FNSI-Part 2-Cornelia

Sorry this post is a day late, please scroll down to read mums post too :)

Here are the results of my Friday Night Sew In and some sewing I did yesterday also.
On Friday night I sewed together the last four strip blocks for the Janelle Wind Candy Girl quilt I am making.  My husband and I also watched a movie so I did some hand sewing on one of the flower blocks.  So far I have finished 6 of them and have 4 more to finish.  Yesterday I trimmed all the blocks ad fixed a mistake I seemed to have made, and cut out the scallop blocks.  Here are some photos :)

I should spend some my afternoon tidying the house and doing some school stuff, but I have a feeling this is going to take priority instead, it is way more fun!  I hopefully shall have some more things to share over the next week or so that I have been working on recently.

Happy Sewing
Cornelia

FNSI - Blog No. 1 by Corrina

Here I am back again after a few months absence from blog land and I thought I’d put in words a little bit of why there has been such an absence of blogging.  Our last blog was celebrating a very special day in our lives - Cornelia’s wedding.  Part of that celebration included the fact that my husband (Cornelia’s dad) was able to walk her down the aisle as he was deteriorating in health.  It was a goal that he was aiming for and he did it.

However he deteriorated very quickly after that and I was very busy looking after him and trying to keep up with my work as well so there was very little time for sewing.  I did manage to make a birthday present for Cornelia and it was the last thing that I made that dear Winston had an input into.  He has always helped me with colour choices and coordinating colours and so my memories of making this are very special. Here it is, a very funky apron made in Dr Seuss material...

It was a Natalie Ross pattern, only typical of me it didn’t end up quite like the pattern.  The pattern had binding around the edge but I wanted a frill and it wasn't gathered along the top and I thought it looked nicer on when it was gathered, so I gathered it.  Cornelia and Dean received quite a few wedding gifts for their kitchen that were in red so this coordinates nicely with their new kitchen theme.

I continued to nurse Winston until he died on the 31st of March.  I nursed him all through his illness and was holding his hand at the end - just like we planned.  We had a lovely funeral for him which was a real celebration of his life and a testimony of his faith.  It’s been an awful time of adjusting for me and I miss him terribly. Cornelia has had a lot of adjusting to do this year too with just getting married in January, moving into a new home with her husband, starting a new job and in amongst it all losing her father.  I am so glad we have a faith to hold onto and I just want to share with you two things.  This little poem that was given to us by a friend:

‘Sorrow and joy woven together with the mundane and ordinary form the fabric of our lives,

as contrasts in light and darkness bring depth to a picture, 

so do these seeming opposites bring depth and meaning to our lives’.

And this verse has been a source of strength and comfort:

‘So do no fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you and help you;

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’

ISAIAH 41:10

Although I have found comfort pottering in the garden, I have not been able to sew or do any form of crafty work and find myself just sitting there sometimes - doing nothing - which just isn’t me.  I bought a couple of new patterns in the hope that that would inspire me, but it didn’t.  However I went for a drive to Wainuiomata to see Cornelia last weekend which for us in New Zealand was our Queens Birthday weekend.  For those of you not from New Zealand it’s about a 7 or 8 hour trip depending on stops on the way.  It was lovely to see where Cornelia lives as I hadn’t been able to visit her since she got married. Cornelia, bless her, got me going on some sewing - an angel project tote, a design by Natalie Bird from ‘The Birdhouse’ (there’s a photo of it a bit further down in this post).  I also got to see her at work in her classroom and really enjoyed meeting the children that she teaches.  Here she is taking the roll in the morning and working with a reading group...

I left at play time to drive back to Hamilton and apparently the children were most disappointed that I’d gone home and all asked Mrs Scott where her mummy had gone - so cute!

I think I’ve got my enthusiasm for sewing back and I know that Winston would be pleased.  He was always so proud of my sewing and always liked to see me busy making something.  Also, our church has decided to run a PhD night (projects half done) once a month.  We love the name as this is the nearest we’ll get to doing a PhD - haha!  The ladies there have also been wonderful in helping me get back my enthusiasm for sewing.  We had our second PhD night last night.  There’s only about six of us so far attending but we do have a lot of fun chattering over a cup of tea/coffee and homemade cake, oh and sewing too of course :o)  I did some stitching on my angel tote bag that I started with Cornelia.  Here it is so far...

Cornelia registered us for FNSI and I really enjoyed my evening.  My niece Taya is having a birthday soon and so my FNSI project was a little purse for Taya, which is also a Natalie Bird design.  I think it’s rather cute.  Last year I made Taya an overnight bag (it is on a previous blog post if you want to look at it) and this little purse is in the same material as her bag.  I just have to do the lining for it.  I think if I made it again I would put a little taggy thing at both ends of the zip because you sort of have to squash the purse to do the zip up once it’s open and it would be easier to have the little tag to hold onto.  

That’s it from me for now - take care. 

Corrina

FNSI January 2012

I’m very excited to be able to participate in the FNSI.  It’s just me (Corrina) participating as Cornelia is just returning from her honeymoon today.  Before I share my sewing from last night I would like to share the exciting news of Cornelia’s wedding.  Here I am, a very proud mother of the bride with Cornelia.

These are just snaps that my sister took.  I can’t wait to see the photographer’s photos and will post some on our blog once we receive them.  I included a photo of Dean’s mum and myself lighting the candles as it is a good one to show Cornelia’s dress and Dean looking extremely handsome in his suit.  I love the way he is looking at his beautiful bride in this photo! 

Here is a photo of Cornelia and Dean cutting their wedding cake and I included this photo because Cornelia made the wedding cake which was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing and fondant on the top.  I just love the flower pattern on the fondant.  We went to the cake shop to get the fondant and ended up buying this really cool stencil that you roll the icing onto to imprint the pattern and then you just put it on the cake - brilliant!  She also made 80 cupcakes and iced them too.  She was a very busy bride to be the week before the wedding which by the way was on the 7th of January.

I was also a very busy mother of the bride because in a moment of madness I decided to make a little gift for each of our guests at the wedding.  I made these little coasters - a plain one for the boys and an embroidered one for the girls.  Laraine from Up in Annies Room (in Australia) laser cut all the little names for me and then I just sewed them on each coaster.  Instead of having name plates on the tables at the reception each place setting had a coaster as their name plate.  You should check out Laraine’s website as she makes really neat buttons and has other things as well.  Here is a link to her website:  http://www.anniesroom.bizland.com/, she is such a lovely person and even made some last minute names for me right on Christmastime - bless you Laraine.

Cornelia and Dean together made a bunting to hang behind their table at the reception so you can see that there has been a lot of creative things happening in our household since the announcement of their engagement at the end of April last year.

And then, besides all of that without Cornelia knowing I made a quilt for them but I can't show you any photos of it because I forgot to take a photo of it - silly me!  I’ll get her to take a photo of it and will put it on our blog at a later date.

Now to my FNSI project.  We have a little nest of tables that has a large table with four little tables that fit underneath.  A year or so ago I crocheted a nice doily for the large table and I thought that I would make pretty little doilies for each of the little tables and here it is, one doily completed, four to go.  Here is my photo:

And a close up of the embroidery...

It’s been great to be part of FNSI again and I am looking forward to seeing what you all have been doing last night, and perhaps to developing new friendships along the way.  I found a quote from William Inge who wrote ‘the happiest people seem to be those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing’. It is great to be happy and producing something!  I hope you have all enjoyed your sewing night.  Until next time.  Corrina