When Night turns to Day....

It's a very special month here at the moment - the holy month of Ramadan. This is the month where Muslims across the world fast during the day for 30 days. Usually we are quite unaffected by this in Australia... life goes on as usual for us non-Muslims, but here... well, it is a different story :)

As soon as Ramadan starts here, life turns topsy-turvy... For starters, no one is allowed to eat or drink in public during the day. This isn't hard for the kids and I because we are mostly home all day, although I nearly messed up coming back from our sewing day... taking a bite out of a candy bar on the way home! Cameron is like - hey, you're not allowed to eat that out here!! And I'm like, OOPS! Quick, swallow and put it away!!

For the men it is harder because they still have to go to work. Work hours are a bit different for most though. Cameron gets to work from 8 till 3 instead of his usual hours, so that helps a lot. We have been getting up in the morning and giving him a decent breakfast before he leaves, and then have a meal ready when he gets home. He is not allowed to eat or drink anything at work either. It took a few days to get adjusted, but he is fine now. The main thing he missed was his morning coffee on the way to work from his favorite coffee shop!



For those who fast, they cannot have anything to eat or drink from sunrise to sunset! So they have their "breakfast", where they literally break their fast, at sunset... this is when all the restaurants (which have been closed all day of course) open and things get really busy :) Most shops open at around 9.30pm and stay open till early hours of the morning. The roads... well, they are bad enough in Riyadh during the rest of the year, but during Ramadan it can take you hours to get somewhere that normally takes you half an hour. Needless to say, we avoid going out at night :)

The big supermarkets are open during the day and if you go in the morning during this month, they are nice and quiet because most people are still sleeping. Yes, day turns to night as well, with a new routine emerging... a lot of people don't go to sleep until anywhere between 2 and 4 am, so of course they sleep in. Which makes the roads nice and quiet until about mid afternoon.

I have to say this month has been nice and relaxing for us. We have slowed right down, don't go out a lot, and are enjoying spending time together at home. We've been catching up on some school projects and gotten into a nice routine really. In another week it will be school holidays for us (yay!) and I don't know who is looking forward to that more, me or the kids, lol! I haven't been able to spend much time with Emmie G at all... but come holidays, look out!!

Summer Sewing

During the summer months most people leave the Kingdom for cooler places... But for those who have still been here, the Guild organized a sewing day each Tuesday in their quilting room. I have been most weeks, and today I went again to have some fun. Elizabeth was going a little stir crazy, so she came along :)

We had a few bits of show and tell... Yvonne, who is next year's guild president, finished these two quilt tops:



She was working on the binding on one of them today, they are lovely aren't they? Two totally different styles... both very effective.

Judy, last year's guild president, was working on this charity quilt for Japan:


It started out as a jelly roll quilt along quilt, and then she decided to break it up and add dark blue.... I will get a photo when it is all done...

Gladys was working on some lace work today:


It all looks pretty complicated to me, but the end result is beautiful!!

I put the binding on the pineapple quilt I just finished quilting on Emmie G:


I love the way it has turned out! (Oh yeah, still need to finish it by hand...)

Had a break for lunch - yummy BLT with Beef Bacon (no pork allowed here):


Elizabeth also had a BLT with out the T.... :) Funny girl... :) We both love the Beef Bacon when it is fried up nice and crisp... mmmmmmm!!!!

I put the inner border on the Jelly Roll Quilt-along:


Only the outer border to put on and then up to Emmie G it goes! Yay!

Oh, I also started something new.. but forgot to take photos... so that will have to wait till daylight...

On that note, I will say goodnight - I have been yawning for the past half hour and it's only just gone 9pm...! I'll try to be back tomorrow to tell you about an upside-down world........ :)

Introducing Emmie G......!!

I'm so sorry it has been such a long time since I last blogged. Life has been so busy since I got back from my little quilting holiday at Nora's. I've been struggling to keep on top of housework and school and still tried to sneak a little sewing in.. but not much.

Then last weekend we made a quick trip up and down to Jubail again to pick up something very very wonderful... :) Did you wonder why I was having lessons on the Gammill? Well, it is because Nora is upgrading and I had the opportunity to have her old one :) I've been so excited but not wanted to say anything until it was all finalized..... and now she is in my upstairs sewing room... let me introduce you to Emmie G:


She just fits in the room:



This is how she made the 500km journey to her new home, taking up all of the backseat:


Some of her bits and bobs were in the back of the car, while the table, rollers and other big bits came in a little truck. I was very thankful for my strong men while unloading:

Love my teenage boys:


The heaviest bit was the table which we wanted to try to keep in one piece:

And the most challenging part of the table was getting it upstairs:

But with the help of the friendly driver, they managed it... there were a few grunts and groans along the way... :)

My boys were so good, they even put it together for me that same night :) And the next day I did some practicing....


I am such a happy chappy :)

Play or Work?

Before my camera went flat (and of course I forgot to bring the charger), I managed to download some more photos of what Nora and I have been up to. I was wondering whether we were working hard this week or just playing... a bit of both perhaps?

I did some playing on the Gammill - put a big piece of muslin on, and tried out some designs:


Some of the attachments that come with the machine are fantastic.... I also tried a bit of free motion madness and decided I needed to practice a lot more before I would be happy with it :)

We also had a play with the Acu-cut machine:


I am going to attempt a wedding ring quilt.... ha! We shall see how it goes! Of course I will keep you all posted. But with the die, it was quick to cut out all the pieces at least. Now if only there was a machine that did the rest for me....!

We got into Christmas in July mode and made some disappearing nine patches:


.... a table runner using a new method Nora taught me, so quick and easy:


And with the scraps did a strings sampler:

In the middle of all the mayhem, we found a cute Christmas pattern that needed a blue background with snowflakes.... so Nora decided to get the dye out and make some:


Play or work? More play than work I think :) And sadly my week here has nearly come to an end.... we still have half a day to play some more and then I'll be heading home again ... back to work :)

Quilt School!

I arrived safely in Jubail on Thursday night. We had a good trip, no sandstorm thank goodness, and had a good night sleep before we started our quilting marathon! There was no mucking around, Nora got me to choose one of my tops and we started off the great long arm adventure!!

Did I tell you that Nora has a Gammill quilting machine? Well, she does... and I am getting lessons this week :) I tell you what, it is very addictive!!!! I have finished 4 tops nows... all trying something different. I feel pretty confident with free motion, but when I had a go with the laser, oh boy, that was a different story!!!

If you zoom in on the pic below, you should be able to see a little red dot. So the idea is to guide the machine from behind and "trace" the pattern with the red dot. Meanwhile, the machine is stitching the quilt....

It takes a bit to get your head around because you are used to watching the needle and stitches... so to start off with I was very wobbly... and by the end I was a little less, lol! But if you only look at it from afar... well, it is ok:


Actually, it looks better on the back because the thread blends in nicely :) I think I'd need a lot more practice before I would be really happy with the result!

We've been sewing some other bits and pieces in between, and just enjoying each other's company. And at the end of a long day of sewing.... dinner..... Can you guess what this is:

It is Camel Stew :)

It was my first time I'd had camel, and you know what? It was yummy and tasted just like beef. So now maybe I will be brave and buy some from the shop and cook it myself! And if you like, you can come on over and try some too..... :)

Bedtime... for tomorrow we have more lessons at Quilt School!

Workshops and Other Sewing.....

Last month I had the privilege of teaching a lovely group of ladies how to do raw edge applique and some free motion quilting. I really enjoy teaching and watching people improve their sewing skills. We had lots of fun, even though we had a few problems with the fusible web we were using.


The ladies did a great job, and two of them even trialed a new pattern I have been working on - the cute camel in the pic above :)

I have a few patterns that I need to finish, but I keep getting distracted....

One of my quilting buddies sent me a link to this youtube video: Tube Tutorial

It looked so cool, I couldn't help but sneak a little try of it... :) I made two or three tubes, cut them up and laid them out on the table like this:


I decided I liked it enough to make a few more tubes and make it bigger... now I have another project to finish! Oh well.... I did at least quilt the honey bun top and bound it, so even though I started a new one, I also finished one last week:



I've been plodding along with the SAL as well. I have almost three more stitched - just need to put sashing on and I can then take a photo and post on the blog.

This weekend I will be heading off for a little vacation to visit my friend Nora from Craft Kingdom. We have great plans to do lots of sewing, so it should be a wonderful week! I am going to take my computer and see if I can log on while I am there and keep everyone updated. Oh, must remember to take my camera... and my pin cushion... and some tops to quilt... and... ok, I'm off to write a list... catch you all later!

Heat, Dust and Water

Yes I am still here! Yes we are fine! Just very hot and the internet has been playing up. I am blaming it on the heat, although I am not sure that it has anything to do with it.... We've had the net down completely for a while. Other times it might as well have been down since it was taking forever just to download an email... forget surfing the net.

Now it seems to be working fine again, so I will try for a quick update.

Summer has well and truly hit us. We've also still had some sandstorms which just make a huge mess everywhere:


If we don't sweep it up, it comes right in the house:


Well, even if we do sweep, it still manages to come in.... sigh.... As for our poor garden, it is suffering as well:


We had to stop watering most of the grass because we ran out of water in our tank. We don't have mains water here, just a big tank under the house that the city is supposed to fill up regularly. Sometimes, however, they seem to turn the tap off for no reason and then you run out of water and have to go buy some.

The first time this happened Cam got some guy down the road to help organize a water truck like this to come and fill up the tank:


Naturally all the people involved needed some money and we ended up paying way more than we should have. So the second time Cam found the place that supplies the water and organized it himself - it was much cheaper :) We live very close by one of the spots where the trucks fill up with water. There is often a very long line of these trucks waiting to get refilled:

Eventually they get in behind the high walls and you can see the pipes where they fill up from:


This water is just for washing, etc, not for drinking. Our drinking water gets delivered to the shops in a truck like this one:


We have a water cooler in our kitchen:


And always keep some spare bottles on hand:


It is amazing how much we go through, since I also use it for cooking.

I have also been doing lots of sewing since it is too hot to do much outside, but I think this is enough for one post, so I'll attempt a sewing update tomorrow :) And I'll be dropping by some blogs and catching up on your news too I hope! For now, it is bedtime.... catch you all later!