Last post before Christmas

I've been sidetracked with my quilting due

to the news a week ago that a darling friend of 39 years

has been undergoing treatment for cancer - first thought

was  -  she needs a quilt!

Lots hanging in the closet for quilting but I wanted to make a start

on one especially made with her in mind.

Looking for something simple I had a look through the

Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston collaborative books and

yes, pyramid shape would be perfect. One had a border the other not.

I was thinking of the layout above at first, then

remembered a quilt in a Sarah Fielke book,

the quilt below is named

Love Beads

love the layout but not wanting to deal with the hexagons

centred in the large diamonds.

So still playing on the design wall with this layout below

going with the Love Bead style but using

a mix of fabrics, two different pieces in each diamond.

Side tracked also watching the young blackbirds coming
along to feed, at first they were screeching for Mum to feed  them

but now they're good to go on their own

here is one of the latest three, just about two feet away from me.

I've been feeding birds for a long time, two blackbirds, male and female, have been

visiting me for a few years and raise their chicks in the

trees in the garden, poor old chap is now looking rather

old!!

He comes and sits right outside the window where my cosy chair is

and lets me know he would like food!

Christmas Day tomorrow and I'm wishing

you all a very Merry Christmas, and see you in a few days.

 Oops orientation of book shots going across when they should be going down!

Maureen

Refreshed and ready to quilt!!

My three weeks enforced leave of absence

 seems

to have had the desired results, but

hardly any quilting has been done apart from binding my

Tula Pink quilt

I used up a variety of the striped fabric in the her collection 

for the binding, luckily they all seem to work well.

the quilting lines actually go across the quilt, I just forgot

to rotate!

measurements 58" x 68"

quilted by Leeanne at

Quilt Me Kiwi

I haven't been wasting my time, I have been

spending some sitting in the garden here, especially in the early morning

and late afternoon

with a good book

which arrived only one week ago and is a treasure! I'm limiting

myself to reading about one quilter each day, I definitely recommend this one

and what a Christmas gift it would make!

Quite a lot of the featured quilters are new to me, which is good,

lots of variety in the use of colour and design.

The good side of having a rest is that the mind quietens and ideas

come steadily and clearly, I have found that I'm forming

a way forward with my quilting next year.

Scrap quilts are definitely on the agenda, colour with Kaffe Collective

as usual and I'm waiting for May when the new range

from Anna Maria Horner hits the stores, lots of brights!

Time out has also made me realise that I have bought fabric on  a whim

sometimes, fabric which really is "not me" so I am going to sell these.

Also I'm definitely not going to 'follow the trend' with regard to quilt patterns,

these too have been collected with gay abandon and

I realise now that I will never make them!

More on the above next year, but below I have snaps of three of

my hydrangeas which are performing nicely and along with

the other flowers in the garden gave me such pleasure

over the last little while.

Another benefit I have found is the time to really look, not just pass

by and glance fleetingly but really see what beauty there is in

the smallest gift from the garden

will you just look at the colour and detail in these

tiny wee seed capsules from the Japanese Maple lying on the

old table on our deck. I also enjoy seeing all the clumps of

lichen taking a hold.

Gosh, this has been a pretty long post but I hope you

made it through to the end!

Happy Quilting

Maureen

A beach visit and blocks both new and old

I shall make a start here, after an absence of more or less three weeks,

with a photo taken yesterday at our local beach. 

This is Cockle Bay beach and the name is self-explanatory,

this particular beach is known for it's cockle beds, accessible

at low tide and sadly now being depleted by folk coming along

and collected bucketloads of the cockles. Moves are thankfully

underway to try and put a stop to this.

Now onto the subject of blocks. At last I have the UANDUQAL

blocks stitched together, but, there will have to be a little time spent

on unpicking two or three blocks!

I became unwell just after my last post and without boring you all

with details I ended up with an urgent visit to the cardiac unit!

All seems to working well now - thank goodness - but it was a mistake to

try and get these blocks sewn up whilst unwell.

I fiddled around with my intended fabric for a border, didn't work,

tried lots of others and still not happy so it will remain

borderless and just bound.

Do you remember these blocks begun with a Rainbow Scrap Challenge?

There are two more, a blue and a yellow.

We have a local Howick Art Group in the village, an old cottage with

rooms displaying the artists work and as a member I'm going to join in with

two small quilting pieces, hopefully each month.

My first one is underway using the yellow block

a little quilting, trimmed, then narrow binding and mounted on a

painted canvas to match the yellow - hopefully.

The pattern for these came from a magazine a number of years ago,

the design is by

Cynthia Brunz

link below

https://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2018/03/oh-scrap-geese-migration.html

I think that's all from me, things have been pretty quiet on the

quilting side of things but hopefully I should be back to normal

by next week!

A flower photo before I go

my favourite Epiphyllum on a rainy day hanging in the

'catio' by the living room!

See you soon.

Maureen

Thirty blocks on the wall at last

A quick post today because I have the blocks for UANDUQAL finished!!!

Up on the wall here - all in place.

Bear in mind that these are just roughly pinned on the wall.

Yes, quite bold and full of saturated colour compared to the original but I focused

on the pattern rather than the softer fabrics used in the book.

I am so pleased to have them completed because I decided on the border fabrics

six weeks ago and can't wait to have these blocks sewn up

and borders on. I'll say now that the main 

fabric of my choice is naturally a little different.

Before I head off  once agin to catch up on reading your blog posts - going

back to my old routine of heading to the computer in the early morning with

a cup of tea to read new posts in future - here are two more

photos of roses in the garden.

.

Perle D'or

Princess Anne

All for now, enjoy your weekend and happy quilting.

Maureen

Back at the machine and enjoying the garden

Back to playing with fabric again, at last!

I'm taking it slowly on the sewing machine and just made one block each day

over the past five days.

I've also purchased a new 'toy' to save the strain on my hands and arms and

had a quick practice with my new 1 and 1/2" cut square die

four 5" squares on the die

two passes through the machine and I have 72 squares!

Only a little waste left over and I 

 have a project in mind using lots of 1" finished squares.

On to the new blocks for UANDUQAL

and just three more to go then I'll have reached my goal of 30 blocks.

Hopefully I will have these finished early next week in order

to have all blocks up on the wall ready for arranging and I can then get

onto the borders.

Whilst having my enforced break I've spent time reading, planning and

enjoying time sitting on one of the garden benches and taking photos of

early Spring blooms.

Rose -  Buff Beauty

Rose - Jean Ducher

Wisteria, not sure whether the Chinese or Japanese one

Fuschia or to give this plant a name from childhood
'Ladies Eardrops'

One day I had a visitor as I was photographing the roses

a beautiful wee ladybird!

This post is short on words and heavy on photos 

but I'm being careful of the time spent

on the keyboard for another week.

I'm signing off with a favourite quote of mine from Oscar Wilde:

With freedom, books, flowers and the moon,

who could not be happy?

See you all next week - happy quilting.

Maureen

Taking a break

I haven't posted now for two weeks due to bad hand and arm problems

I;m splinted up and hope to see my rheumatologist asap

I'll be back soon and will be reading blog posts and leaving comments when able.

Maureen

More blocks and a Block of the Month adventure

Five more blocks done for UANDUQAL, I would have had them all sewn up by today had

it not been for developing tendonitis in my left forearm!!!

Here are the latest five

I need to get all the blocks sewn so far up on the wall and find a good balance before

making a start on the last seven.

The inspiration quilt had mixed strip borders but my border idea is a little different

and I've already decided on the fabric, I think.

You see there is a Block of the Month mentioned in my post title, I hesitated for ages

before deciding to go with this.

Kathy Doughty at Material Obsession

always has a stunning choice of BOM projects by different designers.

Deciding to try something outside of my comfort zone I went with

Flying in Circles

by Sue Rose

Block 1 below

lovely movement in this block and the idea of a hexagon flower in the

centre appealed - then the envelope arrived with fabric and pattern and the

papers for the hexagons 

and gosh are they tiny!!

Hopefully if my arm is more comfortable I can make a start this coming week.

So, it's been a quiet week for me on the  sewing side but I've been catching up with reading and

re-watching my Downton Abbey series before going off to

see the film tomorrow. I'm a huge fan!

Gardening has been a no-no of of course but I had a wander around
the garden and took a few Spring photos.

The Japanese Maple is just breaking into leaf

and we had a trip to the local garden centre, I spotted something I had

been hoping to have in my garden for ages. 

Michelia Gracipes

Delicious scent, Winter and Spring flowering and just look

at the colour of the cover on the new flower buds, they feel like silk.

Such a delicate flower

I'll post a photo of the plant in the ceramic pot I bought to
plant in when I next post.

Got to dash now I'd forgotten I had a programme I really needed to watch on TV

so see you soon!!
Happy Quilting

Maureen

Scraps on Friday and other things

No actual sewing has happened since I last posted, I decided to begin

the organisation of my studio by sorting my scraps.

A huge shock was in store for me because I had six

of these bins below tucked away under my large extension table.

You can see they are literally bursting!!

Scraps date from present day to way, way back.

Each of these cardboard bins are full, I weighed each one,

 12lbs give or take a few ounces under or over,  I calculate

that within each bin sits approximately 36 yards of fabric!!

By my reckoning six bins gives me approximately 

216 yards of fabric scraps.

I am drowning in scraps!!!! I was so overwhelmed that I 

promptly replaced them under the table to sort next week and moved on to

opening a package in the mail - not more fabric - but I think

the most delicious book I have ever seen!

From QUILTmania comes

this treasure below,

text in both French and English and is a book about the collector

and his quilts.

Just look at this quilt below

I saw this book pop up on Instagram a few days ago and was hooked.

If you do have the chance to turn the pages of this book you will see why.

Time will be set aside each week to spend reading in a quiet corner.

More fabric selections for my UANDUQAL quilt

have been selected and will be under the machine next week.

A walk through the garden yesterday revealed below

one of my clumps of bluebells. These harbingers of Spring, along with crocus,

are the flowers of my childhood days playing in the fields at the side of

my home in Lancashire.  Nostalgia sweeps over me when I

see and smell these blooms.

Dawn is here much earlier now and I love to be up 

watching the sunrise. At 6.30am yesterday I took this photo

of the sun hitting the bare oak branches giving them a golden glow,

sights like this are the perfect start to my day.

Happy Quilting

Maureen