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