Friday Favourites - on Sunday!!

Yes, missed the Friday post this week, busy, busy and achieving not much at all!

Quilting on Jacob's quilt - simple straight lines

given that this is for a five year old and needs to hold

up well.

Not a very pretty sight, threads waiting to be dealt with and the

lines just eyeballed so the resulting squares are never quite 

the same size!

Made a start on section 8 of Gypsy Wife

and deciding on fabric for the outer strips

of the block to fit underneath.  Still playing.

I'm going to have a break now until the end of the year
or the beginning of the New Year, lots of plans including

working on the blog. I already have a new photo for the header, the centre

piece of Northern Lights - albeit not yet quilted. Grateful thanks to Melody of
mixitupmel for sorting out the size, lettering and centering for the new header.
More work on a better set up
in my tiny studio is also on my list of things to do.

My clumps of Hellebore  finished flowering a few weeks ago
but suddenly last week up popped this

and isn't it a delight!!

I'll end this post with a view from the beach last week

I feel another quilt coming on!!!!

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy Christmas
and New Year!

Maureen

Kaleidoscope and Cats - warning top heavy on the cats!

A funny week spent fiddling around and not really

making a heck of a lot of progress.

A post  heavy on photos - have patience please!

OK

Rainbow Safari for one of our grandsons all basted and ready

for me to quilt - this is the very last time I shall baste

a large quilt, it almost finished me off!!!

This is the pieced back and I'm thinking of this multi thread for quilting.

Choosing two more fabrics for my Kaleidoscope and you may wonder

where on earth will these be going

so a quick view below.

Just a few blocks in this pic with only 4 sewn together.

Remember this is my take on an old Persian carpet, it's not intended

to be the usual kaleidoscope block of light and dark, these

are pretty mixed up blocks!

 All be revealed at the next link-up for Kaleidoscope of Butterflies and I need to

get a move on at the machine over the next few days, I shall be celebrating my

70th birthday on Wednesday next so I may be doing a little
relaxing.

Moving on  to cats - Leila and her new friend:

I photographed these out of my little studio window, hence reflection

watching John gardening

? battle stations

into battle

time out

and

time for a tea break in the overgrown area by the veg patch.

These two are great buddies, this little barred cat lives over our back fence and calls

around every morning for Leila! We hear the bell on her collar tinkling

and Leila heads for the cat door.

Before I go this was the sight at the beach two days ago at low tide

Time to go I think!!

Maureen

Kaleidoscope - one more block to go!

The original size of my Kaleidoscope quilt has shrunk!

I'm going with 6 across and 8 down  - I think.

For this size I need one more block, the one I had in place

bottom right just didn't fit colour-wise.

Then I wondered if I should move out some of the

lighter blocks and go for a darker look - on reflection I've

decided to just get on and sew another block.

This is not the final layout, I want to play a little more

before I make a decision.

Fabrics for the back of the Rainbow Safari quilt for our grandson

have been cut

and fabric with cats - same colours as the kiwi fabric -
has been added to the mix, also multi coloured dragonflies
on a black background. Top is sewn and I'll post next time.

More from the Spring garden

Bluebells

Clivia

Babiana

It's been so very wet her, we desperately need
 a few sunny days to dry everything out.

Linking up with  Cathy and Ann
for




also linking up with
Judy at Patchwork Times

Now I need to get sewing that last block!

Maureen

Old and New

Let's start off with the new - 

I've finished sewing the top of the quilt for our 5yr old grandson.

The weather has been wet and windy so I just managed

to pick a break in the rain this morning to throw

this top over the bench seat - excuse the weeds!

Four blocks across and six down each 12" finished, 1" finished sashing.

His bed is not quite as long as a full size so we've ended

up with the Safari print borders just on the sides.

I wanted something bright for the sashing but not too bold given

the bright solid strips, luckily I came across 3/4 yard of fabric which must have

been in my stash for around 15 years!

New Kaleidoscope blocks - 

and I need to get these and the others on the wall to check how they look so far.

New fabric - 

it's many years since that I first fell for solid fabrics,

the book on Amish quilts had just been released by Roberta Horton and

I was hooked. It was about time I bought a few new ones I reckoned and

 here are three new fat quarter bundles. My preference is for the long quarters

but quite often buying online requires you go with the pre-cuts or

buy a half yard  if you like the full width.

Now onto the old - 

my version of Midnight at The Oasis, pattern by Jen Kingwell, the photo is on the dark side I'm afraid,

the rain and dark skies are back!!

Some of you will have seen this before when I took part in the QAL, I had a

nine patch border but didn't like it so that's been removed and one day this week

I need to sit down and work out my next two rounds.

Pulling this piece out I had quite a shock when I realised the number

of WIPs I had, plus quilts waiting to be quilted, so better get my act together

and get busy!!

Enjoy your week - happy quilting.

Maureen

Catching up on kaleidoscopes

After working on Gypsy Wife with all the detail it's good

to sew plain old straight lines! Matching the seams in the kaleidoscope

is a breeze compared to GW.

I also quickly stitched strips around the 12 and 1/2" safari blocks for my

grandson and you can see from this quick photo

how badly my Kona strips are fraying, as fast as I trim off the threads

and put them on the wall more appear! These blocks are untrimmed

by the way, they will end up neater!

With the kaleidoscope blocks I have some of them "matchy, matchy" - pretty

similar colours in parts of the block - these two sets below

some are a little more random

and some will have the same two fabrics in each wedge

I loved these two fabrics together so much I just had to let them be!

Tomorrow I hope to find a few blue/aqua fabrics for

another house with RSC 2016 come Saturday, I'm also getting myself into

the mindset for the large section of GW on Monday.

Maureen

Bits and Pieces

Pretty slow going again at my place thanks to a very affectionate little creature

who now loves to come on my lap and rub noses whilst I try and sew!!

So, amazing progress with Tallulah but not so much with the quilting.

I have just done a little on three projects, one of them a very, very little.

Rainbow Safari for 5yr old grandson, very simple 8" fussy cut square

surrounded by 2 and 1/2" strips - I have stacks of lovely bright Kona

jelly rolls to use for these

Began again with the kaleidoscope project

this time combining batiks and  KF collective fabrics, 2 and1/2" wide.

Just a few segments being played with on the wall

but I just had to do a little bit of matching up here and there

 and now I can't wait to get busy cutting more!

My AdHoc Improv Medallion and progress with the other

two side borders, I didn't measure these pieces just cut freehand and when I

 and had roughly the correct fit I chopped the rest off - very therapeutic.

 The light was fading so quickly when I took this,  one border wasn't sewn down and

you can see there are still plenty of dangling threads to tidy up. In fact it's not even

placed squarely on the wall - blame Tallulah! 

Hope I can make a little more time for quilting tomorrow, fingers crossed!!