What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Last weekend we were getting ready to leave for a caravan rally.  Gemma decided to make life difficult for us, with all the hustle and bustle of packing the caravan going on.  "Why not give my people a hard time and hide for a while", she thought.  We were all ready to go and searched here, searched there, to no avail, then searched again.  Robin finally found her curled up and keeping low in a place I had already checked twice!  I don't know why she acts like this, after all she goes away in the caravan once a ...

 This blog is brought to you with help from Gemma.  She is excellent at holding the lap top bag in place while I'm tapping away.  And it makes such a good place to have a comfy snooze.

Gemma is a big help

Our four days in Christchurch seeing my son Michael had come to an end, so then it was time to hitch the caravan up to the car and travel slowly back up to Picton to catch the ferry again.  We had nearly a week to do this, so we planned several stops along the way.

One lunch ...

Do you ever look back and wonder where all those years have gone?  My son Michael's  birthday is fast approaching, and he will be turning 60! That's certainly hard to come to terms with.  I certainly can remember his birth, the toddler years, then schooling - how on earth did he get to be 60?  And how old does that make me?  I was 18 when he was born, a couple of months off 19, so a young Mum indeed.  And 12 months later I did it all again, when his sister  Nicky was born.  Those were the days ...

We have moved on from the family small holding after four very pleasant and relaxed days.  Before we arrived, I was a little worried about the family dog and how he would react to a strange cat on his property.  Noodle would come and look at Gemma through the closed screen door.  Then one morning Robin had the screen door open, Gemma was on her lead, and the two met nose to nose!  I was amazed that nothing untoward happened.  It may well have been a different story if Gemma was outside the safety of the caravan door.

First meeting ...

Why stick with one knitting project when you can have two going at the same time?  Actually, I’ve got a third, but I haven't started that one yet, can’t be too greedy, can I.  I've been knitting away on my second project from time to time for a change in pace.  This one is a little boy’s baby/toddler jumper, using up some spare wool I had at home.  Because it is small,  I’m knitting the back and front at the same time.  I’m almost at the front neck shaping so I’ll ...

There is plenty to see on our South Island trip, and we are slowly moving on.  The scenery down here in the South Island can only be described as majestic, with the Southern Alps thrusting up like a backbone, down the length of this island.  So what have we been doing?  We spent a couple of  days in Fairlie, home to the famous Fairlie pies.  Yes I know, our holiday does seem to focus a lot on food.  But that’s half the fun of being on holiday, isn’t it.

We knew the pies were popular but I couldn ...

There is an awful lot to see down here in the South Island, as we are traveling around.   We spent several days in Blackball, an old mining town.  The most famous building here is undoubtedly the pub which has an interesting story about it’s name,  called “Formerly the Blackball Hilton”.  Built in 1910 it was named The Dominion.  In the 1970s the owners changed the name to The Blackball Hilton, as the main street is called Hilton after one of the early mine managers.  However, a threat of legal action from the overseas Hilton Hotel chain caused the name ...

While we were away on our two concurrent caravan rallies, there certainly was plenty going on.  We arrived at Esk Valley Camp to find the ground wet and very boggy after a lot of rain.  New members Peter and Ruth got bogged down well and truly so a group of of good keen blokes pushed and pushed trying to get the motorhome out of the holes it was digging itself in.  That didn't work, so Robin was called in to tow the van out onto (hopefully) drier ground.

Robin to the rescue

Luckily the warm and cosy club room ...

These has been plenty of things planned for our ICA Rally while we have been touring around.  And today was one such outing that I have been so looking forward to.  A visit to K D’s Elvis Presley Museum in Hawera.  K D Wasley has been an avid collector of Elvis Presley records and memorabilia since the 1950s.  This was a real treat, and something I had been looking forward to with great anticipation.  I’ve been an Elvis fan ever since I heard him sing Love me Tender, when I was a young girl. 

We were warmly welcomed ...

It was all about nostalgia when we visited the Pioneer Village in Stratford.  Set in 10 acres of grounds, there are streets of relocated buildings, cottages, a forge, printing works, library, post office, dentist, doctor, and maybe even a candle-maker was tucked in there somewhere.  Various shops of all kinds and a church. It certainly was interesting seeing how people lived in earlier years.  I loved looking through the cute little cottages, seeing the old textiles, the rag rugs, the kitchen utensils, and how they tackled the laundry. Pretty little Goodwin Cottage was built about 1890.

Lovely old cottage

I ...

We are away on another caravan trip, this time for three weeks, from Urenui in New Plymouth down to Waikanae with the ICA (International Caravan Assoc) group.  I’ve found time to do some handwork, stitching a little more on the tea towels I’m making for my grand-daughters.  I’ve got this far on the pink one, and still have the boy fish slice to stitch.

Tea towel stitchery

I’ve got my knitting bag with me, and thought it would be a good opportunity to start stitching up a pair of burgundy socks I completed a while ago ...

Our three week caravan trip away started off with a weekend rally with our caravan club buddies.  And what fun we had.  There was quite an adventure planned for Saturday, with a trip to Day’s Bay and back on public transport.  Originally we were to travel from Naenae to Wellington by train, but track maintenance was being carried out and the trains were replaced by buses.  Not such a disappointment, as along came a big yellow double decker bus to carry our bunch of OAPs into the big city.  It’s been a while since we were in the ...

We are away on another trip (lucky us), the weather was good and the car and caravan just hummed along.  We had our  favourite radio station belting out all the songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s “songs that you know and love”, as the adverts say, rather like spending time with good friends, as we hummed along.  Gemma came too, of course, and she is quite good on car rides, she usually spends her time beside me, leaning on the consul with her head facing backwards as we drive along.  Rather like an ostrich with her head in the ...

Here we are camped in the little town of Takapau in the Hawkes Bay where we have been for a couple of days. Other than the caretaker, we ae the only ones staying here, so had the choice of where we wanted to park.  This is a very reasonably priced camp, and we are nice and toasty with a power site, plus our cozy diesel heater too, keeping us warm.

Staying at Takapau

The weather started out fine, but rather chilly, probably because of the snow on the Ruahine Ranges.

A little snow on the Ruahine Ranges

Our trip to ...