Mardi Gras - a smaller version

Mardi Gras is now a flimsy albeit considerably smaller than

the original which had 36 blocks.

The pattern is in the book

Sunday Morning Quilts

by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkinson.

My last post showed 17 blocks up on my design wall, why I had decided

to make another 72" quilt right now I really don't know, I decided to come

to a stop after making another three blocks.

Size of 48" x 60",  a reasonable size to use for throwing

over the legs on a cold day.

Not a quilt made of precisely cut strips, most are a little

wonky and pulled from my clean-up cut basket.

Even some of the blocks are wonky although they do measure 12" square.
In this photo the quilt looks darker at the bottom, it isn't, it's the time
of day when taking the shot.

Only four more 'sleeps' now until Christmas Day, so our two smallest

grandchildren tell me.

I won't post again until after Christmas, by which time I hope to have had

some time to myself to plan quilts for next year. Problem is 

deciding which, so many ideas are buzzing around in my head.

I'm signing off on this post with a close-up of a

pink lily from my birthday bouquet earlier in the year

and wishing everyone a very

Happy Christmas

Maureen

Snippets on Sunday

We're creeping ever closer to Christmas, how could the past 12 months have

moved along so very quickly!

First up before quilty photos see below. On the grocery shopping list 

was a bottle of a good, rich red wine for my pasta dish for the evening meal.

As soon as I spotted this one on the shelf,  I knew it had to come home with me!

A welcome addition to our meal.

I've been able to spend some time this week on my quilting,

first on my list was checking for stray threads

on two quilts ready to be sent off next week

for quilting.

First, with borders added, is Memory Quilt and you can see it was

a windy day. The story behind this quilt I will share in the New Year

when it's been quilted.

 A blip with the watermark, a practically non-existent 'z'.

Second quilt was made quite some time ago, around three years I think, from 

 Quilts in Morocco by Kaffe Fassett.

Blue Heaven

I thought the hydrangeas were a good match. 

A little more progress made with Mardi Gras

just pinned on the wall at the moment, 19 more blocks to make. I'll try different

settings when they're all finished. I'm loving playing

with strips and strings and as I have heaps I can see more string/strip quilts

in my future.

Something new now - I'm cutting solid 9" squares, 

the pattern is inspired by Sujata Shah and her

superb book Cultural Fusion Quilts. 

More squares to be cut this week. This is another in the

Memory Quilt category.

Time to go, a little time to spend on a few hexies and then

our two eldest grandchildren are coming for a meal with us.

Beatrice is the eldest at 19yrs and Charlie 17yrs.

Bea is training at a hair salon and Charlie heading off to

University in the New Year.

Doesn 't seem so long ago that we were sitting reading nursery rhymes

with them!!

Enjoy the coming week and hopefully not be too stressed

with preparations for Christmas. 

Maureen

Ready for the borders

Memory Quilt One is going to have

the borders sewn on, hopefully tomorrow

and then off to be quilted.

Remember this piece below from my earlier post?

Catastrophe - three strips sewn together, up on the design wall I see

that the centre section of the three had some of the strips bowing,

major unpick and no more of Aboriginal Dots fabric in Teal!
Off to the store - none of this particular

colour on the shelf so waiting to see if we can get a hold

of some early next week. Also we discovered that it is officially listed
as Charcoal.

Whilst I'm waiting I'm busy gathering

the fabrics together to make a quilt from the latest

KF book - Quilts in America.

Stonewall

This of course was based on a stone wall in the States, coming

from  the UK the dry stone walls there are quite different depending

on which county they're in. I'm from Lancashire and the colours there

are different to Derbyshire for example, so my quilt will

 certainly not have as much blue as the one

in the photo above. 

I will also be going with a different fabric for the sashing rather than

the one above.

Gathered as of today are a few below.

Most I have in my stash but some I had to buy in.

I like that KF suggests only making one block at a time rather

than thinking to cut all those HSTs at once, time to check

if I have the correct size die for my cutter!!

In the garden I love my day lilies, this one is a very prolific bloomer,

just a touch of lime green in the very centre.

All for now, happy quilting!

Maureen

A little progress!

And it is truly only a little progress with the

Memory Quilt

from my post HERE

last month.

Hopping about like Long John Silver with his one crutch

makes it a teeny bit tricky to be on small step ladders

trying to pin a quilt on the design wall. However I did a 

reasonable job, I think.

The very bottom row is just pinned on the wall, still needs to be sewn

to the pink strip but I decided a break was in order at that 

point. Two side views, couldn't go far enough back to take

a full on photo. Just one more row to go at the bottom, a repeat of the first

row but different fabrics.

I'd forgotten there was a border to go on so more of the

KF  Dream fabric in Dark is on the way to me.

Coming out of my little studio I saw that John

had one of his old oil paint palettes upright on a shelf, I always

take a photo of these because of the stunning

mix of colour.

A scrap quilt in oils!

The garden is so overgrown right now, John is

carrying out an assault on the weeds and overgrown grass,

I'm hopping along taking photos.

The hydrangeas are just beginning to colour up so here's

a look at a couple of the flowers coming out on the

hydrangeas down the drive, the bushes are

huge this year. Sadly once the sun beats down in Summer

the blooms wilt like crazy, copious watering takes place then.

I'm sending wishes for a

Happy Thanksgiving

to all in the USA but there will be a tremendous

number of people for whom there will be no celebrations, only mourning,

following the horrific fires in California with loss of loved ones

and their homes.

I'm thinking particularly of the destruction of

Paradise right now. To see the sights we have on our

news here brings tears.

Back soon.

Maureen

One step forward, two steps back

If you read my last post from 29th October you might recall that I showed

my scrap vortex cut into strips along with two other fabrics.

deconstructed scrap vortex

aboriginal dot and kf stripe

I also said that before the end of that week I would have something to

show for my efforts as I was now off crutches.

They are now back with me, hence the wording of the title.

Dictionary definition of the post title:

If you take one step forward, two steps back, you make progress but then

experience events that cause you to be further behind than you were when you made

the progress.

In reality I have made al little progress in the past two days sewing a few seams and

buying new fabrics - necessary for therapy!

Below is the beginning of my take on a new Chinese Coins using the strips

shown above.

Strips sewn 3" x 11 and 1/2", yes a bit of a strange size.

You can see that the bright scrap strips seem to be taking second place

to the dark combination.

Here is one completed strip, there will be three in total

My husband looked at this and said I had killed the colour,

perhaps I have but I am happy with it. Yes, it has darker elements rather

than my usual all over bright colour, I think sometimes our quilts reflect

our mood at the time, mine wasn't that great!

But  here comes the colour starting with

the 2018 range of Moda Bella Solids - there a few moody darks

at the bottom of the bundle, I have plans for an Amish piece.

 The next two photos are Tula Pink Zuma and sadly 

these shots don't quite show the vibrancy of this range.

Don't ask what I have in mind for Zuma,I have a lot of ideas buzzing around.

The beauty of Tula Pink fabrics

is that they mix and match, especially when incorporating

her solids, stripes and dots.

Lunch time now - home baked savoury cheese muffins and a cuppa.

Fingers crossed for a little more sewing over the weekend.

Happy Quilting

Maureen

A finished flimsy and a new project

It's been some time!!!

Crutches back with the physio - at the moment anyway - and I'm back

at the machine but with a difference, I have my left foot on the pedal

not the right one,  this change took me a little while to get the co-ordination flowing
smoothly.
I've been doing a little sorting of projects.

First off I finished the seams on the 2 x 4 quilt top, comes under the heading
of a Squirrel Club project.

then a little more hand quilting on Paintbox, 

this is the full shot below from (can't believe this)

2015!!!!! 

I pulled out a WIP  - below - put away because I wasn't sure if I truly

wanted to continue with it, I do, that's down for next week.

 A wander in the garden

and then onto Scrap Vortex (below).

You may remember it was put aside because I was fast

losing the ability to focus my eyes stitching this.

Julie, who blogs at quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com/,
offered to adopt the blocks should I decide I truly didn't want
to continue on with it.
After thinking this over and pulling the said project out of
the parts box I decided to take drastic action

so now I have twenty three 3 and1/2" by 12 and 1/2" pieces,
a selection below

and I also have

a few strips of KF Aboriginal Dots
and one of his stripe fabrics.

I'm still stitching on this one but I'll have a photo
up later in the week.

Before I sign off a huge thank you for all the good wishes
sent my way. It's a toss up as to whether it's a
Medial Collateral Ligament tear or the Meniscus or something entirely
different, another knee specialist visit this week.

Bye for now and Happy Quilting

Maureen

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words ............

Back in a few days!!!

Maureen

Latest addition to the Parts Box

In my last post I had a photo of progress on my Scrap Vortex which was 

playing havoc with my eyes!! Update - below we have the Parts Box

and now we have the Parts Box with Scrap Vortex creeping in two days

after my last post. The eyes were not happy.

Yes folks I threw in the towel!

I had the idea that a strip could look good in a pieced backing but then

began playing at cutting it up into simple shapes, definitely easier on the eyes.

After the blinding shapes and colour I needed to

work on another Squirrel project which was a little more subdued.

I'm using up left over batik strips 2 and 1/2" wide and using the 2 by 4 setting.

There are still a few more to sew but I have the completed ones just pinned roughly

 on my small design wall,

it's easier to see the blend of colours and then I'll play around

with the mix later.

Soon it will be decision time - do I go with the vertical or horizontal setting.

Which is your preferred orientation?
I think I prefer the vertical.

Other happenings at my place - taking care of little Leila who

was bitten on a back leg by one of the cats next door. It's almost

two weeks now and pretty much healed up. We had

two visits to the vet clinic, it could have been worse.

I normally have two or three sessions taking her into the back garden

for a half an hour play around but one of the devils sneaked

down the side of the shade house and got her before I could make a move.

We've decided she is now being a full time indoor cat! I see lots and lots

of cats featuring in quilters posts both here and on Instagram, I'd be interested to know 

how many of you keep them totally indoors, I do know that Lynne

over at The Patchery Menagerie

has Millie, her Tuxedo cat, indoors permanently.

In between trying to sew and nursing duties I did fit in

a walk around the block and spotted a beautiful clump of these flowers,

love the colour.

Back to the sewing machine for me  

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Springtime, The Squirrel Club and a finish

Let's go with the finish first.

The binding of this quilt below was delayed, due in no small

part to the fact that I am currently on my fourth round of antibiotics

in five weeks!

However, I summoned the energy yesterday to have a finish, no photo of the bound quilt
until next time, I've left it too late in the day to photograph outside.

I went with the AMH border fabric for the binding

and decided to forego hand stitching down on the back

and used the machine saving me quite some time.

My Squirrel project - see sidebar - is a Scrap Vortex quilt.

I had decided to work with decent size pieces of fabric to save time, but

somehow I found they were going smaller!

Excuse the 'rough and ready' photo below, the gridded flannel

needs straightening.

Much as I enjoy this quilt

there is a limit on the time I can spend working on it before

I lose control of my eyes!!

Instead of going with set size blocks I'm working as if

piecing a jigsaw in that I sew chunks and then fit them in wherever I can and cut to size

 when necessary, having said that there are a couple of 12' blocks in there.

Spring seems to finally be here for us in New Zealand, we've had a few

sunny days and the garden is coming alive again.

I have a huge clump of Clivia which put on a wonderful show

each year, sadly the snails and slugs enjoy a nightly feast on them.

 Always a harbinger of Spring is our Japanese Maple, I love

the lime green of the new leaves.

Last, but not least, the hellebores.

I have the room for two more plants in this area so a visit to the garden centre

will be on the agenda this coming weekend.

Bluebells are peeping up and should be flowering soon.

We're watching the news here of the hurricane heading for

the East coast of America and what a monster!

Thinking of all who are in the path of Florence as I write this,

keep safe.

Maureen

A dry spell for quilting!

Just over three weeks since I last posted, that must be the longest spell

without a post since I began blogging!!

It's been a while for various reasons but I'll show you

the sum of my quilting over this lean period.

First up the quilt for my daughter was quilted by

Leeanne at quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com/
if you head over to her blog you'll see good photos of the quilt, better than
I have below!
It's been pouring with rain here, not ideal for outdoor photos.

The central blocks were from a QAL with Sujata Shah, she blogs
over at
The Root Connection
and the pattern is Rail Fence.

The border is an Anna Maria Horner fabric from  her
Sweet Dreams collection

The quilting, as mentioned earlier is by
Leeanne at Quilt Me Kiwi,
I went with the Plump Swirls pattern in order to
soften the angular lines in the blocks
You can see the pattern on the back of quilt below.

Remember my Tula Pink Plus One quilt ?



I'm going to quilt this in three sections, something that's been on my radar
for a while.
There was quite a good amount of fabric left from piecing the top and that's
been cut into strips for  the backing.
The first section for quilting covers the blue bees down to the
racoon fabric.

I had to do little piecing here and there and was out of the bottom aqua racoon on pink so
went with the reverse colourway - you will see I have
a two headed pink racoon!

And that is all I have done in my three weeks, I have  been fiddling
around in the studio trying to find a better working
set up - without much success!

On a sunny day we headed over to see our two youngest grandsons, they
 live just a couple of minutes walk from the beach - how about this view
as you're making sand castles or paddling in the sea.

Rangitoto in all her splendour sitting out in the Gulf.

Time to power up the machine and get creating,
back soon,
have a good quilting week.

Maureen