Fiddling and Fadling with little Progress

More than a month has passed since my last post and as the title suggests there has been little progress to report.

I am still working on my clamshell quilt, if you remember back to a previous post when I referred to myself as the queen of starts, it really made me think just how many projects I have on the go. That thought just depressed me. I needed to take stock and stay focussed on the tasks at hand.

This project is not happening as quickly as I would like, although I have to say I am really loving it as I get to play with lots of pieces of my favourite fabrics.

it is growing all be it slowly.

Of course there is also some cross stitching on the go, I need this for the traffic lights. I can't bear to be sitting in traffic or at traffic lights without some stitching, that is just an utter waste of time.

Blackbird Designs is one of my most favourite designers atm, their projects are lovely to stitch, they have loads of lovely pinkeeps and samplers and pincushions (a girl can never have enough pincushions, needlebooks and scissor fobs).

This project is the 'Peacock Pinkeep' you get to sew on lovely linen using luscious silk threads in such wonderful colours. They really take no time to stitch , one just needs to set aside some time to make them up.

Hopefully I will have some finished items to show you soon.

I have also mentioned in previous posts the wonderful fabric club from Patchwork on Stonleigh.

This year Susan and Christime have decided instead of a pattern each mailout to have a type of 'Block of the Mailout'. It is based on an old cross stitched sampler. I think the centre is going to be pieced in some way but the outside borders are based on old basket motifs. I am going to have my backgrounds on different sized black spots on an off white .

These baskets are in my favourite shade, Raspberry.

Once again we are in the Port Stephens area for the Easter break, fortunately the weather is behaving.

On my walk this morning it was wonderful to see families out enjoying the lovely weather, catching the end of season swims and hoping to catch something to cook on the barbie.

It was just so peaceful , wonderful for recharging my very depleted batteries.

The local council have done a lot of work on the Bridle Path , there are some magnificent native trees

this being a favourite, isn't the bark amazing, the tree almost looks barkless.Iykwim

I hope it won't be too long before posts but I must confess I have a huge project on at work. We are in the process of migrating our computer system to our parent company's system. This involves loads of testing, loads of communication with my German colleagues (language barriers). This is really zapping me of all my mental strength, please bear with me , this should be over at the beginning of June.

Wishing you all much happiness this Easter.

j

A Very Wet Brissy

My travels for work have commenced for 2010, first city off the rank is Brisbane in the state of Queensland.
Brisbane is supposed to turn on good weather, it has not stopped raining since I touched down on Sunday evening. Added to that the humidity is running at about 100% or so it feels.
Today we are expecting gale force winds, hopefully that will blow the humidity away. as always on my travels I need my trusty companion(not Mr L & R this time). Thought you might like a look at what makes it into a girls travelling bags

this was the result of last nights effort in between watching My Kitchen Rules, blog surfing and a little cross stitch.

oh well off for another day, I hope you all have a great day

j

The Queen of Starts and some of her Travels

I have decided to give myself a title 'The queen of Starts'. I just can't help myself , there are so many quilts to be made and just not enough years, so I have to start them all.
These elongated hexagons are to go around the centre of the Nancy Horsfall crib quilt. I love fussy cutting, so I just keep making them and when the centre is complete I will then decide which ones will make the cut. I bought a vintage sheet whilst on my travels in New Zealand ,I will applique these blocks onto it , when I can bring myself to chop it up.

I am still working on my clamshell quilt, yep, I am still loving making that, it hasn't been cast aside just yet. I needed a top up of shirting's for the alternate rows.

I also needed a little stash enhancement, some for fussy cutting, some for clams and some to just admire.

Just recently a family member moved into an apartment opposite the Sydney Opera house, we spent our afternoon today just admiring this wonderful view, celebrating an aunts birthday.

it is just a block away from the grounds of Admiralty House (the home of the Governor General). That sign you can see placed in the garden is saying trespassing is not permitted.

just to the right of our view is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, if you look closely you can notice some climbers on the top. For anyone thinking of visiting Sydney a bridge climb is a worthy venture. The view from the top of the bridge is spectacular.

as the afternoon unfolded, the harbour became busier, unfortunately the promised rain made an appearance and the wind whipped up the water making it very choppy.

On our recent trip to NZ we visited a place called Mangawhai. Mangawhai is north of Auckland and the reason for our visit was my SIL had read somewhere that a company called Bennett's chocolates had relocated from Murawai to Mungawhai. We were out and about and had been to Matakana farmers markets, so we dialed up the I phones (as you do) and put the sat nav to use to get us to our destination.

Let me say it was worth the drive, we could have been somewhere in Tuscany. we arrived to fine this huge Italian like villa.
We were greeted by these huge gate like doors and cobbled floors.

The car park gardens were planted with olive trees and lavender, the silver and mauve colours and some of my favourite.

This huge building which is such a destination houses a cafe/restaurant, which I might add serves delicious well presented food.

They have obviously been on an overseas buying trip , they have some wonderful pieces , like this trough

and this old stone sideboard type cupboard.

a sample of soup that was on the menu that day.

scattered throughout the place there were huge urns that were bulging with succulents

very Italian like water features

more plants on very rustic tables

a shaded courtyard

floral arrangements adorning the tables
I so wanted to bring this stone sideboard home
as well as this building housing a cafe/ restaurant, there is also a deli/ supermarket/ green grocer, you can use these lovely basket to gather your items to purchase

Behind these doors is the Chocolatier

They make divine chocolate, we purchased some fejoa flavoured chocolate, it was yummy

There were many flavours, shapes and sizes, unfortunately I couldn't find any that had zero calories

I must add that the decorating of the chocolatier was very french like and the walls were adorned with huge mirrors that had that old mercury type silver so they had that aged patina about them. Gorgeous old chairs with plump linen cushions and lovely washed timber tables that held urns of succulents.



This building also housed a Gelateria, none of us can go past a Gelato so we sat in the courtyard and one to finish off our wonderful outing.

I can highly recommend this place, if you are in Auckland or are planning a visit to Auckland it is well worth the drive, beautiful countryside en route.

I hope you all have a wonderful week , happiness in whatever you do.

I hope you to have some new starts

j

Raglan , New Zealand

Raglan is well known for its surfing beach, my brother and sister in law often fly their plane to Raglan to have lunch. It has always been a place we would like to visit.
As a surprise my brother hired a four seater (his plane is a two seater) Piper Cherokee to take us all to Raglan for lunch. He is keeping a watchful eye on the fueler, I thought this photo was amusing as his stance is a family trait. I could also be looking at my father, he used to have the exact stance, legs crossed and hand under the chin.

everything all done and checked, it is time to start loading. I was the lucky one I got to sit in the front which meant I didn't need to get in until last , it was a very hot day and the plane was quite warm inside, until we got airborne.

Here is where we were headed.

Surprisingly Auckland is quite green, they are desperately in need of some rain.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch and a wander around this coastal town. Well worth a visit if you are in NZ. It is approx 2 1/2 hr drive from Auckland. Dotted with lovely cafes and gift shops.
Time to think about getting back to Auckland

A final check before we all pile in and make the return journey

After the most wonderful afternoon it was time to return to Ardmore (Auckland light aircraft airport)

Happy Times

j

Can You Guess Our Destination ?

Maybe you are thinking this could be the south of France mmm Still looking like France, maybe somewhere in Provence

The gorgeous rusted iron fence, the overgrown Lavender, Blue flowers , Cypress trees, maybe it is Italy !

This window and door is just beckoning to come inside.

it is just as divine inside

A vista in every corner

You have probably gathered by the tags on each item that these goods are for sale.

It is a wonderful antique shop, full to the brim with items to tempt.

not in Italy, not in France

in Christchurch, New Zealand.

We have just returned from 10 fantastic days in my homeland.

Mr L & R and I celebrated 25 years of marraiage on the 9th February and as we married in New Zealand , we figured we should return to celebrate and catch up with family.

I have loads of wonderful pictures and memories to share.

I will update over the next couple of days and then I will show some sewing, after all this is really what this blog is about.

Happy creating

j