Potpourri - a mixture or medley of things

Last time I posted the first panel of a new project had

been stitched see

HERE

then I made another two

excuse the untidy photograph, I was suffering from a nasty bout

of colitis and not at my best!

I didn't stick to the original Stash Buster pattern but inserted two narrow panels

rather than one wide one between column 2 and 3.

 Fabrics were auditioned and after a few tries I decided

to go with my first choice which gives a wee break from all the
rich colour.

There will be a little un-picking carried out on the bottom strip on the LH side tomorrow.

I loved the Tula Pink fabric when it first came into the shops

 

and having only a small amount left I didn't have the length to cut

the panels so both have a join unfortunately!

Just one more postage stamp block has been added to the project box,

hopefully I should have a few to show in my next post.

Staying with stitching I pulled out my special Beatrix Potter tin below

yesterday, it contains a work in progress which may never be finished

because of the circumstances in which it was begun.

16th November 1998 my sweet old Irish Setter Chessie

was ready to cross the Rainbow Bridge and as I sat

at home by her side, waiting for the vet to come and carry out the

necessary procedure, I began stitching diamond stars. The two 

in the first photo were stitched at the time and the

remainder in the second over a period of a few weeks.

 I just can't seem to continue on with them, they'll

go back in the tin, perhaps one day they will actually become a small quilt.

The written word - a new book arrived in the mail a few days ago

by Mister Finch who hails from Yorkshire and lives in the city of Leeds.

The natural world and British folklore come to life in his stunning

textile pieces - butterflies, moths, mushrooms, toadstools, hares and more.
 He uses recycled materials, old velvet curtains, dresses, embroidered

cloths, tapestries and other items, he even posted on Instagram this morning - moths

made from an oil painting!!

All stitched by hand.

I have never, ever seen anything so beautiful in the pages of a book.

It is magical! I feel I am a child once more exploring the woods and

fields of my home on the edge of the Pennines in Lancashire. 

Do look him up, he has a website and is on Instagram

@misterfinchtextiles

That's all from me today but I want to say thank you for all your

comments on my predicament last post, much appreciated.

Wanda and Julie

gave me excellent advice on the way forward,

which I have followed,  resulting in my working on and making

the top featured in this post.

Happy Memorial Day to all my readers who celebrate this weekend.

Maureen

Crossroads!!!!

I'm not referring here to the Anna Maria Horner quilt, although

I have bought the pattern, but I feel as though I am stuck

at a crossroad with my quilting!

Too many ideas, books, scrolling through Instagram and thinking

"oh yes, I'd like to make that" and adding to my

mental list.

I want to make traditional, I want to make improv,

I want to use my patterns designed a number of years ago,

there just doesn't seem to be enough time

to achieve what I should like to achieve.

Is this just me or does anyone else get totally frustrated?

Whichever, I need a big re-think.

Rant over, sorry about that,  been a bad week.

On a positive note I have made a start with my new

Hindsight fabrics.

Cutting into strips using the method demonstrated by

Kathy Doughty at

Material Obsession

a while ago on

The Quilt Show

Usually I would have two 24" rulers, I iron the fabric first off and

then I can adjust the meet up of the selvedges to make sure

the fabric hangs correctly  ( always have done this). Kathy gets a straight RH edge

and lines up the edge of

a ruler on it, as you can see here I'm using the full width

of the ruler for a 6" wide length.

I bring the LH ruler up to the edge of the RH, remove the RH

and then cut - a a beautifully straight, equal 6" all the way along.

Thanks to Kathy!

I  can then cut into other widths using the same method.

So this is the start of a new piece using 2 and 1/2" strips and

cut into 14" lengths

this was one seen on Instagram - Scrap Buster Quilt -

more sections to come and I'm doing things a little differently.

One of the reasons I love to cut these multi-coloured, bright and

bold fabrics into strips is that sometimes little surprises come along

Example - four strips not yet sewn and randomly picked

and placed on the wall, second strip

see how the large butterfly wings sort of meet up with the half of a flower

in the next strip down? I like that.

Similar thing in the next few strips, third strip down, large pink

flower with limey yellow leaves meets up with a strip of

Echinacea, same colour and I see a little surprise.

Fluttery eyelashes!

Now, remember my little wall quilt top made for the

Red is a Neutral prompt with

adhocimprovquilts.blogspot.com

this is next up for machine quilting and

there will  be kiwis on the back

and KF Spot black with purple for the binding

it blends pretty well (perhaps too well) which is what was hoping for.

Feeling somewhat more cheery now for having written this post and here

is a photo of the last of my

white camellias

this is one of my favourites, I love the

symmetry, all those petals whirling around.

We're heading to Level 2 tomorrow here in New Zealand, hopefully

everyone makes a huge effort to stick to the rules!

See you soon.

Maureen

What happened to April???

Turned over the calendar page yesterday!

April, for me at least, was not very productive at all.

First project begun was Wintersweet and block photos were

shown HERE and HERE

and whilst I enjoyed making the blocks they did nothing for me

when I had them together on the design wall.

Placing on the diagonal, testing to see how they would look

with sashing and so on - nope, didn't like them and now

they live in my spare parts box!

I was having difficulty getting motivated, tried something else

but still no joy with the next project - spare parts box addition.

So - tidying fabric baskets began

green and blue were the first ones. and I found it quite

a revelation to discover there were fabrics I had forgotten about tucked away

in my stash.

Something quick and easy was needed and having long admired the Postage Stamp

quilts in blog land and on Instagram I made a start

using soft lilac as the solid.

A little starching needed for my some of my tiny KF

scraps to hold shape better, but I really enjoyed the process

and can't wait to make more. This is a definite ongoing project!

I hauled out my Accuquilt GO BIG electric cutter (my best purchase

ever in relation to my quilting, next to the fabric of course)

and finished off all the pieces for 

Green Diamonds 

from

 Quilts in Ireland

by Kaffe Fassett

seen below

going here with what I think of as

the 'plate method' for keeping pieces tidy, seen over the years on

Julie's blog

https://quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com

a brilliant idea Julie!!

Thursday a package arrived which really had me fired up and

ready to go

'Hindsight'

from Anna Maria Horner

the colours are more glorious than shown here in these photos,

I have yardage of the two other large prints and they'll be in my next post.

As you can seen not a lot has been achieved in my cosy little studio

but I'm feeling more motivated now and ready to get on with some serious sewing.

Project list presently being compiled.

More colour from the garden before I sign off, photo taken at 6.30am

Thursday just on dawn using the flash on my iPhone

pink Hibiscus bloom.