Breakfast in the sun

Our nephew Brent's partner Emma and her girlfriend from Sweden have breakfast on the front balcony.  Noel is enjoying the morning sun also..Emma and Johanna are both from Sweden and Emma is taking some time out to show Johanna the sights.  They have gone cycling around the city and wineries for the day. Emma is on the left. The girls  have been up the mountain skiing the last few days. Lets hope the weather stays nice for them before they head back up North.

Spring flowers

Just another photo of the spring flowers that come up each year on our beach.  The are just beautiful..I don't know how they survive as they are only growing in the shingle..There is even a big clump of silverbeet growing down there..

Girl's Christmas party quilt

Yay one more finished to have on the wall for Christmas..This is made with all the pinks and greens I bought from Taupo the other month. It is a pattern that was in a Homespun a few years ago. I stitched in the ditch on most of it .  Our daughter and her family are coming back home for five months so I have been busy getting all the Christmas quilts ready to hang up. Two more to finish...The children are going to go to school here to have some Kiwi culture..That will be fun and I guess quite a bit different from the schools in Germany. Their English will be good by the time they go home again. Well better go and get out another quilt to finish off.

I love Spring/Summer

I love this time of the year.  Now that the bad weather has been and gone...  It was a bit late starting...I took these pics today as it looks so pretty from our lounge . The flowers that pop up along the beach are just lovely and they keep coming up each year. We did have a Tsunami warning the other day after the big earthquake in Samoa but thankfully nothing came of it. It does make a few people a bit edgy tho. There was a pod of dolphins playing out there for ages.

We had our last trip to Palmerston North to pick up our last sampler block yesterday so another year has been and gone and we now have another quilt to put together... That always takes the longest... I still have a couple of years back that are still sitting in the drawers to put together.  How many quilts do we need??????

Family Reunion

Sorry I have been fairly quiet this last few weeks.  We traveled up North for our bi-annual Suckling family reunion.  It is actually called "The Sucky Challenge" now as most of you who know the Sucklings, they are a fairly competitive bunch.  It is a great time to catch up with all the rellies and have a fun weekend. We took heaps of photos but as this is mainly a quilting and sewing blog I had better keep them off.  I wouldn't know which ones to put on,.  The theme for the Saturday night dinner was Indian so we all dressed up as Indians and had different curries for dinner.  Ok if you like curries....The big Tua vs Cameron boxing fight was also on so we  watched it on the big screen that was set up at the venue. That didn't take too long..We traveled back over the next few days and then got stuck in Taupo as the road was closed to Napier.  It was ok for us as we were in our motor home. Road opened at 6pm Wednesday evening so we hit the road just after then.It was the biggest snow storm for 25 years.  Can you believe it is supposed to be Spring.. It was a slow trip home but really pretty as it was light until about 8pm. Unpacked slowly the next day and then into my sewing room to catch up on some stitching...It is only 7 weeks until our family come over from Germany for four months.. Best I get off this computer and do some work....

One more of the Saturday samplers.  This was my first big bright quilt. 

One of our mystery quilts we made. It was made mainly from a jelly roll.  We had to buy more accents. The clues were given over the internet every hour from 5pm until about 1am. Of course we didn't get the tops finished as there was too much laughter, chocolate and good fun. We have done this twice now. The ClothShop was running the mystery.  I told you the ClothShop is my favourite shop..

Have been going through my old photos and found some more quilts I have finished. This one is one we made through the ClothShop as a Saturday sampler. I loved the dark colours and have it down in our guest room. It is hanging on a ladder and looks rather nice...

Here is the latest of  new stash I bought  from Taupo on our way home from the Quilt Show in Hamilton.  I just love the colours.They are yummy..  It's for a Christmas wall hanging which is nearly finished.Yay it will be up in time for Christmas.

Saturday Sampler quilt trip

Well we had a great day in Palmerston North.  Three of us went down this time as our friend Jillian was at a camp up in Auckland. We went on the Friday instead of the usual Saturday and the Cloth Shop was busy with their Friday quilting group.  We missed Katherine's husband Colin who always gives us cheek and checks our blocks to make sure we have done them right... While we were enjoying our lunch at a cafe who should walk in but Colin so he came over and joined us. These are the blocks so far.  There are three more blocks to add and then it is all put together.  It is our first quilt as you go. Can't wait for the end to see how it is all put together.  It is a mystery quilt that is run over the 9 months.

Cool we are off to Palmerston North to my favourite TheClothShop again tomorrow. We are leaving early so we can spend the day just doing what ever we chose. We are picking up our number 8 block. We are doing a quilt as you go this time in red, black and white. Really quite stunning. Will post a couple of photos to give some idea of what they will be like. We usually go on a Saturday but my friend has football with her son all day. We are soooooo lucky..

We have been travelling down to Palmerston to "The Cloth Shop" for the last seven years doing our sampler quilts. We end up each year with a quilt (if we get around to finishing it). So you can imagine all the quilts we have folded up over ladders and beds. This is my favourite shop and I just love our escapes away each month. Shame they don't do retreats...

I will have to take photos of the rest of the blocks and post them later. It was hard trying to do the borders not knowing what the end result will be. This is one of the blocks from the Breast of Friends mystery quilt that is running through the Homespun book.

Here is another block of the Breast of Friends quilt. I have just received the book with the setting of the quilt in. I can't wait to get all the blocks finished now.

I am doing the Breast of Friends quilt with some of my quilting friends. We have had such fun meeting and working out colours etc. Our friend Di gave us a lesson on needleturn applique so we have done a few like that. I have only done machine blanket stitch in the past. I will post a photo of my first needleturn later.

Just bear with me for a while as I am learning how this all works. I will be continuously changing things around...