A dry spell for quilting!

Just over three weeks since I last posted, that must be the longest spell

without a post since I began blogging!!

It's been a while for various reasons but I'll show you

the sum of my quilting over this lean period.

First up the quilt for my daughter was quilted by

Leeanne at quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com/
if you head over to her blog you'll see good photos of the quilt, better than
I have below!
It's been pouring with rain here, not ideal for outdoor photos.

The central blocks were from a QAL with Sujata Shah, she blogs
over at
The Root Connection
and the pattern is Rail Fence.

The border is an Anna Maria Horner fabric from  her
Sweet Dreams collection

The quilting, as mentioned earlier is by
Leeanne at Quilt Me Kiwi,
I went with the Plump Swirls pattern in order to
soften the angular lines in the blocks
You can see the pattern on the back of quilt below.

Remember my Tula Pink Plus One quilt ?



I'm going to quilt this in three sections, something that's been on my radar
for a while.
There was quite a good amount of fabric left from piecing the top and that's
been cut into strips for  the backing.
The first section for quilting covers the blue bees down to the
racoon fabric.

I had to do little piecing here and there and was out of the bottom aqua racoon on pink so
went with the reverse colourway - you will see I have
a two headed pink racoon!

And that is all I have done in my three weeks, I have  been fiddling
around in the studio trying to find a better working
set up - without much success!

On a sunny day we headed over to see our two youngest grandsons, they
 live just a couple of minutes walk from the beach - how about this view
as you're making sand castles or paddling in the sea.

Rangitoto in all her splendour sitting out in the Gulf.

Time to power up the machine and get creating,
back soon,
have a good quilting week.

Maureen

Back on board - slowly!

I have had my leave of absence and now I'm ready to 

get back to work!

Even though I haven't been posting I have been

sewing for short periods at a time on my

Tula Pink Plus One quilt.

Eleven rows which now have to be stitched together,

and working with an assortment of splints and supports on

hands and wrists does not make photography easy,

so excuse wonkiness!
If you supersize this photo you should be able to see the critters
a little more clearly.

I hope I haven't missed thanking anyone for their good wishes,
if I have then please accept my apologies.

There was good news with my cardiac investigations in that
my heart valves are declared OK and working as they should.
Bad news was xrays of my hands. I do have arthritis, that was known and obvious 
and the reason for a review, but unfortunately they have discovered
that I have several cysts in the carpal bones, actually in the bones, I couldn't
quite get my head around that result.

This is a huge worry for me because of my quilting but I'm taking steps
to minimise damage. I'm thinking of buying one of the
newer Accuquilt Go BIG electric cutters my ordinary GO can find
a new home.
I only had the news of the cysts this morning so I'm sure I'll come up with more
ideas.

I have had a wonderful friend keep me company, no, not my
four legged friend but a two legged one

he has been feeling braver and braver and now sits on the
branch directly outside the sliders. I adore kingfishers.

Thats all from me, and I'm hoping that Blogger
will work if, as suggested, I leave myself the first comment and
I've also changed my settings.

June already

June began at our place with a beautifully sunny day,

today just the opposite, cold and windy.

I've been working on my Plus One quilt, progress as of yesterday below

and so far my favourite character is

the owl below.

I've strayed a little from the original quilt, which sparked my

interest in making one just the same, I'm fussy cutting

for the creatures in the 6" blocks.

The same procedure for the two 3" pieces either side of the rows,

 but here I've done a reverse fussy cut.

This morning I'm onto the squirrels and they're a different

fussy cut setting again, they'll be parading about

in the next post.

Winter is now with us and I realised early yesterday morning that

the oak tree in the next door garden was looking pretty bare,

but I do still have a few flowers in the garden, this vireya was

soaking up the sun and celebrating 1st June yesterday,

colourwise it's a pretty good match with the pinks in the

Plus One quilt.

The China Doll trees have huge long seed pods now,

they provided a good breakfast for this guy

and I wish I could have moved closer too him but he was off too quickly.

Back to the squirrels now but I'm heading off to 

make the link up with
Linda at kokaquilts

for Sew,Stitch,Snap,SHARE
hope to see you there.

Oh, before I go, I guess by now everyone knows
about the problem we're all having with blogger, no email
notification of comments, I'll still try and get a response out to any commenters,
but it may take me a little longer.

Enjoy the weekend and happy quilting until next time.

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