It's been a long time !!!

Almost four weeks since I last wrote a post, lots going on around here mostly

due to 

medical issues to cope with for me, hopefully matters have eased somewhat and normal 

service should be resumed!

Last time I posted I had made a start on Chain Link Horizon, a little progress 

happened this week.

Not what I could call an elegant photograph,

I've sewn four rows together at one time and pinned them up on the wall,

trimming needs to be dealt with and threads cleaned up. Five more rows

yet to sew.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that the blue 'star' on the RH side

has two different fabrics in the top three half hexagons. I had a small piece

of a lovely Philip Jacobs fabric left in my blue bin and was sure there

was just enough for the three needed and began cutting - wrong, not

enough so I substituted with one piece of 

PJ Blue Feathers. 

Three of my favourite combinations are below.

So what have I been doing whilst taking an enforced break?

Catching up on reading, planning a re-organisation of my

quilting studio, thinking about what needs to be taken care of

in the garden, but not able to do it, deciding which older pieces of

furniture will get the Chalk Paint treatment.

Watching Autumn creep into the garden has been a pleasure, just

walking around looking at which plants have finished and

which are now flowering - not many I'm afraid.

On a walk around the block this beautiful Liquidambar

caught my eye

along with a favourite sight of mine at this time of year

a Sasanqua camellia, I always love to see

the carpet of fallen petals, and of course now flowering

are the hibiscus

we have quite a few in our garden.

 I'm devoting tomorrow morning to catching up with reading your blog posts,

unfortunately this daily pleasure fell by the wayside.

I'm looking forward to my normal routine again now.

See you soon!!

Maureen

A happy find on Sunday and other matters

I'll come to the happy find shortly but first

I've been slowly cutting and sewing my Chain Link Fence

quilt - I have to say I'm finding this addictive!!

I'm time poor at the moment otherwise this quilt top

would be all sewn up.

Only a few rows complete at the moment and other bits

pinned on the design wall, I was going to write 'pinned haphazardly'

but I see that this actually means

'in a manner lacking any obvious principle of organisation'

and I do like to think there is a small amount of organisation here!

I've deviated slightly from the pattern in that I am creating stars here and there, this will be

more obvious as more rows are stitched.

On my agenda for tomorrow is the putting away of all the fabric below

consisting of pieces at the bottom of the tub and basket

from recent projects plus new fabrics on top - guess whose fabrics?

You may have seen in my profile at the top of my blog

that I come from Lancashire UK. I spotted on

Instagram a quilt pattern with the name

'Lancashire Spin',

this I have to make, hopefully this year.

My happy find is below.

 A fused piece made all of 15 years ago, I had hunted on and

off over the years to find where on earth I stashed it away.

Yesterday I found it, next step is a little quilting.

I needed my very best pair of embroidery scissors to cut around all

these little bits of coral and so on. Pretty hard on the fingers I can tell you.

Size of 17" square.

I think this was a McKenna Ryan pattern.

Finished with fabric now and should like to show you this photograph taken 

on Friday, there is a brief story that goes along with this bird, if you care to read.

A stunning looking magpie - I have a love/hate relationship with these.

Many years ago I was attacked by a magpie whilst walking through

a Christchurch park, noted for an abundance of magpies at certain times of the year in the

magnificent trees. Not a problem.

I was aware briefly of something brushing past my head, didn't really attach

any importance to it, perhaps a sparrow disturbed by my walking under

the trees. A moment later I felt as if I had been hit with a hammer on the

back of my head and was knocked to the ground. A magpie

had taken exception to my presence and decided to leave

me a reminder with a hole in the back of my head. 

Boy, did I put on some speed (yes, I could do that years ago) to reach home followed by a

visit to the doctor for cleansing the hole and the necessary tetanus jabs.

I can tell you they do leave a pretty big hole and an extremely sore head!!

On that note I shall take an early lunch, have a nap and then

back to the machine for more sewing.

Have a happy week ahead.

 Maureen

Another squirrel and Colorwash 360 Online Course

No sooner does one squirrel escape my little

studio than another appears!

I've begun a quilt using pretty large half hexagons, pattern by

Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession, featured in a copy of

Quiltmania Simply Moderne.

Some of the fabrics are coming from large scrap pieces, others

from fabrics awaiting storing in their respective places.

Just playing with the pieces here on the design wall.

I took the plunge and bought the Hex N More ruler

by Jaybird Quilts, I didn't want to spend the time

copying the pattern pieces from the magazine and cutting from those, the

ruler is fantastic! 

The pattern is called Chain Link Horizons.

I've enrolled for the

Colorwash 360 Online Course

with

Wanda at Exuberant Color

lots of you will be familiar with her stunning

colorwash quilts,  couldn't pass up on this chance.

The nearest I have come to trying to create a blended feel in

a quilt is the one below,

Red Sea Sunset, an HST quilt along a few years ago.

Inspired by sailing through the Red Sea in 1962

on our way to New Zealand from England.

Using mostly batiks and the reverse side of many fabrics

to achieve the b lend from one colour to another.

My Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabrics will come into play

with Colorwash 360. first module is on Monday.

Somehow I need to fit in actual quilting and headed for a Tula Pink

quilt top, made last year and basted and backed all ready to go.

Opened the drawer of neatly folded quilt tops and had to take a 'phone call,

when I arrived back someone had found a cosy spot to relax.

I'd like to finish off with a photo yesterday of one of my 

favourite early morning sights at this time of year, the moon with Venus

sitting high above.

Whenever I look at the dawn sky and see the moon, in whatever quarter,

I think of my favourite few lines by Isak Dinesen /Karen Blixen in

'Out of Africa'

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?”

Maureen

A quilt in remembrance

I can't believe it's two weeks since my last post, it's been a very sad time 

for New Zealand.

Perhaps you will have seen on your news, wherever you live, the

horror of the massacre of people in their places of worship.

There is a lot I should like to say but this is not the platform to do so.

I will concentrate on quilt related matters.

Here is my latest quilt, just a top at the moment,

Stone Flower Patches

and you may remember  that this was a pattern from Free Spirit website

using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. There is no input in this from myself

apart from the cutting and stitching using the exact same fabrics given

in the pattern.

It was my intention to have this in a small

joint exhibition between myself and my husband, plans changed over the last two

weeks.

I found great solace in slowly working on this piece since the

massacre in Christchurch, 15 minutes each time at the machine

was the only way I could finish 

due to a torn meniscus in my right knee.

Stone Flower Patches is staying with me now.

An exhibition of quilts can take place in the future.

Do you know, I haven't even been reading blog posts,

can't quite believe that myself, I shall be

catching up on reading tomorrow.

More from me in a few days, until then happy stitching

and enjoy the sunrise below taken one morning a week ago,

a 'heart lifter'.

Kia kaha Christchurch

Maureen

Squirrel Alert

I have another squirrel arrive in my studio!

Still slowly working on Red is a Neutral and UandUQAL

but an unexpected quilt is in progress.

I'd forgotten  a commitment made some time ago to put a couple of quilts,

and possibly cushions, in a small joint exhibition with my husband,

he's a painter, beginning 1st May.

So, new Kaffe Collective fabric arrived, free pattern

from Free Spirit on their web site, this would be a good size to hang at

45" x 63"

as the display wall is not huge.

Luckily I had some of the required fabrics in my stash

and the remainder came from my order.

I fell for the Stoneflower pattern and had ordered

yardage in all the colourways.

This is Lavender Stoneflower and below is the true colour, the photo

above shows possibly a little bluer. Twelve 9 and 1/2" pieces all fussy cut.

Small squares cut in both light and dark - black cat once more

deciding to try and snuggle up to the fabrics.

I couldn't resist sewing two blocks up rather than waiting until

all the hsts and squares were together.

I'm mighty happy with the look of this and hoping it doesn't sell

in the exhibition! You notice in this picture the Lavender once again 

shows slightly darker.

Whilst I was cutting fabric my package of the new

Anna Maria Horner range arrived and I love it!

I have plans for this later in the year.

Quite different from my favourite KF but it's always good to step outside

our comfort zone now and again.

Now I don't use much brown in my quilts but in a blog post

from 

Linda at kokaquilts

she asked was there a colour that we don't buy and/or

don't use, I replied mine was brown, but see what I bought, the AMH fabric below!

Had it been an out and out brown it would have been a no-no for me.

There we have the sum of my quilting activity since my last post,

pain is doing me no favours presently so I'm taking things slowly. 

A wander around the garden showed the effects of

Autumn being upon us but the storm lillies are flowering,

tiny wee flowers only about four inches high but always good to

see them at this time of the year.

Happy Quilting until next time.

Maureen

March aka here comes Autumn

Yes, officially the 1st of March is the start of our Autumn

down here in New Zealand, the leaves of the

Japanese Maple are already showing their colour a little

and the hydrangeas, once richly pink and blue, have

now begun their journey down the road into the antique colours

and still as beautiful as ever!

All things quilting - not a lot actually, I've been down

with an infection which stopped progress.

The sum of my achievements covers five more blocks for

the 

Red is a Neutral

 invitational with

AdHoc Improvisational Quilters

I intend to sash these blocks to negate stress on the eyes!!

A fabric has been chosen but I need more than the small amount 

on hand, another order should be here within the week.

I do quite like them just as they are but when I have 20 blocks

measuring 14" the effect could be pretty overpowering.

Found my unfinished piece

with the name

Playtime

As I only have four more small kaleidoscope blocks

to add, along with four corners, it would probably

only take a morning to finish, better get on to it!

By the way, all the photos will enlarge if you give

them a click.

Oh, of course the Kaffe Fassett Collective have a new fabric collection

out now, needless to say I spent some time ordering!

One package arrived yesterday - yummy colours -

and the opening of the package was supervised by

my little helper who 

 doesn't have the tip of her left ear missing, she just

moved her head as I was taking the photo. After

sitting quietly watching proceedings she took matters into

her own paws to check out the fabric

and  was swiftly ejected from the cutting table.

She is an ardent KF fan.

Another non-quilting job was a trip down memory lane.

John's Mum had given me a box of buttons as we left England

in 1980, these were gathered by her grandmother, her mother and

mother-in-law over the years. They came from items of clothing dating

back to the late 1800's  and she could tell me, for example, that the horn buttons 

came from a coat made for my husband as a child,

buttons from dresses worn by her grandmother - you

get the picture.

My children used to have great fun visiting their Gran

who would let them rummage through the box.

I thought this one here was very special and very old,

measures almost 1/2" with

lovely intricate detail.

Perhaps the Downton Abbey era.

Well, after sending you all to sleep with multiple

photos and not much progress I shall head off to

the cutting table.

See you soon, have a happy weekend.

Maureen