Heading towards the end of 2021

Only 13 more days before we reach the last day of 2021,
 I'm hoping that 2022 will be an improvement!

There's nothing exciting to show in this post, frankly I haven't had the energy
nor enthusiasm nor health  this year to enjoy much time in my little sewing haven but I'm hoping
that will change in 2022. My batteries desperately need re-charging, my little studio
needs an overhaul and I'm going to work
on both over the next two weeks.

Two areas I need to address:

the contents above  from one of my four scrap bins.
For many years I just tossed pieces large and small into these bins, no sorting whatsoever,
no neat storage containers for each colour and now I am paying the price!

The mound of fabric you see above actually measures 35" in width,
29" in depth and 18" high - that's a lot of sorting and as I say, I do have four bins of the same size, at least I thought
I had four but it seems I do have two more in a spare closet, I had forgotten about them but DH
found them!

You can see I also have a good collection of strips and strings,
one container of three shown here, 18" x 12" and these also need sorting.
I see a lot of time spent with an iron in my hand remedying the situation!

Before making a start on these chores in the last few days of 2021 my time will be spent, I hope,
relaxing under the maple tree in the garden with a stack of books,  sharing
 lunch on Christmas Day with our family at our eldest son's home, very
handy because  he lives on the opposite side of the road just five houses along.
We are still wearing masks and living lives under what is known as the
Traffic Light System, hopefully it will work with managing Covid cases. 

One good thing right now is that the garden is blooming - good for the soul -
I was able to collect a few flowers to place on Mum's resting place remembering her
birthday on the 9th.

Alstromeria, hydrangeas, lavender, dahlias and one of my much loved
roses Buff Beauty. The yellow and pink dahlia is one from my new collection,
named Pacific Ocean.

Reverse  I placed a sprig of Philadelphus, this has a glorious perfume.

Well, I think I'm going to finish up now and leave you with a photo of
my Pacific Ocean dahlia and wish you all lots of love and happiness
for Christmas and see you in New Year 2022.

Love and God Bless

Maureen

                                            

A little more progress - a new quilt

My last post I was debating which binding to use on
Dolly Mixtures I had a photo of two binding samples against the quilt and asked
for thoughts on which to go with.
Julie aka quiltdivajulie
said in her comment that she was torn between the two shown and the backing
fabric I intending using could influence her choice - good point made.

I've decided on the Green Guinea Flower to go with the bright backing,
this fabric has been sitting on the shelf for a number of years, the many coloured parrots
nicely fit with the fabrics in Dolly Mixtures.

It's been a slow two weeks involving a visit to the hospital
for a consult with a Neurologist, I won't bore you with the medical details
apart from saying that there may be mistakes in words and phrasing
in my posts, these and other symptoms are felt to be consistent
 with a functional neurological disorder.
I know also that my comments on blog posts from others have perhaps been brief
so please forgive me if I do slip up here and there.

A bright spot on the day of the visit was stopping off at our local beach at
Cockle Bay on the drive home

the tide was  out and the sand positively glowed!

Quilting - a quilt for our eldest grandson - 21yrs in January - needed to be
dealt to reasonable quickly, having enjoyed working with the simple squares
of Dolly Mixtures I decided to go with the same format but larger squares,
progress so far

the very dark one on the left will probably be moved, it's looking a little overpowering
just there I think and you can see I'm going with the same format used with DM to create a border
of just  one fabric - KF  Baba Ganoush - another favourite fabric. Fussy cutting is
necessary to create the effect here, I can see there are two squares in the top row
which I'll change out tomorrow. The squares will finish at 4"

Luckily grandson loves colour and will not be averse to having a few
flowery squares in the quilt but I am trying to keep those to a minimum, a 
little tricky when you're a collector of KF Collective fabrics!!

Summer officially began yesterday here in New Zealand, flowers are blooming
and my hydrangeas have excelled themselves, here are two below

the pink one truly is a rich pink.

See you soon, until then happy quilting.

Maureen