What I Bought In New Zealand

As promised here are photographs of my holiday haul.  I tried to only buy things I knew I wouldn't be able to get back in England, but failed.  I tried to only buy things that I had a plan for, and failed!  I don't think I need to buy fabric for a long, long time!
I bought some gadgets and gizmos and will post reports on them when I have used them a few times.

I'm most excited about using the marking pencils as this is an area that I seem to have most trouble with, I've never found a totally satisfactory way of marking fabric.  The ruler is for Mariner's Compass and looked easy to use when it was being demonstrated at the Timaru Quilters' Gathering!

I came home with a really good stash of patterns.  Some were gifts, some I bought, some I won, some were in goodie bags.  I really don't think I will use them all (even though I have enough fabric to!) so I'll include one in my next giveaway which will be posted soon on my Japanese textiles and Japan blog where I shall also share all the Japanese fabrics I bought.  Please pop over there and add the blog to your list so that you don't miss out.  I will post a link on here too.

I promised to share my work in Meryl Caudwell's workshop in Timaru with you, here it is, blink and you'll miss it!  Although it's not a lot to show for a whole day's work I really enjoyed both the Storm At Sea pattern and working in miniature and am determined to finish the quilt.  I'll post a picture of the final quiltlet as soon as I finish.
And so to fabric:

This piece of Aboriginal design fabric was a gift from one of the Australian quilters at the meeting with Picton Quilters and will form the focus of the Australian section of my journal quiltlets for the trip.

This gorgeous panel was what Michelle and I bought at Claire Linn's shop in Hawera and we are both going to create something with it and compare the results.  Michelle has already bought some lovely dusky pinks that go very well with it, go and have a look here.  If you remember from my post in April I bought some fabrics that were the "Essence of Claire".  I have added some vintage buttons to them and some tassels from the Quilters' Barn in Blenheim and they are going to become a table runner (very soon!)

I bought fabric for both my grandsons.  Dinosaurs for William which I probably could have got in England but I'd been having trouble finding "proper" dinosaurs rather than cartoon-type ones and when I saw this panel and the fabrics I just had to have them.

For Sam there is a Kiwi counting book panel which I think I will make into a wall hanging or even separate mats because I think that will be most versatile for him.  Again, this is the space to watch!

On the Kiwi theme I also bought a panel for a wall hanging to go in our bach.  The lovely ladies at Obsession 2 Quilt in Temuka didn't have any panels left so they took this one out of a kit for me as I didn't want the weight of all the extra fabric to bring home!  That's what I call service.

Finally (ha, ha) I bought some New Zealand-themed fabric.  This selection and the lovely threads and pieces of silk are for the South Island panel of my trip quilt -

the colours remind me of the mountains, the lakes, rivers and the glaciers.  These next fabrics are for a Christmas table runner and they feature the pohutakawa tree, known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree because it is in flower at Christmas.

This fabric has the wonderful tui bird on it and I just love those gorgeous birds.  I don't know what I will do with the fabric yet, maybe a box...

And then I couldn't resist these wonderful NZ batiks and the paua shell buttons, I think these may just be for stroking!  I bought some of the paua buttons for the winner of my blogiversary giveaway who turned out to be my sister, Jane, who was delighted with them.  I just had to go back to get some for myself, the colours are gorgeous.

It doesn't seem that much now it's all neatly set out on this post although I had to leave some clothes in charity shops in NZ to get it all home!  I bought a lot of fabric gorgeousness in Tokyo too and I'll post about that on Sashiko Started It with a guide to fabric shopping in Tokyo - they have a whole area of the city called "Fabric Town", excellent.  Look out for that in a couple of days and remember to check for the giveaway too.