Midnight At The Oasis - should be a Churn Dash border!

The post header says it all - a 3" finished Churn Dash border is the third one to be added, I did give it a go but the pieces were just too hard for my hand joints to deal with, even tried on foundation but still no joy. Sharon had used some of a favourite fabric for one of her borders instead of appliqué and thought what a clever girl! You can see I took a leaf out of her book, my non-Churn Dash section is made up of a fabric which I loved the instant I set eyes on it,  it's the same one used in my flying geese border. I have about one and a half yards left in my stash so it will be used sparingly in the future.

"Desert Rose"

My camera is playing up so this was taken with my iPhone by my husband, the light from the window hits my design wall and mid morning shots are better lit really but this was taken in the afternoon and the top of the quilt looks slightly darker than the bottom half, must be better organised for photographing.

Below is a close up shot of the fabric and you can see there is a pattern there and I just love the colours, it reminds me of a journey to NZ when I was 16 years old (a long, long time ago now) and we sailed by Suez and down through the Red Sea, I vividly remember the banks of sand and palms, resting on the deck rails absorbing these amazing sights and especially the sunsets.

John said the fabric reminded him of the "desert roses" he brought home for me from the times he was  in Al Ain and I thought  great idea no more having to think of a name for this quilt - problem solved!

I now have to box on and finish cutting for the nine patch style border,  I've done a few mock-up blocks and I think they'll be fine.

Sharon and Jess are the girls hosting this Quilt Along and we're all linking up, please go along and see how we are working this pattern. 

Back to nine patch 

Have a good weekend

Maureen

Design Wall Monday

Slower progress than I had hoped on my Midnight At The Oasis quilt, still to sew the last round of blocks and I am cutting the next round, Churn Dash which should be 3" finished, but following the lead from another participant in the Quiltalong I intend to make them a little larger. 

I'm going to be linking with Judy at  Patchwork Times on her Design Wall Monday, loads of lovely work in progress to see there!

I have two or three other projects on the go and I bought fabric yesterday to start another one.

This cot size quilt will be for our newest grandson, I have one or two more fabrics put away to add to these, but I just love owls and couldn't resist buying this. I had bought safari style fabric a few months ago for him but decided it wasn't colourful enough so that's waiting for another day! This will be one for DWM in the next few weeks.

House chore list getting longer so time to get busy

Have a good quilting week and Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends

Maureen

Catching up!

Yesterday first on my list of things to do was   deciding on backing for my Fractured quilt - for those who haven't caught up with the Fractured Quilt Along just click on the appropriate label on my side bar, there were a number of posts.

The very bright tropical fabric had been earmarked earlier and was long enough but not wide enough so that took me along to sorting through the fabrics under my cutting table. I had a huge pile of fabrics put aside for backings but the only ones I could find which were bright enough were half yard pieces, I pulled these four and will have them on either side of the tropical for my width. They have been there so long the creases from the folding are pretty obvious but  a light iron with steam should put this right. 

Also came across this Nancy Halvorsen calendar panel and as you can see the date was 2007!!!! I had intended just using the the Angels  along with the fat quarters I bought at the same store but never got around to it, would love to do this for Christmas this year but somehow I think my chances of that are pretty slim.

Last quilty thing yesterday was to put up the nine blocks which I started for 15 Minutes Play and I still need to make another seven blocks using the "made" fabric. The blocks  finish at 6"square and then I have to think of the border.  Sadly this photo isn't showing the true colour of the Pear Aboriginal Dot fabric, it really is a lovely soft green/yellow. 

My Midnight At The Oasis is coming along and all ready to start on the Churn Dash blocks - all 3" of them!

Back to sorting fabrics - have a good week

Maureen

Midnight At The Oasis

I'm another one who is making slow progress for this posting, my lateness is due to the fact that I decided to make a change with the fabric I was using for the second border (should be applique but it's not) and decided I would rather like a darker background fabric this time. Duly began and after six blocks were up on the wall I decided it was just too dark

both blocks are the correct size but I virtually just threw them on the wall so one of them looks as if it is larger at one side than the other.

I do love the black fabric with lilac polka dot but not quite so much of it all at once, so I reverted back to my original colour which is the background of the centre block but having done that it put me back a little having to start cutting the fabric all over again. Also I have just bought two more sets of basket stacks for my fabric so precious time has been spent arranging things there.

Only five of these blocks are sewn together the remainder just positioned on the wall,  please excuse the thread covered bits and gap in the design wall just waiting on the fabric from Glorious Colour to re-cover the panels. I'm pleased I decided to revert to my original choice of colour here, and next posting in two weeks I should have finished this round and also the next one, Churn Dash - which is tiny just 3", that will be fun!!

Time to link up with Sharon and Jess and shoot over there to see what everyone else is doing - please go along and have a peek, you can also just click on the button on my side bar to learn more about MATO

Enjoy the coming week and happy quilting!

Maureen

It's on the way - hooray!

The monster quilt should be arriving at Taupo for quilting any time now!

What a relief to get it off on the courier -  the quilt top was quite a weight to manhandle, no wonder I had sore shoulders!

Didn't have room to put it upon my design wall so this is the best I can do at the moment but I  have a sort of display frame in the garage which has been languishing there for years and I had forgotten all about it - I will resurrect that and use it for photographs. Sorry about the sunlight blocking out the edge of the quilt, turned out to be a lovely sunny day here yesterday.

There were a couple of shots yesterday of blocks for MATO, slight change of plan with background colour so more triangle cutting and the sewing machine will be going flat out this evening so watch for my post tomorrow evening or Saturday (NZ time).

Also have been cutting more narrow strips for these blocks  - good old Accuquilt. 

Two grandchildren arriving from school shortly so better get a move on

See you soon

Maureen

Ready for quilting!

At last I am just about ready to send off the Bento Box style quilt (started quite some time ago ) off down to  Linda for her to work her magic with the quilting!  Just onto the last border now and then  I will courier this down to her tomorrow morning. It's a big quilt (104" x 84") to manoeuvre around in my small sewing area -  here it is all scrunched up on my cutting table for pinning and then scrunched up again for sewing! Ironing is another issue

  

 

I have also been busy working on the next round for the QAL for Midnight At The Oasis and there will be post from me again on Friday, so come visit, and a link up with Sharon and Jess. These quilt alongs are great fun - I would love to take part in more of them, great fun getting to "meet" everyone 

taking part. I have found more super blogs amongst the ladies joining in  which I now have on my blog list, so more time spent reading posts every day!

The next border will be made up of the blocks above (excuse the shadows on these pics)  click the  button on the right hand side bar to see who is taking part and how they are working  with the pattern.

Thank goodness for my Accuquilt it has been great for cutting my strips and triangles!

Apart from being busy with quilting I have been enjoying wandering around the garden, I love doing this early in the morning, it's very peaceful and a great way to start the day and gather my thoughts!

I have a few new roses and dahlias in the garden

The rose is another David Austin named after his wife Pat Austin, it's an absolutely amazing colour and she lives now amongst purple and copper day lilies and just glows in the sunlight.

The dahlia is settled amongst the pink roses along side my established dahlias and day lilies. Some time ago  I also took  cuttings of a purple penstemon and plonked them in the ground, they have taken beautifully so there should be some lovely colour going on in those particular garden beds. I just love purple and golden copper or apricot/peachy colours in the garden, and you can  see that I have used those colours in my Midnight At The Oasis quilt! 

Time for a morning cup of tea and then back to finishing the last border on the quilt - I am so looking forward to seeing what Linda will do with this and will post when I get it back again!
Don't forget to stop by Friday (Saturday am New Zealand time) for the latest episode of Quilting At The Oasis!

Have a good week

Maureen

Fabriholics Anonymous

This morning a post from Jess of The Elven Garden came up in the list on my dashboard

which detailed a scheme with Rebecca about not buying more fabrics and using what we have in our stash - brilliant idea!!

I have been quilting and buying fabric for around 30 years now, had numerous sales at our Guild to reduce stash and books but still my shelves and baskets are overflowing, so I bit the bullet and will be joining 

FABRIHOLICS ANONYMOUS

read below

GOALS:

- To use the Stash I already have!

- Finish UFOs without distraction by shifting to other new beautiful fabric.

- Stop the insanity of constantly buying the latest and greatest fabric.

- Save the $$ I spend on stashing.

- Destash the fabrics that I realize I am never going to use.

FABRIC FAST RULES:

1) No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 1, 2014.   

2) At 6 months reevaluate status and decide whether to keep going for full year.  Evaluation July 1, 2014.

3) Create a UFO list and complete them!

4) Exceptions

• Backing: purchasing a backing to finish a quilt top is permissible.  However, attempting to use fabric in your possession for a backing is preferable.
• Books and Magazine purchases are allowed as they are not fabric.  Notions acceptable too.
• Swap Mama Fabric: if hosting a swap you are permitted to by fabric to execute swap duties, but you may not join a swap simply for the sake of being able to buy fabric!
• Quilts for Publication: if you are making a quilt for a publication and need certain fabric to execute it correctly then that is a major exception - who can blame you?

The button is on my right hand side bar so click there or the links to Jess and Rebecca above and find out all the details.

I now feel rather smug that I have a lot of new fabrics bought over the past month to sort and put away, plus I am expecting another order from Glorious Colour, hopefully sometime next week - do I feel guilty? No - fabrics below some from Glorious Color and others from BryerPatch

OK time to get some serious sorting in my quilting room

Maureen 

Quilt Alongs and Sunny Days

Having taken part in the Fractured Quilt Along hosted by Vicki I enjoyed the process so much that I decided to join in with Midnight At The Oasis hosted by Sharon and Jess,  go for a visit and have a look at what has been achieved so far. You can also click on the side button. This is a lovely pattern although if you read my post purely on MATO you will see why mine is a little different!

One lovely surprise from the Fractured QAL was that I won one of the draws organised by Vicki and yesterday received a gorgeous piece of her dyed fabric

Thanks so much Vicki!

So apart from piecing a border on MATO I spent a lot of time reading this week and with the sunny days we've been enjoying I have taken time out just to wander around the garden each day seeing what was in flower. Quite a few plants are just about ready, my roses are in bud and two flowering,

the one below is "Crepuscle"growing along the fence

love this one and she has a delightful scent.

I also found the plant below in the garden centre a few weeks ago and have a number of my soft pink/apricot roses and a yellow one underplanted with these 

Loving gardening and quilting I find a lot of inspiration for colour in quilts from my garden - just look at the photo above for example, and below is  a photo of the beginning of a few lemons, the flowers on the orange and lemon trees are falling now and for the first time I took a really close look at the mini lemons

aren't the colours great?

Until next post

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Midnight At The Oasis 2

A couple of days late here I am with my MATO post

Because of issues with arthritis and a flare of my auto-immune issues my hands were a disaster  so hand applique on an orange peel border was out. I didn't feel up to even using machine applique on all the small petals so I came up with flying geese instead!

Unlike the pattern there is not a lot of contrast between the centre medallion and first border but that's the way I wanted it, more of a moody look. Next problem is the upcoming border with the applique vine - again that is out presently for me so I shall have to get busy thinking of a substitute to use instead that fits with everything else.

Beautiful work being done on the QAL (thanks to Sharon and Jess)  click on their names or just click on the Midnight At The Oasis button on the side bar and have a look at the link-up.

I have my usual blog to write now so better get to it

Hope you're all enjoying a happy weekend

Maureen