Another new day

 A glorious sunrise yesterday morning 

I usually begin my day by heading out on the deck to watch the sunrise, never tire of the sight.

Life seems to have moved along slowly and in rather a muddle over the past few weeks, little to show but I'm working away steadily on the Hannah Quilt and Tussie Mussie, five rows now of the latter and five more to go, each row is folded in half and  pinned on the wall keeping me motivated. 

Come December I have two sales tables booked at the Guild Meeting, so slowly, slowly I'm going through older fabrics, different designers and a couple of my scrap bins to select goodies for my tables. I came to the decision to ditch some of the older fabrics saved for backings and use my favourites, I may as well enjoy them right now!

Always find a surprise as I hunt through, the one below, possibly a Hoffman from way back, was a huge favourite and I don't have much left now, this one I'm keeping.

Two new fabrics came to be added to my stash last week, first one I spotted online from a store further down the Island, this will be used in a quilt for our soon to be grand-daughter, still a couple of months away.

This was so difficult to photograph, the soft green background repeatedly looked almost grey on the first few tries. It's a gorgeous fabric with hummingbirds, beetles and all sorts of flowers the dragonfly seems to be missing in this particular photo. This is a Tamara Kate design - Anew.   

The second piece is a Heather Bailey fabric line - Local Honey

daughter will be sewing this up in a summer dress for me, she is a designer and after three years training here in NZ she flew off to England and worked a while for the British designer John Richmond, originally from Manchester, then to London and eventually to Milan. He was very much into the rock music fashion industry and dressed many of the stars, still does I guess and Sally would tell us of all the folk who came to have him make their clothes, she worked on one in particular which was a green suede suit for George Michael, this was around the early nineties.

Books are being sorted for the sale, I have far too many so one stack is ready 

thank goodness I have until the end of November to process everything!

Well, I began the post with a sunrise and I'm ending with a mid evening photo of the moon through the bare oak tree next door, this is my nightly ritual - moon gazing

see you all again soon!

Maureen

I'm back - with Bluetooth technology!!

At last I have my new pacemaker, or as they are described by the medical professionals,  a pacing generator! With Bluetooth no less. Technology these days is amazing. I'm feeling good, which is exciting, my pacemaker "talks" to the special app on my iPhone and in turn if the app spots anything of note information goes straight through to the Cardiac Unit. It's rather like a Big Brother is Watching you scenario but I'm tremendously grateful.

So, what have I been doing since my last little post, nothing much, reading, sleeping and watching a few good TV programmes, oh and my usual moon gazing and catching sunrise and sunrise when possible, this was sunrise the other day

the cloud formations always fascinate me, especially when the rising sun catches the underside of the cloud.

You might recall I was making a start on Fonthill quilt, Wanda was also working on the same project, she had come up with the idea a few months that we could both work around the same time frame, she made tremendous headway whilst I was stalled! I hoped to continue on after my hospital visit, I had found beforehand  that I wasn't coping with the many small HSTS involved - hands not good. Sadly I'm not going forward right now but hope to perhaps think again in the New Year. So what now,  well I have three boxes with projects ready to go and from now on I'm working on patterns with good size pieces and also strips, I'm keeping things simple.

The boxed projects below were put together quite some time ago 

the bottom quilt project - Japanese Brocades - is quite a change from my usual fabric choice, I just felt like making something a little softer

I had made a start on fabric for The Hannah Quilt a little while ago, I've had the pattern from when it first was released, and was inspired to make a start after seeing the quilt  Koselig made by Julie using this pattern. Appealing to me was the fact that Julie had not used a light solid colour as the "background" strips shown in the pattern but had used a beautiful Tula Pink fabric, macaws on a pink background. I have yardage of the same design but in the turquoise colourway. Two day ago I found two fabrics to choose from as my background. Choice not yet made.

A few days ago I was told by a friend that she was having a 'mental health day' just doing something she really enjoyed, and had missed out on in recent times, she might read or paint, two things she really enjoyed but found she couldn't find the time any more to enjoy them. This had me thinking seriously about the past two years I have had, the result of which has affected my wellbeing enormously, both physically and mentally, to this end I have decided I shall have not one mental health day but a 5 month Mental Health break!!! Blogging often as I used to, spending more time in my little studio enjoying my fabrics and the view of camellias outside of the window, sitting outside in the sunshine with hand sewing and listening to the birds, moon gazing, catching sunrise and sunset, reading, going for walks now that I have the new pacemaker, reading blog posts daily again,  seeing family more often - we're going to be great grandparents soon which is thrilling.  

Reading -two books below have been sitting on my bedside table for around three months, the cover of the first book - Phosphorescence - drew me in straight away, as did the title of the book. I hasten to say it is not a book about depression but the beauty around us. I used to love the streams of phosphorescence in the wake of the boat at night, also by the bow, when we sailed to New Zealand in 1962 and back to the UK in 1963, the glow is stunning.

Next in line is Miss Dior - A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture. The title says it all, Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister, Catherine who inspired his famous perfume. I am so looking forward to reading this biography.

I think I have exhausted my news here now, apart from apologies for having, once again, missed your posts over the past 10 days, I had to take things easy.

Oh, making a start on my 5 months mentioned above here is a photo of one of the most beautiful camellias in our garden, can't recall the name unfortunately!

Before I sign off we have been reading and hearing of the horrific weather in the USA, in fact all over the world I think, but reading our news this morning I was horrified. Hoping that you re all safe and well, along with all your family members.

Keep safe

Maureen

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