Tuesday, July 17, 2012

So, how far is it to Edinburgh ?

My daughter has been in Edinburgh now for a week.  She is looking for work and in the meantime is enjoying some sightseeing.  Before she left she went around town taking some photos , may be to remind her of home ???
Here is a shot of our Railway Station in town...in name only really...no regular passenger trains run on this main line now, just goods trains pass by as they head north .  There is a tourist train that departs and goes inland for a way on what has been left of that line.   

In front of the Railway Station is this sign, showing just how far it is to Edinburgh...

There is some Scottish heritage in our city as boatloads of settlers came out from Scotland in the mid 1800's.

Meanwhile on the sewing front I am again participating in this swap.
The theme for this time is a Mini Quilt for Father's Day...I have a pattern and fabric all organised..

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Friday Night Sewing

On Friday night I set up my cutting board on the cutting block in the kitchen..I'll be trying that again as it was just the right height to be comfortable. So with my sewing machine and iron set up I got to work
 First I cut 1 inch bias strips and sewed them together

 and then cut out some small bias squares, turning that little square ruler back and forth as I cut seemed to take a lot of time..but that is the way I was shown

 ...it doesn't look like much when I look at it like that but then I had to join pairs together..all part of a project I started at a meeting of our little quilt group a while ago (and it has lain in the bottom of the bag since.)
After I got tired of making squares, I wound some thread onto some lace bobbins to have something to work on yesterday afternoon, as our lace group was at the Art Gallery in town demonstrating lacemaking.  

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

FNSI

It's that time again.  Friday night sewing is on this week..Friday 13th to be exact..as Heidi said does that sound spooky?  If you want to join in then head over to Heidi's Blog, Handmade by Heidi to sign up for this month.
Handmade by Heidi


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Some new inspiration

...arrived in the mail today.  I had seen these new books popping up on other blogs..so hard to resist them... and so I ordered mine from Sarah at Patchworks Plus ..such good service as always ...Reading them should keep me busy for a little while..

Meanwhile my daughter reached Hong Kong last night...she enjoyed the tour she went on today and will travel on to London tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

What a day...It's been an emotional one !!!



Today wasn't going to be a day I was looking forward to at all.  After lots of planning DD1 was heading off on her OE, on her own, armed with a 2 year visa and heading to Edinburgh via stopovers in Hong Kong and London for a few days. I was going to be strong and try (very hard) not to cry... but the thought of her being on the other side of the world, well of course we are going to miss her...But I have to remember it is what she has worked so hard for the last couple of years and what she has always wanted to do.
 Everything was planned and her first flight was taking off from our airport here at 9.45am on route to Auckland and then she had to change on to another plane to Hong Kong.  Well things didn't go to plan...we woke to a heavy frost this morning and when we got to the airport what did we find....the runway was affected and no flights were landing or taking off...they weren't sure when it would be cleared for takeoff and it soon became obvious that DD1 was going to miss her connecting flight to Hong Kong when they put up the revised departure time of 12.00 pm.... .all that planning undone by the weather!!
 So a frantic phone call to her friend the travel agent to see what could be done about the Hong Kong flight...looks like she will be on tomorrow's flight from Auckland as the airline only goes once a day      (so she will lose one of her days in Hong Kong)....a text to her friend in Auckland to get a bed for the night...etc etc....
We waved her off on her way and yes there were tears from each of us( just as well I had tissues to spare)...we expected to hear when she arrived in Auckland, but no...it wasn't going to be that easy...extreme weather conditions in Auckland meant that the landing was aborted and they went to Hamilton and had to sit on the plane on the tarmac until the all clear was given to try again..

UPDATE...Well the phone call has just come through to say that she has arrived in Auckland at last and she is heading off to get something to eat..it has been a bit of a stressful day ...tomorrow is another day..and hopefully it is a better day than today has turned out to be...now where are those tissues??????