Harry Potter, Gypsy Wife and another peek at Kaleidoscope

Before you go further this post has quite a few photos, but I hope

you'll still read on!

Harry Potter - I never got into the books when they began to flood

the stores, lots of friends and our grandchildren were all fans and I had 

been thinking recently, well perhaps I should "join the club".

This morning a rave review in the weekend magazine  all about

the first of new illustrated editions of the Harry Potter books

caught my eye - sounded amazing, rang the book store and yes

they had one in - husband very kindly said he would buy this for me!

Ten minutes later we were in the door of the book shop and

came out with this!

Superb colour illustrations, guess what I'm going to be reading tonight.

Gypsy Wife - I've been pulling fabrics and have a few examples below, some will be removed and some added in the final cut tomorrow.

Main Focus fabrics

Additional brights

Something a little quieter

More colour

 So I had all the above and then went to one of my Kaffe Collective

Scrap drawers, didn't choose just grabbed a couple of handfuls below

Yummy

So my Gypsy Wife will be a mix of specifically chosen fabrics and

bits and pieces from my scraps.

We kick off on February 1st with

Section 1. Keep watching. 

Link to Gypsy Wife Quilt Along 2016 for lots of fun and games!

Oh and before I go I'm getting on with the Kaleidoscope ready for the link

on February 1st (busy, busy) started sewing the corners on some of the blocks.

Back in a couple of days.

Maureen

Hot, Hot, Hot

I mean the weather!

Still very, very hot and sticky with temperatures around 30 degreesC

and today 94% humidity. Last night we were almost eaten

alive by mosquitoes!

Sitting out on the deck during the day under the sun shade we had a lovely

view of the garden and trees beyond

and when I had the energy and after yet another

shower to freshen up I unpacked my Mostly Manor fabrics,

all 28 of them.

These are for my Kaleidoscope and I'm making mine with four strips.

I bought a book by Laura Heine way back in 2002 and fell for a

many stripped and coloured one she had made, this was one for

my list in the years ahead! Eventually I shall make a purely scrap one

but for the moment  these fabrics above told me they needed

to be used - so I'm cutting up 2"strips

and making a quick mock up

hopefully more strips will be sewn this evening when the temperature

 has dropped a little.

I'm busy gathering fabrics for Gypsy Wife  - see sidebar - but I'll leave that for 

my next post.

Hope all of you having to cope with the now, wind and probably

now black ice keep safe and well.

See you soon

Maureen

Scrappy house number 2

My second house, I intend to make only two houses each month

in the colour set by Angela.
This quilt is going to be named
"Home Sweet Home"

Remember my Scrappy Mountains for the project last year - the top is now complete

and it's hanging in the closet - with six other quilts - waiting to be quilted!

I've just realised we have one more Saturday link left, and I'm not sure

whether to make a couple more stars, I have a lot going on next week

with two new projects - Gypsy Wife see my sidebar - and working

on a Kaleidoscope with my long awaited Mostly Manor fabrics which arrived

yesterday!!!!

That's all this post, we are melting here in Auckland and other parts

of the North Island, not easy to be quilting at the moment.

Hope you all keep safe in the snow storms some of you are experiencing.

Linking up with
"the other blues"
and
Oh Scrap!
for more scrap fun.

Scrappy Mountain is now a finished top

I finished the last seam on Scrappy Mountains yesterday and photographed it

outside early in the morning

not the best shot but I couldn't get a full on photo

on my design wall - re-organisation in process in my

little studio!

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my computer/printer

in or out of the sewing room - much appreciated and I hope

I have replied to all individually.

The outcome is it's gotta go somewhere else - so I'm trying

a couple of spots for it around the house.

I'm behind this week with my second blue house and that needs to be 

ready for Sunday morning our time (NZ) and next week I

shall be choosing fabrics for Gypsy Wife - see button on sidebar -

and hoping that my Mostly Manor fabrics for my kaleidoscope will at last arrive!

Tracking shows me that it has taken five days to go from Austin TX

through to Chicago

 and I'm told now four days o from Chicago "my item is now on it"s way to the destination"  

boy do I hope so!

Quick garden shot and then I'm off to cut a house

this is part of my large patch of  liriope.

Back in a couple of days - happy quilting!

Maureen

Stars on Saturday and Organisation

I should have Stars on Sunday as we're late afternoon presently

in New Zealand. It's always difficult to time a post just after Angela has

held the Link-up.

Three stars this week because I've been busy basting the quilt

for my grand-daughter and developed a tendon issue again

so it's been a case of basting for 15 mins at a time then resting the offending hand - which doesn't

actually get you very far!

However

one more light blue star

then on to  dark stars

the next one is a good example of working when extremely tired and sore

and below we have it with pieces correctly placed

that will be all my sewing for today - a new day tomorrow.

Plans for this week include beginning the quilting for afore mentioned

basted quilt, choosing fabric for and sewing another house block -

I'm thinking I may make a 16 block wall quilt rather than a full sized quilt with the houses.

Also project planning needs to be cleared up.

I would be interested to know how many of you out there have your computer separate

from your quilting studio. I have a very small room and struggle for space, I am overflowing

with stacked bins full of projects, scraps, strips etc. I have two machines, one

set in a cabinet for sewing and one in a largish table for quilting, I have stacked cubbies
holding yardage of my KF fabrics plus a closet minus doors
which holds my wire mesh baskets - with yet more fabric.
 I've been thinking

how workable it would be to move out my computer and printer but then

I figure I could be running from one room to another checking photos of

works in progress and settings which will probably become increasingly

annoying and  then involve time and effort in moving

it back again, also where is the best place for my blog reading and
creating. Any suggestions welcomed.

I'm off to link up now with all the super projects at

RSC 2016

and
Oh Scrap!

Have a happy week
Maureen

Blue Saturday

This post was meant to go out last night but

we had grandchildren staying so it shifted to this morning.

I am working on two projects for RSC 2016 with another in the process of

being worked out, anyway so far:

my house does have blue with accents of purple and a few

other colours in the mix there, as usual! I've made the chimneys taller rather

than the square ones I used many years ago on a quilt,

I rather like this version. 12" finished so definitely need two each month

to make a decent sized quilt. 

I love stars so this will be my second RSC project

6" and haven't decided on how many will be needed as yet.

You al know I love my flowers so as it's a blue month 

one of my blue hydrangeas

Lots of quilters have linked with 

Angela and RSC 2016

and

Cynthia at Oh Scrap!

so I'm off to have breakfast then have a look at the posts,

see you there!

Maureen

2016 Finish-A-Long

The start of another year!

I apologise first off to those who  have seen 

most of the photos on my list of finish projects for the quarter.

Only one is in need of extra piecing work the remainder all
need quilting.

My list for the 1st Quarter:

High Flyer
Quilt for Daisy
Desert Rose
Blue Heaven
Scrap Rainbow
Alley Cats
Ice Cream

High Flyer

This needs quilting and quickly!!! This is for our youngest grand-daughter

who has a birthday on the 18th of this month, I need more hours in

my day. You can read the story about High Flyer HERE.

Quilt for Daisy
The story about this quilt is HERE

Desert Rose

 Desert Rose needs two more borders, she was part of the Midnight at the Oasis
Quilt-A-Long

Blue Heaven

Scrap Rainbow

Alley Cats

Ice Cream

Guess I'd better get on that machine!!

I'm off now to link up with
Leeanne at She Can Quilt
for the first quarter. 

A wet and windy start to 2016

Wishing you all a Happy New Year

January 1st 2016

and we had pretty wet and windy weather!

Good time to sit quilting or thinking about quilting - sadly I didn't do much

at all of the former but a lot of the latter.

Projects for the year are being organised and naturally I have too many

on my list but I am certainly taking part in
Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016
one of my projects here will match up nicely with another
group
Quilty 365
you will see if you go and visit that this is all about circles, preferably
one each day although I don't think I shall be making quite so many.

My proposed list of projects will hopefully be be in a post mid-week and at the same time
 I need to baste and begin quilting High Flyer below,

this is the one for my youngest grand-daughter and you can read the story behind
the quilt HERE.
I was tossing up whether to order new fabric for the backing, one of the two used in the
triangles but given that I have oodles of fabric I am
trying to cobble together a pieced back which selfishly means that I can
justify my order for a bundle of Loominous by Anna Maria Horner!

There will probably be just enough fabric in the photo
below for the backing - although this is not set in stone

until I have worked up a plan of cuts and placements.

Back to my brainstorming for the coming year with my
quilting  and finding time to tidy the garden after the atrocious weather!

Happy Quilting
Maureen