Well, I haven't managed to post for the past few months. In mid October I went on a trip to visit my parents and spend time with my husband while he was away with work in Adelaide. The two week trip turned into a much longer time away.
On my last evening in Adelaide, my father fell over, broke his pelvis and was hospitalised. Mum is unable to live on her own so I cancelled my flight home and stayed longer. Dad became progressively more unwell and passed away on November 26.
My sister came to Adelaide to enable me to return home in mid November for my birthday and to attend my elder son Nat's graduation as a motor technician for Jaguar Landrover. The graduation took place at Luna Park in Sydney and was a wonderful evening.
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Nat after being presented with his certificate
at the graduation ceremony |
The day after the graduation was very busy. We were taken to visit the classrooms and workshops where the training took place, and then to the airport to fly home to Canberra. Upon arriving home, we had half and hour at home before starting the drive to Adelaide so we could be with Dad for his last few days. A very stressful time.
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| Greg having a test seat in a Jaguar |
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| Nat explaining things about another Jaguar to his father |
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| The sunset view on the Hay plain as we headed for Adelaide |
Both my sister and I as well as our husbands were with Mum when Dad passed away. Three years ago, Mum and Dad had arranged and prepaid their funerals which took a lot of the pressure off in the week after his death. The funeral was a fitting tribute to Dad and my husband received many compliments for the eulogy he delivered.
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| R.I.P. Dad - Richard S Knight |
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Dad's coffin in the beautiful funeral parlour at Harrison's Funerals
in Ridgehaven, South Australia |
We spent a few more days in Adelaide before heading home to Canberra, arriving on Saturday 7th December.
On 18 December, my younger son Bryan graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Information Technology. I was privileged to attend along with his wife Elizabeth. We had a celebratory morning tea early in the day at Adore Tea at Gold Creek. Bryan looked very regal as he wore the doublet and shirt from his wedding in August.
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| Bryan's graduation ceremony |
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| Bryan with his wife Elizabeth after graduation |
Christmas Day was a lovely time spent with both our boys and Elizabeth and her family at Bryan and Elizabeth's home.
We had another death in the family on 27 December. Our cat Smokey had become quite ill over the last few weeks before Christmas and needed to be put to sleep, a very hard task to do. We have had her cremated and she will join her playmate, Pierre, who passed away three years ago in the rosebed.
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| R.I.P. Smokey |
I have been doing some sewing over the past few months. The cross stitch I purchased at the Embroiderer's Guild exhibition was completed during my first week in Adelaide in mid-October. I have purchased a frame and need to lace the fabric onto some foam core also purchased.
I have been working on the hexagon tablecloth and now know I need to stitch on 2 more rounds to get it to the correct width for the table. Then it will be onto adding rows on each end to make it long enough. I received a gift voucher for my birthday in November and I purchased a piece of cream and blue floral fabric to use as an edging of hexagons.
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| Part of the blue and beige/cream fabric for the border |
I have been working on quite a few different projects, things that had been put aside and in some cases forgotten about.
I have done the embroidery (colonial knots for eyes) on 2 of the rows for the Canberra Quilters 2012 ROWmakers challenge. Only one row is left to complete now - I need to draw and embroider antennae on the butterflies and caterpillar row.
I located a buttonholed quilt called Calling all Angels from an APQ magazine that I began in 2003, 4 of the six large blocks were buttonholed, and just need the embroidery (words and faces on the angels doing). I completed the "moon" block buttonholing and have started work on the final (vine) block.
I will be flying to Adelaide next Monday to look after Mum for the next few months and have spent time preparing things to take with me. I will be taking my baby hexagons; a cross stitch kit my husband bought for me about 3 years ago called "Compass Rose" (all I needed to buy was the threads, all the speciality ones came in the kit); all the applique blocks I have part done or prepared to do (these are the final block in a Michele Hill William Morris quilt, 3 of the first 4 blocks for Esther Aliu's Forget Me Not quilt, a Cloves Wallhanging block from a class by Cathy Stevenson from many year's ago, and the last 3 of 12 blocks from a quilt called Stars in the Garden by Becky Goldsmith); the Calling all Angels blocks to complete; and one new project that I purchased the background fabric and interfacing for with a gift voucher from Christmas. It is Polka Dot Girls from Red Brolly. I have traced the designs onto the blocks and ironed on the interfacing, and pulled out threads from my embroidery floss stash to take with me. It sounds like a lot of stuff but I have chosen projects that are not cumbersome and will take time to stitch.
