Birds and Blooms

Hope those of you reading this in the USA are enjoying your Memorial Weekend!

Decided to write a post today, was going to do it tomorrow morning before going for hand surgery but I suspect I may be rushing around with last minute things to sort out.  I am dreading trying to cope using my left hand  everything is going to take at least twice as long - showering is going to be the most difficult I suspect.  Not too worried about the household chores as husband is retired and has been "in training" for the past week re housework and cooking. He's good on those things anyway as I have a number of health issues so he is used to helping out and looking after me when needed!  Also stocked the freezer with meals, every main meal over the past two weeks has been doubled or trebled in quantity and the extra amount frozen just ready to heat up and cook veggies.

I haven't really been able to get on with any quilting over the past week as I have been using the wretched splint again and I get so frustrated trying to use my cutter/sewing machine and so on wearing it. I did spend some time mixing up a batch of bird food (with great difficulty) for the finches and wax-eyes I use beef dripping, hot water, honey all heated until boiling take off the heat then add wholemeal flour, chopped nuts, mixed commercial bird seed and raisins. All mixed up put into small throw-away "beakers" and frozen. I can just take one of out the freezer for them, the sparrows have also started to eat this mix and love it, I even saw one of our tiny fantails hovering around yesterday and would love to get a photo of one for you all but they are so quick. John is making a bird table at the moment but in the meantime I just fastened a bit of board onto one of my dahlia stakes, nail in the middle, push one of the frozen meals on! The doves, starlings and mynahs get their food scattered on the ground.

These birds are a joy to watch they flit around like crazy, they are commonly called wax-eye or silver-eye for obvious reasons.

Quilting matters - below is one of the blocks for 15 Minutes Play, a result of the scrap swap with Helen and I intend to make four, I'm really enjoying this style of quilting and using the Manhattan subway fabric which was in the swap. On the subject of fabric I have been looking at the new batiks from Hoffman - absolutely glorious, I have to confess that they are my favourites. The colours this time are mouthwatering - I'm sure I could use my left hand next week to do a little ordering on line!!!

I am calling these blocks New York Blooms! And on the subject of blooms two pics below - one of the  last alstromeria blooms and of all things a daylily which is flowering way out of season, normally September is the beginning of their season here in NZ

Okay, that's me finished on this post, hopefully I will try and post again in about a week - with the left hand! Have a good week all.

A good day for quilting!

We are having some very wet weather here in Auckland not great for me to get into the garden but just right for time on my quilting! Even though the weather is wet we did go off to the garden centre yesterday and bought two more camellias to extend the hedge down the side garden.

We also found a few more hellebores (no photo of these as didn't get them in focus and I'm not heading out in the rain again to take another shot) they are also white and doubles. I do like white flowers in the garden splashed in with everything else, we have huge spreads of the white Japanese anemones which sadly take over the whole garden if not ruthlessly culled now and again.

The hydrangeas by the driveway are underplanted with miniature white cyclamen, these particular ones are scented and smell delicious

We also bought a new shrub a Tibouchina and this one is not the usual deep purple but a softer lilac called "Moonstruck" this can go near the apricot climbing roses  

On the quilting side of things I have made a new block for 15 Minutes Play using some of the fabrics from Helen in the scrap swap (will be posting this later in the week) and made a few more blocks for the one below, still need seven more before thinking about borders. Yes, I know I have a few stray threads on there,  forgot to tidy them up before taking a photo!

I have to spend as much time as I can this week on my quilting because after my hand surgery next Monday (right hand) I will be out of action for two weeks or so - plenty of books to read and a stack of movies/series to play. I bought series one, two and three of Downton Abbey, two documentary films by David Attenborough - I am crazy about wildlife programmes/films especially fronted by him, my son bought me the movie Howards End and there are others all stacked up including a couple of comedies which may be needed depending on how painful my hand is!

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend and will make my next post more quilt orientated.

Internet Woes and Sari Silks

At last! Back on line - our telephone landline went down early last week, a cable fault so we were told, we had no internet connection and all calls were diverted to my mobile. I hadn't realised until this happened just how much we rely on our landline access and the extent of our computer use. Technicians are busy this morning restoring services and lo and behold we are now able to use our computers. 

I had intended posting on Monday evening last week but time crept up on me and I decided to do it Tuesday morning - that's when everything went to custard so no post! I am getting this done quickly JUST in case we lose connection again whilst they are working.

There are a number of projects I should have been working on but haven't been very organised - time spent trying to work out a better arrangement for my sewing room and getting nowhere fast.

 I am busy on a piece for 15 Minutes Play and posted on there the start of the project below

 Sadly the Aboriginal Dot fabric is showing up as pink it's not, it's actually Pear a glorious soft green and I have tried to photograph with different setting, places on the wall and so on but it just doesn't want to play properly! This process is great and I can't wait to finish and start another! We re all going to produce a piece using the fabrics from our Scrap Swap. I also desperately would like to see my Pineapple quilt finished but that has been on the back burner for some time, I am going to post that one over on String Thing Along today here's  quick peek below

Nothing too bright in this one I went  for softer colours and have cut heaps of strips from lots and lots of my older fabrics, some I guess around 20 years old!

I love working with silk and have a number of hanks of Sari strips which I adore and  have made small pieces for gifts and also had them in a local Arts cottage. Now have more or less finished a larger piece which is just for me and I am about to get this framed - no glass. I have a small one on the wall in the lounge which was originally under glass to prevent anyone fingering the silk when it was in an exhibition but I just had to remove the glass - hated the look! I want to see the textiles, the shine on the silk and  threads not a shiny reflected surface. Haven't got a pic of this small piece so will include that next post.  The top two are close ups of two of the squares and the bottom one is the full shot - not happy with the colour of this in the photograph I need to change my design wall to another spot for better light. These are  couple of the hanks I have at the moment, I really should have taken one of the hank opened out - a myriad of colours.

Better not push my luck here so I'm going to post this now,  have a great week!

Babies and busy days!

It has been a few days since I last posted due to the above!

Our youngest son and his wife had their second baby boy (9lbs 11ozs) on 30th April and we will be going to see him after lunch. After we had the news yesterday morning we went off shopping for goodies for new baby, his 2yr old brother and the proud parents.

Sadly not much sewing done, in fact no sewing done at all  as I am still busy trying to sort out baskets of fabrics ready for my suitcase sale on Saturday at Guild. The idea that there would be lots to take along came to an abrupt end  as when I go through my stash I can't bear to part with any of it!! Back in the basket it goes but anything smaller than a quarter now goes into a large crate and so I should end up with about two empty baskets by doing this. There is a huge pile of patchwork/quilting books to take along though, so I won't be empty-handed.

 Done the stack on the left, mostly Kaffe Fassett and friends,  still have the one on the right plus another single stack and then onto my batik stash below

Still a lot of larger yardage on the shelf under my cutting table but that will have to stay put for the time being, not to mention sorting out my strips in various widths!  

I received a lovely package of scraps  in the mail from Helen in New York -  my scrap swap partner from 15 Minutes Play, lots of lovely pieces  which will used for made fabric, this is such fun thanks to Victoria for organizing. 

The above collection has more fabric than shown in this shot, lots of batiks hiding underneath, and the large piece below I just love - I posted on 15 Minutes and referred to it as my new piece of New York, New York fabric I'm going to hate cutting into this.

Look at this bright collections of scraps, lots of different ones her to play with here

I have found my Fox and Geese pieces which were cut about two years ago! Making it in shades of brown, cream and purples and had just started on sewing the mediums and lights together when  had to have a visit to hospital to have a pacemaker placed and I just threw it all in a drawer and just never returned to it.  I will try and sew a few blocks at  a time in between my two projects for 15 Minutes Play.

Time to go and see our new baby - enjoy the remainder of the week and happy sewing!

Camellia Season

Outside my sewing room we have a hedge of about one dozen sasanqua camellias in cerise, white and pink/white which is the one pictured here. They don't really have what could be called a perfume more of an earthy smell to them, however I just adore them, especially when the petals start to fall they carpet the ground and look amazing. When they have just about finished the bigger japonicas take over and we have a number of those in the back garden along the fence line. Looking forward to their flowers!

The hibiscus here is flowering away for us, the blooms are about six inches or more across. They love the humidity in Auckland  it's semi-tropical and can rain quite a lot.

As Nancy J has mentioned in her moving post today we have a public holiday for Anzac Day and if you would like to know a little more about our special day just hop over to her blog. She is on my blog list on the right of my posts - All Points of the Compass.

Been busy making blocks for 15 Minutes Play and really enjoying  this new venture, it's addictive! If you have time go along over and have a look at what everyone is doing.

In a "previous" life I was crazy about Shibori, and worked with silk, a beautiful fabric to work with and takes the dye so well. The piece here was made a number of years ago using the Arashi form of Shibori and I had an exhibition of work in a gallery here in Auckland, Shibori pieces and quilts and I had a great review in the Art Section of the Auckland Herald - our daily paper. I was so pleased. This one is called "Touched with Fire". No quilting of course. It's not the best photograph I seem to have straightened the middle out along the flannel wall more than the top and bottom. It really is correctly proportioned.

The hanging on the right is also a few years old

and was made with graded dyed fabric from Alaska Quiltworks,  beautiful soft cotton and a joy to work with. Sorry this is another photo taken in a hurry and not positioned well at all - note to self to take my time when photographing.

I am rushing as we are expecting our daughter and her two over for a meal and I really want to finish sorting two more of my wire baskets holding heaps of quarter metre pieces before they arrive, I'm working my way slowly through fourteen large baskets from my sliding stack units, already done four with Kaffe Fasset/Philip Jacobs and about four with batiks, I also have the larger pieces on a long shelf under my sewing table and  I need to get all these done and fit in my quilting before May 27th when I am due to have my carpal tunnel release on my right hand, guess who will not be doing housework for a little while! The quilting also will be on the back burner for two or three weeks.

I have just bought the newest edition of "Studios" and I hope to be able to sit down and look through this later tonight, I had a quick flip through and how I wish I had a room the size of some of them in the magazine, it's quite a tight squeeze in a 9' x 10' room, my husband is always saying that I have tried to fit to much in here and I suspect he is quite right. Must rationalise things.

Enjoy the rest of the week,  have a good weekend and happy quilting!

Fabric Bonanza!!

Well not much achieved on the quilting front this week due to two days with hospital appointments, one day looking after one of our grandsons who wasn't well and visits with a dear friend who is very unwell.

However, yesterday my fabrics from the new Kaffe Fasset and Philip Jacobs range arrived:

The ones above and to the right are the blues and
greens, plus the lovely lime Millefiore, I had also
ordered a lovely Yellow Brocade Paeony but that
one wasn't in so will have to order that later, I
can always find more fabrics to make up another order - no problem at all.

Three of the colourways for Brocade Paeony are here on the right, really fell for this pattern  but these small shots just do not do them justice you really need to see the full width of the pieces. These are all one yard each.

 I am not usually fond of grays but because of the other colours in there I needed to have some, I already had bought two yards of the Gray Brassica a few weeks earlier. Have no plans of course for a particular project using my new pieces, for the moment they are sitting on my cutting table where I can just walk past and stroke them.

These four are the last, apart from two more yards of the  Pear Aboriginal Dots  which I adore.

I have also ordered three of the sampler rolls which are a mix of the new fabrics, couldn't say no to those when I saw them on  the quilternity site. Those will probably be only a few days away.

The only thing I have done is finished cutting and fusing a block designed by Ryan McKenna, I bought the nine blocks in the set about two years ago but after spending absolutely ages cutting around the small pieces I am having second thoughts about trying to do any more! My quilting will be on the back burner for a couple of weeks soon as I will be having the carpal tunnel operation on my right hand. I can already feel withdrawal symptoms setting in. I will post a shot of this block next time. As I have based my post really around my new fabrics here is a photo of a quick table runner I made a short while ago using Kaffe Fasset fabrics, which as you will have guessed I absolutely adore.

I had great fun making this and would love to make a full size quilt with this simple nine patch and square.

Okay, lunchtime  so have to dash, hopefully more of quilting next post - before my op.

Have a good week.