Monday Meet-up

 Susanna is traveling tomorrow morning so we moved our Tuesday meet-up to today.

We always meet at Sluggish, our favorite vegan coffee shop where MukaMuka is the cafe kitty in residence.

And today there was the cutest little visitor named Oliver.

I'm making a sample booklet of small tatreez (Palestinian embroidery) patterns.

While Susanna continued work on her "handmade" project from thrifted quilt blocks that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Waving hi from here.

Have a good week.

Ending May in a Crafty Way

 Yesterday our craft group met at the cafe I checked out earlier in the week.

We never know how many will show up especially now since it's summer and many people travel, plus Eid al Adha is at the end of this week.  One young lady who had come once before was there and brought her cousin who is due to give birth in 4 weeks -- they were both working on baby items, while I continued to work on my stitched magnets, and the others were crocheting or embroidering.

Susanna has dresden quilt blocks from the thrift store that are stained but too pretty to wind up in landfill so she is embroidering her hands on them -- to honor the fact that they were handmade by someone else and will now be turned into a wall-hanging by her.

At our meet-up this past week she gifted me a quilted Palestinian flag that she made from a free pattern found on Instagram so I took it to the park today for a photoshoot.

It's a blessing to be surrounded by such talented ladies.

Wishing you a happy new month.

Art of Threads Exhibition

 One of my craft group friends, Zhraa, is also in another fiber arts group that meets once a week in the evenings at Sadu House, a cultural center where Kuwait's textile heritage is preserved and promoted.

 Over the past few days they've held their annual exhibition with the theme of Old Kuwait and since today is the last chance to see their creations, I went over there this morning and was amazed and inspired by all the creative and beautiful handiwork.

This is Zhraa's crocheted pieced entitled Woven Whispers which got first place.

And her crocheted phonograph (top right) received a third place ribbon.

Enjoy the rest of the tour.

Seems I accidentally put the slingshot in two collages :)

One of my favorites:

The funny thing is, I apparently missed at least a dozen kites that were hung from the very high ceiling.  I was too busy looking down and all around and never really looked up.  Zhraa said she would take a picture of them this evening to send to me.  :)

Have a good Thursday.

Captured Moments, Creating Space

 Cloud storage keeps telling me that I'm running out space and yet I still keep taking pictures that I never do anything with.  Guess that means it's time for a post that includes some of my favorite things:  

a cat

coffee

and crafting.

 I do not not normally sell anything I make; really much prefer just giving small gifts as RAKs (random acts of kindness), but someone today insisted on buying the 6 stitched magnets I had with me that were finished.  That means I need to make more to have on hand.

Susanna and I are still having our weekly meet-ups but she will be leaving for the States mid-June for the entire summer and I will once again be without a mid-week buddy to get together with.

Last week she was knitting socks and this week she was stitching.

Our craft group meets this coming Saturday so I checked out a new cafe -- at least new to us, as it's actually been open 11 months now.

We try to support local, small businesses rather than any chain cafes or coffee shops.

It will be a nice, bright space for stitching.

Hope this finds you well.

Portable Project

 Years ago a friend left the country and gave me several bins of craft supplies that she no longer wanted.  I've given away and used what I could yet still have much to get through.

There were lots of sheets of clear plastic canvas that I am finally putting to use by stitching a Palestinian motif, backing with felt and adding a small magnet.

It's also a good way of using up bits of leftover yarn from crochet projects.

The pattern I chose is from the digital library of Tirazain that's called qamar b reesh (moon with feathers).

I've stitched during mornings with my craft group, meet-ups with my friend Susanna, and even took supplies with me to Amman so I could stitch there -- where I even did a photo shoot with all the beautiful flowers found in the neighborhood around our hotel.

I've given some magnets as birthday gifts recently and snagged photos from my friends' Instagram stories since I forgot to take pictures before gifting them.

I stitched about 5 while traveling so now need to add the felt backings and magnets.

Thankful for creative hobbies.

Have a good Thursday.

New Month, Different Country

While walking in my neighborhood last Wednesday morning, I found this on the ground.

The irony is that we would be flying to Jordan that evening and waking up on May Day in Amman. 

 Normally on our way to Al Quds (Jerusalem) we just pass through Amman straight to the border, but this time we were staying for a few days, mainly to visit my husband's cousins since his aunt died last month and it had been many years since our last visit. 

We spent the first day in old Amman, on Friday we took the bus to visit his cousins which was an all day affair, and then on Saturday we were preparing ourselves for the return home.

I love Amman for its tradition and the roses ... every tine we've been it seems that roses are in bloom.

Such a lovely sight to see in what otherwise could be a rather drab environment -- especially since we left Kuwait in a dust storm and arrived there amidst one.

There's been daily dust since our return Saturday late afternoon.

Hope your May is off to a good start.

Take care.

Tuesday x's 2

 Last week with Susanna ...

And this week ... for our regular Tuesday meet-ups.

There were no morning meet-ups during Ramadan plus she was in the States for a month, so it's nice to be back to our routine.  (Anytime you see knitting, it's her, not me, but didn't take a picture of her project this week because she was still working on the same sock.  :)

We've had a couple of major sandstorms lately.  I didn't realize we were expecting one last night and had just finished cleaning our second balcony from the previous storm.  Now everything is covered in a thick layer of dust again.  Ugh!

Hope this finds you well.