an attitude of gratitude, part 1

a couple of weeks ago a package arrived from the States, courtesy of Nancy! Yay, lots of goodies for the Dwelling: how having to move forces one person to declutter and another to reclutter, hihi

good thing I love rearranging and refurbishing so much......

OldCat is sitting upon a handwoven rug - a Nancy original - admiring the 3 elephants performing their marble-balancing act, whilst a mysterious clay figurine (also made by Nancy) is hiding away to the left of OBK; the green/black glass snail is a gift from Rosie from the UK (he made a fast Brexit, all things considered)

Mr. Snail's wrapping paper

Easter Bunny is at close hand, making sure OBK, his visitors and other fellow Dwellers are kept well nourished and glasses are (re)filled

meanwhile in the garden of delights 2 huge Californian apples to choose from, Easter Bunny need not worry 'bout everyone getting their vitamins today

fancy those two drawn together.....La Belle et la Bête, no insult meant Nancy!

DutchBoy reunited with his clog

a purple heart
bringing love
maybe peace
contentment, at the very least

scattered throughout the Dwelling are clay objects made by me, some more obvious than others

colourful fabrics arriving just in time for me to add to a Summer wrap I'd been stitching together for OBK; as it happens, he loves wearing pink....
 'no, what I said was I don't mind wearing pink, Saskia' OBK corrects me
ooops!

a Mother Duck followed by her chuckling ducklings, aren't they the cutest, flew all the way from California too, phew, they sure deserve a break
They enter under the talisman I made for Mo's exhibition, which I now realize as I'm typing this, you can barely make out in this photo; I had not expected it to come back, but there it was accompanied by treasures from Mo, such as the flowery gauze, a handwritten note, the exhibition's invitation and........ 

.....the the White Star she made, as can just be glimpsed in the image below, in OBK's reception room https://itscrowtime.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/more-ripples-of-love-as-the-pennants-and-talismans-find-their-way-home/

as one can easily see, there's a lot of stuff all over, no wonder Nancy's accompanying note got lost, although I'm sure it's Somewhere

 four clay birds, made by me, strutting their stuff for Grace, grateful to Margreet for allowing me to work in her studio and use her kiln!

there's loads more to be grateful for, but that will have to wait till another post......

countless stitches

 So, I think the quilt's done, in the sense that I'm done stitching on this one, for now.....I might add a couple more lines of running stitch to make the patches lay more flat, I'm not too keen on the 'bubbling' of some of them, but I have been sewing on this one for 2 months*, and I am eager to get started on a new one!  
The quilt consists of four layers: the patchwork top layer, a white sheet underneath that one, the batting and on the back a patchwork of larger (off) white fabrics.
I haven't measured it but I guess it's about 150-160 cm square, the width between my hands when I spread my arms, I feel this is a good size for me to work with

I have come to love the entire process, it has been a steep learning curve: apart from the technical aspects, I came to realize I just had to put in the hours, every seemingly boring step miraculously turning into meditative practice:
cutting the squares, ironing the edges flat, laying out compositions, sewing the patches together, sewing the larger patchwork pieces together, laying the patchwork top on the support backing, on top of the batting and making a white back patchwork, basting the layers together, and then the hours stitching back and forth 

Two dear friends and I have been dabbling in clay, one of them owns a studio with an kiln....useful when you want to fire up!
The postcard with meditating girl is from an old friend, we've known each other since we were 8

oh yes, my hair is short again and turning grey, have stopped dyeing