I’ve been busy completing a couple of little handwork tasks. Last year I finished a couple of blackwork embroidery blocks which I really liked and was wanting to put them on cushions as decorative pieces. I found a couple of cushions on a shopping expedition to Spotlight which I thought would do the job admirably.
Pieces stitched onto the cushion coversBlack work embroidery on cushions on the bed.
Yes, I know, the cushions have to be removed from the bed each evening, something that males in particular seem to think is an unnecessary decorative function, but hey, I like them!
I made a batch of lime marmalade too, I like the tartness of limes and as they are very cheap at the moment, I may even get some more to make some lime curd.
Lime marmalade
Alex had asked me to knit a couple of hats for her friend Kaz and her mum who was undergoing chemotherapy. Kaz had bravely shaved her hair off to show support to her mum, so I’m sure that nice warm hats would be very handy.
Top: The knitted hats on their recipients, bottom: Kaz before and after hair cutting.
Lots of socks have also been knitted, Roy now has plenty of gumboot socks. I’ve finished another couple of pairs of gumboot (aka Wellingtons) socks but I haven’t done too much more as these days my hands and wrists are giving me quite a bit of pain and numbness.
Boot socks
I’m off to the hand surgeon shortly for what I am picking I will be told that what I have is a combination of osteo arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. I obviously work too hard 😂.
I don’t mean the Area 52/flying saucer/alien/UFO type I mean UnFinished Objects which in my case is the pile of embroidery, tapestry, and stitching kits that I discovered in our container clear out. I had carefully packaged all my finds and they were included in the large number of boxes that were sent to Antony’s.
I brought them all back to the van, including the three large boxes of embroidery threads that I thought had been thrown away, and all my patterns and other treasures.
I think I have enough embroidery threads!
Included in the box were a number of small, and not so small, kits that I had bought over the years, which include large and small projects of black work stitching, tapestry, cross stitch and embroidery.
I have already completed a small tapestry (the one on the bottom right in the above picture) which I will make into a pin cushion. There are the black work stitching samples and also a couple of small embroideries that are details on the huge embroideredpanels that NZ women stitched for the Globe theatre in London.
These large highly decorative and detailed embroidered panels were designed by New Zealander Raymond Boyce and subsequently embroidered by over 400 men and women embroiderers from around the country before being gifted to the Globe Theatre in London.
Two of the completed panels in the London Globe
The kits I bought are of tiny details in the large panel depicting Adonis. I recall visiting the Globe Theatre in London and standing in awe of the completed large panels, you can read about that visit from 2010 here.
There is a wonderful interview with the designer on the Te Papa web page which you can read about here.
I cannot recall where or when I bought these kits but I think I bought them in the late 1990’s. I know I was fascinated by the amazing detail in the embroideries and admired the wonderful work of all the contributors .
The Adonis panel….the snail and grub that I bought as kits are in the above photo…..can you see them?The snail and grub details magnified.
I have no idea what I will do with all the completed works, probably give them away or make them into something……ideas are welcomed!
And my big tip to anyone who does a lot of needlework to save your fingers? I use thimbles but not the usual solid style, I repurpose old kid leather gloves that I find in second hand shops. The soft leather is perfect to protect your fingers from constant needle stabs, I just cut off the fingers from the gloves to use as finger stalls and only need to use a couple of stalls at a time so a pair of gloves or even a single glove will last some time. Now back to some stitching!
We had intended to be heading on out of Auckland long before now but sometimes life just throws a curve ball at you. Actually it feels as though the curve balls have been coming at us in a continuous stream over the past year or two, and I can tell you that we are getting pretty good at batting away those balls.
So to plan B, to cut a long story short, Roy had to have a few tests and the like done which meant we had to stay around Auckland at Ardmore for an extra couple of weeks. The upshot is that he is all good and we can soon get back to plan A.
On the positive side it has meant that we’ve spent a bit of time with Antony, well, that really means that we have been heading around to his place most nights for me to cook dinner for us all, not that I mind at all and I’m sure he doesn’t either. And it’s been great to watch the rugby with him as well.
We’ve also managed to catch up with Simon, Anita and Maria and spend some time with them. Maria turned 3 the day after we returned from the UK so it was lovely to catch up and spend some time playing games that only 3 year old girls like to play! She is a delightful young lady and a pleasure to be around.
So to keep busy whilst we wait, there has been another couple of tasks that I’ve managed to get underway whilst at Ardmore.
Many years ago, my lovely sister-in-law Ann made us a beautiful quilt. Ann loved her quilting and over the years made many heirloom keepsakes for family and friends. As well, she was involved with quilting guilds on a local and national level and she loved going off with friends for weekend retreats and workshops.
We love our quilt and had been on our bed just about ever since it was gifted to us. It is made even more special since Ann sadly passed away just over 7 years ago, aged 59, but we remember her every day that we look at the quilt. However, the quilt has started to need some repair as the batting that she used inside the quilt has shrunk with washing and some of the material has started to fray.
The last time I saw my sister Sue (also an expert quilter), she said that if I unpicked all the quilting she would repair, reback, and rebuild it for me. A huge task in itself but the unpicking is not an inconsiderable task either.
Not one to back out of a challenge, I started on the incredibly laborious task of unpicking the tiny machine quilted stitching this week. With quick unpick in hand, I carefully started on one side of the quilt. After many many hours with not much to show except very sore fingers and bits of cotton everywhere, I had managed to unpick one small edge side of quilting. I was quite proud of my efforts.
See all that tiny tiny stitching in the pale coloured material? Yep, I have to unpick a queen sized quilts worth of this!!!
To give you an idea of scale, each one of these little squares is approximately 4cm…that’s an awful lots of stitching to undo
I was sitting in the van doing a bit of unpicking when some fellow motorhomers called in for a cuppa. We’d only met Debbie & Chris the week before but we enjoyed chatting with them so invited them in for morning coffee. Debbie noticed my unpicking and asked what I was doing, she said she was a seamstress/dressmaker (ok, what IS the difference between the two?) and could she show me a quicker way to unpick? Oh yes please, said I. First I needed to go and buy some one sided razor blades and she would show me what to do.
Later that same day, with a pack of razor blades in hand I was knocking on their door asking for a quick lesson in fast unpicking. Debbie showed me the method; cut the stitching with the razor blade between the backing material and batting pulling it apart to expose the stitching and cutting the thread. As we are replacing the backing material there will be no issue if I have a wee oops!
Well, now there is no stopping me. What was going to take me a month of Sunday’s before even making a dent with the unpicking, after three days I have the bulk of it done and another week should see it all finished. Thank you so much Debbie for showing me the way!
Some of the fabric is pretty fragile, I just hope that somehow Sue will be able to work some of her magic on it for us.
During the week I also got another task done, that is making my Christmas Cakes. I went round to Antony’s to utilise his oven, as one of the cakes has a 3 and half hour bake time .
Christmas cake one underway
This recipe is the one my mum used to make not only for Christmas but also for our wedding cakes. We love this cake with a slice of cheddar cheese – a Yorkshire way of eating fruit cake. The recipe is actually my grandmothers and contains just sultanas, raisins and currants (1.75kg – nearly 4lbs) and no nuts. It’s supposed to have a dash or two of brandy in it but we didn’t have any but I did find a good alternative.
Found this substitute for brandy in our stash.
We brought this Armagnac back from France some time ago so I thought it is a good swap as it is a style of brandy, and I carefully measured it in exactly the same way Mum did….a good glug or two poured straight from the bottle into the cake mix is a measure isn’t it?
Ready for the oven
and the end result
Baked and cooled
Time to wrap them up and put away in the tins for a month or two.
Then it’s onto the next cakes, these ones are a recipe I have developed over the years and is basically all fruit and nuts, some call it a stained glass window cake as when the cake is sliced it resembles a stained glass window. This time Roy sacrificed some of his rum to go into these cakes, rationed nip measures of course.
Ready to go in the oven
Once the cakes were cooked and cooled, I wrapped them tightly in tinfoil and went to put them in the tin, but guess what? each cake was just a little too long to fit into the cake tin so a sliver had to be sacrificed off each end.
Trimmed
Of course we had to sample the trimmed slices, with a cup of tea, as it would have been a waste otherwise 😉. We can report it is delicious!
It’s hard to believe we have been here at Tokerau Beach for a week now and we have done very little but relax and hang out with Gary & Marg.
And can you blame us? This is the view from the deck
Just a short meander down to the beach, although today is really the first day in a while that we have not had terribly strong winds which has meant that kite fishing has definitely not been on the agenda.
If we did put the kite out I am sure that we would have been dragged off the beach and surfed across to South America before stopping! But Gary and Roy did venture out with the torpedo for a fish off the beach and came back with gurnard, kahawai and a couple of good sized snapper. Of course I forgot to take any pictures until Gary was in the middle of filleting the last of the fish.
Delicious fish for dinner for the next couple of nights and even a few fillets for our freezer.
The wind has settled today so hopefully we may just be able to get our new kite out in the next day or two.
We have been catching up with a few chores and as well I have been knitting up a storm, knitting market bags to replace the plastic bags that are the scourge of the planet. I knitted up a whole heap of these about 12 years ago ( I was always a bit before my time!!) but I have now been trying a few different patterns to varying success.
I knit them out of a bamboo/cotton yarn which is pretty much weightless, they scrunch up to take up very little space in your handbag and are very strong. I prefer the original pattern I made years ago (the red one on the right in the above picture), which I have subsequently modified to have two handles which makes for easier loading/unloading and carrying. Anyway, they don’t take very long to knit up, they have interesting stitches and they are practical and make nice presents. Guess what will be given away as presents this Christmas?
One of the most unusual sights in Melbourne on the streets in the city, it is the unusual traffic rule of having to pull over to the left before turning right! They call this a hook turn, it feels very strange but I have to admit that it works and it keeps traffic flowing. Signs indicate where this rule is in place, note: “normal” rules are in effect at all other intersections i.e. To turn right, indicate and wait in right hand lane until safe to turn.
Another day and the handrails at the Swanston Street tram stop had been ‘yarn bombed’. The colourful yarn covering around 200metres of handrails – very impressive!
Christmas arrives early in Melbourne, with this store near the Queen Victoria Markets decked out in its Xmas finery in September. Nothing like getting in early!
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 