Block 16 completed

And I am done with Louise, block 16 of the “Katja Marek’sQuilt with me” project and I am chuffed with myself as this is the second month in which I managed to complete 8 blocks.

Now I however think I should pay some attention to some of my other projects.

Block 15 finished

I had a couple of really miserable days at work with all these Black Empowerment rules that white business owners must abide to and we’re still not done.  The claims are totally ridiculous with the bottom line being that if you don’t basically give a black person (take note, not sell to…) a share in your business you won’t get any contracts from government.  Reverse racism I would say.

Thank goodness for the little quilting I can do at night otherwise I surely would have lost it.  So here is Lorna, block 15 from the “Katja Marek’s Quilt with me” project.

Finished block 14 Willa

No wonder our granddaughter is so keen on visiting us.  She always has so much fun and Oupa allows her to invent new ways to do old things.  Needless to say this pre-summer swim (in winter) had her out for the count and asleep before 10 pm last night.

Then her godmother (my youngest) came to visit in the morning and entertained her for a while giving me time to do the final touches on Block 14 of the “Katja Marek’s Quilt with me” project.

Clue 2

After receiving my parcel from LeahDay.com I got the second clue from my Hillbilly Space Journey mystery and these are my 4 Meteoroids (not as if I know much about space but pretend I can do well)

We are having the big kids over for supper and then dear granddaughter will obviously sleep over and we were informed to switch on the Jacuzzi as she has every intention to swim.  Winter has been way too long for her.  So I am off to cook or on kitchen duty, whichever you prefer.

A parcel in the post

I had a good nights’ sleep, didn’t work my butt off at the office but as I drove home after work, I was dead tired and decided to take an afternoon nap.  That was until I got to the post boxes, my stop on my way home, and found a notice informing me about a package waiting for me at the post office. Needless to say I couldn’t wait for the parrot to take her afternoon nap so that I could quietly disappear to the post office. And this was my welcome surprise!

I ordered these from LeahDay.com on the 24^th of July, so exactly one month.  I am just extremely grateful that my parcel made it safely through the South African postal service.

Rosette 1 –third round

Phew!.... done with this.  This is no mean feat, seriously and I admire those participants who post about their completed rosettes as if it was just another afternoon accomplishment.  Some even talk about another.  Definitely not, this will truly be one of those quilts where I’d say, been there, done that, no more!

With hubby out of town for one evening I rounded up a couple of friends for a ladies’ night and it was so much fun with a girl’s only dinner table.  Thanks to you all.

O crap

I thought I was making good progress on my Millefiori when I started sewing round 3 of Rosette 1 to the body but then just as I put the rosette on a flat surface to add the next piece, I noticed that I’ve turned the one hexagon the wrong way.  The green should have been against the second row like the first hexagon in this colour.

Unpicking, here I come!  I am however glad that I saw it when I did as I can recall a couple of quilts completely finished before I noted the mistake.

2 Stars completed

This is the end result of clue one from the Hillbilly SpaceJourney mystery that I worked on yesterday. 

Before I however sat my behind down to start sewing I did some more vegetarian baking for my youngster.  This time lentil bobotie and even if I have to say so myself, rather good.

Clue One

We went out yesterday evening and got home too late for me to check my computer, so when I got up this morning I was so glad to get my first clue for the Hillbilly Space Journey mystery.

With clue one in hand I don’t think my fabric is quite what it should have been but I am not buying more or changing anything now.

I’ll just wait and see what the end result will look like.  So this is what I’ll be working on today.

Finished block 13

We’ve had the most welcome rain since yesterday but along with it came a terrible hay fever attack.  Something I never experienced as a smoker but I’ve heard many a story of quitters suffering from allergies afterwards.  I don’t seem to be the exception.

I got to finish Judy, block 13 from this project.

Another distraction

In my post over HERE I mentioned a new mystery starting in August and yes I am doing that too.  I didn’t order the fabric from Tonya as it would take 6 weeks to get to me and by then the mystery would not be a mystery anymore.  So I had to do with what I could find locally.

Took MIL for physio, got home from work, did the household chores and then I started cutting my shapes.  I love doing anything that requires of me to be in the sewing room only while DH is still at the office.  This way when he gets home, I can do the hand sewing while sitting by him in the TV room. Tonight however DH is out on a gents' night and I don't have to feel guilty at all!  I also got myself a neat floor standing magnifying light for my hand sewing.

Far from done cutting and spray starch basting but I did make good progress.

This is what was left of the poor fabric after selecting areas for the fussy cutting

Vegetarian cooking

Had the young kids over for dinner and it was the first time since my daughter turned vegetarian that I had to cook keeping her restrictions in mind.  I guess not that big an issue apart from twice that many dishes to clean. 

The baked potatoes with sour cream was no biggie nor was the sweet potatoes with orange juice and chillies but then I got to the sauerkraut and I always put finely chopped smoked ham in ours – two dishes, two spoons. Pork chops in a coffee sauce the second obstacle, first do the vegetarian patties and after removing these from the pan, then I could add the pork.  Fry onions, o dear…. Second obstacle, can’t use the same pan, new pan, different spoon. A load of dishes in the end.

In between cooking and dining I did however manage to starch baste 162 1½” diamonds for a future project.

New fabric

DH went on a business trip to a nearby city and on Saturday I heard a newbie quilter mentioned a shop in this city selling quilt fabric for cheap, cheap.  So needless to say, the man went to do his business with very clear instructions on what to shop for where.

Did my own bit of expensive shopping locally when I got a call from my youngest.  “Where are you?” 

ME: “Shopping for fabric”.

YOUNGEST:  “Thought it was your car”. 

ME:  “Where are you?

YOUNGEST: “Across the street from you”

ME:  “Eating Blue Cheese Focaccia?”   (Her favourite)

YOUNGEST: “No waiting for my full body massage appointment but do you feel like having one?”

And then we ended up eating focaccia and drinking wine until it was time for her treatment and later DH returned home with all these lovelies at no more than R69 per meter.  May not be the most eye catching fabric but can surely be used as fillers.

Starch basting

When I do EPP I use freezer paper and starch to baste around the templates.  Even though freezer paper is almost impossible to find in South Africa I’ve started using this as a newbie quilter and it is still my preferred method of basting.  I know it is not fully portable and cutting out the templates does take up time (I do this while watching TV and don’t even notice it anymore) but it is fast and I have crisp edges to my templates.

My freezer paper templates would be ironed to the wrong side of the fabric and roughly cut out.  I never measure an exact quarter inch as I really cannot see the need.

I mix my own starch using a teaspoon of starch powder in 2 cups of water and a spray bottle.  The templates would be lightly spritzed with the starch and I will iron the edges over the paper.  The paper also removes easily when done.

As much as I do enjoy this method prolonged use of starch does lead to build-up on your iron and ironing board and now and then I have to give these a thorough cleaning.

The iron is simply put in hot soapy water on a facecloth sprayed with all-purpose cleaner and left to soak itself clean.

The ironing board is sprayed with cleaner and then brushed several times with a stiff kitchen brush and wiped a couple of times afterwards.

Clean as a whistle and no need to buy a new cover yet.

Busy design wall

Granddaughter Lleia had her 4^th birthday party yesterday and the little one has grown so much in the last 6 months.  So apart from playing my game without the limitation of lives on FB, we went to celebrate with the little one.

I can however show my design wall that looks slightly busier than I was.

One of my other addictions

I have so many of these, sometimes I scare myself.  Especially when I start thinking of old age where I might not have the financial means, electronic/electrical equipment of stamina to pursue these.

Facebook has this one game called Mahjong Trails and I’ve been playing this for what must be the last 10 years (now watch someone clever from FB contradict me and say the game is only 6 years old… whatever).  

Anyway I am on lever 137 and for my age, I think it is utterly amazing.  Early Thursday morning I got the following notification when I wanted to play the game.

Guess who will NOT be sewing today?

Screwed up Friday

I wanted a word starting with F to match Friday as my post title but I think what I thought about would not be appropriate on blogger.

Changed auditors earlier this year as I suspected our previous auditor took shortcuts that might work against us.  Paying more now but it seems I was right all along.  It however meant an annoying meeting with the auditors and a gentleman from the company Labour.Net (a company desperately trying to protect and rescue business owners against the ridiculous claims and labour laws by our equally ridiculous government, with a president that didn’t even finish high school).  This all happened at 1 pm this afternoon.  Now statistics have shown that most people concentrate the least between 12 and 2 and I definitely fall in that category. 

So when we were finally done, with heaps of changes to be implemented and contracts to be drawn up and signed, I got home and poured myself a massive glass of wine, too bewildered to think of or do anything positive. (I was on glass 3 by the time of this post but who counts?)

At least while waiting for the gents to arrive, having some spare time at the office (work for the day done) I got to cut out 120 tiny triangles for a project I’ll post about a little later.

Quilting friend,Sonja, also went fabric shopping in Pretoria and bought me these colourful beauties.  Not sure where and when I will use it but who ever needed a project to acquire more fabric?

Block 12 done

I took MIL to get her monthly medicine prescription and this can be somewhat of a tedious process in darkest Africa.  You basically get a number on arrival and then play musical chairs moving one chair forward at a time until your number comes up.

So having to work, I drop MIL off and then she phones me when done and it used to take 4 to 6 hours but today she was done before 9 am.  When I leave the office to fetch her, knowing that my work is fairly up to date, I won’t return to work but this was a first to be back home still early in the morning.

So with DH promising he’ll barbecue tonight, I got quilting!  Brandi, block 12 got done.

Rosette 1 –two rounds

Quilting friend, Sonja and I decided to take on this little project and I for one, didn’t have the foggiest to what I got myself in to.  I read the comments by the other participants in which they said, you don’t decide how this quilt will look, the quilt decides for you but nah…. I thought I knew better, mine would be planned and perfect…. Famous last words.

I had plenty of cat fabric and with my son and DIL in mind (cat people) I wanted to use these in the quilt.  Little did I know that my first cat kaleidoscope would turn out to form my least favourite colours and I had to build the rest of the Millefiore on that! Got to round two of my first rosette and hit a total blank.  Dreamt about the quilt, woke up at 4 am to sit and stare at fabric but nothing happened.

Took major time out and focused on something else but this was it initially looked like after 2 rounds.  One of the participants even said I should start with another rosette as number 1 is the hardest…… now they tell me!

Block 11 done

Being somewhat of a routine freak the fact that we had a public holiday (National Women’s Day) on a Tuesday was not the best news I’ve had lately.  I mean get yourself going on a Monday, just to lay off a day and then start all over again with Monday on a Wednesday?

It however was such a lovely relaxing day, made breakfast for DH and I and even the two female dogs got omelettes for Women’s Day.  With nothing planned for the rest of the day I got stuck in my sewing room and I think made good progress until granddaughter informed us that she’s coming over seeing that it wasn’t school.  Grandpa however had gardening plans and they (mom and dad came along) hardly arrived or Grandpa and –daughter disappeared to the nursery.  So even with the big kids here, I could continue doing EPP.

Lunch was rye bread with leftover chicken soup and after the kids left I had the best afternoon snooze with the parrot.  Recharged totally or maybe simply stuffed with eating too much.

Not as if I am done yet, dinner is already being warmed in the oven but proud to say Susan, block 11 got finished too.

Weekend chatter and block 10 done

I do not have much to show on the quilting front for this weekend.  Maybe because everything is EPP and it goes much slower than machine piecing but I still kept rather busy.

The big kids treated us to a Cheese fondue, something my son experienced while being an exchange student in Switzerland.  This was not future son-on-law’s idea of a joke as no meat was served with the cheese.  He was not a very happy chappie being faced with every possible vegetable known to man but he struggled through it for the sake of future family!

I cooked and deboned a massive chicken a while ago and decided to take this out of the freezer to process into proper meals and when I started I again realised just how big this bird was.  DIL bought it through a farmer friend.  From this one chicken I made us a large pot of chicken and sweetcorn soup.

No less than 3 chicken pies, supper sized for the two of us

 And a chicken pasta dish with rosemary and red onion sauce. Not too shabby for one slaughtered feathered friend.

 Here is Kelly, block 10 and I am rather chuffed with the effect the border gives.

Not relating

If anyone told me my first rosette would be in these dull colours I would have laughed at them.  These are so NOT what I am used to work with but now I understand what the other participants in the Millefiore Quilt Along meant when they say that this quilt plays with your mind.  It seems the first fussy cutting kaleidoscope determines the outcome of the rest of the rosette and I wanted to use cat fabric I had in my stash.

Enough of quilting.  This is the first weekend in 3 with DH not out of town, so I think quilting should be on the back burner for at least this evening.  

Block 9 done and the start of a new adventure

After dinner yesterday evening we fetched granddaughter to spend the night with us.  Sleeping over at the old folks’ house is surely the highlight of her week.  When I worked on Block 9 of the Katja Marek’ Quilt with me project, she wanted to help.  Poor batted thread catcher had to stand in for this purpose but look at the concentration on the face.

Won’t say it to her face but Doris (block 9) looked much better than her end result.

Went voting in our municipal elections and stood in the freezing cold for a full 50 minutes but I did my part to ensure that I can complain if things doesn’t work.

Fellow quilter Sonja came over in the afternoon and we officially started our Millefiore Quilt Along.  Wouldn’t say we accomplished any finishes but we had major discussions on fabric choices and stared at completed rosettes on the FB page to try and figure out what we should achieve in every row.

Obviously no quilting get-together would be complete without snacks and wine.

Trapped a fellow quilter

In my post over HERE I mention having quilting friend Sonja over and us discussing Katja Marek’s Quilt with me and I wondered if Sonja would take the bait seeing that at that stage she was happily working on a hexagon EPP project.

Yesterday I got a FB notification which said Sonja mentioned me in a post.  Voila, Sonja joined THE GROUP and wanted to know more about fabrics, noting that I introduced her to this project.

I just adore a fellow quilter prepared to tackle a project with me.  So much more fun not doing something totally alone having to rely only on your own resources.  So I send Sonja a What’s App and soon we were exchanging fabric choices, sizes, template ideas and we have our first get together tomorrow afternoon.

We just need to support our political party in voting in our National Elections first.

My afternoon was spent printing our blocks needed for Rosette 1 onto freezer paper and I still need to find out whether Sonja would like this or not.  I’ve been a freezer paper fan from day one, I guess simply because it is not freely available in South Africa (trust me to want something I can’t have) but I do realise not everyone likes this.

Then just with a little twist I will not be making a Millefiori but instead go for a Milllegatti.  Nope, I am not that clever but got the word from an Italian FB friend.  Let’s just hope this brainwave of mine will be worth looking at!

Not being a working day tomorrow we decided to have dinner with friend Karin and her hubby as even though our men seem to have frequent contact, I haven’t seen Karin in ages.  As usual any moment with Karin just turns into the best ever.  Love you to bits my dear.