November is moving on

I don't know where the last few weeks have gone. I have spent some time away with mum to get the results from some tests. We are just waiting now to hear when her treatment starts.

We spent some time with mums brother and his wife along with their grown daughters calling in to catch up with us too. It is really nice being so welcomed and having the support from extended family especially through these stressful times. My sister who lives in Australia was here for several days which was nice and my sister who lives in Auckland managed to get some time off which allowed us to spend an afternoon and evening all together with mum. It has been a very long time since mum has had her three daughters all together like that, special quality time. The time spent with mum, my sisters and my relatives made me appreciate anew the support of people who care about each other. 

I worked on my hexies a little while I was away and it was very special sitting with my Aunty Bev and us both working on our hexies together while visiting with each other. My hexie collection is growing, I will have to start sewing some together soon.

I have spent some time doing more organising in the sewing room and have now completed sorting all fabrics into bins by colour. This took longer than I thought it would and I now have better knowledge of my stash. I don't think it matters how large or small your stash is, I do think we all have more fabric than we remember and I do have more than I thought I did.

This afternoon I watched some videos on machine quilting by Leah Day and then had a bit of a practice session, trying out a couple of the design ideas I had seen on the videos. The first one was a meandering ribbon type design, this was more difficult than I thought it would be. The scale I was doing this on was a little small and I will try it again on a bigger scale. 

The second pattern I did was a curved line pattern which I really enjoyed doing and love how it looks. I think this one will appear on some quilts in the near future. 

The biggest thing that I got from watching the videos of Leah's today was to give myself permission to play and explore and that practice will develop my repertoire of designs while developing my self confidence in using them. Yes, I knew this already but sometimes it is good to have a reminder.

I also spent some time de boning some of my husbands shirts that were worn around the collar. The shirts were still in good condition other than the collars and will make a good contribution to my strip drawers and scrap bins.

That is all for today, so until next time happy stitching everyone.