Midnight At The Oasis - not quite finished!!!

Desert Rose

As you can see hardly any progress at all!!

Events over the past two weeks have conspired against me due to late night and early morning telephone conversations with family in the UK regarding the health of my mother-in-law. Things just got too much for me and I was really tired and couldn't for the life of me summon up the energy to quilt.

It became obvious on the 30th December that it was only going to be a few days  before the end so my whole morning of the 31st was spent with John organising flights, insurance, putting affairs in order here before he flew out. Sadly we had completed more or less everything and he was flying out that night when we had the call that she had passed away. John obviously still flew out to join his three brothers and carry out all the necessary arrangements, he won't be home until towards the end of January.

I had such high hopes for showing a photo of Desert Rose ready to be basted and quilted ( the one above was taken with me perched on the edge of my high cutting table so not straight) and thought that when John left on Tuesday I would work on and finish it, but I feel so drained physically and emotionally that I couldn't do it. However, today is another day and I plan a quiet weekend to hopefully "re-charge my batteries" and move forward.

I did have a lovely surprise in the garden early this morning a new gladioli had opened - I had forgotten all about these in the garden - so I was thrilled to see the colour. 

Now I'm going to link up with everyone else and looking forward to seeing how many have all their borders completed.

The link is here at Fabrics and Flowers, we have one more link on the 31st January so stay posted!

Happy New Year to everyone

Maureen

A Lovely Year Of Finishes 2014 - January

What a great way to get organised and finish off those quilting projects languishing in sewing room
drawers/cupboards, when I read about A Lovely Year of Finishes I knew I had to join in!  I shall be linking this post to Fiber of All Sorts so please go along and see what goals we have all set ourselves for this month. There is also a button on my side bar.
Below are two projects designated for finishing this month, the first is a monster quilt for my daughter 84" x 104" and this just needs to have the binding on - all 400" of it!

The second is my Fractured quilt from the Quilt Along sponsored by Vicki last year, this now needs to be quilted and bound.

I'm also working on my quilt for the quilt along "Midnight at The Oasis" and will be posting again tomorrow on this and linking up with everyone else and although I need to have the top complete by the end of January the quilting will come later so I haven't included this in my finishes for January.

Short post - but I need to get busy.
Maureen

A sad New Years Eve for our family

I'm afraid this post tonight really has nothing to do with my quilting, sadly my mother in law passed away yesterday morning in England. We were told it would be a few days and so yesterday morning I was busy organising the first flight out for John to get back and see her as soon as possible, we had just completed booking the flight and all the other matters involved when we had the call from his brother to say Mum had died just ten minutes earlier. John  flew out last night and should be arriving at Heathrow in an hour or so after a 24 hour journey, still having another three hours to reach Heywood where she lived.

This was a lady I first met fifty years ago - don't the years just fly by so quickly - she would have had her 93rd birthday on the 4th January.  I spent some hours yesterday evening with my memories and   the celebrations and fireworks going on until after midnight and began thinking about a quilt to make in her memory, when my Mum passed away twelve years ago I worked on a quilt which now lives over the back of my chair in our lounge area. 

I do hope you all enjoyed your celebrations and will take this opportunity to say  I wish you a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Maureen

Bring on 2014

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and that you're all getting ready for the New Year.

We had a great family gathering on Christmas Day and presently I am busy sorting fabrics, tidying papers and writing down in my diary and on the whiteboard just what my deadlines are on the quilting front, in additon to joining Fabriholics Anonymous I have committed to the Tea Towel Challenge 2014  then I became aware of the two below and these are also on my list,


Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014

and

Threads of Memory


so am I going to be busy, but that's how I like it !

It's been quiet on the quilting front for a week or so only cut 400" of binding for my monster quilt, bought a few pieces of Jane Sassaman fabrics

decided to start a quick throw size quilt same pattern as below but probably using a Jelly Roll in purples, pinks and creams

managed to fit in a quick wander around the garden following a torrential downpour during the night and my canna lilies are flowering well, following the rain we have had a scorcher of a day!

That's all for today, I may post Tuesday morning to catch a link with Judy at Patchwork Times
for Design Wall Monday - should have something on the wall by then but it may be a WIP which some of you will have seen before.  Oh just remembered I did start on a Prayer Flag - so I can post that!

Happy Quilting
Maureen

Back Home

Yes the quilt for my daughter has arrived back home!

Thanks to Linda at  RazzleDazzleQuilter for all the lovely quilting,

I now have to stitch on around 400" of binding - not looking forward to that one bit.

No quilting done at all this week unfortunately, Christmas preparations seemed to take most of my time,  but tomorrow the family are all getting together for a Christmas meal and I am looking forward to catching up with children and grandchildren.

I am conscious that on 1st January 2014 all of us who have pledged no fabric buying for six months will be working our way through our "to do lists" and our "want to do" lists using up the fabrics from our stash with NO more fabric buying for six months. I am seriously considering putting in an order today and even though the parcel would arrive after the 1st, technically it will still count as stash as it was ordered before the 1st!!

If you would like to know more about Fabriholics Anonymous click below



We have rain forecast here in New Zealand for Christmas Day, shame as we have had a run of super sunny weather but it sounds like we will all be indoors for the day!
Usually the Pohutakawa trees are blooming merrily at this time of year but they are a little late, known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree down here  they are a sight to behold when full of blooms. We managed to take a photo of one just flowering

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Peaceful New Year
Maureen

The REAL Studio Tour

Here we are on week three to reveal the room where we create, hosted very kindly by Vicki who has organised the links each week, go along and visit and see the stunning studios there!

My studio is very much a cobbled together place, it is the smaller of our four bedrooms only 9' x 9' so not much room at all in there, this year we hope to go through into the adjoining bedroom to give me twice as much space! For the moment what you see below is rather cramped.

Above as I come in the door on the left hand side I have a design wall which can cope with a quilt up to 72" and presently being used for MATO,  at the side of this is a small one with the start of the baby quilt

along from the wall  is my cutting table with a small ironing area, boxes with strips, my special embroidery threads and white board and bits and pieces. At the left hand side of the table out of picture is a deep two drawer plastic container with my GO dies on top and cutter at the side. Presently fabric yardage is stored on the shelf underneath the table, I will be getting hold of shelving for these when we extend the area.

Under the window is my small extending table with my machine, underneath  the serger and my embellisher

going around the room I have more storage drawers and my little rimu chest holding threads, you can also see the board holding pieces of fabric ready for my 9 patch on the MATO

my other sewing machine is alongside my thread chest and my magazine holders behind

at the side of the machine are two more storage drawer carts with another small chest of drawers on top holding scissors, cutters, pins and needles, and other bits and pieces

behind the two storage sets are my wire storage baskets for fabrics 

there is a small area between the drawers and the baskets of fabrics here I have four more wire baskets slotted under the table extension and I use these for holding fabrics for current projects  before putting away in their baskets when they are no longer needed.

Hopefully this will look quite different in a years time and I will post a photo or two of the re-vamped room.

That's it from me - time to decorate our Christmas tree, we're behind this year!

Don't forget to go along and see all the other studios at the link hosted by Vicki, a big thank you goes to Vicki for organising and hosting this tour!

Enjoy your weekend

Maureen