Flowers Flowers Flowers

Yesterday while I was out running errands I remembered that there was an Orchid Show at a local nursery. So I grabbed my camera…. I have just loaded up a few here… for more check out my Flickr page. There are a couple that are not Orchids, but I just couldn’t resist.
There were some pretty amazing specimens. Some as small as 1/4” and I saw a black one, but it did not photograph very well.




Before I left the nursery, I spent a few minutes looking at some of the other plants. I found a lime green and red Coleus and took a picture, considering doing something…  al a Susan Brubaker Knapp, her blog is Blue Moon River.


I really liked the water on the Prayer Plant…

And lastly a Gerbera Daisy… and it had just been watered, again I liked the water droplets on the petals.
More later-
Beth

a little of this, some of that…

Well a couple of things to show from the sewing room and a couple of pictures of nature too. I’ll start with a picture.

This plant is considered a weed… I don’t know what to call it… nor can I think of enough words to look it up for identification. I think it is in the succulent family… It makes baby plants, similar to hens and chicks… so they are quite prolific. There are many different plants that produce orange bell like flowers. I think I am going do a study of them next year. I will need something to do!

I have finished my April UFO. I had to wait for more Cranberry/pink variegated thread to arrive.  I was going through my stash for something the other day and ran across a maroon fabric that was much better for a binding. For a closer look at any picture, just click on it…

  

I printed off the label tonight and will attach it tomorrow. Another friend will be coming over for a bit of stitching and she is using my Janome with the Accufeed foot. She is making some African Print placemats. Simple grid quilting, but she is loving the process.

On Sunday I finally decided to make a Jacket. I have been toying with making one for several years. I just can’t decide on 1. the pattern/style and 2. what to make it out of. Just too many choices. But last week I picked up 2 filing cabinets from a family that is leaving. So I put all of my patterns in one of them. While doing so I found a pattern that my mother designed and decided to make it. I used the a silk upholstery fabric very similar to this one (I bought another piece) and lined it with a satin. It will be very warm!!! The pattern is only pieces no directions and very few markings. Sure glad I remembered some of the basics of construction. Went together very well and had it done on Monday afternoon, ok Monday evening, because I hemmed the lining by hand. I think if I make another one I will do some alterations… (& to show the pocket a little coin purse). There is a variation of the same coat, only longer, I am thinking of using one of the fabrics my DH brought me back from Rwanda, see them here.

I am still waiting for my fabric from the US to finish my May UFO… It won’t get here in time… so I am anxiously awaiting the number draw for  June!

And lastly 2 more pictures, these are birds. The first is a Malachite Kingfisher. He was either really tired or felt comfortable, he was about 10 feet over head. These guys are not very big, maybe 6” long.

This guy is called an African Hoopoe. Their color is the most beautiful cinnamon brown, with white and black markings. When they fly the pattern on the underside of the wings is very impressive. He had a partner, and I didn’t know this until the other day, but they make little cheep cheep sounds. A much smaller sound than you would think would be made by adult birds.

As Always I’ll Have More Later!

Beth

Sewing, printing and a flower

DH is still gone!!! I think I have spent more time alone in South Africa than I  have with my husband…. Good thing I stay busy… or I would be really bored by now. He thinks he may be home in 2 weeks… but I’m not holding my breath.
Karen, who blogs here said I must show the results of the Gelatin Printing we did two weeks ago…. so here is what I did. It was an experiment, because none of us had ever done it before… but I think I want to do it again. We used Setacolor inks …. and some fabric paints… (which I think I would thin… next time). The resists were some die cuts from paper.

This one was my favorite of them and of course the last one. You can’t see it, but there is gold ghost images, as the last layer.
Linda, one of the ladies from the American Quilting group that started a project by hand was becoming discouraged by how long it was going to take… so I invited her to come over and use the sewing machine…. Well once it got going there was not stopping her…. and it is done! It is a biscuit quilt, and instead of making a quilt, we made a bed scarf. It turned out great, don’t you think. She calls it

“The Hubbly Bubbly” quilt!

I have been working diligently on my UFO Challenge projects, and alas… again I will not have the number drawn for May completed by the end of the month. As usual, it is for the same reason. Waiting on the mail for additional materials… in this case it is material. I ordered some of the Purple Katmandu… so I could complete the next border.
This is what I started with.
I was totally uninspired. I did not like certain aspects of the additions by some of the Round Robin Group, but I really liked my center! I normally wouldn’t remove another's work, but it is my quilt and I really liked my center!!! So I spent last weekend rearranging and adding parts, and I really think I am beginning to like it. The chalk lines are from when I was trying to figure out how I was going to quilt it… when I decided to take it apart.  I couldn’t see putting all the time into quilting it if I wouldn’t like the quilt when it was done…. I may still quilt it with some straight lines…. but maybe not… we’ll wait and see what it says when I get it all back together… in about 10 days.
I have also been putting the binding on the April UFO and will have pictures soon. I am considering additional quilting… on it too, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Last thing… a picture of the poinsettia tree. It is in the neighbors yard… on the other side of a 10 foot wall, so this odd angled photograph is the best I will ever be able to do.

Oh, and if you were curious. Grand Baby Hunter arrived on Mothers Day, at 6:30 pm, 7 lbs 10 oz,; 20 inches long.

As Always …. More Later-
Beth

A Compilation

Its Mothers Day! and it’s really not that special for me. My mom has been gone for 15 years now… While it is easier now that time has passed, you never really get over not having your mom around… to call, to visit or just to chat with. There are lots of questions that I would also like to ask… now that she is gone… and never thought to ask while she was alive.

However daughter in law is going to be a first time mom… soon. She was admitted to the hospital for high blood pressure yesterday … and Dr.s have decided to induce. She is full term and the baby is in good shape. So to say that there will be a baby on Mothers Day for her, would be premature… since natural birth can often take a very long time!!! So I will sit here and wait for news.

In the mean time let me fill you in on my doings… this last week.  Of course there was work… but it’s not really exciting and am I really glad that it takes up lots of the week. With DH gone again… it seems like a really long time already… and I guess it is, nearly a month.

It’s really weird here to see folks wearing winter clothes… layers, sweaters, heavy coats with hoods up or hats… and compared to Northern Plains of the US, Nebraska and Illinois… its not really even sweater weather yet. Although I do remember when I lived in San Diego… once the temps began dipping below 50… we all thought it was getting cold too.

South Africa doesn’t use Daylight Savings Time… so the clock doesn’t jump ahead or fall back. I am noticing that the sunrise is a little later each day and the sunset is a bit earlier each day too. And that is the extent of winter so far. I haven’t heard too many people (native to the country) discuss fall and spring as though they are different seasons… Just summer and winter…

On Friday I met with a some of the Americans ladies here… and we did some Gelatin Mono Printing. It was quite fun… I only had a couple of hours… to play and would have loved to explore this a little more. Penney was the organizer and we had 2 other ladies join us. My pieces were nothing to write home about, but I did heat set them yesterday morning…. and maybe I will find a use for them later. I think I will have to play with this again. But I will have to order some supplies. Penney provided all the inks/paints yesterday… and we used Setacolor and some Jacquard products.

NO pictures… since my Mono prints…. are well boring… and I haven’t done anything else this week picture worthy… I’ll just leave you with word pictures.

More later….

Beth