south africa part 3

I loved the different markings on the giraffes and zebras.  The first photo was taken in Zambia.  We stayed at the Royal Livingstone hotel which is right at the top of Victoria Falls, and in the grounds they have giraffe roaming around (as well as a zillion monkeys).  This giraffe was so comical - the top of his head must have been itchy and he was trying to scratch it on a tree branch.  The giraffes we saw here were quite a different colour to the ones we saw in South Africa.

Our driver in Kruger told us that giraffe can be really curious, and we noticed that whenever we saw a group of them there was always one or two that watched what we were doing.  We thought they must  have been the group's lookout.  Apparently this does play a big part, but some of them are just plain nosey!

We saw lots of giraffe and zebra.  Of course everyone on the tour took heaps of photos, which amused our tracker enormously.  "All this excitement just for a couple of zebra" he said, shaking his head.

south africa part 2 - the rest of the big five

Still in Kruger National Park, we saw all of the big five in one day.  That's elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo.  The elephant gave us a bit of a start.  We saw him about 100m away on a track off the side of the road.  We lost sight of him so our driver drove slowly along and as the road rounded a clump of trees, the elephant came round the trees from the other direction.  We startled the elephant and he trumpeted and flapped his ears and did a little mock charge, which of course made everyone in the vehicle jump!  One of the ladies in our group was videoing and when she replayed that bit of the video, she'd captured the sound of the elephant very well but the only vision she got was the bottom of her husband's trouser leg and the floor of the vehicle (the elephant scared her so much that she'd dropped the camera).

Apparently we were very lucky to see a couple of leopards out in the open right near the road as they can be quite elusive.  One wasn't particularly worried, but one looked at us then decided to retreat further into the bush.  Beautiful animals!

We were also very lucky to see a female white rhino and her calf.  We watched them for about 5 minutes or so before slowly moving off to let them eat in peace.

south africa part 1 - the lions!

The highlight of any trip to South Africa is probably the animals.  While we were there we had a couple of days in Kruger National Park, which was absolutely wonderful!  On one of the game drives we came across these lions - 3 adult females and two cubs, one was about 6 weeks old and one about 3 months.  They weren't at all worried about the vehicle being so close.  They just looked at us for 5 minutes or so, then decided to get up and amble past us and wander up the road for a while.  It was just magic!  We followed them for about 20 minutes before they headed off the side of the road and into the bush.

We saw the male lion on one of the other game drives.  He wasn't really interested in moving either.  He looked like he'd had a good feed and was content to sleep in the sun.

It's been a while...again!

I can hardly believe that it has been over a year since I wrote on my blog.  It seems to have been a busy year but I don't actually have much to show for it. 

We had our ensuite totally ripped out and a brand spanking new one put in during Jan/Feb.  It's a lovely light room now, which we definitely couldn't say before.

We went to Melbourne in April to the Australasian Quilt Convention.  I did a 2 day class with Rosalie Dace, which I enjoyed very much.

We had a wonderful trip to South Africa in May, with a couple of days in Zambia to see Victoria Falls.  We came back with some magic memories and lots of photos of wild animals.  We managed to see all of the 'big five' and quite a lot of others as well.  My MS didn't give me too much trouble except for the fatigue.

We lost our beautiful fur-child in July.  He developed what the vet first thought was an abcess in his lower jaw, but it turned out to be cancer.  He was 19 years old.  Trev the Wondercat, we still miss you.

Another short trip at the beginning of October, to Adelaide for the inaugaral Australian Machine Quilter's Festival.  I really enjoyed myself - I had lectures with Kim Brunner, Pam Clarke and Anne Bright, and managed to spend a bit at the vendor's market.

We are in the midst of organising to have our kitchen totally renovated.  I think it will be happening at the end of March.  It was due to be starting next week but there's been a delay in delivery of some of the stuff we want.  That's okay - it gives me more time to empty all the cupboards!

I'll finish up with a photo of Trev in one of his favourite spots, sleeping in a sunbeam on a nice warm quilt!

city & guilds stuff - part 2

The next step was to slice the main piece again and insert the remaining smaller units.





Nance Crow has her quilts hand quilted, but I machine quilted mine. I haven't done much in the way of hand quilting for the last 10 years so it wasn't a difficult decision! She mainly uses straight lines or grids so that's what I did too.



After I'd finished the quilting and looked at it, I decided to do some little wavy, swirly bits in a few places.



I really enjoyed making this and I have a few ideas on how I can go further with this technique - all I need is the time coz I sure don't need any more fabric for it!

city & guilds stuff - part 1

One of the activities I had to do for my city & guilds course was to choose 3 internationally known quilters and make a little quilt based on their style. The first quilter I chose was Nancy Crow. I love her work, I find her inspirational. I decided to focus on her strip pieced quilts and tried to strip piece without it being anything like Nancy's work. I needn't have worried - mine is like kindergarten work to her wonderful quilts!

I wanted to use some of my hand dyed fabrics so I chose 3 of them as well as some quilter's muslin and a grey homespun.

I cut them into strips of varying widths then pieced them together into several different units.

Then sliced the biggest unit apart and stitched in two smaller units joined end to end.

More in part two...

Here's a few photos...

...but I still need to take some more photos of some of the stuff I've been doing since I last posted (in the dim, distant past).

Some friends came over to my studio one Saturday in August, and we had a great day playing with fabric and paint. My camera skills are definitely lacking because these are the only two photos that didn't come out blurry! The first photo shows Beryl and Anne and the second one shows Lynda and Edith, all hard at work.




I really enjoy the days we have these get-togethers. Having them here at my studio means that I can get the place ready over the preceding week, I don't have to travel anywhere with heaps of stuff and don't have to pack anything up at the end of the day to travel home again. The 'fatigue' part of my MS sometimes becomes overwhelming so being able to have playdays here is great.

This coming week I should be able to get some more photos organised and posted!

cheers
cat