It’s January and the summer weather has well and truly arrived. Hot, humid days. Nights too hot to sleep. I have never lived in a house with double glazing before now. It might be great in winter, but in summer I have decided that leaky, wooden windows definitely help keep the air circulating better.

A quick catch up on what I have achieved since last posting.

I have started the Quilt Show BOM. The first block is nowhere near finished, but I have bought enough fabric to add variety to the quilt, and all the templates for the month are prepared. I got reacquainted with my fabric stash whilst searching for the right mix of colours, and came to the conclusion I need more darks, and fewer mid-values. Of course everything I have bought since has been mid-value. I love Free Spirit fabrics, and have noticed that most of what I buy is all the same, value-wise. However, I think that reflects the fabric range, rather than my unconscious bias.

Clara and Klaus the friendly mallard ducks have been hanging around for weeks now. We have purchased poultry food, and take them a cup full when they arrive. If we’re not fast enough with our service, they either increase the volume or come peck on the conservatory window to hurry us along.

Otherwise I have been crocheting a new blanket. It will get cold eventually, and then I’ll be grateful. In the meanwhile it’s very warm under the pile of wool being fashioned into a lap rug. Air conditioning helps!

Exercise-wise it’s been New Year, new me. I have been up the mountain twice to wander around bush tracks, photographing the local botany. The plants in this region are similar to those I remember from my doctoral studies, but with some local subspecies thrown in. It’s been a decade since I left the field, so long enough that I am submitting photos to search engines because my memories have faded. The bush is still my happy place, despite years spent living in town, without easy access to the mountains.

This beauty is Ourisia macrophylla, excuse the lack of italics. It’s currently flowering at mid-altitudes all along the pathways.

Otherwise I have had a quiet start to the year. I’ve resisted the urge to join anymore clubs, groups or BOM’s, and have instead picked up forms to fill out so I can start volunteering again. I’m hopefully going to start at the local Hospice shop, sorting donations. I prefer a back room job, away from the retail side of things. Opening boxes is fun, except when they contain dead insects….or live. I’ve gotten pretty used to chasing cockroaches that arrive in donations, and not freaking out.

I almost forgot about my latest Jen Kingwell quilt, Flutterby. I have finally started sewing it together, with the bottom two rows constructed. It will need borders, but I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. It’s constructed primarily from Jen’s fabrics, and I am feeling so-so about the whole quilt. It will probably end up being donated or gifted I think. 

That’s it for now. I guess the challenge this month is to finish Block 1 of the BOM, and make a little more progress on Flutterby. Audrey has also released the next hints on her QAL, so I need to start thinking of borders and corner squares. I think it’s time to buckle down and get some quilting done. 

Time marches on.

 I haven’t blogged for many years now. I’ve lurked, read and left comments on other’s blogs, but left mine to collect virtual mothballs. However, in the interests of participating in a QAL, I thought it time to resurrect my blog.

I named the blog after my Grandmother, Syd. She was an amazing woman who knew how to make a little go a long way, and had an amazing impact on my life. She raised three kids by herself in the days before welfare assistance, and knew how to do everything from gardening, home repairs, wood work to car maintenance. She was a parent to me during my university years, when I came to the "Big Smoke" from our isolated rural property. She was smart, acerbic, ruled by routines, generous and yet careful of every penny spent. She taught me that whatever happens, you pick yourself up and just keep going. These days we call it resilience.

I’m needing to practice that resilience at the moment.

We have changed regions this year so I could live closer to my remaining parent. It's a much smaller place, a few shops, a couple of supermarkets. I thought it would be fine until it came time to buy Christmas presents. Boy did I miss living close to a shopping mall then.

Mum has a love of lighting fires (not a pyromaniac I assure you), and my Sister definitely won the "Best Christmas Present" award this year by letting Mum light this fire on her farm. Living in town now, she's not allowed to light fires at home anymore. She finds this quite difficult after a lifetime of lighting spontaneous bonfires to get rid of things she later decided she should have kept, like beds, chairs and suitcases. So far my quilts have escaped the fires.....

So, creative challenges for 2024 to increase my resilience by sparking joy? Not set in stone, but I may do a BOM for the first time. I'm just a little averse to group activities, but Jen Kingwell is doing The Quilt Show 2024 BOM, and the temptation to join in is very great indeed. 

Isn't she a thing of beauty? I'm a Jen Kingwell fangirl, unashamedly. I have made quite a few of her quilts, some multiple times, and two are currently on my bed.

I have also admired the work of Audrey from Quilty Folk for a long time and have wished that I could take a class from her. Her new QAL is my opportunity to learn more and see if a spontaneous and appliqué based quilting style is something that I can embrace for myself. If you want to check it out, follow the link below to the QAL.

https://quiltyfolk.blogspot.com/p/bramble-blooms-qal-posts.html

I have also bought a Lap App, so I can sit in a comfy chair, and do more slow stitch. There is something very therapeutic about stabbing fabric with tiny needles, repetitively. The new book from Fleur Woods, a Kiwi artist, will guide me on this journey.

Otherwise, I have  a couple of WIP's to finish.....neither of which is doing anything for me. They might go in the naughty corner for a while.

Well, that's it for now. I have disabled comments on this blog, as I found replying to the comments one of the things that contributed to me stopping blogging. As an introvert who is already pretty overloaded with social commitments, I just want a place to come and write and record. Something to look back on at the end of the year, to see if the year did in fact pass in the blink of an eye, or if I paused sufficiently along the way to take note, and create.

Plus, the internet has grown to be a place not necessarily known for its positive interactions. So, I'm just avoiding the fuss.

See you next time, and here's to a pleasant memory.

Silica Rapids Walkway, Tongariro National Park. First person on the walkway after a fall of snow, a  lifetime ago...

I have moved....

Just to let you know, I have a new home at  Quilts across the aisle.

See you there.

Autumn in the garden

Between the rain showers....

Beneath the silver birch, the fungi are emerging...

pushing the soft, wet soil out of the way.

The crab apples await the arrival of flocks of hungry wax-eyes.

Pure white nerines....

and a camellia named after Christmas, but trapped in the wrong hemisphere.

The hydrangeas have faded....

and the hostas are rotting, turning into a brown, slimy mess.

A bright note of colour.

The last of the birch leaves, attached to skeletal branches, outlined against a winter sky.

A quilt for Zaden

Well, instead of finishing the Postage Stamp Quilt, I made another quilt top, and have just finished pin-basting it.

I must say, the floor is very far away these days, and I'm not sure knees are supposed to make audible noises when you unbend them. I may have to investigate a spray glue to baste in future. Or, start taking some joint supplements. I would baste on the table, but my daughter has appropriated that on a permanent basis for her quilting.

Nevertheless, the pinning is done, and the top is ready to be quilted.

Its a very tight squeeze in my kitchen fitting a quilt top in. But since it's the only non-carpeted floor, other than the laundry, I make do. The kitchen was "designed" in the 1980's. I use the word "designed" very loosely, since the set-up is bizarre, and the kitchen is so bad I stopped baking when we arrived here. Probably a good thing, considering I also stopped exercising.

We were going to renovate the kitchen after we bought the house, but life happened, and now the renovations are on hold. I am determined to get rid of that blue this summer though!

Of course I was interrupted just before the finish by an insistent cat, so I ended up trimming the quilt with some company.

The quilt is for my niece, Zaden. Her step-siblings were all given name quilts when they were born, and she has been apparently asking where hers is.

The letter blocks are from a Dr Suess panel, surrounded by some grey homespun from Spotlight, and some lightweight canvas with a multi-coloured arrow print. The backing fabric is a lightweight denim that I found for only $3.50/m at Murray's Emporium.  It's an unusual mix, but with the fabrics pre-washed, I am hoping it will be okay. The quilt has to be hard wearing, so I chose the materials with that in mind.

For the quilting I plan to either run straight lines down the quilt, or do a simple grid.

First I suspect I had better clean my sewing machine, and  buy some jeans needles.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts.

Kapiti Quilt Show Part 2

Since one blog post would be ridiculously photo heavy, I thought I'd post the remaining photos today. These were not prize winners, but lovely quilts that tempted me to start something new.

Behind me temptation!

Not all of these have labels. Note to self for next time, take photo's of all labels.

Lovely stitchery in Celebrating the new kitchen by Margeret Jones.

White diamonds by Alison Tierney

Mrs Zebra by Judy Boyle.

The following three quilts were made during a Griet Lombard class, called "Fading Roses".

Thats the last of the photo's. Todays task, now that I have vacuumed, done laundry, cleaned a child's bedroom, gone grocery shopping and booked the car and my teeth in for a service......is to relax with some hand quilting.

This afternoon I might try basting Zayden's quilt. More on that later in the week.

Kapiti Quilters Show

 I managed to drag the hubby along to a quilt show this weekend, solely because it was held in the Southward Car Museum. At only $17 entry, it was cheap entertainment for the period of time he spent.

Needless to say, although I have since sit through his car photo's, he won't be reviewing any of the beautiful quilts that were on show.

The vendors were out in force, and I managed to find some Art Gallery Fabric, a rare event in NZ. I also stocked up on some newish Kaffe fabrics to enhance the stash.

A few of my favourite quilts, which also happened to be prize winners are below:

Climb every mountain by Valerie Cameron, and quilted by Maria Munro.

Sustainable Development by Sara Boland

Some of the detail, I love the use of text and hand stitching.

Magnum Opus by Barbara Jones

Crystal's Quilt by Sandra Killin

Jewel Box by Sandra White

We finished the morning by going down the coast, though it wasn't really the weather for beach visiting. Even the birds were having a tough time of it. Just a grey, autumnal day, though at least it wasn't raining. Roll on spring!