A sparkling finish

Today I attached the last of the beads and the crystals to Chatelaine's Sparkling Peacock Mandala. Now I have an empty set of scroll rods to start the Moss Garden!

And our furry friends are waiting for someone to open the door to the garden.

A sunny day in the garden

 

On the sunny spring days of last weeks we allowed Pilou and Donald to discover the back garden.
Surprisingly Donald was very confident and went for a long walk as soon he was outside. Pilou frequently came back to check if the door was still open and was frightened by all kind of noises.

 

The boys enjoyed the sun and the sand!
The stones mark the places where we burried Julius and Cleo...

 

Pilou started chasing all kind of things when she felt more comfortable in the garden. We thought a jay was a bit ambitious, but she decided to go for it.

 

 

I also stitched some more of the Sparkling Peacock Mandala. This part is finished by now, exept for the large crystals.

 

 

And last week the postman brought the kit for the Japanese Moss Garden Mandala I ordered from ECC. After a long time mom finally sold the old house and gave all her children and grandchildren a part of the money. I decided the Moss Garden would be a good remembrance to the old house and it's lovely garden filled with adventures and promises.

 

October IHSW

 

During the October IHSWeekend I finally finished Chatelaine's Herbularius! It really is time for a trip to the framer again. Because it is vacation over here I'll try to go at the end of this week and take Herbularius and Spring Knotgarden with me.

 

I also stitched some leafs of the Fire Lilies. I'll continue with the lovely coloured flowers.

 

 

Last week Donald and Casper have been to the vet's again. Donald left three very bad molars with big holes and infected roots when I took him home. Poor cat! He must have had a terrible toothache! And Casper had an echo of his heart which showed the HCM got worse. He is on medication now and is breathing with less noise and shows more activity. We'll see what future will bring.

 

Thanks for your lovely coments on previous posts.

Hortus Viridarium part 3

Part 3 of Chatelaine's Hortus Viridarium is finished. I didn't attach the crystals yet, because they will probably catch threads while I stitch the next parts. Now I am doubting between stitching the next part of the Fire Lilies or finishing Herbularius.

@ Gio: a huge amonut of  rice stitches, 224 in total!

And especially for Joyce: a picture of all three cats. I had to persuade them a bit with some delicious tinned catfood ;o)

Thank you very much for your kind comments. They are much appreciated!

Watergarden and a huge quilt top

It has been quite a while since my last post. How time flies!!
I stitched a lot of Watergarden as you can see. Only the water on three sides, a row of bricks, some fan shaped things around the centre part and a lot of beads and crystals have to be done and another Chatelaine is finished.

I also finished the Civil War Chronicles top! It is HUGE!!  The finished size is 108 by 108 inch.

Casper thought the top was a cosy bed while I was attaching the borders.  

All the cats are doing fine and get settled and get used to each other.

These starlings are gathering on top of the neighbour's roof before starting their journey to warmer regions. They are so funny to watch, because they always argue about the best spot on the roof.

Thank you for all your lovely and inspiring comments!

CWC again

During the weekend I cut all the pieces of the Civil War Chronicles Quilt month 12. 

Today I patched the first of the 6 inch square border blocks. The first of 68 blocks!

Part 9 of Herbularius is making slow progress. I still have to finish part 10 as well and tomorrow part 11 will be published. And new parts of a lot of other Chatelaines I am stitching.

We caught Casper while he was trying to escape to the garden. We never thought he'd manage to squeeze his body through the gap.

 But he did!

Thank you for your visits and your lovely comments.

Hermitting

I had a very productive hermit weekend and stitched a lot of Herbularius part 6. These are the arches on the left side, but I rotated the picture.

While I was stitching Casper decided it was time to do some proper cleaning.

The hole in the terrace is caused by a leakage in the underground part of the rain water pipe. Loads of sand have been flushed under the house and the hole turned out to be much bigger, something like four tiles. DH did some digging and decided he'd better call a plumber to resolve the problem. Thank you very much for your concern. It was a scary experience and I realize I could have been hurt badly!

Herbularius problem solved!

Abi and Joyce will send parts of their Eterna 4220 skeins, so we can finish Herbularius part 2 without frogging and searching for a substitute. Thank you so much for your great help, Joyce and Abi! And also thanks for the supporting and encouraging comments. I am very pleased we could solve this problem in this way.

Because the postman brought me the package with month 8 of the Civil War Chronicles BOM, I decided is was time to finish the month 7 blocks. I made four of these blocks.

And of course my hairy helper kept an eye on what I was doing.

Then I found a box with fabric and threads of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Club 2011 and started stitching. I hope the next part of three will be shipped this month.

OOPS!!!

Yesterday I discovered I've completely missed the second page of the 'online 61 flowers complete' file!! So I could have stitched the jessica flowers without any problem and without making all the fuss. Thank you very much for the support in your comments. The flowers are finished now and I also added the beads and crystals. This afternoon I put the Fairy Garden back on the frame again.

When I refilled the container Casper discovered the land of milk and honey for cats.

More CWC quilt

As you can see I've got a big hairy assistant while I am working on the blocks of the Cicil War Chronicles quilt.
After his hypo Casper doesn't need insulin anymore and his bloodsugar levels are staying very low. I even have to give him some suger through his tinned food from time to time. There is no explanation for this, except for the fact some cats start producing insulin by themselves again after some time. Cats are mysterious creatures!

The blocks of the centre part are assembled now. And I also joined one of the corner parts already.

Mom is going to move again: last week she got another room in the old people's home. This is a room in which she can stay permanently. Actually it is a small apartment with a livingroom with kitchenette, a bedroom and a bathroom. She is contented and glad she doesn't have to stay another winter in the old and cold and lonely big house. So next week we'll have to get some furniture and other things from the old house and get mom settled in her new home. She is already very busy with a new social life and racing on the corridors with her walker.

Update Civil War Chronicles quilt

Month 1 and month 2 are finished as you can see. Also two blocks of month 4, they are placed above. I have cut the patches for one month 3 block and I am sewing loads of triangles to squares at the moment.

Thank you very much for the good wishes and healing thoughts you have sent to my mom. She was doing much better after a few days, but was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday evening with a TIA. Fortunately my brother was still with her. After a brain scan, which didn't show any damage, they were sent home by ambulance at half past eleven in the night! Now my sister is there too and they are organizing a room in an old peoples' home. Temporary at first, but we think it is best for mom if she moves from the big old house she lives in now. Mom had her name put on a list already some years ago.

Casper had a hypo on Tuesday evening (scary!!), but he recovered quickly when I gave him sugarwater and food. Because bloodsugar levels stayed low while I didn't give any insulin and he kept behaving a bit weirdly, I took him to the vet's yesterday afternoon. They kept him for observation. The vet thinks he is producing insulin by himself again. Cats can do this! So I can take him home later today. No more insulin and observe what happens. If he starts to drink a lot or behave oddly I have to check his sugars and call the vet. I really do hope next week will be a bit more quiet.

@ Lissanne: My sewing machine and I have the same problem. I sew all my quilts by hand, except for the binding.

Fairy Garden again

There is still a lot of stitching left to be done as you can see. I'd like to finish the top part, which is most plants and the doilies in the left corner. But the scrolls in the centre stitch up very easy for a change. And when the big plant and the doilies and dragonflies on the right side are stitched I've done another major part of this design. Perhaps I could do a bit of every part.....

A picture of the blue plants around the scrolls in the centre.

Unfortunately the growth on Julius side is back and growing fast. Because he doesn't like it when it is touched I've started to give him a pain reliever every morning. There is nothing else we can do after several surgeries. Nothing but keeping him comfortable and love and cuddle him as much as we can.

Casper is doing well and much more active after we increased the amount of insulin again. He probably will need a higher quantity, because he still drinks more then he should do. Within two weeks he'll have another bloodtest.

It looks like poor Cleo is neglected, but she gets her daily portion of quality time with DD because she prefers to lay om DD's bed or desk within reach area.

Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments on the dragonflies and other posts.

My Garden top

Thanks to Anne Marieke, who was so kind to send me some more of the green fabric to complete the outer border, I could finish the top of this lovely quilt. And again I did forget to place the buttons before I took a photo!! The creases in the outer border will be gone when the quilt is stretched. Now I am going to search in my stash for batting and a piece of fabric for the backing. This one is going to be a hanging quilt. But I do use quilts on beds and on the couch when it is cold.

Because of the beautiful spring weather I felt like stitching flowers instead of the Winter Watergarden trees. So I got the Fairy Garden Mandala on the frame after a long time! It is very nice to work with all those lovely colours again.

It looks like Casper is doing better on the new quantity of insulin. Next week we'll do another bloodtest to see if we will have to adjust once more.

Summer Knotgarden: another part done

The NPI thread came by post on Saturday, so I could finish all the flowers of part 5 of the Summer Knotgarden. I love the tiny pink jessica's on the corners. Here is a photo of the top row of flowers. Both pictures are a bit dark because the flash light didn't work for some reason I don't know.

I have to give Casper more insulin, because the blood test showed not enough improvement on the dose he got the first two weeks. We'll do another test when he has had this new amount for three weeks. He has some more energy now and likes to play with his favorite ribbon again.

The red bridge will stay this red. And the walk on the dike is to the right when I leave our house. The city centre is ten minutes by bike in the opposite direction. We do live on a beautiful location!

Bumblebee and walking

Yesterday DD made this beautiful photo of a bumblebee. She wanted to take a picture of the Helleborus flower and got the bumblebee by coincidence!

No stitching pictures in this blog. I did make a lot of progress on Summer Knotgarden, but ran out of one of the NPI's. As always the frustrating 30 centimeters. I ordered a new skein and hope it will arrive soon. While waiting on this I made another stitchery block of the Lynette Anderson's 'My Garden' project.

Instead of stitching I'll show you some pictures of my favorite walking trip. It is a tour of about 50 minutes and part of it is on the dike of the river IJssel.

On the next photo you can see the new railroad bridge. I think it is very red and doesn't fit in the landscape! As always there are many very different opinions about this item.

Mostly there are some hares playing and running in the grasslands here. And there are lots of different birds now. During the winter there are many geese.

A road with old poplars. There was a stork's nest in one of them, but they have moved house.

At the end of this road is the city again. I turn to the left there and continue my walk on a cycle path. With some luck I can see roe deer in the shrubs on the left. There also are roe deer in the grasslands close to the dike. Probably it is the same herd.

Casper had a check up at the vet's yesterday. She was very content about how he is doing. Tomorrow afternoon I'll get the results of the bloodtest and depending on this we'll see how much insulin he'll need.

I noticed I have 100 followers now!! I was very suprised to see so many of you find my blog interesting enough to follow. Thank you very much! And also thanks for all your lovely comments.

Summer Knotgarden part 4

Another part of this Chatelaine mandala done. The lamplight and the shade of my hand caused the colour difference on the left side. The fabric is antique white linen. I am going to continue working on this project, because I'd like to see how the flowers of part 5 look like when they are stitched.

Casper is doing much better now and gives you a lot of purrs to thank you.

Mini Mystery 01

Another Chatelaine finish! Mini Mystery 01 'Amber & Aquamarine'. It is the first one of a series of four. I hope the second one will be released in April, but untill now I haven't seen it mentioned on the Chatelaine Message board. Anne Marieke signed me up for this pattern. Thanks again: I really enjoyed stitching it!

And here is the first row of Henrietta Wiskers blocks.

Casper is doing fine right now and behaves almost normal. After two days of piercing his ears the vet had enough information to stabilize his insulin amount for the next two weeks. We both are very happy with this decision! I only have to check his sugar level when he is behaving very weird (hoping this won't be necessary!). And he isn't angry at me any more!! He is purring and asking for attention and sleeping on my desk again. Thank you very much for your support!

Henrietta

The third block of the Henrietta Wiskers BOM is finished too.

I am giving insulin injections to Casper for two days now. He is drinking considerably less than before, so the stuff is working. Now we have to find out how much insulin he needs to keep in balance. So I have to check his blood several times during the day. I really hate to pierce his little ears! But I know I'll have to do this for some time for his good. To leave him at the vet's in a cage for some days is also possible, though I dislike this as well. I hope he won't stay angry at me.


Thank you for your lovely and comforting comments.

Sofie

This is Sofie, the cute crow on the second block of the Bunny Hill Designs 'Henrietta Wiskers' BOM project. Block three has been released last weekend and I have assembled the block already. I still have to add all the appliqué pieces: Henrietta herself again as on the first block.

Today I have brought Casper to the vets for an examination. He was not feeling well during the weekend and loosing weight. The vet discovered he has a fever and a lot of noise in his lungs. So they are going to examine a bloodsample and take X-rays of his chest. I can take him home and get the results later this afternoon. I really do hope it is not very disturbing!

-------

Casper has diabetes!

Tomorrow I'll get instructions how to give him insulin twice a day. And also the kind of behaviour I have to watch carefully and instructions how to act when there is a problem.

I hope we can get him tuned(?) soon: he'll feel much better then!

Poor cat!

The new room

Some pictures of the new room, which is almost completely finished and furnished by now.
On the front side of the house there is one window.

Today we did add a part to the bookshelves. Now I have more space for my collection of picture books. And loads of other books.

DH did hang the lamp. And I put up a quilt to reduce the resonance, so the room doesn't sound like an empty cave anymore. In future this quilt is going to be to be replaced by the Tail Feathers quilt.
It is a lovely light and spacious room. As you can see I am already using the huge table to work on the Tail Feathers quilt.

Casper was very pleased with the packing paper of the bookshelves.