A Go Slow week!

Not really much achieved at my place over the past week - due to internet woes and  tendonitis in my right wrist.  Top of my list was to take the plunge and wash my Fractured quilt - if you're not familiar with my saga of the dyed fabric run in the quilt check out this post. The results of the wash (with the addition of about 14 dye catcher sheets) is below. 

 

So the sheets did a good job, there was only one fabric which really changed colour, the grey which is the top centre block changed to a soft pink/grey and the white rings are a definite pink now.

 I can live with that, the quilt is over the fold down bed and looks really nice. Some of the other fabrics also had white in there but they didn't take up any of the dye.
Before my hand began to play up (probably helped to bring it on) I was cutting 6" strips off  my Jinny Beyer Colour Palette fabrics, all 150! Also was able to bind this
 small  8" square piece.

I now need to catch up on reading all the blog posts which I wasn't able to access over the past three days so that will keep me out of trouble for a little while! Also I see that there are new fabrics out for KF, PJ and BM (no time to type in full) and I need to put in an order  - sadly this action may get me run out of Fabriholics Annonymous as it's not fabric considered essential for finishing anything - I just need some!!
Enjoy the week

Scrappy Cats and Prayer Flags

Another week gone by, I have been busy binding my Fractured quilt

I was undecided about the binding earlier but very happy with it now and just two more sides to go!

I have met my goal of 10 more cats - teal this time and will be linking up with everyone at Scrap Happy Saturday. I rarely do solid fabrics so all my cats, whatever colour they be, will usually have a bit of something else in them, although I do love Jinny Beyer fabrics and you will see a Jinny cat in there! I think because of my lighting the cats are slightly deeper in colour in this shot. One looks definitely greener  and another more blue than teal - but they are teal.

Before I end this post I would ask you to do something for me please.

Below I have posted a photo of a Prayer Flag. I contribute to The Prayer Flag Project and if you would go along please and visit you could learn of the tragic circumstance which  led to my making this particular Prayer Flag yesterday. To learn more about the project generally see the button on the right on my sidebar.

Please visit the two links in my post

Maureen

Quilt Alongs and Sunny Days

Having taken part in the Fractured Quilt Along hosted by Vicki I enjoyed the process so much that I decided to join in with Midnight At The Oasis hosted by Sharon and Jess,  go for a visit and have a look at what has been achieved so far. You can also click on the side button. This is a lovely pattern although if you read my post purely on MATO you will see why mine is a little different!

One lovely surprise from the Fractured QAL was that I won one of the draws organised by Vicki and yesterday received a gorgeous piece of her dyed fabric

Thanks so much Vicki!

So apart from piecing a border on MATO I spent a lot of time reading this week and with the sunny days we've been enjoying I have taken time out just to wander around the garden each day seeing what was in flower. Quite a few plants are just about ready, my roses are in bud and two flowering,

the one below is "Crepuscle"growing along the fence

love this one and she has a delightful scent.

I also found the plant below in the garden centre a few weeks ago and have a number of my soft pink/apricot roses and a yellow one underplanted with these 

Loving gardening and quilting I find a lot of inspiration for colour in quilts from my garden - just look at the photo above for example, and below is  a photo of the beginning of a few lemons, the flowers on the orange and lemon trees are falling now and for the first time I took a really close look at the mini lemons

aren't the colours great?

Until next post

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Birthday and Blues

The title of this post is  not strictly accurate - I did have a great birthday yesterday the 26th.  Our daughter asked if we would all like to go to her place for a meal so it was a full house and we all had a great time, lovely to see our six grandchildren enjoying themselves. One really good bit was when  the lights were closed off and my lovely chocolate birthday cake lit with candles was brought into the dining room and put on the table and everyone launched into Happy Birthday to Mum/Grandma, our second youngest grandson (2 1/2 yrs)was delighted to see and hear all this and his little face was a delight to see - he thought this was all for him and when the singing stopped promptly made a dash to blow out the candles!

 The blues bit of the post covers the fact that I haven't achieved anywhere near the progress I intended with my quilting over the past week due to health issues. Still not feeling great but was able yesterday to finish part of the centre medallion for Midnight At The Oasis QAL.

There is a post on 1st November for the QAL and most everyone will probably be well on the way to completing the first border ready for the post - if I can get a move on I should catch up.

I have put together the four triangles and rough cut the set in triangles and the centre square, I have cut them larger and will reduce them down to the correct size when I put the centre medallion together.

If you click on the  button on the right hand side you can find out all about the QAL.

Threads need cutting and edges trimming but I have got them sewn together now and I am so over these small triangles! Don't get me wrong I enjoyed this bit but what a time consuming process, after a few false starts in-between bouts of illness I turned to my tried and true method of using tear away stabiliser for accuracy and piecing in strips, same procedure as using paper which some  have used for this quilt, I just prefer the stabiliser which tears away like a dream or can be left in, it's really fine. So many of these small triangles were cut to give me plenty of choice for placing, just a few below

I have a huge amount left over but for the moment they are heading for a plastic bag in a drawer!

My Fractured quilt is all sewn of course now and waiting to be quilted, quite a lot of the ladies are making second or third quilts, click the button on the side and you can read all about us and what we have been doing. Vicki has sponsored this QAL and I was lucky enough to win the draw on Monday for a piece of her beautiful dyed fabric which should be arriving in my mail box pretty soon.

So the week passed slowly for me and I have been reading a book with the title Quake Dogs. When the earthquakes hit Christchurch two years ago an awful lot of pets were in dire distress and this book tells their stories - very moving indeed, especially if you are a doggie person like me.

A quick wander in the garden this morning to see where my roses were up to with their flowering and a 

David Austin rose which was  a new one this season has a bloom open, this one is Eglantyne, as with all his roses a delicious scent.

So that's it from me for the moment, I have two days posts to read and there are heaps of them so the next little while will be spent sitting here at the computer.

Have a great week

Maureen

Fractured QAL week 7

At last I feel I am almost there with my Fractured!

Just the five vertical seams to go now - and I will try and get that done later this afternoon.

Regarding the size of the original fabric pieces which were given as five inches by four and a half inches, a few of us found things were not working out as planned and had to fudge a bit, some ended up smaller than intended. In the end I cut all my fabrics  into five inch squares and found this much easier, just meant trimming down a little smidgen to the required four and a half inches.

I do know that where rows three and four meet up some of the angles in the small blocks go any which way!!

Not to worry, the Fractured look is achieved. One other thing I noticed this morning is that I must have changed a couple of blocks around and  have ended up with four blue/green ones which really stand out, main thing is I am happy with it! The very colourful look is what I had in mind so all's well.

Still have to baste and quilt of course and probably simple straight line quilting will be my choice following the fractured lines.

Thanks go to Vicki for sponsoring this Quilt Along, go along to her blog where we link up and see where we are all up to, some are onto the second one ! Quite a lot of the fabrics used are left over and I will certainly make another one but using the blocks in a different configuration.

Have a good weekend, catching up on reading blogs is for me now and linking up with Vicki and the others and also writing a second general post.

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 6

I am so late today posting about the Fractured quilt and I see that some of the folk taking part have already linked up with Vicki, but I have to wait until Saturday for Vicki to get the link up on Friday US time. If you go along for a visit you can be able to see what we are all working on, there are so many different interpretations of this design.

My quilt is changing in size!
I have a number of things going on in my life at the moment, one of which is upcoming surgery on my knee, I was finding it difficult to get as much sewing on my quilt as I would have liked plus I really didn't know where I would use it. A light bulb moment occurred when I read a post by Wanda at Exuberant Color in which she said she really didn't need a queen sized quilt but more of a throw size - so thanks Wanda, mine has now lost one row on all  four sides also.

It's a really dull rainy day here in NZ and there is not enough daylight coming onto my design wall,  I have had to throw more light onto the work in progress with my tall work light but it is slightly yellowed the colours, lesson learned to take the photograph on the day the sun is shining and not assume the we will still be having good weather the day following. I see I am not straight with my blocks on the left hand side - that's what comes of rushing!

I intend to have all my blocks finished by next Friday but not necessarily sewn together.

This is one of my favourite blocks in the quilt

I love Brassica by Philip Jacobs and have just received more of this design in the two new colourways - see my second post of the day!

Time to go along and see what progress everyone else has made

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 5

Where oh where has the week gone?

Well mine has been spent nursing a gastric bug - so this is a last minute rush to post for week 5 of FQAL, and because of the bug I only had time to make three more blocks.

Most of you will already know that Vicki is sponsoring this quilt along and she has a link on her blog, please visit and see what we are all busy working on - a feast for the eyes!!

As I said earlier I have been ill for the best part of the week and spent a few minutes here and there matching up the different print fabrics with dyed fabrics

This is a fun part of the quilt, only problem is I end up with fabric pieces all over the place!

 I was able to get to the sewing machine this morning and I have changed the placement of some of the blocks, I also threw in what could be called a "wild card" this morning, the jury is still out on whether it will stay or not - you will see a rich geometric with mustard dyed fabric -  I like something a bit different. I changed position for this block a couple of times but still have quite a number more to make so it could be all change again by the posting next week.

The photo above was where the block was first placed, the second row down third in from the left, and below I placed it on the sixth row left hand side (there are eight rows down in all), this is only the left hand side of the quilt with the central row. My design wall is not big enough to take the whole quilt so something will have to be rigged up outside to take a full shot. Only when I have all my blocks placed as I like will I sew them together, had thought of doing one side at a time but because of the "coat of many colours" style that wasn't a road I wanted to risk going down.

Because the spring weather is with us now in New Zealand, and because I was so late pruning some of my roses I have an Iceberg bush in the front garden which was absolutely full of hips

Above the result of a few quick snips with the trusty secateurs.

No more sewing or playing with fabric today I'm off to sit on the couch with a cuppa, chocolate biscuits and a DVD of "Cranford", catch up during the week and thanks so much for stopping by, have a great week.

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 4

Another week working on blocks for Fractured!
I have been a little more productive this week, the layout so far may change as I go along. I am making each block and placing as I go along to try and keep the colour flow with the dyed fabrics. In between making up a few C blocks using my favourite colours ready to place.
I found that there seemed to be a discrepancy between the detailed diagram of the four blocks on one page re the angle of two seam directions in the small four and a half inch parts  and the block lay out on the next page. What did I do but in the middle of making the first four I looked at the detailed ones, then next day started working off the layout for all the blocks, that's when I noticed this issue. However I 'm not intending to change a thing, don't have the time. No pulling the small blocks apart, as long as the pattern follows a zig-zag then I'm happy.

Here are three C blocks waiting for a home further down the track

The shot below is part of the top left hand quadrant

Now this doesn't look as bright as it should - I need to re-arrange my sewing room to get better light on my wall, I hope to work on that tomorrow. I can also see one block which needs to be moved and a brighter one put in place instead.

Everyone will be linking up with Vicki so please go and visit her blog to see what we've all been doing

We have had a few storms over the past week, very strong winds with huge gusts so I headed off to the veggie patch at the bottom of the garden this morning to see if there was any damage but luckily no harm done. The only damage is done on a regular basis with the darn snails and slugs. We have tried a number of ways to get rid of the darned things and don't want to put strong poison pellets down because of Daisy and Seamus so I am resorting to hunting them out by hand and popping them in a bucket of water for a while until they are no more and putting them in the compost heap!

Lunchtime - enjoy your weekend and happy quilting!
Maureen

Tuesday Tales

I have been so caught up in the Fractured Quilt Along that other blog matters seemed to have fallen by the wayside. I had thought with my husband away in the UK for three and a half weeks I could spend my time doing nothing but my quilting - hasn't quite worked out that way! Looking after two ailing aged animals and an ageing self plus trying to keep the weeds at bay in the veggie patch and garden beds and all the usual cleaning chores seems to have made a huge dent in my plans. Also tonight we are in the middle of a storm, huge winds and rain and just as I was settling down for the evening with a movie which I have watched so many times (The Notebook) the power and telephone system went down!

Seamus (old doggie) was not best pleased with all this and I had to hunt out the candles, the huge lantern and go around making sure the power switches were all off and sat there listening to a howling gale!

But  hooray - the power is back on again, fingers crossed it stays on.

On the quilting front I have completed a few more blocks for Fractured, received  an order of fabric from Glorious Color, always lovely to fondle the fabrics, and found a photo of a quilt I made for our eldest granddaughter when she about 5 years old, from memory my husband took a quick shot of this so it's just a casual shot. Looking at it now I think I would like to make a couple more using this simple pattern.

Also on the quilting subject have any of you seen the fabrics from Kaffe Fassett Collective for Fall 13?

I happened to be looking at  The Fat Quarter site and they were showing them as coming in October - they are yummy!! Some new patterns and they have the Philip Jacobs Brassica - my favourite pattern - in two glorious colour ways, if you are a fan try and find time to have a quick look. I'm going to contact Glorious Color to see when they will be getting them in store. I really do need a larger studio! Husband actually suggesting taking down the wall between the room I am using (a small bedroom) and the room next door that would be great but if we do that he will lose out on room for his art and that takes quite a bit of room for his easel, paints and so on and I don't want that to happen, perhaps we could reach a suitable compromise.

After my quick ramblings above I will now brave the weather as my doggie needs a toilet stop outside - this should be fun!

Watch out for my Fractured post and the link with Vicki on Friday, although I can't link until Saturday am because of the time difference.

Maureen

Fractured Week 3 and Americas Cup Racing

Here we are again - week 3 of Fractured Quilt Along sponsored by Vicki hop along and see her blog, I shall be linking up there in a moment.  I am rushing to get a post in before the next scheduled race for NZ agains US in the Americas Cup - can't miss it!!

OK quilting - four blocks completed this week, next week I can crash on with the C and D blocks, that's the plan anyway, here are four more for the centre column

You should see my little sewing studio - total mess!

I am posting a cropped shot of a batik quilt made some time ago, the photo was not well set up hence the cropped look, I love the colour in this one.

I get great inspirational ideas for colour  in  quilts from my garden - and other gardens seen on my walks around the neighbourhood, one of my all time favourite shrubs is the hydrangea and I have a number in our garden, the one below is a delight to me, very soft colours in this one

So sorry about this rushed posting, just have three minutes left before race start so I'm off and will do my link after the race is finished!

See ya

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 2 and Flowers

 

Well here we are in week 2 and everyone has been soooo busy - except for me!! What lovely work everyone is posting

Head along to Vicki's blog where we are all linking up.

I haven't had a productive week at all with only two more A blocks to show in this post, but I am hobbling around with a stick and helping my husband get ready for his trip to the UK, he will be away just over three weeks and I've also had sewing machine issues, so a little excuse there. I'm hoping to have more time over the coming weeks for speeding up with the blocks and also working on the quilt for my daughter, given that in addition to the usual chores I will be caring for our elderly dog with very bad back legs plus Daisy cat who has kidney failure it will be a case of fingers crossed! Nothing is ever straightforward is it? It's also taking me a lot longer to get things done around the house with this leg problem.

So, below are two shots of my efforts this week. Don't know quite which spot in the quilt these will go, there are only a handful of A blocks to place so need to have more finished blocks on the wall before making a decision. I have also abandoned my original design plan which was working out to be extremely time consuming taking a great deal of planning, given all the issues for me over the next three weeks I decided to simplify my plan. Don't need to make this stressful, it is after all meant to be an enjoyable process, not a chore and I am enjoying it very much.

One thing I did achieve last week was to plant some veggies and in the process I saw my clivias were blooming pretty well this year so had to get a photo of those.

Don't forget - pay a visit to Vicki's blog where we are all linking up

Happy quilting

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 1

This is the day of our first posting and link with Vicki who is hosting this Quilt Along

No doubt everyone else has already posted but because we are 18 hours ahead of the States  here it is Saturday 7th at 7.00am in the morning.

Well, it took me some time yesterday putting two blocks together! I had fabrics ready, made a quick test block two days ago, had to decide on my darks, already collected lights which I showed in my last post 

but I'm showing again, plus some of the dyed fabrics for my darks

Here is my progress so far - miniscule  compared with the number of blocks Vicki has on her design wall, but I am loving this, very happy with things so far and can't wait to make more blocks! 

Ok - time to link up - more progress next Friday gotta go and get breakfast! then more sewing!

Maureen

Spring and Fractured QAL

Tomorrow is officially the first day of Spring here in New Zealand, according to the weather forecast today and tomorrow would be lovely fresh springlike days, for once they look as if they may be spot on! Today there is a blue sky and sunshine, birds were singing like crazy just on dawn and were trying to have me feed them about a half hour earlier than my usual time so their body clocks must be changing gear and thinking about getting into baby raising mode soon.

We did have one spring-like day during the week and I took a photo of the little cottage named Green Gables down in Howick, this is the base for the Howick Art Group and my husband and I are members, John is the painter. They are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday only and have two rooms with work displayed by members and each month there is an extra room given over to a solo exhibition. Three years ago I had a quilt exhibition there (bear in mind these rooms are only small)  which I really enjoyed, there is no room to hang a full size quilt but I had a number of very small pieces in addition to a couple of throws and table runners and I am booked to hold another one in February - slight panicky feeling - as I am not really organised so I'm really going to have get my skates on. I spent some time last night getting ideas together and working out how many pieces would look good in the small space. I could take my quilt ladder down which will help with the space problem. Hopefully I will also have a few felted pieces and probably two or three of my Silk series using the sari silk.

You can see it's a cute little place especially at this time of year with the daffodils in full bloom. It is more or less surrounded by immense oak trees which are just glorious whether in full leaf or showing their bare branches and in Autumn the pathway and outdoor exhibition area are covered in acorns, reminds me of primary school days tramping home from school scrunching through the dried Autumn leaves.

One piece from my exhibition last time was this schoolhouse wall hanging, this is a photo taken in the wrong position on a windy day! I had  a number of fat quarters of fabric from Fig Tree sitting on the shelf waiting to be used and they seemed just right for this one.

On my list of things to do, or rather for J to do is set up a good area outside for shots of quilts so if the good weather holds I might get lucky.

The quilt for our daughter is still a work in progress, a work yet to be started is the quilt for our youngest grandson and my progress with cutting for fabrics for the Fractured QAL is coming along.

Just finished cutting the strips yesterday - the greens and yellows on the left and the other strips, which I know I posted last time, below. Just starting to sort the darks out today and I'm finding that's the tricky bit deciding which fabrics I want to put in there! You can see I have used a lot of Kaffe Fassett/Philip Jacobs fabrics in there along with a few batiks so the question is whether I have sufficient darks in the range from the above mentioned designers. also pulled a large assortment of dyed fabrics which could be a possibility and there are some very dark batiks on my table so today will be spent as a play day. Another alternative is to not go too dark but medium dark - we'll see.

One week to go now to start date for  FQAL

Enjoy your weekend

Maureen

Busy week ahead and FQA

I have just realised what I have to pack into the week ahead!

 An appointment with an orthopaedic specialist to try and find out what the heck is going on with my left leg, a  hand therapy appointment, visit to the vet for Seamus and Daisy, have our grandson over for a morning, two other grandchildren after school on Thursday and in-between all this I will be gathering my fabrics together for the Fractured Quilt Along. Actually I have already started on the fabrics, happy with the lights all 56 of them and next week will take care of the darks.

We also have a busy weekend ahead, my husband celebrates his 70th birthday on Monday so this Saturday we are having a family and friends gathering at our place, tomorrow will be spent getting things together for Saturday.

Having a tidy up around my cutting table I found at the back  a brown bag which had fallen down and wedged behind a few curtain sample books, don't remember missing these fabrics!

 Some years ago I had a "thing" about blue and yellow florals and Hoffman had such a great range at that time so whenever I was in a quilt shop I would collect quarters. I had forgotten all about them,  I had seen a lovely nine patch quilt in a magazine using these florals and hd intended to make one, I really don't want to go down that track now so I think I'll just cut each quarter in half and keep those and cut into strings, cut the remaining piece in half again, put them into two packets and if anyone would like a packet just send me an email,  I am happy to pop them in an envelope and mail them to the States.

In my last post I was waiting for a Vireya rhododendron to open, the one with the huge buds,  at last is has and I love it!

Watch out for postings when we start on the Fractured Quilt Along!

Maureen