Lots of colour

A large package was delivered during the week - two quilts, long arm quilted by Leeanne at quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com they need binding now, hopefully next week so just little taste of colour from front and backing.

First up is Mollies' quilt - quilting design Blooming Feathers - she was an Irish Setter and they are beautifully feathered, below is the back and not a brightly coloured choice from me, the colour on the quilt top was my focus.

Second quilt was Tussie Mussie with a quilting design New Growth C, because of the rich colour the quilting design is not quite so easy to see

and backing - quilting design clearer

both were edge to edge quilted.

Progress with Seven Seas, the strips are all completed, well apart from the last narrow plus adjoining wider strip yet to be sewn together, I decided to just quickly try and place them on the wall and happy with how they're looking. Doubt began to creep in regarding the Flying Geese blocks, you'll see from the photo below the spaces left for the Geese, I was unsure about the larger size block required (8") and my initial thought was also to add different colours for the Geese - trial proved not a good idea - decision made to keep with the fabrics used already but adding a few more for interest. Excuse the crummy photo, I desperately need more room in my sewing area.

Fabrics covered my cutting table and I needed to corral the pieces I was definitely going to use, hit on the idea of a trug used for cut flowers from the garden - this has worked perfectly

Two designs I would love to use, the first will work ok - this is Sunrise, I fell for Sunset but not a good choice I think.

and here's Sunset

both are AnnaMaria fabrics.

To close, two beauties presently flowering in the garden

Rugosa Single with a heavenly scent

and a peachy day lily

and that's it for me at the moment. 

I hope folks suffering the horrific damage from Helene are receiving any help available, from the news coverage here in NZ it looks like it's going to be truly long and hard road for them all.

Maureen

Tussie Mussie is now a top!

Yes, at long last I have a completed top. I'm not too happy with my stitching, there are  one or two places where the eight triangles meet, or in this case don't meet, however I'm not unpicking.

My spine has deteriorated (degenerative scoliosis) a lot now and has twisted a little so it's difficult to work at anything for long especially when loaded with strong meds, concentration lapses a little. However, that's definitely not going to stop me quilting, I can work around a few things.

I photographed outside, can't do a full on photo as the design wall is too small.

Going forward I've moved my BB1 project into my little room hoping for inspiration to strike and I can add a couple of extra borders. I'm also planning what to make a start on next week, I currently have six large project bins, Fonthill needs a few more batiks added before I make a start on that one.

It's between Sea Glass, maybe a couple more fabric will be added as I go along  but so far this is the collection

This is a shot of the pattern cover below, you can see mine won't be as blue. This is a Treehouse Textiles
pattern.

I found this little piece below in my scrap box, this just has to join the group - excuse the creases, I have yet to iron ready for cutting.

Heaps of fabric have been pulled for Across The Fields, far too many I know but it gives more choice when I begin to cut. There are darker fabrics underneath the top layer.

Across The Fields is a pattern from Rachaeldaisy Designs below.

So, decision time in a couple of days, you can see that once again my colour scheme will be different to the original in the photo.

That's all from me today, keep fingers crossed that I can settle my next border on BB!

See you again soon

Maureen 

Something Old, Something New

Something old - a number of years ago Julie posted a photo of a fabric she had decided to sell, if memory serves me she had originally intended it as a backing, correct me here if I'm wrong Julie, I thought it was just glorious and promptly said I was happy to purchase, here it is

still tucked away with my large yardage pieces waiting to border a quilt to be made. I think there is just over 5 yards.

Something new is the progress (slow) on Tussie Mussie but only three more rows to go. It's 80" square finished so I think this is going to have to be sent out for quilting. Could be tricky making a decision on the quilting design, something loose appeals, I'm not too happy with heavy quilting. My design wall is around 72" so anything larger has to go around a corner

two close ups here

My other new project is, of course, Bramble Blooms seen in previous posts and I'm still struggling with the border set up, had my centre applique been a looser design I think the borders would have been easier, BB1 will be having a break for a few days unless inspiration strikes suddenly!

On to something old and this one has a story, many of my quilts do have a story behind them but this one is very special to me. It's just a top right now and has been tucked away for the past 12 years, here's a couple of photos and then the story. This is Mollie's Quilt. 

Over the past 50 years we have  had one, two and sometimes three Irish Setters as part of our family. A short break when we came to live in New Zealand. So over the years we have had Crispin, Penny, Rufus, Chessie, Applejack, and Seamus and Mollie were our last two and these were brother and sister. Seamus was a big dog, Mollie a petite lady and as with the other girls we were pretty much inseparable, she was so pretty, a real sweetie.

Mollie became unwell some time before I happened to see two beautiful jelly rolls on a quilting site, I sent off for them. I noticed her weight was dropping a little and she had began having trouble breathing when walking and coughing now and again. Vet advised a CT - lungs and liver full of cancer and she had possibly a few days left! It was so very quick. My birthday was the 26th October and after a particularly bad attack I knew we were coming to the end of our friendship. We did so the next day with a visit to the house by our vet. There will be many among you who will know the emotions involved.

The following day the jelly rolls arrived and went straight into a drawer, I couldn't bear to work with them. Two years later I felt I would make a quilt in memory of her, the one above but the top then went back into the drawer again and only four days ago was I able to take it out, look at it and take the photographs. As it is 70" x 84" I think I'll have to send it out for quilting although I would really like to carry this out myself - I shall think about it for a little while longer.

Here's a photo of Mollie and also one with Seamus down at the beach.

 

On a brighter note I'll end with a photo of a small hanging from around 20 years ago when I was making pieces with silk and using arashi shibori to create the patterns which used to fascinate me. It's not possible to truly predict the outcome, just depended on the winding of the string/rope, the tightness and scrunching down around the tube and the placement on the silk of the dyes and also repeating the process sometimes twice or more.

Touched With Fire

So that's all from me, Happy Quilting

Maureen

Five weeks blogging missed thanks to a spider!

Would like to first say thank you to all who left comments on my last post 24 April, my apologies for not replying. I had hoped to do so two days later and have a few rows of Tussie Mussie sewn up to post, but only had the one sewn and pinned on my too narrow design wall when I had an argument with a spider!

Hopped into bed 26 April, read a few pages of my current book, light out and turned over onto my right side when my leg, a few inches above the ankle, began to burn, sting, tingle, throb, couldn't think what on earth was happening.  DH  thought was somehow a burn or a graze. - not possible!  The next day there was obviously a problem, by this time inflammation was slowly spreading  all around the area with a nasty wound in the centre. Off to the local emergency department.  Result - couldn't decide what had happened but massive doses of antibiotics for seven days, told to keep leg elevated, five weeks of visiting my usual Doctor's surgery every couple of days for dressing changes, wound cleaning and still elevating leg. Healing up now but the consensus is there must have been a white tailed spider in the bed and in turning I obviously lay on it and it wasn't too happy about that.  These spiders can cause real damage to the surrounding flesh on occasion, my leg was one of the occasions!

Sadly I was going to have my pacemaker replaced the week after all this happened but this was postponed due to the darned spider, now scheduled for June 23rd.

So I've been spending time sewing hexies

reading a new book 

opening a package of new fabrics

sitting with a box of small pieces sorted by grand-daughter and finding this gorgeous piece of fabric  not sure if KF or PJ - Wanda you would know I'm sure

watching the birds come to attack the seed pods of the trees outside the window

and at last DH driving me down to the beach for a short walk along the sand at low tide yesterday.

Hopefully back to short spells at the machine in the next day or so and reading current blog posts tomorrow, I haven't a hope of catching up on all your posts from the last five weeks, hope you'll excuse me.

Happy Quilting

Maureen

It's all in the planning

I haven't achieved a great deal in the past two weeks, cut all the HSTs for Tussie Mussie, the amount of these differed, a number were cut from one wof, more from two wof strips, then three strips wof.

Here I made use of the plate system for keeping things in order, used by quiltdivajulie, a great idea Julie!
The cutting took quite some time,  no die cutter used.

Just a few pieces on the wall  (not stitched) at the moment, other things seemed to hold me up!

I'm making an effort to tidy fabric, using large containers to hold the fabrics assigned to a few quilts on my list for this year and next. Cutting odd size scraps into 2 and1/2" and 1 and 1/2" squares for two projects and preparing strips for another two quilts I have in mind, all now neatly stacked and labelled. Tussie Mussie needs to be worked on quickly now, I had my pacemaker check last week and a referral was sent off three weeks ago for me to be called in for a replacement, probably within the next few weeks. As this procedure involves using a temporary pacing wire threaded in (I have no underlying rhythmn and rely totally on my pacemaker)  it's a little more complex, I may be taking it easy for a couple of weeks afterwards, no heavy lifting or reaching for fabrics and boxes.

You may remember my Dolly Mixtures quilt from a little while back

there were lots of sets  unused, they re-appeared during "the great tidy up" in one of the drawers and I probably have enough to make another small quilt.

 

I've been photographing in the garden, now suffering from the high winds and rain which do a great job of spreading rust spores throughout the plants. I planted three new canna lillies a little while ago, the seed pods of these plants have always fascinated me, I picked a few and photographed them on an old patterned saucer

just look at that lime green popping out.

We've been concerned for our daughter whilst she had four weeks in the UK and a week in Italy, she had missed one of her Covid booster shots. Arrived back on Wednesday, down with a sore throat and feeling pretty ill on Thursday, tested positive for Covid on Friday! She may have picked it up right before travelling home, but sitting on a 'plane for two 10 hour flights and an 8 hour lay-over in HongKong probably didn't help matters!

Dinner is calling me and then more sorting, hoping for quite a few more blocks of Tussie Mussie in the next post.

Maureen

One top finished, a new one started

Okay, I finished sewing up the Maggie Pearl top - hooray! A boo-boo with the blue block, second row down and second block in, this I  moved to a different position in the top and the more subdued blue took it's place, DH asked could he see how it was placed originally, yes he could but then I forgot to move it back again. After a tricky day I headed for the machine and stitched - only at the last strip did I realise what I had done. I wasn't about to begin unpicking all those seams so it's staying as is.

On to my next project, one I had marked in a Kaffe Fassett book just after Quilts in Italy became available in 2016. The colour in this quilt had me hooked, ideal to bring a breath of Spring into the bedroom when Autumn and Winter hits us, as we're now in Autumn  I had better get busy with Tussie Mussie.

Isn't she (looks like a she) a beauty! Apart from the required two Mad Plaid fabrics (one will have to be a substitute) the remainder are from stash, I love this one so much I have just gone totally with KF listed fabrics. Measures 80" x 80" and required 8 and 7/8" strips as the first step, I couldn't be fussed with this measurement so mine are cut just 8 and 1/2", it's not going to make much difference at all.

Some fabrics require just one strip cut, some two strips and a couple need three strips. 

One strip of each fabric:

Two strips:

Three strips:

I shall definitely be starching before cutting, they would stretch too easily without this. A special project is coming up end April beginning of May so TM needs to under the machine within a few days. Doesn't have to be all complete before my next quilt, I like to have two or three projects on the go (understatement here, it's usually more than that).

More re-arranging and tidying of my little studio has been keeping me busy, don't know why such a small room needs so much arranging to have a better working set up. It does have to be tidy though or everything quickly unravels.

Signing off with my favourite hibiscus and an almost matching sunrise yesterday

and the hibiscus

Before I do sign off,  am I the only quilter who has noticed a heck of a lot of bloggers that I've followed for some years are no longer around, they all seem to be on Instagram, or have just totally stopped writing a blog, such a shame.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Maureen