Patchwork

Yesterday was my first lesson about patchwork.
I learned so much, but it was exhausting and sometimes confusing.
Colours are so difficult, I thought it might be the easiest part, but now I know it will be dificult to choose the fabric.
We learned how to draw a template correctly, also not as easy as I thought.
For next lesson we have homework: to make the templates for our top and buying and preparing the fabrics. I made a drawing in some colours and it is a real challenge!
Over all, I am very happy to have taken the lessons, at the other hand, I know I will say some bad words once in a while!
I also found the hexagons I was looking for, so for that I was happy too.

Zoo, BD card, Easter ornament

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day and DD and I decided to take the kids to the zoo on their school free afternoon. We had big fun seeing all the animals. Jell though had more attention for the tractors riding around then the animals. He loved the penguins the most. We discovered something unbelievable, hadn't we seen it, we simply wouldn't believe it. At the age of 10, Stein had his first grey hair!!!! DD pulled it out. Flegmatic Stein said to that 'thanks mum, now I get 2 insead the one you pulled out!'

The second BDcard of this month arrived, it was for Ingrid. We could choose what to stitch.

And my easter ornament arrived, now I can show it.

Tonight I'm going to attend my first patchwork class, I'm excited!

A walk to the zoo

What a wonderful day was thursday, so sunny and warm, spring finally arrived. I took a walk in the zoo of Antwerp. It was nice to have a stroll withouth heavy coats and gloves, hat and shawl. I went straight away to the elephants. Kai Mook is almost a year old now, I still remember her being born while I was watching the live camera on my laptop. She has become a nice little girl! The zookeepers were arranging flowerbeds and preparing the zoo for Easter, when the official zoo season opens (it is open the whole year though and I have a subscription for it, so I can go as often as I want).

Sonja had her birthday this mint, she wanted Country Companions on her card, so I stitched my favourite character from them, Tom Mouse. Another card is on its way for Ingrid.

And my siggie collections has grown once again as you can see.

Next week my first patchwork lesson is on, I'm excited, but alos a bit nervous, will my skills be good enough and won't I be too slow? Time will tell. I have experienced that quilters are patient people, so I guess I don't have to worry.

Painting

This afternoon I went to a painting workshop. I painted this highland bull. It will have a place in DH's pub, next to his beloved whisky's.
It's far from perfect, but I'm satisfied with it. I made appointments for two more workshops in painting as it was such a nice afternoon.
For the first time since DH's passing, I could concentrate on something without any further thoughts. I was really happy with the result and I felt happy over all. So this was really the first step into a 'next' life. It's difficult to explain, but I guess you understand.

A clown and a sock

Some more siggies arrived, lovely aren't they?

I didn't knit much on my sock this week. So I made a picture of it the way it is now. It is colourful, isn't it. I'm a bit excentric about socks (an other things). I always wear two different socks. OK, I hear you say, I do too, a left and a right one. But mine are different in colour. So, a blue and a green one, or a red and a brown one... It's funny to see people watch it and whisper to their friends in disbelief. Sometimes the urge comes up to make a funny face and speak very slowly :-)))

And then there is my little clown Jelle. Last saturday was carnival parade in Ekeren, where I live. It comes right before my door. In Belgium, we have parades on different dates. In our place it's always the first saturday of March. The two other boys didn't want to dress up, but they had blue and red hair colour. They didn't want to be on picture though.

Our Robbe was 9 yesterday, we had little meatballs with cherries in sirop sauce, a kind of 'national ' dish in our part of Belgium. It is the food he likes most. Birthdayboys and girls can choose whatever he wants to eat on their big day. They grow so fast!

The weather was sunny but cold the last couple of days, although on monday it was terrible, we had 4 seasons in a couple of hours! But it is so nice to see the sun, bright light and behind glass, you can imagine it's spring. When does it finally come?

Many siggies

This week was siggieweek! I received a lot of them and there are some more in the post. So I need to speed up my sewing. Until now I could cope with it and make some to send to people of my own choice.

But I need to do some cross sticht too, some birthdaycards need to be done.

My first sock is almost knitted. I will post a picture of it in my next entry (when I hope it is finished).

I got good news for the patchwork course. It will start at the end of the month, I hope I will receive the list of what we need soon, the preparation and the promise of going to do something really nice, can make you feel soooo excited!