Fractured Quilt Along Week 4

Another week working on blocks for Fractured!
I have been a little more productive this week, the layout so far may change as I go along. I am making each block and placing as I go along to try and keep the colour flow with the dyed fabrics. In between making up a few C blocks using my favourite colours ready to place.
I found that there seemed to be a discrepancy between the detailed diagram of the four blocks on one page re the angle of two seam directions in the small four and a half inch parts  and the block lay out on the next page. What did I do but in the middle of making the first four I looked at the detailed ones, then next day started working off the layout for all the blocks, that's when I noticed this issue. However I 'm not intending to change a thing, don't have the time. No pulling the small blocks apart, as long as the pattern follows a zig-zag then I'm happy.

Here are three C blocks waiting for a home further down the track

The shot below is part of the top left hand quadrant

Now this doesn't look as bright as it should - I need to re-arrange my sewing room to get better light on my wall, I hope to work on that tomorrow. I can also see one block which needs to be moved and a brighter one put in place instead.

Everyone will be linking up with Vicki so please go and visit her blog to see what we've all been doing

We have had a few storms over the past week, very strong winds with huge gusts so I headed off to the veggie patch at the bottom of the garden this morning to see if there was any damage but luckily no harm done. The only damage is done on a regular basis with the darn snails and slugs. We have tried a number of ways to get rid of the darned things and don't want to put strong poison pellets down because of Daisy and Seamus so I am resorting to hunting them out by hand and popping them in a bucket of water for a while until they are no more and putting them in the compost heap!

Lunchtime - enjoy your weekend and happy quilting!
Maureen

Tuesday Tales

I have been so caught up in the Fractured Quilt Along that other blog matters seemed to have fallen by the wayside. I had thought with my husband away in the UK for three and a half weeks I could spend my time doing nothing but my quilting - hasn't quite worked out that way! Looking after two ailing aged animals and an ageing self plus trying to keep the weeds at bay in the veggie patch and garden beds and all the usual cleaning chores seems to have made a huge dent in my plans. Also tonight we are in the middle of a storm, huge winds and rain and just as I was settling down for the evening with a movie which I have watched so many times (The Notebook) the power and telephone system went down!

Seamus (old doggie) was not best pleased with all this and I had to hunt out the candles, the huge lantern and go around making sure the power switches were all off and sat there listening to a howling gale!

But  hooray - the power is back on again, fingers crossed it stays on.

On the quilting front I have completed a few more blocks for Fractured, received  an order of fabric from Glorious Color, always lovely to fondle the fabrics, and found a photo of a quilt I made for our eldest granddaughter when she about 5 years old, from memory my husband took a quick shot of this so it's just a casual shot. Looking at it now I think I would like to make a couple more using this simple pattern.

Also on the quilting subject have any of you seen the fabrics from Kaffe Fassett Collective for Fall 13?

I happened to be looking at  The Fat Quarter site and they were showing them as coming in October - they are yummy!! Some new patterns and they have the Philip Jacobs Brassica - my favourite pattern - in two glorious colour ways, if you are a fan try and find time to have a quick look. I'm going to contact Glorious Color to see when they will be getting them in store. I really do need a larger studio! Husband actually suggesting taking down the wall between the room I am using (a small bedroom) and the room next door that would be great but if we do that he will lose out on room for his art and that takes quite a bit of room for his easel, paints and so on and I don't want that to happen, perhaps we could reach a suitable compromise.

After my quick ramblings above I will now brave the weather as my doggie needs a toilet stop outside - this should be fun!

Watch out for my Fractured post and the link with Vicki on Friday, although I can't link until Saturday am because of the time difference.

Maureen

Fractured Week 3 and Americas Cup Racing

Here we are again - week 3 of Fractured Quilt Along sponsored by Vicki hop along and see her blog, I shall be linking up there in a moment.  I am rushing to get a post in before the next scheduled race for NZ agains US in the Americas Cup - can't miss it!!

OK quilting - four blocks completed this week, next week I can crash on with the C and D blocks, that's the plan anyway, here are four more for the centre column

You should see my little sewing studio - total mess!

I am posting a cropped shot of a batik quilt made some time ago, the photo was not well set up hence the cropped look, I love the colour in this one.

I get great inspirational ideas for colour  in  quilts from my garden - and other gardens seen on my walks around the neighbourhood, one of my all time favourite shrubs is the hydrangea and I have a number in our garden, the one below is a delight to me, very soft colours in this one

So sorry about this rushed posting, just have three minutes left before race start so I'm off and will do my link after the race is finished!

See ya

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 2 and Flowers

 

Well here we are in week 2 and everyone has been soooo busy - except for me!! What lovely work everyone is posting

Head along to Vicki's blog where we are all linking up.

I haven't had a productive week at all with only two more A blocks to show in this post, but I am hobbling around with a stick and helping my husband get ready for his trip to the UK, he will be away just over three weeks and I've also had sewing machine issues, so a little excuse there. I'm hoping to have more time over the coming weeks for speeding up with the blocks and also working on the quilt for my daughter, given that in addition to the usual chores I will be caring for our elderly dog with very bad back legs plus Daisy cat who has kidney failure it will be a case of fingers crossed! Nothing is ever straightforward is it? It's also taking me a lot longer to get things done around the house with this leg problem.

So, below are two shots of my efforts this week. Don't know quite which spot in the quilt these will go, there are only a handful of A blocks to place so need to have more finished blocks on the wall before making a decision. I have also abandoned my original design plan which was working out to be extremely time consuming taking a great deal of planning, given all the issues for me over the next three weeks I decided to simplify my plan. Don't need to make this stressful, it is after all meant to be an enjoyable process, not a chore and I am enjoying it very much.

One thing I did achieve last week was to plant some veggies and in the process I saw my clivias were blooming pretty well this year so had to get a photo of those.

Don't forget - pay a visit to Vicki's blog where we are all linking up

Happy quilting

Maureen

Fractured Quilt Along Week 1

This is the day of our first posting and link with Vicki who is hosting this Quilt Along

No doubt everyone else has already posted but because we are 18 hours ahead of the States  here it is Saturday 7th at 7.00am in the morning.

Well, it took me some time yesterday putting two blocks together! I had fabrics ready, made a quick test block two days ago, had to decide on my darks, already collected lights which I showed in my last post 

but I'm showing again, plus some of the dyed fabrics for my darks

Here is my progress so far - miniscule  compared with the number of blocks Vicki has on her design wall, but I am loving this, very happy with things so far and can't wait to make more blocks! 

Ok - time to link up - more progress next Friday gotta go and get breakfast! then more sewing!

Maureen

Spring and Fractured QAL

Tomorrow is officially the first day of Spring here in New Zealand, according to the weather forecast today and tomorrow would be lovely fresh springlike days, for once they look as if they may be spot on! Today there is a blue sky and sunshine, birds were singing like crazy just on dawn and were trying to have me feed them about a half hour earlier than my usual time so their body clocks must be changing gear and thinking about getting into baby raising mode soon.

We did have one spring-like day during the week and I took a photo of the little cottage named Green Gables down in Howick, this is the base for the Howick Art Group and my husband and I are members, John is the painter. They are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday only and have two rooms with work displayed by members and each month there is an extra room given over to a solo exhibition. Three years ago I had a quilt exhibition there (bear in mind these rooms are only small)  which I really enjoyed, there is no room to hang a full size quilt but I had a number of very small pieces in addition to a couple of throws and table runners and I am booked to hold another one in February - slight panicky feeling - as I am not really organised so I'm really going to have get my skates on. I spent some time last night getting ideas together and working out how many pieces would look good in the small space. I could take my quilt ladder down which will help with the space problem. Hopefully I will also have a few felted pieces and probably two or three of my Silk series using the sari silk.

You can see it's a cute little place especially at this time of year with the daffodils in full bloom. It is more or less surrounded by immense oak trees which are just glorious whether in full leaf or showing their bare branches and in Autumn the pathway and outdoor exhibition area are covered in acorns, reminds me of primary school days tramping home from school scrunching through the dried Autumn leaves.

One piece from my exhibition last time was this schoolhouse wall hanging, this is a photo taken in the wrong position on a windy day! I had  a number of fat quarters of fabric from Fig Tree sitting on the shelf waiting to be used and they seemed just right for this one.

On my list of things to do, or rather for J to do is set up a good area outside for shots of quilts so if the good weather holds I might get lucky.

The quilt for our daughter is still a work in progress, a work yet to be started is the quilt for our youngest grandson and my progress with cutting for fabrics for the Fractured QAL is coming along.

Just finished cutting the strips yesterday - the greens and yellows on the left and the other strips, which I know I posted last time, below. Just starting to sort the darks out today and I'm finding that's the tricky bit deciding which fabrics I want to put in there! You can see I have used a lot of Kaffe Fassett/Philip Jacobs fabrics in there along with a few batiks so the question is whether I have sufficient darks in the range from the above mentioned designers. also pulled a large assortment of dyed fabrics which could be a possibility and there are some very dark batiks on my table so today will be spent as a play day. Another alternative is to not go too dark but medium dark - we'll see.

One week to go now to start date for  FQAL

Enjoy your weekend

Maureen