Auckland for King's Birthday Weekend

I'm still getting used to saying "King's Birthday Weekend".  For all of my life it's been Queen's Birthday Weekend, but now we need to get used to calling it King's Birthday Weekend - and there may never be another Queen on the throne in my lifetime with William and George next in line.  

Anyway, I had a lovely King's Birthday Weekend because I went to Auckland with my family to see my mum and dad.  Mum is doing a lot of clearing out and I bought quite a few treasures home with me.  

My Nana had a Royal Doulton Petit Point tea set.  When Nana died the set was split up amongst her children, and my mum has now passed her pieces on to me.  It's nice to know that my cousins have pieces from this set too. 

This is just some of the fancy china that we worked through while I was there.  

We also looked at quilts (of course).  This is a quilt that my mum made after taking a class with Jinny Beyer in Auckland.  It's quite dark because it was designed to go on my brother's bed.  The fussy cutting and the hand quilting are both amazing!  It's too special to go to an Op Shop so it's gone back in the cupboard.

In my pile of stuff to go through was my Milly-Molly-Mandy book.  I loved this book.  The inscription says that I got it for my eighth birthday.  The whole Englishness of these books was so different to my life in New Zealand.  Milly-Molly-Mandy explored country lanes, she rode her bicycle to the corner shop, she enjoyed "tea" with her family.  I loved it all, and I might even re-read a few of the stories now that I have the book here with me.    

Milly-Molly-Mandy's best friend was called "Little-friend-Susan", and my favourite doll was called Susan too.  I must have had this doll well before I received the book though.

My mum knitted her clothes in my favourite colour purple.

Oh! and I went to Ribbon Rose's new store in Penrose.  Can you believe that I didn't buy anything!!! There's so much to look at, but time was limited, and I was helping mum choose threads for something new for her, so I walked out with nothing.  But never fear, I'll be back in September, if not before.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Peacock Party - and a trip to Auckland

Yes, it's true! I'm never at home.  That's what it feels like at the moment.  And my summer travels aren't over yet because I'm going away in March too.

Last weekend I went to Auckland for 4 nights.  I had some work things to do, and some family things too.  It was very hot, so I was thankful for the car's air conditioning as I raced all over Auckland.

Here's a few photos from my time in Auckland - first the city sights, then mum's quilting, and then mum's garden.

The Sky Tower

Chinese New Year lanterns inside Sky City

Auckland Harbour Bridge on a gloomy day

Mum's Lucy Boston blocks - look at her fussy cutting!

Mum's Mischief quilt - made from a pattern by Karen Tripp

Excuse the bald patches on the lawn - it's been very dry.

One of the lush green areas in mum's garden

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  On the plane back from Auckland I sat next to a lady who had just arrived in NZ from Vancouver.  She was saying how much snow she'd left behind.  I resisted telling her I knew all about it via my blogging friends! So feel free to update us only what you've been up to this week - shoveling snow? or trying to keep cool?

Inlinkz Link Party

July happenings

Our guild's retreat went well, but sadly I can't show you what I worked on, because it's a secret until our guild's exhibition on 11-12 August.

 After retreat I had a few days at home, and then I flew to Auckland to stay with my mum and dad for a week.  

Mum was keen to show me her Lucy Boston that she'd started during my previous visit in May.  She had asked if I had any blues / teals that could help her expand her colour scheme.  Some of my fabrics above will work well in her quilt.  Others came back home with me.  

I also picked up a few more fabrics for her on my trip around Auckland quilting shops.  I can't guarantee she will use them all, but I think they are all possibilities.

Mum's Lepidoptera quilt is coming along too (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman).  Although mum now wishes she had different background fabric because it's fraying a bit.

We agreed on the fabrics for the purple butterflies.  

While I was there we went for High Tea at Cordis which was just lovely.  There was so much food! And even goodie bags to take home the left overs.

We also went to Mamma Mia 2 which was fun and left us both feeling happy inside.  

I've bought home this William Morris tapestry that mum has just finished.  Nancy's Stitch Studio do such a great finishing job, so I will get them to turn into a cushion.  

Mum has her next design ready to start.  Tapestries can be very satisfying to stitch.  Although the wool seems super chunky at first, there's a soothing rhythm to pulling the needle through the canvas. 

Last, but not least, is this Woolly Zip It Bag by Wendy Williams.  Mum has almost finished the cover and it's looking great.  

I drove back to Wellington because we've bought mum's old car for our sons to use.  The mountains on the Central Plateau looked amazing in the morning sun.  That's Mt Ruapehu above where people will be skiing today - remember it's winter here in New Zealand.

That's Mt Ngauruhoe that some of you might recognise as Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

We were only out of the car for a few minutes because it was very cold - only 2C = 35F.  Barely above freezing level.  That's thick frost on the picnic table.  

Mum's Nearly Insane quilt

Have you heard of the Nearly Insane quilt? I hadn't until I stumbled across it on Frances Meredith's blog Fabadashery.   

A few years ago mum was considering making a Dear Jane quilt, but I convinced her that Nearly Insane was a better option.  (I can't remember why now, but I did.)

I helped mum to order the book, and she made her first few blocks.  Unfortunately she hasn't added many more since that initial start, but each time I go to Auckland we get them out and have another look at them.  She has added some tiny grandmother's garden type blocks, which may or may not make the final cut. 

We browsed through the book again, and decided that rather than trying to machine piece the 6" blocks, it would be easier to English Paper Piece the more intricate blocks. 

We studied Frances' blog again, and took note of some of the modifications she has made to her blocks. 

from Fabadashery blog

Mum bookmarked the blocks she wants to make next, and hopefully she might make a few more Nearly Insane blocks over the winter months.

We also had a play with Lucy Boston! Although mum hand pieced a quilt years ago after a class with Jinny Beyer, she hasn't done any hand piecing lately.  I'm becoming a bit of a convert, so I demonstrated how she could hand piece Lucy Boston if she wanted to.

EEP at the top, hand piecing at the front

 So that's another project started - for mum, not me. 

It rained quite a bit while I was in Auckland so I haven't got any pretty garden photos to share.  Here's a couple taken on my last day.

That's a reflection from the light, not a UFO

The tall tree is a Cabbage Tree - it doesn't grow cabbages. Cordyline australis

A trip to Auckland

Last week I had to go to Auckland for work.  It's a one hour flight from Wellington, so it's a nice getaway.  My parents live in Auckland, and my older son is also up there, studying at university.

Mum and I share our love of sewing and quilting, so we visited a few quilt shops while I was there.  We both want to make the Sue Spargo needle case on the cover of the latest Inspirations magazine, so we each bought wool felt and ribbons.  Mum's pile is on the left, and mine is on the right (incase you couldn't guess).

I found the perfect backing fabric for my Peacock at Sunset tapestry so I was happy about that.  It just happens to be Kaffe Fassett of course. I'm going to take it to Nancy's Stitch Studio to be stretched and turned into a cushion/pillow.  They do a great job and it will be much better than I could do myself.

Mum showed me her latest EPP creation.  It's one of the variations of the Mischief Quilt designed by Karen Tripp.  You can find the pattern, templates and paper pieces on Karen's website DIY Addict website here.

Mum is also working on the butterfly quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.  It's called Lepidoptera and mum finds that amusing because she used to work in the zoology department of Otago University and knew the Greek/Latin names of many animals and creatures. I've supplied a lot of the bright fabrics for the butterflies because mum's stash is mainly florals.

Now I'm home and back to hand quilting my Possum Magic quilt.  This quilt was made by a group of friends in a round robin.  You can read more about it here.

I want to enter it into our national symposium which is in October, but entries close on 13 June so I need to work on it every day.

The class placements for Symposium were announced this week and I got into all of my first choices so I'm very happy about that.  I'll be taking classes with Jen Kingwell, Chris Jurd and Deborah Louie.
There's so many other things I want to finish before then though!

Garden photos from Auckland

I couldn't help noticing how green everything was in Auckland last weekend.  They do have a lot of rain each year, and that combined with the warmth and humidity makes the Auckland climate sub tropical.

Cabbage tree on the left - Cordyline australis

I took a few photos of the plants in mum's garden to share with you.  But first I just had to get out the green quilt we made together and take another photo of it against the green backdrop of the park.

You can read more about this quilt here.

Now onto the plants.  This is just some of the interesting things that grow well in Auckland.  I don't know the names to everything, but will add labels where I can.

Clivia

Orchids - which grow outdoors in a pot, in a sheltered area.

The view over the fence to the reserve next door.

It won't be that green when we go back for Christmas, but it certainly looked nice at the start of November.