The Flood Quilt

It is almost a year since the floods and it is time to get on with my quilt.  I designed this quilt in New Zealand during a workshop with Cherl Comfort.  I had seen some of Cherl's work when I had been in NZ before and found it very creative and challenging.

I think it is the profound thinking that she puts into her designs that appeals to me.  In her series Absence and Existence  the limited pallet is complemented by the use of texture.

Cherl is part of a group of women who own Distressed Threads.    I bought so much of their fabric whilst I was in NZ and I know I could use some more.  Because they are hand dyed and treated the variation of colours is just wonderful , (I'm talking myself into more fabric I can feel it.)  I personally think that the fabrics they produce is unique added to this all the creating goes on whilst the ground shakes around them in Christchurch. 

Here is Cherl in the back yard.

And Chris in the paddock.

(images from their website)

Monique is 1 year old

Here she is the birthday girl, and one year old and she obliged by having a growth spurt so that she would fit her party dress.

I think her Mummy and Daddy love her to pieces.

And everyone loved the cake.

All through the party miss serious soul kept an eye on everyone.

Oh that year went fast. 

Colour Coordination

A wallet

 handbag

Glasses

And a leg.

Mmmm, I will have to do something about the toe-nails.

Mindless

I'm not sure what happened to my mind in this fall, it seems to have left me for a while.  Now that it is back I find I have done some really stupid things over the last week.

I flippantly said that I would stitch a sampler and have it finished before the new year.  No.  I started the sampler but when my mind returned (after going off somewhere else)  I realised that I had started in the wrong place.  What I had marked as the middle was about 4 inches out.  A week of stitching has now been withdrawn and I am about to start again.

This sampler will not be finished in a few days, it is a long term project. 
Hopefully it will be finished some time in 2012.

Moths

I have been finishing off some knitting that I started a year ago.  I had knitted a shawl for my Godson's new baby only to find that his great-grandmother had knitted the same shawl.  He didn't need two the same and the other shawl was far more significant, so mine went into the cupboard.  I only had to finish the lace edge  around the outside and as I am stuck in one place decided to complete it.

I had knitted the shawl in pure wool and I finished it yesterday, got my husband to wash it for blocking and found that the moths had been into it.  Great big holes.  One shawl binned.

Not to be discouraged I have dug out some more yarn.  This time it is 3ply acrylic and nylon, moths aren't into synthetic fibres and it will withstand the washing machine.  This one is for my new grand-baby due next May.

Christmas from the wheelchair

This Christmas was different.  Instead of having over 30 guests arriving for the Christmas Eve party I had my family.  My daughter did most of the cooking, my daughter-in-laws all brought a dish and my wonderful husband cleaned the house. 

My grand daughter will be one in a few days and she arrived in her Santa suit.

She has grown so much in the 2 weeks since I have seen her.  She is going to be a champion Netballer with that height, goal defence or goal attack I think.  (Her mother told us that her grandfather had been over 7 foot tall, those Dutch genes are kicking in.)  She loved all her presents but it was the books she liked the best.  Every present she opened that had a book in it she had to have read straight away.  She might even be an engineer the fascination she showed with the parts of the toy vacumme cleaner.

Christmas day saw me exhausted so I mainly slept  and listened to little French voices waft over the fence from next door.  Their relatives have just arrived from Europe and the joys of a summer Christmas could be heard as they splashed in the pool and ate lunch on the verandah.  I wasn't able to get to Mass but watched the service from the Vatican on TV. 

So, it has been a different Christmas but still special.

The twelve days AFTER Christmas

 

Merry Christmas

Best wishes to you and your families at this Holy time of year. Only another 365 till the next one!

On the twelfth day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Twelve parrots prattling

(http://www.birdorable.com/gifts/designs/16-birdorable-parrots/240040263/ a description…)

Eleven Numbats nagging,
Ten lizards leaping,
Nine wombats working,
Eight dingoes digging,
Seven possums playing,
Six platypus,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And

a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Eleven Numbats nagging,


(source: http://johannainman.blogspot.com/2011/03/tiny-tuesday-numbats.html)

+

(source:http://orion713art.blogspot.com)

= 11

Ten lizards leaping,
Nine wombats working,
Eight dingoes digging,
Seven possums playing,
Six platypus,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.