Northern Hemisphere Holiday

I have been very lazy again about posting to my blog. I have a few good excuses and lots of poor ones. I caught the true flu in May and it took a month to get over! Bad timing as I spent most of our 10-day holiday in Australia in bed instead of playing tennis. The weather was warm and sunny so it was a lovely spot to be sick. I didn't take many photos but I did snap one of our daily morning visitors on our balcony.

They are called Rainbow Lorikeets. And on the last day before we went to the airport, we stopped at a boat sale and I saw a boat that my Dad would have loved.

After our return to NZ, I headed off to take care of my grandkids in the US while my son went to a meeting. My 87 year old mother joined us for 10 days and we all had a great time. My 5 year old granddaughter played hookey from preschool for the 2 weeks and we went everywhere: Woodland Zoo, Skymania (trampolines), Funtastic Playtorium (very noisy!), the library, Discovery Park, Lake Washington, the Museum of Flight (the simulated hurricane and sitting in the cocckpit of fighter jets were a hit), swimming at the Lynnwood Pool (great spot with everything a kid could want) and we went to see the movie Finding Dory. My grandson joined us when he wasn't at summer camp.

The carousel at Woodland Zoo

View of Mt Rainier from Discovery Park

While in Seattle, my granddaughter wanted me to knit her a dress. She chose the pattern and the yarn (in her favourite two colours) herself. I made a purse to match and it was a hit.

After Seattle, I went to visit my daughter and her boyfriend in San Francisco and I also visited old friends in the Palo Alto area, where I used to live. I brought the quilt that my daughter and I had designed together and after an emergency visit to a friend's to borrow her sewing machine to add one little quilting seam I missed, taking out all the basting, and washing out all the markings in the bathtub, it was finished. It only took 2 years of the 10 year window my daughter negotiated!

My husband then arrived from NZ and we flew to Toronto where we did a road trip around Ontario for 3 days visiting old friends - so much fun! On the way home we stopped in Kingston where I went to university. We had lunch at Chez Piggy (yum) and drove around my old stomping grounds. I took a photo of the house I used to live in with 7 other girls and another of my great aunt's house where she lived alone. Guess which one is which! 

After that, my kids and grandkids all arrived in Toronto and we went up to Georgian Bay for a week with my sibs and mother. We had perfect weather and the water was 73F, which is super warm for there. The kids had a ball on the lily pad (huge floating mat), a floating trampoline, and riding behind the boat on a 'biscuit'. 

My grandson was quite proud of swimming all the way across the channel on his own!

After 5 1/2 weeks of gallivanting around North America, we had to say good bye and head home to winter, which is really pretty mild in Christchurch. And it's always great to get home. The weather had been warm while we were away and one of our rhododendrons was in full bloom when we got home! 

 But real winter arrived shortly after that and we had a little snow. There's lots of snow in the mountains so the skiers are happy.

Farmers???

25 March 2016  Well yesterday was the big day to ear tag our new calves, castrate the male one, and drench all of the cattle. It started out perfectly with me on the quad bike in front leading them down to our neighbours yards and Ross following up at the rear on foot. We easily got them through all the gates and into the yards.

We took each of the calves through the race with their mothers so they wouldn't be nervous. I gave a little squirt on their backs and then they were on to Ross.

Ear tagger in his right hand, elastrator in his left

Bam-Bam and his mother Wilma went through first. Bam-Bam pushed his head right into the head holder and the ear tag was in quickly. Then Ross picked up the dreaded elastrator and reached for the dangly bits - - but there weren't any! Just some small teats! What had looked like the male anatomy in the middle of the belly from a distance was just a flap of skin leftover from where the umbilical cord had been. With a great sigh of relief from Ross (and probably from Bam-Bam also!), Ross released him from the run to be back with his mother, who had gone through first. Maybe we should change his - - I mean her - - name to Bambi?

Next was Pebbles who also went through easily with mother Milkshake. We were pleased to find no surprises there and only an ear tag was required. So there was only Stew left to squirt the anti-parasitic onto his back - should only take a minute right?

As backbround, Stew is a steer and almost 6 years old. He had a Devon mother and Angus father. His mother died when he was 3 weeks old so I hand reared him til he was 3 months old using a pail with a nipple on it. He grew into a handsome but very large steer who is quite docile and loves to be scratched and petted. He doesn't realize how big he is compared to me so I have to be careful not to be between him and a gate when he wants to give my a nuzzle!

Well, back to the present. Stew did not want to go into the race and gave Ross quite a fight - for good reason as it turns out. He is too big for the race and he got stuck.

We eventually got him through most of the race but after the last corner, he gave up and wouldn't go any further. He hung his head down and refused to budge.

Ross decided the best thing was to leave him alone for awhile so we left him stuck there for an hour. Ross then went back, gave him a good head scratch, got Milkshake to come and moo at him and he finally bulldozed his way through the last few feet of the race! He was no worse for the wear at the end thankfully but the cattle sure sprinted up the driveway back to our place! 

Not very impressive farmers are we? Can't tell a boy from a girl. Won't listen to Stew when he tells us he won't fit in the race. But all our fruit and vegies are looking great right now. Here's a little sampling.

Od'Ham Watermelon - delicious!

Dayton apples - they make pink applesauce

April catchup

Well I've been too busy to blog (or to sew much). The autumn is a busy time on a lifestyle block when you grow fruit and vegetables and raise cattle and chooks and try to live off of them. Most of the apples are harvested now and besides tons of applesauce and applejuice, I've tried to make cider. My first batch was just pureed Braeburn apples that had been frozen first and then thawed (presumably to break up the cell walls and release all the juices?). The mixture (with lemon peel and juice added) was left to ferment on its own for about 2 weeks and then bottled. It tasted lovely although I don't think it contains much alcohol. Certainly the bottles aren't looking like they want to explode!

My second batch of cider was supposed to be perfection - straight juice from 1/3 Cox-Orange and 2/3 Braeburn apples (no added water) and I put in cider yeast from Aqua Vitae, a brewing store in town. Well it still didn't bubble much even with the yeast added (maybe because I only had 7L and the pail is huge). After a week, I used a hygrometer to check the alcohol content - zero! I gave it all a stir, which got it bubbling for a day but now, another week later, it's not bubbling at all. So I'm going to have Ross taste it and see what he thinks (anything with alcohol in it doesn't ever taste the greatest to me so I'm a poor judge). If I get the thumbs up from Ross, I'll bottle it.

Although it's already May, I harvested all of these vegies this morning plus onions. The tomatoes plus some onions and peppers (sweet and hot) from the garden are now tomato puree. And the rest of the hot peppers are in the dehydrator. We're still harvesting parsnips, carrots, pumpkin/winter squash, silverbeet (chard) and I'm hoping the beetroot will get bigger soon. We've had a very warm autumn so far - up to 20-22C many times. But it's been very dry so we are getting desperate for rain. Soon we'll be feeding out hay to the cattle if the rain doesn't come.

Here's a photo I couldn't resist posting. Our dog Daphne found a possum up a gum tree recently and she couldn't resist trying to get to it. Unfortunately she wasn't too sure how to get back down! Ross did manage to save the damsel in distress.

The other fun thing taking me away from sewing this month was a tramping trip in the South Wairarapa on the Tora Coastal Walk. It was 3 days of walking carrying only our water and lunch. The postman delivered our bags to each destination! The food was all prepared for us in the evening and it was delicious. We went with friends plus several of their friends. We had good weather with great views of the sea and the rolling hills. Some native bush but not a lot. It was a private walk mostly through farmers' land.

At the top of The Trig

Doing dead ant exercises to get the lactate out after a lot of uphill walking

Ross managed to find a bulldozer at the top of a hill!

View of our destination at the end of Day 1

A fantail that was following us in the native bush on Day 3

 I have been slowly working on my daughter's quilt and only have 2 strips of the last border left to put on. Hoping to quilt it all before I see her in June, which may be wishful thinking, but fingers crossed I can do it. Here's a sneak preview of one of the 15 different block design/colour combos. More later.

 That's all for now.

StyleArc Kate dress

I've been looking for a casual but stylish dress that I could wear when I went out anywhere other than an audience with the queen. And I think this dress does the trick. Maybe I could even have an audience with the queen as it is the Kate Dress.

I bravely bought my fabric online without getting a swatch first and I wasn't disappointed. It's Impressionistic Rayon Jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics and it is unbelievably soft.  I prewashed it in the washing machine on delicate cycle with cold water. There is a 26 inch repeat so I bought extra fabric (4y instead of 2.8y) but it was way more than I needed.  It was a little difficult to cut out as the fabric didn't hang perfectly straight. The straight grain was on the pattern correctly so I ignored the 'hang' issue and cut it on the grain matching up the fabric pattern everywhere including the sleeves.
I thought about eliminating the tucks on the right front because I thought the print might look weird but I kept the tucks and I think it looks fine. I also kept the tucks on the sleeve and the tie in the back.

Instead of the tearaway Vilene and elastic along the neckline, I used 1/2-inch Sewkey knit staytape that I bought through Nancy's Notions. I fused it onto the wrong side of the edge, turned the edge in 3/8 inch and topstitched at 1/4 inch (3mm stitch length). I used 1/4-inch clear elastic tape to stabilize the shoulder seams, sewing them onto the back SA with most of the width of the tape on the SA side.

For all the main seams, I used my Brother overlocker with 4 threads (matching Gutermann polyester thread in left needle, beige overlocker thread in the other 3), differential feed at 1.2, stitch W 6mm, L 3mm and a 75 stretch needle. One little tip: when topstitching the front edges where the belt has been attached, make sure the belt is pulled away into it's final position for tying it before doing the topstitching. I wasn't thinking and didn't do that so had to take out the topstitching at the belt and redo it.

Conclusions: This dress fits perfectly and is so comfortable I could sleep in it. Maybe I better make a rayon jersey nightgown! The hang issue (see above) was not a problem at all. I wore it last night for the first time and my only complaint is that the nor'wester with gusts up to 100 k/h is not an optimal situation for a wrap dress! I would happily make this dress again.

A Few Quick Sews

Quick Sew #1
Simplicity 7869
Pattern from my stash dated 1968!! Yipes, I really must be getting old. Can't remember which version or what material I used back then. But I bought a cute cotton/lycra print at The Fabric Store in Christchurch that was mostly purple (I never wear purple) and decided to use it on this skirt pattern. 
I made View 5, 25 1/2 inch waist - same size I made in '68! I used a 0.5mmL, 2.5W zigzag fro the seams and then finished them with a 3-thread serge on my overlocker. Although not in the instructions, I underlined the waistline facing. The pattern says to sew the side opening edges of the facing before putting in the zipper but in retrospect, it would have been better to wait til I put in the zipper to do it.

Quick Sew #2
I then bought some 'First Class' viscose/spandex from Harald's Fabrics in Christchurch and made a Sewaholic Renfrew top View A but with 3/4 sleeves to go with the skirt. Of course, the best colour I could find was purple - so now I truly do wear purple! I prewashed the fabric in a cold hand wash.  I used a Janome blue tip needle and tried the Sewaholic's recommendation of a zigzag stitch (1mmW, 2.5mmL) and then overlocked the edges on my Brother overlocker using a ballpoint 70 needle. I'm not pear shaped (I'm 8 bust, 6 waist, 2 hip per pattern!) but I made B8, W8, H6 and it worked fine.  I'm very short waisted so I took out 1 inch at the waist and shortened the hem by 1 1/2 inches (measuring from the size 2 line). I sewed 1/4 inch staytape onto the back seam allowances at the shoulder with just a little going into the actual seam. For the ZZ around the neck, I used 4W, 2L.

Here's how it turned out. I love the top but any wrinkles in the skirt show through the shirt. The skirt pattern called for twill tape on the waist, which I used, but I don't really like it - feels too tight when I sit down. One of the threads has popped already on the waistband of the top so I guess I should have either used a shorter stitch length or just used the overlocker for the seams.

Quick Sew #3

McCalls 7290 jacket, view C, size medium. I bought a lightweight viscose/lycra knit from Fabric Vision in Christchurch. It has a black and white print on one side and 

solid black on the other. I prewashed the fabric on cold in the washing machine.  

I used a 75 stretch needle on my Janome sewing machine and Brother overlocker. I followed the directions as printed, shortened the bodice by 3/4 inch and ended up with a dressing gown (aka bathrobe). Should have made a small I guess! So I folded the sleeves up 2 3/4 inches and made cuffs. I did this by cutting off >1/2 of the back SA, folding the front SA over it and topstitching for the bottom 5 1/2 inches of the sleeve seam. I then pinked the hem edge, folded it over towards the right/print side, then pressed and topstitched it. Then I folded up the cuff and tacked it.

For the bottom edge, I cut off 2 1/2 inches at the back increasing to 4 1/2 inches off at the front. Then rather then just pinking the front and bottom edges, I folded them over to the inside along the bottom edge to approximately where the front edge starts to roll and then tapered to no fold and folded in the opposite direction for the front edges. It turned out fairly well and isn't too obvious where I transitioned. I don't think I'll make this pattern again though. I always seem to be fussing with where the collar and front edges fold. It might have worked better in a slightly heavier, less stretchy fabric. The pattern called for  'Fleece, Sweatshirt Fleece, Jerseys, Cotton Knits, Interlock, Sweater Knits'.

Wanaka Triathlon

On Feb 20, my husband Ross, neighbour Jo, and I did a team half Ironman in Wanaka. Fortunately it wasn't 32C like it was at home in Christchurch. When I started the swim, it was 12C, colder than the water! But the water was still pretty cold and there were huge waves as we headed out. Here's a photo of the lake and swim course the day before.

By the second leg, the swells were hitting us broadside but on the 3rd leg, they were helping us. The last leg was straight into the sun. Wish I had found out what landmark to head for as I couldn't see the buoys. I ended up going too far inland and being directed out by a kayaker and then headed too far out so it was a bit of a zigzag at the end. But I managed to do the 1.9+k in 38 minutes, which I was happy with. 

Then Ross hopped on the bike and set out to tackle the winds. He averaged 30k/h on the legs with a tailwind and 20k/h into the headwind. He enjoyed every minute of it - well maybe not the last half hour or so - headwind plus steep hill. It's a very hilly course with gorgeous views such as this one heading back from Glendhu Bay. 

Jo and I were starting to worry about Ross as the time rolled past 3.5 hours. 

90k and 3:45 later, he rolled in looking not much worse than when he started.

So off went Jo on her half marathon that she completed in 2:08 despite rain for the second half. We ran across the finish line with her so I don't have a photo (unless I pay $29 for the official one) but here's one of the weather at the finish.

It was a fun day although I did feel a bit of a fraud when at 9pm I saw some of the Ironman athletes crossing the finish line and I had only raced for 38 minutes! Here we are at home with our participant medals - no podium finish for us.

We came 161 out of 306 in the team division, which isn't bad given there were no age categories so we were competing against people in their 20s and all male teams. Next year?!

The day after the race was warm and sunny and the drive home was beautiful.