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

A squirrel in the studio

Wish I was keeping cool like this little fellow instead

of baking in the heat!

 As you can see a squirrel has appeared just as I was sewing up

the diamond quilt and is the cause of my becoming

distracted by a quilt pattern from Robin Pickens.

She has used, apart from one dark fabric, quite muted tones in her

quilt but as the title

is

POSITIVELY BOHEMIAN

this gives free rein to my love of rich, saturated colour.

My idea may or may not work, time will tell.

I need four colour families which I guess could be just using

a dark purple along with a lighter purple and

choosing two tones of the complementary colour.

This fabric above begged to be included in the quilt.

Now Kaffe Fassett uses many colours in one fabric design as

we can see above. and it can be difficult to assign them a definite colour category.

I love the green background, there are also lime green touches

in the tulip flowers, blue in the vase, yellow/orange in the leaves

and also a rich red.

Oh, I need five fabrics in each colour group.

Why not go totally mad and see just what develops.

This fabric has red, blue, orange/yellow and orange  and a little lime green

but is referred to as a lime colourway nor could it be used as a yellow,

would fabrics along the limey green/yellow side work as another colour group?

Also another fabric as a favourite is this Brassica with purple, rich golden orange

and also does have the green in but you can't see it in this piece.

Unless you can see the pattern it's going to be difficult to envisage

how the mix would look.

I would need another colour and then work from there

So just playing to get an idea of the LH fabric and the RH fabric and

this looks  a little like a disaster zone presently, but the whole

thing is a work in progress.

My cutting table is piled high with so many different  fabrics to be auditioned. 

As it's now just too hot to be in here so I'm off for a cool drink

and a re-think tomorrow!

See you in a few days

Maureen

Calling it done!!!!!

After more fiddling around, including turning all the lighter diamonds

to the reverse side to give better distinction between light and dark,

hating it and changing them back again, I moved pieces around

and changed out some of them.

I'm happy with it now and on with the stitching next week.

The odd fabric here is in the bottom row left hand side,

black fabric with pears. In the early days of our friendship

J was a great bottler of fruit. She would visit the market gardens and

come back with cases of pears, peaches, you name it she bottled it,

hence the pear fabric. I had to put that one in for her.

One of the consequences of spending so much time

trying to get the setting to my liking was not checking on my zucchini

plants for three days, this is the result

9" long zucchini and one marrow sized.

Sometimes they hide away under the giant leaves and are

easy to miss.

However, I had the makings of our evening meal with two of these

along with freshly picked beans

 a little fresh Genovese Basil

pasta from the cupboard, a hunk of Pecorino cheese
and store bought tomatoes - delicious!

Life then took a different turn.

Our eldest son, following the removal of a mole, had a diagnosis of melanoma he's

now due for wider excision surgery.

One day later we learned that our 17yr old grandson

had been in a crash in his car, thank goodness he wasn't hurt but

his car is a write off!

Two days later I had a 'phone call telling me that my long time friend 

living not too far from me had passed away.

We had similar health conditions and used to support each other

with many long telephone chats.

I am so glad that I had gifted her a quilt in July when  she became

very unwell.

Time spent flower gazing has been excellent therapy

and I love it when the hydrangeas begin to turn from their

usual vibrant hues to the colours below.

Oh my, I just have to show you this photo of a beautiful silk scarf made

in India but bought in Portugal as a gift for me from my ex-daughter-in-law,

she called in an hour ago to see me. She thought I would
like the rich colours!!

Have a happy weekend!

Maureen

This and That

Not a wildly exciting post I'm afraid due to

a gastric bug which laid me low for a while.

Luckily I was good for my grand-daughter's wedding on the

11th of this month - a super, super day!

I have all the pieces for my friend's quilt up on the wall,

tweaking is definitely needed and I feel

as if I lost my way as I reached the bottom

but I can play around some more during the week

Most of the diamonds are made up of two pyramids using

two different fabrics but with some with just the one

I've been using my electric GO to cut squares ready

for my Colourwash, the ones going through the machine

first up are from a 6" pack. The machine does have a little noise

during operation but the fact that it cuts with really

not much effort is a bonus.

The garden is very dry at the moment but the nasturtiums

are enjoying the heat

and I picked a few to brighten up the kitchen bench.

Back during the next week, hopefully with more to show!

Happy Quilting

Maureen

New Year, New Decade, New Word

I wonder what this next decade will bring for us all and

for the planet!

The disasters happening presently around the world and

close to home in Australia are unbelievable.

However, enough said on that subject, on to things to lighten our hearts.

My word for this year is a little different in that it's Greek

and there is no English equivalent word!

Basically it means to do something with soul, creativity, passion or love,

to put a piece of yourself into what you're doing.

It could be applied to so many things in life.

I don't remember where nor when I came across Meraki, I've hunted

for my Greek language book from aeons ago but can't find it. 

I looked for translations on the internet and they more or less all

have the same interpretation as above.

For me right now I'm putting Meraki into the making of the quilt shown

in my last post, and below, for my friend who haas cancer.

A few more mixed diamonds are on the wall, I will be shifting

them around when all are up there, but given the layout above

measurements would be

49" across x 72" down

and I don't want to go any longer but wonder if the width is sufficient

for a lap quilt, feedback would be welcome!

That's all from me today, I'm hoping to have more quiet time to work

out quilting goals and projects for this year over the next few days.

Maureen

Sue and Elle, thank you for your comments, I am unable to reply as you are showing as noreply-comment bloggers.