Patching away happily...

Lately Ive been preoccupied doing this mystery block month for the Christmas Mystery quilt over at Susan claires. For some reason I had no end of problems with what should have been a easy lock. Everything went wrong..including the cutting too small of about a million rectangles. (Measure twice, cut once, measure twice, cut once. I.MUST.REMEMBER.THIS.MANTRA). Anyway thank goodness withonly days to go efore this lock dissappears from where I can down load it free, it is done. Which means I can now proceed with sashing a plenty from crazy moms

block a day quilt-the first one although the second one is going along now if you want to join.

Today I went to the op shop and found two neat patchwork books and a hexagon pieced needle cushion. It is my bargin for the week at 50 cents! I am woefully short of pin cushions. I was given my first one earlier this year and this is my second!!

Another magazine find from a secondhand bookstore earlier this week has given me a passion for making a scrap quilt from postage stamp pieces. I am furiously cutting up two inch squares for a future project. I debating whether to use light blue and black hourglass blocks that brings it all together ala Amish style.

On the garden front I have been busy planting strawberry plants around the place. I have been finding quite mingin but perfectly fine plants at the supermarket and with the whiff of spring in the wind have been spending more time pondering in the garden dreaming of planting . We had a huge frost this morning. it was very pretty and white but I did fear for my spinach plants. Oh well time will tell with these I spose.

Have a happy patchwork piecing day

Love Cherry

Windy weather

Wow last night the place was so windy i thought we were going to loose the house. it was actually quite scary and woke us all up. i feared for my new spinach and strawberry seedlings i planted but consoled myself that the first 24 hours of their newly sewn life were in mild and light rainy conditions. (I checked this morning and they seem fine) I was calming little Alex down y telling her that we were safe inside the house whilst the wee birds outside were probably getting blown out of their nest s and sure enough after the wind had died down some and we were all settling back I was awoken b y the sound of a bird call cut short by the crunching of little bird bones..not something I enjoy hearing at any time.
Georgias early toddler album fell to bits prompting me to start scrapping the pages. i got this wonderful thick tome from the library and copied a lot of layouts from there (im unable to come up with ideas on my own!). This book showed layouts using quilting templates -WOW- Id never thought of that and this pinwheel one shows how you can use lots of photos up in this way.For my next trick tumbling blocks and dresdon circle!!







And here at last the completed quilt for Alexs room TA DA!! It was worth my munted bleeding fingers in the end, and I felt a relief off my shoulders when done. I love sewing so much but sometimes its not fun when other projects need finishing and you have plans rolling around in your head for others in your head (Im sure im crafty ADAH) Anyway despite all the plans and the urgent finishings (The quilt a day sashing and the mystery quilt of the month blocks) the thing we are doing today is prep for tomorrow. For tomorrow is back to school. After late nights and sleep ins Im not sure how tomorow morning will go!! And the mess from two weeks is phenomonel!

Anyway duty to housewifery calls so ill sign off for now,

Happy scrappin' or quiltin" wherever you are

Love Cherry

Spring is in the air!!

I hate to bring bad news to any one in the Northern hemisphere BUT Spring is only 6 weeks away!! After rain and colder than cold temperatures, after hawkes bay hospital intensive care ward filled to its capacity with swine flu. Frosts like never seen before snow down to low temps unlike ever.....today is a warm, springish calm appealing kind of day. I went out into the front yard and was greeted by piles of sodden rotten leaves so composted that worms had taken up residence in them! It was all so very overwhelming as I knew the back yard thanks to our demented labrodor and two weeks of school holidays as well as the usual wintering of the garden was far far worse. But I made a start and I have to say three hours on it all looks better. I got especially excited when I saw new growth on the strawberries and bulbs eginning to poke their heads up through the cold earth. When that happens I always start to think of what to plant soon hwich fills me with more enthusiasm for the task at hand. Im thinking that i will be buying more strawberries as for some reason I havent got any lttle runners to replant this year. Oh and spinach. This springtime will be the spring of spinach.! I havent got any photos to post, my camera seems to have done a runner so Im posting some of my favourite hand made dolls. On the craft front I have a million projects in my head and three quilts left to samwhich. Alexs quilt is on the binding stage. Im enjoying this as we all watch Days of our lives in the afternoon. I come and go on this programme but at the moment, years ehind USA as we are we are atching marlena the serial killer at work!! Even the girls are intrigues by this storyline . For a soap opera Days is so much an unbeliveable storyline but so watchable!! However the slowness of the thing drives me mad. its like ..find the killer already!! Quite often I read the archives on the internet to let me know whats happeneing or i may well throw something at the tv!
Yesterday we were the first people in NZ to watch the harry Potter film (well us and30,00 more people apparently!)Compared to the first films i thought it was very much for the older viewer and quite hard to understand. The girls liked it although Alex thought it was a bit borin g (and they are HUGE Harry fans) and there seemed to be less than a spell bound audience, Lots of talking, jumping up and down and not much attention to the film. A lot of the audince were teenagers too.
School goes back on Monday. Its funny now all bar one of our family goes back to School. I am determined to bring myself and my kids to more organisation in the morning. Without Namimg names I have one particular bug bear in the morning who when her Dad leaves often goes off to hell in a handcart! Its not fun for anyone and if I leave my children in a bad way after School drop off I feel bad and awful the rest of the day.

Okay Im off now to have a coffee have some lunch and catch up with some binding and then I think Il just head on out to the garden again...

happy gardeninLove Cherry

Schoo holidays and te papa

My blog has been poorly attended of late. its not that I havent got lots to blog about rather just an appalling effort to sit at the computer and do something. We are into the second week of the holidays. It is bliss except that I dont get paid! Actually its not such a biggie in the term holidays but over the six week Christmas holidays.... Im going to have to begin saving money in my account so that I have a stockpile over Xmas and i guess Im going to have to start NOW!
We stayed with friends in Wellington for a few days and visited Te Papa. Wow what an experience.It was so educational and such a lot to do. The kids were in heaven. They especially loved this old fashioned shop..

We also saw the collossal squid. Amazing. We spent the better part of a day there and still didnt see it all. The next day we went to the zoo. I think we all agreed the chimps were the most entertaining there was one who held out his hand and blew raspberries when he asked the keeper for fruit. I got loads of photos but they are on my non digital SLR.
After our term off activitiesIi am ready to charge up again into term three. Georgia has said she will happily resume singing lessons, but doesnt ant to go near piano..which means we have a baby grand upstairs gathering dust.. Alex will continue her swimming lessons and they both will be riding. Ive been busy buying riding boots and jodphers from trade me. Unfortunately the items havent been as well represented as in the photos and Im having to still do things, like sew up the jodphers and buy insoles for the crappy inners of the boots. Oh well you pays your money you takes your chances as my favourite old PM once said!

Last night over Brothers and sisters (Is Kitty really going to have an affair?!) I finished up Alexs quilt all except the binding. My fingers are absolutely munted just swollen bleeding cracked masses of painful skin. I couldnt seem to find my leather thimble and then when I did it was always on the wrong fingers or falling off. Anyway I put the blunt end the needle through my finger so many times that in the end they just cracked all by themselves as soon as it happened again. In a bizzarre way Im quite proud of my quilters fingers, its a sign of my hobby!!

Freezing cold weather here, rain and rain and blah. And all weve got is wet wood. And wet wood doesnt urn or it takes hours to do so leaving only the barest hint of warm in the room. Why oh why did i not sort out the wood situation in summer. (I think I ask this question every winter)

We have almost finished wallpapering Alexs room. But ran out of paper! It looks fantastic my GHIU is so clever and practical! I cant wait to get the quilt on the bed and post some pics!

Im going too catch up with some blogs now. Crazy mom quilts has finished her quilt a day project which I was following and Im keen to egin to put this quilt together..after binding and labelling Alexs quilt, and after finishing my mystery quilt locks for this month and after samwhiching my civil war quilt, THEN I can do the quilt a day!

happy quilting, Keep warm

Love Cherry