FAREWELL MY BEAUTIFUL CLAY BOY

Our pets come into our lives sometimes choosing us , sometimes when we seek some companionship from a furry friend. The down side of opening our hearts to them is that we usually need to say goodbye to them  before we fall off the perch. Sadly, yesterday, Friday 30th January , I had to make the most difficult decision to let my beautiful Clayton go and find peace in cat heaven. This is one part of having pets that I really detest . He has not been well for some time, eating very little and being rather lethargic. He kept staying close to me the past couple of weeks and loved his snuggles with me. Yesterday we took him to the vet and after blood tests, xrays and untrasound it was discovered that he had one enlarged kidney that was pressing on his stomach causing pain and an enlarged liver. We had the option of removing the kidney and doing a biopsy on it and the liver but we strongly suspected that cancer was the most probable discovery. So my lovely daughter assisted me to go and say goodbye and be with Clay while he passed over. He is now resting here at home between our fruit trees.


I shall miss his expertise quilt inspections.

 

 

 

 

He certainly knew how to relax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell my beautiful Clay boy.

May your angels guide you through your soul's journey.

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PRODUCTIVE DAYS

Since my last post I have been quite productive. The borders have been hand sewn onto my little Civil War quilts.

  Oops! This one is upside down hehehe.

This is the backing for the other slightly larger one. No fabric borders on that one as it has the half square triangles as its border. Now for the hard part sandwiching them all and doing lots of hand quilting.

 

 

 

 

I also remembered I had nearly finished all the stitcheries for the Once Upon A Time quilt I started a while ago. Only one to go now. Wooohooo! Then I can piece it together using the gorgeous bright Kafe Fasset spotty jelly roll I bought from Mill Rose Cottage quite a while back. Remember Barb?

 

 

 

 

 

I have been searching for the newest Carol Hopkins book of little Civil War quilts seeing as I have made a few from her first book. Yey! I found it and, yes, I bought it. I am awaiting Simply Vintage mag from France as they neglected to send it to me and are sending one late.  Primitive Quilts arrived today so I am really looking forward to reading it this afternoon .

 

 

 

 

Well, I don't know about you but I am going to get back to stitching and reading now. Thanks for stopping by and thankyou for all your lovely comments.

 

 Angel Blessings.

 

FROLICKING,KOOKAS,AND GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES

Oh what beautiful weather we have been having the past 2 days. It feels like a gentle summer but makes me wonder whether we are in for some super hot days in February. I do remember a very hot summer 31 years ago when I was 9 months pregnant and gave birth to my first daughter. I am so happy to see the kookaburras and lorikeets back after many years of banishment since the flora was all bulldozed to make way for the marina opposite us. When I returned home from shopping the other day I found a kooka sitting on the fence, then he flew over to the clothes line where 2 others were .

 

 

 

I have been busy stitching the borders onto on of my little quilts, still have the borders to cut and stitch on another and then I am ready to cut the backings and sandwich them ready to hand quilt. Meanwhile, I have completed 3 blocks for my latest little Civil War quilt. I was intrigued with these blocks as they look like wheels. I am constantly amazed how shapes come together in so many ways to create wonderful illusions.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I went on the annual Fabric Frolic with one of my patchwork groups. It is always an exhausting but fantastic day. We started at 7.30am and returned around 6-00pm after visiting 8 shops.  We had morning tea at the lovely Patchwork Teahouse in Warburton , lunch at Lilydale and the rest of the time was spent hopping in and out of the bus at all the other shops.  Needless to say I came home with a wonderful bag of goodies. I took the opportunity to find fat 1/4s for my Birthday Club girls and also found some lovely things for a special friend's birthday coming up in a couple of months. So pics of these shall not be shown . However, here are some pics of a gorgeous cat fabric I fell in love with. I thought I'd make a table runner with it. So, I chose 2 more fabrics for the borders.

 

 

 

 

 

I found some more 1800's repros. They are now washed and dried ready to iron.

 

 

 

 

Then I was drawn to these soft greys with coordinating colours and a couple of blues.

 

 

 

 

Ofcourse, with the large range of Cottage Garden Threads displayed at the Patchwork Teahouse

I couldn't resist purchasing 3 more to add to my collection and I also found a cute little applique/stitchery to do.

 

 

 

I went a bit dotty too.

 

 

 

 

Ah well, that's the end of show and tell. I best get back to cleaning the shower and other domestic delights. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It is soooooooo busy down here with all the tourists and I am itching to do some stitching.

 

Angel Blessings.  

     

COULDN'T WAIT

After almost completing 3 little Civil War quilt tops and waiting to find suitable fabrics for the borders and backings, I started to get impatient and decided to start another one. So, after drawing up the blocks on graph paper, tracing the shapes onto template plastic , then drawing these onto the fabrics and cutting them out with my pinking shears, I have completed hand piecing the first 4 1/2"  block.

                                          Tonight I did this cute little stitchery of Jenny's.

 

 

 

My mum enjoys doing stitcheries and is particularly fond of Gail's designs. She put this sweet birdie in a beautiful frame.

 

 

 

 

 

I am off to one of my patchwork groups tomorrow and hope to stitch another block while I am there. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead with plenty of stitching getting done.

 

Angel Blessings.  

 

 

NEW YEAR STITCHING

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I know this post probably comes up as 31st December, but it is actually 1sr January 2015. My posts always come up as the day before. I have no idea how to rectify this problem so if you have any ideas please let me know.

First I would like to send many, many very gentle angel hugs to gorgeous Mel who has been quite unwell for the New Year. My healing thoughts are with you.


Today, I am ready to sit down and stitch the borders on my largest little Civil War quilt. As mentioned before, I have nearly completed 3 at the same time.  Here is the one I am stitching this afternoon.

The first border is on this one .

 

 

 

I have sewn the first border on this one but do not have any suitable fabric for the outer border. Oh dear! I need to go shopping. but the quilt shop that stocks my 1800's repro fabrics isn't open for another few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I am addicted to hand piecing these quilts because I have already made up templates for the next 2 little quilts. So many finishes to do yet I am still making new things.

 

The first mail after Christmas these 3 beautiful angels descended upon me

 

 

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Thankyou so much Sandy.

 

 

May this new year bring you all an abundance of peace, love, joy and good health topped off with heaps of time for your love of stitching.

 

Angel Blessings.