Now Boarding

I made a start on Sailing The Seven Seas, three strips sewn with a little empty strip, which will be wider for the Flying Geese. Five more long strips needed and I'm really enjoying putting these together.

If you double click the photo you see more detail in the fabrics.  The turtles below are a good example of not being seen clearly in the photo above.

I love seahorses so this is a favourite

A few of the new Kaffe fabrics arrived a few days ago,  the middle one is a Philip Jacobs design - Ammonites,  just how much more vibrant can fabrics be - even for me!

Most of the prints this release are large scale, in fact one of them is the largest I've ever seen - Jungle - it comes in four colourways. Just a fraction of the design is shown below

I don't know how many of you reading this post are followers or readers on any platform of Victoria Findlay Wolfe, or have seen some of the amazing quilts that she makes in books or magazines. The first I knew about Victoria was around 10 or 11 years ago when I found her blog, she had a group of quilters, a large group, called Bumble Beans, a lot of us were online and I was able to take part in one or two swap projects, from that moment I was hooked. She wrote her first book 15 Minutes of Play -  Improvisational Quilts back in 2012 and her fifth book has just been released, mine arrived a week ago. - almost 300 pages!

It is glorious and exciting.  Thus far I've only read the foreword by Meg Cox and can't wait to set aside time each day to sit and read without any interruptions, a good plan at my place would be very, very early in the morning around 5.30am - dawn breaking, birds singing, a cup of tea and perfect quiet within the house - heaven! 

My words below could possibly be considered by many to not be relevant to posting on a quilting blog but I'm sure there would be many who share the sentiments,  forgive me if you find it unacceptable.

Given the state of the world right now, both natural and man made, politics, the horrors of war and suffering being endured by millions around the world I am so, so grateful that I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful family, enjoy my passion for colour, fabrics, quilting and reading, to have the pleasure of connecting with all of you quilters, to have time in my life for a little quiet and peace and find solace in my stitching.

Maureen

One top finished with another ready to cut

 Just stitching needed around the outside edges of Roundabout and then off into the 'to be quilted' drawer!

Next up is a quilt to be based on the Sea Glass pattern by Emma Di Stefano at Treehouse Textiles. 

Sailing The Seven Seas will be my take, especially with colours used. Inspiration comes from the oceans and seas which I had the good fortune to sail on in 1962/3. I had a great love of colour as a youngster but the colours seen on those two sea voyages around the world just drew me deeper into this love. It was quite unbelievable.

More on the story later when I actually have the quilt finished.

My fabric pulls are below

A few wild cards below which may pop up

not forgetting the odd possibility of stormy weather or brilliant sunrise and sunset

Hours have been spent in my little studio since my last post dealing with long needed fabric folding and placing in correct colour baskets, sorting through scraps and strips and making decisions on a proposed de-stash. I suspect as fast as I place a piece of fabric for de-stash I will have second thoughts - oh yes, now that could just work with?????

All from me for the moment, I'm desperately trying to come back into my blog posting as often as before, I seen to come across road blocks now and again, as we all do from time to time but fingers crossed I shall get there soon.

Maureen

A little progress

Only one more panel completed for Roundabout! Life has been pretty busy here with all manner of  happenings so time at the machine has been limited. Here's a photo of the present layout below, sadly not level because I couldn't quite reach the top RH side to pin, I'll deal with that this afternoon.

The strips here are 2 and 1/2" wide and 40 and 1/2" long, 10 in each panel. The original design concentrated on basically using just two colours, plain and small patterned fabric in shades of red and green, I decided on something different. 

My original idea was to mix all colours of strips but after finishing up the top panel I decided to try and go with the same layout for each of the four. I've changed up a few of the fabrics when I found I sometimes only had one strip, you can see the ones I substituted where necessary but still keeping to the colour layout.

 The design is from the book by Stuart Hillard  chock full of excellent designs to use up scraps.

My only other quilt related item is a  piece of Art Gallery Fabric - design from the Charlotte range,  luckily I spotted this online 1.6 metres so a good amount to work with.

Here in New Zealand we are officially enjoying the last month of Winter, Spring is around the corner come September. Down in the garden  the freesia are beginning to put on a performance and it's a delight to walk past them with their beautiful scent.

I can see that dreaded oxalis weed trying to take over, somehow I need to get out and weed pretty soon. I  shall be going solo for some of the time dealing with this chore and only around 15 minutes at one time, husband is in a bad way with one of his hips and up for replacement surgery so guess who will be in charge here!!

Lunch is calling - potato and leek soup with kumara sourdough bread, a nice thick toasted slice. Back in a few days, all being well.

Maureen

A very brief post

Made a start on my latest project but not using the solids in sunshine colours shown in my last post.

My 'strip collection' I am hiding because it's overflowing on my cutting table, but this is my progress so far

I haven't chopped off the corner of the first strip - it's just not laying flat right now. Three more panels to sew and I'm loving making this quilt, a wall quilt really as it will be 60" square and yes, I did state with regard to Across the Fields that I didn't care for square quilts, but this one is the exception! This pattern is Roundabout.

Apart from the above photo I have just two garden photos as I'm in the midst, once again, of re-arranging drawers, project tubs and generally making my sewing room easier to deal with, seems a never ending task.

Who has a Daphne bush in their garden? They're not the brightest flower in the garden but the scent is unbelievable, I have two presently, and what a delicious way to spend a few minutes sitting by the side breathing in the sweet scent.

If I want bright  here is the abutilon, common name Chinese Lantern

All from me for the moment, have a happy week ahead.

Maureen

The old and the new

First of all an old quilt top made around 1989/1990, not my usual colours! It's story time below so feel free to pass by if stories are not your thing.

This top I made in NZ when we had a house full of three Irish Setters - Rufus, Chessie and Applejack -  and our cats Marmaduke and Marmalade, sadly now no longer with us. In the UK we had our two Irish Setters - Crispin and Penny and two cats Carno and Carmichael. When Chessie had her litter of pups I decided I wanted to make a quilt to remember our four legged friends from earlier times and the ones we had then. So, a star each for the Setters and four smaller ones for the cats. I drew a feathery quilting pattern on the empty spaces, pin basted and put away to quilt 'at a later date', famous last words. 

Four days ago I pulled out, from the bottom of all my quilt tops, this shockingly pin basted top with a little hand quilting in the very centre square. Pins  now removed, stitching removed, batting put aside and the backing I had hated is in the rubbish! Start again time, hopefully I can still see most of the quilting design.

Since the friends mentioned above left us we have had Seamus and Mollie  - Irish setters, a cat called Daisy - once more all sadly left us, now we just have Leila the tuxedo cat, the boss of the household! Another quilt is planned for next year celebrating the three last ones mentioned and of course Leila who we hope will continue to bring us great joy for many years to come.

A finished top for Across The Fields! I took on board the suggestion from Wanda and left it at six rows and this  will sit nicely on an empty wall in our lounge when it's quilted and no,  it won't be languishing at the bottom of a drawer, I'm going to get busy with machine quilting these medium sized tops.

Back to an old piece again. A rectangular house wall hanging, I was asked to make this particular one for a small exhibition of painters, they felt it would be something a little different. Problem - I wasn't inclined to use my very good fabrics and went with a house quilt using a quarter yard pack of one line.  Again, this was years ago and of late it's  used to cover one of the sofa arms to hide the frayed bits from Leila deciding to try some claw sharpening.

 

Excuse the fact that I didn't rotate the photo. Never liked this piece but I'm liking the look of the backing I used, it has an old fashioned look, I'm seriously considering trying to unpick the quilting and use the backing in another quilt.

Whether it is a seriously do-able task I'm not sure. There are a lot of quilting stitches!

Back to something new. There are heaps of strips in a variety of boxes in my little room here, decision made to make something simple with them. Found a design I liked, very simple and began building a selection of strips from the boxes - a few below with a jelly roll in pinks, oranges, yellows quite neatly set I thought, but after fiddling around for three hours

I ended up with more strips that I started with! Needed to cut more of a few - read a lot actually -  different prints and on and on this process went. A small jumbled pile below - more not shown.

At least two of the panels I'm pretty happy with, just a little tweaking here and there this afternoon, hopefully more tomorrow and I can be on the machine next week.

Hope those of you suffering in the heat can find a way to keep cool and enjoy playing with fabrics!

We see from TV and our newspapers that there's heck of a lot going on in the USA!

Ciao

Maureen

Almost Across the Fields and other thoughts

Well, I really can't believe one month has gone by since my last post, as you can see from the post today I was very much overly optimistic then as to what I could achieve and when I would posting again! Life happens and things don't always go to plan, but I am back once again.

Almost there with Across the Fields, I have six rows stitched two together right now, I decided I should find it easier to put together this way. The bottom two rows are works in progress but I feel happy with them.

The quilt, as you can see, is square - not feeling the love for this and would prefer rectangular but that would mean another two more rows, I really would like this off the wall to begin something new. Some thought needed tomorrow.

I've had to re-evaluate my quilting progress due to my back problems. Quilts using simple designs, easy to cut shapes with my GO or designs which mean I can work through slowly,  30 minutes standing is my limit. There will be some serious thought given to designs for quilts already intended to make, I am gathering ideas on which are more important to me and have meaning and memories, which I treasure dearly.

The fabric above is a vintage piece bought from a store here in NZ, over two metres square and is a Sanderson fabric from the 1950's era. It has a soft feel and was obviously a curtain at one time(probably lined given the faint stitching lines). I loved it soon as I spotted it. First thought was a new curtain for my sewing rom but I can see perhaps a lovely loose long summer dress or skirt and top - plenty of time to think!

So given the purchase above and having said in a previous post that I had more than enough fabric and wouldn't be buying anymore I have slipped off the wagon, especially as AnnaMaria Parry has brought out her new range Good Gracious. If you haven't seen any information about this range it's based on her trip through England and Scotland with her now husband. The colors and designs take me right back home!! Her pattern which goes along with the fabric has no applique, just simple shapes, long borders, there would be a little fussy cutting, that I can handle a little at one time. Photo of four pieces below

Just look at the colour here!! Ponies in the New Forest take me back to living by a farm and helping with the shire horses - much larger than the ones pictured here.

Many of us love to see posts of quilters gardens, I certainly do, especially in the Northern Summer  whilst we're in Winter. Wanda, Linda and Cathy have beautiful garden photos,  always a joy to see. Below is what I see presently from the window! A bare oak tree but a beautiful sky.

Sometimes I find a spot of colour, camellias are out and a few others quietly lingering. Our Japanese Maple is bare, apart from a very few crinkled brown leaves but walking around yesterday I saw this in the grass, how this leaf has kept its colour I'm not sure.

Staying with bright red here's a camellia

not fully open yet but when it is it's quite a size.

Something a little quieter - another camellia

and here a vireya

So there we have it, hooray I've actually written a post at last!

The next one will truly be much sooner - I now feel more organised and energised.

Happy stitching

Maureen