Heading towards 2015

My cat quilt should really be here on this post along with the other finished quilt tops but two more rows  to go with the cats and five other tops waiting to be quilted!! I also have a few other projects in either cutting or sewing stage and in order to move things along I'm joining with
Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber and others
taking part in her three projects for the coming year - go along to her web site or I have the three new buttons on my side-bar which will take you along to her site for all the information, it's going to be busy but lots of fun.

As if I don't have enough fabric to last me many lifetimes I took advantage of price reduction at some of the stores on-line and just before Christmas I had
some lovely squishy packages arrive from the USA

The fabrics below I picked up in one of the stores here in Auckland

some of these fabrics will, I hope, be creeping in to the projects for 2015.

We now have just under four hours to go before we see the end of 2014 here in New Zealand and I'd like to wish everyone a

Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2015

see you in the New Year!

Maureen

RSC 2014 - almost there!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and now looking ahead to 2015.

The time is here for our last link up for RSC2014 and I have not quite

finished sewing all my cats together, we had a busier than anticipated Christmas and

a visitor from Australia, however one half is put together

so I can post a photo of that, the remaining cats are

sitting underneath hence the slightly wonky

shot.

Alley Cats

I have good intentions of having this all complete for a post 1st January 2015.

One or two of the ears are slightly "chewed" at the top but as alley cats sometimes

get into scraps whilst they're out on the tiles at night I'm putting the missed points down to that!

Apart from working on the quilt over the next few days I hope to put in a day just working out finishes, 

new projects, quilt alongs etc. for the New Year so I guess I could fill up a whole rayon this.

 Tidying bits of the blog is also on the agenda.

This dahlia was a put in the front garden bed around 6 weeks ago as a single tuber and it's

a stunner. It measures just over 7" across and there are another six buds waiting in

the wings. I'm thrilled with it although I hadn't anticipated the depth of colour,
it looked more peachy on the label.

Time now to link and wave goodbye to
Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014
and all the lovely projects on show.

 Happy Quilting

Maureen

Two more sleeps until Christmas Day

Two more sleeps here in New Zealand that is!

I'm conscious that I haven't done a post for just on a week or so now 

and didn't even link up with Angela for the next to last

Saturday in the RSC 2014. Not been too well and just didn't manage

to sew more than four cats together in the past week so nothing much to show

on that score. I can show the beginnings of

a new piece which I posted to
Cultural Fusion Quilts early last week, this is
a new blog from Sujata Shah of The Root Connection and I am thrilled to be a contributor
to the blog, please go and visit, it's going to be great!

Sailing Through Suez

Just at the stage of playing around with colours and going with the Flying Geese setting
based on the Hourglass block from Sujata's book Cultural Fusion Quilts which you can see
on the links above.

 New fabrics arrived in the mail this week which cheered me no end
and I needed some cheering as blood tests
 tell me that in addition to other health problems I am pre-diabetic - pretty high results!!
Sugar is a no-no and fats are also on the "careful watch" list, please think of me
when you're all enjoying your Christmas turkey or ham and and all the trimmings,
not forgetting yummy mince pies and cream!

Over the next few days I hope to spend time planning out projects for next year,
Vicki over at Field Trips in Fiber
has some great ideas which will keep me busy! Pay a visit - the more the merrier.

I must end this post with photos of the sunset yesterday evening

Just Glorious

Wishing you all a Happy and Peaceful Christmas
Maureen

Just another Manic Monday …….

I intended posting this last night but time got away on me and

it was a real busy day, more present shopping, laundry, ordering fabric and so on!

My cat quilt - Alley Cats - should have had a few seams sewn yesterday but didn't

happen because of the above reasons and I couldn't

stop myself from starting a small quilt using the Hourglass Block from the new book by
Sujata Shah - Cultural Fusion Quilts - over at The Root Connection
pay her blog a visit, it's wonderful.

 Cats -  I made around 126 for a quilt 70" x 81" and was undecided whether to set them as the original or put a narrow strip between rows.
Putting them up on the wall I realised I didn't really want it so big
more of a throw over the couch or over a chair, even
hanging on a wall in the hallway so I lost the bottom row and two side rows

Alley Cats

here they are in the final arrangement, untrimmed and still with threads hanging off
some of them but I'm not worried about that I just
wanted to see how they all looked. Also you can see I'm going
with the original design. Head on over to
Super Scrappy and RSC 2014 and catch up
with everyone, only two more Saurdays' left now.

 On to the sewing machine to get them all in order, before doing that I need
 to go and dead-head some of my roses, the wind and rain here
have ruined the blooms.
I did take a couple of photos before the bad weather

Can't remember the name of the rose

day lilies and penstemon

Off to the sewing machine  - happy quilting.

Maureen

Cats for RSC2014 - stripping!

In my last post to RSC2014 I showed a few of my cats

set out in two rows HERE and
 Sally T left a comment with the suggestion that perhaps a thin black strip between
rows would improve the look of the cat's ears
coming right into contact with the row above
so

tried out with a few more cats with what would be a 1" finished strip between.
I think they look much happier (bearing in mind they're just popped up there
nothing sewn yet, nor will be until 126 of them are all there).

What do you think?

Cats Creating Mayhem for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014

Actually I think I'm the one that's creating mayhem, I was doing so well tidying things up in my little studio and then went off at a tangent with something

else - looking at the quilting books available with Amazon

for reading on my iPad - fatal!!!!

Cats - I just pulled them out of their drawer and began

playing with a few on my moveable design wall which of course isn't big enough

so I need to use my larger one which is fixed to the wall.

So, then had to move a stackable set of drawers to another

space in my studio but there isn't one!

It is in a temporary home at the moment so I am just posting

a photo of a few cats on the too small wall.

Ignore colour placement, and the fact that they are not in a straight line on the

wall, they look as if they're sliding off on the right, I was in hurry to get moving things around.

This is just to give you an idea of placing right and left facing

creatures.

They will be set 14 across by 9 down in straight rows!

I think we're all busy arranging blocks ready for a grand reveal so I don't feel too bad about not having stitched anything together yet.

Heading off to link up with everyone at Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014. 

Thursday - an early start

An earlier start than I would have liked because of going down to the laboratory 

for a whole lot of blood tests following

my visit to the Rheumatologist yesterday - a downer was that

two of them had to be fasting so I was outside

the door as soon as they opened!

I haven't done a thing for a few days with quilts, grabbed a handful of

clean up fabric strips yesterday to make a cover for my birthday

iPad, turns out most of the strips were in the green range

quilted the lining and now need to trim to the size needed. I may not quilt the strips, 

I did flip and sew so they should be OK, I'll think about that

whilst writing this post.

Yesterday I found that I had quite a collection of yellow fabrics bought

maybe two years or so ago with the intention of making

a yellow diamond quilt - now I've changed my mind so I 

have heaps more yellows to add to my already considerable yellow stash.

I also bought around two and half yards for the border

so I will not need any more yellows!

Sorting out scraps is turning out to be a major I have just folded some of the ones I have 

used recently which were piled up on my table and

decided to keep them in one drawer just for Kaffe Collective scraps 

I would really like to begin on a quilt from the book by 

Sujata over at The Root Connection
but as having my eyes dilated is on the cards for around lunchtime and therefore not
being able to focus for a few hours after that the new start is out!

Off to make the most of the morning whilst I can still
see clearly - have a good week!