sew stitch snap SHARE #15

I'm snatching just a few minutes to write this post and then link

up with Linda and Julie. Link will be at the bottom of this post.

Unfortunately since my last post  two weeks ago

ill health has persisted, after more tests I'm hopeful that

I truly am improving!! 

Progress had been made in two quilting areas, at least I think so.

Desert Rose was first up on my list for finishing with two more borders to add.
After looking at this on my design wall for two days
I made the decision to forget more borders

and basted it!
Board basting and using herringbone stitch - all ready to quilt.

A change of plan with my first Memory quilt, this was the planned
layout with large squares on point top row (just off the top I'm afraid)

with my change from the pattern to stars, then my small golden churn dash.
After this was on the wall for a few days I decided it wasn't doing anything for me,
somewhere along the way I had lost my way!!

So, back to following the original block patterns by Judy Newman.
much happier now.

Below are three blocks using fabrics I love.

Embroidered Leaf

Dream

Feathers

All teamed with KF Dream Dark.

In the midst of my problems poor Leila was attacked by
a neighbouring cat, two days at the emergency vet office
over the weekend, and today with our usual vet in surgery.
I'm feeling pretty down and sad right now, she's staying in there overnight and hopefully
home tomorrow.

I suspect barely any quilting will be done in the next few days,
I'll be wearing my nurse uniform!

Keep well and happy, enjoy your quilting and see you soon.

Hope you'll go along to visit
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou

Now I'm off to read almost one weeks worth of blog posts from you all.

Maureen

Little Bits, Stash Enhancement and Desert Rose

A little while ago I posted about a quilt pattern which I thought

I would like to make - 'Long Time Gone' - I shelved that idea

but it would have made a great title today as I have

been a Long Time Gone with my blog posts!!

Ill health is the reason but I think I'm now recovering

pretty well and moving forward.

Little Bits Quilt

I now have all the strips and triangles cut so shouldn't be long

before this is together, just the first two rows here.

Stash Enhancement

Julie over at  justjulielou blog
posted a photo showing  a piece of Jennifer Paganelli
fabric, I've been trying to track down a shop here in Auckland
which stocked her fabrics, Julie kindly
passed on to me details of one which had a sale on, the above
was the result.
Two Jennifer Paganelli fabrics are in the pieces above and that was really
all I intended buying but they had a few end of bolts on sale,
the purple and lime green came home with me!
Five and a half metres in this piece, I can see a border for a future
quilt.

Desert Rose

was the first QAL I ever took part in - it's still not
finished and that was four years ago!
I've designated Friday as my day to work on
any WIP quilts and this one is first in line.
Only the centre block is true to the original pattern,
I baulked at the applique in one border and from then on
I went my own way! Two more rounds will be added.

Linking up with
Linda at kokaquilts
and
Julie at justjulielou
 for
sew,stitch,snap,SHARE

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Tea and Sympathy

Definitely tea and sympathy has been the order

of the day at our place over the past two weeks.

I've only just felt like sitting at the machine today and

sewing strips - nice and simple and not too much thinking!

Mardi Gras update, eight blocks so far with another

twenty eight to go!

I could go with nine full blocks set three by three, example of one

setting style above and

when all 36 are ready for playtime there'll be

some time spent arranging and re-arranging.

I could also go this way

I'm sure I'll find a few different settings when the time comes.

We can't quite believe that within the course of two weeks or so

we had news that two dear friends and a cousin of

my husband had died. 

The first we heard a friend in Germany had passed

peacefully in her sleep - younger than I am!

Then we had a call from Australia telling us that John's cousin

had died, again a good 10 yrs younger than me,

then an email from England with news of another long time

friend, known by me since I was

around 6 years old and as I'm now 70 that's a lot of years!

I'm now in a better frame of mind and quilting will

help, also I've been out for a few lemons off the tree,

lemon curd making tomorrow!

Hope that in the midst of all the turmoil in the

world at the moment you're still able to

enjoy quilting.

Maureen

Forgotten Houses

Rummaging through an un-finished project drawer

I came across 13 house blocks, these were

part of the RSC 2016 challenge

I have 13 blocks and the original plan was to

make considerably more than that over the year

but I found it difficult keeping to one colour

theme each month, project stalled!
A mix of Kaffe Fassett, Philip Jacobs, Jinny Beyer
fabrics with a few very old florals thrown in.

So, back to the machine yesterday with 12 of them

and here they are.
I decided not to add sashing,

 when they were up on the wall

I had a flash back to my childhood in Lancashire UK.

 We lived in terraced houses, 'though I was lucky

enough to be a few strides away from fields and a farm.

 These are not truly representative of rows of terraced rows

 but to me they say home, friends and family and surroundings

of childhood.

My next decision is whether to border or just bind - my gut

feeling is to leave this just as is and bind, it will hang on one of walls

in my sewing room to take me back to the wonderful times of

childhood.

What do you think?

Just having gone along to the mail box I feel that yes, Spring

is truly here, even though we're having a lot of rain. My tulips

from last year are all up and just about to open

only nine up this year.

On my mind at the moment are all who are

suffering from the devastation

in various parts of the USA.

Visiting
Julie
and
Linda
for sew stitch snap SHARE #12,
lots more goodies to see!

Also linking up with 

Scraptastic Tuesday - September

Back on track with my quilting - baby steps!

Had itchy fingers after taking things slowly

for a few days so off on to another project!! Do I really need another project

I asked myself - I thought perhaps I did!

Before doing that I decided to steadily tidy through

my wire baskets which hold most of my fabric stash.

First up was green

then yellow and orange

pinks and red 

blue and purple

I had an excess of blues and some have spilled over into another

basket. I have no idea why I collected so many blues -I don't use it 

a heck of a lot. The remaining 18 baskets will be

attacked a few here and there.

I'm sure you all know about my passion for the

Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics,  sorting these into

colour groups can sometimes be a bit dodgy. It's easy to get an

overall impression of the focus colour but with so many other

colours in the mix it can sometimes be a hit and miss affair.

However, the abundance of colour is the reason I love them!

As a break from this I decided to delve into the containers of strips,

long and short, thick and thin, some not uniform in width. Strips

were picked randomly but looking at these quarter blocks

I can see I've begun with two lighter blocks and veered off to

my usual richer fabrics!

It doesn't matter because this is intended to be 72" x 72" and they'll all hopefully

play nicely !! These blocks are 12".

Don't know why the two bottom photos are not keeping in line.

Name for this quilt will be "Mardi Gras".

I'm thinking now of blogger friends who may be caught in 

Hurricane Irma, in fact anyone who is experiencing this horrific

catastrophe. We have been following on the TV news reports,

quite unbelievable.

Stay Safe.

Maureen

Thursday again

Well, I finished the 10 churn dash blocks today - not good!!

I have a photo and it's taken on a ridiculous angle, but that's all I

could manage today, reason why after the photo

with wavy blocks!

 I wouldn't want to size this to Xtra Large.
 I've had back/neck problems for ages

and at my review Monday of my CT scan and appt with the Spinal 

specialist they confirmed that basically my whole spine is in a

very bad way.

I won't bore you with the effect this is having on me, but it's enough to make

life very, very difficult in a number of ways and extremely painful.

Decreased sensation in my fingers is having an effect on

my patchwork piecing and that bugs me!!! Small pieces
are now a no go for me, as you can tell by looking
at the Churn Dash blocks above.

Whilst I'm mulling over some issues relating to the above I

had a wander around the garden,

the camellia below is superb, around 6" across

and look what's just opened in time

for the official start of Spring tomorrow here in

New Zealand - my special little violet "Freckles".

Time to head over to see what's happening

on

Sew Stitch Snap SHARE

with

Linda at Koka Quilts
and
Julie at JulieLou

see you there!

Maureen