Crochet - Hexagons - CHB Quilt Show

We are back home again now from our peaceful retreat.

It was a tranquil setting to sit and stitch, and I got plenty of stitching and crocheting done.

The pink and white mohair patch (from last week) has had some more texture added to it.....

And (groan) another project started.

This is going to be a bluesey neck-warmer collar type thingamajig.

The main reason we went to "the other place" was to level the ground ready to put a pump shed in place over the water bore hole. (We need water just like everyone else does).

I was meant to be helping t'other-half to dig the shed foundation, but I got tied up (almost literally) with measuring and marking out the house plot. So when I eventually turned up at the shed site, he had finished it and actually had a smile on his face and said the ground was easy to dig. Job finished, we could go home now, and we'd only been there two days.

Now seemed as good a time as any to tell him that we couldn't go home because I wanted to go to the quilt show there on Friday.

That seemed to wipe the smile from his face, lol.

During breakfast on Monday he decided that he could fend off his boredom if he went back home for one night (it's a six-hour drive just one way) to pick up the shed panels, and bring them back to Hawkes Bay the next day, then erect the whole shed the day after.

I rather liked the idea of being left on my own for almost two days of non-stop-stitching.

Photo before the shed arrived....

Photo after the shed arrived....

And if I turn around 180degrees from that point...

you can just see our caravan through the trees.

I took my hexagon patchwork with me to Hawkes Bay because it's one of those projects that travels well and is easy to pick up and stitch at any little spare moment.

This is how much I got stitched while we were away. Great progress.

I only have about the same amount again as this left to stitch into these 3-hex patches, and then I have the lovely job of putting all those 3-hex patches together to form the quilt top.

Woohooo, slowly getting there. It has only taken me about 10+ years to get this far, lol.

Just in case you have studied the hexies in the photo above, and are wondering why some hexies do not have tacking stitches holding the fabric in place over the papers.... well, you see, it's like this...

The hexies on the left (7 of the 3-hex patches) were stitched in the normal technique from Saturday to Thursday of last week.

Then, on Friday, I went to the Wine Country Quilts Show

and, I'm sure you know how it goes... there were merchants selling their treasures products, and this one lady was selling glue pens for fabric. Oh my!

She was actually demonstrating on tiny hexagons and has made the most exquisite small quilts.

I fell for them straight away and bought the glue pen.

Then, back at the caravan, I could use the glue pen on my larger hexies.

Voila! I now have hexies that do not need tacking together first.

My only disappointment is that I've nearly finished making all the hexies for this quilt. I so, so, wish I'd found this product sooner.

 Now, I bet you are wanting to know about the actual quilt show.

I will be sharing photos in another post later in the week.

And the Pukeora Estate is worthy of a whole blog post just for itself.

It's late now and I really must be somewhere other than my computer.

White Wrap Scrumbles & "Brock" Needle-felting

White Wrap Scrumbles & "Brock" Needle-felting

 The latest work on my needle felted Woodland character "Brock" has included a tunic change and a new hairstyle.

He is now 'Brock the Wayward Wannabe' and I can just imagine all the fun and mischievous tricks that he will be participating in.

He still needs more work in certain areas, but he's fun to work with and I keep dreaming up new characters to join him in his Woodland abode. 

Here he is now.

Progress on my White Wrap has been happening this week too.

Some scrumbles have been joined, and more scrumbles made to fit the gaps.

Not all joined together yet, but it's coming along nicely I think.

Gardening has taken up a fair amount of my time this week. 

It's Spring here in New Zealand, and everything is starting to bud and flower. 

The first lot of daffs have come and gone, the swallows have returned to the nest under the eaves on the deck (one egg so far), the rosella parakeets are busy chattering away to each other in the orchard, the ducks, pukeko's, plover's and pterodactyls (sorry, I mean herons)  are nesting around the woods and stream.

I love Spring.

Crochet Along Afghan & the NEW Project

Well there goes another week.

The "Invasion of the Packing Boxes" has started. At the moment most of the boxes are still in their flat-pack form, but a couple have been packed and stacked. It will probably be about a year before I see the contents of those boxes again.

Crochet Along Progress

The Pastel Squares Afghan is finished now. 

Quite pleased that it is finished but not too happy with the random squares as they all turned out a slightly different measurement which made the joining of them a little bit awkward. I think I managed to get the middle lines to behave as I joined the squares together, but that outside edge, well, I will have to talk a bit more sternly to that part. It needs blocking to try to get those edges straight. 

I probably will not be doing another 'random squares' afghan. Uniform squares would have a more professional finish.

And..... because my mind was thinking about the baby afghan colours.....

here is something else that just slipped off my crochet hook.

Felting

And now to reveal what I teased you with last week.

WIP

Meet Oscar...... he lives in Hampden Forest with his family and other villagers.

(He's not finished yet though. Needs more work on mouth, arms, hands, boots etc.)

This Oscar character is the start of my NEW project.

When he is finished he will sit on a log in the bush for a photo shoot, and then await the creation of his fellow Hampden Forest inhabitants.

I can see many wonderful hours spent creating this fantasy village, and finding family connections for them all.

Do I have fun, or what!!!

Have a great week.

 Cy