I promised myself I would post more frequently, but you know what? Life took over and gave me a sharp smack about the head and said, "Not yet you won't!"
If you're a facebook friend of mine, you'll notice I've posted up lots of affirmations and positive quotes about mental health,and there's a very good reason......my one and only child is battling with the demon inside, having tried to take his life twice in the past month and there was nothing I could do but look from the outside in and be his advocate with an underfunded mental health system that is groaning from the pressure at its seams.
I won't fill you with the details but know my boy is doing ok now, he's moved back home and we take it day by day. He has two great mental health nurses he can contact at any time and a psychologist he's seeing for the first time today to work with him on rewiring his thoughts, to turn them from negatives to positives. The worst thing about it is the stigma. Because it's 'all in your head' and it's not a visual illness (like vomiting and diarrhoea or a broken leg), it's hard to distinguish whether it's 'just you' or if there really is something wrong. Being told to 'get over it' or 'toughen up' and 'just think happy thoughts' just doesn't do the trick to helping someone through this dreaded illness, and it IS an illness. It's taken years of listening, perseverance, trying to understand and advocating for my boy's health when I'm not sure I understand myself but finally we're getting there.
So with all that happening, I've remembered (on time too!) that it's time for FNSI sign ups! YAAAAY....my sanity time. Hope you'll join with me on Friday night for some self indulgence, a little wine, some chocolate or something to tickle your fancy, a comfy pair of jammies and some virtual togetherness to do what we love best...….stitch!
Sign ups are open and everyone is welcome. Don't forget to share with others on your blog and social media as taking time out to stitch with our friends is so good for our own mental health and who knows, you might win our monthly prize.
Before I draw winners for both April and May FNSI, I'd better show you what I got up to on Friday Night, don't you think?
I managed to get a little bit done and lo and behold, a finish!
Bob asked if I could make a peg bag just like Gail used to as his had fallen apart. I decided to use some really bright fabric that Bob had gifted me from Gail's stash that reminded me of her. She was an Islander who dressed in bright fabrics often with tribal-type prints so I thought this would be perfect. It wasn't till I'd finished that I noticed that I 'almost' matched the pattern in the centre front seam....totally unplanned but how wonderful! So that's a finish for me this month.
I recently won a gorgeous pattern by Melissa Grant of One Day In May called 'Bunnies in the Blackberries' Zipper Pouch. It's a gorgeous design, as are all of Melissa's, and as I shared my win with my beautiful friend Joy, we decided to stitch it together in a virtual stitch along. We were joined by another good friend, Miche'le from NZ who'd bought the pattern, so we've been stitching along together getting it done. I was a little slow in starting with all the things going on, but I began it Friday night and I'm really pleased with my progress.....
Isn't it cute??? I just love bunnies and as we can't own them up here in Queensland, this is the closest I'll get. When I was a child living in Victoria, we used to have bunnies as pets then, but seeing as I've been a Queenslander since I was 13, that has been an eternity ago. So before too long we'll all have bunnies hopping about in our sewing rooms! We'll be sharing our progress on our Facebook pages and I'm sure Instagram will get a look in too!
I'm so pleased with having another finish and another underway. Pop by HERE to catch up with the other ladies that joined in on Friday night to see what they got up to.
Now for the draw. Seeing as I missed last month's (don't know how or why?) I'll do that one too!
Seems all I blog about these days are Friday Night Sew In sign ups. Not that my life is boring......it's anything but. There has been so much happening here of late, and not all of it good....mainly family health problems and work. I promised myself that this year's blogging would be better than last year's. I said that last year 'flew' by in a flash....this year seems to have grease on the skates even moreso, don't you agree?
I've decided as it's mid-year, I'm making a pact with myself to slow down and take time for stitching and blogging because it feels like there's a big chunk of my life missing and I want it back. That's what blogging and stitching does for me. I need some normality back to my hectic life, and if I don't schedule it in, I'm sure my levels of insanity will rise higher and higher and we don't want that!
So here's what I have done this month.....
A quilting friend of mine passed away from cancer two years ago and her husband recently asked me if I'd finish a quilt she'd begun to quilt by hand. I felt honoured but I'm not one to hand quilt so I was pleased when he said he didn't mind how I quilted it, he would just be happy to wrap himself up in his wife's love and to 'feel' her one more time.
She had begun to hand-quilt crosses through her nine patches and echo-stitch each pieced-section within each block and then again around the outside border of each block. She'd already done a couple so I finished them off, using my machine on a large stitch and the same coloured thread that she'd used, so you couldn't tell (too much) of the difference. I also stitched in the ditch around/through each block and stitched cornerstones in the four corners of the border fabric with perpendicular parallel lines of stitching around the border. I think she'd like it.....Milo does!
I didn't really realise till I threw the finished quilt onto the bed how big it actually was. It turned out it was a king size. Our bed is a queen and the purple borders hung generously over each side. I'm very proud to have been gifted the chance to pay it forward for this lovely couple. I'm sure Bob will be snuggling up warmly wrapped in Gail's love tonight now the nights are getting colder, even up here in the tropics.
We celebrated dad's 83rd birthday at the beginning of the month. He'd had a turn a couple of weeks before and they'd told us to prepare to lose him that night....he didn't go anywhere but stayed on stronger than ever and here we are, celebrating another milestone with him. He even sang happy birthday to himself! Love this father-in-law of mine to bits!
Now it's time to get ready for FNSI this month. I see I missed last month's draw so I'll do a double draw this month for two lucky FNSI-ers who will win a little something from me. Make sure you sign up below and let others know it's 'that time of the month'!
Now for me, it's time for bed! Sleep tight and dream sweet dreams of your Friday night stitching with us!
xox sugary sweet hugs :o)
Can you believe it? This year is scooting by faster than last year, I'm sure!
What have I been doing? Well, a little EPP, some stitchery, some hexies for swaps and quilting a dear friend's quilt (who has since passed away) for her husband to snuggle under to be closer to her.
I've also pieced some blocks for a pineapple quilt I'm making for my DIL-to-be but it's all come to a standstill this past two weeks as I've been working full time 6 days a week while the boss took her holidays. I didn't stop to take photos of it all but you can see some of the progress.
Sunday I had a day off, that just happened to coincide with dear Mr B's, so we decided to go on a road trip. We travelled up to Tully where we had an impromptu meet-up with my cousin, who lives in Cairns. From there, we travelled to Mission Beach (I hadn't been there before) where we had lunch, spent some time catching up on the goss, and then we headed home - her northward-bound and us southward.
Along the road home, we stopped at a few roadside stalls and picked up some fresh papaya (pawpaw), avocado, pineapples, rambutan, dragonfruit and some bananas....gorgeous fresh 'cheap' tropical fruit. We'll be eating nice healthy fruit salads this week.... yummo!
Looking up into the mountains, you can still see the remnants of stripped trees from Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Mind you, it's not all bad.....the improvements that have been made since then to the roads and to the Cardwell foreshore are just wonderful.
So now that brings me to here and now....and that it's time for our Friday Night Sew In sign ups once again.....and I must say, my favourite time of the month!
I would love it if you joined in with us. Just sign up below so we can visit you and cheer you along and I'm sure I can find a sweet little prize for one lucky FNSI-er!
Must be off....work again in the morning and the kittens are climbing all over me trying to entice me to bed.
We had 28 at our little virtual sew-in on Friday night and what fun we had!
I managed to get caught up on some hexi-love.
I'm part of an online hexi swap and I thought it might be a good idea to get some prepared ahead, for those times when I can't manage to get them done on time!
I enjoy handwork in front of the tv....it's always relaxing.
I'm sorry it has taken me a week for the draw but since we've had internet problems and the storm knocked out our power and I had to reformat my computer, I've had issues with uploading and resizing my photos. I think I've got it sorted now!
I also noted that I missed the draw for the last month's FNSI so I'm going to double up this month. I'll do a draw for February and a draw for March. Then hopefully I'll be set to have everything in order from here on in! *fingers crossed*
Here we go.....
February's FNSI saw 33 ladies joining in and Mr RNG was busy picking a winner......
I hope you're enjoying a very restful, blessed and safe Easter break....and for those of you who believe, keeping in mind the reason we have this very special celebration in the Christian calendar...the very generous gift of life so that we might live.
I thought you might like to see who likes to help me these days when I'm blogging.....
It seems I can't get near the computer without Milo, who continues to grow each day.
Our babies had the last of their needles this morning when our resident travelling vet came over. Dr Kate was shocked to see how much they'd grown with Mocha now 2.4kg and Milo a hefty 2.8kg. They've developed their own personalities now.....Milo is my boy....he loves cuddles, being close by and nibbling on my necklace. Mocha, on the other hand, is Mr B's girl, an independent tomboy who loves rough and tumbles and hunting geckos, even though they're on the outside of the window! It's lovely to watch their personalities blossom as they grow.
It's so nice too, to be able to be connected again. I've missed blogging. It's so strange not having internet as we become so reliant on it....how on earth did we function before!? Mind you, our phones weren't dependent on internet service, home or mobile. Although mobiles didn't exist then, we could still get in touch with the old dial phone. Sometimes I wonder whether we would be better off with the 'olden days', but then I think about blogging, and the inconveniences are worth the friends we make over the blogosphere, don't you think?
Which leads me to another cyber-get-together: our monthly FNSI.
Delayed due to the lack of connective fibres, but definitely not forgotten, nor will it be missed!
Make sure you sign up for this Friday night where we can stitch in the comfort of our jammies at home with a nice hot chocolate and a purring furbaby or two. Sounds just perfect to me. Will you join me? Sign ups are below. I'm looking forward to it!
My sincerest apologies but this one was out of my control
Our regular monthly FNSI will be held NEXT Friday 23rd March due to the fact I have only just got my internet back on this very minute (well, within the last 3 minutes!). I'll put the sign-ons up on Monday.
We have been without for nearly 4 weeks due to an NBN outage and after many calls to and fro with the provider, it was found to be a fault in the NBN fibre which has only just been fixed.
Our little rural/regional area has limited internet at the best of times and our house seems to sit on a 'black spot' of internet connectivity, so when the NBN isn't working, the household stops! No internet means no phone, no Netflix, no blogging, and limited facebook and Instagram.....and Pinterest is out of the question! It's a hellhole! (what DID we do pre-internet???)
Hubby was out talking to the guy fixing the connections and he said there were broken wires within the fibre but now they are all good and we should have no further problems PLUS, the bonus.......our internet speed has doubled!!! So blogging will be soo much easier from here on in!
Have a fab weekend. I'm off to my son's and daughter-in-law to be's engagement party tonight! They grow up way too fast don't they?
Can't wait to stitch with you next week!
xox sugary hugs :o)
