's peas are well up but not so big that they are damaged.

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Here is the jelly bag hanging with guava juice being extracted. Yesterday R measured out 2.5 litres and today 2. It then goes back in the freezer till we want to make jelly with it.
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 I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday as R was using the computer to write a long letter which he did and lost when the power went off. SO he did it again in the afternoon and the same thing happened - he was not amused. I think he managed okay this morning. No outages today so far - it is much calmer.
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 The sprayer has just arrived so spray liquid fish fertiliser on the ground under the Kiwifruit vines. We will smell a bit high for a few days.
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 I am trying not to scratch as I went to the doctors on Tuesday  and had several early stage skin cancers frozen off  my back with dry ice. The larger patch I thought was skin cancer the doctor gave me cream for as she thinks it's a patch of dermatitis - we'll see. I actually saw the same doctor I saw last year - that must make her my doctor I suppose - lets hope she stays ;she is nice; she is young and  plump and merry. That's good.
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 I am currently reading, " Wild Swans, " by Jung Chang. It won the NCR book Award way back in 1992. I didn't read it then. I got this old copy at a used book sale last year. It is compelling grizzly reading. My goodness what a life those women had. Let's hope things really are better for women in China these days. 

New Fabric and Books.

Firstly Thank you for your comments. I am wondering if you are going to show any photos of the quilts you liked at the Craft and Quilt Fair Deb?

I did buy 2 new books last Friday. The Scrap Quilt Sensation had 2 dog eared pages so was reduced in price and I got it for NZ $20. Having browsed through them I am pleased with these purchases.I went around all the fabric stalls and picked out a few I am collecting with  projects in mind. You can see I am finding some spot fabric - mostly I want green on green or blue on blue etc but have some with white spots too. I am also getting some more batiks - just love them. The other 2, one with owls were just because I liked them. The Glitter fabric crayon is for a class I'm going to be doing next month, with Hazel Foote. 

 Dale you asked about the merchants. There seemed to be less; some certainly weren't there this year most surprisingly missing was NZ Quilter and their Minerva Books. Less fabric stalls and maybe more scrapbooking and some ghastly $2 stalls right in the middle. Many stalls seemed to have just the same ol same ol. I heard many comments that folk were disappointed and didn't stay at the show nearly as long as they usually do. I too think things are changing....moving on... not sure what to yet.

 On the way home we went to a quilt fabric shop in Cambrigde which had an amazing selection of fabric.

I saw 2 Laurel Burch panels in lovely colours for $9 and got a metre of  a similar colour to go with it. The butterfly fabric was an " I like it, " buy so I got a metre - most unusual colours for butterflies.( 2 tone grey with a gold outline. )

Here are 2 shots of the folk looking at the Fibre Arts display.

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Now on to something completely different. I won't bother to explain why, but this morning I went to where stuff is stored in a cupboard/wardrobe and also houses the hot water cylinder for the bathroom next door. I noticed a large ( a least a foot square ) wet patch of soggy carpet. The ajax valve had been slowly dripping for I don't know how long. ( I don't need to go into that cupborad !!! ) So had to call the plumber. Badly put in old ajax valve ( it was someone in their firm! )with a screw missing. (If your water pressure had been stronger you would have had a major flood ! - sort of comment ) Anyway I have been drying out the spoilt carpet all day and think it is nearly dry. Strange how you set out to do a simple ( yeah right ) task and it turns into a big problem.
It has been a mostly inside sort of day. We got a needed inch of rain yesterday but now have a very destructive wind trashing everything and sending garden debris high into the air, under doors and into sheds.( in other words lots of cleaning up. )

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!

Yesterday was full on with an early start. I was driven by a younger friend and accompanied by 2 other younger friends who I hadn't seen for a year and on the way home by my cousin as well, so lots of talk and catching up...... so the journey time to Hamilton, just flew by.

 At the craft & Quilt Fair at Claudlands ( new building ) we were all a bit disappointed with the merchants but thoroughly enjoyed the Quilt display and the Fibre Arts Display. There were about 100 quilts. These are the ones that appealed to me. There was a display by guest quilter Chris Kenna. I had seen photos of her work but not up close in the flesh. The quilt on the left is one that won Best of Show at Symposium back in 2007.( Across the Bay 111 ) Her work delights me and it reminds me of painting by NZ artists Robin White and Don Binney.

This is also by Chris.

There was on display Australian quilts Best of each state. My pick was Kay Haerland's Under the canopy.

The NZ challenge was 7 Deadly Sins.
 I couldn't help but laugh at the humour in Gleeful Sinners by Eileen Campbell.

I also liked Dianne Firth's Entry.

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Best Use of quilting was won by this 3 piece hanging Texas, by Barbara Haveman.

Other quilts I liked were by Irene Anderton made from recycled wool blankets. 

2 by Shirley Sparks also appealed.

The bottom section is woven folded fabric strips.

I Thought I saw Angels in My Gully by Norma Slabbert went to the World Quilt Show in 2009. It was very long and narrow.( the colour of the fabrics were those seen in Tapa cloth -  there were several quilts in these shades. )

Helen Pedersen of Wanganui won Best use of colour.( Congratulations Helen )

Judith Bryant of Marton had used her quilting stitches and a little fabric paint to create this. It reminded me of a fabulous doodle.

This is some detail from Birds of the Bay of Islands by Sonya Prchal. I wonder what it was she used as  the very realistic stamens in the pohutukawa flowers ?  Here is the whole quilt.

 I hope you can click on the photos to enlarge them and see all the fabulous detail.

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Fruit Crops.

The oranges are just coming ready. While the team of pruners was here during the last month pruning the kiwifruit vines they enjoyed helping themselves when they were in the block beside the orange trees. Lots fall off and get eaten by birds but there is still plenty for us and friends.

 I was inspecting the 4 little Blueberry plants . This biggest one has quite a few flowers so I hope we will get enough pickable berries from them.

This morning we have been doing GST/ Banklink, which is boring but pretty straightforward - it's a good programme to use.
Now I am off to water new plants and seeds.
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 I want to tell you what is happening with the kiwifruit in NZ but it is a complicated ( sad ) story so I will have to think hard how to describe it . If you like gold kiwifruit you better enjoy any you see because they won't be around for long.

 Last November a bacterial disease PSA  ( pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae ) was found in gold kiwifruit plants near Te Puke, in the Bay of plenty. The disease had never been found in NZ before but had been in Italy wiping out many of their orchards. The disease has rapidly spread through vines near Te Puke; especially young vines and Gold vines. Some green vines have it to a lesser extent. ( 319 orchards  have been confirmed as having it to date. ) We are all nervously waiting for bud break to see how far it has spread.

This is a photo I took yesterday of a normal cane of female wood . The lump in the top middle is where the bud is going to break out from. So far on our orchard we can find no suspicion of any disease, so are holding our breath  ( so to speak. ) Only time will tell. ( all vines with the disease have to be quickly pulled out and destroyed - they will die anyway )
All sorts of hygiene efforts are being taken to try and halt the spread but it is wind born so will spread by itself.
 So not a good time to be a kiwifruit grower. It is the worst thing by far that has ever happened to the kiwifruit industry. ( worse than low prices, hail storms etc. )
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On a brighter note tomorrow I am going with 3 other friends to the Craft & Quilt Fair in Hamilton. I'm very much looking forward to it as I didn't go last year. So lots of quilty photos will appear here soon.

Quilt Ready to Show.

The calendar tells me we have been home in NZ for  a month - it now seems much longer. What have I been doing?

I sewed the binding on this quilt ( black on black - what was I thinking! ) and made a label to match. It may be the only thing I have ready to show at our annual exhibition in 3 weeks time. All the other quilts I made in the last 12 months have been given away. Maybe I have some small items for the sales table.

Aren't blue and yellow wonderful together.......these are 4 lemons from my small new bush in the flower garden...unblemished , but the tree needs them off to grow well. I made 4 lovely jars of lemon honey ( curd or cheese. ). The secret to that is using sharp tasting tart lemons ( meyer ) and putting in lots of fine zest. Yum!

I've been gardening . Weeding ( lots ) planting and sowing seed. A little new wobbly row of radish.

Some Spring colour - wow I have yellow freesias seeded everywhere.

The mizuna plants will go to seed and should be pulled out or I will have them everywhere, BUT the bees are so enjoying it.20 on one plant. Unfortunately that is close to the clothes line so the bees have you know what all over the washing...especially the pale blue sheets. So anything white ( shirts or tops ) are being hung inside or put out over night. BEE PEE is not a ligitamite embellishment or accessory.
This area behind has been cleared for a new deck that hasn't happened yet. ( the birds are using it as their #1 dust bath area.)

 I treated myself to a copy of the September NZ gardener magazine and it has some new and interesting plants to try. I saw it had an article "Slime Fighters, " Isabelle, but it doesn't really come up with anything new for trapping/ Killing slugs and snails - beer, coffee grounds; sharp shell; diatomaceous earth. The most likely are hedgehogs or birds - as I thought.Or go out at night with a torch and squash them!

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 This isn't in my garden wish it was. It is just a simple idea but looked so good...I wonder if I could find one of those for old pumps for our garden? ( taken as you can read outside  Piskey Cove which is in Pentewan,... in Cornwall. )

Lovely Lake District.

Bowness.

From Scotland we travelled by train down to the Lake District. The young 2 had been there recently so they went back to London.We really enjoyed seeing the countryside from those speedy trains but had 2 incidents on our journey - One involving an alarm clock the other happened when we were supposed to change trains at Oxenholme. There we are standing ready at the door with our cases and the train door refused to open. Other passengers  got up to assist - no luck; it wouldn't open. The train pulls out and we are still on it. Bugger! We travelled on to the next stop and dragged our bags to a different door and got off at Lancaster. After the train left we went straight to the lady station master standing on the platform with a 2 way radio and told her what happened. " Not a problem, " she said. "Just quickly get yourselves through the underpass to the line going the other way, a  train is due shortly."  She radioed her mate over the other side and said, "Pop these 2 into 1st class and send them back to Oxenholme". That's what happened...we even got back just in time to catch our connecting train to Windermere. On that leg of the journey we passed through country stations in little villages like Kendal. This is how busy it gets.

 We stayed at Bowness slightly up the hill close to Biskey Howe, in a lovely B & B called No. 80, with Colin and Mandy. They were so nice. As we were the oldest of their guests they up graded us to their best room with a nice view and a 4 poster bed. Mandy's berry fruit salad as part of breakfast was so good, the scrambled eggs weren't bad either. What lovely friendly folk.

Of course we went up the lake and down the lake ( Windermere ) on a cruise ( twice ). One day warm the other a bit drizzly.

It really is very relaxing being on the water.

We went down the lake to Lakeside and caught the steam train to Haverthwaite and back. The train takes on water then ambles along to the other end, all of which are part of the entertainment..

It a slow journey as steam trains are with fabulous views all around us.

Houses by the river Leven.

These pretty summer flower planters were at the car park.
 R then went to the motor museum while I visited the aquarium and saw otters and other aquatic life..... the smell chased me out after a while.

At the other end of the lake at Ambleside ( or Waterhead ) , we explored the little town and had lunch at the Giggling Goose which is right beside this old waterwheel, on the river Stock.( there used to be lots of waterwheels powering mills for corn and wool and flax.

What an interesting setting. The lunch they served was far far too large. Half of mine ( and lots of others I noticed ) remained on the plate - what a waste. The previous day we had lunch upstairs at Oscar's overlooking the lake and that was lovely soup and homemade bread - just  right that day.
 Before we left the area we climbed up Biske Howe to see the view of the lake from a high point . No wonder this has been a popular place to holiday for hundreds of years.
 We caught our train from Windermere ( lovely station ) back to Euston, London with no other incidents and enjoyed that journey too.

The Weather in Edinburgh.

As with all places Edinburgh I am sure Isabelle has all types of weather. ( Yesterday Isabelle said it was dull and damp. ) Yes, we did both buy umbrellas and I bought a tartan scarf ( all of which got used later in the Lake District ) when in your city. BUT it also showed us lovely blue skies!

 We were very privileged where we stayed. It was right in the middle of the Royal Mile, straight up above the 3 red phone boxes.

We could look out the window and see street entertainer down below.

Of course we loved visiting the castle. The stones everywhere in old Edinburgh are so old you know when the centre of a stone step is curved with use that it's been there a while. ( I hated all the steps! )

I'm glad there was a small garden area to soften that hard exterior.

The view from the castle was wonderful in every direction.

Now that is a clear blue sky...belonging to the Queen as this is her garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. I am glad she was there the week before us or we wouldn't have seen her garden  ;  palace; old abbey or Art Exhibition. ( Durer to Holbein )

 When it did rain we found ( like Jane from Rugby  found ) that camera Obscurer was a fascinating place to visit.

 I also liked the piano playing dog with his singing cats.

*Thank you Isabelle and Mr. Life for having us to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you both and the fabulous cats.

* Thank you Michael for your generosity and wonderful coffee, I hope your accommodation gets well used.

* Thank you Andrew for showing us parts of your city and the amazing tea.( R loved  the Scotch Whiskey Society. )

( Visit " Anteagues" for a huge selection ot teas ( especially the gunpowder one ) and fine antiques ( at  17 Clarke Street. ) www.anteaques.co.uk . 

 I will let the piper have the final say.