Sweet Mary

I went to a fabric sale this morning in the Havelock North Community Centre - its on tomorrow too from 10a.m. There are many rolls of beautiful fabric including the very pretty Amy Butler ones below.

Last week I spent a few days in Auckland. My brother kindly drove me around most of the first day so that I could achieve maximum shop visits around this busy city. These fabulously painted entrance gates to the wharves caught my eye. Lots of other stuff caught my eye too but I forgot to takes photos ! I do love a bit of red. I also love to fossick so naturally I came home with fabric, ribbons and buttons. These vintage buttons were a treasured gift from the gorgeous Kate. Once back in the Bay, I enjoyed walking around the garden enjoying the peace and picking spring flowers to put in the house. This week I have been working on ideas for Sweet Mary Christmas decorations. Stepping out the back door yesterday evening to look at the silvery sky and check out the lilac tree peeping over the top of the sleepout . This is my favourite tree in the garden - a copper beech. On a regular basis I like to gaze at it to see what colour it is at that moment as it changes depending on the surr...

We are having lovely spring weather here in Hawkes Bay at the moment. Our home is surrounded by tall trees and those tall trees seem to be filled with all the local bird population. Those birds are just singing their hearts out with the joy of this milder weather and the promise of the beautiful days to come. I hear them early, before I even notice the light and right now I can hear them at dusk in the bamboo. So loud when we first came to live here and almost a bit "Birds" but now I love the sound and enjoy it. Back in July I blogged about my room with a view - its dusk right now and from that room I can see the full moon high up through the trees - magic. The photos above and below are of our vegie boxes. The lettuces, though slower, have grown throughout the winter and we still have cavelo nero, coriander and one lone brussel sprout plant. My weekend work also involved planting out the broad bean seedlings, a real favourite for our family. I love the garden work in the sp...

Last Saturday, in The Dominion Post Weekend newspaper, was a review of a new cooking/lifestyle book by New Zealander, Sally Cameron called Grow It, Cook It. The article included a couple of recipes, one being Tomato, Lemon & Chilli Jam. Sounded delicious and not at all complicated - a winning combination. I had to make it, especially as the recipe asked for 1kg of cherry tomatoes and I have a LOT of cherry tomatoes ( pear shaped ones!) to use up from the ever laden tomato plants. While the jam was bubbling away I sorted out a few jars from the cupboard, washing them and putting in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so. The lids I boiled up separately. Now, I love colour and prettying things up so I started to think about topping the finished jars with a bit of prettiness. I remembered the circles of fabric leftover from making my peg bags. Perfect - after a whip round with the pinking shears. All finished. Even though the jam bubbled away for at least half an hour, some of the tomatoe...

I love collecting things and I especially love collecting fabric and things made out of fabric. Some of these quilts were bought new and some were made by myself and one or two of them have been rescued from secondhand shops. The second shelf down holds two small quilts on top of two larger ones. These are the most precious ones in my collection as they are the two I made for my children when they were very small. They were my first attempts and not very well made but bring back so many good memories every time I handle them . Even though they have been washed many times I am sure I can still smell my babies on them. When not in use my quilts have often been hidden away but not any more. I am now the proud owner of this lovely piece of furniture bought from Redcurrent . Every time I pass I have a quick glance over my quilts and smile a bit to myself. My sisier-in-laws birthday today and as she had given me the idea for this style of peg bag I thought she should receive the first one....

The night before I left for a few days in Auckland I ran another Sweet Mary stall at Black Barn. It was a twilight market running from 5.30pm to 8.30pm. Most of the stalls were food stalls but it was good to be there and chat to customers and visitors and I sold more than enough to cover costs. Looking out from my stall in to the centre of the market - its a permanent stucture of about 20 stalls in a circle surrounded by trees and the lovely landscape around Black Barn. We returned from our very busy but fun trip up to Auckland to find the sweet peas in the garden desparately needed picking - they smell so good. I did a spot of fabric shopping for my Sweet Mary business while up there and also came home with a nice little stash of presents from the family.

This was Sweet Mary HQ one night earlier this week. I had an order for twenty lavender hearts to be made for Redcurrent Wellington and a new order for ten to a beautiful shop on Auckland's north shore called Primrose Cottage. I love to spend time in my workroom - the radio on, heater on also at this time of year, surrounded by fabric, mum's beautiful paintings and sometimes even my cat curled up in a corner basket. My order for ten all completed and ready for wrapping and posting.

Fabric brings out the best in people, well it definitely does good things for me. In the past two weeks five lots of fabric have arrived to live in Sweet Mary HQ for a while. The first to arrive was the gorgeous piece hanging from the rail, the one with blue spots and red roses. It was a birthday present from my friend Nicola who had gone to the trouble of importing it in from the US. The piece beside that was also a birthday gift from my sister who bought it on a recent trip to Rajasthan. Its hand blocked in green, red and brown and very beautiful - and also very reminiscent of her. I would like to make a summer skirt out of it but think the pattern would have to be just right to avoid the wrong look - it could be my Christmas skirt! Last weekend my friend Jane, dropped off an unwanted bag of Laura Ashley fabric scraps. By looking back in my old LA catalogues I have discovered the fabric names. That was so much fun and brought back fond memories of my years in the UK and the many ho...

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day in the Hawkes Bay. We were up early as part of our "autumn/winter project" to get the house and garage sorted and de-cluttered. It will take us all this time because there is so much to do! We spent most of the morning in the garage and after the third and last load was hauled off to the tip - recycling where we could, it was all looking pretty good. Coffee with raspberry and lemon muffins while looking out over the garden was our reward. Holly tree in a pot in the foreground still decorated with fake red holly berries from Christmas time. It even fools the birds! Its actually a holly that has yellow berries and only in winter which is nowhere near our Christmas time in New Zealand. I spent many years living in the UK and still miss the "specialness" of the celebrations there. Thats not to say I don't enjoy myself here, there is just something about Christmas in a cold climate that is magical. This is the tree that Annie loves ...