My hexi journey

I have stitched another hexi! My stitching time has been a bit slow because of the holidays. 

Christmas day!

Spent Christmas day with daughter and grandies. Neil was very hungry! Hard work doing everything only having one hand! 

Christmas time!!!!!!

We have had a busy time ahead of Christmas and the worst was when Neil ended up with a broken arm, after jumping out a tree that has been done many many times will be spending Christmas taking it slow playing around. Neil has just finished kindergarden and is going to grade one next year. So he will be starting his schooling career with a small hiccup. He is unable to swim in the sea and just has to be careful not getting sand in that arm.

                                                   A Blessed Joyful Christmas to all!!!

Just before he broke the arm he decorated this tree for me.

I have now got 55 hexi's ready for embroidery and think this is not enough but thats okay, I have lots more fabric to use. Not one of these are a repeat. hehehehehe and still the stash is not less. grrrrrr

Thia hexi with the blue cats are the last of my first piece of fabric that I started my patchwork hobby with! That was many many years ago. Maybe 36 years ago. 

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Where has 2021 disappeared too?

This year has passed to quickly. We have been so busy just living life and enjoying every minute of it.

Being thankful for everything The Lord supplies us and also the time to enjoy being with the grandkids. Also had our son and his family visit us for a short while made it very special. Luckily the end of the year our weather also changed and after the terrible drought we have had lots and lots of rain. Our water tanks are full all the time. Also had a water pump installed which made life easier for us. Also not having municipality water in taps, made us install it faster. Now need to start saving for solar panel!

   

I have got two more hexi's done! This is going to take some time it seems. Looking at my fabric and threads has not got less. But by the time I finished this at least the stash will be less.

Neil put up our Christmas Tree and I am not going to change it. So special to watch him concentrating 
 on putting all the ornaments on this small tree.

Its amazing to see all the people here in town for this holiday. Truly a blessing esp for businesses in town. They have suffered a huge loss esp the staff having no income. We did our best to support small businesses but it was not enough. Thanks to the Lord for holding our hands and show the nasty persons responsible for all this suffering world wide that Africa is in His Hands. 

Hexigons!

Still making hexi's!

My Hexi Quilt in the making!!!!

This is no 13 of 40 hexi's. My creative side has now kicked in and am creating some lovely centers for this quilt. 

 

Nr 12 done

Nr 12 of 40 blocks done. Trying to do a few a week. 

Busy slow stitching!!!!!

 Its a very windy day here and am indoors all day.

Our amaryllis is flowering non stop and its just so pretty and special. 

Went to cast my vote this afternoon. Baked some bran muffins and now just sitting around and thinking.

 This is a very emotional time for our family now as we have lost an aunt last week and the last of my aunts is very very ill. My cousin tried very hard to get us all together to chat with her but its not a good time to have a chat as we are all very sad because this aunt is one of the most favored by all. Its really been terrible losing her as it all started with her getting ill and recovered very nicely and then the after effects started up and now also taking her life. She was always present in our lives and always full of love for her kids and my sister and I. There is so much emptiness in our lives when we lose so many loved ones.

 

I have so much to be thankful for. My kids are doing great in life in general and grandkids are all well taken care of. Also having my daughter close by and having her two sons around us everyday are such a blessing. The Lord has us all in His Hands and we have Him in our hearts!

 

 

 

A mini!

Just love stitching miniature patterns. This is a fan in mini. Thanks to @berry_birdy for sharing this video. 

Such a busy day!!!!!!

Had a very nice busy day.

Its a very windy day here and hoping that we get some rain soon. Dust everywhere. grrr Hate housework but have to do it myself. I hurt my hip last week and need to take it easy to heal.

I will do a deep house clean next week. 

So onto more interesting things.

This amaryllis decided to start opening up this morning. Just love the beauty of flowers.

We went for a nice walk on the beach this morning. Coco just loves to have a nice swim and Lucky just walks along in the shallow water.

Then l just had to do some stitching this afternoon and decided to do this qayg{quilt as you go} block designed by Pattern Poole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRcPvsHFVoU

She is just great as she has all the instructions and how to on you tube. All very clear, precise and also interesting.

 

Another Block done!

Got there hibiscus flowers from Matts this afternoon.

Another block embroidered. Having fun doing the embroidery now.

 All lovely House of Embroidery threads.

 

Christmas!

Collected these rings from our milk holders last year and now finished them all! In time for Christmas!

Some pretty flowers today!

Neil picked this flower in the park across the road.

Our red bottlebrush flowering and the bees have been busy before the sun appeared

I am decorating my baskets I have collected over the year for my shelves.

 

Family is the best!!!!

We had a wonderful weekend. Our son and his family surprised us with a visit and wow its so special as we live far apart and being old now don't want to travel that far again. They visited here 4 years ago when we had just moved to Port Alfred. So we had great fun just relaxing and visiting. Sadly the older 2 grandsons were not visiting. But just being able to spend some time with ones family makes us feel so blessed.

 

At last! Embroidery

 

Wow I have finished 40 blocks and can do the embroidery at last. Hoping it will look great. I am going to make a double bed quilt. Not sure the 40 blocks will be enough but will make more if needed without buying fabric.

 

More hexi's done!

Have completed 35 l think. Going well stitching these. Will lay out and see how many l need. Then the centres need some lovely embroidery.

A few more completed!!!!

I have made a few more of these and slowly getting it done! In total I have now completed 30 blocks. Have to start deciding how I am going to arrange them into a quilt. Well first things first and will embroider them first then see what the quilt is wanting to look like.

 

So many blessings!!!

Just sitting here this morning and reading all my favorite blogs and thinking how blessed I am to have such a lot of nice people who inspire me to be a better me but still just be me!!!!! Especially reading Jenny's blog at https://www.elefantz.com/ . Made me realize that for me all this lockdowns we are having is to make the world slow down a bit. I used to just go to the shops and walk around looking to what I feel like buying. Nowadays I just go when necessary.

 Made me realize I for one don't need that much stuff to survive. I also, sadly though don't visit my favorite haberdashery shop, https://www.facebook.com/Holly-House-Port-Alfred-1670331229903352/  , as much as I used to but still go and buy stuff that I need. I need to thank her when there again as she keeps the shop fully stocked and ready for buying whatever I need. I have been buying stash and then not using it. My hands work more slowly than my stash buying and ideas in my brain of what I still want to make. But I am always thankful that I am able to use my hands to make some precious things for our home. 

Still working on my hexi's and have made 20 so far. have a lot more to go as I am going to make it 250x250cm square and my bed. Also have to add some embroidery in the center using my  whole set of house of embroidery threads.  https://www.houseofembroidery.com/     these are just great and the colors are so pretty when embroidered.

I am using the idea for the hexi's that I saw on Emma Jones's website. https://campsite.bio/vintagesewingbox   She is the inspiration for me using  epp hexagons again. 

Now lets see if me using the links to places I like works. 

I need to give give thanks to the people who help me enjoy making my latest quilt the recognition they deserve

Slow stitching!!!

I have always loved stitching by hand. I have a love hate relationship with my sewing machine.

It seems that lots of quilters are now also doing slow stitching, which means stitching by hand. We here in South Africa seem to have a lots of electricity failures and then have to keep busy. I have been so lucky as I also love to hand needle turn applique too. Well here is what I have done for the weekend. 

 

Octopus!!!!!

 

I have now finished these 13 octopus and now all wool is used up. Won't be doing much more crochet and knitting as my hands are getting too tired. Will now be doing lots of embroidery which does not tire my hands out so much. 

I am doing great but at times the crazy world is getting me down. So many has lost their lives because of the crazy virus. Well I then go off to my sewing world and forget all that is going on. 

We have our kids and grandsons and they are all well and going about life and enjoying it.

A change!

I have decided to make my url a bit easier and now its quiltysue.blogspot.com and it will be so much easier if asked for it. 

A sad goodbye!!!!!!!

Had to say goodbye to this sweet cat Tonic yesterday. She was 17 yrs old and was a very loving cat. She shared to much ups and downs with us.                                                                                                        
 Now back to daily life, hehehehe!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I need to remember to add hashtags to all my posting to show who had inspired my projects. I want to show respect to the designers whom show us their wonderful designs and also allow us to use it. I only use all the items I make for myself and no selling here. It takes too much time to make and people don't really want to pay for all the work that goes into handcrafts. Well I can't afford all the lovely designs I see. Have bought a few patterns and also many quilt mags though. But somehow I just start following the chosen pattern and then change the whole thing to my tastes and continue from there my own style. But one has to have good manners and give thanks to the designers of the original patterns.                      

                                                                                                                                                                       This is a project I started and its such fun.

  I worked out the templets myself and then made them. Let me see its from 

  https://www.instagram.com/vintagesewingbox

She has some great designs and I love all the pretty things she makes.

Also the threads I am using is from House of Embroidery.

I am also using a combination of  Da Gama Three Cats fabrics and lots of fabrics that have been gifted and in my stash.

Hope I have done this correct!!!!!

Have a wonderful day!

Crochet octopus !!!!!

Ok 8 octopus done and onto 9th. I want to complete all the balls of wool and then finish them up!

Added 2 more of these! Will do some embroidery when l have a few more done! Don't know where l am going with these but am enjoying making them!

Had to make venison pies, hubby cooked the meat. Also put the mixture onto dough but did not clean his fingers when closing them so l have spots of meat all over the pies. But sure are tasty!

Last one!

This is using up last of crochet threads that has been around for while. A shawl done. Now l have lots of small balls of crochet cotton left. These get used for embroidery and big stitch quilting. 

More slow stitching done.

Some more slow stitching done this week. I hate blanket stitching but had to do the pink piece with it. There was not enough fabric between shapes to do needle turn applique.

Bit of slow stitching!

Made these hexigons just to test. Its really nice and l can use my House of Embroidery threads and fabric that l have collected over the years! Will see where these take me. A double bed

Quilt maybe!

Quilt inspector!

Always wonder how cats just appear and sit on a quilt when one has just put on the floor to see how it looks so far!

a Nearly Finish!

Finished the main quilting and also added the binding. Wanted to see what and where to add the things l have been collecting!

So pretty!

These are some octopus and worms l am crocheting for fun.

I also made these covers for myself, trying to use less plastic! Made my daughter a set too!

Finished this today and love it! Lots of French knots, beads, crochet work on a piece of batik fabric. I picked up the broken shell on Shelly's Beach, just a short from our house.

Finished!

Another gift completed! Just changed from pink to blue!

1st gift done!