Peace

This is such a powerful song and I'm sure the people suffering war would agree with the lyrics.

English Translation

Mr President

I am writing you a letter, that maybe you will read, If you have time.

I have received my military papers to leave for war before Wednesday night.

Mr President I do not want to make it (war), I am not on earth to kill poor/unfortunate people.

It's not to make you mad.

I have to tell you my decision is made, I am going to desert.

Since I was born, I saw my father die, I saw my brothers leave and my children cry.

My mother suffered so much that she is in her tomb and doesn't care about bombs and doesn't care about verses.

When I was a prisoner they stole my wife, the stole my soul and all my dear past.

Tomorrow early morning I will close my door on (the nose of) the dead years.

I will take to the road.

I will beg to survive ("my life") on the roads of France.

From Brittany to Provence and I will tell people "Refuse to do it" (war)

Don't go to war, refuse to leave.

If blood must be given, go give yours,

You are a good apostle .

Mr President if you pursue me warn your policemen that I won't have weapons and that they can shoot.

 

WIPW

I am collecting fabrics for this cushion that I want to use in a Quillo for Charity Quilt No 3.  (I like these instructions on You Tube for adding the pillow to the quilt to make a quillo.  Just google quillo and there are lots of patterns and tutorials for free on-line.)  I found this free pattern  and tutorial on-line that I intend to use for the pillow part of my quillo.  I will have to play around with the fabrics because I will only use what I have in my stash.

But looking at my stash this one will need to go down the list.  I have a couple of lengths of Aboriginal prints that I need to use first.

I have decided on the pattern, which is free from Jordan Fabrics, and I now have to work out how to adapt the size to fit my fabrics.

Stitching the binding into place for Charity Quilt No 2 is now finished.

Making this quilt has been a great learning exercise. The key thing I learnt was the importance of getting that quilt sandwich just right.  It does take more time but I like the result.  It is difficult to see the quilting because the design is so busy but I quilted it using overlapping circles and although there are a few mistakes they disappear when you look at the quilt as a whole.

And a spot more embroidery on my Cornish Coast. 

This hasn't gone as expected.  I think I became too complacent.  The pattern called for a 'bright pink' which wasn't in the thread provided.  First thing to do is panic. So I thought "just follow the instructions, it will all work out."  The second thing was that I got the names of the flowers mixed up.  If the pattern had said wattle or melaluka I would have been fine but I am not familiar with these flowers.  So there has been a bit of unpicking going on, not much, just a bit.  I think I am back on track now.

Time to stop!

Every so often I need to stop and take stock.  It is usually sparked by my sewing room being out of control.  It has happened again. 

I finished the quilting on the No2 charity quilt and then accidently pulled everything off the cutting table, then  got my foot caught on the power cord and added to the chaos.

This  coming week is looking dangerously overloaded so time to put things in order but on a brighter note, friends returning from overseas brought fabric.***

Angela from Alaska.

Cora from South Africa.

And Ros gave me some green fabric from Ireland, which I have already used.  Looking at the exchange rate on the Assie dollar I think Japan is where I should visit.  Europe the UK and the USA will be too expensive, but, I'm not allowed to travel just yet.  So It is all academic!!

Why Don't you visit Mum?

This is what my daughter constantly asks. 

I looked at the weather blog this morning and this is why!!

It's too cold, -2 degrees this morning and they live in an old Queenslander with no heating!!!

WIPW

This week has been about preparing my next Charity Quilt.  A lot of time has gone into tacking up the background to the wadding and then tacking the top layer to the lower ones.

I intend to use this quilt to improve my machine quilting and I have to have all the layers flat.  I would usually just safety pin them together but I don't want any mistakes on this one and I expect the quilting to take most of next week..

Just a bit more on the Cornish Coast embroidery.

And I made the pillow to go with the Horses quilt.

Donation Quilt

I have my donation quilt top finished.  My hand is too sore to quilt it myself so I am sending it to the long-arm quilter.  This quilt has been a pleasure to make.  Why? Well, whilst making it I kept remembering my own turbulent teenage years and thinking about how I made it through that time with the help of my grandmothers. 

They were in their 80's then and despite their health issues and old age still had time to love and support me.   After the death of my mother I was so angry with my father who I believed caused her death due to domestic violence.  They were the ones who convinced the police not to take us into care.  They are represented by that pieced section at the top left.  All a bit out of date, but, precise and beautiful in it's own way and stitched with love.

My mother and father were both horse people,  but it was my mother who loved horses.  I can see her horse Wendy in the eyes of one horse and my horse Laddy in another.  If you know horses you will understand just how much love they can give you.  I have one horse panel left over so I think this should be a cushion to go with the quilt.

I have been reading, quiet a bit.

With the lack of access to the sewing room I have been reading.  Some of the books have been very interesting.

This one I loved.

All the things I didn't know about some historical women!  Plus it's a good read with lots of supporting images and references.  (I'm keeping this one to make some International women's day blocks for the quilts.)

And the book of the moment is another Margret Allingham book.  "Police at the Funeral".

There is so much detail in the description of the characters and each scene.  I am reading this on Kindle and have to have my Ipad nearby to look up just what some things mean.  Like, I have never heard of a "knife boy".  Turns out this is the bottom rung for male servants.  The number of times I have thought "what's that".  But you know that makes the book even more interesting.  Because there is a lot of descriptions of things I have no knowledge of it means that I have to slow down and read, even reread many parts of the book.  For a speed reader like me this is great for lowering stress levels.

(Oh I see I've missed book three.  I will have to go looking for that.)

 

A win!

Yoo Hoo!!

I had a win with the computers, well with the Email actually.  I managed to get the account unfrozen, then had to deal with 4,500 unread emails.  I was a bit over all this and then my Doctor showed me that she had 39,000 unread emails, that made me feel a whole lot better.  I thought I had all these Emails from the Tax Dept but they were scams.  I now have my Emails under control so the big job for today is to get everything onto the new computer and pack up the old one and dispose of it.  That means getting all the devices talking to each other.  That is even harder than getting people to talk to each other!

Then I intend to spend the weekend sewing and just enjoying every minute of it.

Before this I need to make pastry cases for the Lemon Butter,  I am going with the frozen variety from the supermarket.

A Morning Cooking

I took my grand daughter Jasmine and her friend Lotte to have a hamburger after school and then drove them home.  By the time I did all this I was late for the ferry home and by that time in the afternoon all the parking has been taken.  (Even though I have a disability parking sticker there is nothing.)  This meant parking near a bus stop and catching a bus to the ferry and the buses only run every hour so I didn't want to miss it.  In the rush I left my phone in my car, that meant another trip over to the mainland the next day to get it.  

The morning was wrecked so I decided to cook.  I normally cook a large amount and freeze what I don't eat straight away.  On impulse I bought some one serve Dutch Oven pots at Aldi.  They were cheap and I am always looking for this size pot.  I have to say they are great. As I am visiting my son tonight I have our dinner plus 4 other meals for me.  (I also did a big pot of mince in a tomato sauce, mince on toast, spaghetti and sauce, Lasagne.)

As I was in the mood to cook I picked the end of the lemon crop.  I only have the one tree that I have grown in a pot but I always get a good crop.  This is right at the end of the season and I didn't want to throw them away, so, Mary's Lemon Butter, (lemon curd).  (if you have an induction microwave, which has higher heats than the one used in this recipe you may have to play around with the timing in the microwave.)

I will never eat all this myself so I have some for my friends.

I am so relaxed by all this activity that I think I can go back and fight with the computers!

WIPW

I have actually done a bit of stitching, because my access to the sewing machine has been limited.

All the leaves and stems are now finished.

Next step is the flower heads.  I think I will start at the bottom.  (Just loving this kit Marion.)

And the charity quilt No 1. "Horses and Old Ladies".

One of the members, who I did not know, of my local quilting group died.  Her family brought in all the fabrics, patterns, books etc that they did not want and from this I selected two small panels of patchwork that she had stitched.

I have decided to put these into the charity quilts.  The top one for dementure patients, the other for teenagers who have been taken into care by the state.  (As I had a rocky home life as a teenager

(I have decided to now make my quilts for those kids that are taken into care.  Most arrive with just what they stand up in and the Charity that I am supporting give them a back-pack of things for themselves and the choice of a quilt, if they have them in stock.)

I suppose you would call this an  Improvised Quilt.  I know teenagers love horses so I bought his panel and the orphan block holds the love of stitching of an old person who has passed, who I am sure would be pleased that her work went to one of these kids.   I might include some other stitched items to go with the quilt.