First week of lock-down and a dray of squirrels

Not content with the first squirrel 

Hannah's Garden

another one has appeared on the scene and I suspect

I shall soon be dealing with a dray of squirrels!

The latest addition is this

a pattern by Frankie and Ray.

It's been long on my list of 'want to make' quilts.

I had a pretty big box of scraps needing to be sorted into colour

families, I began by sorting them into warm and cool

then decided to go with a lucky dip approach to choosing the fabrics.

for the churn dash blocks 

by closing my eyes and dipping once into each pile

and working with the two fabrics which came out, no fiddling trying to 

find a better match etc.

So just five right now

I did just manage to fussy cut this centre piece

I think I got lucky because I'm really pleased with these.

I have four more patterns lined up to use more from my

many boxes of scraps during the weeks of lock down.

Working on one quilt each day is my plan.

I now have, or will have, a dray of squirrels. Some folks say a scurry

of squirrels but a scurry refers to a gathering and as they're fiercely territorial

this is a very rare happening, a dray consists of a

mother squirrel and her young. I'm going with a dray!

Sadly we all know about lock down, social distancing, staying home

going out only to the supermarket for groceries, pharmacy or medical appointments.

We can go for a walk around the block, ride the bike but really nothing

else, no visiting family or friends. I think we're all feeling

the strain and worry of these times.

However we did have a visitor join us at breakfast yesterday

munching on the long seed pods.

Today I found another little visitor

who then headed from the rose into the porch and eventually

into the house!

Got to head back to the dining table now - apple pie with cream - my favourite,

leaving you with the sunset from two days ago.

Keep safe, keep well and keep quilting!

See you all soon.

Maureen

Count down to lockdown @11.59pm 25th March 2020

Here in New Zealand we go into lockdown at 11.59pm

on Wednesday 25th March 2020.

The decision was taken by the Government yesterday and

the announcement and details were given by the

Prime Minister.

This was the sunrise yesterday just a few hours before the announcement.

Rather spooky!!!

As of tomorrow at 11.59pm life will change for us.

Schools and universities shut down, shops, restaurants also closed.

Building sites closed down, the list is a long one!

The essentials to remain open will be pharmacies, medical surgeries and

supermarkets everything else will be closed.

We are all to remain home, we can not mix with others, not even family, we can only have

close contact with people living in the house.

All 70 year olds and those with underlying health problems (me) are classed as

high risk so thank goodness for the telephone, skype and facetime and computers.

We have to arrange for groceries to be collected

 - thank goodness we have our three adult 'children' who have all

offered any help we need. 

It has been difficult to concentrate over the past three days

but I have a finished table runner top, or it could be used as

a very long wall-hanging, I just have to trim the

sides and then can sandwich it for quilting.

I used the Ombre digitally printed range from Jennifer Sampou and the pattern.

This is my first experience with this sort of fabric

and I much prefer my usual regular quilting fabrics.

However, I do love the colours!

Measurements - 72" x 16 and 1/2"

Well, almost time for the latest bulletin so off to the living room

and the tv.

All of you stay safe and well and we can keep in touch as usual

with our blogs and our quilting adventures!

Maureen

A squirrel along with Autumn blooms

The thought of waiting one week before getting to the machine

again was making me pretty frustrated - so another squirrel appeared

which involved very little effort and very little thought.

Definitely simple but having bought some of the

Ombre fabrics by Jennifer Sampou I decided to also

buy the book. Immediately a table runner had my attention,

I fell for the colours used and decided this was an ideal

project for me at this moment in time.

I had a reel of Aurifil thread which matched pretty well too

 so I'm on my way and hopefully this will be
a finished runner top next week.

Autumn weather has been kind to us, the evenings are cooler and

sleep is much easier.

The garden is showing signs of the lack of water sadly and some blooms are fading fast

whilst others are just opening.

My favourite hydrangea in her Autumn colours

Little miniature cyclamen under the hydrangeas

Hips of Rosa Multiflora

and just opening outside my studio window

The first camellia to bloom

Back to waiting to catch the latest news update on television, our border

is now closed, strict measures are in place re numbers of people

gathering together and I suspect stricter ones again within a day or so.

Isolation measures have been in place for a while. Instructions

to practice social distancing - no nearer than 2 metres to another person,

and many others.

I'm staying home, only going out for necessary medical appointments

and just had the influenza vaccine this afternoon, husband also.

These were due to begin April 1st but over 65yrs and people with 

chronic underlying health issues were able to have them

as from yesterday. The intention is to try and reduce the effect

on the medical systems of having to deal with any Covid 19 patients and influenza

patients at the same time.

We are now living in a different world - let's all try and keep safe and well

and hope that eventually this virus will be beaten.

Take Care

Maureen

Quilts, Crutches and Covid 19

This is the March photo on my calendar - as soon as I turned

the page over I thought immediately of

Wanda at

Exuberant Color

who is a fan of zebras!

Having been fighting a nasty infection for the past two weeks and doing a real good
job of damaging my knee (hence the crutches) my sewing has been nil.
Hopefully another week of physio and being careful will
mean I can get back to the machine.

Because of the above I'm very late in showing the finished Diamond quilt for my friend
 dealing with tremendous health issues.
This was couriered down to her and I was thrilled to have
a 'phone call as soon as she received it telling me how much she
loved it, she spotted the pear fabric immediately (see previous post).
 Green Guinea Flower
was the fabric I chose to bind with for continuity of the
filler shapes around the diamonds.

 Quilted  by Leeanne at
Quilt Me Kiwi
the pattern is Full Feathers
Quilt measures 49" x 73"

It was a great day for photographing, not too bright so what you see here
is spot on for colour.
Here's a close up of the quilting, shows beautifully
on the pear diamond, I loved the colour of the
 cotton Leeanne used.

The significance of this particular fabric was mentioned in my last post.

We are all aware of Covid 19 and the effect on world populations,
here in New Zealand our Prime Minister yesterday announced a raft of new
measures to be taken to hopefully limit the number of cases
which could develop in New Zealand.
She's doing a tremendous job. Not everyone will be happy with
the decisions but we need to do all we can to limit the spread.

On that note I'll end this brief post and go read all your latest blog
posts, sitting at the computer has been impossible at times so
I'm awfully late with my reading.

Sleep being difficult presently, I've been up bright and early
and the bonus has been seeing the glorious sunrise in the
mornings, I loved the pop of light blue  in the one below.

Until next time-
keep safe!!

Maureen

Something different

The heat here in Auckland is wreaking havoc in the garden

I think these will be the last few blooms on my sweet peas!

Wish you could smell the scent - sensational!

Two posts ago I had a squirrel arrive in the studio - that particular one has decided to go 

back into hibernation, but a little friend stepped in

and it's quite a change for me!

This photo is from a Judy Newman book

Quilts for life made with Love

and she named it

Into the Woods.

Very old fashioned and definitely subdued but a few days ago

I was looking through a photo album which contains

the one and only photograph of my paternal Grandma,

she died when my Dad was 15yrs so of course I sadly

never knew her.

Had she been part of my life I like to think that at some point

I would have made a quilt for her.

I'm making it now.

This is going to be a simple Hourglass block, no Dresden Plates

and in honour of my Grandma will be known as

'Hannah's Garden"

Starting off with triangles, four of each fabric 

and ending up with three trays full including the one below

so far

just going on the wall to see if I like the feel of them - I do - so I'm going to

carry one and I'm feeling the need to see the end result quickly.

When I have the full amount stitched then I can play with placement.

However, the thought suddenly hit me that I needed a border fabric to

fit in with the fabrics, after a quick hunt in the stash I found one which I think

fits the bill.

The lighting for these two photos above is just shocking, apologies

but I will have two more up to date ones in my next post!!

Just to stress that the quilt above is a one out of the box for me, here are a few of my new

fabrics from Kaffe Collective 2020

back in a few days with my diamond quilt all quilted and bound,

see you all then.

Maureen

Ever feel as if your batteries need re-charging?????

I hadn't intended leaving it so long before posting again but the post title

says something about how I'm feeling presently.

I think the past few weeks with family and friend happenings

have had an effect on my mental and physical state and my quilting

has suffered.

Example:

My intention was to post the photo below for February from

my calendar on 1st February

obviously I'm a little late!

Taking me longer than I had intended is the completed top

for my very dear friend who's battling cancer.

The green Guinea Flower fabric forming the border edge

isn't showing true, it's somewhat brighter than in this photo.

I've stitched twice around the outside edges to prevent

the edge of the seams opening, so fingers crossed

all works out well when it's being quilted.

This is going up North to

quiltmekiwi

to work her magic!

When down in my stitching haven I decided to muster

my energy and re-cover my ironing board, after

collecting the batting etc. I came back into the room to see I had a helper

who wasn't inclined to move.

Now a question re scraps.

I am overloaded with them and really have to get busy and sort them,

I do have most sorted by colour but there are thee huge bins

sitting in the corner of the room staring at me each time

I walk through the door!

What size do you regard  as a scrap?

Tiny odd sized pieces or a decent

size piece of fabric enough to cut a few shapes from

to use in a scrap quilt? Do you regard a fat or normal quarter as

a scrap?

I would be interested to know how many of you organise your scraps.

 A few handfuls at one time is the first step for me, some to work on

below

and it's only a small amount but will be ok for starters.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and in the meantime I'm

going to be planning projects and trying to

get myself back to normal!

Have a good weekend.

Maureen