Kitties and other critters

I have not spoken in a while and it all comes down to turmoil in my psyche. As I had written before, my beautiful boy cat was missing. This is still the case and this fact alone could put me in a funk for a whole long while. After the little boy had been missing for 6 months I decided to pull myself towards myself and get another boy cat.

I found a person that had rescue kittens and went and rescued one. My husband and I love ginger cats and they luckily had one. While we were picking up the latest member of our family we saw one of the other cats which we could not resist. This kitten was perfectly black and the most handsome boy ever.

Two new boy cats have been lovely in the house.

So now all was well. The ladies of the house took a while to accept the little boys. It sounded as if we had steam trains going through our house, with all the hissing that was going on. It is now four month later and all the cats are tolerating each other quite well.

All was settling in well and then on the 1st of December my father passed away. This was in no means unexpected as he was 84 and had been suffering quite badly for about a year. It is just one of those things, it may have been expected, it may be the best for the person, but a death in the family is always unsettling.  He willed me his stamp collection, which was extremely large. I did not particularly want it, though, i did realize that he had dedicated many hundred of hours to it and the fact that he trusted it to me means that i would have to respect his wishes. 

I will pass it down the line hopefully in the same or better condition that I received it. It was extremely unsettling receiving this collection. 

Another portion of turmoil was getting my youngest daughter through her finals and get her into varsity. She needed to do a portfolio of work to get into the particular course at varsity. The requirements were large and I felt that it put extra strain on the poor child whilst writing her finals.This too has past as she passed her finals and was invited to two varsities to study at. She has started and seems to be semi-happy with what she is studying. I saw this with my eldest as well. When you pay for your children's studies, they make you feel bad for their varsity experience.

When all was settled again, the last member of my parent generation within the family passed away. When I gave my sympathies I found out hat my cousin had died the year before. All so sad. 

I suppose all of this is the natural cycle of life. This is what I fully expect, except it created turmoil in my psyche.

I have been making great strides in my family tree and made connection with some amazing family members that I would not have known about except for doing my family tree. This is a fun hobby for the naturally inquisitive. It does shock me however that there are so many organisation that have gained data from government institutions and hold this information hostage for large payments. 

I have taken up reading novels again. I used to be an avid reader, but studying for a degree broke it for a while. I found that we when I picked up a novel i tended to read it in such a way that I could have written an exam on the characters within it. Cramming a novel is not that much fun. This may tell you how I faced my exams. When my husband and I were doing our degrees i was bad and smoked. On more than one occasion, I would be writing an exam, work out that I had answered sufficient question to pass the course, and left to have a cigarette. I would be so unimpressed if my children pulled that sort of stunt. 

I had the last 10 days off work and it was fabulous. We got in supplies and had the most relaxed time ever. This may be why I am able to greet anyone who happens to read these words. My psyche is smoothed out and ready to face the world again.

I hope that all of you have been keeping creative and have survived both summer and winter.

Have a good one

Kathy

Put a label on it

Yay! I have been creative this weekend. I made a fabric ball. So much fun and actually got me energized to create something. I have made a few of these as it is my go-to present for babies. 

It does not take too long and it is a fun gift to give.  

I made almost 2 of them as I went off and started without planning first.

I worked out that as it takes 20 hexagons to make a ball, I could make it with 4 flowers. I thought that these could be arranged to create a ball. I tried and tried even going so far as to make paper balls and then using a marker to draw flowers at different position. No luck, that which I wished would not work. 

I restarted the project and went with a random concept. I rummaged though the boxes of fabric and chose 20 pieces that seemed to go together. From start to finish it took about 12 hours. I am happy with the result. I am happy also to have had a needle and thread in my hand.

I put a cat ball on the inside of the ball surrounded by stuffing. The ball now makes a delightful tinkle.

The question now comes up of whether or not to sew a label on the ball, as it is for a baby. Do you add a label to the ball when you give the present? Do you just give the ball without indication that it was made

specifically for the person?

Is it just egotistical to want the recipient to realize that specific effort was used to create the gift? 

I have added a label. Hope the baby likes it's present.

Have an awesome day!

Granny's garden

I had always wanted to create a granny's garden quilt. I love the way that all of the flowers come together to create this picture.

I hand piece and hand quilted all the flowers.

The flowers remind me of family members and how together we paint a picture of who we are. 

I love seeing sunlight through quilts. 

The last stitch has been stitched and the quilt is done.  The center triangle were the pieces that held the boarders together. 

 This is the quilt all finished. I had gone through a whole spool of thread and a few packets of needles.

And lastly here is a picture of Taz. The silly cat has been missing for a week and I am so worried about him. Please send him "Come Home" thoughts.

Please vote for my quilt at Amy's quilt festival.

Here is a link

Have a lovely day!

Zen moments

Quilting for me are my Zen moments. I find each part of the process quieting to my soul. The vibrancy of the fabric and the act of either stitching the pieces together or quilting and embellishing the piece all bring calm. Here is a piece inspired by this.

Please vote for this piece at Amy's quilt festival or Click here

Serendipitous September

September is always a surprise. Will it keep being warm or will we be surprised by another dash of winter? 

The peach tree is wearing a coat of blossoms and looks glorious.

The garden is bursting with prettiness. The row of Lavender and Rosemary that we planted outside the study seems to have settled in. Flowers are appearing on the lavender and the Rosemary shrubs look nice and healthy.

They still have a way to go. Once they have grown to fill up the empty space between each plant I will be extremely happy. I love both the smell of lavender and Rosemary. A bucket list item of mine has been a Lavender farm, as who could ever be stressed growing lavender. The cats love to nap between the bushes. It could be the fragrance or it could be the stone wall that absorbs all of the suns heat.

The granadilla bushes that I was given for my birthday have now been in the ground for about 3 weeks and they two seem to have settled in nicely.

 The mesh that my husband put up for them seems to be working. None of the ones I tried to grow from seed germinated. It may have been still too cold. I will try again once spring has actually sprung. 

The pansy and the primula are from the seedlings that I planted in the rose garden. How rewarding little plants can be. Spring and autumn are when they will look their best. At the height of summer it is normally too hot.

I still have not done any sewing as I am still recovering from my op. I know. It is very tedious that this has now been going on for 10 weeks.

Hopefully soon I will be a healthy bunny again. I was feeling up to getting more info for may family tree, so things are slower getting back to normal.

Hope that this find all of you, healthy, happy and being creative. Have a good one.