Cyra ~ A walk in the Park

Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day when Tony & I had a trip to Hawera to take a leisurely stroll through the park.

It's a beautiful place, full of very well kept gardens, a great kiddies park area, duck ponds, Chinese garden, rose gardens, and lovely nooks, shady areas, and secret gardens. 

It always looks amazing there, and you never know what surprises you'll find as you follow winding paths or peep around the hedgerows.

Whoever created this space did an excellent job of keeping people and children entertained.

Stitching

I have designed a hexagon quilt for a long-term project.

It is going to be humongous (for a super-king sized bed) and will probably take 5 years or more to stitch because I'm using ¾" hexagons --- oh what was I thinking, mad, totally mad, hand stitched English Paper Piecing, oh dear.

Here it is so far, the humble beginnings...

I did not get any photos of my latest crochet block for my blanket, but I did do some stitching on my 'A Year of Stitches' project. I'm not managing to do stitching every day on it, but hey, I'm only human.

Cy - My Productive Vacation

Here are three weeks worth of creations all in one post, as I haven't posted what I made while I was away (hiding from the world).

 Afghan blanket 

At the moment this is still in three main parts and cannot be seen in full as I have not yet decided which part goes where, lol. But this is the pile of work on the afghan so far. 

 Cot/Crib Blanket 

This is finished.

And, of course, I have done some more work on the Building Blocks Quilt, now renamed: 

 "Party At My Place" Quilt 

The hand sewn English Paper Pieced hexagons are a great scrap fabric buster, a great project to travel with, and great for working on while in the caravan.

All in all, it was a very productive vacation.

Cy - Another Heart & More Building Blocks

Straight From the Heart Crazy Quilt

 Week 26

Last week I hinted that I may be doing a crochet heart during my stitching week.

Well, here it is, as promised.

I'm rather pleased with how this one turned out.

It started as a 'pineapple' crochet motif, and just got its embellishment when I stitched a crochet cord in a beautiful rich burgundy thread.

And more on the Building Blocks Quilt

I think I am finished with the reds/rusts/pinks shades and now I'm heading into the blues.

Gradually getting all the 'bits' together for this quilt.

So far I haven't removed any of the paper templates yet as the parts aren't big enough, but I am looking forward to when I can start to remove the papers and get it looking more like a quilt.

Cy ~ Hexagons ~ Crochet ~ Quilt Show

We are back home again now from our peaceful retreat.

It was a tranquil setting to sit and stitch, and I got plenty of stitching and crocheting done.

The pink and white mohair patch (from last week) has had some more texture added to it.....

And (groan) another project started.

This is going to be a bluesey neck-warmer collar type thingamajig.

The main reason we went to "the other place" was to level the ground ready to put a pump shed in place over the water bore hole. (We need water just like everyone else does).

I was meant to be helping t'other-half to dig the shed foundation, but I got tied up (almost literally) with measuring and marking out the house plot. So when I eventually turned up at the shed site, he had finished it and actually had a smile on his face and said the ground was easy to dig. Job finished, we could go home now, and we'd only been there two days.

Now seemed as good a time as any to tell him that we couldn't go home because I wanted to go to the quilt show there on Friday.

That seemed to wipe the smile from his face, lol.

During breakfast on Monday he decided that he could fend off his boredom if he went back home for one night (it's a six-hour drive just one way) to pick up the shed panels, and bring them back to Hawkes Bay the next day, then erect the whole shed the day after.

I rather liked the idea of being left on my own for almost two days of non-stop-stitching.

Photo before the shed arrived....

Photo after the shed arrived....

And if I turn around 180degrees from that point...

you can just see our caravan through the trees.

I took my hexagon patchwork with me to Hawkes Bay because it's one of those projects that travels well and is easy to pick up and stitch at any little spare moment.

This is how much I got stitched while we were away. Great progress.

I only have about the same amount again as this left to stitch into these 3-hex patches, and then I have the lovely job of putting all those 3-hex patches together to form the quilt top.

Woohooo, slowly getting there. It has only taken me about 10+ years to get this far, lol.

Just in case you have studied the hexies in the photo above, and are wondering why some hexies do not have tacking stitches holding the fabric in place over the papers.... well, you see, it's like this...

The hexies on the left (7 of the 3-hex patches) were stitched in the normal technique from Saturday to Thursday of last week.

Then, on Friday, I went to the Wine Country Quilts Show

and, I'm sure you know how it goes... there were merchants selling their treasures products, and this one lady was selling glue pens for fabric. Oh my!

She was actually demonstrating on tiny hexagons and has made the most exquisite small quilts.

I fell for them straight away and bought the glue pen.

Then, back at the caravan, I could use the glue pen on my larger hexies.

Voila! I now have hexies that do not need tacking together first.

My only disappointment is that I've nearly finished making all the hexies for this quilt. I so, so, wish I'd found this product sooner.

 Now, I bet you are wanting to know about the actual quilt show.

I will be sharing photos in another post later in the week.

And the Pukeora Estate is worthy of a whole blog post just for itself.

But it's late now and I really must be somewhere other than my computer.

Fitzy - Hexagons

I’ve (yet another) project in the wings waiting. I generally do not participate in many swaps; I often am disappointed in the return. When I do, I try to step right out there and use the opportunity to MY advantage. I try a new technique or something that is unfamiliar. It lets me practice a new thread, a new application, a new method. I’ve turned it into an educational opportunity and less of a “see what I get back” experience. A WIN/WIN in my book.
I am participating in a Facebook swap for mug rugs. 6”x9” finished. I had the EPP freezer paper templates all cut and fabric purchased. This project has been on my mind for some time, and because of its nature, I refused to begin it without a goal in mind. It could totally get out of control otherwise! Project is due Feb. 1.

Current log cabin project was laid aside this week. My youngest daughter and new husband came back from Afghanistan a few days before Christmas. I awoke Sunday morning with two soldiers in my kitchen, a total surprise! I hadn’t met my new son-in-law yet, as they’re living in South Carolina, and were advised to marry before deploying last January. Their tour was extended…and now they’re home! We managed one crafty shopping trip, but celebrated our new family by just “being”. It was wonderful.
Added a new Zumba Class and a Yoga Class into my lunch hour this week, as well as training for a 10K. Should be a busy week!