Saying Goodbye and Hello

Every Wednesday here at the shop we have a core group of brilliant ladies that turn up to enjoy each others company, swap recipes, share jokes and to solve the worlds problems, oh and to stitch of course. like Liz other ladies drop in when their timetables allow them to make it but this trio are the regulars, the noise makers, the ones that keep me on my toes and the ones that I am proud to call not just customers but real friends.

On the left there is Karen – now she’s the one that comes up with some of the funniest jokes and her ability to have us rolling off our chairs is priceless.  On the right is Sue – now this lady has some of the finest handwork I have ever seen.  Each stitch is so even and carefully placed. She is also another joker, but hers fill up our inboxes and give us chance to share them with friends.
That lady in the middle is Gillian – master baker, cake maker and a walking library of delicious recipes – some of which she has shared with us from time to time.  Gillian has only been with us a short time and came to our group as a total beginner in the craft of patchwork and quilting – she is now addicted and has a total ‘thing’ for stitcheries.
Sadly today is the day that Gillian and her man take another turn in their lives and move from our island to the North Island  and  it’s with tears in our eyes that we say goodbye but are heartened by the thought that she wants to remain a ‘virtual’ member – how cool is that?  Now I just have to learn how to use Skype so that she can join us for our stitching days.

With our little group we have regular challenges. We draw straws and the winner chooses what the theme is to be and then we have 3 or 4 months to complete the challenge.  The most recent was chosen by our joker, Karen.  She gave us the topic of something useful. OMG what to do?  The choices were endless and one by one we competed our challenge.  I think the cuteness award must go to Sue.  Sue mad the most adorable thimble pods and as a bonus gave us all one.







Now that is useful!  Thanks Sue.

During the last week I’ve also had an old friend staying here at By Hoki Quilts. Jan is more than a friend to me, she’s one lady that talks straight and is more than happy to sort out a worried mind with her straight talking and common sense. Here she is with Polly – her latest fan club member.
  Jan is also a fantastic quilter and was someone I really needed to see to kick my motivation up a gear.  With all that said you can imagine just what it was like each day – did we sew, did we ‘play’ with fabrics in the shop or did we go into the final frontier – my sewing cave – which may I say I had done a sort of tidy up in for fear of Jan giving me a good telling off, LOL – see.
I know is looks dark and gloomy in this picture but for some reason or another it looks neater too.  This is the look my DH gets when he pops his head around the corner – he hasn’t been brave enough to open the three  6’ high cupboards that are just to the left and right of this picture.  My goodness if he ever did I’d never be able to purchase a single scrap of fabric again, as it is he complains about the over full scrap draws that are near the window.

With the weather being kind I should go outside and get those roses pruned ready for a good show over Summer.
I hope where ever you are the weather is being kind too, take care