The Circle of Life

 The circle for my Mum closed on Monday 14th December 2020. She had been in hospital for two weeks and did not respond to treatment for blood clots in the lungs so was looked after and kept comfortable until she passed. She was in a room on her own at the end with some lovely flowers and constant nurse attention. Mums wish through out her life was to go in her sleep and that is what happened, she was lucky. Mum was aged 95 and had a very healthy life. A little trip down memory lane

Auckland Zoo with Mum's mother.

Family friends and Mum's mother, Mum made our clothes for years so we were often dressed the same, same pattern different colours.

I think this was taken at the Katikati bird park in NZ.

Te Awamutu play ground, we had gone to visit a family friend in a home over there, so stopped to give the boys some play time before the visit. You can see from the photos which son was the listener and which was action man!!

I think this is in Kulim Park, a park down the beach from where Mum and Dad used to live, they often went there in the summer for jazz concerts.

 A birthday celebration at Mum and Dads house with Adam and Shane.

And this lovely photo was sent to me by the activities lady at the home, I found out recently they take a photo each Christmas and this one was from Dec 2019. I am so very happy to have it now.

RIP Mum.

FNWF

Another first Friday of the month has come and gone, but I think we can gather again next Friday for another evening of virtual sewing together. I got busy in the afternoon

some borders went onto the secret sewing project

The LOUD Japanese fabric got a black border

another block was made for the Sylvia's Bridal  Sampler , yes an easy one! Then I had to stop and get some dinner, no pizza delivery tonight, hubby had prawns (nasty smelly things) in basil pesto sauce with pasta and I had a gluten free pizza with ham and pineapple. Then we had a video call with #1 son...kind of lost the sewing mojo, but then  hubby started watching the football, an old game being shown as the current season is postponed for now, so that sent me back into the sewing room.

So I sewed some baby hexies  for the next Anthology block

and some more hearts. 

You can see what the other Friday Nighter's got up to over at Cheryll's blog.

The care home Mum is in are doing their utmost to keep families in touch while the home is in lock down, we have had a video call with Mum, very new technology for her and yesterday they sent a photo

Not a sentiment my mother has ever expressed to me but none the less wonderful to see. She is looking good for 94 years.

Right off to see what Saturday brings.

Happy stitching.

Life

is slowly getting back to normal, we came home to a beautifully clean home (many thanks Robyn and Dennis) and a very happy chowdy dog

as you can see the Supervisor is relaxing after his morning walk!!

Yesterday I did a little more  on the Christmas quilt, I hope to get back to that today

this is my progress with Doing the Rounds, all sewn down, the poor hexies looked a bit worse for wear after I had wrestled them off their card!! But they have ironed up and sewed down ok. Now to start fussy cutting the next lot of hexies.

I had a brain buster this morning and decided I needed somewhere to keep the little hexie bits once I had them cut, so I combined bits of idea I had seen around

two quilted and lined pieces of fabric that I had been going to make into a zipper pouch were zig zagged together and left over binding reironed and folded to cover the join.

zip lock bags placed along the centre, stick down with double sided tape...they are slippery little customers!!

another repurposed binding bit sewn down on the inside centre to hold everything in place

and binding sewn on..all ready to hand sew later.  it is a bit floppy but will do the job I need it to do so I am pretty happy with it.

While in NZ we met Mum while she was on an outing with some of the residents from the home, a cruise ship was in over at the Mount wharf, the idea was to have a fish and chips dinner and watch the ship leave at 6pm

serious business this fish and chips!!

Not the most flattering shot of Mum...the wind got up and the oldies got cold so they went back home, we found out later the ship didn't leave until 6.45, a bit late for everyone! One of the ladies, Willa, got into trouble for feeding the seagulls, she thought it was a great thing to do, but one of the carers discouraged her (many times) saying last time she did that several oldies went home with sea gull poop in their hair!!

Mount Maunganui from a different vantage point, there is a big cruise ship at the wharf but it is a bit hard to see.

I had a good find at the local supermarket

bags to put your fruit and veg in. Itried them out this week and apart from having to have them open so the check out person can see what is in them, they work really well and no plastic bags needed! 

I am off to do some more sewing and cutting.

Happy day.

PS. Just laid out and counted circles finished, total = 169!!

Pretty happy with that!!