A finish

I managed to finish the dress. The button holes aren’t great, but they are functional. When my friend Simone migrated to Northern Ireland recently, she gifted me with her pile of Your Family magazines (a South African publication) and the last three months of her subscription. The pattern for the dress was in one of them. I modified the pattern by omitting the ricrack (since I didn’t have any that matched) and top stitched around the edge for that more professional look.

This is the front.

The back is a very clever cross-over design. (See lined and every thing). 🙂

The bad news is that it’s still too cold for Gorgeous Girl to wear it, and it’s still a little large (it was for her age group, but she is petite). However, it is sunny today, so we did head outside quickly for a quick photo shoot before getting back into a long sleeve shirt again.

This is the first item of clothing I have made since Year 10 sewing, when I made a baby shirt for my 2 year old brother (yes, there’s a big age gap…)

Gorgeous Girl is sleeping through the night now on a very regular basis, and I’m feeling like I’m finally getting over the flu, so I have more energy and there is actually crafting happening. I’ve got a pair of socks nearly finished.

In other news, I’m going to be in San Francisco for the first two weeks of October. It’s for work, so I don’t know how much free time I’ll have. 🙂 Can anyone tell me if I can get the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric in a Joanne’s or Michael’s, or will I need to track down an independent LQS? (I just figure Joanne’s or Michael’s will be easier to find on my own…) Suggestions for Not-to-be-missed yarn or quilt stores would also be welcomed…(just in case they let me out of the office lol)

So, with the upcoming trip in mind, we have had to start weaning Gorgeous Girl. That is going better than any of us expected. But have you seen what’s in formula!!! She’s on a soy formula, and the main ingredient is corn syrup. This is not a long term thing for us, so I’m expressing, and will express while I’m away and hopefully we’ll go back to regular nursing when I come home. Please don’t leave me hate messages if you fed/feed your kids on formula, I totally respect people who need to do that or have no choice. For us, I have heaps of milk, and I hate sterilising bottles, so nursing is easiest.

Still haven’t found a car, you really forget how vital one is until you are without it!

I have finally cut out all of the pieces to applique onto Gorgeous Girl’s quilt, I can only lay it out on the floor to pin down while she’s napping, and since she’s just gone down I’m going to take advantage of that. Hopefully some work in progress pictures in the next post.

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Three Milestones – some more important than others…

Can someone please tell me where time has gone?

Milestone 1: Yesterday I took this picture:

Gorgeous Girl standing on her own two feet long enough for me to take her picture! What, do I hear you ask, was the great treasure which brought Gorgeous Girl to her feet?

Her favourite thing…

Scrap paper!

Milestone 2: This post also marks 300 posts on this little blog. I can’t believe I’ve had that much to say (you can all stop laughing now). Thank you to all of you for coming on this little journey with me, both commenters and lurkers. I’ve had a great time so far, hopefully I’ll stay interesting for at least another 300 posts.

I had my haircut on Monday. I went to the usual salon, but not my usual guy. He didn’t blow dry my hair, which is ok by me because then I get to see what it will look like in my normal life, and when I left the salon I was ok with it, but by the time I got home and it was dry…well let’s just say I was less than impressed.

It made me feel very middle-aged. So I did something most unlike me instead of complaining to Gorgeous Man about it for the next 10 days little while, I rang my regular stylist and explained the situation to him. He very kindly arranged for me to come in at a time when the first stylist wouldn’t be there (I didn’t want to hurt his feelings) and recut it.

It’s not the look I was after, but I can live with it, and have decided to embrace the curl.

and this one just because I like it:

and it’s rare for me to like a photo of myself. Gorgeous Girl is wearing a shirt that I appliqued the flower on. The fabric for that came from a bag of scraps from my next door neighbour just before we moved here. It is truly vintage. Her father owned a fabric store way back when – she is now retired – and some of the fabric still has the shillings and pence price tags stapled to it. I’ve got lots of plans for that fabric – now to just find some time!

Milestone 3: Today was the first day in many months that it’s been warm enough to wear a T-shirt! Bring on spring!!

My ‘helper’ has decided that she wants to type too, so blogging time is over. Craftiness again soon. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

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Sigh…

So instead of typing a nice blog post last night showing you the results of my weekend of sewing like a mad woman, Gorgeous Man and I played pass the screaming baby. She was like I’ve never seen her before, and it took nearly 2 1/2 hours to settle her down.  I know we are very spoiled and a lot of babies are like that all the time, but WOW. Finally worked out that she must be teething, and once she had the teething ring she calmed down quite a lot.

By the time she was soundly asleep in our room we were too scared to go to bed in case we woke her up for round two, so we ended up sleeping on the camping mattresses in the living room. I’m a little zonked today 😛

This morning she has been back to her usual happy self, which is a huge relief!

OK, on to the sewing. You all know I have organised a quiltathon for my guild. Well I thought we’d all just turn up and sew, but the guild wanted to be more organised than that and so we have been making blocks in advance. Last weekend I worked on these:

and this weekend I worked on these:

There’s all sorts of fabric in these, all of it was donated by the women in the guild,

polycotton, local quilting fabric that everyone used before the US imports became available, furnishing fabric, sheeting, good quality quilting fabric and so the list goes on. Because I am cheap frugal, I also unpicked the trimmings from the white blocks to add to the black ones. I’ve still got more of the black to trim down.

I’ll be taking the extra white strips to the next guild meeting to see if I can get a few more ladies to sew some blocks before the day. I’ll spend next weekend sewing too and then take whatever is left over to the guild meeting and hand that out too. September 15 is the big day of the quiltathon and then my association with the guild will end for the year.

I had to go to the committee meeting (even though I have resigned) because I said I’d finish the quiltathon off. Well that was interesting. They all had their printed agenda’s that had be sent out 6 days before the meeting. 🙂 The meeting confirmed my desire to leave the committee. There are some very nice ladies on it, but one of them was particularly hostile. OK, enough ranting about that…The quilt blocks are pretty.

Finally to finish: Reason #46 why you need a stash of fabric (yes Kate, I admit I have a stash)

Baby barrier to stop the child going into the entry way (that we never use) and playing with the cat food/litter.

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Wearing your baby

A while ago I showed some pictures of our helper wearing Gorgeous Girl, and Starfish (sorry, no link – password protected) asked how on earth she put Gorgeous Girl onto her back.

Well, since I haven’t done a lick of crafting this week, what with the Sunday shift at work and doctors appointments etc I thought I’d show you how it’s done.

First put blanket and baby onto your back.

Then,

lean forward and put the blanket over the baby and tie a knot.

Fold up the bottom of the blanket and tie another knot.

Voila, one happy baby!

I haven’t tried this yet, I’m too scared that the knots will come undone!

Today is Wednesday, which means it is knitting for me day. I’m off to knit on my second sock for a few minutes before I have to start work again. The good news is that I don’t do the 7 – 9 pm shift on a Wednesday so I’m hoping to get the sashing attached to Gorgeous Girls quilt tonight.

Pictures of that in the next post with any luck. I’ve also managed to trim a few more string blocks which were donated at the guild meeting on Monday. When I’ve trimmed all of them I’ll lay it out and take a picture.

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A Sunday drive

After what seemed like weeks of uninterrupted rain (so much rain that I went out and bought a clothes drier to get Gorgeous Girl’s nappies dry) Sunday was a beautiful winter day.

Gorgeous Man and I bundled Gorgeous Girl into the car and decided to take a trip along the coast to Rooi Els. Rooi Els (if I understand correctly, means Red River, and the river, where it meets the sea is certainly red from all of the tannins flowing from the fynbos).

Usually the sea has quite large swells, but on Sunday it was like glass.

I took this from the window of the car, so please excuse the blurry bushes in the foreground. Whale migration season is beginning and we saw a whale from the car – that is always very cool.

We went for a short walk.

We would have walked further, but Gorgeous Girl got a bit fussy.

Here is some of the scenery.

Fabulous mountains on one side and sea on the other.

Gorgeous Man spotted a bird that he had been wanting to see for ages, so Gorgeous Girl and I sat down to wait while he went to see if he could get closer.

There were also proteas out. I love proteas – there is such a huge variety.

This was the view from the mountain.

Across the bay towards Cape Point.

Finally, on the way home we stopped to get a shot of the snow on the mountains.

Right at the very top if you look closely.

Yesterday I spent some time with a quilting friend sorting through fabric that has been donated for our charity quiltathon in September. We cut up a few kits so that some of the ladies can pre-sew blocks before the day, then just assemble them into tops on the day. Pictures of that in the next post. Work on Gorgeous Girl’s quilt is also progressing nicely so I’ll lay those blocks out and get shots of it too.

And I’ll have a knitting question for all the knitters out there. Hopefully it won’t be a week before I get to post again.

As far as blog reading goes, I’m very behind. I’m lucky to be getting to all my blogs once a week. Guess that’s a sign that I need to cut back… but it’s so hard!

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Some finishes

My new job runs in three week cycles – 2 weeks busy and one week frantic. I’m beginning to see that my blogging is following an inverse relation to it. The only down side of my new job is that during the frantic week I don’t want to look at a computer after my shifts are over.

Anyway, I have been working away at a few things and have some finishes to show.

I jumped on the Fetching bandwagon from Knitty:

It’s knitted with the Malbrigo yarn I won in Beth’s giveaway. Thank you Beth, the yarn is fabulous. I’m wearing them at the moment. My internet weather gadget told me it was 3 degrees C (21F) in Cape Town this morning, when I started work. We are always a few degrees colder because we are up high. So the gloves come in very handy. Kerin,  there will be a pair for you on the needles soon. I’ve just got a few other things to knock over first. I made them a bit longer in the hand and added a second set of cables at the fingers.

I also finished the red baby cardigan for charity that I’ve been working on forever. It needs blocking before photographing though.

Saturday was knitting for charity day and so I cast on this little had Saturday night and had it finished by Sunday.

It’s a bit short, but it should fit a premmie. It’s being modelled by my doll. There’s no way it’d fit Gorgeous Girl’s head. this is my third item for 25 things for charity. I need to get a move on if I’m going to make my goal. I fell short last year, and don’t want to fall short again.

I also finished some socks for my Mum this weekend – actually the knitting was finished on Friday, but I didn’t graft the toe until Sunday afternoon.

They match perfectly. Now I just have to worry about getting them to Australia. My MIL has offered to post them from the Dubai airport on her way to China. I’m considering that, because I would hate for them to be stolen by the South African post office.

Kerin has been tempting me all year by sending me stickers and all sorts of other very cool things for scrapbooking. I bought an album last week and finally dragged it all out on Sunday and created some pages. Kerin, what do  you think?

They are just simple. The whole cutesy thing isn’t really me. I bought a small album because I was nervous about filling all the space on a big page. I know that the next album I buy will be a big one. Yes, the bug has bitten. One of my jobs for today is to go through the photos on the computer and select the ones I want to print off for the album.

I’m taking my beloved sewing machine in for a service today. Hopefully I won’t be without it for too long. It is well and truly overdue for a service and it isn’t stitching too well at the moment. I’m a bit nervous because Janome is a relatively unknown brand here. Mine is the only one I’ve seen. But surely cleaning and oiling can’t be too different? It’s not a computerised one or anything. Wish me luck.

Well, that’s about it from me. I’m off to have a look at what everyone else has been up to in the last few days. Thanks for stopping by my little blog.

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Is Anyone still stopping by?

Hi. I didn’t mean to drop off the face of the planet. I got the flu and spent a few days huddled up on the couch (to quote Gorgeous Man) as a ‘disease ridden bundle of misery’. I even took a day off work, which is very unusual for me.

Then work got really busy  – I had to go into Cape Town twice this week (there was car knitting) and my week somehow disappeared.

I’m putting the binding on the African Quilt. It’s going to be finished by Monday and pictures will come when it is ‘finished finished’.

Just before Mum came over in January, I bought a kit online from a store in Australia and had it posted to her so that she could act as courier. Because I’m a one project at a time girl it has been safely stored until this week when I pulled it out in anticipation of my quilting finish.

Below is my email to the store:

Hi,

Last year I purchased a ‘Snake in the Grass’ kit and had it sent to my mother so that she could courier it to South Africa for me. When it arrived I checked that all the fabric was there, and then placed it back in the envelope and stored it until I had time to work on it.

Last night I pulled out the fabrics and had a closer look. There are a few problems: One of the animal panels has been cut so scantily that there is no way I can cut it out and have a 1/4 inch seam. This means that the seam will eat into the actual picture. Please see the attached photographs.

It’s mainly the block in the top left hand corner that I am concerned about. Do you have any suggestions for fixing this. I think that a scant 1/8 seam (which is what I would have to do) will not stand up to the rigours of washing that this quilt is likely to sustain.

Secondly, the backing fabric has a large patch of sun damage on it. The faded area is larger than the envelope in which the fabric was sent and stored, so I know that this did not occur while the fabric was in my possession. Unfortunately this doesn’t show up very well in photos, I’ve attached a photo which shows the faded lines.

Please email me so that we can work out a solution for this. I really would like to begin this quilt as soon as possible because I love the design and it’s perfect for my daughter’s room.

Ruth

I’ll let you know how I go, and if I don’t get a satisfactory response I will name names.

There has been reading:

2008 Book List

22. Death of a Red Heroine – Qiu Xiaolong

A murder/mystery set in Shanghai in the early 1990s. Very well written and interesting. I enjoyed this a lot.

Ok, I’m off to finish attaching the binding to my quilt so that I can snuggle down and hand stitch it to the back.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

PSA: Check your spam queue from time to time. I just found a whole bunch of comments from one of my regular readers who for some inexplicable reason had been marked as spam.

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Baby wearing

The African ladies here carry their babies on their backs. I’ve always wanted to get a photo of it, but feel a bit awkward snapping shots of strangers going about their daily business. Well, this week Gorgeous Girl was being a bit fussy, my helper picked her up and walked out of the room and returned like this:

I got her permission to post the picture here. I’m going to ask her to show me how to do it. I think it’s very cool. Gorgeous Girl enjoyed it too.

In quilting news I have 4 and 1/2 blocks to go!! I may get it done by Monday (Monday is guild meeting). I’ll have to go binding shopping tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything in the stash to match, and not enough scraps to do a scrappy binding, but I’ll check that out tonight.

I got a desperately needed haircut on Tuesday. I left the salon feeling fabulous

‘scuse the dodgy self portrait. Unfortunately this look is dependent on a certain level of skill with a blow dryer that I don’t have (and in the wet weather it’s a lost cause anyway), so my hair has reverted to this…

It actually looks better in the picture than it does in real life.

Gorgeous Girl has been wearing her new shirt.

The sleep training is going well. The sleep journal showed that Gorgeous Girl was only feeding for one or two minutes in the obscene early hours of the morning. So we went cold turkey and cut them out. The first night was a bit rough, but last night was much better, and I’m hopeful we’ll see continued improvement tonight as well. I’m expecting it to take about 10 days.

Well that’s about all the news I have to share. With any luck I’ll have a finished – finished quilt to show very shortly. Then knitting and other sewing will resume 🙂

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Three firsts and a meme…

Two firsts for Gorgeous girl, and one for me:

Gorgeous Girl’s first drink of juice

I love the expression on her face in this next photo.

Most days of the week I teach for one hour. Gorgeous Girl gets to spend that time hanging out with Gorgeous Man, as we’ve managed to coordinate our schedules quite nicely. On Wednesday I teach for two hours. Guess what Gorgeous Girl did for the first time on Wednesday – she stood up. Would you like to guess when she did it – during the two hours I was teaching… At least Gorgeous Man got to see it. 🙂

Ok, so that’s her firsts. My first is, yesterday I ran out of petrol (gas). I had Gorgeous Girl, and my helper in the car with me when it started to lurch. I managed to get around the roundabout (or circle as they call them here) and pointed back towards the service station. About 60 metres (70 yards) from the station the car died completely. Two very nice men pushed the car to the garage. Oh the shame. I knew I needed petrol, but I didn’t think I was that low…

Far too long ago (I have been remiss) Quilting Fitzy tagged me for a 7 Random Things about me meme.

I think everyone I know has done this, so I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you’d like to play again feel free.

1. I am a very reluctant driver. In Australia I was so paranoid about driving, I would walk before I’d get behind the wheel. I am better here (different model of car), but I don’t really know why. I’m quite happy to drive around town here – I wasn’t in Australia. I am however very reluctant to get on the Freeway into Cape Town – in the two and a half years we’ve been here I haven’t driven myself into Cape Town. I was very proud of myself earlier this year when I drove on the freeway to get to the airport to fetch Gorgeous Man, the airport is half-way.

2. If there is a difficult way to get somewhere I will find it – usually with a few detours along the way. I am terrible at finding my way to new places. This year I’m on the committee for the quilting guild and we meet each month in a different committee member’s house. I have gotten lost on the way to every meeting bar one – I knew where that road was. It’s been good for me to push myself out of my comfort zone.

Funny story to go with that. Last Monday was committee meeting, and true to form I got lost. I pulled up at a house where people were in the yard to ask for directions – I knew I was close. Before she would give me directions the woman insisted on knowing why I needed to go to that street. Neighbourhood Watch gone insane – like a lady in a car with a baby is going to be burglarising houses on a specific street…

3. I think blogging has made me a nicer, more thoughtful person – but there may be those who beg to differ.

4. I was never going to get married. I was famous for saying it. There were speeches at our wedding reminding me of that. I met Gorgeous Man and well, changed my mind.

5. My friends at school were tall, thin and beautiful. I wasn’t. I believe the word jolly was used. I am not in touch with any of the group that I used to hang out with. There was no falling out, we just grew apart and lost touch – it may have something to do with the next point.

6. The first seven years we were married we moved 7 times. In the 11 years that we have been married we have lived in 12 houses, 3 states and two countries. The cat has come with us for each move. He joined the family two weeks after our wedding.

7. I had planned to get my PhD before reaching 35, I had even started collecting research (see point 4 about not getting married). After seeing Gorgeous Man go through his, I have no immediate desire to begin mine. Perhaps at a later date…

So there you have 7 things about me that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before (or too often) on this blog.

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$101000

Yesterday someone gave me $101000 dollars. What’s that? You want proof, ok. Here are the notes:

$100 000

$1000.

Unfortunately they are ZimDollars and therefore worthless. While it’s very interesting for me to see notes of this size, the hyperinflation and associated political and social problems in Zimbabwe are no laughing matter. Still, I thought you’d like to see them.

I have a finish to report. I know I said I wasn’t doing anything else until the @£$%* quilt was finished, but I was so close to finishing the second sock when I got back from camping that I kept going – besides it’s been cold and I need another pair!

I would like to point out that they match perfectly! This is the first truly identical (if you don’t look at the heel) pair of socks I’ve knitted so far.

We hired a housekeeper/cleaner/baby watcher this week (I’m uncomfortable with the term maid – which is what most people here would call her). Working from home in my new job, while continuing the part time teaching, has left me a little stretched, and while Gorgeous Man does do more than his share of the housework, his professional work keeps him very busy as well. Also, now that Gorgeous Girl is a little more mobile she’s harder to keep an eye on while I’m typing on the computer. So we hired a very lovely young girl. I have to say, it’s so nice to log off the computer and walk out to a clean kitchen and bathrooms! She does cleaning for us while the child sleeps and watches her when she’s awake. Today they went for a big long walk in the sun while I was working. I do feel guilty at times that she is watching my child while her toddler is in daycare…

We continue to introduce solids to the child. I came home from choir rehearsal yesterday evening to discover that Gorgeous Girl has a new favourite food. She had the stuff smeared all over her face

Prunes! She finished up all that was offered to her and asked for more (a first) and she continued to eat them with no complaints, and in fact eagerness today) (and yes, the resulting nappies have been spectacular). 😦

Gorgeous Girl also learnt her first lesson this week: – the teaching experience was “What happens when you repeatedly pull on the cat’s tail”. Poor Fat Boy is old, it was only a little scratch and she’s been much more circumspect since.

Well, it’s getting late and I haven’t had a chance to touch my quilting all day. I’m off to put in a few stitches before going to bed. I hope you have a great day, and thank you for coming to visit my little corner of the innernets.

Oh, and have you seen WordPress’ default pictures for everyone – quilt blocks! Awesome!

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