Blue

I made this when I was having my blue and white phase.

Taking time today to check out the blue flowers in my garden.

Blue

Blue, songs are like tattoos

You know I've been to sea before

Crown and anchor me

Or let me sail away

Hey Blue, THERE is a song for you

Ink on a pin

Underneath the skin

An empty space to fill in

Well there're so many sinking now

You've got to keep thinking

You can make it thru these waves.

by Joni Mitchell

This is what I think of when I think of the colour blue.

Blue skies, and feeling dizzy and lost in admiration when Sarah took a sky dive on her eighteenth birthday.

Here she is, the small dot in the blue, blue sky

And when I am feeling blue, then I find playing a little Bach very calming,

and listening to Murray Periahia playing Bach ( Goldberg Variations), uplifting and soothing at the same time.

and a blue sweet treat is pretty good from a blue plate. Blue shoes are cool when you are holding the hand of a tot in pink!

A Profusion of Pink

In the pink!!

My eldest granddaughter and I were having a conversation last week about colours,

"What's your favorite colour SallyNan?" she asked, and I replied

" Uumm, I think I would have to say green, and what is your favorite colour Esmae?"

Her answer...emphasized with a hop on each foot

"PINK, PINK,PINK!!

Especially pink ponies!

A pink place for the bees to buzz out of

and a plate of pink sweets .

Pink is in....definitely!

And the winner is........

I wrote all your names on yellow post it notes, folded them twice and put them all into a large tea cosy ( I couldn't find a suitable hat) . I then asked Ian to put his hand in and draw out a name, which he did with a flourish, and .......

The winner is Gillybean!

Congratulations to you Gillybean. Please email me your postal address and then I can send these on to you.

Now for a

little more patchwork

and I couldn't resist cutting some more floral squares for a simple 12 patch.

Shades of white and green

This is what I saw through my bathroom window when I was taking a shower this morning. The morning was sunny and warm and I was thinking how nice it was to see white and green together, and also thinking that it was the first day in quite a while that I haven't had to take a pain killer for my tooth as soon as I woke.All this green and white, and pain free mouth reminded me that I haven't played with any fabrics in a while and I felt compelled today to get busy with my cutter

Thank you for all your responses to my fishing contest on Monday..I shall draw the name this coming Monday , so it is not too late to be in.

I checked the settings again for the blog and everything looks good there...so Tamsin, if you are reading this, then darling I have to say....maybe it could be something you are doing or not doing?

Catching Fish

One of my daughters told me at the weekend that she is not able to leave a comment on my blog...her comment is never published and she is wondering why , and maybe there is something wrong with the format etc on my setting up page.

So I have come up with a plan. Maybe there are lots of crafty knitters, quilters, spinners and even weavers out there who are having similar difficulties leaving a comment. Now because blogs are supposed to be interactive, I thought I would throw out a line (challenge) and see if I could catch some fish (comments).

You all know how much I love sweet peas, well I have half a metre of sweet pea fabric and half a metre of NZ fabric (paua shells) to give away .

If you post a comment (if you are not able to post a comment then send me an email...email address is on my profile) on this post, then after one week I shall put all the names in a hat and draw the winner. Simple as that, and good luck!

Here are the fabrics.... enough to make bags, purses, patchwork or anything at all.

Laid Up

Having lived as a dairy farmer's wife for many, many years, I have often heard some strange and funny expressions, that I have supposed to be strictly for the farmers.

When recovering from the flu, or any other ailment that might have you scurrying to your bed, then a phone call from a friendly neighbour with the words.." so how long are you going to be laid up?" would invariably send me into fits of giggles, as I would have a mental image of being tied to the bed as if in bondage!

Anyway the last few days I have been " laid up" after having had a nasty tooth extraction on Monday afternoon.........urrrgh.I won't give you the gory details suffice to say I hope like mad I never have to have another tooth pulled( "pulled" being the gentle word to use, rather than wrenched and crunched and extracted in fragments).

Today I haven't felt like doing any of my normal chores and have spent some quiet time making this, after I had read Melissa's post this morning.

I like to make a different Christmas decoration each year and this little bird will be perfect and good to go with a gift of Christmas shortbread or truffles, though having just been given a lovely recipe for biscotti with delicious fruits and nuts, I might make that this year instead.

When I was in Wellington on Saturday I had the opportunity to visit NZ Quilter in Kilbirnie, it was just a walk away from the wonderful Maranui Cafe and I was only there for a few minutes (because they were about to close) but managed to find the latest Kumiko Sudo book "Wagashi".

It is filled with beautiful handsewn gifts to make like these. The folded fabric balls have little bells inside, and most of the gifts only take an evening or a couple of hours to make from start to finish.
I have all of Kumiko's books and I am mad about her work. Her books are full of treasures that I want to make and the fabrics she uses are delicious.

Wellington Talent

We have just returned from Wellington today, after having enjoyed two marvellous days spent in the company of some bright young people, who were buzzing with their dreams and ideas, visions and goals and basking in the knowledge that they have now finished their degrees. Our youngest son Alexander has just completed his four years at Uni and has a Bachelor of Industrial Design , so Ian and I headed off on Friday to Wellington to be at the opening of the Exhibition of all of the graduates work. It was very impressive indeed, and really exciting to see the inventions of the industrial design students, who had each produced a model or prototype of their own invention, and showed visual displays of their research and workings.
The exhibition is called Exposure 2007 and " Blown Away" and we were truly blown away by the technical skill of these students. I don't think I should show photos of the models because most of the inventions haven't been patented yet, but I can show some of the other displays:

This was displayed amongst the textiles, and there were too many people around to find out all about it, and the artist, but I couldn't resist a photo, as you can see it is all knitted !

This display was hanging in the stairwell,

And I loved this creation.

The photo doesn't do justice to the gorgeous fabrics.

Some more beautiful, stylish designs...look out Karen Walker !

More about our weekend tomorrow, but for now ,

it is ,

Wicked!

Thank you all so much for your comments on Keira's quilt. I am constantly fiddling about with the settings on my blog and must have done something accidentally, because the comments weren't showing for ages, anyway it is all fixed now...hopefully.
I did so enjoy giving the quilt to Keira yesterday. Both children displayed such delight and pleasure, and rolled around on it like two little puppies. We wrapped them in it like a colourful caterpillar and flung them on the bed. They were shrieking with glee and high excitement!

Today has been a good and bad day in a way. Good, this morning because I had a Alexander Technique session with a wonderful practitioner, and I am now able to play my violin for longer stretches of time without pain, ( YAY) but horribly bad this afternoon when I had to see the dentist about my root canal work. He is going to fix ONE tooth with root canal treatment in December ( at a cost of $1765.00) and the other tooth abscess that I hoped he would fix, well he says he is not able to, and wants me to have the tooth out next week with my own dentist.....aargh. He has given me more antibiotics to get me through the weekend.
All my life I have had horrendous treatment with my teeth, and I sometimes wonder if I should have them all removed, but that thought doesn't hang around for long. Oh dear, I am not good with pain.

Last night I did manage to knit the last few rows on my Wicked Sweater, and NO sewing up thanks to this great pattern by the zephyr style girls. This was a fairly quick knit using the lovely Colinette Jitterbug wool that I bought in I Knit London.

Now that is out of the way I want to get cracking on the wrap around top that I am making for Melissa. It is also in 4 ply and is taking me a little while because of the lace design.

If you want to check out the pattern it is here in knitty.com It is called Arisaig and I am knitting it in the same wool that the designer used.
I am going to be firm with myself and not start anything new in knitting until I have finished this. I still have the fronts and the sleeves AND the tie to do!

Finished the Quilt

It feels so good to finish this and tick another WIP off the list. I hope K will love sleeping under this and make herself a cosy little nest whenever she needs some refreshing.

We could all do with a cosy quilt or blanket to snuggle under at times. I felt like staying under my quilt this morning, I have the beginnings of another tooth abscess and I won't be seeing the specialist until Wednesday.Then on Friday I am off to Wellington to see youngest son's exhibition. He has just completed 4 years at university and Friday is a big, big, day. My tooth had better hold out. Thankfully I have Nurofen!

When I feel like staying in bed, this little friend keeps bothering me until I am up and in the shower.

I made Billie a little quilt of his own. He has grown rather attatched to it, I must say.

Silver Needlecase

When I peeped into my postbox this morning I certainly wasn't expecting to be surprised by this ....... A beautiful siver needlecase was sent to me all the way from Portugal from Zelia. I have five very tiny gold tipped quilting needles that I shall put into this needlecase, thank you so much Ze. I will always treasure it!

I have a weekend on my own so I thought I would spend the time catching up on some of the weeds in the garden and this:I am enjoying working on this quilt for Keira.The colours are bright and cheerful and also reflect Keira's personality to some extent.The zig zag blocks I added are randomly placed, it is totally unstructured and the eye is not quite sure what will come next. Keira is usually bright and cheerful, incredibly sweet and cute, but sometimes ...whoosh...a tiny mood change...and one is not quite sure what will happen next!

I have placed a brown border with crystanthumums . This design is a Kaffe Fassett and the fabrics are from his range too.

Winding Up

I wish I could say that things were winding down. I would love a big slow," almost stand still" right now, but no, life has been speeding up considerably here this week. With Summer just around the corner our holiday home accommodation business is keeping me very busy glued to the PC and phone. There has been no time for blogging or anything crafty in the last few days!

However this arrived in our mailbox this morning, and I think it is time for me to take a few minutes with a cuppa and have a little dream about future projects. I discovered this wool in Knitworld Wellington when I was there a few weeks ago. They said they would order some in for me, and I had forgotten it was coming.

So it was a lovely surprise!

Not sure what I will make . I have Issue 2 and 3 Jo Sharp designs, and the lavender wool is Alpaca Kid Lustre.The pink is Alpaca Silk Georgette...both very luxurious, sooooooooo soft !
Time for tea.