A time of reflections

It has certainly been a great time of reflection these past few weeks during this period of semi-isolation. I say "semi" as we have never had total lockdown in our state. Life is certainly different and one day we did visit one of our major shopping centres to get some essentials. It was quite eerie and incredibly sad to see so many businesses shut and one wonders how they will ever recover. The car park was strangely empty as well and often we drive around for up to 10 minutes looking for a park. It was rare to see a shop open but with strict rules for entering it was nice to see.......

 

 We feel so blessed to live in Australia and our hearts go out to friends overseas especially in the UK and US who aren't so lucky. We have had 8 days straight with no new cases in our state and in fact our total number of national deaths (as of today), seems minuscule compared to the rest of the world......

I can't seem to get my head around 63,000+ deaths just in the US alone. One can become desensitised by the daily statistics but it does leave me with a feeling of despair. So while we reflected on this current world heartache we were also reflecting a different kind of loss. April 25th is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand where we remember the loss of life from war. My late Dad has been mentioned often on this blog for his service in Bomber Command and he often shared the devastating loss of over 55,000 just from the Air Force alone during WW2. So I decided the night before Anzac Day to make a poppy wreath from felt and a coat hanger (thankyou Jude - I knew this felt would come in handy! x)........

Because Anzac Day events were cancelled this year we were all encouraged to light candles in remembrance and to meet on our driveways at dawn. Emily got the kiddies involved too this year and the end result was very reflective adorning their home.......

 And Anzac Day meant Emily was off to her nursing job......

 Helen in the UK always remembers us on Anzac Day as well as she flies the Australian flag from her home in Devon (and what a lovely view she has too) - thankyou Helen x............

Larry and I are quite well adjusted to having time on our own and I have continued to be productive having now made 13 quilt tops for hospice. They only need to be 48-50 inches square so not too enormous! Faye sends me photos after she has quilted and bound them so I feel very lucky. It is so easy to just make the tops when someone else does the quilting. All the fabrics have been from my stash so that has been great. Someone gave me some panels some years ago so that was a quick way to whip up a quilt............

 Some quick and easy piecing.........

 And the donated panels are now assembled and the quilt complete.......

Below is one quilt top I am not so fond of. I decided to pick out a couple of the colours in the busy print using the orange and blue but it doesn't really do it for me now they are together! It will hopefully keep someone's knees warm.....

 Yellow and blue seem to always work and I'd been missing my appliqué so I drew up an orange peel design.......

I had some leftover pieces from a quilt I made many years ago so I cut up multiple squares and triangles and I am really happy with this result. I have now cut out another batch of random brights to make one or two more similar quilts.....amazing how random and unplanned blocks can work.........

 But I have needed some help with the fabric cutting as my jolly hand is still misbehaving. I am so lucky to have such a willing cutter! And the hand let me down twice this past week during my cooking endeavours.  I forget that the hand is still so numb and has no strength so the cookies one day and then dinner one night took a dive downwards!!......

 While life is different we have still be caring for little Wade one day a week so we feel very lucky to have continued this precious time with him. I still can't believe this little chap arrived 12 weeks early and weighed just 1kg! I snuck a reflective peek through the window of the two of them at the sand pit.......

The reflections at night have changed in our new kitchen now that we have spotlights installed and I love how the mirror opposite adds to the mood......

I'll be back again in a few days as I have some wonderful quilts to share from others and also some gifts I received in the post. I will leave you with these final reflections that are evolving in our garden right now. We are seeing the entire life cycle all at once and it is so nice to see nature surviving through the current sadness in our world............