French Braid Quilt

As promised.  These are the fabs that I will be using for my French Braid quilt that we started this morning.  There is a lot of cutting and I did not finish.  I will work on it this weekend.  Meanwhile, I had to give my legs a rest and will get back to the spiderweb again.

Good things

Made these last week.  Yum!!
Aren't they pretty!?  The kids put them in their lunch boxes and enjoyed them.

My lovely son...

Last weekend I went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner and found this from my son....

I'm here! I'm working!

Hi all!  I am here and working.  I saw a buddy Saturday and she said I haven't posted recently.  I felt so good that someone was looking at my blog and someone local from here in Oman.  Hi Najaat!  I will be seeing her tomorrow for our French Braid first class!  I am almost ready with all my fabs but just have to iron them all.  Of course, I have to wait to the last minute!  I will try to take one more shot before I pack them up.  I'm feeling over-full as I did not feel like cooking so we went out to eat at Darcy's; a very British little restaurant.  Nice.  Now, besides feeling too full (did I eat that much?) I feel nice because the kids are wrestling in the next room and are so funny.  It is so funny how loud they are when the TV is not on!  Ali has such an infectious laugh.  You know, that mischievous, naughty laugh!!  It makes my heart soar.  So, no pics for this post but wanted to let you all know that I am still here. 

Now here is the burning question that I have....should I post the pictures of my blocks as I get them done or just wait until the blimey spiderweb quilt is done! ??? 

Ok.  I'm off to iron tons of fabrics and am sooooo excited.  See you later...

Today's discoveries

Today, so far, I have been sewing and discovered Akon's BEAUTIFUL, FREEDOM and SUNNY DAY.  I never paid much attention to his music in the past.  Beautiful caught my attention and so I have been jamming to it while sewing.  I love my mornings!  He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where I was raised!  His father is a famous musician from Senegal!  

I was 'educating' the kids last night on the brilliance of Michael Jackson's uniqueness and raw talent showered to him by GOD!  How else is it to be explained?  I downloaded my all time fav song of his which is 'Don't Stop' and the kids saw his history making dance moves on the Motown 25 show of his performance of Billy Jean.  Wow.  Then Ali told me about the unit they are working on at school and how his lovely teacher showed the class a video on the amazing Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent 2009.  I hadn't heard about it so as I was downloading the video on You Tube, he was telling me that he cried inside (he was at school, don't ya know) and how one should never, NEVER ever judge a book by it's cover.  She floored me and I was a babbling idiot.  That, with little Connie Talbot and Andrew Johnston BGT 2008.  OMG!  I was exhausted by the time they went to bed and I had viewed these videos several times.  Even my hubby got teary eyed at the talent!  Go check them out.  First I have to find the videos!  Found them and linked them and am a mess again!  Let me know what you think!

My take on Orange

Last week the kids had their spring break.  Amal had a friend over and we all went to Cafe Ceramique, which is the local painting pottery joint.  I thought to myself, 'what am I gonna do??' I actually did not want to work on anything and wanted to attend the three kids but my little boy wanted me to partake so I did.  I made myself an orange bowl for my thread clippings and odd little bits of fabrics.  I kept missing the trash can below and there were threads everywhere and my vacuum doesn't like snippets or threads!!  So...  I used an orange with turquoise squares and trimmed in pink puffy paint.  I am thrilled with it!
My attempt at using all the colors the shop had to offer and much to the horror of the little guy running it that day.  I used puffy paint for my haphazard threads.  Love it!
And, what seems to be more snippets than threads here!!  Hmmm..  They are at the bottom!

Gulab Jamon

Here it is!  I made them!  They don't look all that appealing, but they are one of my favorite Indian sweets.  Yummy!  I was so excited that they turned out and my lovely SIL and BIL came over and took six for the two of them and ate them in the car!!  I was praised at how good they are and then started thinking, "two to three each person and there are around 25 in the family....how many cups would I need, yadda, yadda, yadda....".  I'm sure there will be a request at some point to make them for all.  I look forward to it!

I think I am ready to make some storage cubes!

I have been saving all my cereal boxes, cake mix boxes, anything of a decent size to use up in the storage cubes! I think I need to break them down now and prepare them and make some STORAGE BOXES! Hmmm....

Playdough Fun!

Ali and I made some green playdough for him the other day and then yesterday he wanted to make some playdough for his cousins that we are going to visit tomorrow. Adbul Azziz likes blue and yellow and Aasiya likes pink and purple. We had fun making it. Amal helped too. It was such a mess! I will be getting in the kitchen to learn how my SIL makes her Mutton Pulao and Gulab Jamon. Two Indian dishes. Yummy!

I'm not feeling too well today. I took some medicine and hope to be feeling better very soon.

I tried to cut down a spiderweb block but lost the point of the stars. I did not like that so I took apart one other block and cut the bias ends. I cut too much, still not sure exactly what I did, and it ended up 9.75". I want to tackle it and make some progress. You see, this is EXACTLY what I always do! I get stuck or distracted somehow and fail to finish. I am determined to finish the top to this quilt. You see, I desperately need to replace one of our lounging quilts and this is where this bad boy is going to go. I don't have much time as Amal has invited a friend to spend the night and I want to get ONE STITCH in before I hit the toilets and floors!! Thank God for leftovers! These two sentences should not be next to eachother!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Thanks to my dear friend Toni for sending this to me.  Enjoy!

This was meant to post two days ago...

Usually, after a feed, Uki likes to come over to me and cuddle. She makes 'biscuits' on me and then lays down and sleeps. Today, she came over to my desk and found my fabrics!
I went to the other side to snap a blurry picture and she came over to me.
She still followed me and was half on me and half on the table. She wanted to cuddle! Meanwhile, I am so into my production line of the WRONG SIZE paper foundations!! Waaaaa...
So, she goes back to the pile and starts making her biscuits.
She plopped down afterwards and took my space!
Ok. Cute, so I started to 'work' around her and she put her paw down! How cute!
Ok. I can work with this, let me just take one to sew! Hmmm, LEMME HAVE IT!!
This was all too much for her and she was exhausted! Since she couldn't cuddle with me, she ended up discovering my fabric stash and loved it! Here is the proof! Ooh, is that selvedge I see???

OH NOOOOO!! I'M SO BUMMED!!

More Spidey news. I made 14, FOURTEEN, segments yesterday! I actually sat down and took the time to organize it all instead of winging it with my mess. I got 14 chain pieced segments done. I was sitting down to watch the commentary of TWILIGHT with my daughter and was pinning the four segments together when THEY DID NOT FIT!!!!!! I printed one set of 9 pages to start with then went and printed 19 pages with the pattern. The second set of copies are larger than the first one. I haven't figured it out yet. Perhaps I will cut down the larger ones to fit the smaller ones once the block is complete. I am so upset. I had to hide it from my daughter cuz she kept pausing e-v-e-r-y scene to gush about Robert Pattinson (sigh!). I did not want to steal that from her so kept my mouth shut but was so bummed within. I'm a good mommy, aren't I!!!

Any suggestions???

I took the pledge!

Hi all,

I have been MIA for two days and am itching here!  I read the third installment to the TWILIGHT saga ECLIPSE.  It took me two days.  I am scared of Breaking Dawn.  It is HUGE!! Nonetheless, it has been fun.  I was blogging and came across this gal and decided to take the plunge to comment more on sites that I visit.  I still have to put a sidebar on the sites that I do visit now don't I?  I do look forward to getting comments and seeing people who join my followers.  I have three now!!  One friend that I know and two new people!  Welcome!  So here we go, off to work on that Spiderweb and then to take some photos of my Hardanger pink and white piece.  Also, I am waiting for the plumber to come and fix a pipe that my Ali broke!  He learned how to clean his toilet last night! Heehee, he broke the pipe!  So, the water is turned off until the plumber arrives.  My kids are off next week so my Amu is bringing a friend home which means momma has to CLEAN the house and cook and grocery shop!!  When am I ever gonna get to sew!!!  I have been neglecting my scrapbooking too!  Oh Dear!  I'm supposed to be with my group this morning but can't now that the plumber is coming and everything else going on that NEEDS to be done before 2!  Bye now!!!

Jennie Rayment Fabric Fantasy Class

Ok.  This photo hadn't loaded before.  This is the class I took two weeks ago now with Jennie Rayment.  It was a fun class and a fun idea.
Here is my piece that needs to be completed.  

Hardanger Embroidery

To see my latest completed piece, go here.  This was taken in 2008.  Here we have Rajashree, Anisa (sorry her eyes are closed!), Dee (visiting from Norway, she used to live here), me, Naina and Maya.

These are just some of the ladies from our Hardanger group that meets every Sunday.  Naina, Maya, me, my Mom!! (visiting for three months), Supriya, Megumi and Sandra.  We are all displaying or holding some of our work.

Megumi had just finished this beautiful table runner that took a very long time.  I thought she deserved her 15 minutes of fame and applause!

Another view of Megumi's work.

A serious close-up.  Isn't it beautiful!

Yeah!

Hi Everyone!  I have gotten 200 hits on my blog!  I'm so excited.  It feels like a small victory!  I take them when they come!  Thanks for stopping by and I would love some feedback but I realize that it is hard to set up to write so I am going to put my email on in a minute.  I finished dinner a bit early but the kids want to eat so once I hit send, we will do that then clean up and then I'll get back later tonight.

See you soon!

More Webs

I laid out my four completed blocks on the top row and then laid out the triangles just to get the image.  It was so exciting!  So, then I go to my desk to get my camera and low and behold! There is Uki!  I think she wants this for herself!  Check out the cool door stop.
I sat on the couch with my leg spread out on the arm and she just wanted to cuddle.  I was contemplating the design and my use of my scraps and all that when I shot this and it looks like she is looking at it too.  She already gave me her opinion!

I couldn't join my other inspirational blog ladies with this project as over here in Muscat, we don't use 8.5x11" paper.  We use A4, whatever those measurements are.  Longer and thinner.  I thought it would be too much trouble to go buy paper and cut out the millions of 8.5x11" papers to cut up again.  So, I went on the net and fervently looked and found this pattern.  I am squeezing more fabs than the actual paper piecing bit allows therefore customizing it to me.  It has been fun but I lost my legs a couple of times and although my work area is convenient; I must remember to get up and circulate!!  I'm really enjoying this.  I either watch or listen to a movie on my laptop or jam to my iPod which has been fun!!

My Spiderweb Quilt - Yet another new one!!!

Here they are! I have been busy this past weekend making these gems! What fun! As I would pull a scrap out; I would contemplate on where I have used it before. Nice memories! Made Chicken and Dumplings for dinner with an onion and cucumber salad. The kids loved it. They are taking the rest for lunch tomorrow! That is when I KNOW it is a hit!!
This is my work area! What glorious mess!
A slight turn to the right and there is my big black chair and my sewing machine and my laptop!

This is taking forever this morning!

I have spent far too much time this morning trying to upload and catch up!  I love it but am not going back to correct these mistakes!  This Reeces Cup is my reward today for working and getting a certain amount of tasks done.  Yipee!
Now that I am done on the computer, I will put in my beloved TWILIGHT and watch, ok, listen to it while I work.  Off goes the radio!  Have a great day everyone!

Peaches got shaved too!!

Got her!  She was so hard to capture on digital!  She was so incredibly matted that it hurt ME!  But then again, I am her Big Momma.  She seems happier now.  We are slowly trying to comb them to get them used to the comb again.

I'm back!!

We came here last weekend for golfing.  Then we went to Dubai!  
This man is so happy right here!
He set Ali up to hit balls at the range but then had to run to be on time for his T-time.  Then, I had to go and get him as for some reason, unbeknownst to me, he took Ali with him.
Here we meet up and Ali was putting his stuff in the back.  Then, it was girl time!

My 12 year old beauty!  What taste does she have! She LOVES Sushi.
She was being shy but I like the shot.  My baby girl!
My favorite salad besides my Mom's, is Caesar Salad.  I make a killer one!  This was lovely and there were capers and my girl kept stealing them from me!
Even the bread basket was so pretty!
I know this is blurry but you can see Ali driving up my hubby and Amal going to meet them.  "Hey, I wanna drive!!", says Amal.  "NOOOO!!!!", says Ali and she backed down.  Next time.
Ali spent the day driving the little cart around.  He felt go big driving his daddy around!  Amal wanted a piece of the action.
This was laid out in marble at the entry of the golf clubhouse.  it is outside that is why the dude was getting rid of the water cuz marble is SLIPPERY!!  I like this for a future, possible quilt for my husband.  Hmmm....
Another view from our balcony.
Yet another closer view of the pool area.
Here is Ali looking at our view from our hotel.  It rained the whole time but it was wonderful!
As we were driving to the golf course, we passed this building.  I read it as JUST FART TOWERS.  Oh my!  It is JULFAR TOWERS.  Funny..
Never have I seen so many camels in the almost 15 years in the Middle East.  I saw many more but couldn't get photos of them.  I think it is interesting how they form these lines.  They are not wild anymore here.
Yes!  We went to Dubai and saw the Cirque du Soleil: Alegria show!  Wonderful!  These are clowns taking their bows.  A more traditional looking clown was coming for the same.
This is some of the cast that came for their bows at the end of the show.  Not allowed to take pictures so this was at the end.  I'm a good girl!