A Pocket Full of Posies and a squirrel

 A flimsy for the Quilt Along with AHIQ

A Pocket Full of Posies

and if you've been following my progress you will know that I passed on the tulips
for the centre
and went with a flower collage.
After auditioning fabrics for the border I decided to try out Kaffe's Spot collection,
the one I chose was the Autumn colourway.
I tried out various widths both narrow at 1 and 1/2" and wider at 3"neither
of which made me happy, something was missing, so I decided to break the border
into two different widths of Spot with a very narrow band of Poppy Garden,
separating them,
this was the fabric used to cut the collage. To quote Goldilocks
after tasting two bowls of porridge, she tried the third bowl and this was
"just right".

A Pocket Full of Posies is currently 45 and 1/2" square, before quilting.

Two days ago I had a visitor, yes, another squirrel

appeared in my little studio following the arrival of the book below,
which absolutely gorgeous,

in which Kaffe shows a particular quilt and I immediately
knew I had to make one, again not following strictly his colour scheme nor
the setting but doing my own thing!
I began to play with a few of my 2 and 1/2" squares and cut a few
more from Aboriginal Dot in Orchid

I'm well and truly hooked on this project, I have a few more 
currently in the "to finish" basket  of course and I'm working on a plan to
finish these up. Choosing fabrics and design I enjoy the most, quilting not so much,
hence I have approximately 23 quilts, large and small in the afore mentioned basket.

Along with patterned squares will be the fabric selection below and no doubt more will be added

but not to be included in this particular quilt will be the two new Tula Pink fabrics below.

After all the excitement of the arrival of the book and pulling out squares
it was an ideal time to take a walk around the block, 
here's the view from Sandspit Road a little further along the road from our home.

The cloud formation looks like a roll of pleated cotton wool from
a first aid box!

I'll leave you now with one of our flowering sasanqua camellias
Early Pearly

Until next time - Happy Quilting

Maureen

 

A finished top and reading on the agenda

Somehow it's now the 3rd August - how on earth did that happen!

I  have a brief post, lots going on around here and sorting

fabrics and books and odd bits and pieces for my sale

at the Guild meeting tomorrow.

Moss Garden now has borders and the binding fabric

arrived two day ago, I've pinned a wee piece

up against the border just so you get an idea.

I'm intending to have plain diagonal crosshatching, this I can

handle myself as the quilt isn't too large.

Come Monday the grey check design flannel is coming off the wall

and an off white plain flannel going on. It will be much

easier to place quilts without the  white lines distorting.

Closer view of the binding, it's a lovely combination

of green on purple, not a dark purple, I went with the original from the pattern.

So, not much at all on the quilting side but I do have three

new books. The first one is the Kaffe release,

all Medallion quilts. Some are variations on quilts

from his previous books using different colour combinations and settings.

The quilt on the cover appeals to me and I'm not really an

Autumn colour person.

Quite a few of the quilts are on the large side but I guess a border

could be left off on some of them as long as it doesn't spoil the look of the quilt.

Two other books have joined the stack by my chair, the one

below covers English style of interior design, it was on special

at a great price.

  

Soft colour, relaxing classic design and oh so different from

 this one below!

The colour combinations are glorious but I have to admit

that some are a little over the top even for me.

Great ideas for quilts!

It's shockingly cold and really wet here today and would be a perfect

day to sit and sew but that will have to wait until Monday.

The camellias are being battered by the weather but some of ours

are in sheltered spots, the one below for example

caught during a brief lull in the rain. I now see

that the snails have been feasting a little.

Enjoy your weekend and happy quilting until next time.

Maureen

A new quilt top - almost - mojo back!!

After the last week or so I have taken inspiration from the book below, bought

a few days ago,

very good quotes and I love sloths so it 's a win, win.

On the advice of the above little creatures I spent the weekend

putting together a simple new quilt, following the pattern,

following the makers fabric selection and enjoying the process.

At this point in time it was an ideal project.

Just the borders to go on today.

Moss Garden

A free pattern from Free Spirit

using fabrics by who else but

Kaffe Fassett.

I first made a quilt using the pattern from the

Kaffe Fassett Patchwork book around 17 years ago.

It was listed then as Leafy Rosy Quilt, different fabrics of course, and I stitched away

as my Mum was dying of cancer back in the UK, the process kept me sane.

Unable to travel to be with her then due to my health at the time,

when I came across this pattern again I felt it was right to make

one during a happier time in my life.

There are so many ideas for quilts buzzing around in my head right now which need listing 

and prioritising, some will not make the list as I was going into overdrive!

The weather is ideal for quilting as it's been so cold and wet but

today the sun is shining, although still very cold, and I've just wandered

through the garden.

Flowering and multiplying is a plant brought home with me

from Dad's garden in Napier 16 years ago, I wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Seems to be a Celandine according to the book below

comprising of illustrations of Victorian flower paintings found 20 years ago in

the attic of Frampton Court in Gloucestershire, UK.

Painted between 1828 and 1851 by three sisters and their aunt they are of

native plants from their area.

A wonderful book for plant lovers, given to me by the local

bookshop owner who retired 18 months ago

after 34 years!! As you can imagine I was a frequent visitor during those

years, my bookshelves can prove that fact!

Gosh, I have rambled on a while, this was intended to be a short post 

however I do have one more photo of a sunset -  pure heaven to me - from our deck a few evenings ago.

 Oak tree in Winter, wonderful colour in the sky and the newish moon visible between

the bare branches. I find the moon in all it's phases quite magical, a joy to see every night and it saddens me greatly to

think that perhaps one day rockets will take more and more enthusiasts to

land on the surface. Tragic.

Signing out now!!

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Something Old and Something New

I have a finished top with Chain Link Horizon (the new) and posting

photos of two quilts from waaay back (the old) and a couple of garden

photos added to the mix.

Chain Link Horizon is a pattern by

Kathy Doughty

at

Material Obsession

and

I've played with my own colour scheme

by using quite a lot of FK Collective fabrics in my version.

Measures 60" x 72" so quite a nice size to handle.

I found it a super quilt to cut and sew, large half hexagons make

things much easier and I'm intending to make another one later this year

as a gift for eldest grandson, I'll be using more masculine colours in his.

The old quilts next - I opted out of a joint exhibition with

my husband who paints - but at the last minute there were two empty

walls so I hunted these two out.

Java Moon

 I made around 1993 following some time spent in Jakarta,

I fell in love with the traditional batiks, came home with quite a stash!

This is my own design.

The left hand side strips  are actually perfectly straight, I took three photos
and each one was off kilter.

Jungle Fever

I can't remember exactly when I made this one but I used commercial batiks,

Hoffman I should think, and I did have a pattern but unfortunately

can't locate it in order to give credit to the designer. 

To add more colour to this post I have two photos of gladioli

flowering right now. I brought a few corms home from my Dad's garden after

he passed away in 2003, they're now invading certain spots in

our garden, but I love the colour.

Here they are mingling with a few shrubs

and here's a close-up below,  I love seeing all the detail in the

individual flower. Stunning colour.

I'm heading off now to cut the binding for my large blue hexagon

quilt, a corner shown below.

The pattern is from the KF book

Quilts in Morocco

and it's a large quilt

80 1/2" x 84 1/2"

I'll post when the binding's on.

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Pottering and playing with something new with Tula Pink

Watching Katie Pasquini Masopust on The Quilt Show

last week she had a great idea for hanging strips.

This was ideal for keeping some of my strips

tidy instead of in a jumble in the bin.

So, rings hanging either on a door, the wall or a rail,

safety pins holding strips together, could be in colour order, or not,

 depending what they're being used for, threaded

onto the rings. Cut off then length you need as you along, give them

a shake at the end of the day - no creases or wandering threads!

Looking through my KF books I flagged quilts which I'd like

to make, however I only worked on four books

and you can see the amount of markers!!

As I have another 16 books to go through I think a culling

session will be in order - no way will I be making all 

these quilts!

But I have made a start on a new quilt.

I don't think I posted my Tula Pink All Stars collection when

they arrived a few weeks ago, some of them shown below

and I should have posted them in three or four photos

to truly show them off to their best.

Plus One is a pattern in the newest book from

Tula Pink and Angela Walters, which just happens to be

on my shelf.

A quilter from Aussie on Instagram @goneaussiequilting had made this

pattern up with the All Stars range, I loved it and along with a few 

other quilters asked if she would mind if we made the

very same quilt using her colour setting, she gave us the

go ahead!

Above is the top border and then the first row - only stuck

on the flannel wall - is made up of squares and pluses and  will be 60" across.

I'll have a better photo next time, the colours are

more vibrant than they're showing here.

This is a project which makes me feel like doing nothing else but

hiding in my little studio all day with these luscious fabrics, not

actually possible because of the arthritis in my hands but I'm

using a timer to work in short bursts.

I think the bright colour fans will enjoy watching this all come

together row by row.

I should have more to show in my next post

but as John and I are celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversay

tomorrow, 25th May, it will be next week before much gets done around here.

We have a family lunch Sunday, we're looking forward to that and probably

a day of rest will be needed the next day!

 I'm off now to do another 30 minutes on the quilt,

 hope you all enjoy the rest of the week.

Maureen

Something Old, Something New and a Teapot flimsy

Let's start with the teapots.

Now a finished flimsy and I went with 1/2" inner border

in Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dot

then 4 and 1/2"border in Philip Jacobs Market Basket.

Measuring 42 and 1/2" x 68 and 1/2" and the

Market Basket fabric is more colourful that

this photo is showing, I'll try again when I've sorted out my

new camera.

Something old and something new - 

the old is not truly old but it's a book my husband bought for me

as a birthday gift in October

a perfect gift for me!

I also love photographing rusting items, flowers and leaves

as they decay, I still can see the beauty in that stage.

Here's a leaf I noticed on the path, obviously well trodden down!

Something new is another book from my husband for Christmas,

I'd seen this one on a post from a blogger, it is a treasure!!

Yep, this is also just me!

The foreword by Safrron Aldridge, a long time friend of the author,

and the introduction by said author Miv Watts, are just a joy to read even

before one begins to go any further!

As yet I've only covered the few pages on Marianne Faithfull ( you need

to be of a certain age to be familiar with her), very interesting!

Incidentally, Miv Watts is the mother of Naomi Watts the actress.

This isn't much of a quilty post I know but I hope to remedy that over the weekend

'cos look where I'm going this Friday!!

Hubby is coming along, for two reasons:

1. he is a painter in various mediums

and

                                                    2. he has lived with KF fabrics and books

for more years than he probably cares to remember!

I am so, so excited!

Happy Quilting

  Maureen

sew stitch snap SHARE

And so another Wednesday has come around and

this week is another link up with
Linda and Julie

for
sew stitch snap SHARE.

Not a whole lot going on in my little sewing room,
just something easy and straight out of a book!

From a Kaffe Fassett book, pattern named Golden Strips!!
Pretty self explanatory.
I'm not too convinced about the Grey Brocade fabric, I'll sew up a few
more strips and see how I feel about it then.

The time since my post last week has been spent taking stock of
a few things, being up before dawn to look
at the planet Venus which is beautifully clear just before dawn
in the Eastern sky

just a tiny pinprick on this photo, but followed by

a beautiful sunrise.

Trying to walk on a very marshy lawn to see what's flowering in
the garden beds - one of my favourites is this

and if my memory serves me right this is a primula - correct
me if I'm wrong.
And that's it in this brief, barely quilting, post.
Don't forget to visit with Linda and Julie - links above
at the top.
I'll be back in a few days after upping my game with
the amount
of quilting projects I'm posting these days!

Maureen

Gypsy Wife and one hungry cat!

I had a change of mind over Gypsy Wife, I figured if I put her away in a

drawer it would be quite a while before she came out again!

So here she is, all stitched up, not perfect by any stretch of

the imagination but she is mine!

I can't get a good full on shot, to get this pic below I had to practically

re-arrange my sewing room.

 Would I make another one - no. I would not.

I am tempted once again by Long Time Gone, I've studied the pattern

and think it would be easier than GW, need more time to ponder on that one but

it would use up a heck of a lot of the scraps in my boxes.

I have four projects on the go, I have quilts to quilt and a few

UFO's tucked away in the cupboard, but I find

I am tempted constantly to begin more quilts, especially

using my favourite fabrics - you know whose - KF and friends.

So, guess what I have just been doing

 only cutting strips for another quilt.

This is an all strip quilt in a KF book, and at 3 and  1/2inches wide

a great change from 1"ones. 

Just what I need right now.

Our little Tuxedo cat Leila is a real character, so very

different from the others we have

been privileged to have as part of our family.

Here she is telling me it's time for her dinner

that's one hungry girl!!!!

That's all for now, I am feeling positively euphoric

at having achieved a finished GW top and feel I need to sit

and have a cup of tea, a large glass of a good Shiraz would

suit me better but that wouldn't be a good mix with my medications.

Hope you're all having a good week, see you soon.

Maureen

Cross Cut

Cut and stitched the piece from my last post HERE.
Just needs quilting.

This is a tutorial from Debbie at A Quilters Table, and in her sidebar she has two posts -
Cross Cut showing 1 and Cross Cut showing 2, do go and check these out there are
some beauties!!

Lessons learned from making this:

1. when sewing the cut up sections
make sure you keep them in the orientation intended!
Botton left - this block should have been placed with the arm on the
right of the block pointing upwards towards
the block above, the corner would then have been better balanced.

2. next time I would make more  original blocks to
give myself a few more options and possibly use
lightly patterned fabrics for the background.

A larger one is definitely on my
agenda, the one above is 22" square and as a practice
piece I'm happy with it, great fun to play with.

The latest Kaffe Fassett book arrived in the book shop
late last week, wonderful photographs of the quilts
on location in Italy and a few are earmarked as possibles!
Now I'm waiting for the next book "Blooms"which
should be out next month.
Methinks I may need extra shelf space!!

Enjoy the week, I now need to decide which project/projects need
my attention for my week!

Seeing Stars RSC 2015

Three more Ohio Stars sewn up yesterday, they have me thinking

about the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, the difference

being that it was three bowls of porridge of varying heat in the story and this is about 

my take on my stars.

The first one seems too busy

the second one possibly a bit on the dull side

but the third one just right!


However perhaps it's just me and when all the stars are together at
the end of this year everything will fit together well. Maybe because I usually work with very
bright KF and friends fabrics I'm not giving credit
to the quieter and older ones in my stash.

Catch up on other purples for RSC2015 with the link
HERE

I was pleased to put the outer border on my hexie quilt yesterday but
haven't a full shot photo to post, the weather is beautiful, perfect light
but we have a breeze  and the quilt is not playing fair and sitting still for me
outside on the verandah - can't get a full photo on my design wall unless we
have a piece of my cutting table, half of the computer and the border
of the quilt wrapping around a corner onto another wall.
I'll post during the week on hexie.

We know it's Autumn in New Zealand because of the Japanese Anemones
 flowering and spreading like crazy!

Hope you've all had or having a good weekend - depending on which country

you call home.

Maureen