finding my way back to normal... or not! :)

Hello my friends-

Before leaving, Terry still squeezed in some time to teach me the basics of Felting. She also gave me her opinion on some quilts I was planning. This Dahlia was part of a hand-stitching class I had taught a few years back. And we were so happy to see it transform, in a matter of hours, into a beautiful quilt top for Victoria's Basics, before her departure.

Backlighting makes this Dahlia look like stained glass!

Thanks Diana for the wonderful tip of using my walking foot for machine applique.
It really worked!

I continued working on it some more this week, and started machine quilting it yesterday. It's been such a joy working to work on, and I think she is going to be a beautiful addition to someone's life in New York City.

Farmer's wife blocks are still getting happily hand-stitched around here. I seem to have found a groove that works. I mark a few blocks in advance and store them in between the corresponding pages of my book. This way when I have a chance, I stitch! :)
 

 This week I worked on quite a few teeny weeny half-square triangles. Most of these were made 'on the go' or in the car. These made Camelot's HST feel 'normal' size in comparison, and so I resolved to spend some time this weekend to mark some more to continue Camelot.

 We had lovely birthday celebrations this weekend. In my family we passed a bylaw long time ago, that birthdays are 3 day celebrations. And for the last few days the boys and I have been having fun planning a little birthday school-party for their friends this morning. There was cake, there were treat-bags, there was jelly and loads of fun!

Used a little of Terry's Block printed fabric for a centre.
The best souvenir of our wonderful visit!

My little stash of FW's  keeps growing: 26! Only 75 more to go.
-but that green pinboard is not very flattering!

 I was finishing this block this morning, while waiting for the boys to finish school, when we received the sad news of our great-aunt Sophia's passing away. She made me feel so special and welcomed when I first moved to Cyprus. Always insisting I sit next to her at family functions 'so she could practice her English'- and after a while she invariably would switch to French, and so forced me to practice my elemental french from school. In later years she would encourage me to speak greek and would patiently wait for me to find the right words to say. She had been an illustrious teacher, loving mother, aunt and grandmother to us all. A Kyria (lady) in the real sense of the word. She is the last of that generation to leave us. We will miss you, Yayia Fifi. May your memory be Eternal!

And last but not least, a very warm Thank you to Wendy; your emails made my day! :)

wishing you all a wonderful weekend and even though ours will be a sober one, I hope there will plenty of time for stitching.
:)

Oh I nearly forgot!
These are the two Farmer's Wife blocks that I couldn't upload last week!

Looking forward to visiting Kathinca, Marga and Nadine and seeing for their FW blocks are progressing.