Waitangi Day 2013

Today is a public holiday held annually to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.   With that document New Zealanders, both Maori and Pakeha (the non- Maori) became a part of the British Empire and we have lived with the consequences of that ever since.   Be that as it may, today was a gloriously warm blue-sky day and I, for one, appreciated a day off work.
The HD3QBEM and I went for a drive to a small town about an hour's drive south and had lunch at a quaint cafe called The Copper Kettle. We have had so little rain for weeks now that the usually verdant farms are all a dry brown dust bowl and we wondered how the poor animals are surviving.

On the way back we stopped at a tiny craft shop and watched two women creating beautiful ceramics.   I was particularly taken with this grey hippo planter but unfortunately he didn't come home with me.

While I did the ironing this morning I remembered to iron the Confetti of Hardanger piece so I could show it sans wrinkles!  

This HAL is great and Abi Gurden publishes excellent instructions.  

The curved fan was the homework for this issue.   I see that despite counting the wraps my tension has not been even and one "spoke" looks fatter than the others.   Only the centre motif and the edging to go.   I wonder what will come for the centre?
Last night I made a re-start on my self-designed blackwork etui and hopefully by the weekend there will be progress to report.  My original plans for this came to nothing except and unplanned mattress pincushion so I have started again.  The tin, the linen and the picture in my head remain the same. I plan to have this completed for our Embroiderers' Guild exhibition in August and as I have only just started the lid and there is still a scissor fob, needle book, pincushion and thimble holder to go I need to plod along.
Hope you have all had a great day too.