A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014 - one finished one new start

The end of February already and I have had one heck of a month!

Won't bore you all with the details but it does concern one of my February goals which was Fractured

if you need to know the sorry story go to my  last post!

However, another on my list of finishes scheduled for February was New York Blooms which is finished!

Presently I am having to do a contortion act to get to photograph anything on my wall because of my badly organised studio - this will be remedied next month (hopefully) so this pic is badly lit and on a design wall full of threads, but I am working on three small pieces to add to work already completed for a joint  exhibition of some of my fibre art  and paintings by my husband, starts this coming weekend. Two finished and one almost finished, when they are hung I will take photographs but here's a peek of one below

All for now and back to quilting but I am going to link up with everyone over at Fiber Of All Sorts
please go along and have a look!

Maureen

Delight and Disaster!

First off - Delight

I mentioned a few posts back that I had won a prize over with Sharon at Fabrics and Flowers for the final link up on Midnight At The Oasis (still not finished mine), a fat quarter pack of Tula Pink Whistling Acacia fabrics from the Fat Quarter Shop in pink. The package arrived two days ago and I love it!!

I had looked at the range on the shop web site and really liked it but having joined Fabriholics Anonymous I was very good (on this occasion) and passed on the purchase.

This soft coral in here is a delight and just look at the racoon - what a face!

The mail man made my day and I have been mulling over what to do with these.

Disaster Time

You may remember this:

Made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and some luscious hand dyes, bought here in New Zealand and washed by myself around three times to make sure there was no dye run. All OK. However, somehow a couple of fat quarters of these hand dyes must have gone in with my stash without having gone through the wash.
Fast forward to yesterday when I spent the whole day quilting Fractured or Catastrophy as I am now calling it. I had made a couple of guide marks on one of the blocks, a lovely peach with a rich red brown mottled hand dye - finished all the quilting

then realised the guide marks were showing a little so off to get a little special soap and water to remove, remember this was on the peach - shown above. All came off beautifully and I laid the quilt over my rack ready to bind today.  Fast forward to mid morning  today and head to the machine, pick the quilt up to check the marks hadn't reappeared - they had not - but the dye had run into two pieces of the peach.

This photo just doesn't do the level of dye run justice! It looks much worse "in real life".


Can't remove the colour, tried and tried.  This quilt was meant to be in an exhibition starting Friday next now this can't happen and even if I found a way of fixing the problem it can't be sold because I don't quite know how many small pieces of unwashed fabrics are in there. Upside is I get to keep it but just can't wash it!

Hard lesson to learn about being extra vigilant with hand dyes, and I usually am. I was in tears this morning.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day folks and I hope you are all enjoying your week.
Maureen

Super Scrappy Cats - RSC 2014

Time to show a pic of my ten pink kitties - I only finished these yesterday evening as we had one of those weeks explained below.

Long story short - daughter tooth extraction last Monday, problems: one root of tooth has pierced sinus cavity major repair to cover the cavity hole - not enough gum to cut and use as flap, solution cut into cheek and a bit of muscle! Next problem - they hit a bleeder!!!! Major panics and rushes from here to city arrangements for her ex husband to move in and manage two teenagers and daughter came home with us mouth packed to glory and instructions that if there was an arterial bleed to take to emergency or get an ambulance. 

Poor girl, she was terrified. So a week of me up and down every 20 mins or so with cold drinks, cold soups, ice packs for hugely swollen and bruised left side of face. Two nights later we had an ambulance visit then three hours observation in emergency  -I could go on! Sally went home Friday and we are making sure she takes it easy and taking cooked food etc.

OK  so lovely to sit at my machine yesterday and play with fabrics and the pinks really cheered me!

Yes, one of my kitties has both ears going "backwards" one slightly cross cat! It's not a mistake I did it intentionally, I like doing things a little differently sometimes, adds a bit of interest.

I realised I have lots of pinky/peach strips cut, and whilst not strictly scraps I think I will make a small quilt out of them before the pink month draws to a close - providing we have no more dramas!

Linking now with Superscrappy and everyone else who is taking part in the challenge - go visit!

Finishing with one of my favourite flowers - not all pink but a little bit in there

See you next time
Maureen

Rainbow Scraps - Pink Cats and Pukekos

Saturday again and heading for mid February already.

A slow week again here, we had one of the bedrooms repainted so everything had to come out of the room and is scattered between our living room, another bedroom and my sewing room! Began putting furniture back today but still lots to go back into drawers and the closet. In-between all the moving furniture  around I picked some of my pink fabrics 

all ready for ten pink cats but only two made so far,

all ten should be sitting pretty for next Saturday.

Been quilting on New York Blooms

and as for the mention of Pukekos in my post header they are one of our native birds here in New Zealand, easy to tame, love following people and a we have quite a few around a local supermarket car parking area by the bush and stream. We were there during the week and a few were hanging around,  one friendly soul came right up to the car door as I was taking the photos, he was obviously looking for handouts of food!

Time to link up with So Scrappy - Tickled Pink

A Lovely Year of Finishes - February Goal Setting Party

Hard to believe we are into February already - and here in New Zealand we are on February 2nd.

One of my goals from January has had to be transferred to February, my Fractured quilt should have been completed last month but wasn't so fingers crossed for this month.

I am hoping to complete the last seven blocks for my "Fruit Salad" quilt and finish up my "New York Blooms" these last two will also need posting to 15 Minutes Play which I take part in.

Fractured

No borders will be added to Fractured, it's busy enough and I have to confess I'm not a huge fan of borders. I appreciate that some quilts would just not look good without having a border but if I can get away without putting them on that suits me fine.

Fruit Salad

New York Blooms

 Not sure what I will do regarding bordering Fruit Salad, it does need something, it will be four by four block setting and possibly I'll just go with the Aboriginal Dot, which is a more attractive green "in the flesh" than the photo shows.

New York Blooms will not have the Subway fabric top or bottom, I'm just going to bind the whole thing with the pink fabric and I have some pretty jazzy fabric set aside for the backing.

These last two don't need a lot of quilting, the made fabric has pretty small pieces and the effect would be lost with a whole lot of stitching

Linking up now with A Lovely Year Of Finishes

Midnight At The Oasis - Final Link-up

Here we are - our final link-up for everyone taking part in the MATO Quilt Along and what a great idea from Sharon and Jess - thank so much!

Unfortunately I am still behind with my quilt "Desert Rose" due to a difficult five weeks but it WILL be finished by the end of this month, check in to my blog towards the end of February to see the finished quilt.

The nine patch blocks are still a work in progress and as for the very last border we'll have to wait and see. I didn't follow the prescribed order, width or content of the borders for this quilt therefore the log cabin style final border will need to be resized and I suspect my quilt will turn out a little larger than the pattern which we used as our inspiration. The colours in the quilt are actually richer than they are showing in the photo above - see the thumbnail by my profile for a true representation.

This has been such an enjoyable journey and I have seen such beautiful work from all the people who have taken part  but I suspect I am not the only one who has not completed yet. I am linking up now with Sharon and hope you will go along and have a peek.

Until next time have a good week
Maureen