Cleaning up after Cyclones

Cyclone Wilma made a bit of a mess around Northland. There have been road closures and some homes flooded, but thankfully no lives have been lost. We have had 2 days of sun and a little wind since the rain so everything is slowly drying out.

This is what Whangarei Falls usually looks like but after all the rain ……

It’s a bit angry and muddy looking. And the picnic spot at the bottom is flooded.

 

There was so much rain that normally quiet streams overflowed their banks.  The debris on the mesh fence shows you how high this stream rose.

 

Here's the stream from the other side. The petrol station across the road is still closed (3 days after the rain) as it was flooded. Spotlight (fabric store) is behind the petrol station but luckily the water didn't get that far.

So yesterday my Husband helped with some cleaning up in Moerewa (small town north of Whangarei)

That looks better, I can see the lawn now! While I cleaned up at home. There was no Cyclone Wilma damage at home but….

Cyclone Leeann had made a mess in the sewing room. Look at Oscar, I'm sure he's saying he didn't do it!

As you can see Oscar was a big help in cleaning up my sewing desk! He stayed there until I got the vacuum cleaner out, then he ran for his life. I'm sure he thinks it will suck him up!

The sewing desk is not totally cleared but it's much better. I might be able to do some sewing now and make a new mess!  Hope everyone out there is OK and if you have any flooding it dries up fast. 

PS: check out this Stitching Farm Girls blog Love to Stitch (on the side bar or use this link) to see the flooding on her farm.

Husbands…

Well my husband went out today and came back with these photos of the Kamo Hotel.


See the banner? Below is a close up so you can read it. (click on photo to make it bigger if you still can't read it)

Maybe we should get a group of husbands together so they can 'play' and we can have a sewing day! 

My Husbands back at work tomorrow so I may get some machine sewing done, or I might just continue with the hand embroidery samplers I'm making for crazy quilts.

If you are looking for the 'How to' for the Charity Block use this link, or scroll down a few posts. 

Hope everyone's had a good holiday I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the February Club Meeting.

Retail Therapy and more

I managed to visit a few quilt shops on my travels.I didn’t go crazy just collected a few things that appealed to me. The visit to the Krazy Cow in Levin was fun as they were having a shelf delivered by crane!

It was the only way to get the shelf in! The Krazy Cow building used to be the train station in Levin so it is very high on the road side so that it’s level with the train platform. Luckily the shop owners husband, is friends with the crane owner! It's a really nice shop with a cafe at one end, shop in the middle and a sewing area for classes at the other end.

I found this ‘Love’ fabric at the Krazy Cow. And I was pleased to find the silk ribbon at ‘Cherry Pie’ another quilt shop in Levin. For a small town it’s lucky to have two quilt shops.

Also while in Levin (visiting Mum) we were lucky to see a Steam Train coming through town on a special day trip . I had forgotten how loud they are. 

These were bought while visiting Family and Friends in Dannevirke at a shop called Concrete n Crafts. When I lived in Dannevirke years ago it sold concrete garden ornaments, but now is mostly patchwork fabric with only a few concrete ornaments. I got a surprise when behind the counter was the man who used to run the local cinema. We had a great talk as I was one of his regular customers. I loved going to the movies there, as they still had an intermission. I wish they had intermissions at the movies now especially when you see a 3 hour movie!   

This old style ‘traffic cop car’ is parked outside the Police Museum in Dannevirke. Apparently it stops a lot of speeding even though the police haven’t used this type of vehicle in over 20 years! 

This fabric was bought in Arthur Toye’s In Palmerston North. I had good timing shopping there as all fabric was on sale for half price! 

This lot of goodies was purchased at Needlecraft in Palmerston North. They were having a sale too as they are relocating (to College St). I had just started quilting the last time Needlecraft relocated in the early 90’s, and talked to Vallis (owner) about remembering that sale. I’m sure I still have some lace I bought then in my stash. It was the first time I had bought a Quilters Newsletter Magazine too. ( I still get them)

I lived and worked in Palmerston North (when I was young and single) And my favourite takeaway bar from then, is still in going. Their fish burgers are still extremely large!  YUM, and can you believe it, all their burgers were 2 for $5!   

I’m back from holiday…

Here’s a photo from the trip back home yesterday, my Son took it from the back seat. 

Most New Zealanders will know where this is. We were driving through the Desert Road, and that’s Mount Ruapehu, an active volcano in the centre of the North Island. The last eruption was in 2007, and it's also home of popular ski fields in winter. 

We found a safe place to pull over and took some better photos. I visited a few Quilt Shops and bought fabric too, but that can wait for another post. Bye for now 

Charity Block for the February Meeting

OK, I don't feel like sewing in this lovely weather but some of you do, and have asked for info on making the Charity Block.

It's a Disappearing Four Patch, you start with four 5 inch squares, 1 red, 1 blue and 2 cream. Sew them together into a four patch as above.

Then sub cut it one and a half inches (1& 1/2) away from the centre seams.

It is easiest to cut once vertically, then once horizontally. Then carefully turn the cutting board around (without moving the fabric) to make the last two cuts. NB: I have moved the units apart so you can see where I have cut, but you won't move the fabric till all the cuts are made.

Then you swap the rectangle units around and sew your block together.

Ta Da! This is how it looks finished, make as many as you like and bring to the February Meeting.

The Weather’s been so nice…

... that I don't feel like sewing at all! Shocking I know but it's the way it is. Yesterday we went to the beach again. Now when you say that to anyone in Whangarei, the next question is which one? This is one of the best things about living here, there are so many beaches (I can think of 20 that I like) within a short drive.

So we went to Matapouri, but stopped off at Ngunguru too. Here's some photo's so if you have never been to Northland you will get the idea of the beautiful beaches we have here. And if you are freezing in all that snow on the other side of the world, I hope this warms you up a bit!

This is the Ngunguru Estuary, the tide was out so there was a beach to play on, usually the tides in when we go past. 

 

Here’s My youngest Son with his Girlfriend, paddling in the Ngunguru Estuary

 

This is beautiful Matapouri. I have never seen it so busy as it was yesterday, this is crowded by Northland standards. Matapouri is a little horse shoe shaped bay. So the photo above is taken looking left at the top of the boardwalk.

 

And this photo is looking straight ahead, you can see the ‘heads’ of the bay on both sides of the photo. If you look very hard on the horizon there are some hazy islands (easier to see if you click on the photo to make it bigger). They are the ‘Poor Knights’ which are one of the best places in the world for suba diving. If you are into diving there are a lot of videos on YouTube about the Poor Knights here's a link to a good one if you are interested. 

And here’s looking right. 

There were lots of people having fun, including these guys above. Hope you are all enjoying your holidays 'cause I am.  :-)