A busy weekend

It has been such a lovely, sunny, busy weekend.  The perfect weather for a family wedding, the first of my nieces to marry and she was a beautiful bride.  Also the perfect opportunity for a family photo while we were all dressed up.  Saturday we were out for most of the day and then today also, with church and lunch at friends. It was so nice spending time with family and friends, I have such a lot to be thankful for.  And I have completed my Christmas Angel Swap gifts, yay! They are wrapped and ready for postage tomorrow.  By the way, I'm loving the sunshine and the roses in the garden at the moment too, Wendy xx 

Enjoying spring

You've got to love spring ... plenty of sunshine, catching up with the gardening, and enough rain too.  My father in law gave me a gift voucher in August and I finally spent it on the big polka dot teacup and planted it up with strawberries.  Yum, I can just imagine sitting on the deck and picking strawberries straight from the cup!  I have also been working hard  on the items for the Christmas Angel swap and am up to the wall hanging, the last thing to make.  I had made one but was unhappy with my finishing (sigh) so I unpicked it and added new borders and backing. But once again I was unhappy with my quilting and finishing (bigger sigh).  So, I scrapped that one and started a new wall hanging.  This pattern had appliqué,  paper-piecing and embroidery and I decided to make two; one for me to keep and to practice each step on, and one for the gift. I am loving how this one looks and I am getting close to finishing, in fact, I hope to get some more done on it tonight.  Then I just have the food gift to buy, which I am sensibly waiting until the last minute to get so it will make it to the postbox!  Wendy xx

A fab day and a finish

Washi dress - designed by Made by Rae

We have two teenagers in the house, Josh is 13 today!  As it is such a milestone, on Thursday we took Josh, Charlie and Josh's best friend and cousin, Sam, to Rainbow's End in Auckland.  It really was a fabulous day, perfect weather and so much fun.  I love days out together as a family; storing up memories of new experiences, laughing with each other, just enjoying the day with none of the usual rush, no rush at all.  I love recording it all with photos too and later putting them into albums.

As for my finish, I completed the Washi dress.  I added two little tucks in the neckline, which you can't really see in the photo, and this made it sit snugly against me instead of gaping.  Of course, if I had made a muslin first as the pattern suggested, I would have made this adjustment on the paper pattern instead of on the final dress!  I guess I could see this as my 'wearable muslin' and make another one sometime with better quality fabric.  This is a funny cotton, not as crisp as quilting cotton, and it sort of sticks so I prefer to wear it with a slip underneath. And I am quite tall so it is only just long enough so next time I would add a little more length.  However, it will be lovely and cool to wear in summer.  I have also dusted off Charlie's quilt and finished three more appliqué flowers, only two more to do!  Wendy xx