Rain, rain and more rain

I don't mind the rain too much and although it has been cold, I'm lucky enough to be able to sleep in a warm bed and not have it rain on me. (It still appalls me every time I put my rubbish bags out on the pavement on a Monday and see the people going through my rotting garbage that we STILL have such vast economic disparity; that just a few kms further some people live in shacks made of twigs, mud, sheets of plastic and corrugated iron. Rain and wind wreak havoc on these dwellings. )

Several parts of the country are flooded, roads are breaking up, houses are swimming away, people are living in community halls... a friend sent these photos from other parts of the country.

The first 4 are from Port Elizabeth (East Cape) at the intersection of Kragga Kamma Rd & Circular Dr.



The next 3 are from the Kaaiman's River Bridge (Western Cape) near Wilderness.

Avoiding work

You Are: 10% Dog, 90% Cat

You are are almost exactly like a cat.You're intelligent, independent, and set on getting your way.And there's no way you're going to fetch a paper for anyone!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

A Breakthrough!

I'm back at work today after my first long weekend of many. What do I mean by this?

I have begun my NEW WORKWEEK! I have finally conceptualised and negotiated this after a long time (years) of feeling burnt out, not coping, always behind and dissatisfied with my life. As I've mentioned in my profile, I feel as though I am in "wage slavery" and wish I could be an artist full-time, but there's that little money/survival issue, not improved by my single-parent status. A multitude of things that have to be done add to the stressors, and I find I often have the feeling that I am just not coping, but being pulled on a rope behind a big truck going too fast.

I've also found that contrary to my expectations, my teenagers need me a lot. They don't need as much physically, but they need emotional care and a lot of *listening*, and I need to be relaxed enough to do that listening and around when they get to talking. My parenting is a big part of who I am and occupies (voluntarily) a lot of my thoughts and hours. While they are little you dream of all the time you will have free as they grow up and 'need you less'. Hahahaha. Not so. They need you less in many ways, but then need you more in other ways. (Perhaps we need that illusion while they are small!) They are very companiable at this age, I am finding that I WANT to spend time with them, since I'm aware that time is fleeting and they will soon be gone.

So a while back, I sat and did the exercise of "If I could have whatever I wanted and money was no object, what would I want?" I found that what I wanted most was TIME (to do all the things I really wanted to do). Ideally I wouldn't work and just have unlimited money etc etc. but then I did the next exercise, which is "Which of these things could I have *right now*, with just small modifications to my life?" Think compromise. And what I wanted was to reduce my working hours from full-time to a little less, but not part-time, which I cannot afford to do.

I sat and did sums for working 4 days a week, 3 days a week etc. I worked out that I could probably manage on a 4/5 salary - we will miss some things, but my quality of life will improve, to make up for it, and as I am happier, I will be more available for my girls. Happiness isn't in having more stuff anyways.

I first tested out the feelings of my boss by enquiring whether the option of a 4/5 workweek was available and he didn't think so. Then I said "So it's either fulltime of half-time?" He answered interestingly, I thought. He said "well, 4 days out of 5 would be better than half time".

I mulled it over for a few weeks until a number of things all piled together and convinced me that I HAVE to change something or I will be heading for an early grave. (I already suffer from underactive thyroid, high blood pressure and depression and landed in hospital last year with uncontrolled high blood pressure and uncontrolled headaches). And then I went to him (last week) and said "I *need* to reduce my working hours *somehow*". I put together the possible options and we discussed it and then -

-he accepted the 4/5ths!!!! I couldn't believe it!

I will take a 1/5 pay cut. We have yet to work out how it will impact on my benefits (medical aid, pension etc) but I have asked that they cut the housing subsidy first and the medical aid last. So I should be able to retain most benefits. My leave will also be cut by 1/5.

I take off fridays, which gives me a long weekend, EVERY weekend! I've only just begun, but coming in to work this morning, I just felt SO good. I got lots of backlogged stuff done on the extra day and even had time to just sit and blob a bit. We'll lose a few luxuries, but with both my mental and physical health at stake, I'm ok with that. I've noticed that both girls are getting a little overweight (we won't even talk about the body that I currently inhabit...) as I'm too tired to provide proper food, so I'll be able to give that some attention.

I think just one extra day a week is going to go a LONG way.... without landing us on the street.

I've thought for a long time that there should be more flexibility in our working lives, especially for mothers. Women should be able to job-share, where 2 people cover one job. We should be able to work 3/4 time and other permutations. This kind of thing is well recognised in Europe, but we lag behind here in South Africa. We need to set some precedents, so this kind of thinking becomes more accepted. Then both our jobs and our families can be accommodated and we can adapt to different stages, going back to full-time when less is needed at home.

I think I also realised that jobs come and go, and if I fall over dead they'll have me replaced pretty soon, but my girls will not replace me that quickly. They are what really matter to me. So I really hope this works out for us... and I am feeling a whole lot more positive about my job now (it allows me to indulge in my art AND still eat!)

Plus, I'll keep buying Lotto tickets - hey, *someone* has to win! I know that statistically it won't be me, but... dreams are free.

Life around the Quilts

A recent storm in our area. After torrential rain for days and days, many trees were unstable so when the strong winds hit, several trees cracked under the strain. (Fortunately my great oak is very, very well rooted and suffered no harm). We saw this as we drove home from my daughters' school:

Several homes have only had intermittent electricity and repairs are ongoing. Much worse off were some areas in the townships where homes were flooded.

And this be our precious ball of fluff. Cassie is the youngest addition to our very female (and moderately feline) family. She is 4 months in this picture (now 5 months) and a cheeky little delight, full of teeth and claws. We acquired Cassie after Claws (our other black cat) was run over by a car outside our house. I cried buckets, as did my daughter, to whom Claws "belonged". Our older cat, Abby, who is around 3 is totally unimpressed with this cheeky squirt and hisses and boos every time Cassie goes past. Sigh.

Another design exercise done

This was another of the design exercises. I didn't do much to it, just outline quilting and the couching of the yellow to focus on the main spiral.

More unfinished things

These are samples of 'made fabric', made from offcuts and bits of thread etc etc (I keep a huge jar by my sewing machine and everytime I snip a thread, I pop it in the jar). When there are enough, all the bits are sandwiched between 2 pieces of net, or sheers, or even net grocery bags, and then one free-motion quilts all over to hold it all together. I wish this was my own idea, but I saw it in Arlee Barr's brilliant tutorial, where she calls it 'leaf hair'. Making this makes my recycling heart jump for joy, as well as being supremely easy on the budget... :) I am convinced that one day I will make a masterpiece with this, that will leave people gasping and running after garbage trucks, rummaging through public bins etc.

Holey, moley! I'm not quite sure why I did this. It's not finished and I don't know what to next.

These are a bit cryptic and it's hard to explain but they are pieces which will all be sewn together to make a 3D model of the HIV, except it's not as much biological as social comment. I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until I finish it and take photos.

This was an attempt at the stained-glass technique and I think I made all the possible mistakes with it. Sometimes I think I tend to just make stuff that is the perfect example of how NOT to do something! (which reminds me of that .sig I read once that said "Just think: your sole purpose in life may be to serve as a warning to others!") It is also the first (and only, so far) in a Goddess series which I have more ideas for. I am currently trying to rescue it and then I will border, back and quilt it after which it may well go back into the box from whence it recently emerged!

African Mandala. I have totally dried up on what to do next with this one and it needs so much more! I think it has great potential, but I also feel quite stumped. I guess it's a good example of how one needs to do some sort of planning before leaping in.... So this mandala is waiting for inspiration. I LOVE the idea of doing circular works and I can see I will have to invent a way to hang circles, so I can do more.

These photos spread themselves around the page, but strangely, everytime I delete one photo, ALL the pics I have already uploaded vanish. Eventually I gave up and left it. These pics are parts of a curtain I made for my daughter. It's just the top, no batting or quilting. One day I should do something with it.

Past works 5

"View from Shanta's window" 1994.

Shanta was my therapist during a bad bout of post-natal depression. I gazed at this view so many times trying to sort out stuff. It was so restful and soothing. This was also the first time I machine-pieced hexagons, following instructions from Marie du Toit's book Machine Patchwork. I later had the thrill of meeting her at a quilt show and was able to tell her how great her instructions were.

That said, I think my days of intricate piecing are numbered....!

I'm blogging so it must be Tuesday

So... I promised pics of the design exercises when they were finished. So far only two are done, but here they are.
The first is the rectangles covered with sheer fabric.
Before: After:
Next is the plain rectangle design that wasn't very successful - I think I improved it quite a bit! Before:
After:

It may take a while to get to the others since I've gone off on a couple of other tangents and... well, it's the usual story: Work all day, one child sick, the other hectic with school activities so needs support there, their father away so not even the usual few times when they go to visit him.... so things are proceeding at snail's pace. SOME is done every day, but that some is not very much some. (but it's the sum of it all that counts! ok, stop groaning now.....) ;)

Just life stuff

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while - a week, I see. But hold on, this is a private blog so who am I apologising to??? I guess to myself, as I really would like to do this more often. But there was so much other stuff to do: I had to make bath salts and cards for the Craft table at Jessie's school Fete (I had promised) and then I had to make munchies for Media fundraising for the school and that HAD to be sugary, so I made caramel popcorn. And.. and... I don't know, a myriad of little things, like sit in the traffic dept queue for about an hour to renew my expired car licence. Oh, and work and make food and house stuff....
But I have a few pics in the camera of the graphic design exercises that are complete, and I am working on the HIV model that I have wanted to do for a long time. Maybe I can take some pics of this during this coming weekend!

What's happening?

Not much has been written, but much has been stitched! Ideas seem to come at the rate of about 3 a day, and every few days I just can't resist the impulse to begin on an idea as it is JUST so CLEAR in my head and I badly want to see it "out there". I've lost count of the number of unfinished tops I have lying around at home. I do seriously intend to finish them all, but since my main goal is this entire activity is to have fun, relax, express myself and play, I don't worry too much about all the unfinisheds. I shall leave that concern to the Quilt Police and just hope they never visit my home!

I'm trying to set up sewing (or crafting) dates with eachone of my friends at a time, so that I can get to see them again - it's been so long!

And I have to, have to, have to have a clean-up of my work area soon. Piles of stuff are several layers deep on the tables. Bought some nifty rectangular plastic boxes recently to sort my fabrics into colours, but I have so much it is actually quite obscene and I will need many, many more. So I will probably just sort the materials that I use by colour the most - the rest can be loose in the lockers.