Camelias

The camelias at our place range from the softest pink to the deepest of reds.

One tree, tucked away amongst the others, has cream coloured camelias.

They are lovely to look at but it is very hard to find one to pick that hasn't got brown spotting on it already.

Today I managed to pick two, but there's already signs of brown happening.

Nice to have in the house, even if it is just for a day or two.

What's that happening at our front door?

Today I was trying to get together a nice photo of my latest quilt top and put it up on the wall just outside our front door for a photo shoot.

I wasn't entirely happy with the photos I had been taking and so walked away to check out letter box. As I walked back decided I liked the quilt from this viewpoint.

You may remember this was my 'nice bit of fun' from the 16th August.  Linda also showed images of it on her blog yesterday.

My 'nice bit of fun' has now become a completed quilt top.  Very bright and fresh and yet there was a time when I would never have worked with white.

Not possible for cat scans on this occasion but CiCi did feel the need to check things out.

Love those button jars

We have a rather large assortment of buttons at our place.

The extra large cookie jar was an op shop find and it has proved to be an ideal container for our collection which has accumulated over a number of years.

For the most part the jar sits on a shelf in our quilting studio but every now and then we find someone has a need for buttons and so out it comes.

Always a lot of fun to go through and share, lots of memories stored in these buttons.

Two of our Sweet Pea ladies, Andreena and Debbie, have been making Christmas ornaments and need buttons as a centrepiece.

The buttons were spread on a tray and they were able to sort through and take the ones they fancied.

We have given a lot of buttons away but sometimes we sell a few. Linda has some listed on Trade Me at the moment.

Although our numbers were few it was still an enjoyable morning for our group.  You can see some images of the show and tell from today on Linda's blog.

A nice op shop find

We have had hens at our place for over eighteen months and in that time have received a bounty of over 1800 eggs - not bad for three hens.

Originally we had four hens but just before Christmas one of them, Miss Penny, went to the big hen house in the sky.

The three that are left have continued to be faithful egg layers and we have been enjoying the fruit of their labours.

We have often said it would be nice to have a special bowl on the kitchen bench especially for the eggs.

It has taken a while, but last week we found this one in an op shop for NZ$3.00.

From the markings on the side and bottom I thought it would be nice to find a little more out about the bowl.

The inscription on the side, Le Petite DeJeuner, appears to translate as small kitchen bowl.

I looked up the inscription on the base of the place and Le Comptoir De Famille France have a comprehensive range of household wares.  A similar bowl to the one I bought sells for Euro 13.90 which equates to approximately NZ$22.00, so I suddenly felt quite pleased with my little NZ$3.00 purchase.

Spring is just around the corner

Late in autumn I planted daffodil bulbs below pansy plants in tubs on our patio.

The pansies did not really do that well during the winter but the daffodils are beginning to show their beautiful colour.

The mountains, with all their snow, would like to tell us that winter had not yet left us but the daffodils seem to be saying that spring is just around the corner.

Taking time out

Temperatures plummeted in the Taupo area this week and we have had a number of frosts at our place.

Our local mountains have had some of the best dumpings of snow for this winter season.

They look very impressive from our place but today we decided to take time out to get a different view.

We went to our favourite coffee store for take out coffee and then drove to a scenic lookout on the other side of town.

A totally fresh aspect, with much more of Lake Taupo in the foreground.

Great coffee, great view - so nice to take time out to enjoy what we could so easily take for granted in this lovely part of the world.

Isn't this a nice bit of fun

Take a couple of pieces of contrasting fabric - these ones are 10 inches square.

 Make 4 half square triangles from the two pieces of fabric and piece them together into an hour glass block.

Cut the hour glass block into 9 equal squares.

Turn all of the pieces around and suddenly you have a star block - now isn't that a nice bit of fun.

Here's my first four blocks pieced together - so far so good.

I plan to piece 30 blocks so I hope I still feel like it is a nice bit of fun by the time I get to the end.

Now this idea does not originate with me.

It is called the 'Disappearing Hour Glass Block' and you can see how to create this here in much more detail from the Missouri Quilt Co.:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXggafOP230

Hopefully you may be inspired to have a bit of fun too.

Precious new life

Not so long ago, Linda and I had the privilege of visiting with a newborn baby and his parents at the local hospital.

Young Jaxon is the latest grandson for our Sweet Pea lady, Debbie.

He weighed in at a very health 9lb 9oz and is doing very well.

Linda and I both got to give him a cuddle.

Lovely to see his Dad, Adam, being very hands on and changing Jaxon's clothes for him.

We took along a gift for Jaxon, a quilt panel that Linda had machine quilted and to which I attached magic binding.

Mum and Dad were very pleased to receive the quilt and have already put it in his cot in readiness for Jaxon.

Someone to watch over me

I am not sure why, but I have never been very fond of traditional angel images.

On the other hand, if I see one that is a little bit on the 'crazy' side it suddenly has great appeal for me.

Our local quilting group, Taupo Quiltmakers, recently held their quilt show and had a sales table.

I found this delightful angel and had to bring it home.

She now hangs in my bedroom - someone to watch over me.

Even better, I found out later that one of our very own Sweet Pea ladies, Margaret, had made it and donated it to the sales table.

Margaret makes some wonderful hand stitched items and so I am very pleased to call this one my own.