Busy week on leave

Having a week off work with time for a knitting and a design workshop and a lecture with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably is good for the soul.   These classes were a concentration on colour and I am still on a high from them.

The knitting class was on Monday, first picture was at lunch time - mine is the one at the bottom in the middle.  I was using a lovely soft bamboo 4-ply yarn that unfortunately kept splitting and slowed me up a bit.

But by the end of the day the samples had all grown somewhat, mine second from bottom on the left.  I really enjoyed the process and the result, just need to find a project in which to incorporate it!  Am leaning towards a more mixed-up creative outcome!

And Brandon offering lots of encouragement to take it to the next level! Isn't his pullover gorgeous!

On Thursday we pushed even further in exploring colour with Brandon and Kaffe.  What my design piece looked like at the end of the day.  My plan to concentrate on greens with some turquoise went out the window as most of the biggest prints I had were not so green!  Again loved the process. 

Some of the other 28 participants and their results, all so different!

 

The highlight of the day, having each composition critiqued by Kaffe and Brandon - their comments were really fabulous:

  

We were able to buy the polystyrene boards on which we had pinned our flannel design surface - and as some ladies were unable to transport them I scored four, so I have finally graduated from the floor to the wall, and what a pleasure it was to pin up and play, and sew.  (Damn, back at work tomorrow!)  Centre all sewn, two borders to be added.  It's about 2m x 1,7m so far.  Brilliant to sew up as very few seams to match.

 And one more (very blurry) block for the Farmers Wife Yahoo Group - Pine Tree:

 

Catching up...

It's been a while since I've had the time or inclination to write.  I've been sewing a little bit ( a whole weekend at the end of May did help to get the mojo awakened).  Here are the few photos that I've managed to snap in the last couple of months.

I managed to make one or two blocks for the Block Lotto - in June we had to make pairs of 9.5 inch blocks in the same fabrics - mailed these off yesterday to the winners.

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For July we had to choose our own Pet-themed design.  I used the quilt-design software (EQ7) to modify one of their stock blocks, then paper-based pieced it.  Doesn't really look like either of my Siamese babies.  Maybe I'll get lucky and win this month!

My mother, admiring the wonderful Mother's Day flowers sent by my sister Jo in Australia:

With the impending move of last child from home, starting on a slow de-clutter.  This is furniture removal Cape Town style!  Sold the lounge suite that we had been "storing" for five years - the chair is inside the canopied back, but no space for the 2-seater and 3-seater, so tied down on top.  The buyers were taking it to Strand, about 50km on a major highway - do hope they arrived incident-free.  Does that blue leather look familiar Jo? 

 Took these photos whilst sitting in traffic on the way home from visiting Mum a couple of weeks ago - the start of a storm coming in - with amazing cloud formations.

We have Kaffe Fasset teaching a design class here in a couple of weeks for which I've signed up, so pulled out a pile of fabrics that I hope will work.  I don't have the big florals that he focuses on so had to go and buy a few (in the wash right now) based on this colour combination.  Most of these are fat quarters.

And last week I stumbled upon a Yahoo Group "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Along" - one six-inch block a week, very do-able.  I've had the book "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt" by Laurie Aaron Hird for at least two years (unused), and needing to have some hand-work for the Thursday evening group, this seemed serendipitous.  My intention is to hand-piece using plain fabrics.  This is Block number 100 - Weathervane, modified slightly to eliminate 4 seams.  Started it on Thurday and finished last night - I think I could have machine pieced a whole quilt in the time it took to hand-piece this one block, but then couldn't have curled up on the couch with the cats and the TV!  (Aagh! watched Dredd - was nice to see daughter T's name in the credits!)

Four Blocks for May Lotto

Four fairly simple to piece blocks, but had to keep my wits about the assembly order - only had to partly unsew one. The top photo doesn't show true colour, but the individual ones below are closer to the truth.  I cut more strips than needed and ended up with a whole bunch of four-patch and nine-patch blocks from the leftovers - fun for future quilts, plus some wonky piecing.

April Lotto blocks

For the last six months from time to time I've been opening the doors to my sewing room, standing in the doorway, and promising it, a la Arnold, that I will be back, soon!  Finally, a couple of weeks ago the time arrived, and I started the process of tidying and cleaning up in there so that I could get to my sewing machine and cutting mat!  A clean clear space is conducive to sewing, and these seven blocks for the April Block Lotto were the result.  They are 9" square with Made Fabric in the centres (and no Blogger, it is not centers) - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get lucky this month as I really like this block.  If you visit the Block Lotto site, click on the At A Glance tab to find the instructions for the current month, and on the About Us tab you will find pictures and links to all the previous months' blocks with the instructions - go try some!

House gone, and a beach visit.

I couldn't bring myself to take photos of an emptying and empty house.  Although it was really hard work to get everything sorted out, packed up, sold off, given away or dumped, I am so glad that the process has ended, and the responsibility of my Mum's house is no more.  My sisters and various family members all helped in different ways.  The keys were passed to the estate agent last Thursday, and the legal transfer went without a hitch.

My mother continues to recover, and was even went on an all-day outing to Soetwater Reserve last Tuesday with a few of the more able frail-care residents.  Almost no-one else there except us.  But it was very windy!   I thought that there was a general invitation to family members, but I was the only one besides the staff!  But happy to have gone with Mum, and to assist a little.  The staff were magnificent.

Still no sewing...

... but Creative Quilters and Cape Quilters did have a weekend exhibition in the middle of March.  I took some pictures but many were even more blurry than these!  Will have to consider a better camera than my mobile phone, sometime?  The weather was glorious, and the attendance was good.