Autumn ramblings

Can I just say that this morning it has been a pleasure to hang out the clothes on the line in the bright Autumnal sunshine. It is at this precise time of year that I begin to appreciate and indeed remember just how cold winter is. The mornings are mornings of stinging feet and rushes to the cold bathroom, of children reluctant to leave their cosy beds yet still dressing in shorts and shaking off their jandals at the school gate... Last night I stayed up late to watch an intriguing yet weird movie "Deja Vue" and by the time I crept into bed my feet were frozen rocks. I tried to warm them upon the GHiu but he was having none of it and booted my feet across to my side. I kept doing it but then he employed the pressure point to the small of my back (its a self defense move) and that kept me away permantly. I can no bug him when pain is involved!! It took hours to warm up my toes, infact Im sure they were still frozen when I woke up in the early hours. It was while slowly freezing last night that I wondered how long the frugal me could avoid lighting the fire and using the dryer. Its easy to think as summer cools down to be fooled into thinking that with an extra layer of clothes some slippers and a quilt or two we could avoid heating,thus saving us money/the environment etc, but last night I realised that as always that is an impossible plan.
The pool has turned sea green and the garden has gone mad. Sadly my watermelons never reached any kind of maturation and have died off and my chillies and peppers are making a late run of it. The roma tomatoes are blooming as tomatoes do and are gorgeous lightly fried and on toast. I cant preserve these are they are low acid, but they are so cute and tasty and great growers I will be saving their seeds. (when I remember..) This quilt is finished. I am not even a bit happy with it. There were mistakes upon mistakes, but I have no time to make another. I will be hiding it under the other glorious quilts at the shop and had a thought that I should offer to sew all the labels on the quilts going to Victoria thus enjoying other peoples sumptious quilts and doing something further to help.

And this is my finished efforts at this mystery quilt. Of course I did it completetly wrong. First I didnt cut enough then I kept sewing them together wrong,then I sewed all of these twelve blocked together..more unpicking..I wonder what it is in me that I cant understand basic instructions?I am definately a visual learning person. I wonder if it has any thing to do with my possibly having discalculia??

Anyway of all things I look forward to in April: singing comps, SInbad the musical, GHIU birthday, easter and eggs and eggs and eggs, I now have a new one..the next instalment of this quilt. Im really enjoying a mystery quilt, especially as its Christmas and that I have a month to do each block (And I need it!)

Happy Autumnal quilting to you all

Love a slightly frosty Cherrry

Stash Busting? Nah ah

So, There I was in the city of napier..I was picking these sheepskins up. Arnt they beautiful? They have the stench of betrayal tho. GHIU slaughtered them for friends and I decided to have the skins tanned. These ram lambs were not pets..well they werent meant to be, but they did walk themselves to the woolshed to their slaughter and they did have names. Big mama is the topskin and ELvis is the bottom...I felt quite awful,and lamb deaths although quick and humane seem very long and drawn out to me.Gurgling, kicking for AGES etc. I mean there are dead already but the body is stillkicking away. And Im not well right now, quiet chesty and no voice (Hurray says GHIU!) and so the peaches that I bought yesterday I thought I would put off til tomorrow, but then I did them. Why did I do them?

This is why. This is yesterdays guilty product. Two one metre lengths of colourful fabric from Spotlight. Because with the fabric I used on the drawstring bags I thought I had heaps left over and together with these two fabrics they would make a lovely bright pinwheels quilt pulled together with a -as yet unbought- light spotted pink or white fabric. Alex has a quilt that is A seasame street one and I think its time she had a bright girly one.

Then today after picking up the skins and being too early to meet GHIU for smoko(,morning teaspeak in Kiwi).. I walked into the local quilt shop. I have been following this

mystery quilt but didnt have appropriate fabrics other than the odd bit, so I splashed out on these..

Then on the way home I pulled in to this shop in Taradale because they have cheap older mags. But I found this new Fons and porter mag. 16.80$ in cost. Flicking thru I found this pattern. I.Love.it. In my copuntry house. I could actually see it on the wall! But the cost! I put the mag down,then up, then down, then up..the shop lady began to give me THE LOOK.. I backed away. FOr that cost I could buy fabrics. But what. I couldnt find anything repo, spots for my pinwheel quilt..no Ill get sheaper stuff from Spotlight for them,besides I cant do that until Ive done the repo top at least, and finished quilting the victorian quilt. SO back I went to this mag. And I only picked it u;p twice more before ruswhing to the counter. Its the recession I cant afford this!! SO I rung up GHIU and confessed...he never believes I pay 2.00$ per old mag from here anyway.. and then I headed to the kitchen toclean and bottle.With my Ipod on I gor past the sick feeling and whizzed around and if I did feela bit yuk then it was only penance for my sins!

Im going to collect fabric for this quilt.... I CANT buy anymore now can I!

Happy sewing in the early Autumn sunshine

Cherry

The photo closer and clarified...

Perhaps I should have done this earlier... Has anyone seen photos like this before. We had

this in our possession all my growing up years and I never noticed a thing til I had it enlarged and put on the computer. I wonder what Dad would say if he could see this image. The photo was taken in the 50s. The images arnt so clear here but if you look carefully...

Its Autumn!!

This is a lovely old photo of my Dads that I took in my possession when he died. It was on his farm where he duckshot every since he was a boy til a year before he passed. I had it on my screen saver for a while as I felt close to him. The GHIU pointed out some truly startling things in this photo. Can you see them..you may have to enlarge the photo. This photo then scared me for a while but now it no longer does. Although I would love to know more. Every now and then the lake produces human bones..early Maori bones, it was close to the place where Maori wars took place and their are Maori feeding pits around the hill (Where the ewes have their lambs now safe from wind and where growing up my Dad took close views of the horizon for incoming Japanese planes in WW2. I found them great horsejumping ditches myself!!

Autumn is here..peaches in the pantry.

Swimming Sports.

Well its cold enough to be so anyway. I can hardly believe that not so long ago we were absoulutelu sweltering and now just like that oine good southerly seems to have bought Autumn and the promise of cold Winter. Actually after reading the American blogs Ive been expecting a cold winter. As in every Autumn I ve been doing some peaches and this year some fruit salad preserves too. Peaches though Have been expensive and Im having to wait until the GHIU payday to do anymore! Still the pantry is looking brighter for the few I have done. I was reading a really good (they are all really good but this was REALLY good..) post over at Rhondas site. She talks about survivng the hard times and has said that in times of great financial depression the best commoidty is life skills. So true. She had some great ideas on there, some of which I am doing (more hand washing clothes). Im lucky to enjoy donmestic skills and as you know crave more and more self sufficiency, and the GHIU is an excellant hunter gatherer and general farm man with out a farm. In short he could do anything, He the one every fights over to be a diving buddy and hes the one who gets the phone calls to kill sheep, goats,chooks etc. Very handy!!

Twyford School had their swimming sports,as usual far toolate in the season in the freezing cold pools. The JUniors were cancelled, but Georgia swamlike a Champion winning the girls freestyle, 2nd in the team relay and 3rd in the Breastroke. It was so cold and there were many many shivering bodies afterward. Strangly thought when A free swim was called for after the events, everyone forgot about the cold and was using the high dive board and pool to have some datring dives. Georgia too...Youd never get me up there..

I am making progress on my Victorian Fire Survivors quilt. I cannot find my thimble tho and my thumb is lloking worse for wear and im sure all quilters know the pain of continually having a eye needleend stuck in the thumb! Nuf said..

Its quite sad to look out at our recently unused pool collecting debris on the bottom. The GHIU is planning on covering it up for winter soon. Sigh.

Have a happy quilty day

Cherry

A bit of thisandthat

My keyboard is playing upso Illkeepthis short... Swimming sports wasgreat fun Georgia swum really well...there were heaps of schools involved . Ive been busy making drawstring bags for the girls after seeing some needones at camp. I was quite pleased with these...got the pattern of Sew mama site.

This charity scrap quilt nowwill have a home..I visited my quilt shop yesterday and they are making quiltwsforther Victorian fire survivors. They gave me some freewadding to finish my quilt! There were somereal beauties out there. Im not that pleased with mine howeverI am hoping that it quiltuipbetter. I wish I had moretimeto make a better one but these babies have tobe sent off in a few weeks. They are also taking donations of blocks materials and time as wellas sewong notions tomake up packs for sewers who have lost everything. Iwould like to support this too. I was going to go out today and sit and sew in the shop with the other volunteers but I really have to get preserving some golden queen peaches for my pantry. Oh the quilton the table I am forthe first time in recorded history basing it. I have not enough safety pins and my quilt frame is ??? so it was out of necessity but now Im doing itand as long as it is taking I am enjoying the process.. This keyboard sucks!!!

BeforeIgo could "Harriet" please leave another comment. I tried tolook up youir site butcouldnt and itseems as if you must know us going by your comments reecntlt. I would really loveto know who you are!!

Happy sewing

Cherry

Back from Camp...

A brief over veiw...
Lots of Tubing (riding down the river rapids on tubes)













Happy tubers..












Lots of Gannets at Cape kidnappers..NZ largest gannet colony..and I did make it up the hill..these photos are the evidence. Can I just say that the Coloney STINKS...reallt stinks like no other bird coloney ever did. And when you have just climber this steep long hill to get there and stand at the top taking in long deep lungfuls of air to get your breathe back,,well..its not nice!!













Riding on the tractors ro get to the colony..theres something fun about riding on tractor trailors along the beach..no matter what your age!!

We did field work too, lots of river studies and scientic studies..

I so enjoyed being Camp Mum and its just reinstated my desire to become a teachers aide.

Im very tired and Georgia is too . No time for rest though. Georgia is in a musical at Easter and theres a five hour rehearsal this afternoon and tomorrow there is the interschool swimming sports for which she has been chosen for our Schools team..Onward, onward..

Happy camping

Cherry

Things that make me Happy..

Things that make me happy:

Alex doing her homework and reading so well now...despite severe dylexia.

Patricia Cornwell latest book "Scarpetta" I had to stay up until the wee hours to finish this one...

And using my old repo fabric in my repo quilt. Actually it was quite heartbreaking to take the fabric out of the brown wrapping so I took a photo.. Now of course I wish Id bought bolts of the stuff while it was in front of my nose ..Anyone reading this live in KeriKeri?!

I had a good talk to the ladies at the Quitling shop in the country that I haunt here

and she was saying that the USA is quite a way ahead of us in quilting trends (No..!!) and that we were just getting on the repo bandwagon and could expect the shelves to fill up with repo fabrics soon (Yah!!). In the meantime I was getting a bit sick of sewing little two and a half nine patch and four patch squares and so I bought some repo fabric in red for the setting rectangles. Ill have to post a photo. The original stated pink but I have used red and hope it works!!

Im off to School camp for threee days with Georgia ..Ive always wanted to be Camp MUM!! We are going not too far, just to Cape Kidnappers to study the Gannet colony , the stars and the river life. I am DREADING climbing the Cape. I may have to bring my lumber arthritis/hip pain/ archilles heel injury into play when infact I will be stopping simply because I will be STUFFED!!!

I expect to come back sleep deprived and needing several days off.

Keep happy , campers

Love Cherry

PS Hello Ngaire!!! Glad to hear you in the comments. I would love the mags!!! Yes we are at the same phone number...awaiting that big change when the country beckons finally. Youll have to fill up your blog with your life. Its so great to catch up via the blogging world!!! Hope yoiu are all well, and Im glad you read my blog!!