Big family small car !!!!!!

Just got back from a 2 1/2 month visit to our family in Germany.  We didn't stay with them the whole time as we had lots of adventures to be had.   This is just an update as I haven't been on the blog all this year.  Shame on me.  I have had a few quilting retreats too and must put some photos up.  Took Julian (the oldest) with us to watch a bit of the Olympics in England.  Had family playing in the woman's NZ football team.  They did really well and nearly got through to the semi's.  Had a great time catching up with family friends also over there.

Royal Wedding sleep over..

Five of us had a great time to celebrate William and Kates wedding last month.  We decided we would each make a quilt over the weekend.  We started off with dinner Friday night and then got into it.. Set up our tables and took over the lounge.  My husband had decorated the room with banners, flags and balloons before he took off for the weekend for a nice relaxing time...We had all our fabric cut and ready so we were straight into it... Stopping of course to watch the wedding in fits and starts.. Just before the bride arrived one of the girls disappeared downstairs and came walking up the stairs in her pyjamas with her own wedding veil on.  I have been threatened that no pictures are to be put on this blog so I had better do as I am told..We got to bed at 3.30 am would you believe.  Arose fairly early in the morning and started into it all again. What fun.. Got the tops all finished and then onto the quilting.  We all quilted a new style.  Roughly 1/4 inch apart in strips. No lines just using our eye as we didn't want the lines too perfect.  I like the look better also. We were all really happy with the results but it did take a bit longer than we thought.  Finished them on the Sunday arvo.  I did mine in the French General fabric which I just love.  Until next time.. Hopefully it won't be so long in between posts..

Quilting Retreats

Yay, I have been to four retreats since I last posted.. Shame on me not for not posting sooner...First one was last year and I went with the intention of finishing UFO's..We always have late nights so there is lots of fun and laughter going on. The other three were much of the same.. I will put some pics up of the quilts I have finished but probably onto on this blog...  I will have to find the pics and get organized.. I don't know where the first half of this year has gone...Our winter has started but we are still having lovely summery days.  Poor farmers who are screaming out for rain.
These pics are from a book I made for our friends who were moving back to Australia to live.  I made it on my Janome 11,000.  It was fun and the little girls just loved it.  I also made one for our Grandie who lives in Germany.  His one was all boy colours and not so pretty..

Can't wait..

I have ordered some of my favorite material. Lumiere de Noel - French General  from Jenny at The Stitchery in Dunedin.  I have stitched the Christmas redwork quilt and have not known how to finish it.  When I saw Jenny's quilt Redwork Santas using the fabrics I had to quickly order some off her.  I can't wait for it to arrive now and get sewing it together.  Think it will have to wait until next Christmas. Go and have a look at Jenny's blog at
www.stitcheryjen.blogspot.com.  It is gorgeous. Well I must go and catch some sun.  The days are so lovely and hot here.  Sorry to hear about the cold snap for you ladies living in the Northern Hemisphere. We are enjoying 30 degree days. My daughter is finding it cold after spending 5 months here with us last summer.

Finished at last.

I thought I had better post a  photo of my bag I made!!  A few people have thought I had made the bag Rosalie Quinlan taught at a retreat we went to. I even got Rosalie to sign it before I put it all together.  Mine is pretty much the same as I am more of a copier than a designer.  Even tho Leanne Beazley taught us how to design our own quilts..Thank you Leanne.  I must put some of it into action. I have just learnt needle turn and I must admit I'm not "in love" with it.. I am having trouble finding photos as a month or so ago I lost everything on my computer.  I was changing over to Windows 7.  Big mistake.  I lost all my data..I have to tell you tho that I had backed up everything to an external harddrive but when the data was transferred over it got corrupted... I have managed to get all my photos back but not any of our MYOB,Excell spreadsheets and embroidery designs....And lots of other stuff that I can't think of.  Never mind that is all in the past now and at least I didn't lose my sewing machines..

Three Quilting Retreats since my last Blog.....

Well I think it is about time I put some more pictures up... I have finally finished my rose quilt that I have been working on and off for a few years.  All I had to do was put the beads on..So it can hang up with my Christmas quilts. We have been to three retreats lately and so I have managed to get quite a bit of stuff finished.  I worked on small Christmas gifts so didn't only do quilting. I shall add some more photos today. With only 20 days until Christmas I had better get finishing things...

Grandies

Our daughter and family came over from Germany for 41/2 months. Her husband only stayed for the 6 weeks as he had to go back to work. Ishla wanted to give the kids some good old Kiwi culture by putting them into school for the first term.  They arrived early December so it was good for them to have a nice hot summer instead of a freezing cold Christmas.. They settled into school really well and their English was excellent in the end.  Even little Taine learned to speak English and now that he is home is still talking English.  His German grandparents can't understand him...Our daughter keeps speaking English (when she can remember) to them so they can communicate to us. She has been living over there for 15 years now so we call her our German Frau.....We miss them heaps but with internet and skype etc it makes things a little easier. I am a little bit late with all this news as they have now been home for over a term.....It is amazing how resilient kids are, as they had to speak English and do all the school work here  including spelling, and then back to Germany and pick up where they had left off.. I can't even learn German.....

My Gorgeous Grandchildren

Taine 2yrs

Julian 12 yrs

Sally 11yrs and Jack 9yrs

                                                                     

Quilters Cabin Quilting Retreat

Eighteen keen and excited ladies had a great time at the retreat on the weekend.  There was great food, lots of laughter and wonderful ladies all sharing the weekend together.  Sorry Natalie I didn't finish your lovely stocking... I made the reindeer and there was lots of laughter and comments as we tried to turn the reindeer in the right way after sewing the bodies together.  I shall have to post a photo when I get them all finished. We had a show-n-tell on Saturday night and there are just so many talented ladies around.  The quilts and bags were just gorgeous. Should have got the camera out... Oh well back home and on with the next thing now.  I have an exercise class in the morning so had better go to bed early after two late nights in a row.

Christmas in July

I have been busy all of July doing the Christmas in July with QFD creative.  What a lot of fun it was.  It was like a retreat that went on for a whole month....We got heaps of patterns from so many of the top designers in Australia.  Thank you so much and I have enough patterns and ideas to keep me going for ages. I shall have to get sewing and finish some of the projects and post them on here...Thank you to all the ladies that made this possible.  Can't wait for the next one.

Here is the gorgeous little bag we were taught by Rosalie.  We all came home and are working hard to finish them and take them down to Palmerston North to show Katherine on Saturday.  It is our sampler Saturday..Yay another fun day....

Christmas in July retreat

Here is another picture.  We all were given these lovely bags.  You can just see them on the tables.  Jill and Katherine had spent hours and hours making them. We will be able to keep them forever and always be reminded when we take them to other retreats. This is a photo of all of us. Lynley and Jillian on the left, and Leanne, Di and Anne around the back. Sorry Lynley you have your eyes closed..

Christmas in July retreat

This was what we woke up to..

And this was our last few minutes....

Top photo is Roselie signing my bag.  Middle photo Leanne signing my quilt and bottom one is of my friend Lynley getting her quilt signed.  Lynley is in the red..

Mid Winter Retreat

WOW... Five of us ladies from Napier headed off to Oreti Village Turangi for our winter retreat run by Katherine (Clothshop Palmerston North) and Jill (Cottageflair Rotorua). There were 68 ladies from all over attending.  Rosalie Quinlan and Leanne Beasley were the guest designers from Australia that we were all anxious to meet. Lucky lucky us... What lovely ladies they are and were so welcoming and friendly to us all.Leanne ran a designing lesson and Rosalie taught needle turn and stitchery classes.
We had such fun and met a lovely lady from Palmerston North who joined us at our table. Katherine and Jill dressed up for the Saturday night dinner- photos tell all.... The weather was fantastic and we all came away with great memories and expectations.
There were spot prizes all weekend and that was an extra bonus.  Leanne and Rosalie were so generous with their time and the even autographed our finished quilts which we had taken for show-n-tell...

Thank you Katherine, Jill, Roselie and Leanne.  We all had a fantastic time. Who says quilters don't have fun....

Back again...

Hello I am back again after a few months break.  Had our daughter and  Grandies over for 41/2 months so not much sewing, quilting or anything else got done...We had a great time tho and we got to know our little ones quite well.  They live in Germany and of course that is their first language.  By the time they left their English was really good and they were even talking with kiwi slang..Our daughter said they are keeping up with their English back home and even little Taine who turned two over here is still talking English. He now can't understand his German grandparents.  Here is a photo of my bag I made on the embroidery machine.  Ishla took one home with her all finished as well.  We did do quite a bit of machine embroidery.  I will post photos of the grandies next time. 

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??????