Atc's

I recently completed an ATC swap with Doreen, Debbi, Annie and Ann. It was Doreen's turn to set the challenge and she decided we should all make an ATC using only black ,white and one other colour. The above ATC is my one. I found an old book that was full of Russian writing. Quite cool!
The ATC above was made by Ann in the Netherlands. It's 3D, very cool!
The ATC below was made by Doreen, cool button. Good to see we didn't double up on colours!

The ATC above was made by Annie in Australia, a pink girl!
The ATC below was made by Debbi in Australia using a serviette and fabric. (love the C button)
I love them all, thanks girls for a great swap!
Carole ;)

working on my ducks!

I've been working on my McKenna Ryan ducks and now have them finished, (except for their eyes, which I might dot with a marker pen). I have also done a lot of free-hand top stitching over the pieces. And then last night was able to stitch the panels together. Now I am onto my last block! WooHoo!!
Here's the 3 blocks together.
Hope it's coming together for you too!
Carole ;)

it's been a busy week, I'm feelin a little tired.....

(photo of Henry)

I need some zzzzzzzzzzz......

Carole ;)

certifiably tea bag mad!!

Well, here it is, this is what I was saving tea bags for. Yesterday I did a class with South African Griet Lombard. She has now made NZ her home and lucky for us she lives in Levin, only 30 mins from Palmerston North. She is an international quilt tutor and has won many prizes with her quilts. She is a very talented woman. (there was an article in issue 67 of the NZ Quilter mag if you want to know more about her. www.nzquilter.com)
This is a friendship quilt she made after shifting to NZ, and is all about migration and the friends she was missing from her home country.
The background is made of used teabags, (great for those of us who like to re-purpose! lol) The background alone was quite nice, I could have just stippled that and I would have been happy!
Anyway, before we knew it, it was time to stop for lunch break. A time to browse the shelves of the Cloth Shop while being nourished at the same time. This pic below is the work room, you can get a peak of the shop thru the door.
Katherine's hubby makes all the lunches for us girls doing classes, and he always, without fail, brings us a lovely lunch. Yesterday we had yummy bread rolls, and kiwi fruit and grapes with dried apricots and macadameia nuts and coconut ice!
Back to getting my girls made/created/developed! Some of them are already taking on personalities. (mind you I did think for a while they looked like robots lol)
I like this girl below, I think she looks very intelligent, don't you think? I might have to put glasses on her and perhaps some long flowing locks.
Here is Griet going over the processes for making the faces. Each face is individually hand stitched, and here is the point which it slapped me in the face and said WAKE UP! I have 14 of the little people to hand embroider!!!!! This is going to be another of those "plodding along slowly" projects! (to add to the others LOL!)
Anyway, this is my first person almost finished. I am not very good at drawing and I feel this is drawing, so I am probably going to butcher their personalities at this stage. I think this little lady has boggly eyes and very large lips, so she has either just had botox or her dress is too tight!! LOL.
All in the name of fun. (or perhaps madness!)
Carole :)

ok, ok, so you want to know what I was working on....

Yep, you caught me out! I was beavering away on some hand stitcheries! I am working on my 2nd quilt from Leeanne's House, Ruth's Quilt it is called. BUT this one will be machine quilted!!!
There are 35 stitcheries to do, and are quite relaxing to work on while listening to tv at night time.
All my fabric is cut and ready to go, but I do think this may be the last large sized quilt I make with stitcheries in it. I think from now on it will be limited to wall hangings!
So there you have it. I have now (publicly) officially broken my New Years resolution I made a couple of years ago. I vowed I would not start or work on more than one quilt at a time, and here I am, with .... ah........5..........quilts on the go! Well I bet some of you have broken new years resolutions too!!

Oh well, I'm a very happy stitcher!!
Carole :)

a wee gathering

On the weekend I was lucky enough to be able to visit with some blogging friends, you may know them, Deb from The Angel and the Pukeko, Darlene from Stitching by the sea, and Shiree from Kiwifruit-shiree. I also got to meet two girls from Wellington, Colleen and Jackie who don't have blogs. These girls were on retreat, staying at Cherry Pie Quilts in Levin. (The link is on my side bar if you want to check them out), it's a great place to stay, as Cheryl (the owner) is a fabulous cook, and provides yummy morning and afternoon teas, and the lunch was delicious! However, she also runs a quilt store on the property and is on hand if you need help or advice on anything. What more could you want?
I went down to meet the girls and spend a day stitching with them. It was a really wierd feeling, I don't really know these girls, but yet I felt like I was catching up with old friends. It was lovely, and I guess another reason I have to thank my adventure in blogland!

Ok for the line-up. From left to right: Jackie from Wellington, yours truely, Colleen from Wellington, Shiree from Dunedin, Deb from Christchurch and Darlene from Christchurch.
You can check out their blogs for more photos.

Well I hope your week is progressing well!
Carole :)

Order finished

This weekend I managed to finish the order for Johanna's gift shop, A Little Bird Told Me. She wanted some post cards, some book marks and some wee gift cards.







I hope she likes them!

Carole ;)

WOO HOO! Spring is coming!

The first of my spring bulbs are flowering! Just a small bunch fills the kitchen with their heady perfume. I love spring bulbs, they offer such a promise of things to come!

Have a good weekend folks!
Carole ;)

couldn't ya just hug them to bits???

When I come home from University at night I like to check on my babies
and make sure they are ok. They are usually asleep on the sofa.
Tonight I couldn't find Wednesday, she wasn't on her favourite chair,
or in any of her usual hide-away places,
and then I spotted her....

Move over teddy!

Hmmmm, don't know about that tongue poking out! Not sure if she was lickin her lips cos she was thinking about dinner, or if she was poking it out at me cos I found her little spot! LOL

Carole ;)

If you're in Wellington....

A touch of NZ scenery

While up visiting my daughter in Inglewood, we went for a drive up the mountain. I am drawn to the mountains like a magnet, lol. Every morning while I was there I had to get up and look out the window at the mountain, to check if it was still there and see what it looked like. As if it might shift south a bit!
We went for a short walk while we were on the mountain and then went further up to the visitor centre.
The wee building above used to be the toll house for the mountain road. You had to pay to use the road, which in turn kept the road maintained. These days you don't have to pay to use the road, and I think you can stay in (hire) this little house.

It was lovely blue sky when we entered the national park. When we got to the visitor centre we could only just make out the mountain. It was drizzling and very cold.
In the other direction it was a complete white-out. The cloud appeared thick and murky. We should have been able to see the sea!
However when we turned around there was the mountain, in all it's beauty!
Beautiful and dangerous!
Carole;)

my book cover

OK, so here is my progress update on my book cover. I think it still
needs something, not sure just what however, will tinker for a while!
the typewritten note at the bottom, which I will have to do some
thing about, because it's way to pale, says:
"She searched high and low for arted hearts"
Of course the theme of my book will be hearts - if you hadn't guessed!

carole ;)

a quick link....

NZJO has added one of my bookmarks to her Treasury! What a neat surprise!
You can catch the link here if you're quick!
Thanks Jo, it is nice to see a group of varied NZ artists!


carole ;)

time to pull my finger out and get crackin!

A small group of girlfriends are making book pages for each other. We are each making a cover, and the others will make the pages to tie in with our themes. I have made a couple of attempts at my covers, but tossed them as they didn't come together as I wanted. Now Nathalie's pages have arrived, things are backing up here! LOL

Here are Nathalie's pages she has made, I will add some and send it on to the next person on the list. The page on the far right is a "night time" page, it glows in the dark! It makes a trip into the sewing room in the dark of night very exciting! LOL


But first I need to get my covers done, however, I'm on a roll - I can feel it!!! Here they are so far .....


Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

Carole ;)

a mini break

Well blogging friends, I decided to take a few days off and visit with my daughter. The second semester of university starts again on Monday and I will be busy again with study, books and assignments.
One day we decided to go into town, and while browsing the shops and streets came across the Empire Cafe and Tea Rooms. It had a whole wall of china plates. A real talking point.



Then on our way home we called into my very favourite store. It's called Faded Fancy, and I can honestly say I've never come across a store quite like it anywhere in NZ. It is chocked full of vintage linens, buttons, garments, and many other bits of history! Of course I came away with a very small package wrapped in the obligatory butterick sewing pattern paper!
I asked the owner if she would mind if I took a couple of pics and she was more than happy to let me do so.




(notice how tidy the stacks of linens are - well they weren't like that after I had finished! The owner remembered me from my last visit, and her stack of "messy" linens! lol)

As it's Friday night here in NZ, I wish you all a fantastic weekend!
Carole ;)