Latest addition to the Parts Box

In my last post I had a photo of progress on my Scrap Vortex which was 

playing havoc with my eyes!! Update - below we have the Parts Box

and now we have the Parts Box with Scrap Vortex creeping in two days

after my last post. The eyes were not happy.

Yes folks I threw in the towel!

I had the idea that a strip could look good in a pieced backing but then

began playing at cutting it up into simple shapes, definitely easier on the eyes.

After the blinding shapes and colour I needed to

work on another Squirrel project which was a little more subdued.

I'm using up left over batik strips 2 and 1/2" wide and using the 2 by 4 setting.

There are still a few more to sew but I have the completed ones just pinned roughly

 on my small design wall,

it's easier to see the blend of colours and then I'll play around

with the mix later.

Soon it will be decision time - do I go with the vertical or horizontal setting.

Which is your preferred orientation?
I think I prefer the vertical.

Other happenings at my place - taking care of little Leila who

was bitten on a back leg by one of the cats next door. It's almost

two weeks now and pretty much healed up. We had

two visits to the vet clinic, it could have been worse.

I normally have two or three sessions taking her into the back garden

for a half an hour play around but one of the devils sneaked

down the side of the shade house and got her before I could make a move.

We've decided she is now being a full time indoor cat! I see lots and lots

of cats featuring in quilters posts both here and on Instagram, I'd be interested to know 

how many of you keep them totally indoors, I do know that Lynne

over at The Patchery Menagerie

has Millie, her Tuxedo cat, indoors permanently.

In between trying to sew and nursing duties I did fit in

a walk around the block and spotted a beautiful clump of these flowers,

love the colour.

Back to the sewing machine for me  

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Springtime, The Squirrel Club and a finish

Let's go with the finish first.

The binding of this quilt below was delayed, due in no small

part to the fact that I am currently on my fourth round of antibiotics

in five weeks!

However, I summoned the energy yesterday to have a finish, no photo of the bound quilt
until next time, I've left it too late in the day to photograph outside.

I went with the AMH border fabric for the binding

and decided to forego hand stitching down on the back

and used the machine saving me quite some time.

My Squirrel project - see sidebar - is a Scrap Vortex quilt.

I had decided to work with decent size pieces of fabric to save time, but

somehow I found they were going smaller!

Excuse the 'rough and ready' photo below, the gridded flannel

needs straightening.

Much as I enjoy this quilt

there is a limit on the time I can spend working on it before

I lose control of my eyes!!

Instead of going with set size blocks I'm working as if

piecing a jigsaw in that I sew chunks and then fit them in wherever I can and cut to size

 when necessary, having said that there are a couple of 12' blocks in there.

Spring seems to finally be here for us in New Zealand, we've had a few

sunny days and the garden is coming alive again.

I have a huge clump of Clivia which put on a wonderful show

each year, sadly the snails and slugs enjoy a nightly feast on them.

 Always a harbinger of Spring is our Japanese Maple, I love

the lime green of the new leaves.

Last, but not least, the hellebores.

I have the room for two more plants in this area so a visit to the garden centre

will be on the agenda this coming weekend.

Bluebells are peeping up and should be flowering soon.

We're watching the news here of the hurricane heading for

the East coast of America and what a monster!

Thinking of all who are in the path of Florence as I write this,

keep safe.

Maureen

A dry spell for quilting!

Just over three weeks since I last posted, that must be the longest spell

without a post since I began blogging!!

It's been a while for various reasons but I'll show you

the sum of my quilting over this lean period.

First up the quilt for my daughter was quilted by

Leeanne at quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com/
if you head over to her blog you'll see good photos of the quilt, better than
I have below!
It's been pouring with rain here, not ideal for outdoor photos.

The central blocks were from a QAL with Sujata Shah, she blogs
over at
The Root Connection
and the pattern is Rail Fence.

The border is an Anna Maria Horner fabric from  her
Sweet Dreams collection

The quilting, as mentioned earlier is by
Leeanne at Quilt Me Kiwi,
I went with the Plump Swirls pattern in order to
soften the angular lines in the blocks
You can see the pattern on the back of quilt below.

Remember my Tula Pink Plus One quilt ?



I'm going to quilt this in three sections, something that's been on my radar
for a while.
There was quite a good amount of fabric left from piecing the top and that's
been cut into strips for  the backing.
The first section for quilting covers the blue bees down to the
racoon fabric.

I had to do little piecing here and there and was out of the bottom aqua racoon on pink so
went with the reverse colourway - you will see I have
a two headed pink racoon!

And that is all I have done in my three weeks, I have  been fiddling
around in the studio trying to find a better working
set up - without much success!

On a sunny day we headed over to see our two youngest grandsons, they
 live just a couple of minutes walk from the beach - how about this view
as you're making sand castles or paddling in the sea.

Rangitoto in all her splendour sitting out in the Gulf.

Time to power up the machine and get creating,
back soon,
have a good quilting week.

Maureen

A sunny Sunday - a flimsy, flowers and a super sunrise

I began my day at 6.30am, I always try and catch
the sunrise

this one was a real beauty!

Since my last post I have a flimsy finish- Freshly Squeezed - but

I could only take a quick photo draped

across the old garden bench, I'll try and post another one later.

54" wide and 66" long, 6" finished blocks.

These pieces were left over from my Chinese Coin challenge, see below,

with AdHoc Improvisational Quilters.

A Taste Of The Orient

I still have heaps of strips left over, somewhere in the future

there will probably be another quilt in these colours.

I've been pondering on the present challenge with

AHIQ  -  Maps and Mappings  - 

you can read all about the challenge from Ann

HERE

or click on the sidebar button if you'd like to know more about the blog.

I had jotted down my ideas and a few days ago happened

to visit the local book store, I came home with this book.

I'll post a little more on this in a later post but for the moment I'll share

a few words from the author in her preface where she explains that this is not a 

textbook, nor the work of a scholar, but a book "that invites the reader

on a journey from map to map, to let their imagination run free ..."

The last six words decided me on which of my ideas was the

one calling to me 100%.

On to the flowers.
A wander in the garden as we head for September, the official
first month of Spring here in New Zealand, yielded a touch of white with this

Hellebore

and this arum lily just beginning to unfurl, I love the

movement here.

Don't you think the curves are just wonderful?

That's me for the day, almost lunchtime and then time to bury
my head in a book for a little while.

Back during the week - happy quilting until then.

Maureen

Oops!! Two weeks since my last post

It's hard to believe that August will be upon us on Wednesday,

what happened to July???

A package of new fabric miraculously arrived on my doorstep

these are marked for a new project later in the year.

I've been adding borders to a piece made for a

challenge with AHIQ - you can check out this dedicated blog

with the button on my sidebar. You can see I'm sticking with

the Ad Hoc theme by not having consistent borders.

She also has a name now - Playtime.

This is where I'm at presently, not much further to go and

I'm hoping this will be a finished top by the end of August.

I'll post here and also on AHIQ.

There is an interesting challenge for the contributors

to the AHIQ blog - Maps and Mapping, check this out if you can.

I love the Perle cottons used by many of us for our

quilting and spotted five variegated lovelies the other day

these came home with me and now live with my others in their 

new home

a decorated tin

purchased from our local Garden Centre along with a larger size

below.

I knew they wouldn't be on the shelf for long, my husband wondered

why I had intended buying bulbs and came home with these!

You know by now that I love blooms whether newly opened or

fading, here is the last of my roses one week after picking.

Don't you just love the colours?

See you soon, have a good quilting week.

Maureen

The Squirrel Club

If you look on my right hand sidebar you can see

a cute graphic headed The Squirrel Club and if

you click there you will be taken to a

post from
Julie
explaining how the Squirrel Club began and what
we're doing right now.

Cut to the chase, we're playing with our scraps and
sewing up a storm with a Scrap Vortex quilt inspired
by the design from
Amanda Jean
blogging at
https://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com

Progress to date:
sorting scraps and trimming into squares and rectangles

then stitching into pairs

and  making use of fussy cut pieces left over from my
Gypsy Wife quilt top.

I was too impatient to sew all the pairs I need before
creating a couple of blocks.
These are 12 and 1/2", they won't all be this size but
I've yet to finalise my setting plan.

I wrote in my last post about my 'serious quilting'
which was going to happen over the past week. Given
that we were told of the deaths of three people, two of whom
my husband had been friends with since school day, plus
bad news about kitty Leila - she was discovered to have
luxating patellas Grade 1
 in both hind legs just after we had
given her a home -  we  learned last week
that in two years they have progressed
to Grade 3, therefore the sum of my serious
quilting can be seen in the photos in this post!

I'll finish up now, time to play nurse with a syringe full
of medicine for Leila.

Hope you're all enjoying your quilting,
see you in a few days.

Maureen