WOW What a weekend

Been a great weekend and visited the Auckland Museum today to see the WOW exhibition. Got in for free as Stephanie is auckland resident, Lovely to see some of the pieces up close and personal and almost so you can touch them. Amazing how some can take an ordinary fabric and turn it into something stunning.

  This construction is done using felt and wood. Most amazing detail in it. 

 This costume was done using EVA fabric with paint and layering. A stunning result.

Watching the Sol3 Mio concert at the moment, while having a nice cuppa and ginger gems.

Card swap

Made six cards for birthday swap for stamping up team. Thought would do all six the same but as you can see each one is a variation on the theme. Used blackberry bliss and hello honey card stock with mossy meadow, lost lagoon stamp pads and stamps from big day and one tag fits all stamp sets, with  a few embellishments. Lots of fun and might do a card afternoon with Sonia and Fiona to make some for them.

Weekend activities

I know it has been a long while since I have posted but life has been busy. Since the big bike ride I have been doing a little bit of biking, mostly on the spinbike, wii and some walking. Went to Aqua Zumba with Stephanie this weekend, as I am on the annual anniversary weekend trip to Auckland. Marilyn and I drove up on Friday night, she has stayed with barry and Kathryn while I have been at Stephanie's.

Saturday we went to Aqua Zumba then to the French market for breakfast, really yummy. Did some shopping in the afternoon and had a lovely tea with a pork skewers and quinoa and spinach salad. Sunday was church and flash morning tea (Stephanie made cupcakes) then out to Manukau for lunch and home for a rest in the afternoon. Sunday night tea was kedgeree made with smoked salmon we got from the French market. This morning was a lazy day then off to Frolic Cafe to meet Michael for coffee and catch up. Off out to onehunga for lunch so that will be the end of the weekend and the drive home which should be quite nice as not raining and not too hot. 

Weekend Retreat and Stitching

Well the holiday break has come and gone and some stitching has happened. I spent one weekend in Auckland with Stephanie which was a nice break away. This weekend just gone was our annual embroidery retreat held in Opunake. For the first time the weather was shocking and it meant that we could not go for a walk.
Our project this year was another one from the Stitch Magazine (England). It is a number of years old and one that has been on the wishlist for a while. It involves spray paint, leaves, blackwork and being creative which was difficult for a couple of our members. Only six of us were staying and we had no visitors from the Opunake Guild (either the weather or project put them off)


My 15 sided biscornu nearly there.

 

latvian work has nearly all the flowers stitched - outlines and boxes to come



inventive spray paint with leaves.

 I decided to do mine on a piece of linen that I had with me - I was intending to spend the weekend finishing projects. I will turn it either into a notebook holder or a pocket for my clamps. You can see it in the centre of the photo above.
It was a good weekend and I loved all the stitching so hopefully next weekend as a holiday weekend will provide some more opportunity to stitch.

busy holidays

Well another holiday break has nearly finished and I have had a busy time, catching up with friends, rugby world cup is nearly over and some of the planned projects are done. The holidays started with a trip to Wanganui to take a canvas class in making a needle book or book cover which was loads of fun and inspiring as well.

Members enjoying a break at wonderful Payne's Palace Beach Retreat.

Last weekend was the annual Central Taranaki Embroidery Guild retreat to Opunake where we had ten people undertake a project from Stitch magazine - a winter sky. It was loads of fun and I have mostly completed mine as well as completed most of the bargello section from canvas two on Walk on the Wild Side. Nothing further has been done on this canvas this week but I expect to get some done when watching the rugby final tomorrow night.

Ten of the stitched projects from the weekend. My piece is the bottom right sunset piece.

The reason no stitching this week is a new toy - I am the proud owner of an IPOD Touch and it has been loads of fun loading stuff onto it (took me four hours last night to get my music from one ipod to the other) and I have nearly got all the music ready to go plus some new stuff to listen to tomorrow.

Erin's roll

One project I have finished this holidays is the needleroll or lavender roll for my neice Erin. hopefully my brother will get it and be able to take it home with him on monday. I started this as my plane piece on our trip to USA last year and finished it this year with Erin's name on it.

Projects started (and hopefully finished) is the porject bag using my sudoku piece. I went to Maree's today and she stitched (I was gofer) and it was halfway there. Then late afternoon I went to marilyns and we started on a table runner for a christmas gift for our cousin. I have quilted half of it so can complete it tomorrow night when I go to feed the cat and then start one for my friend for christmas. Tomorrow morning I am going to start Marilyn's knitting bag and if it is fine weed some more of the garden.
I have finally got the stones ordered for the pebble garden and I was hoping that they would arrive before the weekend it is fine that they will be here next week and I can get to it each night.
I will report on more of my holiday break in the next post (possilby with more pictures of completed works)
Diane

Chocolate Buffet and Rugby



One plateful of yummy chocolate goodies. the raspberry mousse was kate's favourite.

I went to Wellington with Suzie and Kate last weekend for the chocolate buffet at the Amora Hotel. It was yummy but the pina colada white chocolate mousse finished me off and I could not eat any more. Did not even try everything but the things I tried were delicious. The nicest was the chocolate and Guinness mousse plus I really enjoyed the hot chilli chocolate drink. The white chocolate drink was not so nice.


Even the decorations were made out of chocolate.

The high light when we were there was the Argentinian team came in from their training so Kate got a coupleof photos.

BUT - the bonus - we parked the car at the Intercontinental and who was there but the Australian Rugby team so we had a photo with some of the players. Kate got photos with Quayde Cooper which she was thrilled about.