Today's Embroidery

This is my starting stage of my embroidery and

from here I just add till it looks like -

Here is the finished seam.

            

Cousins and a doll !



This is some very special  family of
 mine, a very special Aunt and her
two daughters who are my cousins.




3 doll in the making and these are all the  body parts



Here is the pattern that I received from a friend
Its been changed a bit and also enlarged.
Cannot wait to see how this Angel
is going to look.

A new family member and daily things

Got a new family member named Amanda,
yesterday from
a very dear friend.

Here she is with the rest of
her family in the
entrance of our home
to welcome all
in

Finished a pair of socks
for myself and just in
time for winter.

Well all I have not been around for a few days because I was in hospital to have half of my thyroid gland removed because the dr felt it necessary. I was treated great at the hospital, The Stellenbosch Mediclinic. They really went out of their way to make my stay as easy as possible. Also the drs were very helpful and also lots of fun even though I was a bit nervous of the anethetic, the anethetitst was just great and also had a much easier recovery from it. Hubby is of course telling everyone that the op was not a success because I still have my voice, which is still not right but getting better by the day. Everyone who phones says my voice sounds so sexy. ha yeah right just need it to get back to normal.

Well I am now home and just lazing about and finished these socks and now need to get stuck into my crazy quilt once more.

I had this very special meeting with a dear old lady 84 who was in hospital to have a catarac removed. Well she chatted away all the while until they pushed her out for surgery. I could not join in because of my voice nerves that had to rest. She is what we call a Maleir, which is a very interesting lot of people traditionally from the Cape and they are very well spoken with a language of their own. Just love chatting to them. Well this dear old gal was asked if she was rich or poor and her answer was," I am not rich I am not poor, but I am convenient". Asked if she had a cellphone, well yes she said but left it at home and she has 3 phones one a landline the other a extention to her bedroom and of course the cell so that she does not have to run into the house to answer it.    when she was ready to leave she popped her head into my bed space because my curtains were closed most of the time(. I needed to sleep. ) and blessed me a speedy recovery and God Bless and got a twinkle in her eye and told me a dirty joke. awe I got tears in my eyes because my Mom used to also have that twinkle, anyway its the first time I saw her all that day and she was short but dressed with a hat that was put on the side of the head and also a nice warm fur coat, she had a walking stick but goodness knows why because she just walked off with very quick steps not really needing the walking stick. hehehehe
That was such a wonderful experience for me and really brightened up my stay till Wednesday afternoon when I was released from hospital. An angel with a naughty smile. So special!

Crazy Quilt part 2

Hi all

Now onto part 2,


This is such fun and hoping that you all have fun with me while I get to write all the fun that I have had with this crazy quilting journey of mine. But being asked what got me really started, I really dont know why but was just driven to start a crazy quilt. Looking back now maybe it was just the Angels letting me do this to help me to get over all the life changing happenings that happened since then.

As said I have been collecting all the lovely goodies needed for the Quilt and now to start.
Well I had a great convenor Diana Bezuidenhout and she helped me start with:

Had to first of all get backing fabric because the fancy fabrics are always aweful to work on and also different types. Wash backing fabric. Then cutting the blocks the size needed and also marking the borders where the stitching together of the blocks will be. Which was 50x50cm and 5cm more just because.
You all are wondering why I would put these instructions in. I am known not to follow rules and so Diana drilled it into me to just take her advice and be done. I did do exactly as she instructed
and now see why because my blocks are just right and ready when I need to sew them all together.

Next was getting to use the wonderful rich fabrics that I bought, and now needed to cut it up.
hehehehehe that was more difficult than I thought. How does one get to have a piece of each fabric into a block. Suggestions was cut into 25 pieces and then you will have something in every block, not good. Put the backing blocks in a line done the passage and then you wont have any problems ha well I did as the darling cats forever decided the settings dont suit them and sure they had lots of fun. This was difficult to get over with all the small pieces of wonderful fabrics cut up in such small pieces. Note to every one reading this, dont make the fabric pieces too small when you are making 50x50cm blocks. I had endless problems getting them fitted as I am not one to waste fabric. Well I then just put the fabrics together like jigsaw puzzle and that took me a whole year to complete. Must say that I was satisfied with the way it turned out, but can assure you that many times I wanted to just dump the whole lot. So patience is the word.
I finished the blocks on the 31December 2011 and was ready to start the embroidery in January 2012 and am still embroidering my way through and having such fun while learning lots of new techniques and stitches all the way. http://susanm-susanm.blogspot.com/2011/12/whats-happening.html here is the proof of the completion of my basic crazy quilt blocks. well that was a huge relief getting that far.
So will continue blogging about this journey as I go along.

A crazy Quilt - Are you crazy?

I am not one for sharing my world of thinking on my blog, it was just meant for a show and tell. Well I was asked about a crazy quilt and it got me thinking. As Qubby (short for quilting husband)says here comes trouble.

I always said that a crazy quilt was not something I would ever do but dont ever say never. hehehehe That sure was meant for me.

I have been busy with lots of other things except thinking that I would ever make one.

The quilting group that I belonged too, decided to make a crazy quilt wallhanging for one of the members who lost her hubby suddenly and that got me hooked. Well since then I have been collecting fabrics all nice satin velvet and and, well what more can I say I continued with threads ribbons and beads all for my planned crazy quilt and now my dear Qubby was in trouble real big time as I went about collecting all this goodies, I just had to have this and that for my crazy quilt. hehehehe well you all know its very expensive to embroider a real nice crazy quilt.
Well he forgave me as he started to get into the crazy thing. I have decided not to use too much beads as they tend to cut the thread from movement and use. It was going to be on our bed, but since the embroidery started I realized that this dream of mine is going to be way to heavy to sleep under. So now it will be hanging on the wall. I do make shoudlers for all my quilts so that I can hang them if I wanted to. Well with all the support around me, the quilting group, my special bestest friend which lives very far from me, and family, and just friends and people interested in what I was getting up to. hehehe In this small town people think I am always up to something, why I dont know. Anyway, I started this journey and its been going on for 2 1/2 years now. Well thats long but one must take into account that I took a year to get all the basic blocks done, during which time I lost my Mom and also got very sick and could not stitch for 4 months, boy that was terrible. Anyway I started out saying that I am not going to have any photos in my quilt, happily I decided to take the step and add photos. Well good move. I started with my Mother and it helped me get over the heartsore time and remember all the fun times together, which was much more than sad times. It was a very healing block for me and then my Dad and so on. Well also had to put in the other half of the family and that was Qubby's parents.
It was also great fun getting to know them. Qubby's sisters helped me with info and they sure also went down the memory lane for this. So its just so nice that the crazy has added some more sentimental value to all involved. Gee will have to continue this further as this is getting bored reading all about it for so long. Thanks for being so patient with me.

Busy busy as always!



Raggedy Ann ready for Autumn



A bit more quilting done
on my Autumn Wallhanging

My socks completed

Another block of the crazy quilt done

OOOoo so lovely

Ooooo I dont know about any of you but I am a huge fan of Bronwyn Hayes designs.
I have made several of them and enjoy every minute stitching them.
Here is the link to her new bom (block of the month) and I am going to stitch them for sure.

http://www.red-brolly.com/red-brolly/2013/04/the-girls-own-stitching-club-poppy-sampler.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+redbrolly+%28Red-Brolly.com+-+Bronwyn+Hayes+-+Pattern+Design+and+Patchwork+Quilts%29

Hope this works as I am not very good at links.

Remember Ladybird Ladybird fly away home?

Just finished these two cute Ladybirds.

Here are a closeup of the two



Cheers, It was hubby's 68th Birthday
on the 21st April and had
a super lunch at Isabella's



Knitted this scarf for daughter
 for the winter
took me just one day to knit.
hehehe Bought the wool Saturday morning
and completed Saturday evening

Getting some items done!!!!!

Finished these socks





Started quilting my pumpkin wallhanging

Another seam sompleted on
my crazy quilt block

Bought some more wools for a few items

Just love a misty day with lots of rain

My Quilt and Handwork Exhibition at Clanwilliam 12th April 2013

Here we are busy setting up

This is a close up of my crochet work

The other half of the exhibition.
And what would the exhibition be
without my Quilt Diva !
Designer Amy Bradley
  amybradleydesigns.blogspot.com

Here is the whole photo
and it sure brightened the dull
hall up a lot. heheheh
All the items at the back are all
my own work.On either side over the tables
is a friend's quilts, she prefers
machine stitching. I am totally
hand stitching.
The centre table has a few mini quilts
done by Pauline van Blerk.

Just everyday life!!!!

Well sometimes a grandmother has to show off her grandkids and of course the fourlegged ones and then some nice handcraft. The youngest one of the three, Liam is just too fast too have a photo taken of him. 

Eldest Grandson Benjamin, the Sportman

Middle Grandson Matthew the Big Game Hunter with
Stretch the chameleon.

Charka is having fun in a box

Where is Charka now?

Working on my daughter's Throw