A dark, dark day for NZ

No doubt many of you have heard about the Christchurch earthquake yesterday that has destroyed a beautiful city and taken so many lives.  It was bad enough Christchurch suffered a devastating earthquake in September and then we had the mining tragedy where so many lives were lost just weeks after.  Now, Mother Nature has shown us her ferocity again and attacked without thought or regard....a mother killed as she clung to her baby in her arms, people crushed as buildings fell on their cars or the bus they were in, office workers trapped in their buildings, unbearable pain and sadness amongst the tragedy.

Our iconic beautiful cathedral in the heart of Christchurch, before & after

Photos courtesy of the TV 3 news website

The government is reporting that it is our worst national disaster.  Stay strong, fellow Cantabrians. our thoughts are with you.

A surprise and a finish

Finished the baby quilt a couple of days ago, so just in time for the baby shower on Sunday. I just used the blue print from the front on the back as it is kinda cute for a kid with all the bugs and butterflies. I just did straight line quilting along the seams and around the outside of the small boxes. Since it was a gift I didn't want to stuff it up with FMQ as I have not had much practice with that.

And today when I got home from work there was a package waiting for me. I won a giveaway a couple of weeks ago at Canton Village Quilt Works. Nine luscious fat quarters of Pat Bravo's Paradise. This really is just beautiful. To tempt me more Pat enclosed a catalogue of Art Gallery fabrics. Oh my, such lusciousness to drool over!! I guess this is what my hubby feels like when he opens a Repco catalogue or Supercheap Auto catalogue lol

Baby quilt top done

With the hot weather this past weekend, it was much cooler to stay inside and sew.  Remember my friend who is pregnant...well her baby shower is in 2 weeks time so I pieced and sewed the top to the quilt I am going to give her. As I don't know the sex at this time I wanted to make something in bright primary colours that would suit either a boy or a girl.

I used Elizabeth Hartman's Frames baby quilt as a base and just mixed it up a little differently.  It looks lovely and bright in real life. The photo seems to pick up the lime batik more than it looks on the actual quilt top and has washed out the other colours. I hope to get it finished this weekend.

Can it get any hotter?

It is so hot and muggy here at the moment.  It's kind of weird knowing that places like Texas are even getting snow and we are in such a heat wave. What is going on with the weather in the world?

Even the girls are hot...

So we got a shearer in to give them a haircut!

Yay, much cooler. Thanks Mum!!

That giant triffid you can see in the background of the photos above is a self sown pumpkin in my compost bin. It has totally taken over all 3 compost bins and the back yard. Covered in pumpkins!

Postage Stamp Quilt top all done

I have been enjoying the Postage Stamp Quilt Along that Rachel has been hosting from P. S. I Quilt.  I used Keiki Tweet Tweet and Kona Snow. It didn't take too long to sew all the blocks together and I love how this has turned out. Now I just have to decide how to quilt it. I have several blocks left over that I will use for a pieced back.

It was a great ad filler-in!! I was watching a movie on TV and was pinning and matching my squares while the movie was on. As soon as the ads came on, I would hurtle out to the sewing machine in the next room and there was just enough ad time to sew a block together! It was one of those quilts that I  had to do "just one more block", so I ended up going to bed about midnight last night!! There is a lot of crap on TV after 11pm if you don't have Sky TV, I have realised. Was a little hard to get up at 5.45 am this morning, I must admit.

Kayaking on a cake!

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks now my holidays have finished and I am back at work. Doesn't take long for that holiday feeling to disappear, does it!!

A good friend of mine asked me to make a cake for her daughter's 21st.  She is a very sporty girl into all sorts of outdoor sports and adventure activities...certainly not into traditional cakes at all.  One of her favourite activities is kayaking so I thought she would love something along that theme.

I spent my nights this week fashioning a kayak, rocks, a sporty girl and making the cake.  It has been so hot over here though that within the space of a couple of hours my poor little kayaker had gone from being a very upright smiley gal to a slumped adventurer with no expression!! I ran it past the quality control officer and he reckoned it still looked ok so I hope she doesn't sink any more otherwise she will be under water!!

The party is tonight so I hope she likes it.

Postage stamp quilt along Part 1.

Kona Snow and Keiki Tweet Tweet

Well it seemed too good an opportunity not to do the Postage Stamp Quilt-Along since a bunch of jelly rolls have just arrived in my mailbox from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I have chosen Keiki Tweet Tweet by Moda as I like the colours in this range and I think they contrast well with the Snow. So the last couple of days have been spent sorting and sewing into strip sets.  My eldest daughter did come into the room while I was sewing and comment that I seemed to be taking over the house with fabric and my sewing! Sound familiar, anyone??

I have 2 days left of my 3 weeks holiday and am not sure how on earth I will be able to get up for work at 5.45am on Monday. I haven't been waking up until 9.30 - 10ish every day!  Anyway, the thought of work is all very depressing, so I am planning our next holiday already!! Tony and I are off to Vietnam in April for 3 weeks. Neither of us have ever been there, so we are looking forward to exploring a part of Asia that we have both read so much about. He loves war and history books so is very excited that he gets to drag me around all the war memorabilia and museums. Yawn! I am more interested in the beaches and food!

Was sorting through the paperwork in the office a couple of days ago and Dinah, the cat, came and plonked herself down beside me (as they do) right in the middle of all the paper. There's no show without Punch, so Max the dog came and made himself comfortable on the cat!

And lastly, my thoughts and prayers go out to our neighbours across in Queensland with their terrible floods. We watched the news tonight and the devastation is incredible. Thankfully, my friends over there are all safe, but I know many families are grieving for loved ones. A terrible tragedy.