sewsue

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Having fun visiting!

Daughter brought me my favorite Red Roses

Matthew sleeping with his old baby sitter, Zazu
the cream Lab and Ziquenya the new babysitter near
his head and under the blanket, because she does
not have the nice thick fur like the labrador.

Bedtime fun with grandpa, Matthew and grandma.

Friday, 21 June 2013

What? Busy in this small town and babysitting.

Wow we have been so busy this past week,
We have also been in an accident and luckily no one got hurt, well maybe the other party as their van was a write off. hehehe well why am I laughing,? Its the local traffic officer that was driving the other vehicle. And now getting the insurance to get our poor bakkie repaired is a nightmare to say the least. Its been 2 weeks and we have only just yesterday heard from them. Well I got them going.
The Daughter and her family have come for a visit,
but left the dog here because they are visiting friends who live in a flat and also to go shopping.
I never thought that dogbaby sitting would be so hectic.
She's, Ziquenya the antipoach dog of Ubizane, really so sweet but has separation anxiety when her master is not around.
Well at least we have got her calmed down. Now Tonic the cat is upset because Ziquenya is forever putting her nose in Tonics face. Well the end is Ziquenya gets a hit of a very fast paw and then barks back which upsets our old ladies Bella and Zazu and we have to get everyone calmed down but was able to chase them outside to play.

When are you coming home? Ziquenya
watching to see when her people
are coming to get her.

Tonic not happy with the tv arrangement,
wanting her place on hubby's legs.

I am so lucky, I had this made at our local
Lumber City and this is for all my DMC and other threads
and yes I have all their colors and got tired of the
plastic holders and now this is all nice and neat.

Finished Natascha's throw now just have to work all the
threads away.

On a sadder note we were in an accident and hubby's heart
is now very sore, we are having a hard time
getting the insurance all sorted out. grrrrr

And one happy comfortable dog Ziquenya relaxing in the sun.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Just daily life and pets!!

Well Qubby(that is
the combination of a Quilters Husband) decided
that we needed
a new Lounge Suit and here
it is. I wanted a 3 seater instead of
the 2x2 seaters but just loved the style of this
suit. So now we dont have to sit on the floor
(the old one was really very worn out)

And of course what would our home be
without all my lovely handmade items.
Tonic the cat is testing the couch.

This is Zazu whom has had a small operation
to remove 2 large fatty glands and the
one is there on her chest.

Here you can see the cut in the hind leg.
She just loves having photos taken and loves
to talk to the camera.

Zazu is now doing just great and is very pampered now and has taken a short walk around the neighbourhood to just see if all is well. Each gland was the size of a tennis ball. Well now nearly back to normal. Daughter and family, thats Matthew and their other dog will be visiting us next week and I am anxious to see how Zazu and Ziquenya(Weinmeriner - spelling is not correct) will react because they are both son in laws dogs. Am sure they will be able to get to a understanding. heheheheh! Zazu was given to us because they were unable to take her with to Namibia. We just love her and when they returned to South Africa they did not have the heart to take her back because she and Bella (our dog, a crossed labrador) had become such close sisters.

http://www.oprah.com/home/Nate-Berkus-7-Ways-to-Give-Yourself-the-Gift-of-Home/8

Have just been reading this advice that Nate gives all his fans and its just so true. Love home making very much and
try to make a new item for each season every year. So that is why my home is very special to me.

Friday, 7 June 2013

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.

Sunday, 19 May 2013

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.

Friday, 17 May 2013

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!

Sunday, 12 May 2013

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.

Friday, 10 May 2013

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.