Waiting In The Wings

Friday, December 22, 2017

Teapots, Fabric and Flowers

Good, just managing to get a post in before Christmas!

Whilst taking things slowly I've finished the applique on
four more KF teapots











only three more to go, hopefully before the New Year is upon us!

Have you see the newest book from Kaffe Fassett - 'Quilts in Ireland'?
I fell in love with Green Diamonds and decided to send off for the fabrics,
they arrived a few days ago and I'm so pleased with the
combination, this will be a project for 2018.



The weather here has been so very hot and humid, everyone heads for the beach
or stays home with every window open to bring some relief. The
other option is a very shady spot in the garden, luckily we have the large
Japanese Maple and nearby is one of my blue
hydrangeas, this year it has a mauve tinge on some of the flower heads.


This weather is great for the vegetable garden


and the courgettes are flowering nicely, tomatoes are coming along
 and I've planted basil seedlings alongside.


Before I finish up 
I'd like to say a big thank you for all your good wishes following my last post,
my spirits were definitely lifted after reading comments
and emails.
I'm hoping the New Year will see much more quilting from me!!

Wishing you all a
Happy Christmas
and a
Happy and Healthy New Year 2018

See you soon.

Maureen



Thursday, December 7, 2017

Hot Summer Nights and Days & Freshly Squeezed

Last post but one I showed a new quilt I'd begun using my
left over fabrics from Chinese Coins,
Raewyn at stitchingfarmgirl 
said it reminded her of things sweet and sour and this gave me
the idea for the name
Freshly Squeezed - oranges, lemons, limes all in the mix


and this is the progress made so far, not much!

Due to pretty messy cardiac problems (in addition to other chronic health issues)
life has slowed down considerably for me, my quilting is
sadly missing out! I don't even have the energy to read blog posts sometimes
so I have lots of catching up to do, I'm hoping to do that after the evening meal
when the weather is a little cooler. The heat and humidity is making life
uncomfortable at the moment here in Auckland, difficult to sleep .
 The sun is just baking the ground, roll on Autumn
as far as I"m concerned!

I've been photographing in the garden early in the morning,
here is a lovely rose

Brother Cadfael


sadly showing signs of black spot on the leaves.

Below is a black stemmed hydrangea, this is a new hybrid, I usually
stick to the old fashioned plants but loved the colour so it's now in
our side garden bed.


Three years ago I planted a few gladioli, sadly they haven't performed too
well for me and this year I was down to only two flowering.


We have a large Japanese Maple in the garden with my old lichen covered
garden bench right under the canopy, this has been the perfect place to
sit in the shade and relax and read Quiltfolk magazines accompanied
by my little follower 


who prefers to be up high watching the birds!

A few bloggers wrote that they would interested on my thoughts
about the Quiltfolk magazine, this will have to be in my next post
as my concentration is not the best at the moment.

 I'm hoping I can get back into regular blogging and more quilting again
pretty soon but until next time
Happy Quilting!

Oh, almost forgot I'm going to link with
Linda and Julie
for
Sew,Stitch,Snap,SHARE
hope you'll go and visit, lots to see.
Maureen

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Strips Galore and Sew,Stitch,Snap,SHARE

We've had a lot going on around here so time at
my sewing machine has been almost non-existent,
however, I have made four more blocks today for my
Mardi Gras quilt.

I have a couple of tubs of scraps by the side of my machine,
chunks, clean up cuts, plain old left-overs from lots of quilts and


I'm just digging in and going with what comes out,


this strip was too wide but I just sew and cut to length,
 press, then use my ruler to trim to the width
I want.


After setting myself the target of making four blocks this afternoon
I now have 12 blocks, just another 24 to go! Blocks are 12" finished
and it goes without saying that most of these scraps are
my favourite bright and bold KF Collective fabrics, with a few
other additions from over the years.


 Still playing around with possible arrangements but had a break because
of this distraction arriving on our doorstep this morning,


four Quiltfolk magazines - I thought about this magazine when it first became available
but the cost had me hesitating,  decided to go for it last week and
when I checked on the subscription costs found they were also
offering the first four issues at half price - too good an offer to pass up.

Before linking for Sew,Stitch,Snap,SHARE   two 
rose photos.
A "Peace" rose opened for a few days and saved from the rain


and another photo from two days ago



That's it from me, hope you'll go and visit
Linda at Kokaquilts
and
for
week 17 of Sew,Stitch,Snap.SHARE
see you soon.

Maureen

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Sew,Stitch,Snap,SHARE #16

Hooray, I'm actually getting a post up on time to join the link
with
Linda and Julie
and this time I'm using up leftovers from Chinese Coins
shown below


so with lots of strips


and chunks of the fabrics used and tossed in my scrap bin


I'm going for more plain and simple.


Four strips measuring 2" x 6 and 1/2" cut
and sewn
then placed on the design wall


these will be 6" square when sewn together, I really should
have liked 8" finished but some of my strips were not quite long enough.
It's not the best time of day to take photos, too late in the afternoon
and the light is going, the colour is much brighter than shown here.
Chinese Coins gives an idea of the true colours.
By the way these are all Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.

I'm hoping to spend some time making lists tomorrow -
projects I would like to sew top of the list.
Two I have in mind need quite a bit of concentration,  these will sit
and wait for a couple of weeks.

Enjoy the rest of your week and don't forget the
link with Julie and Linda at the top of this post.

Maureen

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Teapots and a 5"square swap - a productive day!

 Julie at justjulielou suggested that she and I have a swap of 5" squares,
she would send me Anna Maria Horner in exchange for
Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics


and just look at the lovely selection she sent.
I have only a handful of AMH fabrics in my stash
but I've cut 5" squares (below) from those to add to the swap
from Julie, along with more from different designers.


I'm thinking of a throw size quilt and luckily I have
a few Amy Butler, Heather Ross, Victoria Findlay Wolfe
plus other designers to add to the mix.

I'm cutting 2" squares from my Jinny Beyer fabrics, these
will be going into the quilt.


Remember my KF teapots??
Three for the second row now all appliqued, two
more rows to go and then a hunt for the perfect sashing and border.




I've also found a few quiet minutes to wander in the garden, lots of roses beginning
to bloom, I was surrounded by the scent from all these
old roses.

I love this very soft pink/peach David Austin  - sadly I've forgotten
her name!


Another favourite are my Rugosas,
below is the bud of Rugosa 'Alba'


here she is below fully open, a single Rugosa.


Then we have Rugosa "Blanc Double de Coubert"
in all her glory


with her glorious perfume. Open the garden gate into
the back garden and you're in heaven!!
These roses are very, very hardy - no wonder because they
have the most lethal prickles I've ever seen, even Leila
doesn't try to chew these stems!

Maureen


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

sew stitch snap SHARE #15

I'm snatching just a few minutes to write this post and then link
up with Linda and Julie. Link will be at the bottom of this post.

Unfortunately since my last post  two weeks ago
ill health has persisted, after more tests I'm hopeful that
I truly am improving!! 

Progress had been made in two quilting areas, at least I think so.



Desert Rose was first up on my list for finishing with two more borders to add.
After looking at this on my design wall for two days
I made the decision to forget more borders


and basted it!
Board basting and using herringbone stitch - all ready to quilt.

A change of plan with my first Memory quilt, this was the planned
layout with large squares on point top row (just off the top I'm afraid)



with my change from the pattern to stars, then my small golden churn dash.
After this was on the wall for a few days I decided it wasn't doing anything for me,
somewhere along the way I had lost my way!!

So, back to following the original block patterns by Judy Newman.
much happier now.

Below are three blocks using fabrics I love.

Embroidered Leaf

Dream

Feathers
All teamed with KF Dream Dark.

In the midst of my problems poor Leila was attacked by
a neighbouring cat, two days at the emergency vet office
over the weekend, and today with our usual vet in surgery.
I'm feeling pretty down and sad right now, she's staying in there overnight and hopefully
home tomorrow.

I suspect barely any quilting will be done in the next few days,
I'll be wearing my nurse uniform!

Keep well and happy, enjoy your quilting and see you soon.

Hope you'll go along to visit
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou

Now I'm off to read almost one weeks worth of blog posts from you all.
Maureen

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Little Bits, Stash Enhancement and Desert Rose

A little while ago I posted about a quilt pattern which I thought
I would like to make - 'Long Time Gone' - I shelved that idea
but it would have made a great title today as I have
been a Long Time Gone with my blog posts!!

Ill health is the reason but I think I'm now recovering
pretty well and moving forward.

Little Bits Quilt


I now have all the strips and triangles cut so shouldn't be long
before this is together, just the first two rows here.






Stash Enhancement


Julie over at  justjulielou blog
posted a photo showing  a piece of Jennifer Paganelli
fabric, I've been trying to track down a shop here in Auckland
which stocked her fabrics, Julie kindly
passed on to me details of one which had a sale on, the above
was the result.
Two Jennifer Paganelli fabrics are in the pieces above and that was really
all I intended buying but they had a few end of bolts on sale,
the purple and lime green came home with me!
Five and a half metres in this piece, I can see a border for a future
quilt.

Desert Rose


was the first QAL I ever took part in - it's still not
finished and that was four years ago!
I've designated Friday as my day to work on
any WIP quilts and this one is first in line.
Only the centre block is true to the original pattern,
I baulked at the applique in one border and from then on
I went my own way! Two more rounds will be added.

Linking up with
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou
 for
sew,stitch,snap,SHARE

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Friday, September 22, 2017

Tea and Sympathy

Definitely tea and sympathy has been the order
of the day at our place over the past two weeks.

I've only just felt like sitting at the machine today and
sewing strips - nice and simple and not too much thinking!

Mardi Gras update, eight blocks so far with another
twenty eight to go!



I could go with nine full blocks set three by three, example of one
setting style above and
when all 36 are ready for playtime there'll be
some time spent arranging and re-arranging.

I could also go this way


I'm sure I'll find a few different settings when the time comes.

We can't quite believe that within the course of two weeks or so
we had news that two dear friends and a cousin of
my husband had died. 
The first we heard a friend in Germany had passed
peacefully in her sleep - younger than I am!
Then we had a call from Australia telling us that John's cousin
had died, again a good 10 yrs younger than me,
then an email from England with news of another long time
friend, known by me since I was
around 6 years old and as I'm now 70 that's a lot of years!

I'm now in a better frame of mind and quilting will
help, also I've been out for a few lemons off the tree,
lemon curd making tomorrow!


Hope that in the midst of all the turmoil in the
world at the moment you're still able to
enjoy quilting.

Maureen

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Forgotten Houses

Rummaging through an un-finished project drawer
I came across 13 house blocks, these were
part of the RSC 2016 challenge

I have 13 blocks and the original plan was to
make considerably more than that over the year
but I found it difficult keeping to one colour
theme each month, project stalled!
A mix of Kaffe Fassett, Philip Jacobs, Jinny Beyer
fabrics with a few very old florals thrown in.

So, back to the machine yesterday with 12 of them


and here they are.
I decided not to add sashing,
 when they were up on the wall
I had a flash back to my childhood in Lancashire UK.
 We lived in terraced houses, 'though I was lucky
enough to be a few strides away from fields and a farm.
 These are not truly representative of rows of terraced rows
 but to me they say home, friends and family and surroundings
of childhood.

My next decision is whether to border or just bind - my gut
feeling is to leave this just as is and bind, it will hang on one of walls
in my sewing room to take me back to the wonderful times of
childhood.
What do you think?

Just having gone along to the mail box I feel that yes, Spring
is truly here, even though we're having a lot of rain. My tulips
from last year are all up and just about to open


only nine up this year.

On my mind at the moment are all who are
suffering from the devastation
in various parts of the USA.

Visiting
Julie
and
Linda
for sew stitch snap SHARE #12,
lots more goodies to see!

Also linking up with 

Friday, September 8, 2017

Back on track with my quilting - baby steps!

Had itchy fingers after taking things slowly
for a few days so off on to another project!! Do I really need another project
I asked myself - I thought perhaps I did!
Before doing that I decided to steadily tidy through
my wire baskets which hold most of my fabric stash.

First up was green

then yellow and orange

pinks and red 

blue and purple
I had an excess of blues and some have spilled over into another
basket. I have no idea why I collected so many blues -I don't use it 
a heck of a lot. The remaining 18 baskets will be
attacked a few here and there.

I'm sure you all know about my passion for the
Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics,  sorting these into
colour groups can sometimes be a bit dodgy. It's easy to get an
overall impression of the focus colour but with so many other
colours in the mix it can sometimes be a hit and miss affair.
However, the abundance of colour is the reason I love them!

As a break from this I decided to delve into the containers of strips,
long and short, thick and thin, some not uniform in width. Strips
were picked randomly but looking at these quarter blocks
I can see I've begun with two lighter blocks and veered off to
my usual richer fabrics!










It doesn't matter because this is intended to be 72" x 72" and they'll all hopefully
play nicely !! These blocks are 12".
Don't know why the two bottom photos are not keeping in line.
Name for this quilt will be "Mardi Gras".

I'm thinking now of blogger friends who may be caught in 
Hurricane Irma, in fact anyone who is experiencing this horrific
catastrophe. We have been following on the TV news reports,
quite unbelievable.

Stay Safe.

Maureen