I've been captured.....

I've been captured by a hobby - quilting. I knew this would happen.

For years I had wanted to take some lessons in quilting but I knew that it was not a good idea until I had the time to devote to it. I have always been inclined to enjoy creative pastimes and also sewing.

When our four children were little I sewed most of their clothes until the boys began wearing jeans and our daughter began to covet the occasional designer label. There was not the variety of affordable childrens clothes to buy in the shops either and it was much more fun to make them.

And - when we we went off to our summer home, you would never believe this - I took my sewing machine on holiday with me. HOW SAD is THAT! I justified it this way - the sun is far too strong for me to venture out for several hours each day, so I opened up both ranch sliders and set up my machine at the table where the breeze flowed through and it was actually very pleasant. When the family all arrived I just packed it all up again. I worked on the project shown - another applique quilt.

This is my latest childrens quilt made for a much loved nephew. As with the others I have made, I have put a dedication on the back. His reads -

To XXXXX, with love from Auntie xxxx, 'Quilts are like love, they keep you warm'

Underneath the quote I have made two pockets so I can hide a lolly or a note in when I come to visit.

And it is the last full size quilt I will do for a while. My next projects are a couple of cot sized quilts. With another grandchild due in July I have some good ideas just waiting to be actioned.

My latest quilts

I have been working on these appliqued quilts for many months, in fact probably on and off all year. It is so satisfying to see them finished.

And the little boys just love them! As with a quilt I did last year for their sister, I put a dedication on the back with a 'secret' pocket in it to slip a lolly or a note into when I come to visit.

The quilt on the left is entitled the Lunch Bunch, and the other is Mum and Me.

No rest for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand

I feel so very sorry for the people of Christchurch. The stress they live under is unimaginable.

I was talking to my cousin a few nights ago, he and his family live in a small town close to Christchurch. Over 300 houses in their town are to be demolished as they are no longer safe. One elderly couple had committed suicide last week as they could no longer cope with the stress of their house ruined and the continuing shakes.

And just yesterday they have had another 16 quakes, one or two strong enough to cause more damage.


(Photo and article below taken from the New Zealand Herald)


'Explosive' aftershocks hit weary city'
A series of explosive aftershocks near central Christchurch collapsed walls, trapped people in buildings and cut power yesterday.

Jittery residents relived the scare of September 4's 7.1 magnitude earthquake as a large jolt woke them at 2am.

A shallow quake at 10.30am cleared stores filled with Boxing Day shoppers.

The mid-morning aftershock was 4.9 magnitude, the largest since mid-November.

By 7.30 last night there had been 16 aftershocks - nine of which were 3.5 magnitude or above.

The latest aftershocks were a magnitude 4.4 quake at a shallow depth of 3 kilometres just after midnight today followed by magnitude 3.0 aftershock at a depth of 6 kilometres, at 2am both located close to the centre of Christchurch.

PS I have just looked on the Geonet site which details earthquakes in the NZ area, and have found that we have had one too - at 3.00am this morning! 30k north east of here, 5.4 which is quite large, but at a depth of 210km which is quite deep and not so likely to cause damage.

Garden Blues

I love hydrangeas. At the moment they are in full flower, and will remain so until late summer.

I love way you can have blues and purples and all shades in between on each bush, and the white ones have tinges of blue or pink.

They are regarded here as a bit old fashioned, an 'old ladies' flower. So be it! I can live with that.

The bach /pron.batch/ - a cottage or Holiday home

Bach (pronounced Batch, with the alternative of Crib in the southern part of New Zealand) is the name given in New Zealand to structures akin to small, often very modest holiday homes or beach houses. They are an iconic part of New Zealand history and culture, especially in the middle of the 20th century, where they symbolized the beach holiday lifestyle that was becoming more accessible to the middle class.

"Bach" was originally short for bachelor pad, but actually they often tended to be a family holiday home. An alternative theory for the origination of the word is that "bach" in Welsh means small.

Baches started to became very popular in the 1950s, as better roads and more available cars allowed family beach holidays, often to the same beach every year, and hence to the construction of a bach in that spot. One humorous definition of the bach, is "something you built yourself, on land you don't own, out of materials you borrowed or stole.

Early baches rarely enjoyed amenities like connections to the water and electricity grid or indoor toilets. They were furnished basically, often with second hand furniture.

In more recent times the basic bach has been replaced by the modern "holiday house", more substantial, more expensive (reflecting increasing affluence, and vastly increased coastal land values) and usually professionally built (due to stricter building codes).

Another important change has been the subdivision of coastal land, with increasing numbers of residents and visitors, bringing traffic, cafes, mobile phone coverage, craft shops and other conveniences to what were originally empty beaches and bush-filled gullies. Some bach-dotted beaches in the 1950s have today become suburban areas.
(from wikipedia)

Beach Bunny tails.

These are really weeds, but I love them and at our beach house I deliberately cultivate them. After all, all plants were weeds once. When it rains they droop.

The children love to pick them and put them into a vase, they can be dyed for flower arrangements, used for collage work, in works of art - their uses are endless. I like to look at them in the garden.

Along with marram grass, pingao (a native bright orange beach grass)and of course our New Zealand Christmas tree - the Pohutukawa, they spell long hot summers by the beach.

The pohutukawa is pictured on my header.

Planting spree!

In the last week or two I have planted:

*one nectarine tree,
*three blueberry bushes
*two guava trees,
*one viburnum shrub
*sweet peas
*climbing beans
*one cocktail tomato plant
*one corgette plant
*three rows of radishes,
*parsley
*basil
*strawberry plants
*sage
*Gloriosa lillies
*ten lavender plants
*four fuschias
*20 hedge plants (griselinia)

and shifted:

*two hydrangeas
*one apple tree (to the orchard)
*one hibiscus
*several clumps of dahlia bulbs

and repotted:

*lots and lots of bromeliads - too many to count.

and sprinkled in the wild flower area:

*poppy seeds
*aquilegia seeds,(granny bonnets)
*calendula seeds,
*honesty seeds
all saved from last year or gathered from friend's gardens.

And of course there has been the general garden tidying, digging of vege garden, clearing out compost bins, tending to the worm farm etc etc.

And its just the start of the summer season!

I wonder why I don't have time to blog?

Some welcome colour in the garden

More Quilt news

The story of the quilt I made my Granddaughter, as well as a photo, has appeared in the latest issue of the NZ Quilter magazine.

Needless to say I am quite pleased about this! It is only the second quilt I have ever made.

You will need to enlarge the photo to be able to read the article.

Clean Up

The trauma continues for the people of the Canterbury region with more than 300 aftershocks, some of them very strong. In fact strong enough in a few cases to cause more damage.

Here is a link to some interviews with some children with their views on the earthquake(s).


There are some wonderful stories of the generosity of neighbours and others - people turning up with a spade and helping in the cleanup, checking on the elderly and providing for them with company and baking, and businesses lending out their machinery and time without payment to help.

Canterbury University students have organised themselves into a workforce with shovels and are helping many homeowners to clean their backyards and driveways of silt, sand and rubble.

And then of course there are a few tales of burglaries and looting.

A crisis brings out the best in people and unfortunately sometimes also the worst.

Google Maps map of the quake and the aftershocks. They are colour coded according to the day with red being last Saturday, teal Sunday, yellow Monday,green Tuesday, purple Wednesday,and pink today (so far)




View Christchurch earthquake: Where the land shook in a larger map