Saturday again!

What on earth happened to the past seven days?

Is it just me or do the days and weeks fly by,  I don't think I'm the only one.

I have a list of quotes by Dr Seuss, they're real gems, this one sums up the time issue:

"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon.

December is here before it's June.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?"

A message for us all!!

So, on the quilting side I have finished Section 8 of 

Gypsy Wife. I stuck it up on the wall yesterday alongside

the other seven sections, photo below.

No major seams sewn yet so it's a bit higgledy-piggledy!

Section 8 is on the left hand side.

I spent time with my GO cutter strip dies, pieces of very old Hoffman fabrics

and KF Collective

the left hand side are 1" strips. I have in mind a number of quilts using strips

of various widths, lots more to cut before I make a start.

Assigned two of my plastic storage drawers to

my KF Collective quarter yard pieces. I had culled these when I made a start

on Gypsy Wife, all the pieces less than 1/4 yard I set aside

for this project.

I began trying to stock up on 1/2 yards or larger a few years ago, I did a pretty good job,

there's no more space in my wire baskets!! No more fabric buying!!

The garden grabbed a little bit of my attention, but it's so very dry,

we really need rain and hopefully this weekend. My Canna lilies seem to

be perfectly happy even with the dry soil.

The "Peace" rose is blooming beautifully, goodness knows

we could use some of this in the world today!

And below she (I always think of roses as "she") had a visitor.

OK, I'm all done now and heading back to the cutting table.

Enjoy the weekend.

See you all soon.

Maureen

Plans for 2017

My plans for posting during the week with projects for this year

came unstuck when I had to go along to visit the doctor.

Armed with antibiotics (again!!) and an increase in two other

medications I am now getting back into the quilting zone.

However, I had so many things on my original project list made in December that

I was obviously dreaming when I made it! 

As mentioned in my last post I have one or two special projects on the

horizon, I'm looking forward to these very much. Over the next week

I shall work on refining my original plans, but, I had to begin

something new of course!

A new kaleidoscope and a new name -
Pizzazz.

Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke

has a few quilts I'd love to make one day and the "Stashbuster"

was just what I needed at the moment. The original uses strips of fabrics cut

between 1 and 1/2" and 3" and in most cases only shows

two strips in the wedge, I'm using the clean up cuts from my two bins

and have a variety of fabrics this block.

Just the one "prototype" made at the moment but I'll get on with

more next week.

Houses or stars are planned for this afternoon for RSC 2017.

Time for a cuppa but here's a flower photo to finish

one of my favourite hydrangeas.

RSC post tomorrow!

Happy New Year

Dawn on the 1st January 2017 in New Zealand

and I'm pondering on projects and finishes for 2017.

Exciting things going on in the blogging world, QALs and one in particular
looks very interesting indeed, this was

a BOM from Jen Kingwell, I think last year, and it's called

Long Time Gone. More on that when I have the information, but

if you Google you can pick up photos.

AHIQ with Kaja and Ann is taking a new direction, and
there is an exciting new project coming up in my quilting life, which
I'm looking forward to very much indeed.

I shall be back with a quilting focused post
tomorrow or Tuesday, but I'll sign off for you folks in the colder climates
with a summer beauty currently lighting up the garden

glorious orange nasturtiums.

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year
and lots of quilting time!

Maureen

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

Friday Favourites

A few photos to show you here, only one relating to quilts!

Our favourite restaurant down by the beach

The Windross

sit under the trees by the parking area at the side of The Windross

after your meal cross over to the beach

and you have a perfect evening!

Speaking of food I tried a new recipe this afternoon

from a book by one of our New Zealand cooks

Chelsea Winter, this one is

Homemade Happiness and here we have

Cheesy Courgette and Relish Muffins

absolutely delicious, and very moreish!!!

Who can't love Sweet Peas

grown in our garden,  cream with lavender edges and a perfume to

die for!! Two little pottery birds keeping guard on the sweet peas.

Not forgetting a quilty picture, I came across my stars

begun early this year as part of RSC 2016 and forgotten in a drawer.

I fell in love with them all over again and they'll be continued on

in RSC 2017.

5.45pm is a bit on the late side for photographing on my 

design wall, in my tiny studio,  the light is not great in here at this time.

All for now, hope you all have a great weekend and I'll

be back next week, probably have a break after that over Christmas and

back in the New Year. Lots of fabric sorting and working on my

blog to be done.

Maureen

A Magic Carpet Ride and Friday Favourites

It's worked out that this week I've rolled two

posts into one.

The Kaleidoscope quilt is now a flimsy waiting to be quilted, I'm thrilled

with how it looks. You might remember I wanted

to create the impression of an old Persian carpet and I think

I've achieved that. So, here is

Isfahan

photographed early this morning in the back garden. I had to

maneouvre the display board down there to catch the light.

Measuring 48" x 64", the colours are a little lighter in this photo

due to the sun.
No border going on this quilt.

Isfahan draped over my much loved old bench seat

My Friday Favourite is an old Royal Doulton jug
from a pottery range made under the header
Under The Greenwood Tree

This jug belonged to a dear old Aunt of mine, her collection of pottery
came to me after she died. She was the Aunt who was born in 1903
and went into "service" at the age of 13yrs - shades of the downstairs
maids in Downton Abbey. I wish now we had been able to enjoy
more conversations about her early days. 

I'm way behind on replying to comments left on my
blog last Friday, apologies to those bloggers, it's been a funny old week made complete by two broken
teeth and two visits to the dentist.

One bright spot was a package of fabric received

I love artichokes but only to look at, not to eat!

and

I couldn't resist the colours in the fabrics below.

I think that's all from me this week but I'm off  to link with

Ann  and Cathy
at
Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Maureen