Waiting In The Wings

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

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

Sunday, December 15, 2019

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

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

Thursday, November 21, 2019

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



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


Saturday, November 2, 2019

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

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

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

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

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

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

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

Friday, September 13, 2019

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