Blogging from New Zealand, shopping in Singapore and a Friday Night Sew-In by air

At last I have arrived in New Zealand and so this is your last chance to enter my 100th post giveaway.  I shall close it tomorrow and go shopping on Monday for goodies to put in the post to the lucky winner.

I have a lot of catching up to do with blogs, and also emails but I thought I'd check in here and post about the Friday Night Sew-In.  I made it!  I got some sewing done on the plane and then I spent some more time thinking and planning about the projects I'm going to do while I'm here.  This is what I stitched:

The bag came as a kit which was sent to my by Ros and I really enjoyed doing the sashiko on it.  I'm now going to use it to keep my various sashiko needles, thimble and current project it.  Thanks Ros, it's lovely.

Writing of sashiko, this was waiting for me when I arrived in New Zealand.  Isn't it the most gorgeous thing?  Nat sent it to me after I became her 100th follower.  Thank you Nat, I am over the moon with it and have to confess I did hope when I saw it on your blog header that it might be coming my way!  Do pop over and take a look at Nat's blog, she does some gorgeous things at http://notjustnat.blogspot.com/

These are the things I bought in Singapore, all from Quilts'n'Calicoes in the Tanglin Mall.  I also bought some FQs for some friends' birthdays but I can't show those as it would spoil the surprise.  The shop has a lovely selection of fabrics, a lot of their own kits and is well worth a visit if you're lucky enough to be in Singapore.  They have a website too:  http://www.quiltsncalicoes.com/shop and you can see a whole Twelve Moons quilt there.  There was a lovely quilt on display featuring Chinese lanterns and a goldwork dragon in the border but sadly, although unsurprisingly, they had sold out.  This is the Twelve Moons panel, it's by Robert Kaufman

The knotted Chinese good luck charm was made by a lovely lady at Changi airport.  They had a series of stalls and demonstrations for the Chinese New Year (of the Tiger, which started on 14th February) and along with painting, calligraphy and some very yummy sweety treats there was a demonstration of knot making.  I was delighted to be given this one and I shall use it in the Singapore panel of my journal quilt.

While I was in Singapore I visited the Changi Museum, a remarkable place that illustrates how war and bad times bring out the very best and the very worst in people.  On display was a replica of one of the four Changi Quilts and I was delighted that it happened to be the British one. The original is in the British Red Cross museum in London.  A lot of information on the quilts can be found at Australian War Museum site and it is possible to see a close-up image of each block.  I think I would like to include a similar block in my quilt as a tribute to the bravery of the women internees who undertook these projects with such inventiveness.

Well I think I'm about caught up.  Please visit my travel blog and don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't done so already - at the moment I have 106 entries in total so the odds are quite good but I'm going to a random number selector tomorrow evening!