Travel (b)log

We've been away for two and a half months and I've not really shown anything touristy, but today we went to Blue Hills Bird Farm between Knysna and Plett. My favourite were the Toucans (all the way from Bolivia).






I picked up lots of beautiful feathers. And we all had a great time.

'Hearts (a-finally) a-flutter'

I have finally managed to make my BQL bag for February.


I was getting worried as I have no access to a printer and still only intermittent internet access. But in the end a male friend of ours kindly printed it out and handed it over with a very bewildered look on his face LOL. It was a great pattern and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. So was mother as it has been swiftly claimed as her knitting bag!

On the home front... DS1 was sent home from school with a temperature yesterday.
He seems better now, but I'll keep him home this week as he just wants to spend time with his Grandmas anyway.

And DS2 is running me ragged!

The swing of things

I have not been posting much as you may have noticed. 'Crazy' Grandma and 'Grumps' have arrived safely from the UK so we drove down to Cape Town to meet them. Then we spent a few wonderful days in Franschhoek eating lots of yummy food at lots of different restaurants. The highlight being lunch at La Petite Ferme restaurant with stunning views over the Franschhoek valley. The lowlight being crickets jumping on the dinner table at another not to be named restaurant!

As always we visited the Aquarium while in Cape Town, the boys just love it and the sharks don't really mind that we're there!

I have been working on squaring up the monster with the fabrics that we bought at The Quilting Bug.
DH has informed me in no uncertain terms that he does NOT like this quilt. Mom if you're reading this, sorry, but there you go. I will not be discouraged and will try and finish the darn thing LOL.
This is not my colour scheme, but I find it so interesting and a challenge to get it done (Never mind all my UFO's back in England!!!)

I have also been working on my rose hexagon scrappy quilt.

A week or so back I visited a shop in George called Quilttalk (can't find a website) and bought a few small pieces of rose fabric which are already incorporated. If anybody reading this woud like to swap rose fabric for African fabric, please email me (sewkalico at yahoo dot co dot uk) or leave a comment. 4" squares or larger are what I'm looking for and I can swap Shwe-Shwe fabric or anything African...

As I am suddenly able to upload photos, here are some of the boys for my family and friends (who don't sew, but read this blog when they can bear it LOL)

This one for Aunty Jane....

Where to start? What to finish!

It's been such a long time since my last post!! I rarely get to use the internet and so reading blogs is almost impossible. Writing my own blog a rarity, but as we somehow managed to get an intermittent connection here I thought I'd seize the opportunity to show you all a few pics of WIP's or at least my MIP (monster in progress!) My mother started this quilt at least 22 years ago, probably more. It's English paper-pieced and should ultimately measure 3.3metres square!

Last year I dug it out of a cupboard and said 'let's finish it', Mother groaned a lot, but it is now ready to be squared up. As Mom doesn't want to do anymore sewing on it, I sew and she tacks/bastes the fabric to the papers. Several needed to be cut as 3 of the 8 parts were incomplete. Some of the fabrics were short so we bamboozled and pieced scraps and the 8 parts are now done. I have done some drawings and calculations (don't ask, they may be wrong) and I have a squaring up theory. I plan to use a gradation of greens to kind of pull it all together. I'm also going to use rather large setting squares to get my straight lines and to save making almost a whole new quilt with all the bits we'd otherwise need.
We found the cutest quilt shop. Jack (DS1) loves it too as it's sort of detached from the owner's house and as the owner has a young daughter there is a swing and jungle gym in the garden. I have been informed that this is a 'nice shop Mummy'. Fabric shopping at leisure with DS1 in the garden was the business at the Quilting Bug which is a relief as I may have to visit again soon. I think I a bit short on one of the greens.

I had hoped to show more pictures, but after an hour of trying, I admit defeat and this one will have to do. We had a week or so in Cape Town with 3 visits to the Aquarium in that short time. The kids love it! So if you're reading this and had hoped for kiddi pics hopefully next time :O) And if your reading this and are only interested in quilting, count your lucky stars LOL. Speaking of stars, anyone know what an 8 pointed star calls itself?

Happy New Year Island style

Life is very quiet on the island. (I feel like Robinson Crusoe). DH is working hard finishing bits and pieces around the house and I am sewing whenever I get a chance. The beach nearby is great and we take the kids and their spades and it’s just so beautiful. The weather is variable – one day very hot and sunny the next cool and grey. We have a view over the causeway bridge across the lagoon and we enjoy watching the tide come in. -If you’re wondering where we are, we’re staying on Thesens Island in Knysna on the Garden Route (can’t link you here, but I’m sure you can ‘google’ it.)

My brother and his family came for Christmas and New Year’s Eve and now my Butterfly Blossom quilt (Bonnie Hunter’s Pineapple Blossom pattern) has gone to it’s new home when they left on New Year’s day. We enjoyed having them to stay and when they left I asked them to hold the quilt up over their balcony so that I could get a good shot of it…



At the moment we have my great friend Jeannette staying (www.unite.co.za). She always comes with such energy and enthusiasm (except that she’s napping now LOL). Jeannette also came with her laptop!!! So at last, a hopefully semi-decent blog entry!! If you have commented or emailed and I’ve not replied, I do apologise, but I have such very limited internet access at the moment which allows a quick email check and that’s about it!!!

I miss reading all your blogs, but I am enjoying the days here… which start early with the children waking up to the bright sun so we all just get up and go for breakfast at one of the nicest bakeries/coffee shops in the world! Il de pain serves a killer breakfast with poached eggs, spinach, bacon…. Then DS2 sleeps so DS1 and I play or go to the nearby park or whatever, then lunch, then DS1 & 2 nap (yippee) The heat takes it out of them. Then dinner and an evening beach trip or a little row with the inflatable boat of my brother’s. I am not tanned and gorgeous (LOL) because I tend to stay out of the sun during the day – it really is quite hot here when it’s hot. We go to the weekly Friday market for dinner (DS1 likes to get his face painted there)

and on Saturdays we often go to the Farmer’s market, Sundays involves our ‘usual’ breakfast and a walk around the Thesen Island market. There is a lot of craft about.

Well, that’s about it as I’m being summoned to get in our inflatable so anchor’s away and speak soon :O)

Still no pictures, but power at least!

Last time I got to the internet cafe, I had about 8 minutes before we had a power failure!! I still haven't managed to download pictures, but then besides handstitching an advent calnder in its entirity and finishing the binding on my pineapple blossom quilt, oh! and sewing a few hexagons, I have not been up to much. It's far too hot here to sew :-)

Wishing all a Merry Festive Season. I will try and catch up on blogs and emails (and blogging) soon (electricity willing LOL)

Quick and pictureless

Arrived safely, but oh so very tired so the first day we just konked out! I had tried on Tuesday (unsuccessfuly) to fabric shop, but today I had a small result locally.I bought the last few pieces of some Java prints, they were all about 1.5 metres long and sort of hidden under a counter. Luckily I have no shame and rummaged merrily away. Sorry no pictures from this internet cafe, but hopefully soon.

Today we also visited a lovely friend of my mother's who had an interior design business, but has subsequently retired. We had a lovely time filling the boot (trunk) of the car with lovely fabric loot. I truly am in fabric heaven LOL, now to get sewing again. I do miss my machine, my thread and notions, but I'm sure I'll make do.

Hope you are all well and please forgive me if I don't return emails etc it's because the web is not quite so worldwide here :O)

Time to take a little break

The days are just packed... and so am I. I won't be blogging or commenting much, but I'll try and post a bit here and there if possible...

This last weekend we had an 'early' Christmas celebration. Here you can see the other side or the back of the table runner which is done in just a single Christmassy fabric that I made for my DSIL.

And behind DS2, a throw that I made DSIL that matched her new (crazily cream) sofa perfectly.

I bought the fabric months before DSIL got this beautiful sofa with the intention of making her some cushions for her old sofa. I never showed her the fabric so this was amazing that we had somehow chosen the same fabric colours! The new sofa came with so many cushions, so I decided a throw might be more useful and great for when 2 small messy boys visit! I just (cheater) bound the fabric and voila!

Hope you all have a super Silly Season! See you all soon:-)

Scrappy to the end

About this time last year, I signed up to the Scrapbuster swap that Kate was hosting on Delphi. I had already made several larger blocks as a Postage Stamp Round Robin swap with my Blockbuddys. I added these to the Delphi swap and had enough to make this quilt. Each little square is 2 inches in finished size. Here you can see it as a flimsie.

And here...

you can see it bound and finished. I did my first ever 'proper binding'! (in scraps of course!) I actually finished it a few days ago, but have not managed to get a shot of it until now as the weather has been dire: rainy and grey! (Time for some sun , yes, oh yes!)

It's on our bed because DH likes it. It was originally supposed to be a picnic blanket, but I actually think it's too nice to be covered in mud or left to rot in the back of my car (If you've ever seen my car...!!!). So then it was to be a sofa quilt for me, but for now it's on our bed. It's not quite big enough (!) but that's a good excuse to do another one in rose hexagons which is already started.

Talking of roses... Andrea send me some wonderful roses today. Thank you Andrea, they are perfect. Consider them packed with the rest of my lovely rose fabrics that I've had sent from some of my wonderful fellow bloggers. I will not be able to blog much while I'm away, but I will try and show you how far I am on the rose hexagons already.



Andrea also kindly included 2 FQ's for the boys.

DS1 was very impressed and I think the owls may be perfect for the pillowcase/s that will be needed to be made for next year!

I agree with a lot of the comments on my last post about keeping up with traditions. Stockings are DH's family traditions and pillowcases are mine so there will be compromise and a combination of the two!

Mean Momma!

I have never had a Christmas stocking. As kids, my brother and I used to hang an old pillowcase over the end of our bed. Now I have children and I had planned to do the same. But I have been told that I'm just mean, so with Christmas fabric in hand and an old stocking donated by Grandma as the pattern, I whipped up 2 last night. I'll add the trim and their names closer to Christmas.

While I was about it I thought I'd make DH one too, but then I thought he has so many odd socks lying around, I'll just hang up one of those as a joke instead! Ho ho ho!


I also needed a new nappy bag. I have a nappy bag, it's nasty and I often don't even take it out of the car. I make bags, but not normally for me. I guess because I can make a bag nobody would make me one so I thought I'll just knuckle down and make this one. You can never have too many bags!!

I added loads of compartments and pockets. Still there's not enough! But this will do. For now.

It's a wrap!

My DSIL brought me some lovely fabrics back from her trip to Canada. As a (belated) thank you I made her this table runner from Lise Bergene's book : A Passion for Patchwork...

I backed it with Christmassy fabric so that it's double-sided. My DSIL is not a 'patchwork person' so I tried to keep the whole thing very subdued!

It's a great book and there are lots of projects that I would like to try. In the meantime I hope she likes it!


On another note: There's a new game in our house....

Wrap the 3 year old in a quilt, he'll unroll himself and then shout "again, again" all night!

And that's a wrap LOL

Man of mass destruction

Underneath those joists lies my old sewing space! It's gone now and I am camped out in a 'spare' room that is waiting for it's own bit of bashing. No wonder I'm finding it hard to get anything sewn...

Why do I create (such a fuss)?

This autumnul week, I got a wonderful parcel from Nicolette. We did a little swap, and her parcel was so beautiful for many reasons.

1. It was so gorgeously wrapped


2. The rose fabrics have reminded me of a project I would like to do with all the roses I've been collecting. These fabrics may just get me going...
(I can see this in roses!!!!)

3. The Dutch fabrics are also really special (part of my South African heritage) And the Dutch sweets are yummy (I mean they 'were' yummy LOL!!)


4. The parcel arrived on a very very bad day for me and I felt really uplifted by such a beautiful gift (Thank you Nicolette! - you spoilt me!!)


Nicolette also tagged me about a week ago to write this meme, but I'm only getting to it now... I had to think. I talk A LOT, but I like to write little so this is going to be very hard!!!!

The rules are:
Answer the following on your blog and then let five other bloggers know that you have tagged them to complete the meme.

1. When did you start to create and make craft?
As a small child

I remember my father drawing me animals and things at the breakfast table. Later I was sent by my mother to extra art lessons at a very magical place: The Frank Joubert Art Centre in Rondebosch, Cape Town. I have such fond memories of this place. I use to go for after school lessons and I did almost everything they had to offer over my 12 years of schooling. I fondly recall doing weaving, spinning, painting, drawing, sculpture, pottery, printmaking, you name it, they offered it and I spent many afternoons crafting and creating. I also dropped a subject at (real) school and took 'graphics' (a.k.a printmaking) as an official subject at Frank Joubert, this counted towards my final marks for real school. There I learned Lino printing, silkscreening (love it!) and etching. I would love to do printmaking again!!! I also met a wonderful (and very creative) friend there - Jeannette who was my student teacher at the time, later she became a very dear friend and we still adore each other :O)

I studied Graphic Design at the Cape Technikon (I was acccepted to do Fine Art at the University of Stellenbosch, but wanted to be a designer). I left the course not feeling like a designer at all so went to Germany and took a design break (and a leg break too!- I broke my femur and spent a long time recovering from the initial operation which left me needing 2 bouts of corrective surgery (!)). After a bit of healing and doing a graphic design practical in Germany, I moved to London and sold advertising. The other side of Graphic Design? My first ad sales employer felt knowing your CMYK was a good selling point :O)

2. Why did you start creating?
My mother always did something crafty (LOL).
(This is not a real s e x shop - it's a South African private joke though!)
If she wasn't knitting, copperworking, sewing, she had me doing something like making my clothes, patchworking.... I am very grateful to her that she inspired me to use my hands.
We still go to craft fairs together or fabric shopping.

Although my mother can knit like a Ninja, I have never really enjoyed knitting more than a beanie...

3. Why do you create?
I just have to. I can't sit idle (I hear my DH laughing his head off here). I know I could clean my house (hahaha), or go walking, but I love making things and I love seeing how clever crafters can be... I just wish I had more time, I would like to try many more things: jewelry making, printing again... felting, woodwork??... I would love an adult Art centre nearby where I could experiment and create.

4. What do you create?
I sew (like a madwoman), I patchwork, I make cards, I take photos (although I don't develop my own anymore like I used to at college) I try to make presents for friends and family. I don't do as much different stuff as I used to. At school I kept a sketchbook and had to hand in drawings weekly, it kept me good :O) I should draw again.

5. Has this changed since you began crafting?
I am limited by the amount of hours in each day.

If I had all the time in the world (and more money) I would do lots of different stuff (and probably never finish any of it LOL) I feel I have lost my confidence a bit, I used to just see something and make it, now I think about it, plan it, buy stuff for it that I don't use...

Now I have to tag 5 people, so I tag Helen, Kate P, Jane, Laila, and Gudrun (Gudrun sent me a super-duper surprise parcel this week too!!!! Thank you so much!!!! It was full of all sorts of wonderful treasure!!!!

- I have been sooo spoilt lately!!!)
(see Gudrun, I like sheep!)

Value

I foolishly decided to sign up for a Christmas Market Stall next Saturday, hence not much posting, not much blog reading and not much sewing for the sake of sewing! I am trying to make 'stock'. 'Stock' being items that would have a general appeal. As a crafter, I am always attracted to handmade items, but is everybody else? I think sadly, the answer is probably no. (I'm also trying to prove to DH that ALL this fabric is worth something)

However here is a box of frogs, waiting to go to market :O)



I had a non-crafter friend to visit the other day and looking around my 'space' she said "Why don't you just finish everything you've started". Well that is the eternal question, isn't it? LOL. I could finish stuff, but as I don't like a lot of it (to sell), will anybody else (Is the answer again here, sadly, no?)

Here is a bad bad bag (centre of the pic)!!! So many things went wrong with this bag and it got thrown in a pile so many times, but I had resolved to 'finish things' and in the end I did. Even though I forgot to leave a hole in the lining so had to cut one before I could turn it right side out (Oh boy!!)



My DH loves those lateral thinking questions. Here's one about value...

Question: A man buys his wife a present. He pays $200 for it. She is delighted, but she has an accident with it and it gets damaged. Her husband replaces it for $20. After a while the wife tires of it so she sells it to another woman for $300. What is it?
What could be worth $200 or $300 to certain woman (not to all woman though), but have a real value of only $20???

((Is that like craft? If someone makes something is it valued because someone made it for you? Or perhaps because it was handcrafted? To some is it just something made that has no real value? - I am obviously feeling deep at the moment LOL))

Answer: A personalised number plate. (Car registration plate in US English? not sure what else it's called)

Anyway, I will get back to blog reading (and commenting soon). Wish me luck. I shan't want 20 doorstops living at my house :O)