The Feast of Stephen (A letter to my brother)

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even...

(I remember pounding away at this song on the neighbour's piano! LOL) The snow is not deep, or crisp or even, but it has been snowing and apart from driving in it, it's great!


Outside DS1's school this morning, a classmate plays with the snow


The only way to travel to school...



A snowman seen on the way to DS2's playgroup...


Outside playgroup...



DS2 and friends go for a walk on the fields




Well Stephen, it's snowing! Not sure it will last until Christmas, but Mother is here and she's feeling the cold.

I just wanted to say thank you for your very thoughtful gift (yes, I opened it... no surprises there then LOL)


...beautiful silkscreens, printing ink, fabric and wonderful looking squeegees to print my own labels.

Such a wonderful gift. Thank you dear brother.


ps Just one thing you forgot to include..... some more hours in the day :-) And I know you could use them as well!!!

A touch more frost (and Christmas crafts)

The last time I really experienced frost, ice and snow properly was when I lived in Germany so I am finding this all very novel, cold and beautiful once again...






Our garden...




Last year we spent Christmas in the South African sun. While I was there, I made the boys an Advent calendar from a panel my friend Birgit gave me. I hand stitched EVERY pocket and handquilted it as I didn't trust my skills on my mother's sewing machine!!!



Perhaps I should look for another panel and make another one by machine this year so the boys will have one each next year. (I only finished this one halfway through December last year so I'm running on schedule again LOL)

I also made them stockings...



The nametags came about as a last minute thing (foam letters glued on felt!), but they will do for another year...

I think this year the boys will really be into Christmas. DS1 has already written to Santa. Unfortunatley Santa hasn't done any of her Christmas shopping yet as she hates it, but she, I mean he, will get his skates on soon!

My son, the inventor

I just had to blog this before I forget!

DS1 was playing with a bicycle pump (as 4 year-old boys do) and he went up to his dad and said:



"This is my super-duper-nose-blower. It will blow the bogies right out of your nose!"

Kids say the cutest things LOL!

Seasons change

What is this hard white stuff I find on my car in the morning? The stuff I have to scrape off before I can drive DS1 to school? Frost???? Normally we are like the Swallows who fly South, but this year we are the Robins...



Are we crazy??? It's bloody freezing! I just hope it snows properly so that we get that 'white Christmas" the kids are dreaming about.

As the Seasons and this house changes so does what I can acheievably create. With the arrival of my Mom, I will focus on handwork. Piecing together my hexagons and handquilting my BQL Ostrich.

There is still sickness in this house. I am finally, after 10 days of cold, feeling better, but poor DH is still going through his share of it. Better go make him a cup of tea!

Pssst.... can you keep a secret?

Or that should read, can you keep a 'Secret Santa'!

Well, the answer to that is a resounding NO. Resistance was futile. I lasted one day. I have decided to blog this confession because
a) fellow bloggers made me do it LOL
b) I could smell the gum in the parcel and it was calling me...
c) I don't care that I will have nothing to open on Christmas day. (People who hate surprises don't care about such things! LOL LOL)
and
d) You are all making me feel bad with your congratulations, thinking that I am holding out!

Here it is, and it's so pretty!! Love those roses!



And it was full of loveliness...



Thanks Sharon!!! Sorry Donna (and of course the real Santa), but a girl's gotta do...


This week the whole family has been full of cold, so it was wonderful that the boys got great mail from Cheri. She sent them the most lush fleece blankets with John Deere tractors and signs. They arrived when the the boys were sick (DS1 in particular) so they went down well.



The other one has been stashed and every time I try to take it out, it gets put back in it's special place. My son is a hoarder!!! Now, where does he get that from???

Thank you so much Cheri. Cheri mentioned chocolate in the parcel, but I didn't see any. Ok, I did, but...


Moving right on... I said I'd pick another winner for my belated 200th post giveaway. Cheri won the African fabrics with the closest guess, so I got the old Random number generator out to pick a winner for a tote or evening bag. It came back with Kate, but as I have just sent Kate another tote for her 40th(!!!!) Birthday, meaning she now has 2 totes and one evening bag made by me, I thought I'd better pick someone else...sooo....random generator again....

Well done Ginger Curls (no blog)!! I'll send you a bag of your choice from a selection and thank you all for playing!

November Bag

11 down and just one more to go! I can't believe I have kept up with the BQL Bag challenge, but somehow I have and I am very pleased too.

A big thank you to Kandy who has designed ALL the previous patterns and who has taught me a few things about my sewing machine (I had never FMQ'd with my machine before!!!) and who has provided me with presents for wonderful friends along the way!

As this house has developed my sewing space has moved from one spot to another. At present I have no spot, but at least I have my handwork rose hexagons and a new plan....

Carolina Lily by Marti Mitchell


has got to be one of my all time favourite patterns. After purchasing the pattern and reading through the instructions,

I am seriously considering doing this as my next handwork project and English paper piecing the blocks using precious scraps...

It will probably take me years this way so we'll see how I feel when the roses are finished first!

Burning a hole

When I was a child and my mother gave me my pocket money, I would want to spend it straight away. On anything. I didn't care, I just wanted it spent. Mom used to say "that money is burning a hole in your pocket!"

Well today this arrived...

And it's burning a hole in my back!

I stuck it behind the bedroom door on a bookshelf and I know it's there. It's calling me. I cannot believe I have to wait for Christmas!!! It's my SSCS organised by Chookyblue

and it's from the lovely Sharon of Red Geranium Cottage. I read Sharon's blog, she's a hoot and she makes great stuff. (Perhaps I should open it properly, it may be one of her famous cheeseballs which may not last until Christmas!!!) BTW if you have Sharon as your partner for this swap DO NOT send her any candy shaped candles, she and her DH will eat them, I'm just saying! LOL (you need to read her blog to find that funny, but I do LOL)

Anyway, I am notorious for shaking parcels, feeling them... I don't wait, I hate surprises... I am struggling with this one!!! Thanks Sharon for torturing me, I mean spoiling me. I hope I can wait another thirty five loooong days!

Keeping it quilty

It's hard to keep it quilty, when you can't find any time to quilt or any of your quilt stuff :-(

But I have made a start on my BQL bag for November...


I have also been re-housing some blocks and surplus scraps to bloggy friends.

And I 'may' (LOL) have purchased a new quilt pattern. I hope to use it to include those recent yummy fabrics from Nicolette, the great shirts that some of DH's friends gave me when we were in London and some of the gorgeous fabrics my friend Helen brought back for me from India... More to come, when the pattern arrives. (I know, I need a new project like a hole in my head LOL, but I want to use up special fabrics in a pattern I have wanted to make for ages!!)

I may not have too much time to quilt, but I can still spend lots of time thinking about it!

Here's the latest on the house:

Kitchen cupboards stripped out...
(I can't show a pic, it's too depressing!)

And re-fitted in the utility room....




At the moment DH is putting down the floor, but I'm not allowed in... either he wants to surprise me or he's making such a mess that he doesn't want me to see LOL!

The new bathroom is getting put to good use...





And I've almost found the floor in the spare room so Mother will be pleased :-) (Counting the days until she gets here!)

This has to be quick!

Just a quickie to say:

"We have a winner"

Congratulations Cheryl from Jovaliquilts who guessed 40. The answer was 41 and no, I wasn't hiding any in the bag!! Before they are basted, they are quite flat which made it hard to guess :-) As Cheryl was the closest she wins and has chosen a selection of African fabrics.

I will pick another winner from the other comments once I've had a chance to work out how many entries each one has... BUT at the moment there are more pressing matter such as clearing ALL the kitchen cupboards for removal (eek!!), preparing the junk room, ummm I mean, spare room for my mother's imminent visit (double eek!!), clearing my sewing space and current work area (aargghh!!)!! Lots of clearing and sorting and minimising Soooooooooo....
If you quilt for charity and could use orphan blocks, ugly blocks, strings, crumbs etc please leave a comment or send me an email saying what you can use and I'll see what I can do for a few of you. I have to have a big clearout and don't want to throw anything away that can be used. Lynda, I hope to find those food fabrics for you and then send you those other belated bits... Sonnja I'm sure I can find something for Beertje Zonn...

I have not been reading blogs, but hope to catch up when calm sets upon us and there's no photo because this house is just too much of a WIP for me LOL.
Joyce, thank you for reminding me of the bigger picture. We do live in beautiful surroundings, I just need to look out the window more!

A convenient convenience?

Handy in a higgledy house to have a new bathroom next to an old kitchen (with very few units) next to a new bedroom next to a....



Very handy! LOL!!
This means that yet another phase of the renovation is almost complete. Next step is moving the kitchen downstairs... and converting the current kitchen into the final bedroom. Anyone know when sewing in pleasant surroundings can begin??!!





Perhaps next Autumn...

Not a quilter

Recently I went into a fabric shop and went I went to pay, one of the ladies serving asked

"You were here a few weeks back...
have you used all the fabric you bought then?"

Why yes, of course. I would never just hoard it or anything silly like that LOL

A bit of this and a lot of that!!!

Thank you Elsie for this



Elsie wanted some heart inspiration for the table toppers she made for a conference. I love hearts and pointed Elsie to a few sites... As a thank you, Elsie sent me one of her gorgeous heart themed table toppers... seems I'm the one owing a bigger thank you now!!



Love the rose backing fabric too!


And thank you Caroline for this



I love this beautiful poppy! It reminds me so much of my Dad. Walking along Wynberg Main Road, South Africa as a child. Dad buying a poppy and explaining its significance. I coveted Caroline's poppy and Caroline was kind enough to send it to me. I broke a commandment, (although I think it should be ammended) "Do not covet they neighbour's goods" (except when they are a quilter!!!). Caroline also included some lovely rose fabric - so beautiful. I have been in rose heaven of late....!
Caroline does the most amazing crochet flowers and garlands. Go check out her blog!


This all cheered me up because, I came home from playgroup to THAT!



And now our kitchen looks like this....



I don't like it like that LOL



Today I had an interesting hospital appointment. More to come, but in the meantime here's DS1 wearing the attractive throwaway hospital gown I had to wear for my consultation...



Yesterday I had a short 3-and-a-half-hexagon-basted wait at the Orthotics department and today I had over an hours worth of basting wait at Orthopaedics. I won't say how many hexagons I managed to baste today as that may give away my giveaway... But I am under the impression (that all going as suggested) in a few weeks I may have lots of time to sew hexagons...

Occassionally I quilt

Not only do I send and gratefully receive a lot of parcels, but sometimes if all is right in my sewing world, I get to quilt a little something too...



This is the Miniature Booty quilt that I made Toni (a-la Ricky Tims' Convergence Quilts).



I put far too much chocolate in the parcel and so it weighed a ton. Because of this fact, I stupidly sent it surface mail and it sadly took forever to arrive. Thankfully it finally has and so now I can show it.





Unfortunately due to DH getting a move on with the renovations all creative sewing has pretty much ground to a halt! We are like the Higgledy Piggledy pigs, living in a higgledy piggledy house! (See, I read far too many children's books!)



And mummy pig is right "it's not a muddle! It is a pigsty" LOL



We have an almost completed bathroom next to an old kitchen.


(Before tiling above and after tiling below!)



We also have a work in progress utility room next to a stripped bedroom and nowhere to put anything!!!!



Apparently a new sewing room will be my reward for living like a Higgeldy Piggeldy Pig LOL

So many silly skeletons...

Okay I'm a few days late... but Happy Halloween
and

BOO!



thanks to Brenda for this wonderful Halloween postcard!

Today was the most Halloweeny we got around here. The friend who was going to have a party decided not to bother and so we didn't bother either, but today we went to one of DS1's classmates birthday parties which had a Halloween theme and entailed dressing up.



Seems most 4-5 year olds were skeletons this year. I guess next time we'll have to push the boat out a bit more LOL


And for some 2 year olds it was quite hard work being a pumpkin...




This week I have 2 hospital appointments for my leg so I have cut all my new rose fabrics out with the intention of basting them onto the hexagon papers while I wait around to be seen. Hopefully I won't be waiting long (just long enough to make a bit of progress would be nice though LOL)



I neglected to give anything away for my 200th post, but if you can guess how many hexagons are waiting to be basted to papers in the above picture. The winner can choose from a handmade gift (either an evening or a tote bag) or a selection of African fabrics. If there is a correct guess then that's great. If not, all comments will be popped in the bag and a random winner drawn. Regular commenters get an extra entry and if I've received rose fabrics from you at anytime in the past you get another entry too. I'll draw a winner November 15th. (oh, and if you commented on the 200th post before today you get another entry as well - just a bit of fun LOL)