The Finishing Touch

I love to work with my friend Donna when I create my quilts.  I confidently hand over to her the 'tops' that I have painstakingly assembled, and she then works the end result, the outcome of consequence!
Donna takes my quilt top and backing, and nests them between a soft wadding of cotton & bamboo and winds these layers onto her great and mighty quilting machine.  We liase to find the most appropriate thread colour and a quilt design that will 'bring it all home', so to speak. Donna then stitches this pattern throughout the top, adding the stability, the texture, the warmth and body to the project for what is always a beautiful end result. (I have previously shown some photos of Donna and her Statler in this post)
Grand Finale: noun

: a very exciting or impressive ending of a performance or show

 

Noun

1.

finishing touch - a final touch; a crowning achievement; a culmination.  Frankie's quilt is complete.  I have sewn down the outer binding, added a label - (Anna insisted that I must) - and it is ready for travel to Canada.  Jacqui also,was a huge help to me in seeing that this quilt was completed on time!  She lugged it back to Perth in her suitcase, readied the beautiful backing fabric with perfect seam matching (you would never know 2 pieces of fabric were joined!), delivered it to Donna on my behalf, and even helped me with the binding. It's always such a pleasure to gift a quilt to a special someone.  I hope Robert's brother enjoys it and thinks it is striking.  I hope it will be a reminder that he is loved each time he uses it. Merry Christmas Frankie! Although the lighting doesn't do justice to the quilt's colours, I love the way it shows off the texture of the quilting!

 

Cinderella is not going to the Ball

Remember the ball gown?
Some of you have asked to see it.
Sorry, you will only be able to see it hanging over the closet door. As it turns out, we are not going!
Rob and I are in the midst of a chaotic time and tomorrow evening's festivities simply became too complicated. Does that sound lame? Possibly, but...just be glad you are not us right now.
The seamstress, Ibu Eny, almost didn't finish the gown and I was making a mad dash to her shop to pick up the barely completed dress late in the evening before my 3am departure from Jakarta. Earlier in the week, I managed to sneak away from the house during the pack-up for my fitting, which was fortunate because a few alterations were in order.
The dress is in hand. It's very pretty. My friend Cathy has dared me to take it to Canada and wear it to our family's Christmas celebration...with my Ugg boots! When I mentioned this to Anna, she begged me not to! We shall see! It's just the right colour for a Festive Frock!

Here it is literally tossed into the back seat in a heap after rushing to pick it up!

That's much better...

Some pretty details...

Someday, maybe, I will wear this lovely gown, and when I do, I will be certain to add a picture to this post!

Inbox

As mentioned, the house is all packed away, the container set sail yesterday in fact, aboard the vessel 'Cape Ferroli'. Tick this portion of the move from the list.
But leaving a place involves so much more than packing and shipping. There are these beautiful people, now part of our circle of loved ones that we just walked away from. And believe me, we didn't want to. One thing is certain, you can have experience with the process of goodbyes, but this experience doesn't really make the going easier.
One of my lovely friends...

...her name is Shienny, made sure that this arrived in my inbox last week. She titled her email "Our Heavenly Tailor-Made Friendship":

"In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

You can imagine how encouraged I was when I read this! And thankful for the people in Jakarta that "God has chosen" for Rob and I!
It's my pleasure to put faces to the names you have heard me mentioning this past year-
Shienny and Uran:

Sharon, baby Caleb, and Dave:

"The JJ's" - Jan and Jack

Elsa:

Jean:

Martine:

The amazing women's bible study:

I dragged my heels moving to Jakarta, but that is because I didn't realise WHO would be there waiting!
We Miss You!

Pulang

"Pulang." it means "to go home" in Indonesian. It's a travel word.
My home = rumah saya
Our home = rumah kami
But, take me home is simply " pulang".
The BDN house, as it has become affectionately known, has been our Jakarta home. We set up house here and began a new existence as empty nesters, created bedrooms for our girls for precious visits, made a special space for Robbie (who never did get here), and hosted 21 house guests over the year.
I commend my dear, perceptive husband, who knew how traumatic it would be for me to leave my kids, friends, home, church, job, pets, life in Perth to join him here in Jakarta. He quietly went about ensuring the situation would work, and has lovingly provided for me in an amazing way.

Rob wanted a place where we could comfortably entertain house guests and I wished to be closer to his office so his work day was not as long and we could be together a bit more. And 5 minutes away from the office we found an incredible home on Jalan BDN2, complete with the desired guest room which has a pool view and privacy, due to it's location just outside of the main living area.

I don't know why it should surprise me that on our last day at the BDN house, almost as the last box was packed, we received confirmation that our new housing in Kuala Lumpur was successfully finalised. And once again God provides.
It's going to be different, naturally. The new house is an apartment actually, minus the soaring ceilings and expanses of marble flooring that we enjoy at BDN, but it has plenty of space for any of you who desire to visit.
And, it is going to become home.

Packing 101

It all comes back to me! - The incredible process of packing up household belongings for a sea container!
It involves construction and geometry. There is estimating, organising, and the deft wielding of exacto knives as they slash and score, all done to the rhythm of the rip rip rrrriiiippp of many packing tape rolls simultaneously stretching and tearing!

How would you prepare a dining table? Maybe something like this?

Can't take the legs off, it's one solid piece, so...

Stand on my head, check. Paper layer, check. Foam sheeting, check. Reinforce corners, check.

Smile for the photo, check. More protective layers, check. Build a custom box, check.

How would you transport your mattress? Haul it into the back of your pick-up. Or...
Tape together a humungous piece of cardboard, then foam sheeting, cut to oversize and dotted with sachets of umm, preservative stuff.

And then whip up another perfect-fit box for it. (Don't forget to score the fold lines ON TOP of the mattress so you can freak Mary out! How that mattress isn't laced with slash marks I will never know!)

It seems shameless to admit to this excessive consumption of packing materials. "Reduce" does not apply to the readying of my shipment. But, just consider all the opportunities for "Reuse" that can occur at the other end of this journey! But Rob, if you are reading this, we are NOT going to be keeping all of these boxes! Sorry.

Day 1 went well. We had a crew of 6 and they stopped once for nasi Padang at noontime and otherwise were heads down all day long! Two more days of packing to go. Loading begins tomorrow at 2 pm where I will perform the miraculous stunt of being in two different places at one time - checking and ticking an inventory list outdoors curb side, and supervising the continued pack-up on level 2 inside.