Almost at the finish line

Six more blocks to be made later today for Sunny Days which will be six blocks across and seven down.

When I began with this quilt it was to be for my expected great-grand-daughter, not for a new born but perhaps a play mat when she's at the stage of beginning to roll over and study what she's laying on. I later became aware that grand-daughter was having as much pink as possible!!

Change of plan needed,  I've enjoyed so much stitching this little quilt so it's going to live here with me!
My stash will be raided for an appropriate mix of pinks for a first new baby quilt, as due date is one month away I need to motor along. 

Things have been slow here due to recovery time from oral surgery, not the most of enjoyable procedures I have to say, but necessary. I have almost finished up quilting Northern Lights and made two Bear Paw blocks to go over to Chris English in Huddersfield, you can click on the link to take you to his site, he is extremely active on Instagram. More in my next post on this.

Ideally Chris would have preferred to go with recycled fabrics but as I don't have any I'll send these on to him, his choice as to whether he includes them or not.

Next up for hand quilting will (hopefully) be Desert Rose below.

Dare I tell you all that this was made as part of a QAL using a Jen Kingwell pattern
Midnight At The Oasis, begun in 2013 and hosted by Sharon McConnell aka Color Girl Quilts!!!
I didn't follow the pattern exactly, a few of the borders were pretty complex and I ducked out of them! 
Can't remember exactly when  I finished this one but it was easily two years or more afterwards.  I think the hand quilting might take me some time.

Here's the backing fabric

So, that's all to report on the quilting side of things here, but I do have a photo I'd like to share of an oil pastel piece of art recently done by my husband. Many times I'd said I would love a rickety shed in the garden, thinking of the shed - which actually wasn't rickety -  in our garden in Christchurch and which I loved! In reality a shed in the back garden here is not going to happen but I now have this one instead, definitely rickety.

it's now framed and on the wall and I love it.

Can't finish up without flowers in my garden, a  David Austin rose

Princess Alexandra

and a lovely Osteospermum, couldn't resist the colour!

Osteospermum

Everything in the garden is now beginning to flower, dahlias are shooting up, always a cheerful sight.

Back to the machine for me now, cup of tea by my side.

Maureen

sew stitch snap SHARE #15

I'm snatching just a few minutes to write this post and then link

up with Linda and Julie. Link will be at the bottom of this post.

Unfortunately since my last post  two weeks ago

ill health has persisted, after more tests I'm hopeful that

I truly am improving!! 

Progress had been made in two quilting areas, at least I think so.

Desert Rose was first up on my list for finishing with two more borders to add.
After looking at this on my design wall for two days
I made the decision to forget more borders

and basted it!
Board basting and using herringbone stitch - all ready to quilt.

A change of plan with my first Memory quilt, this was the planned
layout with large squares on point top row (just off the top I'm afraid)

with my change from the pattern to stars, then my small golden churn dash.
After this was on the wall for a few days I decided it wasn't doing anything for me,
somewhere along the way I had lost my way!!

So, back to following the original block patterns by Judy Newman.
much happier now.

Below are three blocks using fabrics I love.

Embroidered Leaf

Dream

Feathers

All teamed with KF Dream Dark.

In the midst of my problems poor Leila was attacked by
a neighbouring cat, two days at the emergency vet office
over the weekend, and today with our usual vet in surgery.
I'm feeling pretty down and sad right now, she's staying in there overnight and hopefully
home tomorrow.

I suspect barely any quilting will be done in the next few days,
I'll be wearing my nurse uniform!

Keep well and happy, enjoy your quilting and see you soon.

Hope you'll go along to visit
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou

Now I'm off to read almost one weeks worth of blog posts from you all.

Maureen

Little Bits, Stash Enhancement and Desert Rose

A little while ago I posted about a quilt pattern which I thought

I would like to make - 'Long Time Gone' - I shelved that idea

but it would have made a great title today as I have

been a Long Time Gone with my blog posts!!

Ill health is the reason but I think I'm now recovering

pretty well and moving forward.

Little Bits Quilt

I now have all the strips and triangles cut so shouldn't be long

before this is together, just the first two rows here.

Stash Enhancement

Julie over at  justjulielou blog
posted a photo showing  a piece of Jennifer Paganelli
fabric, I've been trying to track down a shop here in Auckland
which stocked her fabrics, Julie kindly
passed on to me details of one which had a sale on, the above
was the result.
Two Jennifer Paganelli fabrics are in the pieces above and that was really
all I intended buying but they had a few end of bolts on sale,
the purple and lime green came home with me!
Five and a half metres in this piece, I can see a border for a future
quilt.

Desert Rose

was the first QAL I ever took part in - it's still not
finished and that was four years ago!
I've designated Friday as my day to work on
any WIP quilts and this one is first in line.
Only the centre block is true to the original pattern,
I baulked at the applique in one border and from then on
I went my own way! Two more rounds will be added.

Linking up with
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou
 for
sew,stitch,snap,SHARE

Happy Quilting

Maureen

2016 Finish-A-Long

The start of another year!

I apologise first off to those who  have seen 

most of the photos on my list of finish projects for the quarter.

Only one is in need of extra piecing work the remainder all
need quilting.

My list for the 1st Quarter:

High Flyer
Quilt for Daisy
Desert Rose
Blue Heaven
Scrap Rainbow
Alley Cats
Ice Cream

High Flyer

This needs quilting and quickly!!! This is for our youngest grand-daughter

who has a birthday on the 18th of this month, I need more hours in

my day. You can read the story about High Flyer HERE.

Quilt for Daisy
The story about this quilt is HERE

Desert Rose

 Desert Rose needs two more borders, she was part of the Midnight at the Oasis
Quilt-A-Long

Blue Heaven

Scrap Rainbow

Alley Cats

Ice Cream

Guess I'd better get on that machine!!

I'm off now to link up with
Leeanne at She Can Quilt
for the first quarter. 

A slow week

Definitely a slow week - only managed three more borders on Cotton Candy

it was pretty gusty outside yesterday and the only way I could take a photo was to drape over the trellis gate. This quilt would have fit on my large design wall but Desert Rose is on there waiting for final borders, my next size moveable wall has Red Sea Sunset sitting there waiting for one last diagonal to be sewn, I obviously need to get on and finish these two projects. Just realised I still have Fruit Salad waiting for seven more blocks, must go hunt it out.

Been cutting lots of strips, the ones above are a few of the 2" Kaffe Collective fabrics these are intended for a quilt for one of our grandsons and as our surname begins with H what could be better than an H quilt which I first came across on Wanda's blog Exuberant Color, I've made a start on this so another quilt on the go.

I really need two or three days of un-interrupted sewing time to clear the first two three projects but there's always meals to make, house to clean, gardening, pets to feed, blog posts to read etc. and before I know it bed time has arrived. Obviously I need to be better organised.

On the plus side the iris above has opened, I love these and thought I had lost every last one but seems not.

Okay time to work on my organisational skills  - until next time have a happy weekend.

Seems to be a problem for folk double clicking on a photo  - they seem to be overlaying my post totally and blogger doesn't seem to be playing when I try to alter settings - apologies will try and fix for next post.