Thursday Thoughts Part 1:- our travel plans

Did I tell you we are off overseas at the end of this month? Well we are... we leave here on Tuesday 25th and fly out of Australia on Thursday 27th. We have given ourselves a day extra in case something goes wrong on our drive to Brisbane. Its 900km and we regularly do it in a day and rarely have we had anything go wrong... but, since we are retired and have the time we have decided to have the extra day just in case. So... we leave in 12 days time.

We fly to Japan first off for a week to visit with Sho, our host son from 2004. He lived with us for a year and this will be our 3rd visit to see him. This time we get to meet his wife and baby daughter so its very special. We will also get to visit with his parents and perhaps see some of his siblings.

From Japan we fly to Frankfurt (via Dubai and a 5 hour lay over at 3 AM... blergh) and from there catch a train to Prague where we will be joining our week long Barge Bike tour. Then its back to Germany (by train) and 4 days with our host daughter from 2006 Lena and then train to Amsterdam for a long weekend. From there we will fly to Norway and have a week with our host son Joergen (from 2005) and will attend his wedding whilst we are there. Then we fly to Scotland, hire a car and have 12 days driving about UK (well Scotland and England) catching up with some of Fixit Guy's cousins and his aunty Joyce. We arrive back in Australia on the 12th September. 

We won't be coming straight home though. We have volunteered to help out at a conference in Brisbane - serving on the Handmade With Love stall for Our Rainbow House at the Australian Pricipals Association conference. Our group has been making lots of items out of the fabric from Zambia especially for the conference. 

The Brisbane Comic Con is only a week after that - the one that I am hoping to share a stall with my son's partner Earthyyu of Earthyyu Drawstuff  I say hoping to, as we have applied but have to be selected and we don't hear until the day we leave Emerald... so we are assuming we are in and I will take all the stuff down with me. Its too far to come home and then drive back down for the conference so we will stay down. (well I will anyway. Fixit Guy is still debating)

Then my daughter is going to be heading down to Sydney Comic Con the following week. She is going to be driving down for it and I have decided to go with her. It will give me a chance to see my mum again (she turns 95 the day we fly out of the UK) and also my sister who has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. It will also give Fangirl company on the drive and I will be her off sider at the convention. 

So I won't be home till early October... and then we are planning a trip down to Melbourne in November to catch up with our son down there for his 30th birthday.....

Its all very exciting and hard to get my head around. 

WIP Wednesday

I haven't posted in WIP Wednesday for almost a month. I have been travelling and not sewing or crafting too much plus this blasted fatigue has been hanging around for a bit too which is sapping my energy and making me disinclined to actually do much.

However the news I got yesterday has revived a little - or at least inspired me to push through the exhaustion on a crafting front at least. 

In 2004 we hosted a lovely young man from Japan for 11 months through the exchange program AFS. Sho became our son and called us Mum and Dad and we loved him dearly. 

Taken in December 2004 shortly before his departure. I think Doug and Sho are the ones who have changed the least.

He has visited us once here in Australia with his parents and siblings and we have travelled to Japan to see him and his family twice in the intervening 12 years. Last year he was married. We didn't attend the wedding but did enjoy the photos we saw of the event. 

Yesterday we got a letter from him containing some photos, not only of their wedding but of their daughter who was born in June. 

The baby is absolutely gorgeous and is our first grandchild - not by blood but by love. He mentioned in the letter he wrote he was worried about seeing us again because not only has he forgotten much of the English he learned but also because he was worried we would have changed. I think the biggest reason he has to fear seeing me again is that he didn't tell me about his baby till she was 2 months old!

So of course I now need to make a special quilt for this darling little girl. But before I start it I need to complete several of the projects that I have piled up waiting my attention. 

Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my machine and quilted a baby quilt that I had pinned waiting for my attention for several weeks. I got the label and binding done and dropped it off to the recipient this morning. 

She was asleep but her mum and brother were on the spot and the big brother was very taken by it. It was great to have a finish again. Its been a few weeks since I had completed anything

And then this afternoon I put "My Cat Likes to Hide In Boxes" under the needle. Not sure how I am going to quilt it but for the moment I am stitching down the middle of the sashing and will have a look and a think when that part is done.

Apart from finishing off that project the only other craft work I have done since I last updated my WIPs has been crocheting. I have completed 9 hanging kitchen towels for Handmade With Love. It might have been more than that... I lost count. I prefer the long hand towel ones but they are too big for many people (and just not what they are used to) and so the ones made from tea towels cut in half are much better sellers. 

The first ones I completed were tea towels supplied to me. They were a bit thin for my liking although at least they were white backgrounds. 

The last four were made from hand towels I bought and cut in half. So they are the size people like but the material is thicker and more absorbent and NOT flowers on a white background. Those ones get so discoloured so quickly. I have already sold them... to my sister who had told me that they were the only things she was likely to buy from a handcraft stall. So I made them and she bought them. Well done me (and Beth). I posted the 4 off to Beth and gave the others to our stall co-ordinator before photographing them.

The other little finish I have had is a size 2 top for Handmade With Love. Some one had made the leggings and we decided that a top with it would make it more saleable. I haven't sewn clothes for a long time and not ones from a non-stretch fabric since high school. My friend Lindi helped me cut it out and I managed to get it together. Its not perfect but hopefully the cute factor will persuade someone to buy it.

Hope your week is being productive too. Let me know what you have been doing or link up on Esther's  blog too

Linking up with  

Throwback Thursday - My Tshirt Quilt

Quilters are often asked to make t'shirt quilts for family and friends. The t'shirts they work with reflect the interests and involvement of the person concerned, usually a teenager or young adult. We had an exchange student from the USA in 2007 who said that it was the tradition of quilters in her small town to make a quilt for every high school graduate going off to college. That is a huge commitment and perhaps I got the message wrong - perhaps it was a church guild who made them for members of their congregation going off to college. I do know that our host student indicated that she deliberately bought shirts at various events for them to be cut up to go into a quilt. Personally I found this a bit of an extravagance (but then I am a tight wad) and also meant that the t'shirt was a bit manufactured somehow.

I have made quilts from t shirts for my 2 youngest children Boyo and Kombi Boy. I got in early with them and swiped t'shirts as they grew out of them and were passing them on. I wasn't so tshirt aware when the two older ones were going off to university so missed out on a number of shirts from Fangirl and Massage Man. They do have some special t shirts still but they are still wearing them and won't hand them over to go into their quilts so until they are surrendered, they won't get a t'shirt quilt. I realised I don't have photos of their quilts... not sure how they slipped through the net. I do however have my own t'shirt quilt. Yes, I made one for me and it too reflects my interests and involvements over the years.

I attended Curves for several of years and earned quite a few t shirts as I made it to 500 workouts and beyond. I was also involved with ABA for a number of years and have a few shirts from that. 

My AFS commitments saw me accumulate a number of t'shirts too, several from other countries - gifts from exchanged students. I have a few other shirts on the quilt from our trip overseas in 2006 and from my involvement in Guides where I was a member of the parent committee for several years. The sashing, cornerstones and binding were hand dyes I had made in a workshop.

The back of the quilt was made from a cloth sign from NMAA - Nursing Mother's Association of Australia. I was a counsellor with this Association (which changed its name to ABA - Australian Breastfeeding Association) for almost 20 years and a member for 26. The cloth was originally creamy white but had become somewhat discoloured so I dyed it before using it in the quilt.

This year ABA/NMAA celebrates its 50th anniversary. I am no longer a member or counsellor but am a supported and advocate for the Association. It gave me so much support over my years as a breastfeeding mum and I learned so much in my training to be a counselor and in my years that I served the association and the community in that role. I am off to an afternoon tea to celebrate the Golden birthday next month.

Linking up with Quitin Jenny for Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday - Farewell to Fangirl

In 2003 our daughter, known here as Fangirl, was selected to go to Malaysia for a year long exchange with AFS. She left in January 2003 and returned in December that same year. She had learned Indonesian for 5 years at school and 85% of the vocabulary of Indonesian and Malaysian was the same so she was slightly advantaged over someone who had none of the language at all. However when she got there she found that the 15% of the language that was different was the 15% that was mostly used. She had expected to become quite fluent in the language whilst she was there but she found that many people over there spoke English or were trying to learn it so when she would speak to them, even though she would use Malaysian, they would reply to her in English. Her best friend was another exchange student, from Iceland who excellent English so when they hung out they tended to talk in English.

She lived with a Malaysian family in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras which is a large city that runs into KL (Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia) They were a muslim family but were happy to take her to Christian worship whenever she wanted to go. Her parents owned a food outlet in a food court. They worked long hours.The home was close to the food court and they rarely cooked at home. Instead when it was time for dinner one of the family would go to the restaurant and pick up some dishes to bring home to family to eat.

As Fangirl prepared for her trip, learning more about the culture of where she was going, collecting gifts and souvenirs to take with her, choosing culturally appropriate clothing to take with her, I prepared by making her a quilt to take. I cut 6.5" squares of calico which we got people to write messages to her on. She took  a heap to get her classmates to sign on their last day of school and we got our friends at church to also sign a pile. I put her school friends blocks on one side with a souvenir tea towel from one of her school years and those from our church family and friends on the other side. I interspersed the signature blocks with 6.5" squares of picture fabric featuring things significant to her as well as Australiana fabric.

She took this quilt with her even though she only had limited amount of luggage. She was glad she did as the messages of love and support were important to her and supported her through some tough times. Living in another culture is not easy and living with another family is harder still. Whilst she was in Malaysia her grandfather, my Father in law was killed in car accident which was a really difficult thing for her to go through whilst living so far away.

Fangirl came home after 11 months having grown and matured a whole heap. We missed her very much whilst she was away but were really happy for her to have such an amazing experience. Her host family were very special people and we are forever grateful for the love and care they showed. her.  She was able to travel back to spend some time with them whilst at university and then I got to meet them once when Fangirl and I travelled back to Malaysia in 2007 for the wedding of her  host sister. She visited them again on her way to live in the UK in 2011 and in April 2015 Fixit Guy Fangirl and I are going to Malaysia for a week to spend some time with them which will be great.

Fangirl's two mum's. Just a slight difference in height!

The bride and groom. Both had multiple changes of clothes over the 2 days of wedding celebrations but this was my favourite.

Fangirl with her Ayah (Father) and Mak (mother) Sabri and Ina was what I called them (although I forgot and would call them Ayah and Mak... mum and dad! oops)

Roslyn with the bride and groom. Annis and Irwan

Linking up with Quiltin Jenny at Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday - Jeany's Quilt

For just over 13 years I have been a member of an online group, connected by email, called Buddies.We all had strong connections with the Australian Breastfeeding Association - counsellors or community educators. Some of us have since resigned from the association but we have remained members of Buddies

We have shared many things over that time - marriages of our children (and ourselves) births of children and grandchildren, graduations, new jobs, redundancies, health worries, new homes and cars, our hobbies and passions and also deaths: of our parents and grandparents and  sadly some children and husbands as well.

One of our group is Jeany. She and I had lived in the same town for several years before she married. She had children after I left town. We were both teachers and had association with the same church. She became a counselor after the birth of her first daughter and so our acquaintance was renewed. Later we also had a lot to do with each other through an student exchange group called AFS. 

When her 3rd daughter was only a few months old her husband Mike was in a vehicle accident and he died a few weeks later. Such a devastating thing for a young family. Buddies, spread through out Australia, felt her pain and wanted to reach out to her. One way we did this was to make her a quilt. I helped co-ordinate it. Each Buddy made a heart square to be included (or if they couldn't sew then another buddy made one for them) and we chose a square of picture fabric, which some how represented that person, to go with their square. It took a little while to get the quilt organised but eventually it was made and I got to take it to Jeany as I lived only a couple of hours away from her and we had an AFS activity together.

Jeany on Right and I with her quilt

Looking at the "conversation" square with each heart I am having fun trying to remember what the connections were. I know I had a lot of fun choosing the fabric to put with which heart. People were given the opportunity to suggest fabric for themselves but of course it was tricky to find the fabrics they wanted in our stashes. Bit expensive to go buy fabric to suit each person.

Linking up with Throwback Thursday at Quiltin Jenny's

Throwback Thursday on Friday

I'm still running late with my blog updates this week. Luckily lots of my readers are in the USA so they don't know that they are late... except that I put it in the title. Confession is good for the soul!

In a previous Throwback Thursday post I showed pictures of the quilt that I made for our first host son Sho.(See this blog post) We hosted Sho in 2004. We had two other year long hostings, Joergen from Norway in 2005 and Lena in 2006. I made both of them quilts. We also hosted a girl from the USA. It was supposed to be for a semester but it didn't work out with us and she moved to another family. She didn't get a quilt.

Joergen's quilt didn't get made whilst he was with us. Fortunately we visited him and his family in 2006 and were able to take the quilt with us then

Joergen's quilt was a square in a square design. The centre square featured pictures of things that he was interested in or which reminded us of him. The surrounding triangles were Australian aboriginal prints

Lena had definite ideas for her quilt. She asked me to make it to match her room back home which was in pinks and reds.

My not so happy quilting assistant. It was a long time ago

I worked some of my Australian fabrics into the back of her quilt

That oh so happy quilting assistant again!!

The label featured a poem adapted from another quilt label I saw

Throwback Thursday -Calendar Quilts

I started quilting in 2001 and joined some online groups shortly after including Southern Cross Quilters. Through that group I joined a sub group called Year Quilters. The idea of a year quilt is that the quilter keeps a diary and based on the diary they choose fabric for each day to put into a quilt. A sample of the fabric chosen is also glued into the diary. The quilter was free to choose whatever pattern they liked for the quilt. The group shared progress and participants could also be part of picture fabric swaps every month or so. It was a way of getting a range of eyespy type fabrics to be used in our quilts.

I completed 4 year quilts  2003-2007

I tried to keep my diary up to date, writing it every day or every couple of days but found that would leave fabric selections to do a week or three at a time as I would have to dig through my stash in order to find suitable fabric. Sometimes I chose a picture fabric to represent something that happened that day... a coffee cup if I went out for cuppa with some friends, a cat if my cat did something special. Other times I used the fabric I had been sewing with that day.

The bi monthly swaps were great for building up my stash of picture fabrics. We swapped 6.5" squares. We would send in up to 5 swatches of 6 different fabrics to our swap co-ordinator and would get back 30 different fabrics.

 Over time I developed a system where I would sort my fabric into categories and store them in zip lock bags that I had labelled. Eventually I got some plastic drawers to store them in and I sorted the categories alphabetically into the drawers. I still store my picture fabrics in these drawers.

My first year quilt, 2003 was done as a Calendar Quilt. Each  month was its own block and it was set out like a calendar The one pictured below was for January. The first of January that year was a Wednesday.

As part of the Year Quilt we had a signature squares swap during the year. Each participant swapped blocks with their name and the type of quilt they were making along with a 6.5" square which somehow represented them or their quilt. I incorporated them into the back of the quilt along with some fabric that my daughter Fangirl had bought me back from Malaysia. She had spent the year in Malaysia as an AFS exchange student so this fabric was very significant for our year.

I have another 3 year quilts I can share with you... but perhaps not today. I realise I don't have many photos of them. I will have to drag them out and get some better photos of them

And that's my Throwback Thursday for this week. Linking up with Throwback Thursday on Quilting Jenny