Romance and Remembrance.

To everyone, there is just something which shows their love for the one they love.  Some do little things, others will drive for miles to go and pick a bunch of wild flowers for their spouse.  Others do not have a romantic bone in their bodies, or so they claim.  I believe if you truly love and care about someone, you cherish them, in each and every way.  You dance with them at weddings, even if you step on their toes.  You hug them, hold their hand, steal an unexpected kiss and surprise them with an unexpected red rose, just because....!  Life is short, enjoy the moments together, now.  Do not wait for the perfect moment.  Every moment is the perfect one!

The Hertfordshire Quilt

Placing the colours where they will go.  Then taking a photograph.  This comes in handy when one gets all the pieces jumbled.

The diamond border pieced and sewn on.

The next border sewn on.

The wedding quilt, playing with fabrics.

All the snow melted, this is what the forest looked like a few days ago....

(until yesterday, when the snow arrived.  More expected again tomorrow.)

Cosmos flowers was the one flower, which grows wild all over South Africa, these flowers bloom in March and driving along, they hug the sides roads for hundreds of kilometers.  When my parents got married, these were blooming as they went on honeymoon.  Every year on their wedding anniversary, my Dad would go and find them and pick my Mom a bunch.  One year he drove almost 80km to find some in bloom.  We asked him one day why?  He told us he because he loved her and she was the most precious person he was ever entrusted to care and to love.  He said it was his job to make sure that she never forgot what an incredilbe person she was.  She passed away more than twelve years ago, he still love and miss her everyday, they were married for 44 years.

Eyes

This is one of those crucial parts, one need to do one's craft. One need them, especially if one want to thread a needle.  It is not a tool, but one's "eyes"!  At first I thought it must be jet lag or just generally being tired. 

However, when I tried to thread the needle on Monday past again, the eye of the needle was just not in view.  After numerous attempts, it was time to accept, my eyes was acting up.  I promptly made an appointment, got my eyes tested and got new glasses.  Amazing how fast it all happened, now I can see again, which is great.

Bargello Quilt.

This year I have finished my nephew's wedding quilt, it is on it's way to the happy couple. 

An old lady once told me, the way we start the new year, is pretty much how the rest of the year will happen.  Old Wife Tales?  Well I was busy gardening on the first day of that year, the whole year I did a lot of gardening. ( The garden did look fantastic!)

It made me wonder?   Over the years however, I have noticed a trend, so now I give it a bit more thought.  Started the year off, by attending a wedding, would you not know it, the next wedding invite arrived promptly in my inbox....

Beanie Hats.

My next start and finish turned out to be another beanie hat. The colour is one the same as I made for a gift at Christmas time, so one of the family saw that bright turquoise one and requested another one in that colour.

The Hertfordshire Quilt.

The Hertfordshire Quilt, got its first round.  Online it emerged that there is a discussion on a error in the pattern.  Last year when I discovered this, I wrote to Carolyn Konig, she wrote back! (Thank you, Carolyn).

The Hertfordshire design in my book printed by Quiltmania needs an alteration on page 178 with two templates.  Imperial templates A2 &A3 need to be both reversed i.e. A2 needs to be A3 template and A3 needs to be A2 template.

The same apply to with both A2 & A3 the metric templates. 
The notes read correctly as does the diagram on page 168. 


My center for this quilt, will not be affected by this part of the pattern, as the fabric for it decided the center for me.  It is a fussy cut floral.  These fabrics was at Quilt Canada 2017, when I saw them, I knew where I wanted to use them.

Making sure everything fits.

Cut the center square the finished size.  This required adding on a border, to create the center.

English paper pieced the triangles, then added the squares and pink borders by machine.

PS: Two of us decided to make this quilt, around the same time last year.  Check out the other here

The wedding quilt, is also coming from Carolyn Konig's book: Creating Heirlooms, One Stitch at a Time. Now it also missed some pattern pieces, which one can get from Quiltmania here.

Now who said lightning does not struck twice?  Two patterns in one book, this book has some amazing patterns in it, which will be keeping me busy for years to come. All of the patterns are complex, so for a gremlin or two, to find their way in there, was no surprise.

The stream is frozen over.  This is what we saw on our walk this week.

January is a busy month for our extended family, with very many Birthdays and Wedding Anniversaries.  Celebrating happy occasions, treasuring every moment, creating new memories.

Happy Birthday!

A New Year.

2018.

It is the start of the new year, with cold and crisp weather.  This is also the start of many finishes this year.  We tend to start a whole lot of projects and then they take time.  Some get finished and others drag on, we either lose the excitement of working on the latter ones or time is just not available.  So this year, the commitment will be to see how many can be finished.

First up will be a wedding quilt for my nephew and his new wife.  It just needs to be quilted and the binding and label sewn on.

Next it will be 365 from 2016, have a number of blocks to make still.

The Splendid Sampler blocks from 2016 will be sewn into a quilt top.

A few tops are basted and needs quilting, so they made the list of to do's.

Towards the end of last year, The Hertfordshire Quilt was started, so it will get some work every week.

Also on the list will be all the other WIP's in my sewing room.  They will get the love and attention, when life allow time for them.  Everyday twenty minutes will be used to work on one of the above mentioned projects.

Let the journey begin....