The Rebellious Needlewoman: March 2016

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

My New Book – at last

I am ashamed to say that my new book has been available for a few weeks and only now am I able to tell you that it is available on my website, as are the packs for the projects in the book. There are 8 reasons for this delay and I’ll talk about those later.

I told you all about the new book in November last year and you can read my blog post here.

Designed and written for both quilters and embroiderers, there are over 160 techniques in the book so, even if you don’t want to do the projects that I have done, you will nevertheless find a wealth of information on how to do a range of techniques. These include quilting, crazy patch piecing, embroidery stitches, ribbon embroidery stitches, simple tatting, needle lace, needle weaving, bead embroidery and even simple beading techniques – all of them used to embellish crazy patchwork. But not just crazy patchwork. Most of these techniques can be used in any kind of needle work.

My publisher described it to me as ‘encyclopaedic’, and yes, there is a lot of information in there.

You will be able to buy the book on my website. We are about to publish a brand new website which is why I’m not going to give you the actual links. Go to www.hazelblomkamp.co.za and follow the links to BOOKS in the ONLINE SHOP.

If it is the packs for the projects that you want, they are available in the KITS section of the ONLINE SHOP under the HAND STITCHED CRAZY PATCHWORK section. As always, you will be able to buy the full kits or, if you prefer, the separate packs, i.e. thread, special threads, bead packs, print packs, fabric packs and so on.

If you have a registered account on our website you will also be getting a newsletter in the near future, asking you to update your PIN number on the site. As mentioned above, we will shortly be going live with a brand new website and whilst we can transfer all of the information in your user account to the new website, we can’t access your PIN number. Hence the email that you will receive, asking you to click on a link to update your PIN. You won’t have to change that number, so don’t worry about that. It’s more a confirmation really. Just click on the link and do what it asks you to do just to prove that you are an actual person and not a virtual being, robot, hologram, etc.

The website should have been ready by now but, once again, because of the aforementioned 8 reasons, I have not found the time to ‘sit on’ the web man, to pester him to get it ready by the time the new book is available. You do have to do this thing because they are busy and tend to forget the dates that are so important to you.

And now for the 8 reasons.

I announced the birth of our Boxer puppies in my last blog post. They are now five weeks old and along the way it has been a little difficult. Brenda, the proud mother, developed life threatening mastitis when they were about five days old. The sort where she went from just fine at seven in the evening to a medical emergency which necessitated my calling out a veterinary surgeon at 11 at night.

A day later, having been put onto oral treatment, she had an allergic reaction to penicillin so thereafter she had to be taken in daily for injections. It got worse with two eruptions and just as she was beginning to look brighter she developed a different infection in another teat. So, a different antibiotic and back to daily veterinary hospital trips.

Needless to say, through all of this the puppies remained hungry and I was to be found doing four hourly feeds, night and day, sterilising bottles, mixing puppy formula. All that stuff. Just like having new born babies. Along the way we lost the tiniest puppy, not from lack of care but because he had a congenital problem which meant that he wasn’t going to survive, no matter how hard we tried.

I am, however, pleased to report that all of that is behind us. We have 8 naughty little devils, eating us out of house and home, and causing general mayhem.

Mother is much better and teaching them how to dig in the flower beds.

And I am not even going to mention what has to be cleaned up, great big piles of it. It’s hard to fathom where it all comes from.

And they are a complete and utter delight. I can sit for hours just watching them sleep, let alone watching what they get up to in their playful periods. I don’t breed puppies that often – the last time was twenty years ago – and I’m not sure that I will do it again so I am savouring every precious moment until they go to their new homes. And we have lovely homes for every single one of them. Hand picked for hand reared babies. Couldn’t hope for more.

We are keeping Colin, who is just like his Dad, Neville. The reason why we bred this litter in the first place. We had to pass on the best Boxer temperament on the planet.

Here is Colin.

He and his siblings are the reason why the new book ‘launch’ has all been a bit delayed. It is, however, now available and whilst I hope you will forgive my tardiness, I am sure you will all agree that I had 8 very good reasons.