Back in Singapore

Hi all from Singapore

We arrived back home on Tuesday night and we are all settling into being back in Singapore. The whole family had a great time in NZ - catching up with friends and family. The last week there was incredibly busy. The girls had a great time at camp and spent the last few days catching up with friends that had been away on holiday the week before. Luke, Opa (grandad) and I went to the jousting with some friends. We got to see some real knights in armour and Luke just loved all the sword fights!

I went to the Quilt guild on the Thursday and it was awe inspiring seeing all the wonderful work that these ladies do! I got my NZ quilt machine quilted by Sue Burnett who did a wonderful job of the quilting and had it finished in time for me to go home - Thank you Sue and Monique!

Its a new year and now that all my UFOs are complete I can start thinking about what project to start next. I like to collect landscape, tree and sky fabrics and I bought some in NZ. I bought two fabrics that go from light to dark - one in orange/red and one in blue. I might use these for the fabric weaving that I would like to try.

I also found some Paintstiks and I am itching to try these out. Im not sure if I will paint all of the fabric or only use them to highlight or shade areas of a quilt. I would love to hear from anyone who has used these.

This fabric is just so cool!!. It reminds me of some of the pastels pictures that I had just done in the art class.

Well Ive got plenty of ideas on what to do this year, I just have to figure out which one to do first!

My mother in law is arriving in Singapore on Sunday and Im really looking forward to showing her around. My nephew and a friend are arriving the day after. It will be cosy living for a few weeks so I dont think my sewing machine will be coming out of the cupboard just yet.

Until next time - Happy quilting

Marianne

Happy New Year

Happy new year to you all and we wish you God's blessing on you and your family for the coming year!

We have been home in New Zealand for just over a week and this last week has been action packed! My "to do" list seemed very long but we have managed to most things that we needed to. It's been wonderful to catch up with all our old friends and its been nice being back in familiar territory and the lovely weather here has just made it extra special. My parents and sister arrived back on Saturday from holiday and we had a lovely dinner together on Sunday. This is a photo of our old house. Very spacious and Luke has been playing cricket on the lawn. Very kiwi!

We also stayed a night at Paraparaumu Beach at a friends house (they were on holiday and offered us their house). It was lovely walking along the beach and eating icecream.

The girls are away at camp for the week in Cambridge (just south of Hamilton) and Luke is loving all the attention he has been getting. The kids have all had the opportunity to catch up with old school friends. I am looking forward to going to the Wellington Quilters Guild meeting on Thursday night. I have really missed my quilting friends here even though I have made new quilting friends both in Singapore and via the internet. (You can never have too many quilting friends!)

Its hard to believe that our time here is nearly over - two weeks seems incredibly short. I guess we can't stay on holiday forever and coming home for a few weeks was just what the doctor ordered. I am starting to miss the warm weather and especially my dog Misty. I hear she is having a great time at my friends house and that is nice to hear. I do hope she will still want to come home! The kids have all had a wonderful time here. Well thats all from us.

I wish you all a prosperous and blessed year for 2009.

regards

Marianne