Paris Metro a finished top and the makings of a new project

Another visit from me, it's so frustrating not being able to post regularly as I did in the "old days", hopefully things will be back to normal shortly.

I'm so happy with Paris Metro and definitely will make another one, so the top is finished and simple quilting will be my choice when I come around to it.

You can see I've made mine same length as the pattern but not as wide, there are 11 strips 4" wide finished.

I enjoy seeing how snippets peek out as two fabrics merge

the edge of the KF poppy petal on the LH fabric meets up with the outline of part of the design right next to it.

You might recall these fabrics from my last post

they're so full of colour and detail and suggested to me that a simple block was needed, so the four trial blocks below are the result and no, the straggle threads from the fabric haven't been trimmed yet.

Next step was to try and find the fabric to make 1" finished strips between the blocks and another for a small centre square - the first fabric try out below was a KF - Grandiose as strips with a Tula Pink fabric as the tiny square, perhaps not enough distinction between the strips and the blocks,  

perhaps something lighter, so second mock up

thinking this could be too light!! The blocks will measure 8" when  sewn and probably be 6 across by 8 down - still no decision on that as yet, however I'd be interested to hear your views on which setting fabric would work the best, or if neither fit the bill!

On another different subject - the night sky, moon and stars - when I was a youngster my dad would point out and name all the constellations and the phases of the moon in the night sky, I guess that came about from his time as a gunner on the the shipping convoys during WW2 but as he never mentioned his time in the war I really wouldn't know, like thousands of others he was unable to speak about his experiences. However, I still head out onto the deck at night and check out the moon and stars,  at 10.30pm a few nights ago I sat out  with a hot cup of tea and there was total silence, no cars, no people - perfect for me -  just the chirruping of insects. I can't bear the thought of all the hardware making visits up to the moon.

Speaking about the night sky I digress a little - a book bought quite a number of years ago leapt into my hand from one of my bookshelves, the gardens pictured inside are unbelievable, all photographed in the dark.

Looking at the colour plates I knew I had to have a go, lots of learning to do but I did take a shot of a hibiscus the other night, this flower is an incredibly bright, almost too bright, orange in daylight.

Tomorrow I visit the hospital for a day or so for a cardiac catheterisation - they need to check the state of my bicuspid aortic valve and see whether it could be replaced if it worsens. I'll have to wait until the artery entry point heals fully before sewing or using the computer.

At times like the above I find sunset and sunrise such a relaxing sight, this sunset was two days ago

and that's all from me for the monent, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Enjoy fondling your fabrics

Maureen

"Normality is a paved road. It's comfortable to walk

but no flowers grow on it"

Vincent Van Gogh

Progress with Paris Metro

At last - something on the design wall!!!

This quilt in the making is just picking fabrics from large scraps of older fabrics, newer ones from AMH
and just whatever was handy. I have three more strips to stitch up and it's not quite as wide as the original pattern.

Looks a bit  blocky on the bottom right hand side but there wasn't much planning in this, if the fabric looked happy then it stayed there.

The inertia which was troubling me - due to health - seems to have lifted a little and the feeling of needing to immerse myself in colour and cloth is once again here. So, guess what I thought would be a good idea - a little 'cheering up shopping'. Fabric below to make two pillow covers for great-granddaughter

the fabric pack below I could not resist, so vibrant and full of joy and the quieter ones in the second photo would work well I think.

last is a treat from Kaffe Fassett Archives range

 

My computer has come to the end of its allotted life span so I have a new one ordered and no doubt will be driven totally crazy finding my way around settings and such. Hopefully it will be here perhaps within a week or so as I following a CT angiogram last week I have a short hospital stay in three weeks and would like to be familiar with my new computer by then.

Can you guess the colour of my new computer from the picture of one of my crystal paperweights below?

That's about all from me today, hopefully I can finish up Paris Metro this week and have that on my next post.  Before I  close I have a new friend in my sewing room, she was on display in the local chemist/gift shop along with others of different colours, I bought one for great granddaughter and this one just for me,

family think I've gone crazy but here is Flopsy!

Thats it from me for now, wish I had more projects to show but hopefully I can have something more in a few days. Until then Happy Quilting to all and please excuse any blips in my post!

Maureen

Hi all - yes, I'm still here!!!

Wishing you all a very belated 2026

  

Things are still 'in the works' here on the health front with more procedures to come but over the past few days I am feeling a little more energy creeping into my body and mind so I'm taking advantage whilst I can.

Hexies have been a blessing to use up scraps, sometimes working on them in the middle of night when I'm  unable to sleep but not sure how I'm going to use them - just sewn together randomly, make  a hexie flower, I need quite a few more before I make a decision.

Maggie Pearl blocks have been sewn together into a top now

here she is  - at least a small part of her -with the fabric for the backing

I need to really have a long, long, housekeeping session with my quilt tops, tops needing to be basted ready for quilting and tops just needing to have the binding put on. Some of my quilt tops I intend to sell because I know I am time limited on the health side of things , prognosis for the CMML (blood cancer) is improved a little with the Melbourne testing and so far I am not needing chemo -yet. Cardiac not too good, definitely need an aortic valve replacement as both ventricles are now being affected by the effects from the valve and energy comes and goes - so I wonder why I bought two more lots of fabric last week??????? I don't think giving up totally will do me any favours so I do try to be positive - at times! Frustration sets in with the need for lots of resting, climbing steps is a struggle and I can no longer walk very far, not as far as I should like, my garden has suffered terribly, there is only just so much my husband is able to take on as he is due to have a hip replacement soon.

So relating to the last few words I've decided to use some of my scrap pieces of fabric along with a few from the AMH Iconic range and pulled a mix of quarters/half metres from stash to make Paris Metro, a pattern from Jo at https://www.theseclevehands.com.au, a very effective but straightforward design. First up a few of the Iconic fabrics

 

 

 

 As you can see cutting is needed for the last three sets of fabrics,  I limit myself to 30 mins at one time. 

That's all from me but I must show you one of my hibiscus flowering for us at the moment

Happy Easter to you all

Maureen

Hi Quilting Friends, yes, I'm back for a visit!!!

Two months now since my last post and thank you all for your kind comments - apologies to anyone who didn't receive a reply from me I was having  a difficult time!!

I'll bring you up to date with progress on my Seven Seas quilt, not touched until yesterday for two months. you'll see that I've deviated from the pattern. There should be two long strips of small Flying Geese in this quilt but things were such that I had no energy or patience to fiddle with those. So, strips here and there separated the blocks, it doesn't sit well with me but the best I can do right now.

Hand quilting I'm finding extremely relaxing and still working on Northern Lights

difficult to see the stitches unfortunately, only the solids will be quilted.

I've been trying to come to terms with the results of my tests after it was found my platelets were a problem - last post. Without writing a medical dictionary here the result was that it became necessary to have bone marrow biopsy. So Bone marrow duly carried out  mid October going into the back of the pelvis into through the bone to take a liquid marrow sample and a piece of bone, these were sent off to the research people in Melbourne. Boy, they do complicated testing, it's amazing.

 Confirmed now  that I have a rare form of Leukaemia - CMML - Chronic MyeloMonocytic Leukaemia
which is cancer of the blood forming cells of the bone marrow. I have a score of 2 (intermediate risk) and a median survival of 26 months! This could drop when the last bone result arrives back. It could also transform towards the end of that time into Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.  Chemo is going to be in place asap. Difficult to get a hold on all this - so making the effort in the midst of this rotten news and fatigue to head into my sewing room. - and I've bought a few new fabrics!!!!! Got to try and stay positive. Although somehow in the midst of this they have to find a way and time to fix my aortic valve! We need a magic wand.

Cutting going on with AMH fabric Iconic, the pattern is Paris Metro from These Clever Hands

and my 2 and 1/2" strips are all hung neatly on the back of my door in the sewing room

these will morph into a Wallpaper quilt courtesy of a KF pattern. The reverse side will be used in lots of these fabrics.

A collection of new KF/William Morris fabrics below

these will mix with solids for a 16 patch quilt - notice I'm going with simple and easy piecing.

Change of tack now by showing a book I first saw on Instagram @itsalovedayfor - this is the account of  Lindsey Dickson Creative. She had been sent a book - surprise - Soulful Stitch - Finding Creativity in Crisis by Cas Holmes and Deena Beverley and shared a few photographs along with her thoughts after looking through the book. My copy arrived yesterday and this book couldn't have arrived at a better time for me - see last photograph!

here's a closeup of the book below rather than the quilt top! - Sailing through Suez!

I can 't wait to be turning the pages!

That's all from me for now but will truly try and show some progress in my next post.

Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Maureen 

An update - the present situation

Hi  blogger friends - I am still here but for health reasons not posted since June 2, nor actually read any posts! I have not touched the sewing machine since the above date, nor a pair of scissors or a needle - apart from occasionally sewing hexagons by hand,  but been taking stock of my present situation re patterns, fabrics and quilts waiting to be quilted, quilts I would like to make, a few new fabrics and patterns.

First of all let's have some colour  

I have here a stack 0f 20 quilt tops in various sizes, thank goodness none are double bed size or larger! 

On my quilt ladders in the hall there are 10 more - proving that I love stitching the tops but not so much the quilting. Once a top is finished, even before the finish, my mind was always racing with ideas for the next one,  you will notice that is say 'was racing', my situation has changed somewhat. over the last three months, however I have bought two new quilt patterns and fabric which had been on pre-order from way back and these are now living in a drawer in my sewing room presently.

 Lets have more colour from Anna Maria - her Iconic range below

this is destined to be used for Paris Metro - pattern from Jo at These Clever Hands

also from Jo - link above - I received my pre-order of Shooting Star below - another  Anna Maria range again from Jo - link above

and I found this Martha Negley fabric below online ages ago

Then came rough sea time - stormy weather ahead

A few days after my last post in June I began to develop extreme bouts of utter fatigue, breathlessness and chest pain on exertion. I have a congenital problem with my aortic valve, it's a bicuspid valve and without going into full detail it means the valve can't open and close as it should and eventually develops stenosis - the only way out of this is heart surgery to put in a new valve. More meds and lots of tests, a few  months grace and then decision time as to when I would have surgery. As you can imagine I've had lots of ultrasounds and so on visits to hospital, John (husband) has been in charge of all housework and cooking since June as I've been to told to take life very easy. More blood tests and then another shock - my platelets have dropped to an extremely low level and some are distorted - priority visit to haematologist - more hospital visits and tests.

One diagnosis given for the reduced normal size is thrombocytopaenia but the large ones are the worry - possible bone marrow problems, ultrasound of spleen this week and specialist visit next week for the crunch time visit. Fatigue is horrendous and along with other side effects have reduced my quality of life to quite low levels at times, anxiety and some depression.  Until my platelet/bone marrow problem is sorted any heart surgery cannot go ahead because of the bleeding caused by afore mentioned low levels. I have to avoid anything sharp - rotary cutters are of course off the scale here! However life still goes on and I still make plans  - Boardwalk quilt is one I would like to work on eventually, I could use up some of my scraps here.

Then one day I happened to see this pattern below on a quick few minutes on my iPad

the Martha quilt. Definitely not the style of quilt or colours used by me and which I would never have thought of making, but I experienced an instant feeling of emotion  and memories when seeing it. I suddenly thought of mum working on her embroidery when I was a little girl, she would be making and mending, crochet work which she loved and knitted warm sweaters and cardigans for school. Of both the Winter days in Lancashire UK walking to school with knitted mittens on my hands which became chocked with snow from playing snowballs, and of the Summer days in gingham dresses playing with friends in the fields across the road, making daisy chains, jumping across the stream - I could go on and on. I have to make this quilt, not necessarily in exactly the same colours but definitely more soft and subdued than my usual fabric choices. I hope it will be my Younger Days Memory Quilt.

Even though I am  restricted on certain levels I still look out for the moon at evening or very early morning and I love to watch the sunrise and sunset colours in the sky

Not sure when I'll be posting again but I'm trying to work out a good "management of time and energy"

routine- keep your fingers crossed, I think I'll try for one post per week, NOT as long as this one. Also setting aside no more than 30minutes twice  daily to read your posts, gosh I've been missing 'visiting' with you all. Here's to better days!

Maureen

At last a little progress

Last post I was about to make a start on a waistcoat for great-granddaughter using Tula Pink new fabrics, 
the back and two fronts cut out and quilted ready for the next step.

Pretty certain of the fabric for the lining but yet to decide on the binding.

Next on the list was Sailing the Seven Seas or Sea Glass as the pattern is named. Not much progress here but the 6" flying geese strip is all done and sewn

I've deliberately created a stronger definition between the lights and darks here compared to the 8"geese, I like the effect, they stand out rather than merge in with all the other fabrics, the 4" geese will have the same treatment.

In an ideal world I should have liked to show this top complete, I've been faffing around sorting fabric storage and trying to create order down here in my sewing studio - a never ending task it seems.

On the subject of fabric sorting I unpacked all the pieces in a kit I'd bought some time ago - Good Gracious is the name of the quilt  - very colourful fabrics. Photo below but not a good one unfortunately, certainly doesn't show the correct colouration,  I should have photographed in the morning!!

,

I posted two photos of  four of the main fabrics a while back

and you can see the richness of colour, there are more fabrics in the kit of course but these were my main reason for buying. I probably should have studied the pattern more closely, in the pattern photo you may be able to see there are four small squares containing a large swan and four with a small one.The pack contains a quarter yard of each of both large and small swans (excuse creases, only just unpacked), seems like I'm going to be having an awful lot of swans around in my stash!

 It's always a gamble I guess and usually any left overs are easily used but I can't imagine where I will use these. Actually, I'm already thinking that I just might use all these fabrics for an alternative pattern on my list of projects, time will tell.

I'm off for a quiet relax, leaving you with the ideal pose for relaxation as shown by Leila who heads for the  sunniest chair first thing in the morning.

We're half way through the year now and normally we have New Year resolutions, this year I'm going with June resolutions - to come back in to spending more time quilting and blogging as before on a much more regular basis and with more projects. Also my poor blog needs a real shake up with layout and so on.

All for now from me, for those in the Northern Hemisphere I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Summer.

See you soon

Maureen