Stitching Challenge and Friday Night Sew-in and Giveaway.

Hello,

Well not long after doing my last posting I looked outside to see a huge plume of smoke over the hill. Unfortunately a bushfire had started in Toodyay. 38 homes were lost in this fire. A very devastating end to the year for these people. Watching it on the news last night and recognising some of those who had lost everything was just awful. Our love and best wishes go to the community of Toodyay. Anita and I have been doing our Stitching Challenge all through out this year. Our theme for this month was to make something with calico,homespun and our threads. I originally wanted to do a little wall hanging I had seen in a magazine but the "Quilting Fairy" has been in my room and I couldn't find which one it was in. I will probably find it when I am not looking for it!!! So I had to quickly think of something else. I have lots of lavender growing here at Kainga so I decided to make a lavender bag. I used this variety of lavender for the bag. I purchased a couple of plants through mail order a couple of years back and they are thriving. The lavender bag is currently on my kitchen table. The perfume drifting from the bag is just beautiful. You just want to pick it up and smell it. January's challenge theme is "Black and White" I can't wait to see what we both come up with. As usual we have to make these items for the challenge with materials we have on hand at home.

Do you know about the Friday Night Sew-in? Please hop over to Heidi's blog to grab the button to put on your side bar and join in. These will be held monthly starting on January 15 2010. Heidi is also having a 100 post giveaway. Two lovely prizes are available.

I wish everyone who visits "Kainga Happenings" all the best for 2010. I shower you with good wishes good health and wonderful Happy Days to you all. See you in 2010.

Happy days.

Bev C

Santa's been.

Hello,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas morning we set of in three cars for a few days holidays down south compliments of Ainsley and Julian. There were ten of us altogether. After a couple of hours travelling we were on the beach.We stayed here. Games of beach cricket tennis walks along the beach swimming snorkeling reading eating and drinking and shopping were some of the things we all got to do. I finished of this cute little stitchery this morning. I found the Santa pattern on the net before Christmas and got it stitched up. I can't remember from whom I downloaded it from ,apologies to the original designer for not remembering. It was made up with some stuffing originally but I decided to make it flat. I added the "Merry Christmas" to the bottom of it. I also added some red buttons instead of stitching the buttons. I think Santa will hang around for a bit.

I made up another Mug Bag for a Christmas gift. These are very quick to make and you can find the tutorial for it here.

I found this saying on a blackboard outside a shop in Dunsborough. I thought it was very appropriate. No matter what else is going on things keep going. It is a scorcher here today I just looked out at the thermometer out on the back patio and it is 45 degrees in the shade. An awfully hot wind is blowing. Luckily it is going to be a lot cooler tomorrow. A good day to stay inside and watch the cricket.

Happy days.

Bev C

Christmas wishes and a Christmas Card Holder.

Hello,

Gee the Christmas rush is on now. I finished my Christmas Card Holder yesterday and managed to get the right size hanger.I will use this to put my cards into as they tend to fall off everything when the air conditioning is on or the window is open. I wonder who I ran into at the craft shop?Anita and I were both shopping for hangers.Lucky there were plenty there so we didn't have to fight for them. The pattern is one of Gail Pan's. Gail thank you for the wonderful little pattern. I have seen a few of these popping up around the blogs. I have been doing a stitchery of a Santa but I am still working on this so will show a photo after Christmas. I have changed the photo in my header. I took the photo today of a "Giant Russian Sunflower" which is in full bloom amongst the roses in the front garden here at Kainga.As this will be my last post until after Christmas I wish a Merry Christmas to one and all. Have a safe holiday . Enjoy your time with family and friends.

Merry Christmas.

Bev C

"Yellow Empress" and Friday night sew-in.

Hello,

Look what has been in flower for the last week or so out the front of our home. Isn't it so bright it just wants to make you smile. It is a sunflower called "Yellow Empress." This was grown from seed from a packet of Yates seeds. Well last night at 8.00pm I sat down and started stitching while watching the show 50 to 1 which was about famous movie quotes,quite entertaining especially as they had movies from different eras. Then "The Castle "came on so this kept me up until the end of that which was 11.15. By then I had very tired eyes but have managed to finish one of the stitcheries and nearly completed the other. I will be turning the one on the left into a Christmas Card Holder. Hopefully this afternoon I will be able to finish it off. I enjoyed being involved in the Friday night sew-in because it made sure I actually did do something. It will be fun to see what everyone else managed to do. Some of us are in very different time zones from each other so will have to wait to see every ones work. Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy times.

Bev C

Friday Night Sew-in and the recipe mystery solved.

Hello,

Well hasn't the week gone so fast. I can't believe it is the weekend tomorrow. Tonight I will be joining in the Friday Night Sew-in I have a couple of stitchery blocks that I want to get done. So come about 8.00pm I will be settled in my chair and ready for a evening of sewing. Heidi and Bobbi are kindly hosting this.

Now I was able to solve the mystery of the Recipe I posted. Lauren had a friend Chris who lives overseas who was able to decipher it for me. It is a recipe for Zucchini Slice. Nothing exotic at all. I suppose the lady who wrote this out hadn't heard of this but I think everybody has eaten this at some time.
In case you don't have the recipe here it is.

Zucchini Slice.

1. 5 eggs
2. 1 cup grated cheese
3. 5 rashers bacon chopped finely
4. zucchini 370 grams
5. 1/2 cup of olive oil
6. salt and pepper
7. 1 onion finely chopped
8. 1 cup self raising flour

cut bacon and onions into small pieces grate zucchini mix it together and put into a buttered dish and cook for 180 degrees for 40 minutes.

Thank you to Lauren and Chris for this. A six month mystery has been solved. I will now give the recipe to David with a English translation and he can put it in his cookbook.

Hexagons, new material and a mystery recipe.

Hello,
We have another smoky day around here. Bush fires are burning down south and we are copping the smoke. I will be glad when it clears up. Nothing like having a lovely day weather wise and having to have the doors and windows shut because of the smell. Yesterday I cut out some hexagons to make a bag for my sister Chris. I love doing this kind of work and can see why people get addicted to doing them.

This is the panel of material that Chris sent me. I have cut out the hexagons from the side of the panel so far because I want to make something else with the middle section. You can download some instructions for making the hexagon bag at Kiwiquilts.

Look what I bought the other weekend at The Apple Basket in Donnybrook. It was half price and as I couldn't see what the original price was I just got 1 metre. It was only $10.00 I wish I had bought the rest of what was on the roll now. We stopped here for lunch and they certainly do a lovely meal. Plus there is a great range in the patchwork shop as well.

Now I hope someone out there in blog land can help me decipher this recipe. My son David found it left on the counter at work here earlier on in the year. It is a recipe for a pie. I know it has 5 eggs and 1 cup self raising flour and that you cook it for 180 degrees. Beyond that I have know idea. Even what language it is would be great. I presume it is Japanese.Click on the photo if you wish to see it more clearly.

Happy days.

Bev C

Parcels of goodness from Santa's Festive Honeypot Swap

Hello,

Once again I was involved in Santa's Festive Honeypot Swap. It was a direct swap this year and my partner was Shiree in New Zealand. Shiree made up these wonderful decorations to go on my tree. Beautiful toile fabric in red tones. These are currently gracing our Christmas tree.

A matching card was made as well with some ribbons. Shiree also gave me the extra hand made card which I will frame. Thank you for these gifts Shiree and a big thank you to Darlene for organising this swap.

This is the card I sent to Shiree. This card can be pulled apart after Christmas. I cut out a piece of material that had Santa on it and sewed it on with some buttons.

This is the table runner I made for Shiree. I adjusted a pattern from Fat Cat Patterns.

I also added in some DMC thread a fat quarter and a tea towel I had appliqued.
So a little bit more of my work graces a home in New Zealand.

It is going to be a hot day here today so I have already started the watering of the garden. We are allocated two days of the week according to the last number of our street number. We are allowed to water by sprinkler or reticulation up until 9.00am or after 6.00pm on those two days. We can water by hand at other times. We just have to be organised. With the sun getting up earlier you wake up anyway.

Happy Sunday.

Bev C

Embroidered Bowl,"Best Friend" Rose and a little pink shop.

Hello,

Yesterday I spent the day doing something I will most probably never do again. I have always admired these machine embroidered bowls. I had downloaded a freebie from here. The bowl has six sides to it. Each segment took 34 minutes to stitch and had 19 718 stitches in it. The centre piece took 44 minutes to stitch out and had 25 699 stitches. I ended up making 7 side pieces as one had sewn a bit funny and it wasn't until I had taken it out of the hoop until I noticed it. I will use this for a bookmark. This morning I joined all the pieces together and it has pride of place on the table awaiting some lollies. There were several sizes to sew out I chose the smaller one. The centre piece would make a lovely Christmas decoration to hang from your tree. Am I going to make one? Probably not ,well maybe next year.

When we were looking around Bridgetown on the weekend we found Hayley's Nursery and what a lovely well stocked nursery it was. I was after a rose to plant to celebrate our anniversary and guess what I found. A rose I had been after for a while. It is called "Best Friend." It is a hybrid tea rose. It is a medium upright bush with deep pink highly fragrant blooms with long stems and good lasting qualities. It has light green glossy foliage and very free flowering. It is named by the RSPCA to honour friendship from loving a pet. I love it because of the name and that it is pink flowering. For Ian and I it will be the perfect reminder of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

Look what we found while wandering the garden at Ford House. A lovely little pink room with lead light windows. The agapanthus was about to bloom. I wish mine would grow that big. It is amazing what a difference in climate and rainfall make.

Inside was a pink paradise. Pretty feminine gifts to touch and be in awe of.

Lots of lovely pink. It certainly was a shoppers paradise. You know in our room in the wardrobe hanging up were some little girls/babies dresses,a special touch indeed.

We are having a few cooler days before it heats up for the weekend. So I will have a chance to get some more sewing done hopefully.

Happy days.

Bev C

Silver-weekend away.

Hello,

Ian and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on the weekend. We were married on the 1st December, this was the closest weekend to that date.It was just so relaxing doing nothing but sight-seeing,eating and relaxing. Ian chose the wonderful Bed and Breakfast at Ford House in Bridgetown. We stayed in the Delaportes Suite. This is where we had breakfast yesterday morning with the other guests. This is an old barn with a wonderful arrangement of gifts you can purchase. On the right hand side on the shelves you can see all the preserving of fruit which the owner Ken does. We had some of his marmalade on freshly baked bread.

I can tell you that these two chairs were just so comfortable. I have always wanted some wing-backed chairs. I think we will have to look out for some.

The carving on the bed heads was just beautiful. I wish we could have slipped the bed heads into our suitcase.
There were several different buildings on the property surrounded by lovely gardens which we had a good walk and look around at. The Blackwood River runs along side the property which adds to the atmosphere. There were some geese that called Ford House home as well. I am glad that they tended to stay down the other end of the property. Although they were all there to greet us at the barn door for breakfast.
It was interesting to read through the "Guests" book in our room to see who had stayed there before us. A Lord and Lady...... of Scotland had signed the page.Wow!!!! It has been a couple of years since we last visited Bridgetown and things had changed a little. Some new shops and some had closed down. We did manage to do some shopping though. Thank you so much for the weekend Ian.

Happy times.

Bev C

"Walk in the Garden."

Hello,

Today I spent the day putting this wall hanging together. Dzintra sent me the pattern a little while ago. It has been on the top of my to do list. It is called "Walk in the Garden" by Runaway Quilts. The pattern was made to suit a "Friends" panel material. As I didn't have access to this material I used what I had on hand including a fat quarter of material that Dzintra sent with the pattern. On the pattern they had the stitchery squares in a different order.The house was first followed by the duck flower and lastly the saying. I changed them around.

After all the animals are always up first. They may go to bed before us but I have never checked on the chooks in the morning and found them asleep.

Look who is sitting on the chimney. We must have all been very good. Santa looks just so happy sitting there.

We get up each day. Thanking the good Lord that we can go about our daily business.

Then we go out and check out the flowers. Thank you so much Dzintra and JoJo for this. I will hang this in my sewing room and remember you for your kindness when I look at it. Another project finished. I often wonder why I spend so much time looking at the pattern when all that time could have been spent sewing it. Oh well, I suppose I could call it research!!!

Happy days.

Bev C