Fonthill, lax with blogging and other things

 I seem to have really lost the plot with my blogging at the moment due to so many things!

You may have read Wanda's blogs over past days with mention of the Fonthill quilt, we're both working on this Kaffe design.  Wanda is really progressing, I am way behind!  This is a photo from the book Passionate Patchwork, there are two photos in the book of this particular one below,  one showing  in a  slightly different shade , there is also a paler version shown.

It is the design which attracted me but after many attempts to try and go with the flow of the the colouring here I had to admit defeat! I'm going with a completely different take on the colour but sticking strictly to the pattern. Here I'm just beginning to test out different fabrics on the design wall, the stripe along with the purple Scarabs are the two constants throughout. Try outs for the small triangles in the centre portion are now being auditioned.

Holdups in my blogging and reading blog have once again been due to unfortunate event.
There were two cases of bad news (health) concerning very long time friends and also sadness over a situation with one of our grand-daughters, also health related. I have another rotator cuff tendon possibly torn - scan tomorrow - but the very saddest blow came last week, my brother-in-law - husband's  brother just three years younger in age than John, passed peacefully away in his sleep in the early hours of Thursday last week. This has just knocked us sideways - the family are still in England so communication is by 'phone or email. Many of you will no doubt have experienced the same sad happening. A quilt will be on the cards for my sister-in-law later in the year.

Whilst trying to process all the above I've been finding solace in the last flowers in the garden, watching the sunrises and sunsets and moon gazing - yes, I love watching for the moon each night.

Also a lovely flowered metre of fabric arrived in the mail.

That's it from me for the moment, hopefully I can put together another blog before I go off to hospital next week for my change of pacemaker, meantime apologies again for not being up to date with reading your posts.

Thank you for all your comments last post, Diane, if your read this thank you for your kind words, I'm unable to reply as you are showing as a no-reply blogger, if you pop into your settings you could enable your email and receive replies.

Enjoy your quilting my friends, see you soon.

Maureen

A sweet Spring day

The first day of Spring arrived yesterday here in New Zealand. Such a beautiful sunny day, blue skies,  birds singing, the scent of freesias just blooming and I felt a true lightness of spirit and a return of energy. Isn't it amazing that each season has its special memories, mine are definitely of Springtime as a youngster in England.  

I took a few photos of the first Spring flowers in the garden, I'll show them at the end of the post.

Progress with Slashed Squares has been made thanks to another lighter splint, these were already cut as necessary before my fall. I have just four sewn up so far and the colours are somewhat brighter I feel in 'real life'. Something to deal with in my settings I think.

There are a few more on the wall whilst I play around to find combinations that I'm happy with, one that doesn't excite me is this one below, again the block is dulled down but I think the blue will have to go! This is still in four parts wth threads untrimmed

Whilst having to take a break from my quilting, housework, gardening and so on, I've had time to think!!
Gradually it dawned on me that I had too many thoughts racing along in my brain preventing me from  sleeping, I was constantly worrying about everything. Many quilting projects are whirling around, most are ones I'd really like to make a start on in the coming months  and also there are some which are languishing in their respective drawers. I've begun projects without truly thinking through  and which I actually now don't like and don't know why I began them, anyone else have these problems? My unwanted 5 large bags of scraps (I still have two tubs more which I'm keeping) and old books and projects are going to be given to the local school and hospice shop in the village. Boy do I feel better after making a decision!

On to my garden, the early flowers are just opening, wish you could smell the perfume from the freesias,

the forget-me-nots are white ones which suddenly appeared, they're now covering quite a large area, 

Clivias are blooming and providing fodder for the snails,

and where would we be without lemons freshly picked from the tree,

mustn't leave out one special garden inhabitant below

he visits every morning and sits on the decking rail by the dining area window driving poor Leila crazy, soon as he sees us put out the two apple halves he heads into the garden.

Oh, I forgot my two new pieces of fabric, the local shop still had these on their shelves and they've always been favourites of mine

so one metre of each came home with me.

That's all from me at the moment, enjoy the early days of Spring or Autumn and Happy Quilting.

Maureen

A quiet time for quilting

 Nothing too exciting this post.
I've been busy with my string blocks for the
AHIQ String Tulip QAL just a few more to sew now and
I'm really cutting it fine to have them all complete by the 28th, but
I'll get there!

Green Diamonds

She's not showing quite as bright as she truly is and at the moment
one half is sewn together and the other half is in the process, pinned here and there but
at least I am now heading down from the top right and the
strips will become shorter and more manageable.

Where the two halves meet there's going to be a little adjustment,
a few diamonds unpicked and restitched to have them matching up correctly.

Whilst I've enjoyed putting this together would I make another quilt
all diamonds - I would not. I had to starch because all the fabrics are KFC
and they're a little finer than the regular quilting cottons. Even with the starch
there is stretch here and there.

Apart from the above, the blocks, planning future quilts, the highlight of my
day today was a visit to the quilt store for more pins and an extra
cutting blade, an exciting photo below!

Funnily enough I did feel that I needed just a few more Tilda fabrics
to add to my collection

and I was very restrained and bought just one 1/2 yard from the
KFC fabrics

the reason for my restraint being that I have a largish order of the new
Kaffe Fassett Collective release, which should be here around March.

So folks, that was my exciting week apart from being rated a
Priority 2 case to see the Oral Maxillary specialist within the next
four weeks, such fun. So I best make the most of my quilting as I might
just be out of action for a short time.

Garden - two little flowers, seeds sown a while ago

aren't they so pretty?

The bottom photo is a new zinnia and the top one
a small cosmos.

Enjoy the weekend and stay safe.

Maureen

Post for Thursday the 10th

 My calendar is reminding me that I had marked down Monday as post day
but that didn't happen!!

It's been a slow couple of weeks on the quilting side of things, all I have to show
from my time at the sewing machine are six more Lego blocks below

I'm enjoying stitching these and using up strips collected over the years.

I've spent time tidying up a few fabric baskets and drawers which were bugging me,
 I had far more solids in my stash than I realised

                                                                                    

                                and compared to the other colours I seem to have very few yellows                                   in this basket

and lots of reds in this one.

My older collection of Hoffman fabrics from years ago, plus a few other ranges,
are now in two drawers - see below.

I wasn't getting very far with trying to decide how to use these,
the Hoffman fabrics are delightful small florals.
Looking through patterns, both in books and purchased as pdfs
from online stores, I found three patterns which I thought
would work. One of them is London Fields by
Frankie and Ray.

Still a little undecided it happened that a post came up from 

quiltdivajulie

showing her London Fields quilt all finished and it's
a beauty - decision made! Do click on the link and visit. 

A list of projects planned for next year is underway, some culling
will definitely be necessary here! I think I'll take on an RSC after 
a few years of missing. There will also be a new AHIQ for the first
six months of 2021.

After a number of years tucked away in our shed I brought inside the house
a beautiful  Indian cradle/cot (teak I think) bought years ago from a local
antique shop. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.

This treasure was brought back from India I was told by a
?army officer, who had been stationed there and left India 
along with other Britains in the mid 1940's. Correct me if I have the
date wrong here.The iron rings for hanging the cradle are still in place.
I intend using it to store quilts in the bedroom. You can see it has been well used
if you go to a close up view.

A post from me always, or usually, closes with something from the garden,
today is no exception, so first up one of my canna lillies just opening.

 Look no further for a quilt colour scheme, the greens,
shades of yellow, a little almost apricot splash and
a fine streak of lilac - beautiful!

My gladioli also has my ideas whirling around

and again we have yellows,  a lovely bright green stem
and all that beautiful pink.

And that's it from me folks until next time.

Keep safe and well.

Maureen

Note - thanks to Wanda for the tip below in her comment, never realised that the setting was on, just checked and wow, the image size is fantastic!

Phew - made it with a post after three weeks!

 I do not know what has happened to my blog postings,
can 't believe the number of posts I made prior to this year.
Methinks this could be due to the situation we all find ourselves in throughout
the world with Covid,  plus personal issues which also throw a spanner in the works 
and then of course various countries in the world
have their own crises to deal with.

All said, it's been a heck of a year for us all.
 So thank goodness for fabric and thread to keep us sane.

On the fabric and thread side things for me
have been a little slow but I now have only two more
rounds to add to Matt's quilt, latest photo below taken on a windy day
in the back garden

and hoping to have the top complete by the end of this week.
The next step will be the question of quilting. I don't see machine
quilting this with, for example, an edge to edge pattern, not good at all I
think it would ruin the simplicity of the design.

I see this as needing to be hand quilted, perhaps with a perle cotton and
big stitch style, I'm thinking keeping with the straight lines of the
fabric and possibly very four lines each round in the
direction of the lines, something like that, I'm drawing a
plan on paper. Any ideas/suggestions welcomed.

Did I mention that I was enrolled in  Colorwash 360
with
Wanda at Exuberant Color?
Am amazing course, fantastic detail on Colorwash quilts at which she is the maestro.
I decided to buy a small pack of Kaffe OOP fabrics from Wanda in readiness
for the course,  here are
three of my favourites

but what a delight to see all the fabrics in the pack!
Lots more fabric from my KF Collective stash needed to be cut into
2 and 1/2" squares, still not enough to give me the required effect
so it's on to the scrap boxes, that's gonna take an awful lot of time
so I've decided to leave this project until the New Year. I have three quilts
already on the the go and fabrics cut some time ago for more, the
occasional squirrel comes along to visit also.

I do have my blues pretty much sorted for the Colorwash,

a good range from light to dark but more needed for greater choice.
I like to check the value by editing

and I'm reasonably happy but as I said, a few extras needed.

I am as crazy about books as I am about my fabrics and have so many
waiting to be read, this is a minute stack which sits on my
bedside cabinet each one waiting in turn

presently this is the one I'm reading now

Freya Stark makes magic with her words, I'll tell you all about this
in a later post.

There is a book pictured below which has such memories
for me, this is on my list of 'unstealables'. I'd love to share
with you the reason it means so much to me, perhaps in my next post or
at the very least the one after that.

Time for me to prepare dinner but as usual I have something from
the garden to show.

Rosa Multiflora

She is a monster and will take over totally if left to her own devices,
we give her room because her scent is incredible, so sweet.

Another rambler is

Veilchenblau

again with a scent which covers the whole of the back garden.

Below is my favourite rose from David Austin.

Sharifa Asma

At the time I bought her he had stated she was his best rose,
again with an incredible scent.

That's all from me until next time, I know Thanksgiving is
almost here and I'm not sure whether most will have to miss the large family
gathering this year, but I do hope you can enjoy the day
no matter where you are and who you are with.

Take care and keep safe!

Maureen

A long four weeks and barely a quilt in sight

Look where we are now 

 into October and it's been four weeks since I actually wrote a post!!!

Quite a few things going on here  have held me up, one of them being this

which I had to begin wearing again occasionally,  especially when

cutting and as I was fussy cutting squares for Colorwash 360

it was necessary.

I'm waiting on a package of OOP Kaffe prints from

Wanda at Exuberantcolor and the brace will be worn again

as I cut those.

I have quilted my little Red is a Neutral piece and will post 

a ;photo of this when I have the binding on.

The only other quilty project to show here is progress so far

on son's quilt

three more borders to go!

Oh the new book from Kaffe arrived

and it's  packed with colour, the photography is, as usual,

stunning and the location beautiful.

As the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying Autumn

we are having Spring weather and Spring blooms, the Wisteria

has been glorious

but is already begin to drop faded petals on the grass, the daisies are

springing up and I took this photo below a few days ago.

Another favourite shrub is just breaking out, the Viburnum

and the scent is out of this world as I walk past to the mail box.

Previewing this post I see I once again have double line spacing at the beginning

of the post but then it has reverted to normal!

I'm still finding my way around the new Blogger settings!!

Disappointment is with me presently because my posting

has really dropped off, as has my quilting sadly, but I've worked

out a schedule and I'll be back to normal in a few days!!

Stay Safe

Maureen