Thank You For Special Friends.

I must just thank a dear friend for a parcel she sent me and I received it today. I did not know about it so it was a huge surprise. Thank you friend for being such a wonderful person in my life and also may you receive many blessings from the Lord for being a caring friend. I have been too busy to do another block but have done some stitching on it. I have now got up to date with the magazine and now have to wait for the next issue to finish the last 3 months blocks.

This is my August mini quilt block and have to still put the beaded leaves in.

We had a quite day as the electricity was off for the afternoon. The rainy weather was lovely and still is raining but the house is too dark to do sewing or reading. So we spent the afternoon in front of the fire just relaxing. But this morning I got some painting in and started to paint the kitchen walls will continue tomorrow. When the electricity is off only does one then realize how dependant one has become.I have started the August block but have not been able to sew today.

This is July and the snowman is a square that I had bought long ago. The check fabric is leftovers from a pleated skirt that I had made for my daughter. It was high fashion when she was in grade 7 till 9.

Here is the next 3 months done. So now I am halfway and have started July.

As you can see I have finished the first 3 months mini quilt tops and am now busy with the next three months. They are looking great even though I must say so myself. I just love all the paper piecing of the different patchwork squares. Thanks to Craftwise magazine and the designer of these mini calender quilts.

Finished painting

This is my gollywog quilt. I made it with trying the logcabin pattern and then did the centre with the gollywogs. The are so cute, but the cats did not like their eyes and they chewed them off. The materials used are the shwe shwe prints from Da Gama textiles and they are lovely. Get them in all shades now. It was so great playing around with the logcabin squares as they can be arranged in any way that is pleasing to your eye. I had them on my Dbed and left them for a few days before deciding into what pattern to place them.

This is a mini logcabin quilt. It is 20cm square and the logcabins strips are small very small. I did it by hand as using the sewing machine would be too difficult.

I have finished painting my bedroom today and also got to wash the curtains and iron and hang them. So now my bedroom is completed. I also got to put the second layer of paint on the bathroom cupboard and now that is finished too. So now the bathrooms look great just need some new curtains. I am nearly finished with the February mini quilt and also have finished the applique paper on the May top.

Friends

I have a very dear friend for 22 years now and although we live very far apart we keep in contact nearly every week. She is truly an inspiration to me. She has taught me to take my sewing just that step further and out of my comfort zone and am I enjoying it. I seem to move forward or is it ahead a bit every time I make a item. I love magazines with all these lovely quilts that I see in them and really appreciate the artists who give us the patterns. I have finished painting another doorframe and also the bathroom cupboard and will do something every week till I am finished.

The next mini quilt top

This is the January mini quilt top and now I have finished 3. Am now busy with February.

Have not been sewing much. Had the house to clean and also did some painting. I just love all these tiny paper piecing patchwork as I am able to use all the small leftover fabric that is lying around here. Also it is very interesting to see how the pieces come together when you follow the numbers.

2 mini quilt tops finished

I have 2 of the 12 mini quilt top blocks finished. Here they are !!!!!

Patchwork quilting and thoughts

I had great fun today again watching the patchwork group with their star squares they are making and today they made a very difficult square. I have to comment that a person has to read the instructions very carefully and also maybe reread them. They did not do that so ended up with some very wrong pieces of fabric and as you alll know quilting fabric is very expensive. We got to sort out the problem and then there was deciding on how to put it all together. I am not doing the stars and am busy with the calender applique and have nearly finished the month of March. We also had the sewing group meeting and learned how to make a spider web and also put a small spider bead on. Spiders and the web are in quilters terms good luck to the person who receives this piece of artwork.

paper piecing blocks and just thoughts

I have started making paper piecing squares which the get added at the bottom of a monthly square of which there are 12 for a calender that I want to give to someone as a gift. I am using up all small pieces of fabric which is great. Photo one is starting the squares and two all the blocks are now together.

This is the March one and I am going to use it with an easter theme. With hens and chicks all over. I got the patterns in the Craftwise magazine and there are three every month. It started in January 2007 issue. It is our local craft magazine. There is one more magazine left with the last three patterns in. It has a lot of different crafts in and all the instructions are very easy to follow and also very clear pattern sheets. Thanks to Craftwise for all the hard work that you put into the magazine to make it easier for us to get projects done.

Next is these four tree squares will put picture in when completed. I think it should be the one with sunbonnet sue and bill having a "flying my kite" day out.

I have had a busy day with trying to get the washing dry and also tidy the house as I dont have a maid anymore. Need to do the housework myself.

I feel a bit bad after we have had a phone call from a call centre. This person insisted that they talk to my hubby after I told them that I do all the finances and that hubby hates being questioned by an unknown person and also hates the telephone. I am the most patient of the two of us and hate to be rude over the phone. Hubby said that if they were not prepared to talk to me they can ring off. Which they did of course. I still feel bad but as hubby put it, do they think I am ignorant or something. They could have talked to me. It is a very degrading situation actually. I am an equal partner is this marriage and have just as much say as he has. I feel that this poor person is only doing their job and that being so rude just makes them feel let down by me. They have rules to follow. To that person who phoned I am sorry for being rude but you also have to take into consideration that there are wifes who also have a say in what goes on in the finance world.

There we are this is the picture I took of the dam wall this morning. It is a wonderful site to see. It is the first time I have seen the dam this full since we have been here 10 years now.

have made a border of flying geese onto a stitchery I made long ago and found the other day while clearing out my cupboards. This is the second border, will see how this one continues.

We did a bit of touring around to see what the countryside looks like, well it sure is clean now that the rain has washed off all the dust. The tiny flowers are already starting to flower.

Well the dogs had great fun and ran in all the tiny pools of water they could find. Don't they get cold feet or something?

Here is a picture of the dam wall with the masses of water flowing into the Olifantsriver

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And more rain

Well we have had more rain and the dam is now overflowing. I had to take the picture on the other side of the fence as it is closed on the N7 side to protect the wall. It is just great all this lovely rain. Hubby went into the mountains and counted at least 30 waterfalls along the way to Pakhuis pass. I am now convinced that this is going to be one of those special flowering years. And to think that the Lord gives us this all for nothing. He just wants us to appreciate all this beauty.

More rain

We have had a lot more rain and I love it. The river nearby has burst its banks and a lot of the farms are cut off from town, but luckily they run down fast and most of the farmers are prepared for such a problem. Here is a picture taken from the bridge and as you can see the river is wide and full.

This picture it taken just before we reached the bridge. You can see part of the town in the background

Well have had two busy days. Yesterday I made some pumpkin fritters for the 2nd time in my life as the first time was very oily fritters but today seems to be a success. I have also baked some rusks for hubby.Today I have at last done some painting. I have finished my bedroom and it looks so nice and clean and bright again. Paint seems to fade with time and the last time it was painted was in 1999. Another thing off my to do list. I have also caught up with my stitchery with the Chicks group and have made up my mind not to do the star patchwork but I am learning a whole lot of techniques to make things easier for me. Especially the pointed stars. I am going to continue with my Christmas quilt as it stilll needs to have a lot of trimmings on before I can say its finished and then there is my angel quilt. I have to get that finished for next winter and it takes a whole winter to do the quilting. I have to still do the sashings. That will be patchwork paper piecing. Enough for the to do list I better start getting some small ufo's done and then there is a lovely stitchery in the new Australian Country Threads magazine too do.

I seem no have an addiction to sewing and am enjoying it a lot.

Keep stitching is my motto and thank you Lord for being able to have all this fun with my talent.

The next is the stitchery with the Chicks group and hope to have that finished by Thursday.
Have at last finished with the winter wallhanging so that is one less project for me now.

This is a picture of the old house when we first moved in and had it painted and then the picture of how it looks now with a fence that we had made ourselves. It took long but looks great and looking now it does not look like a jail. We need security and lots of it in this country. There is also a bit of the Cederberg mountain range at the back. We have worked hard here and am enjoying the garden very much as we have tried to have a waterwise garden.

We are having a lovely sunny day here and am trying to get the washing done as the weatherman says it will be raining next week.

Friends have been and now all I have is dirty linen. It was great to see them after 3 years and we had a lovely visit. I now have to wash the linen but the weather is not very pleasant and warm. I have to get into working mode now and get all my sewing projects done. I have the winter quilt that I have been working on today and which is almost done.

I will finish it tomorrow. Then I need to finish my stitchery by Thursday.

Being relocated to another town always seems to be very traumatic for some people and they seem to be unable to adjust to the new life. We have relocated a few times and am now retired and plan to stay here for the rest of our lives. Sometimes it is very heart breaking to leave dear friends behind, but I somehow find that that changes over time and a person starts getting excited at the propect of gaining more friends and not losing old friends but make sure you keep in contact with the old.

It seems that the kids are also very well adjusted to change and they dont seem to have any problems. I think it helped them to be more open to interact with people more easily. I used to love the challenge to get some new friends along the way and I still have lots of old friends around and keep in contact with a telephone and the telephone bill is proof of it. Hubby is forever moaning about the high account. But I just love to hear a friends voice over the telephone.

Now we are here to stay. I have lots of friends quilting and non quilting and they are all wonderful people and make life in the country very interesting.