Life is a journey.
Always taking the scenic route--and sewing along the way
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Cambodian Memories VI: the folks
Sokhum, my tuktuk driver for 5 days in yellow; Votah my tour guide for 3 days in the hat
I found the people in Cambodia wonderful--up until now the people of Viet Nam had stolen my heart. I found them open, helpful, gentle and smiling. My dear tuktuk driver, Sokhum, got me "off the base" several times in an effort to help me out; one with a visa issue (I needed my e-visa enlarged and a sheet of visa pics taken and processed--so off to a crowded hole-in-the-wall place we went one evening :) and another time to get an international sim card for my cell phone. It was a great way to get into back alleys, etc.
My tour guide, Votah, was a hoot with his Australian English; but I also found him to be extremely knowledgeable about his country's history. We had some great talks about our faiths and recent Cambodian history, the Khmer Rouge, and its affect on his own family. He also got me off the beaten path to a local family (not his) who were in the process of making palm sugar. Fascinating. Sokhum squatted right down and started stirring just like he did when he was a child. His brother fell from the top of a palm tree 20 years ago and became disabled so Sokhum would never climb the palm trees. But he was an expert stirrer. The candy is delicious! I tasted the palm fruit, too, and slurped the juice. The dad person cut it open and offered it--bottoms up!
These two guys both had small children at home and big dreams. It was a privilege to get to know them
The children speak for themselves, eh? The threesome were so persistent and irresistible that I bought a handful of bracelets from each of them. And gave them extra for the picture.
In the end, I just cannot help but smile when I think of this trip.
I'm so tickled to be a part of this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival ! My entry was done in Outer Mongolia (literally! --read on). This quilt is one of my favorite recent projects that I named "Renegade Geisha's" --renegade because two of the geisha's don't conform to the rest (mainly because I ran out of coordinating fabrics!). Can you find the two renegades? ;) The quilt incorporates fabric origami and the quilt itself is from Fantastic Fabric Folding --many projects from this book were a big hit with the Mongolian class pictured below. Due to my husband's work, we live in Mongolia; and I was privileged to teach classes at a local quilting studio. I've included a picture of the class where we were working on the geisha blocks. The students spoke almost no English and I speak what I call Monglish--a lot of English sprinkled with Mongolian. Regardless, we all had a blast! ...and, I'm very pleased with this quilt of mine!
Last spring I chucked my 20-year-old bathrobe, giving me no choice but to replace it come winter. Granted, I never took it to Mongolia, so it only got worn when I was home in the US. But still. For summer I made several light weight robes, but I knew I liked the style of my old RTW one. When I saw reviews for Vogue 9232--on PR (all 3 of them), I knew I'd found my pattern. Interestingly enough, the pattern is actually for a caftan-type dress; but all 3 reviews were done up as a robe. Sham's review in particular had great tips. On a trip to Colorado Fabrics in early summer I spotted a beeeuuutiful pink sweatshirt type fabric. The outside is more like a thick knit and inside is dreamy soft. And it's baby pink! Which is hard to tell in the pics as we in Colorado have had lots of rain and no sunshine. And OK, I'm no photographer. But seriously, this is like stepping into a pink cloud. I made a small through the neck, shoulders and sleeves
My husband had meetings come up quick in Dubai and of course I tagged along! We were going to be there a week and I wanted a lightweight kimono-type pullover for the pool and getting out of the shower. I had snagged a gorgeous white linen/cotton (guessing on this) here in UB that was perfect. My inspiration came from Lisa's over at Lisa's Carolina | Handmade . I'm not good at pattern drafting and this was a quick FREE measure and cut tutorial of Stitch Sisters--find their Patternless Pattern Link here . I'm so happy with this! It basically took me an afternoon. The directions are great--and they include 5/8" seam allowances--yay!--as I wanted to turn under and top stitch them since I don't have a serger here. I left off the ties. Shapeless worked for this. I also raised the neckline by about 1.5" The neckline was a little trickier as I didn't have any bias on hand and there is no "running out" anywhere here. So, I used
In the end, I just cannot help but smile when I think of this trip.
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