A Few Finishes!!!

ETNZ, Emirates Team New Zealand has won the America’s Cup. Huge jubilation throughout all our land, well done and so many thanks to the sponsors, the team, crew, shore crew, boat builders and supporters.

New Zealand will host the next America’s Cup series here, and we look forward to a new venue, closer to home, and exciting racing again.

Down here, the few… or many… things that have been languishing are finished at last. A table runner and 6 place mats, from the pattern and fabric, courtesy of  EvaPaige Quilt Design , a kit that I won some time ago.

I finished them all with a flange binding , and this will be a birthday gift for a friend, they are renovating a small cottage not far away from us. All done in time for 21st July.

Then Laundry Day.This waited till some other things were all done, and finally it gets to hang for the photo shoot. Kiwi ingenuity here,  half round posts that are used on every farm nationwide, for the  uprights, ( Extra wadding inside to make them puff out )  , and baling twine, that was once used in Holland balers to wrap the hay bales. Now a modified version is there to hold the mini quilt. The Silver Fern, a symbol so often associated with New Zealanders overseas and at home, and the four stars, symbolising the Southern Cross. These are a  pattern of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, and are seen in the Southern Hemisphere. This is shown on the New Zealand flag. The bottom star,  Alpha Crucis, the brightest star in the Cross,  is the 14th brightest star  in the night sky.  Beta Crucis at the ( left) eastern tip, is a blue-white giant star, Gamma Crucis at the top is red-orange, and Delta Crucis at the (right) west tip is a blue-white  giant  star. A  faint  star, Epsilon Crucis, is just below the crossbar, and  at   570 light years away is the furthest  of these five stars from the earth. The stars also have other names, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

This home was in Christchurch during the devastating February 2011 earthquake, you can see the wonky chimney that was damaged.   There are pools and streams of mud,  silt and sand on the footpath and road  as a result of the  liquefaction . Soil behaves more like a liquid than a solid, and is squeezed onto the surface in huge amounts. Pools of this bubbled up and  made so many streets and pathways horrendously dangerous  and unable to be used. No power for so many, so homes had candles for lights, These are shining through the windows. One small shrub survived and is by the front door.If you click on a photo, these will show up.

As the Freefall QAL finished, Sandra of  mmm quilts had a family emergency, and their son-in-law died after a sporting accident. All our thoughts have been with  them both  , their daughter and grandson at this time.

Those of us who were in the QAL sent her a message by email.  Words are not much at a time like this, but were so appreciated, Heartfelt  care, love and sympathy from us all.

Quotation of the day,  from Gilbert Parker

“ Love knows not distance;

it hath no continent;

its eyes are for the stars.”

Greetings from Jean.