The Ultimate Sewing Bee

A few months ago, I offered the Jouberton Branch Relief Society a Saturday activity so we scheduled it for Saturday, June 22nd.  I decided on a sewing project and found a cute bag pattern on line.  I used the coordinating fabric technic that we use for making quilt tops (as best I could with the kind of fabric stores we have here), made a sample, showed the ladies, and sent around a sign up sheet.

            I told them that if they signed up that meant they had to come and make their bag.





  They've not had much participation in their meetings but the reason is that they don't really do anything - just get together and talk.   They've also had trouble getting sisters to help clean the church so I told them that if I was going to provide the time and materials for the bags, and the Branch was going to provide the food, they could donate some time to clean the church so put a star by their name if they would come early and clean.  There were eight sisters who said they'd come clean.  Sometimes you just have to spell it out for them.    So I thought I might have five or six ladies interested - nope the whole branch - about 22 ladies.  I didn't invite the young women because they already have their cute scripture bags.  I didn't think I'd have all 22 ladies but I went a head and prepared 25 bags just in case.  I prepared the bags so all that was left was to sew straight lines (with lines to follow) on the handles and sew the two pieces together and turn.  I had three different colors - the rest of the fabric from my bag, bright red, yellow, and blue stripes, and a cute blue and yellow print.  Elder Bishop and I made reservations at a nearby motel because we certainly weren't going to drive home Saturday afternoon and then back Sunday morning.  Besides, we weren't sure how long it would take us to get the bags done and I wanted to make sure the sisters went home with finished bags.  I was a little nervous because if I only had a few sisters, I'd have a lot of bags left over.  And if I had 22 ladies, how was I going to help them all sew - none of them had ever used a machine before.  Well............18 ladies showed up!!

We had three sewing machines.  I was probably threading a needle.  I had my nose in a sewing machine from 12:00 until 4 p.m.

None of them had ever sewn before but they weren't afraid to jump right it.

Don't you love it!  Grandma Maria brought her hand crank machine.  She made three bags on that little machine - so cute.

Neither one of these ladies had any idea what they were doing:)  When it looked like we wouldn't get any bags finished, I just started standing behind each sister and while they pushed the pedal I said go, stop and guided the fabric.  That way they felt like they were sewing but we were getting them done.

I think I was unpicking in this picture but I surprisingly didn't unpick very much and we didn't break one needle!  After so long I could see that we would have to skip one step in order to get them done - that was the angle stitching on to make the bag flat on the bottom but it didn't make any difference to them.  They love them.

So after our four hour marathon - we finished all 25 bags.  I was exhausted and hungry but pleased with the success. 



Kruger National Park Adventure

On June 6, we locked the office and left Johannesburg with the Leavitts and headed for Kruger National Park, one of the biggest game reserves in Africa.  There isn't any scenery to speak of until about three hours out which takes us to Nelspruit where we have Senior couples and elders assigned.

Then there were miles and miles of man planted evergreens.  You don't normally see pines growing in rows but here you do.  They harvest the lumber and then replant.

We went to a scenic tourist site called God's Window but unfortunately we'll never be able to look through God's window because it was a bit foggy that day.  The clouds were so low and some places on the road we couldn't see where we were going - just followed the lines.  I'm sure it was spectacular but we couldn't get our heads out of the clouds

But we could see these beautiful blooming cactus trees

We drove away from the clouds and found these beautiful falls

 Elder and Sister Leavitt can't break away from their missionary attire

But Elder and Sister Bishop sure can

We continued on our journey to a little town outside Kruger Park called Hazyview - can't imagine how it got it's name

I made reservations over the internet so really didn't know what our accommodations would be but we drove for about two miles down this road - but it was dark so didn't look this inviting.  We were sure "Sister Garmin" was taking us on a wild goose chase.  It wound and twisted and turned....

Remember it was dark......

But we finally came to this quaint delightful place called the Hamilton Guest Lodge and was graciously welcomed by the owner

This was our room

And this was the surrounding area

Absolutely beautiful

 

The owner is in the middle.  He made us the most amazing breakfast and sent us on our way sure to tell all of our missionary friends about his beautiful place down the scary long driveway.  Not bad for $60 a night

Then on to Kruger where we saw many of my favorites - giraffes

They like to pose for the cameras

Is this Timone or Pumba?  Never got this close to a warthog before

You think these turtles are sitting on a rock don't you?

Surprise - it's only a hippo - first time to see hippos in the water

Many hippos out.......

Many hippos in

They come up for air every two or three minutes

Yup two crocodiles 

This could be a Burchill's Starling

But this one is definitely a Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

 

We've not seen these Vervet Monkeys before.  They were cute as can be

 

 

Kudu

How about those horns?

What would you do if a big elephant was walking down the road right toward you?

 Be very relieved that he decided to make a right turn!

The Sabie River is the beautiful part of Kruger

Oh no, someone's been on a lion hunt!

Who would do such a thing?

Let's take a closer look

Would they look this content if they had been harmed?

It appears they are the ones that have been on a hunt and they're so full and happy, they just dropped right in the middle of the road:)

Two of them didn't make it to the road

There are so many flowering trees in South Africa - something is always blooming - year round

Then the famous Acacia tree - almost the symbol of Africa

We hated to say good bye to Kruger and all of the thousands of Impala that are throughout the park but it was time to go

We drove through miles and miles of sugar cane fields, banana plantations, and orange orchards

We stayed in Komatipoorte, a very tropical, beautiful town

at the Acasia Guest Lodge

This was our room

It was literally a tropical paradise.

We hated to leave

Elder Bishop had an encounter with an obnoxious Cockatoo at a roadside stand

He clamped onto his thumb and wouldn't let go - guess he didn't want to be put down - liked all of the attention.