Something different

The heat here in Auckland is wreaking havoc in the garden

I think these will be the last few blooms on my sweet peas!

Wish you could smell the scent - sensational!

Two posts ago I had a squirrel arrive in the studio - that particular one has decided to go 

back into hibernation, but a little friend stepped in

and it's quite a change for me!

This photo is from a Judy Newman book

Quilts for life made with Love

and she named it

Into the Woods.

Very old fashioned and definitely subdued but a few days ago

I was looking through a photo album which contains

the one and only photograph of my paternal Grandma,

she died when my Dad was 15yrs so of course I sadly

never knew her.

Had she been part of my life I like to think that at some point

I would have made a quilt for her.

I'm making it now.

This is going to be a simple Hourglass block, no Dresden Plates

and in honour of my Grandma will be known as

'Hannah's Garden"

Starting off with triangles, four of each fabric 

and ending up with three trays full including the one below

so far

just going on the wall to see if I like the feel of them - I do - so I'm going to

carry one and I'm feeling the need to see the end result quickly.

When I have the full amount stitched then I can play with placement.

However, the thought suddenly hit me that I needed a border fabric to

fit in with the fabrics, after a quick hunt in the stash I found one which I think

fits the bill.

The lighting for these two photos above is just shocking, apologies

but I will have two more up to date ones in my next post!!

Just to stress that the quilt above is a one out of the box for me, here are a few of my new

fabrics from Kaffe Collective 2020

back in a few days with my diamond quilt all quilted and bound,

see you all then.

Maureen

Ever feel as if your batteries need re-charging?????

I hadn't intended leaving it so long before posting again but the post title

says something about how I'm feeling presently.

I think the past few weeks with family and friend happenings

have had an effect on my mental and physical state and my quilting

has suffered.

Example:

My intention was to post the photo below for February from

my calendar on 1st February

obviously I'm a little late!

Taking me longer than I had intended is the completed top

for my very dear friend who's battling cancer.

The green Guinea Flower fabric forming the border edge

isn't showing true, it's somewhat brighter than in this photo.

I've stitched twice around the outside edges to prevent

the edge of the seams opening, so fingers crossed

all works out well when it's being quilted.

This is going up North to

quiltmekiwi

to work her magic!

When down in my stitching haven I decided to muster

my energy and re-cover my ironing board, after

collecting the batting etc. I came back into the room to see I had a helper

who wasn't inclined to move.

Now a question re scraps.

I am overloaded with them and really have to get busy and sort them,

I do have most sorted by colour but there are thee huge bins

sitting in the corner of the room staring at me each time

I walk through the door!

What size do you regard  as a scrap?

Tiny odd sized pieces or a decent

size piece of fabric enough to cut a few shapes from

to use in a scrap quilt? Do you regard a fat or normal quarter as

a scrap?

I would be interested to know how many of you organise your scraps.

 A few handfuls at one time is the first step for me, some to work on

below

and it's only a small amount but will be ok for starters.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and in the meantime I'm

going to be planning projects and trying to

get myself back to normal!

Have a good weekend.

Maureen

A squirrel in the studio

Wish I was keeping cool like this little fellow instead

of baking in the heat!

 As you can see a squirrel has appeared just as I was sewing up

the diamond quilt and is the cause of my becoming

distracted by a quilt pattern from Robin Pickens.

She has used, apart from one dark fabric, quite muted tones in her

quilt but as the title

is

POSITIVELY BOHEMIAN

this gives free rein to my love of rich, saturated colour.

My idea may or may not work, time will tell.

I need four colour families which I guess could be just using

a dark purple along with a lighter purple and

choosing two tones of the complementary colour.

This fabric above begged to be included in the quilt.

Now Kaffe Fassett uses many colours in one fabric design as

we can see above. and it can be difficult to assign them a definite colour category.

I love the green background, there are also lime green touches

in the tulip flowers, blue in the vase, yellow/orange in the leaves

and also a rich red.

Oh, I need five fabrics in each colour group.

Why not go totally mad and see just what develops.

This fabric has red, blue, orange/yellow and orange  and a little lime green

but is referred to as a lime colourway nor could it be used as a yellow,

would fabrics along the limey green/yellow side work as another colour group?

Also another fabric as a favourite is this Brassica with purple, rich golden orange

and also does have the green in but you can't see it in this piece.

Unless you can see the pattern it's going to be difficult to envisage

how the mix would look.

I would need another colour and then work from there

So just playing to get an idea of the LH fabric and the RH fabric and

this looks  a little like a disaster zone presently, but the whole

thing is a work in progress.

My cutting table is piled high with so many different  fabrics to be auditioned. 

As it's now just too hot to be in here so I'm off for a cool drink

and a re-think tomorrow!

See you in a few days

Maureen