A new quilt top - almost - mojo back!!

After the last week or so I have taken inspiration from the book below, bought

a few days ago,

very good quotes and I love sloths so it 's a win, win.

On the advice of the above little creatures I spent the weekend

putting together a simple new quilt, following the pattern,

following the makers fabric selection and enjoying the process.

At this point in time it was an ideal project.

Just the borders to go on today.

Moss Garden

A free pattern from Free Spirit

using fabrics by who else but

Kaffe Fassett.

I first made a quilt using the pattern from the

Kaffe Fassett Patchwork book around 17 years ago.

It was listed then as Leafy Rosy Quilt, different fabrics of course, and I stitched away

as my Mum was dying of cancer back in the UK, the process kept me sane.

Unable to travel to be with her then due to my health at the time,

when I came across this pattern again I felt it was right to make

one during a happier time in my life.

There are so many ideas for quilts buzzing around in my head right now which need listing 

and prioritising, some will not make the list as I was going into overdrive!

The weather is ideal for quilting as it's been so cold and wet but

today the sun is shining, although still very cold, and I've just wandered

through the garden.

Flowering and multiplying is a plant brought home with me

from Dad's garden in Napier 16 years ago, I wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Seems to be a Celandine according to the book below

comprising of illustrations of Victorian flower paintings found 20 years ago in

the attic of Frampton Court in Gloucestershire, UK.

Painted between 1828 and 1851 by three sisters and their aunt they are of

native plants from their area.

A wonderful book for plant lovers, given to me by the local

bookshop owner who retired 18 months ago

after 34 years!! As you can imagine I was a frequent visitor during those

years, my bookshelves can prove that fact!

Gosh, I have rambled on a while, this was intended to be a short post 

however I do have one more photo of a sunset -  pure heaven to me - from our deck a few evenings ago.

 Oak tree in Winter, wonderful colour in the sky and the newish moon visible between

the bare branches. I find the moon in all it's phases quite magical, a joy to see every night and it saddens me greatly to

think that perhaps one day rockets will take more and more enthusiasts to

land on the surface. Tragic.

Signing out now!!

Happy Quilting

Maureen

One of those weeks .........

Ever had a week where nothing seems to fall into place

on the quilting side of life??

Mine was last week!

First thing was after binding three quilts (one later in this post)

I had the great idea to play with solids, something I really don't do,

I decided to use the Crossroads block from

Sujata's book - Cultural Fusion Quilts

my dismal results are below, no reflection on the great instruction in

the book, just my me not concentrating. 

 They just were not me, my cutting of the curves

was way off too so I decided to revert to colourful pattered fabric.

Come in Tula Pink Zuma!

Bit of a disaster here too, top right, second row left and third

row right - didn't keep the blocks in the correct order, you can see what happened

compared to the remaining blocks.

Still not doing anything for me with the Zuma fabrics, I just don't want to

carry on making these but I'm not wasting the fabric, I'll make five more

blocks and have a large cushion.

Husband liked the solid blocks so with the addition of a dud

from mine he will have a large cushion as well.

On a happier note I delivered a quilt on Friday

to a long time friend of mine who is not at all well, she loves pastel colours

so this one

had been sent off to 

Quilt Me Kiwi

for quilting.

The rain spoiled any chance of taking a full photograph of the

finish but I took a couple indoors

you can see the beautiful quilting by Leeanne.

Measuring 77" x 84" it was a devil to bind, I used a lovely

soft blue Spot from KF.

The quilt now has a good home and D loved it.

Later that afternoon I received a beautiful

display of flowers from her, here being inspected by

Leila.

That's all from me right now, I'm spending some time trying to decide

which fabrics I may sell on at my fabric sale early August, I think

there may be a selection of solids and Zuma added to the mix!

Off to read your blog posts now and hope that all who are

in the path of this huge storm, fires or earthquakes in the USA

keep safe!

Maureen

Something Old, Something New and a Finish

Something old begins with me sorting through

a huge box of scraps with pieces going back some 25/30 years!

Here was this small piece

 from yardage of a Hoffman fabric around, I guess,

1989/1990, it's showing darker than it truly is on this photo.

Around that time I made a few waistcoats using Hoffman

fabric and strip piecing.

The main Auckland newspaper had an Arts section and

 approached a local quilt shop as they were gong to run a feature on clothing made
using Hoffman fabrics, did she know of anyone?

Yes she did - me!

Did I have anything special on hand, no not at that moment

but I had just gotten hold of a Turkish Coat pattern, how would that work,

yes please, when do they want to photograph - in THREE days!!!

  Front

Back

Front open

showing the fabric lining, all these panel seams were covered in different

strips of fabric hand sewn to hide the raw edges.

This is still hanging in the closet, I have worn it twice, but as you can

see it's not the sort of coat you wear out regularly!

Something new is fabric, I couldn't walk away from these

two

I had picked out a soft light aqua rather like the Grunge fabrics, 

 and then spotted this brilliant magenta colour, straight under

my arm and heading off to pay I walked

past the KF Collective display and here was this magnificent

Philip Jacobs Japanese Chrysanthemum - how had I missed this before??

You can see the pops of rich turquoise green and a little 

yellow peeking out on the fold there.

I feel there may be a squirrel on the loose in my studio!

A Finish

Rainbow Blur is now back from  

Leeanne at Quilt Me Kiwi

and I finished binding yesterday.

Sorry for the rough photo I'm trying to balance on crutches whilst

getting the whole quilt in the photo, missed some of the edge off.

Measuring 60" x 74"

Cotton batting

Quilting pattern by Leeanne is Yodel - double click the photo
it's a great geometric design.
Binding is Anna Maria Horner Source Code.

Time for an afternoon cuppa, I hope all who celebrated
the 4th July had a happy day and enjoy the weekend.
See you soon.

Maureen