New Year's Day Hiking - Cossey's Dam Loop Track

New Year's Day, saw The Scout, Miss B and I, venturing out for our first hike of 2018.  We did the Cossey Dam Loop Track at the Hunua Falls.  Not an overly long hike, about 5km and 3.5 hours, but it was hot and humid and all the stairs and uphill bits were hard.  I didn't realise how much my fitness levels have dropped. (Guess what I'm aiming to rectify this year.)  Most of it was a track through native bush, including a little Kauri grove.  Last year a lot of the track was destroyed through major slips after severe rainfall, it was quite amazing to see the level of devastation caused. A lot of work has been done to reopen this track, though care is still required in places. 

Today I'm recovering, and enjoying an extremely hot and humid day. 

2018 - Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Another year is drawing to a close, so that means it's time for my Christmas break from blogging.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, comments, gives advice, book recommendations and for your continued friendship.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with the joy of family, friends, good food and holiday memories.

Meri Kirihimete  see you all in 2018.



****I've switched commenting off on this post****

This and That

• My Mandolin Quilt epp block is finished,  I love how it turned out, now I need to ensure I use it in something, I'm thinking a cushion will be best.

• This was the very first quilt I ever made, you can read about it here.

• My first sunflower of the season is blooming, grown from seed too.  Fingers crossed it survives the wind we are getting at present.

• A lot of my requested books turned up at once, so I think my summer reading is sorted for a little while.  I'm currently enjoying The First Princess of Wales by Karen Harper.

• My tomato plant has fruit.  This is a grafted plant which will apparently produce both  red and yellow cherry tomatoes, it will be interesting to see which colour is more prolific.

Hoping you are all having a wonderful week and that the Christmas madness is not too bad where ever you may be.

Making a Mandolin Block

Towards the end of November, Jodi @ Tales of Cloth told us she had 200 free sets of papers for people to make her Mandolin Quilt block, which is her 2018 Quilt Club Project. 

I didn't want to commit to a full year of making this quilt, I still have my Ice Cream Soda quilt to finish, and I have my sights on another EPP project too.  How ever I thought thought that one block would make quite a fun pillow.  The idea being that I would make it in the same fabrics I used in the pillows I am making for my bedroom.    Funny how ideas change.

Using a fussy cut from Alison Glass Diving Board Collection for the centre hexi, the rest of the fabrics (all from my stash too) seemed to fall in place, after much dithering and seeking advice from friends and family over previous selections. 

Now it is just the pale grey squares and ditsy floral diamonds to be stitched on to this piece, before I can applique it to a background fabric.

I should be finishing my other pillows, but my sewing room has been too hot over the past couple of weeks, so I am quite enjoying this hand sewing project I can do outside in the evenings.