A surprise in the mail....

Look at this wonderful surprise that arrived in the mail today! I'm so excited. I made this wall-hanging top and all around Thailand i worked on the blanket stitch. Whenever we were teaching I would take out my project and work on it. I left it behind and completely forgot about it. I was amazed to find it on my doorstep today, all beautifully hand quilted. I'm so touched by the wonderful effort that has been made for me. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is a beautiful quilt I have just made...

I've been 70fying jeans for James' class, here are Carly's which are so cool I think.

All the Christmas presents ready for wrapping!

Whew! The sewing is done. The machine is packed away and the dining room has been reclaimed!

Last week's effort....

A very productive week!

I'm so over being sick. I'm still taking antiboitics for my strep throat and I have another cold and sore throat! It must be nearly Christmas and holiday time. I can't wait.
Yesterday I made costumes: three wise men, one shepherd, Mary, Joseph, an angel, the innkeeper and his wife.
This week, apart from working full time, I've made two lap quilts, put the binding on seven others and nearly finished a very pretty pink quilt. This will be my most productive week ever I think. I have made nearly all of the presents this year, I'm so pleased. I hope all the people that get them will be pleased too!
Today I have about ten pairs of old jeans to put flares in for James' end of year concert. Then I am going to pack up the machine till after Christmas!
I'll post some photos of stuff tomorrow.

100 Dreams

Here are my 100 dreams all ready to go....
1. Do the Akaroa three-day walk
2. Eat cake in France
3. Touch the great wall of china
4. Visit with Dutch Blue in Holland
5. Learn to paint
6. Write a book about my story
7. Write a receipe book for kids
8. Learn to ride a motor bike
9. Collect more enamelware
10. Learn to swim!
11. Be happy in my skin
12. Be a fantastic grandmother
13. Go to Jo Seagar's Cooking School
14. Plant more flowers
15. Go to the Bay of Islands
16. Travel in a camper van
17. Learn to play the saxaphone
18. Sing in a choir
19. Stand on the top of a mountain
20. Beat David at chess
21. Visit the Greek Islands
22. Eat pizza in Italy
23. Go to Morocco
24. Take bibles to China
25. Visit the Amazon Jungle
26. Swim in the dead sea
27. Go to the beehive and watch parliment in session.
28. Learn to light a fire by rubbing sticks together
29. Learn to recognize native flora in the bush
30. Master foundation piecing (patchwork)
31. Go scuba diving in warm water
32. Go to Canada and visit SusanE
33. Walk the Milford track
34. Sleep under the stars
35. Learn to recognise the constellations
36. Learn the names of the planets
37. Teach boys how to cook
38. Run a drop in centre
39. Ride/walk the Otago Rail trail
40. Be a mentor to others
41. Going to build an enormous sandcastle on the beach
42. Going to write a story with Reuben every day of these holidays
43. Going to bake Christmas shortbread and give it to my friends.
44. Going to plant at least one new rose in my garden.
45. Going to lose 10kg in three months.
46. Going to look after my skin by putting moisturiser on every day.
47. Going to read at least 5 good books this summer.
48. Going to visit the Art Gallery.
49. Going to cover my son's books with fancy covers for the new year.
50. Going to spend time working on my projects.
51. Going to clean out the garage and KEEP MY CAR IN IT.
52. Going to cook delicious meals for my family.
53. Going to have at least three families over for dinner over the holidays.
54. Going to reconnect with my friend Nicola.
55. Going to make my brother's birthday present.
56. Going to enjoy camping with my family.
57. Going to get some story tapes to make a long car journey more fun.
58. Going to read to my children.
59. Going to walk the dogs at least once a week instead of just sending the kids!
60. Going to paint my fingernails!
61. Going to paint a picture that I'm proud of
62. Going to declutter the hall cupboard
63. Going to Akaroa to lie on the beach
64. Going to sell some of my work
65. Going to create art works with my patchwork
66. Going to always have fresh flowers in the house.
67. Going to buy a new duvet cover for my bed
68. Going to stop wearing ugly underwear!
69. Going to only buy clothes I really love
70. Going to master using my overlocker
71. Going to do a patchwork class every term
72. Going to have coffee with a friend every week.
73. Going to watch a movie with David every term.
74. Going to have family night every sunday.
75. Going to make the job roster work.
76. Going to get a new cleaner.
77. Going to motivate women to make a difference in their world
78. Going to master the ipod and download things I WANT to listen to.
79. Stop wearing "don't come near me" pjs
80. Hug David every day.
81. Manage our business and steer it forward.
82. Look after my team.
83. Know the names of the team's wifes/partners and children
84. Send our team a birthday card.
85. Acknowledge work well done.
86. Set structures in place for accountability in every area.
87. Make sure that I can always be relied on.
88. Have a clear vision for our company's future.
89. Always have a spare bed in our home.
90. Get a budget for our family.
91. Encourage my children to make presents for their friends.
92. Keep a scrapbook of all the special things that come my way.
93. Write poetry.
94. Find a way to express the feelings I have that others can understand.
95. Cry at sad movies.
96. Cry when I feel sad.
97. Find good jokes to tell the kids.
98. Write notes for the kid's lunchboxes, at least once a week.
99. Get Reuben eating fruit.
100. Love the way that God created me unique.

Another Christmas present done...

This is with the new moda charm squares. I've never used them before. I started this quilt before work and finished it after work. Chrissy worked out the pattern. Isn't it great. So simple, but so pretty. Hope mum likes it! (Lucky she doesn't read my blog anymore or the cat would be out of the bag. I've put together one for my dad too, I just need to get some fabric for the border tomorrow. I'm on a roll.
Talking of cats out of bag, finally our puppy, Pepper, (maltese terrior cross) has gone off heat. Gosh that was an education for the kids. I wonder how long it will take till this happens again. Anyone tell me???

The finished Canteen quilt...

In the last school holidays, one of the boys at the children's school died from brain tumours. It was very sad. My eleven year old was very touched at the memorial service and realised that Saul had really made his 15 years count for a lot. Saul was an only child and James wanted me to make a quilt for his mum. So this is the quilt we made out of Canteen bandanas...
Canteen is an organisation which supports young people with cancer. Every year they sell bandanas designed by the cancer kids, to raise funds for Canteen. James helped me cut out all the circles and I sewed them on turned applique.
This is the back which James sewed all by himself. Yesterday it came back from the wonderful Verina, who made a great job quilting it, and I sewed the binding on last night. Another project finished and one we are truly proud of!
And this is the beautiful star which Corry made for me, hanging on my desk. Everytime I look at it, I feel like I get a hug from Corry!

Two more quilts find new homes....

This is a quilt I made a couple of years ago when I had my first hip surgery. I gave it to Heather on the weekend. She is one of my boy's brigade mums. Its her birthday on Christmas day and she will be all by herself. So I gave it to her so that if she feels sad she can wrap herself up in it and have a hug from me! Aren't quilts cool.

This is the gray day quilt finished. It's on its way to its new home...

Boy's Brigade weekend...

We had a great weekend. Not what we expected. We were booked into go to Journeys end, which is a great campsite in North Canterbury. There is facilities there and a great place to pitch tents. But there was a mix up and some people who don't wear too many clothes were going there! Not so suitable for our boys. So at the last minute we took them to our cottage at Coalgate and we had a great time. The boys went on a walk up to the old coalmine, went swimming, went to the river and collected firewood and had big fire and cooked marshmallows. I was not feeling great, so lucky me I got to stay inside and do all their meals. That was perfect for me. I made them all sorts of yummy things, one of the boys said "Deb is the best cook ever" but he's being kind, because it was just good boys food!

No I'm not faking it!

Whew I am actually sick!! I've been to the doctor I have a step throat. I cannot believe how sore my throat is! Now I have DRUGS hurray.

Plans for the weekend.

I'm off on Boys Brigade camp this weekend. I'm Camp Mother!! I've got two buy the food for 20 people today and deal to it all weekend. Usually I really enjoy it, but I've been sick all week with a headache and sore throat so am hoping to manage camp as well... didn't you know mummies aren't allowed to get sick! I love all my boys though, especially the naughty ones. They are the ones that need an extra hug as they are just trying to get your attention. I'm going to try and sew the backing onto the Grey day Quilt so I can do the finishing touches while I watch the boys. I plan to sew loads of grey toned buttons on it to give it some texture!

20 Things I want to do...

Why not dream?? Someone dared me to write 100 hundred dreams. Well here's the first installment! Who knows how these could happen, but if we don't dream they WONT.
So here is my first 20...

1. Do the Akaroa three-day walk
2. Eat cake in France
3. Touch the great wall of china
4. Visit with Dutch Blue in Holland
5. Learn to paint
6. Write a book about my story
7. Write a receipe book for kids
8. Learn to ride a motor bike
9. Collect more enamelware
10. Loose 20 kgs!
11. Be happy in my skin
12. Be a fantastic grandmother
13. Go to Jo Seagar's Cooking School
14. Plant more flowers
15. Go to the Bay of Islands
16. Travel in a camper van
17. Learn to play the saxaphone
18. Sing in a choir
19. Stand on the top of a mountain
20. Beat David at chess

Mrs Incredible Unmasked...

Well I'm sick today and having the day in bed. It is such a luxury! I will have to get up when the kids come home, but in the meantime me and the dogs and at least one cat are enjoying the laziness! It is so nice just lying in bed that I think it is worth having a wicked headache and killer sore throat. Plus cause my throat is so sore I can't eat so its a nice enforced diet!! I had a major coaching session with Mike yesterday. My husband, David, had Mike as a coach first and Mike and I didn't exactly hit it off! So its kind of weird that he is my coach now. At first I thought he was a total fruitcake, a complete nutter, but actually he's one smart cookie. Anyway one of my goals was to "love my fantastic and wonderful marriage with David". Well at the point when I started coaching I was thinking, just staying married to David would be a miracle, but now I can see that I am going to have a fantastic and wonderful marriage to David. Recently I have seen that I was trying (quite successfully) to be Mrs Incredible and its not that helpful! It was kind of a coping mechanism for my life and worked to a degree, but the downside is that Mrs Incredible doesn't feel things. This is good (she thinks) for all the pain in her life, but it also means she isn't able to feel love and affection from others. Also she is wrong about the pain, she just ends up carrying it around all the time and thinks that noone can see it. So now Mrs Incredible has taken off her mask and looks around at her amazing life and is able to feel it. Ironically she now must feel the bad things too (like being sick) but even that is way way better than carrying around all the accumulated pain from years of not feeling things. Mrs Incredible is not going to save the world now, but realise that she can dream dreams and create a life for her and her family. Cool eh! Thanks Mike.

Grey day quilt....

Close up of my grey day quilt!

I made this quilt on the weekend. It's all in shades of grey with some bright red and yellow thrown in for good measure. There are some broken pieces (mosaics very badly done) and some stripes. I'm happy with how it turned out. Its a good quilt for a sad day!! I feel better now I've made it, like I have something concrete to show!

He's my boy!

I'm so proud of my boy! here he is biking his little heart out... you go my son!

Does my bum look big in this?

These are the enormous pants I made for Chrissy last weekend. She is going to be a clown in their end of year drama production next sunday night. They are one and a half metres wide!!!

Works in progress...

I'm feeling so tired tonight. This week just seems to be going to never end!! Last night we had all our painting team to our home in Coalgate and fed them all up to thank them for the great year of work! Some of them went jebboating on the Rakaia which they really really enjoyed. It was a lot of work though, don't know if I want to do that again, especially after a full on working week. Then today David did a 75 km cycle race and James (11) did a 10 km kids Mini-bays. They did great I am so proud of them!
Chrissy has been busy today dancing for her end of year production. Two shows today, and two tomorrow. Reuben is self-destructing again, he is just very tired I think. Hopefully we can get through this weekend without a major meltdown!!
I've been working with a personal coach for about 10 weeks now and am starting to make some headway I think. The trouble is that it is getting harder and harder! It was easy to make the big glaringly-obvious changes, but the real challenging ones are much much harder! Mike is great though (his business is called "Clarity"), I've never met him, he doesn't even live in the same island as me, but we talk on the phone. The thing about a coach is that they don't actually tell you what to do, but as you talk, it kind of becomes obvious to you. Right now I am trying to be real about how I feel about things which is I think one of my life-long failings. I like to think that I am Mrs Incredible and that nothing fazes me, but the reality is that of course I feel sad sometimes, ok a LOT of times!!! especially lately with all the Reuben stuff. Anyway I haven't worked out how to change yet, but the first step is to realise that you have to eh!
I'm going to make a quilt to show how I feel, I've got some grey fabrics and I want to do a mosaic pattern with golden grouting. I think that we can see the beauty in the difficult times of our lives and that is the golden grouting!! Anyway aren't we all just works in progress?? As my favourite saying this year is "Lucky we aren't perfect either"!

Some of the work from Thailand

Here is some of the work that was created from when I went to Thailand. Its great isn't it :)

Kaija's Quilt

Detail of the quilting on the back. Done by the lovely Verina at Cust.

Kaija has been a fantastic friend to my sister Jo this year (she's had a bit of a hard time) so before she went back to the UK I decided to make her a quilt. Here it is....

Busy time making Christmas presents!

This is a table runner I made for Aunty Jean. Its very "Aunty Jean" and I think she will like it. So one weekend, nine presents... its all good!

Also made this quilt. It's a man-quilt! My cutters and ruler had crapped out by that stage so it grew together, not cutting required!! I'm actually really pleased with it. I wanted some polar fleece for the back so I took a blanket out of James' bed (he's eleven) and cut half off it. Then I put the blanket back and waited to see if he would notice. So far he hasn't!!

Had a very productive weekend. This is a very cool bag I made. I'm really pleased with it. It actually looked nothing until I put the buttons on it!

I've been busy making Christmas presents this weekend. Here are five little sewing kits. cool aren't they. I found the receipe for them in a magazine.

On going having a fun day.....

On Tuesday the rest of our office went to the races. By all accounts, they had a fantastic fun time and I was so pleased for them. I went to school to help out with a camp day with the junior children. We had such a fun time, pitching tents, making banners and doing camp things. After school I popped into mum's to take a wee ipod case I had made for my dad. She was talking about how she wondered about reconciling ones Christian faith with the betting on the races. To be honest, I hadn't even thought about the betting, I was wondering about the drinking and general silliness. I'm just not into that kind of thing to be honest, I quite like to sit quietly and people watch, but I'm not very good and the 'lets go out and have fun' senario. I'm a bit of a party pooper actually (as my family knows). I did have a really great day at school though, I loved putting up the tent (and I loved being good at it), I loved being with Reuben and watching him watch the other children. I loved being able to mummy a little girl called 'Jemesa' who was the only child in school uniform on a mufti day and was crying all day. I loved the fact that she wanted to put her name on our banner and told me that the 'Purple Panthers' (our team) was the best team. I especially liked the way she leaned against me at lunch time! I had a fantastic day. I've been thinking that different people find different things fun and I think that we should be tolerant of each other's choices. To paraphrase a saying... "One man's fun is another man's torture!!!"

My sunflower bag....

Hello there. This is a cheapy conference bag which I have padded and quilted the front of with this fantastic bright sunflower material. I just love the fabric which comes in a whole range. I got it from the lovely ladies in Kaikoura (Hi Viv and Rachel) link to them on http://apatchofcountrykaikoura.com/store/index.php?main_page=about_us. I'm going to use this bag for a present at Christmas. I wonder who the lucky receipiant will be!!!

New Quilt for my friend Liz.....

Here is the new quilt for Liz. I texted her this morning to say it was ready, did she want it and so she popped over. It was so cool though, because she said she had been having a good cry about stuff and then got my text and realised that God did love her after all! How awesome was that. I'm stoked.

Quilts I've been finishing....

This is the other quilt I finished yesterday. It is for my friend Shenleigh's 40th birthday. I started it about this time last year, and finally finished it. I'm really sick of it now to be honest, but I think in a few months I'll like it again. I still think the colours are beautiful.

Here a close up of the quilt for Lily Rose...

This is the quilt I finished yesterday for Lily Rose. I like the colours and the pattern, but I'm not too proud of the workmanship. I made it out of the left overs from another quilt. Actually I'll get two or maybe three quilts from that first quilt's leftovers.