Andreena's Birthday Blocks

On May 18 I wrote about making this birthday block for Andreena.

Today the Sweet Pea ladies met at our place and Linda presented Andreena with 9 blocks from the group.

When Andreena unwrapped them I pinned them a design board and this was the result.

It was so nice to see them all grouped together and to see the secondary design that resulted from doing this.

Linda and Andreena tweeked the blocks after this and changed the order a little.  Andreena has taken them home for piecing and we are eagerly awaiting the outcome.

It is turning out to be a good experience for us all, making blocks that we would not normally do and seeing what the collective result is.

A little bit of a break before we commence on the next block which will be in hot pink, black and lime green - now that could be a very interesting combination.

Linking to:-

Freemotion by the River - Tuesday Linky Party

Changes in landscape

Our vegetable garden lies in the area below this image.

The growth of the trees along the fence line over the years has meant that the vegetable garden gets less and less afternoon sun and, particularly during the winter months, this has meant that the chances of vegetables growing are minimal.

Earlier this year our brother, Alan, cut back some of the trees on our side of the fence line and suddenly the cabbage trees have taken on a life of their own.  The fence partitioning has become more obvious too.

Interestingly enough, with the clearance we can now see the glow of the autumn leaves of the trees in our neighbour's garden.

They especially look very pretty in the early morning sun as I look out at them from the sun room while I have my first cup of tea for the day.

In addition to texture

When we make our quilts we usually like to put labels on them.

My chevron quilts are going to Afghanistan refugees and so I thought I would like to add something a bit extra.

Our grandmother, Susan Dassler, wrote short stories and poetry in her time and often had works published in magazines.  She was good enough to acquire a small supplementary income through her talents.

One of the poems she wrote was called 'Kiwi' and this came to mind when thinking about the label and so I decided to include it in the labels on the back of the quilts.

For your interest, this is what Kiwis are all about:-
 

Kiwis

Why are we labelled Kiwis?

Where can we place the blame?

What charms has this unlovely bird,

That we should take his name?

He cannot fly with ne’er a wing,

He has no voice – he cannot sing

No song of joy, no liquid note

Has ever issued from his throat.

He’s down-to-earth, and drab and shy

And he ne’er looks up towards the sky

He has no tail to flirt and spread,

To lure a mate into his bed.

He shuns the day, and while it’s light,

He sulks and lurks beneath the scrub,

But digs and delves throughout the night,

And he thinks of nothing but his grub!

He’s really neither smart or nimble-

Why do we make him our symbol?

Upon one point you’ll all agree-

He is UNIQUE and so are we!

by Susan Dassler

A bit more texture

Since writing about completing the blue I Spy chevron quilt I have moved on to finish the Kiwiana chevron using the same stitching style.

On the blue one I used invisible thread but this time I used a red and black variegated thread and this gave a good texture as well.

Result.  I now have two quilts ready to be sent to their new homes with Aghanistan refugees.

Back to birthday blocks

Following on from making birthday blocks for our Sweet Pea, Trish, we now have Andreena's birthday at the end of the month.

Yesterday I put mine together - Chinese Lantern.

We meet on Wednesday this coming week so it will be nice to see how they all come together.

Still in our garden

 After our visit to the local rose garden, yesterday I took a wander around our own garden to look at the remains of what autumn has to offer.

This tree provides some borrowed landscape from our neighbours driveway and is resplendant in shades of autumn.

Our garden is still busy flowering, in parts.  The yellow flowers are a result of some chrysanthemun plants we bought at a church fair.  We had no idea what flowers the plants  might provide.

The orange flowers are from an arctotis plant that keeps growing and growing. Considering it was only planted this year it has gone ahead in leaps and bounds.

Rain has set in today and is expected to continue well into next week.  It remains to be seen how many of these lovely flowers will remain after that.

Still time to smell the roses.

When Linda wanted to take photos of this quilt last week we went to the local rose garden.

Being May I thought the roses would be long gone but I was pleasantly surprised.

Roses are still alive in well in Taupo, for the moment.

As well as taking photos of the quilt it was nice to take time out to 'smell the roses' - long may they last.