A blog about quilts'n stuff

A blog about quilts'n stuff

Friday, 28 January 2011

Busy bee, or am I?

I've run behind in the postage stamp quilt along, set up by PSiquilt. So I'll have to run now.
This is what I've got
This is what it's going to be like

A lot of sewing to be done.

Last night a butterfly woke up in my sewing room. I did't know it was having a big sleep in my window sill (yep, it's crowded there).

And then all the ideas in my head: there's so much to make and so little energy ...

That's just what I'll have to do ...

Thursday, 20 January 2011

Birdies!

Thank you very much for voting!
I've chosen the first one, like most of you have.
And I have been in bed and on the couch again, so not much sewing has been done ...
Today I will finish the top and I 'll show it, once it's done.

What I could admire were the birds in our garden.
I have taken photos but I don't know whether you can recognize any bird at all.

pheasant right bottom
blue tit 
blue tit

sparrowhawk


The pheasant was nearly gone when I had my camera ready and he was fast (but so was I).
The blue tits are the only ones eating so near the window, the others daren't.
And the sparrowhawk was a real treat! He (or she) just sat in the grass not 2 feet from our house. He had a snoop around, a rest on the magnolia and then flew away.

Last year we sat in the garden looking at the house martins flying round when all of a sudden, we heard a swooshing sound and saw a big bird lunging right next to us (3 to 4 feet from us). We didn't know what had happened. The house martings were all fluttering, screaming: it looked like the flock were in a panic.
We then saw that the sparrowhawk (the big bird) snapped one of the house martins in flight and flew away with his catch. The rest of the flock were in shock! It took them about 10 minutes to recover ....

Have fun today whatever you're doing!

Betty

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Designing the top

All the blocks for the top are done.
On my design board I've stuck them in two ways. I don't yet know which one to choose.
Please vote for your favourite.

This one (nr 1)

or this one (nr 2)

Tell me!
What I can do in the meantime is:
- square all the blocks up, so they're all exactly the same size (7,5")
- work on my sampler
- clean the house?

Love to hear from you: 1 or 2??
Click on 'reacties' (reactions) and write to me!

Betty

Monday, 10 January 2011

To go towards the light


My best friend's mum is dying.
She's in a lot of pain and has been for a number of years because of rheumatism.
She 's had a lot of hardship in her life:
·      her fistborn, a son, died soon after he was born;
·      she lost one of her fingers in an potato harvester;
·      she contracted tetanus and lay in a lung machine for 6 weeks, for she couldn't breath  herself (her lungs never were the same);
·      she had something on her ear auricle which had to be removed, and then part of the  ear auricle, and then the whole. She had an artificial ear auricle which didn't work (wouldn't stick?).
Now she has is Kahler's disease: a cancer of the blood, the white blood cells in particular and therefore the bone marrow.  She's had a number of treatments; not to be cured but to slow it down.
Now she has no more energy to hold the pain at bay. Her morfine plasters make her sick above a certain dosage.
She 's in hospital, waiting for a transfer to a nearby hospice.
Will she have that much time?
I hope she'll die in the intimacy of the hospice, with her daughters and husband near her. Please not under the harsh lamplight of the hospital.

She's afraid of dying.
But she's very fortunate to have a husband and a daughter who have both crossed the line once; the line between the living and the dead. They can both reassure her that it's not  so bad to die, to go towards the light: to enter this state of constant bliss.


This is what I'm thinking of when I see the bright fabrics of the quilt I'm working on.
Such big contrast.


Later the same day:
My friend called this afternoon to tell me her mum has crossed over ...

Sunday, 9 January 2011

New inspiration = new quilt

This afternoon, after I'd finally cleared up my sewing room, I knew it! The thing I'd wanted to do since the summer holidays last year ....: make a quilt of the two jelly rolls I'd bought in Munich: green & red in all hues.
The original pattern is called 'A walk in the park' and consists of pastels and white. I choose my own colours and I will call it 'A walk in the forest' (unless I come up with an even better name).

all the reds spread out on the kitchen table
trying to make perfect combinations
4 finished blocks
have now finished 6 blocks of 8"x8" which will be 7,5" finished and still a few to go (72). This means I can make a really big quilt! A really colourful one too!

And there's still a lot of homework to be done for my quilt class: my sampler has not been growing at all. And I'll have to work on that too.

Busy, busy, busy ...

till next time!

Betty 

PS We had a wonderful party Saturday!

Saturday, 8 January 2011

Party time

Wow! We've got a party tonight!
I'll post all about it tomorrow.

I've also entered the giveaway at this lady's blog: smokey
You had to guess how many quilts (and other projects) she'd finished in the last 5 years: 262 is my guess.
We'll see ...

till tomorrow!

Betty

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

The aftermath of Christmas

The best gift I've had in years was this year's Chrismas gift: two healthy daughters after their car accident.
Last year people living in our street were to be evicted from their home and they fled the arrival of the bailiffs on Christmas Eve. Their haste was such, they left a trial of domestic products in this street and the next. The microwave fell off their trailer on the bend in the road.
Difficult life changing events are hard enough to bear, but when they occur around Chrismas time the impression is greater still.

A blog friend of mine has lost all her worlly possessions due to a fire just before Christmas: Edie, a.k.a. Life in Grace. Take a look, read it: you'll be enlighted!

It's her birthday today! Happy birthday Edie!

She is a firm believer of a benevolent God, as am I, but not as firm. I'm more a doubter, though never of His presence. So what do I doubt? The benevolence of people? I can be very weary (due to experiences in the past!) But I'm sure we all have that, though I shouldn't even take that for granted!
We are all different and we all react different.
Edie is an example to me in all her optimism and her faith.

So what happens after Christmas: out with that tree, shedding needles everywhere.
And there it is: that big void of the aftermath of Chrismas ...
The big whole where the tree stood and all the rooms seem so bland because the Christmas decorations have been taken down, put in boxes in the attic.

I'm so glad this was the only fire we had!
Bye bye Chrismas tree:


So now the year has really begun!