Last of the Blues and fading flowers

Yes folks it's the last Saturday for light blue or green blues

with Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015.

In my box of parts and rejects I had a few 16 patch blocks

originally being made for…… really something to do

one day when all I wanted was to sew straight seams but now I

find I have a good use for them. I'm a member of Aotearoa Quilters here in

New Zealand and their latest newsletter put out a call for

cot or single quilts for a cause

Cosy Kiwi Kids

to ensure that children who are living in cold damp homes

are  given a warm quilt. These will be distributed

through needy schools throughout the country.

It's a large cot size, not enough blocks for a single.

All that is needed now is to haul out some batting and backing and quilt.

It's that time of year for me to prune back hydrangeas, roses and a few other shrubs but I like to leave

the roses until the last ones are fading, I love the change of colour and

the beginning of decay

strange I know but I'm sure I'm not the only one, in fact I know I am not 

as an art gallery in Auckland 

have produced a luscious book of photographs of flowers in decay

taken by a marvellous photographer who specialises in these. This is on my wish list!

Time to get into house cleaning this morning - go visit
Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015
to view more blue lovelies and have a happy week.

Scrap Vortex

This scrap quilt is the greatest fun!!

I'm using up, or should I say intending to use up.

scraps in two of my plastic drawers, strips, squares and all sorts.

Following the lead from Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts
I'm busy putting the small units units together to make the bigger units and it
really is quite addictive. Just a few below

medium units

now made into larger blocks

 these all begin life as just two small pieces of a similar size sewn together,

and like Topsy they just grow!

Hope you're having a great week.

Note to self - remember to check measurements!!

Bit on the late side with this post - stupid mistake made

with the blocks for High Flyer - story below!

For RSC 2015 I have only three Scrappy Mountains to show

High Flyer

Halfway through cutting I obviously changed size by a half inch on the large

squares for the block - I also changed from putting the corners

on using small squares method in order to save fabric and

went to cutting triangles with my Accuquilt - bad move! I didn't pick this up until 

coming to sew rows together - outcome is 5 rows no good, so

I decided to cut more fabrics in the original correct size.

What to do with the odd rows?? Cut them up!!

So here we are with two set of strips, large triangles, large chunks for 15 minutes play

and small pieces for Scrap Vortex! I haven't even pulled out threads or

ironed before photographing.
The remaining large squares are the correct size, I just need to cut more of the blue
and purple for the small squares.
The pieces pictured above will be put in my parts box for a rainy day.

That's all from me but I'm heading off to see the weekend
posts to Angela at RSC 205

Have a good week!

A lazy Sunday

I've only just cut and fused another teapot for RSC 2015, by rights

this should be light blue or blue/green but when

I had all the teapots on my wall I switched my previous blue one

and I'm calling it the light blue for this month and

I've made a darker blue one to do a swap!

There jury is still out with this one, I do need some of the teapots to be subdued

and others brighter but when I have all 9 or 12 I'll be in a better position to make
a decision. 

It's been a day or so of play rather than serious sewing, yesterday I 

received the stretched hexie template produced by

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

and just had to cut a couple out, they're 10" long and a quilt top

could be put together in no time, I love the size it's great for showcasing

favourite prints.

Another play-time project is Scrap Vortex, 

Amanda Jean
has been putting up a tutorial for this quilt and it seemed a good
way to use up bits and pieces, the link is to her first week.

Linking up with Angela from RSC 2015

Down to the more serious stuff tomorrow!

Before I head off I must tell you the outcome of my request for
information on a small scrap of fabric two posts ago, I had a 2" square left
and was hoping a store somewhere may have had a little tucked away.
Next thing you know I had an email from
Linda over at Koka Quilts
telling me she had a piece in her pastels, Linda is here in Auckland just
about 30 mins drive away, she kindly popped the fabric in the mail and I
was able to cut a few blocks for the quilt for my
grand-daughter. Hopefully I can return the favour with fabric from my stash.

Colour My World

The colour for the RSC 2015 this month is light blue or even

a blue/green but I have been pretty slow to get going on teapots

and scrappy mountains!!!

However I've been busy working on other projects, I posted a shot of

fabrics for a quilt for my grand-daughter and good progress is

being made, blocks put together

here's a peek.

"High Flyer" is the name of this quilt - Alice, our grand-daughter, is 10yrs old and in a cheerleading

team, I think she's now in an elite squad. She is a natural and very, very good. When I was

young cheerleaders were girls at the rugby matches dancing and

usually waving coloured pom poms but now it's a whole different scene!

The gymnastics, the leaps and somersaults are amazing.

 Alice is a flyer in the squad and so we have the name of the

quilt, given that I have flying geese in there into the bargain it seemed a good choice.

I have hunted out my Fruit Salad blocks and have those up on the design wall, 

still need a few more and I'm determined that these

will be done by the end of the month and then I should be onto the borders.

The Pear Aboriginal Dot is still not showing well, it's a beautiful colour.

This is one of my pieces as contributor to 

15 Minutes Play.

And for "stress relief" I have begun my colouring book

I love dragonflies so this is my first choice and as a break from the machine for

a short time it truly is relaxing.

Of course now our four legged friends are asking for their

evening meal so that's my time at the machine and computer over

for the evening!

I'll be back Sunday or Monday with something to show for RSC 2015.

Seeing squares!

First up if you read my last post when I mentioned I didn't have good light for photographing as 

we were having a grey day in Auckland - this is 

the beach a minute or two from our place!

Come Summer it's all blue skies, hot sun and lovely aqua sea!

Hooray, I finished basting my H quilt and will certainly use the board method

again, my poor fingers couldn't take basting it all in one go

so I took my time over two days, all while trying to configure my studio!

I have been cutting out the quilt for my grand-daughter and wouldn't you know

that I didn't have a 6" finished square die for my Accuquilt so I've been cutting

168 squares with the ruler and cutter, luckily I do have the correct

size triangle die.

start of the cutting session

practice size for triangles

Important call re fabric

below is a small snippet of a very old Kaffe Fassett fabric, can't

rememher what it was called or when I bought it but this tiny piece is all I have

left and I've been desperately searching online to see if any

stores by any remote chance have a little left tucked away in a store room.

mystery fabric

If this rings a bell with any of you and perhaps you know where I may be

able to get a hold of some would you please, please email me. If you have any in your stash 

and would be willing to sell me a small amount  you

would make me very happy, I was hoping to put some of this in the

quilt I'm now cutting.

Here is one of the reasons I love Kaffe Collective fabrics, cut a strip 6 and 1/2" wide

cut into squares and you have six different looks!

Better get a hurry up with moving my table so I can get

sewing tomorrow!