French Braid Finish

Finished!  And just in time to give as a gift at our quilting club Christmas lunch yesterday.  I ended up binding it in the same fabric that I used for the super simple centre appliqué.

Here's the back.  I used remnants of some of the front fabrics.  How lucky are you?  You get to see my toes AND my quilting.  Click for a close-up (of the quilting, not the toes!).

I was really pleased with how it turned out.  In fact I wouldn't have minded winning it back as my own present, but I got yummy home pressed olive oil instead.  The pattern is super simple and I think I'll have to remember it and use it again.  How about browns shading to creams with red accent squares?

Old Maid's Puzzle

A while back I finished this quilt.  Then more recently I was looking for a picture of it in my 'finished quilts' folder to show someone and couldn't find it, leading to the conclusion that I hadn't taken any photos of it finished. So here goes.  

It was a hot, sunny day and it's a pretty big quilt.  I hauled it into my garden and used a couple of trusty bulldog clips to string it up on an old climbing frame.....

But I think I like the distance shot more.  It shows the light-to-dark effect better.  Shame it shows all the junk in my yard at the same time.....

Then I took a shot of the back, because if you're any sort of quilter at all, you always want to see the back...

And here's a close up of the back so you can scrutinise my quilting.  It was machine quilted on my domestic machine, by me and my trusty machingers gloves....

Then I tried an arty shot, draped over a old wooden ladder propped up against a poplar tree.  I think the sun was gently frying my brain by then.....

So I gave it up and went inside for a cold drink....

Hope you like it.

French braids on a Sunday

Sunday (yesterday for us), was awfully windy.  I stood for ages trying to catch a picture of the gusts visible in the trees outside my lounge window.  Eventually I caught a shot that almost shows how breezy it was.  We did manage to get out and plant another forty odd kanuka trees without getting blown away.  The ground is getting dry now so that will be the last tree planting before Summer and hopefully these will survive - kanuka are pretty tough.

I spent most of the day pottering around in my studio.  I was having a play making a french braid table runner.  The instructions are from a book I borrowed from my guild library, "French Braid Quilts" by Jane Hardy Miller with Arlene Netten.  I made my strips half an inch narrower and now I feel the centre square is a little big in proportion.  I think it's calling for a simple appliqué motif.  The points along the edge will all get trimmed straight and I'm undecided whether to bind it in the deep red or the dark blue?  Any suggestions?

For lunch we had green slime soup for kids, pea and asparagus soup for adults.  Isn't it a glorious colour!  Very yummy too and the kids have no idea they are chowing down on asparagus (they won't touch it in it's recognisable form).

Then keeping with the green theme, I ran the kids a bath.  If you have reluctant bathers like me, a splash of food colouring can be a good motivator.  It's probably a better use for food colouring than actually in food!  It doesn't stain the bath (it might if you have old porcelain or deep scratches) and it only stains the kids if you use too much.  Of course, once my kids are in, they never want to get out....

It's nice to have a normal weekend.  No obligations, no visitors staying, nobody to cook for except your own family.  Hope you had a good one too.

A brewing storm

For once I had my camera in my bag on the drive home and this is what I got to capture.  That's my house way up on those hills under those beautiful, ominous clouds.  And when we got home we did have impressive thunder and a heavy shower.

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts about my Father in Law.  He passed away peacefully last week and we held a wonderful funeral and fantastic party on the weekend, just as he wanted.  We had a band, a spit roast, dancing and fireworks!  When I go, I want a send off like his.

There are moments of sadness, but plenty of good memories and stories.  My husband seems to be coping well and the kids are doing ok too.  I guess it's just going to take a time of adjustment and who knows how long that time will be.

Hug your loved ones, call up the ones you haven't seen for a while and have a catch up.  I hope to be back blogging with increasing regularity soon.

My Father in Law is dying.  I've been hesitant to blog about this as it seems such a personal subject.  I didn't want to seem to be gossiping, or fishing for sympathy, or taking a morbid interest in someone else's passing.  But now I feel that if I don't acknowledge what is happening, then I am just contributing to that 'ignoring' or 'hiding' of death that we seem to do so well in our society.

I want to honour him.  I want to honour death as a part of life.  I want to recognise him as an important part of my life, a part of my children's heritage.

Last night I stayed with him to nurse him through the night.  The family and a few friends are taking turns at this.  It's hard work.  He has been very confused, he battles mobility problems and now he is beginning to be in pain from the cancer that is killing him.  But is is also a special time.  It feels almost sacred.  How many other people in the world are watching through the night with me?  How many millions of people before me have done the duty of helping someone embark on the last great adventure in peace and comfort?  I felt a connection though the ages.  I could imagine a woman in a tent crouching next to a fire, holding an elder's hand.  Maybe it was fatigue induced, but it helped me.

The children are aware in their own way of what is happening.  We don't hide it from them.  We were discussing how sick 'Arparp' was and how he would die soon, but we didn't know when.  My little girl said softly, "I like Arparp.  My boy added, "I'll miss Arparp."  Such simple, truthful words.  And about all there is to say.