Red is a Neutral for AHIQ: Improvisational Utility Quilts

When I began this challenge I had in mind a throw sized quilt, but I stalled.

I really wasn't happy with it, I thought of sashing to break up the red and

various other ways to stop the red overwhelming everything else.

Yesterday I almost took the blocks down off the wall to throw them in the bin!

After mulling things over I decided I had to finish, so I've gone with the small number of 

blocks on hand and found a border fabric which

I thought seemed to contain things a little.

Even now this still plays havoc with my eyes, and no doubt
with yours, and I have very mixed

feelings on it, but at least

I have a top, which is best viewed from a distance!!!!

To give myself a break from it yesterday I spent some time

reading the book below which arrived in the mail.

Stunning photographs of Victoria's quilts and

paragraphs on her early life, her history in

art and how she came to this point in her life as a

quilt artist.

So very interesting.

I also received an order of fabric by Kathy Doughty

of

Material Obsession

her latest range is 

Seeds and Stems

I am three missing out of the range right now, I'll order those tomorrow.

My favourite is this one below

and that's all from me tonight, tomorrow

I'm going to put time in for planning future projects and
deciding the order of quilts needing to be quilted.

A quick rose photo to finish.

Her name escapes me at the moment but her scent

doesn't - it's divine!

Happy Quilting

Something Old and Something New

I have a finished top with Chain Link Horizon (the new) and posting

photos of two quilts from waaay back (the old) and a couple of garden

photos added to the mix.

Chain Link Horizon is a pattern by

Kathy Doughty

at

Material Obsession

and

I've played with my own colour scheme

by using quite a lot of FK Collective fabrics in my version.

Measures 60" x 72" so quite a nice size to handle.

I found it a super quilt to cut and sew, large half hexagons make

things much easier and I'm intending to make another one later this year

as a gift for eldest grandson, I'll be using more masculine colours in his.

The old quilts next - I opted out of a joint exhibition with

my husband who paints - but at the last minute there were two empty

walls so I hunted these two out.

Java Moon

 I made around 1993 following some time spent in Jakarta,

I fell in love with the traditional batiks, came home with quite a stash!

This is my own design.

The left hand side strips  are actually perfectly straight, I took three photos
and each one was off kilter.

Jungle Fever

I can't remember exactly when I made this one but I used commercial batiks,

Hoffman I should think, and I did have a pattern but unfortunately

can't locate it in order to give credit to the designer. 

To add more colour to this post I have two photos of gladioli

flowering right now. I brought a few corms home from my Dad's garden after

he passed away in 2003, they're now invading certain spots in

our garden, but I love the colour.

Here they are mingling with a few shrubs

and here's a close-up below,  I love seeing all the detail in the

individual flower. Stunning colour.

I'm heading off now to cut the binding for my large blue hexagon

quilt, a corner shown below.

The pattern is from the KF book

Quilts in Morocco

and it's a large quilt

80 1/2" x 84 1/2"

I'll post when the binding's on.

Happy Quilting

Maureen

It's been a long time !!!

Almost four weeks since I last wrote a post, lots going on around here mostly

due to 

medical issues to cope with for me, hopefully matters have eased somewhat and normal 

service should be resumed!

Last time I posted I had made a start on Chain Link Horizon, a little progress 

happened this week.

Not what I could call an elegant photograph,

I've sewn four rows together at one time and pinned them up on the wall,

trimming needs to be dealt with and threads cleaned up. Five more rows

yet to sew.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that the blue 'star' on the RH side

has two different fabrics in the top three half hexagons. I had a small piece

of a lovely Philip Jacobs fabric left in my blue bin and was sure there

was just enough for the three needed and began cutting - wrong, not

enough so I substituted with one piece of 

PJ Blue Feathers. 

Three of my favourite combinations are below.

So what have I been doing whilst taking an enforced break?

Catching up on reading, planning a re-organisation of my

quilting studio, thinking about what needs to be taken care of

in the garden, but not able to do it, deciding which older pieces of

furniture will get the Chalk Paint treatment.

Watching Autumn creep into the garden has been a pleasure, just

walking around looking at which plants have finished and

which are now flowering - not many I'm afraid.

On a walk around the block this beautiful Liquidambar

caught my eye

along with a favourite sight of mine at this time of year

a Sasanqua camellia, I always love to see

the carpet of fallen petals, and of course now flowering

are the hibiscus

we have quite a few in our garden.

 I'm devoting tomorrow morning to catching up with reading your blog posts,

unfortunately this daily pleasure fell by the wayside.

I'm looking forward to my normal routine again now.

See you soon!!

Maureen