April on my mind

 Welcome to the chilly month of April. In my youth April was known for 3 things, firstly Easter which meant delicious hot cross buns, 2ndly for the Rand Easter show which was the biggest show that Johannesburg held and our family would always go and have an amazing time seeing all of the sights and sounds and tastes. Oh what innocent times.

My eldest daughter went to a few and then all sorts of people on the full spectrum of political beliefs decided that this was a show to blow up to show their dumb arse opinions. This stopped me from going so it will always remain this thing of wonder instead of what it actually was and that was a general trade show, with a farming animal section.The other thing of course is the fact that I am way more cynical and the sight of swimming pools and caravans truly does not impress me.

 Should they show full long arm quilting machines then yes I would be there and salivating would once more commence, but seeing as the hobby show did not even have a single long arm quilting machine then the chance of a general trade show having it would be non existent.and back onto the start of the paragraph, the third thing that April reminds me of is sailing in a regatta and camping on the shore of the lake.

 This is why I have a Pavlovian fear of camping due to the freezing temperatures that always seem to happen over Easter. This and the fact that it always seemed to rain as soon as we started erecting the camp site.

But today being ancient, April has seen us use my Irish chain quilt for the first time and the wool inner is yummy warm. I am still quilting it but, it needs to be trained to be snugly.
So this month i can see me quilting away at the Irish and once that is completed I will endeavour to quilt some more on the swirl quilt.
I have ordered the dear Jane software but as yet it has not arrived. I have selected 30 fabrics for the colours and bought a bolt of cream fabric to be the background. This I will only play with once all the quilting previously mentioned is complete. I promise(to myself only).

I started with my new contract at the same place that I have now worked at for 6 years. Not really a bad place seeing as I came here just after being sliced in two, My husband and I both finished our degrees, My eldest go her honours degree, her first job and bought a car and the youngest did primary school and went to high school all in the time that I have sat at this desk. I smoked my brains out to start with but now have stopped for a year and a half. In the time that I have sat here I have got fat and thin and fat again. I am now attempting to get back to the thin cycle. Not that it makes me a different person in any way, but it is interesting how many more people will talk to you if you look skinny even if you look sick with it they will fawn over the thinness, what a bunch of wankers. I normally despise the people who will suddenly be friendly when you are thin and in that way it will not hurt my feeling when they no longer speak to you should you not maintain your perfect size.
After getting my degree and deciding that I was not going to study further until the youngest goes to varsity, Is when I took up quilting and yay for that as it really is as good as a religion without all the bullshit. You get to stare a wondrous colour and if you hand stitch like I do then you have to maintain Zen like calm otherwise your stitching screws up and your thread tends to form the most horrific knots.

A sad bit was that FB decided to stop a game that I had been playing for a year and in that game I had three squirrels and yes I know the we just and animated objects, but still I held affection for them and now I am sad due to the fact that they have been wiped from existence. We do not have squirrels in Johannesburg so they still maintain their wonder in my heart.


May you all have a blessed April period no matter what your belief system is and from mine all I can say is Stitch on...

Have a good one.

Q7 Irish chain

This is quilt in a bag, this is achieved by dilligently covering pieces of paper with material and then sewing them together. To get the best results make sure that all of the blocks that you sew together are all of the same size so that they look like a nice stack of pretty colour.

This is what it looks like when it spills out of the bag. In the picture you can see the empty bag. The cat named spiley. The pattern, Pinwheels for the back of the quilt and various bits of the quilt.

 The cat testing the crinkely sounds made by the papers covered with fabric.

 The cat giving his 2 cents worth about the colours chosen and the quilt so far. I think his biggest concern is not knowing which will be on his corner of the bed and whether all the colours actually go with his hair colour. Oh my it is a tough world for a ginge.

 Oh my gosh... Spike realizes he is gorgeous and his concerns were not needed. This is his best coy act.

So this is where it stand as at the beginning of 2012. I had better hurry seeing as we are being theatened with the end of the world in 335 days. I we are going back to the stone ages then yay for being able to create bedding. Though being able to grow food would make Spikey a whole lot happier.

Have a good one.