21st October, 2021
 We could not have picked a worse time to retire - during a Covid outbreak. No one can look at the house with this level three lockdown - no one can get out of Auckland. So - we are stuck in limbo, unable to put our name down for a specific date in the retirement village we want to move into. Obviously, we need the sale of the property to be able to move on to the next phase and there are some very serious purchasers making enquiries. This is also the case for the business. Grandmother's Garden is situated in the bottom part of this photo.
Meantime, therefore, Grandmother’s Garden is going to continue on regardless as we have some very exciting projects in the pipeline plus wonderful fabrics arriving - and who wants to retire anyway - I love what I am doing! My retirement box keeps expanding with so many packets of fat quarters and kits that I will have to live to be 110!!
 As for Labour Weekend, we will be open by phone or email only this weekend - that includes Saturday and Monday. We will be home alone but I have many projects to work on and we are not exactly able to fly to Queenstown, so R&R will just be a quiet weekend in the shop sorting projects that need finishing so do phone and keep me company!!
Well, we are all very wary of this lockdown but I guess until those vaccination levels rise we will continue to be stuck in this treacle. It’s interesting that Dr Broomfield made the comment that of the people infected at present, apparently only 4% of those in New Zealand who are sick or in intensive care with Covid are vaccinated. It sort of speaks for itself.
I'm so sorry for High School students, especially those facing exams. I am also sorry for parents of younger children who probably don’t understand why they can’t play in the playgrounds and have fun with friends.
Let's have some happier things to talk about, like new fabrics - new projects and old projects revisited.
Reflections BOM is going out the door as we speak. This is a kit I have in my retirement box! I think it is quite beautiful.
Small Quilts
I finished binding this quilt I made a couple of years ago. I love to make small quilts and I assembled this quilt with a half dozen I had made. You will find all of these small quilts in Kim Diehl’s books. I do wish I had made this quilt twice the size. The blocks were joined together with various sized segments of sashing so that was a bit of a challenge.
Books
A Prairie Journey by Tracy Kathleen
Click here to view on our website.
Simple Whatnots by Kim Diehl
Now you can create a wonderful variety of pint-size quilts in Kim’s signature style. Enjoy 18 projects. Learn techniques for petite patchwork, invisible machine appliqué, and cosy wool appliqué.
To pre-order this book click here.
Small and Scrappy by Kathleen Tracy
These small quilts are based on traditional designs found in much larger quilts.
Click here to pre-order on our website.
Jo’s Little Favourites III by Jo Morton
16 small projects capture the magic of antique quilts. Features dozens of photos and tips for decorating with small quilts.
To view this book on our website for pre-order click here.
Little Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar
This book includes 32 Mini Scrappy Quilt patterns, appliqué and other quilting tips and a sprinkling of vintage finds.
Click here to pre-order this book from our website.
Kaffe Fassett Kitset
 Something quite different for Grandmothers Garden! This is a Kaffe Fassett quilt I made last week from a pattern and I surprised myself by quite liking it. It is available as a kit with a free pattern. Basically, it is just four large log cabin blocks with a piano key border. The cost will be $170, and the size is 60 x 70 inches.
I used an inner narrow border which is not included in the pattern and will not be included in the kit as you either don't want to have an inner border or you may want a different colour. I used a purple grunge and I will use that for the binding once it’s quilted.
To view this kitset from our website click here.
Sugar and Spice
This is another embroidery project which I love to work on in the evenings. We have a very special girl baby due in January in our family and this is going to be for her.
It is early days yet to give you the full price but we are taking expressions of interest. I am not going to do mine in all pink as I plan to pick five or six hand-dyed Cottage Garden threads and then the sashing and border fabrics will match.
To register your expression of interest on our website click here.
I am hoping these blocks are going to be preprinted (it’s very early days for this quilt) but at the moment there is just the pattern available.
New fabrics this week
Moonstone by Laundry Basket
 Beautiful browns, pinks, peach, greens with creams of course. We couldn’t carry the whole collection but we have picked out eight really nice pieces so there will be metre packs of eight fat eighths but let's do a fat quarter deal until Monday at 5 pm - Buy eight fat quarters and instead of $64.00 you pay $56.00 getting one fat quarter free.
Click here to view this deal on our website.
You can of course buy individual pieces from our website.
To view fabric range AJ504 - AJ511 click here.
Here is a free pattern. The pieces must be quite large as this is a 72” x 72” quilt. It would be nice with a border so that this pieced section would sit on top of your bed.
Click here to view this FREE Pattern as a PDF.
Here is a larger quilt image I found by searching on Pinterest using Moonstone.
Rainbow Garden
Bright bugs and butterflies on black with a small print coordinate. This is quite spectacular with bright, bright colours on black.
To view fabrics AJ512 & AJ513 click here.
There is a free quilt pattern on Andover’s website using the white version of the butterflies.
Click here to be taken to the FREE Quilt pattern.
Farm Meadow
These two fabrics are just useful little florals that I chose from a larger collection. They will fit nicely onto the shelves.
To view fabrics AJ514 & AJ515 on our website click here.
Call of The Sea
This amazing fabric is designed by Josephine Wall, an incredible fantasy artist! Have a look at her Facebook page and some of her work.
Click here to be taken to The Official Josephine Wall Facebook page.
To view fabric range AJ526 - AJ528 on our website click here.
We have the panel with two coordinates and I just know there will be some beautiful quilts made using these fabrics.
Here is an image of one that I found on the internet.
Bee Happy from Benartex
A lovely country collection and Benartex has provided a free quilt pattern.
Click here to be taken to the PDF version of this FREE pattern.
We have the panel with the squares and the very nice border print. The small squares measure 6” so you could easily use these as the centre of a star block.
To view this panel & border on our website click here.
Chickadee Songs from P&B Textiles
Here we have a beautiful floral with a marbled fabric the exact green of the leaves. This is a floral packed with colour.
Click here to view this range on our website.
Here is a quilt made with the beautiful floral as the centre of a star. This is not a free pattern.
Six New Batiks
 These are a mixture of hand paints from Hoffman and Timeless Treasures. One of them has bugs and butterflies which must have been interesting to print. I guess they have shapes that are somehow hand-painted onto the cloth using wax. One of the things on my bucket list is to see fabrics like this printed.
Click here to view our range of Batiks on our website.
Bright Wide Backing
This arrived in from The States and it is absolutely perfect for my Kaffe Fassett quilt! It’s 108” wide. Normal width fabric is 44” wide so this is more than twice the normal width and not more than the normal width price. If you are working on your own Kaffe Fassett or bright coloured quilt - think about this fabric.
To view AJ531 click here.
Notions
Peels
 If you like larger spools of thread-like the wonderful Aurifil then these peels keep them tidy. They are spool huggers and they are $1.50 each. I am finding that I have a large grey, a black and a cream aurifil and this pretty much does all my piecing so I need just three spool huggers. When it comes to applique then I do have a lot of colours I use, and our spool holders help with that.
Click here to view on our website.
Grip Dots
Little adhesive rings to hold your templates and rulers in place to prevent slipping.
To view these on our website click here.
Kaleidoscope Rulers
 This is by far my most used template set for making pillows from a border or large print fabric. I must have made 100 pillows using this template set from Fast Patch (now gone). We bought all the Kaleidoscope sets she had left but they are getting down now to just a few. You get two acrylic pieces and one does the kaleidoscope and the other your corners. If you have ever made a Stack and Whack quilt then this is the template set for you.
Click here to view on our website.
Sue Daley Rotating Cutting Mat
 An essential piece of equipment for quilters. It means you do not stand on your head to cut around the far side of a template - you simply rotate the mat. Although other companies sell rotating mats, for some reason this is the most popular.
Click here to view on our website.
New ruler from Creative Grids
 Read what the designers say:
The Creative Grids® Alaska Ruler, designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, cuts a multitude of shapes in a variety of sizes. Cut 45° wedges, diamonds, squares and half-square triangles all with the same ruler! The instructions include how to make a basic kaleidoscope block as well as an Alaska block in four different sizes, from 9 to 16-inches.
The ruler slides easily over the fabric until pressure is applied. Then, our exclusive gripper holds the fabric in place while cutting, eliminating slipping and miss-cuts!
Watch a tutorial by the designer here on YouTube.
Total Size - 7 1/4 X 12 inches
I have ordered a few, but if you would like one, we are closing on Friday this week and you should have it in about two weeks. It will be approximately $55.00.
Finally
I do apologise for running out of everything we advertised last week! We had quite a lot of spare stock of everything we advertised but within minutes of the news being sent we started to sell out! We are closing with our American supplier on Friday of this week so we will have more supplies of notions, puzzles and charms in 10 days or so as we airfreight everything.
 The backlog of containers going into America is eye-watering. Have a look at this slide show of the Long Beach Port in Los Angeles.
Click here to view the slideshow.
No wonder we are waiting for things like rolls of silk batting we ordered several months ago.
Funny old world at the moment!
Armchair Travel
 Visit Thornton Manor in the northwest of England- a relatively modern stately home as opposed to the castles I have taken you to lately which are quietly disintegrating. Thornton Manor was built in the early 1800s, so would not have been involved in any wars and is quite splendid today. You can book a tour, have your wedding there. There are cottages for Bed and Breakfast. I guess the owners of these stately piles have to do all they can to bring in money for upkeep!
Click here to be taken to Thornton Manor on YouTube.
Until next week,
Hazel
P.P.S
I made these slow-cooked beef tips and did get a few meals as I made pies. Usually in a stew you have carrots, potatoes, celery and other veggies, but this is just beef and gravy and delicious served with mashed potatoes with plenty of the gravy. You can use cheaper cuts of beef because of the long slow cooking. You can use a crockpot but I prefer to use my heavy enamelled casserole pot in a slow oven.
Beef Tips
3 Tablespoons oil
1 kg stew meat
1 medium white onion - chopped
3 cups beef stock
1 pack dry onion soup mix
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 Bay leaf
2 Tablespoons (at least) cornflour
1/3 cup water 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley
Cube the beef and brown in the oil. Place in the crockpot or heavy oven dish with covered lid. Cook the onions until soft then add everything to the beef except the cornflour, water and parsley. Cook in the crockpot for several hours until the meat is tender, or 150 deg C in the oven for about 3 hours until tender. Add the cornflour to the water and thicken the gravy. I ended up using more to get mine thick enough to make a nice gravy. Scatter with chopped parsley for serving.
P.P.S
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